Alright, time for the boss level.
Difficulty: CHAOS and beyond.
Enjoy. :)
Chapter 9: Boss Battle
Behind the door was an extremely spacious room with no decoration and furniture. The room looked like it had been built to serve as a stage for a death match. Sonic and Knuckles stepped inside and looked around for a little while.
"Well, zero for design, one for reception, mostly due to the automatic door." remarked Sonic.
At this point, Knuckles had had it with the hedgehog's lame jokes, so he just shook his head and shouted out loud, "Eggman, get your butt out here and fight like a man."
As soon as he said that, a door opened on the ceiling and a huge serpent-like robot dropped down. A hatch on the robot's head opened and revealed Dr. Eggman behind the controls.
"Sonic, Knuckles, I congratulate you on making this far. I still can't believe you managed to break out of your cell and escape my maze."
"Thanks to your little message, Egghead." said Sonic, "Next time you want to trap a guy and leave him there to rot, you may want to throw away the keys and keep the secrets to yourself."
"Message?" asked Eggman in bewilderment, "What message? I never sent anything down there beside..." the doctor stopped talking immediately as realization kicked in. Eggman only grunted and muttered something inaudible under his breath. Sonic could only hear the word "brat", nothing else.
Now it was Sonic's turn to think. In fact, he had a vague feeling that it couldn't have been Eggman who had sent him the message, but he just wanted to make sure. After all, the doctor sometimes got overconfident with his schemes and accidentally blurted out the secrets.
"So, it wasn't Eggman…"thought Sonic to himself, "That means there's only one person I know who is skilled enough to hack into the doc's system and send me that message." A smile spread across the hedgehog's face as he entertained this thought. Knuckles simply stared at the hedgehog in confusion, wondering what he could find amusing at this point. Also, the guardian also found it rather strange that the smile on Sonic's face was much different from his usual smirks. That smile showed that Sonic was genuinely happy, and it showed something else as well, something akin to relief.
Before Knuckles could ask Sonic, however, Eggman broke the silence, "Whatever. Now that it's come to this, I don't care anymore. All I know now is that I'll crush you two right here, right now with my magnificent Egg Naga."
"Did you collect the remains of your Rotten Egg Viper to build this one?" asked Sonic in a mocking tone, "Cause the only difference between that one and the one you're in right now is the size."
"Well, for your information, rodent, no, I didn't. I just like my design. Also, size isn't the only difference. This one is bigger and badder, and you'll soon learn that the hard way."
"I thought the official comparative form of 'bad' was 'worse', not 'badder'. You seriously need to take a break from this whole 'world domination' thing and get some formal education, doc." said Sonic as he scratched the back of his head in mock confusion. Knuckles, at this point, had already given up on telling Sonic to be quiet, so he just smacked his face with his palm and stood there, trying his best not to knock the lights out of the blue blur.
"ARGH! SHUT UP, Sonic! I've had it with you. First you ruined the interior of my beautiful castle, now you dare to mock my genius. I'll show you who's boss around here. Time to get vaporized, pests."
The hatch closed and the serpent robot's eyes lit up, preparing to destroy Sonic and Knuckles. The Egg Naga roared mightily and shook the entire room with the shockwave, then locked on to its targets. Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other briefly and nodded, getting ready for the serpent's attack.
And thus, the battle began.
The Egg Naga was the first one to make a move. It launched itself forward in an attempt to crush Sonic and Knuckles with its enormous fangs, an attack that Sonic and Knuckles quickly evaded by jumping out of the way.
In one quick motion, the serpent turned around and unloaded a barrage of missiles in every direction. The omni-directional attack was fierce, but it was nothing new for veterans such as Sonic and Knuckles.
Like before, Knuckles smashed the ground and threw the pieces of metal at the missiles, taking out several of them. At the same time, Sonic used his spin dash attack to hit some missiles, making them collide with the others. After a short while, all of the missiles were either detonated prematurely or off target.
The Egg Naga roared again and used its long, spiky tail to attack. The tail was enormous with numerous sharp spikes on it. Being hit by that thing pretty much equaled being impaled by thousands of swords at the same time. The force created by the tail was so powerful that it caused an earthquake as soon as it hit the ground.
Luckily, Sonic and Knuckles quickly jumped up and managed to land squarely on the back of the robot's tail, where there were no spikes. Seizing the opportunity, Sonic started spinning to gain momentum while Knuckles, already knowing what his partner was up to, focused all his strength on his namesakes and punched the hedgehog forward, giving him even more speed and power.
Sonic's ball form rolled along the length of the great robotic serpent at an impressive speed, scratching is body with his quills, and finally landed a direct and critical hit on its chin with a mighty collision, knocking the serpent back a few feet.
Despite the sheer force of the impact, Eggman's cockpit remained mostly undamaged. The doctor only growled in irritation and quickly regained control of the Egg Naga. The menacing serpent immediately opened its mouth and shot its gigantic fangs at Sonic in an attempt to impale him to death.
Said hedgehog was still in the air above the serpent's head after his last attack, so he couldn't react quickly enough to the sudden move made by Eggman. Fortunately for the blue blur, Knuckles came to his aid.
The echidna used his glide ability to reach Sonic's place and grabbed the fangs tightly with his bare hands just before they reached Sonic. The guardian then proceeded to using the fangs as weapons and rapidly slashing the Egg Naga's head, momentarily blinding Eggman and giving Sonic another chance to attack.
Sonic gave Knuckles a quick thumbs-up post in midair and smirked. He then used gravity to his advantage and let himself fall freely until he was close enough to land another hit on the serpent. Once the blue blur was within range, he unleashed a second homing attack at Eggman's cockpit, knocking the Egg Naga back a few feet once again.
"Curse you, pests!" yelled Eggman angrily as he pushed a series of buttons on the keyboards to recover from his nemesis' latest direct attack.
The Egg Naga let out a deafening roar, which generated an extremely powerful shockwave and sent the heroes pummeling down to the ground at an amazing speed, making them hit the metal floor below and effectively creating a huge dent on it. Sonic and Knuckles were slightly taken aback by the sudden attack. The heroes groaned in pain as they tried to get on their feet.
Soon, they managed to do so and prepared themselves again for another vicious attack.
"Time to finish you off once and for all." said Eggman angrily as he once again pressed a series of buttons.
The Egg Naga then quickly slithered around the spacious room and increased in speed as it continued. At this point, Sonic and Knuckles found out that they were in the middle of the room, trapped within the tiny space created by the gigantic spinning body of the Egg Naga. The heroes stayed on guard and got ready for the doctor's next move.
"Whatever he's planning, it can't be good. Be on high alert, hedgehog." said Knuckles as he looked at the giant crimson blur of the Egg Naga slithering around the room. In fact, the Egg Naga was moving so quick that it actually looked like a giant crimson hurricane, and Sonic and Knuckles were trapped right in the eye of that hurricane.
"I know, Knux. You too." replied Sonic.
All of the sudden, the spikes on the Egg Naga's body shone brightly and shot some bolts of laser at the trapped heroes. The initial attacks were sudden, so they managed to scratch Sonic's arm and Knuckles' dreadlocks, making the unsuspected heroes yelp in pain. After the initial attacks, the bolts of laser increased in frequency and intensity.
Because their moving space was greatly limited by the Egg Naga's slithering form, Sonic and Knuckles had a hard time dodging all of the laser bolts shot at them. Some managed to hit Sonic's quills and Knuckles' leg, once again making both heroes yelp in pain and charring their bodies.
In a moment of desperation, Knuckles slammed his fist on the ground and used the metal plates to cover Sonic and himself, effectively creating a temporary refuge to block the nasty barrage of incoming laser bolts. Outside, they could clearly tell that more and more bolts were being shot. The situation clearly didn't look good for the heroes.
"This is getting us nowhere. We're trapped." said Sonic as he summarized their current situation.
Outside, the torrent of deadly laser bolts continued to hit the makeshift bunker, making the metal plates heat up and burning Knuckles' hands in the process. However, the echidna refused to let go of the hot metal plates, knowing full well that they were the only things standing between them and certain doom.
"You have any idea? 'Cause I don't think our little hut can withstand more hits." asked Knuckles as he desperately tried to hold the plates together.
Sonic looked through the crack and paid attention to the movement of the Egg Naga. Even Sonic admitted that the robot was moving at a rather impressive speed. However, the blue blur, being used to breakneck speed himself, could clearly see when the serpent's head entered his field of vision.
The speedy hedgehog looked at the Egg Naga's movement intently and calculated the time when the serpent's head would enter his sight. To be sure, Sonic watched again and again until he got the right time down.
"Exactly five seconds." muttered Sonic under his breath.
"What?" asked Knuckles in confusion as he tried to keep the makeshift bunker together, a task that was becoming more and more difficult with his burned hands.
"No need to worry knucklehead. When I give you the signal, I want you to use all of your strength and punch me in this direction, understand?" Sonic said and pointed at the crack he had been looking through for the last couple of minutes.
"Why?" asked Knuckles.
"Just trust me on this, I have an idea to cut this snake's head off. Just hope that all those years of listening to Tails' rambling about physics help."
Knuckles didn't understand what Sonic was up to, but he nodded and let the hedgehog take the lead.
Once again, Sonic curled into a tight spinning ball and got ready. In his mind, he silently counted down from five. Knuckles held the bunker together with one hand and sent all of his strength to the other, waiting patiently for his cobalt partner to give him the signal.
"Wait for it…and…NOW!" shouted Sonic.
Wasting no time, Knuckles gave Sonic's ball form all the boost the hedgehog needed. The blue blur shot right out of the makeshift bunker and through the barrage of deadly laser bolts. Sonic's timing paid off, because his attack landed squarely on the Egg Naga's head, knocking Eggman's Eggmobile right out of it.
"Impossible!" yelled Eggman in surprise as the Eggmobile was hit and destroyed by his nemesis.
Without Eggman controlling it, the Egg Naga instantly went offline and fell flat to the ground. The Eggmobile was destroyed by Sonic's attack, so Eggman had no way of regaining control of his prized creation.
Just to make sure the robotic serpent stayed dead, Knuckles quickly sprinted out of his refuge and slammed his fists on the Egg Naga's head, destroying it instantly. The once menacing serpent was now nothing more than useless scrap metal lying on the ground.
Eggman couldn't believe it, he was beaten yet again.
"Curse you, Sonic. You've defied me for the last time. I'll be back, and I'll destroy you for sure." Eggman threw a fit of tantrum before taking out a small remote and pressed a button to teleport himself out of the room, and possibly out of the Egg Citadel. Sonic looked at Knuckles with a smirk on his face and said to the guardian.
"Told you he had a teleportation device."
"Zip it, Sonic. Let's just shut this thing down and get out of here. I'm tired of all this." retorted the grumpy echidna.
After that, they made their way to the control room. Once inside, they were met with a room full of buttons and computer screens of all sizes, shapes and colors. Both Knuckles and Sonic were not mechanic experts, so neither could figure out what buttons would shut the Egg Citadel down.
"So…" said Sonic as he decided to break the silence, "Any idea how we can shut this thing down, Knux."
"Do I look like your genius two-tailed buddy?" replied the ticked-off echidna.
Sonic flinched once again at the mention of his best friend, but he tried his best not to show it. He needed to get out of the Egg Citadel right now so he could go back to the workshop and apologize to Tails.
"Anyway, while I'm no mechanic…" said Knuckles as he cracked his fingers, "I'm a demolition expert."
After that, the amethyst-eyed guardian slammed his namesakes into every piece of equipment in the control room, practically smashing anything and everything he could find. The entire fortress shook for a while, and when the heroes turned their heads to look outside the window, they could clearly see that the Egg Citadel was falling, fast.
The hedgehog and the echidna braced for impact. The Egg Citadel hit the ground with a mighty force, making the two trapped heroes inside the control room hang on to dear lives.
Soon, the rough landing was over. Sonic broke the window of the control room and got out, followed by Knuckles. They landed on the earthy ground and were glad that they had finally gotten out of that nightmarish fortress. Sonic leaned down and kissed the soil passionately while Knuckles looked at him in confusion.
"Don't you have somewhere else you'd rather be, hedgehog?"
"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do." Sonic quickly bolted up and sped off in the direction of the Mystic Ruins. However, he skidded to a stop and turned around to look at the red echidna again. Said echidna raised an eyebrow questioningly at Sonic's sudden action. Before he could say anything, however, Sonic beat him to it, yet again.
"Thanks for everything, Knuckles."
After that, he disappeared in a flash of blue, leaving Knuckles alone at the crash site. The guardian simply shook his head and sighed loudly, "Annoying hedgehog…"
He then turned his gaze to look at the direction Sonic had sped off for a moment. A smirk briefly appeared on his face before he turned around and began making his way back to Angel Island to get a much-needed shuteye. It was almost nightfall already, and it had been an extremely long day for everyone.
With that, Knuckles used his glide ability to head back to his beloved home and resumed his duty as the sole guardian of the Master Emerald...after a good night's sleep first, of course.
If you can't imagine the Egg Naga's final attack, imagine yourself trapped inside a really tiny room and surrounded by guns, or anything you prefer, in every (emphasis on the word 'every') direction. Need I say more?
As usual, reviews are highly appreciated and cherished. The next chapter will be the final chapter of this side of the story. So stay tuned everybody. Thank you all for your time and support.