Sorry for the late update, everyone. It's been a hectic week for me with part time job and homework, but I'm back in action.
Speaking of action, the story is going to have quite a lot of that from here on out. I really tried my best to make the battles interesting, so I sincerely hope that you will enjoy them. Thank you for your time and patience.
Chapter 3: Trap
Sonic, Knuckles and Amy arrived at Station Square a few minutes later. Once there, Sonic let go of his companions' hands.
"Alright, Eggman is at the city hall in the middle of Station Square, you need to get there and put a stop to whatever he's up to." said Amy.
"Consider it done. Amy, you go and help everybody evacuate to safety. Knux and I will take care of Egghead."
Amy simple nodded and sped off with her trusted hammer in hand, ready to smash any unfortunate robots that happened to cross her. Sonic and Knuckles headed toward the central part of the city.
As they were about halfway to the city hall, the duo were stopped by a giant robot, whose shape (you guessed it) looked like an oversized ostrich's egg. The robot was somewhat impressive and menacing, with big horns on his head, armor plates around its body and huge spikes in places where the hands should have been. Without warning, the killer robot extended its arms and aimed its deadly spikes at Sonic and Knuckles, who effortlessly dodged.
Sonic swiftly unleashed his trademark spin dash at the robot. Much to the hedgehog's dismay, however, his attack didn't even leave a dent on the robot. Due to the sheer size of the thing, Sonic couldn't really hit it anywhere else other than its legs, which were heavily armored. The robot simply locked on to its targets and launched another deadly punch, this time faster and more powerful than the last.
However, Sonic and Knuckles still managed to evade the blow with little effort.
"Alright, change of plan Knux," said Sonic to his echidna comrade, "I'll try to find a way to bring that hunk of junk down and you'll deliver the knockout blow." Knuckles simply nodded in agreement, knowing full well that the opponent before them was one neither hero could take on alone. Eggman finally made something that could almost be considered a threat to Sonic and Knuckles. Well, almost.
Sonic ran around the robot in circle to distract it while Knuckles burrowed underground, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. After a series of failed attempts on the hedgehog's life, the robot unloaded its arsenal of homing missiles at Sonic. Being aimed at by more than forty homing missiles would have been a scary experience for a normal being, but Sonic was far from normal. In fact, the hedgehog smirked in delight as an idea came into his head.
Being the thrill seeker he was, Sonic dashed in the middle of the incoming missiles. Some were prematurely detonated from colliding with other missiles while the remaining ones continued to pursue their target. Sonic used that to his advantage. He led the missiles right at the shooter and made them hit the robot's legs, effectively destroying all of the armor plates protecting them and making the killer bot lose balance.
Seizing his chance, Sonic waited until the last missile had hit the robot and attacked with another spin dash. Thanks to the loss of the armor plates, Sonic's attack connected and destroyed one of the bot's legs.
The big robot bent down and stuck its spikes on the ground. At this moment, Knuckles came out from a spot directly under the robot and unleashed an extremely powerful uppercut to its body, knocking it backward and making it fall flat on its back.
Not wasting the opportunity, Sonic ran to Knuckles' size and told the powerhouse echidna to throw him at the robot's head, having noticed that it was the only place that was not as heavily protected as the rest of the robot's body.
The echidna nodded and threw Sonic in the air. After that, Knuckles jumped up and used his glide ability to stay afloat while waiting for Sonic to fall down. Once the hedgehog was in place, Knuckles punched the spin-dashing ball and shot Sonic right at the fallen robot's head, destroying it in an instant. Without the head, the robot was just another oversized hunk of junk lying on the ground.
Sonic quickly uncurled himself, stood up and dusted himself off. Knuckles soon joined the hedgehog's side.
"Now that's a headshot. Nice aim, Knux." said Sonic.
"It's not over yet, hedgehog, now let's move. We've wasted too much time here already." After a nod from Sonic, the duo left the scene and continued to make their way to the central part of the city.
They easily made short work of Eggman's forces, mostly consisted of the Egg Pawns series, along their path. With Knuckles' unparalleled strength and Sonic's lightning-quick reflexes, they knocked down anything robotic along the way.
Soon, they reached their destination, and found the cause of all this chaos in the middle of a clear space waiting for them.
"Eggman!" yelled Sonic and Knuckles in unison as they faced the mad doctor himself.
"Well, I see you've finally made it, you pesky pests. Hang on…where's your two-tailed freak of a sidekick?" Eggman taunted with a smirk on his face.
At that remark, Sonic snapped uncharacteristically, "Don't you dare call him that, Egghead! Tails is not a freak, you hear me." Both Eggman and Knuckles were slightly taken aback by Sonic's outburst. He had never shouted before, not even at Eggman (most of the time). However, the mad scientist shrugged it off and continued on with his taunts.
"Never mind then, I don't care where that pest is, one less trouble to worry about. Now then, I bet you're wondering why I'm tearing the city apart, hmm."
"What are you planning this time, Eggman?" Knuckles shouted, trying to intimidate the doctor, but his effort did little to impress the scientist, much less intimidate him.
"Oh, nothing much. I just figured that if I terrorize the city, you'll show up and try to stop me, and I'll have you right where I want." Eggman laughed and pushed a button on his Eggmobile. As soon as he hit the button, Sonic and Knuckles were caught in a tractor beam, suspending them in mid-air.
"Gotcha, rodent, Ho ho ho ho…" said Eggman smugly as he looked at the success of his plan. He pulled out a remote and pressed a button on it. The sky suddenly became dark. To be more precise, The view of the sky was replaced by that of a giant floating fortress with Eggman's insignia on it. The fortress had been in camouflage mode the entire time, waiting for Sonic and Knuckles to fall in position.
Now the heroes realized it was just an elaborate trap by Eggman to lure them to this specific location. The fortress' tractor beam pulled Sonic and Knuckles in.
"You're not going to get away with this, Eggman." Sonic yelled at the top of his lung at his nemesis, who simply looked at him with a smirk on his face.
"Oh, but I already have, rodent."
With that, Eggman piloted his Eggmobile back to his fortress' control room. Once there, he increased the power of the tractor beam, knocking out the trapped heroes and pulled them inside the floating prison.
…
On top of a building nearby, a figure stood witness to everything that had transpired. That person stood there looking at the sky for a little while longer before leaving the site…
Stay tuned, everyone, for next time.