Review reply:
Answering Gurl's questions: No it isn't. The place you are talking about is Cocoa Island. Also, his old workshop on that island was destroyed, as written in my first story. His current workshop is in the Mystic Ruins, far away from Cocoa Island.
Also, a quick note for everyone: All of the events in this chapter take place at the same time. They also parallel with chapter 8 and 9 in Sonic and Knuckles' side (The spiral stair and the first half of the Egg Naga's battle).
Chapter 8: Chaos everywhere.
The war continued to ravage through the planet. Every local and federal law enforcement agency and organization of every nation joined forces in an attempt to put an end to this madness, with G.U.N as the leading fraction. The worldwide war was gradually reaching its climax.
At Station Square, Amy, joined by local police and law enforcement agencies, continued her seemingly endless struggle against the Egg Pawns' relentless attacks. The pink hedgehog fought valiantly and passionately with her Piko Piko Hammer, taking out as many robots as possible while making sure everybody was safe.
At the same time in Central City, Omega was still busy blasting the Egg Pawns into high heavens (Thank goodness he doesn't have nuclear weapons). Despite the obvious superiority the final E-series robot displayed, he still had his limits. Soon, Omega's weapons ran out of ammo one by one, until he was left with nothing but his claws, which he used to brutally disassemble the incoming Pawns. However, Omega soon found himself surrounded by a large number of Egg Pawns with huge guns in hands and they started opening fire on him, engulfing the lone walking arsenal in a huge explosion.
Meanwhile, in Grand Metropolis, the Chaotix detectives were also having trouble of their own. For the trio, what had begun as a simple task of finding some lost items for a client had escalated into a struggle for life, much to the detectives' dismay. Vector, the leader of the group, was throwing punches in every direction and using his gigantic crocodile's jaws to bite the limbs off of any Egg Pawn that got near him.
Charmy Bee, the team's tracker and flyer, used his stinger to disarm the robots. The bee also used his (super annoying) taunts to make the simple-minded robots destroy each other while attempting to shoot him down. Despite his age, the hyperactive bee was somewhat brave, if not a little tenacious.
Espio, the team's ninja and investigator, used his well-honed combat skills and arsenal of weapons to destroy the approaching Egg pawns. The primrose chameleon threw his (almost endless) supply of shuriken at his foes and disarmed many of them (quite literally) at the same time.
"This is getting us nowhere" said Espio to his teammates as he concisely summarized their current predicament. The chameleon then took out his trusty kunai and began dissecting the Egg Pawns in front of him at an incredible speed that was faster than the eye could see.
"Yeah, my wings are starting to get tired, and my butt hurts" whined the young flyer as he dodged an incoming laser beam and joined his chameleon colleague.
"Keep on fighting, you two!" yelled the Vector as he delivered a devastating blow to one Egg Pawn, "I have other important cases to work on, and I'm not about to let my clients down."
Espio and Charmy looked incredulously at their team leader. The brash, pompous and rude crocodile never took his cases seriously, and this was strange to the both the bee and he chameleon. However, as they were about to ask, the powerhouse croc beat them to it.
"Those clients promised handsome rewards, and I'm not about to let those rewards slip through my fingers. So stop yer whining and keep fighting."
Espio and Charmy sighed loudly and shook their heads at the same time. Obviously, the croc cared more about his money than his clients. Even though Vector was an extremely competent detective, he was most of the time clouded by greed and money, a trait that had been rubbing off on Charmy as of late. However, they let it slide and focused on the task at hand. After all, Vector could be a force to reckon with when he was properly motivated (by money of course). The trio continued to take down more Egg Pawns as they made their way to the central part of the city.
At some point after collecting their rewards at an undisclosed location, the Babylon Rogues had turned their airship around and headed for Metal City to help push back the invading Egg Pawns.
"Tell me again why I'm doing this?" asked Jet as he dashed through a horde of Egg Pawns on his Extreme Gear with his feather fans in hand, slicing all of the menacing robots to shreds at an incredible speed.
"You want to have your rematch with Sonic, right?" asked Wave in an annoyed tone for she had had this conversation with her leader for the tenth time already, and Jet simply nodded as he sliced another robot like an onion, "So we need to make sure that there is still a course left standing to race on. Furthermore, like I said, I've just discovered some hidden treasures around the world, and I'm not about to let Eggman ruin everything."
The swallow accelerated and headed for a platform ahead. Once there, the swallow leaped up and professionally performed advanced mid-air tricks while throwing her self-designed mini bombs at the Egg pawns with incredible accuracy, reducing them into scrap metal with relative ease when the explosives detonated.
Jet huffed and replied with a simple, 'I know that" and continued his work, using his feather fans and his extreme gear to generate extremely powerful turbulences to blow Eggman's robots away. The hawk also performed some professional mid-air tricks of his own while shooting mini tornadoes everywhere by waving his fans. The force of the self-proclaimed 'Legendary Wind Master' either blew the Pawns away or tore them to shreds instantly.
Storm didn't say anything to his comrades. He was having too much fun rampaging around the city without fearing the authority grabbing his neck (not like they could anyway). The albatross dashed around the city and pummeled the Pawns to the ground with great delight. Any robot that dared to approach the stampeding albatross was rewarded with a powerful clothesline that broke them in half.
Wave entered some commands into her remote and the airship started shooting missiles at the Egg Pawns, destroying even more in the process. The Babylon Rogues then regrouped and combined the power of their Extreme Gears to create a huge tornado, blowing the invading robots away.
Back in Westopolis, Shadow and Tails were still dealing with their own share of trouble. The Egg Pawns just kept on coming and coming, and the heroes were getting really tired, both physically and mentally.
"There is no end to these guys" said Tails as he whacked a robot with a really powerful tail sweep.
Shadow didn't say anything. In fact, Tails didn't think the dark hedgehog could feel anything from the looks on his face. Despite being heavily surrounded and outnumbered by Eggman's forces, Shadow managed to keep his poker face intact as he continued to brutally disassemble the robots with his version of the spin dash and homing attack.
The ebony hedgehog was a complete contrast to Sonic, a fact that Tails knew very well. The cobalt hero wouldn't pass up a chance to throw in a few jokes no matter how dire the situation was. On the other hand, Shadow remained quiet and calm at all time. If there were anything both hedgehogs had in common, it was their will of steel to finish what they started, a trait that Tails deeply respected.
After a long while of fighting, the Ultimate Lifeform was beginning to get really annoyed with the endless stream of robots, but he kept it to himself. To the proud and stubborn hedgehog, showing his emotions was like showing his weakness to his enemy. However, he couldn't deny the fact that the pressure was getting to him.
After another long while, Shadow resorted to his final trump card. The dark hedgehog pulled out the green Chaos Emerald again and held it up.
"Shadow?" asked Tails curiously as he looked at the dark hedgehog, "What are you…"
"You'd better take cover, Tails" was the only reply the fox received. Suddenly realizing the dark hedgehog's intention, Tails complied and quickly got behind a fallen building nearby, bumping his head on a rock in the process. It wasn't much, but it still scratched the fox's head and made it bleed steadily, but he didn't care about that minor flesh wound for the time being.
As soon as Tails was out of sight, Shadow's body began to glow crimson.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY, ALL OF YOU!" shouted the Ultimate Lifeform to the agents nearby, who quickly obeyed and took cover as soon as they laid eyes on the Chaos Energy-imbued hedgehog.
"Chaos Blast!" yelled Shadow loudly as he released the stored-up energy.
The entire area was engulfed by a bright crimson light as soon as the words left Shadow's mouth. The shockwave generated by the hedgehog was so powerful that it literally wiped Eggman's robots out of existence in a matter of seconds. It was fortunate that all friendly troops had been given an advance notice, so they were not caught in the blast radius of the ultimate lifeform's most destructive attack.
The Egg Pawns, on the other hand, were blown to bits when the attack hit them. An entire army of fearless robots was reduced to dust in a matter of seconds, an incredible feat that only Shadow was capable of.
Shadow's attack was effective, and it completely wiped out the entire army Egg Pawns, earning everyone a few minutes to catch their breath until the next wave of attack came.
"Shadow? Are you okay?" asked Tails with a worried tone when he saw Shadow pant after his attack.
"I'm fine" replied the stubborn agent as he stood up straight. Another trait that Shadow and Sonic had in common was their stubbornness to admit their weakness to anyone.
Shadow quickly grabbed a submachine gun and some magazines lying on the ground and loaded it, ready for the next wave of Egg Pawns.
"Get ready!" commanded the dark hedgehog as he directed his gaze far ahead, "They're coming again."
The G.U.N's troops once again obeyed and prepared for another nearly endless stream of menacing robots. Tails did the same as he stood behind the dark hedgehog, mentally preparing himself for another brutal brawl with Eggman's robots.
"I hope Rouge shuts down the mother computer soon" said Tails breathlessly.
Shadow simply remained still. However, in his mind, the agent was thinking the exact same thing.
While the chaos was transpiring on the ground, on board the battleship that harbored the mother computer, Rouge steadily made her way through the maze-like interior of the ship and tried to locate her target. There were a lot of security systems, including (but not limited to) laser, automatic guns, motion sensors, heat sensors, electronic nets, and, of course, more Egg Pawns.
However, Rouge, with her experience in the art of infiltration and sabotage, easily used every trick she knew to disable the security systems and walked right in like she owned the place. For the Egg Pawns and other series of Eggman's robots, the ivory bat kicked them hard on the heads and the rest was history.
"Hmm, Eggy sure knows how to keep a girl away from his place" Rouge mused as she disabled more security systems, "He needs a date, fast. This place could surely use a woman's touch."
Using the same tactic that Tails had used to pinpoint the ship, the bat used her own device to analyze the frequency and tried to find her target as she continued to make her way through the security and guards.
After about half an hour walking around (a lot of explosions were going on the ground at this time), she reached a huge metal door with Eggman's insignia carved on it. The bat smirked when she looked at the screen of her device.
"Gotcha!" said the bat with sparkle in her eyes. She was one step closer to her promised rewards. She attached her device into the lock and let the device carry out a brute force attack on the lock, trying different combinations of numbers in a matter of minutes.
Suddenly, Rouge's sensitive ears picked up the sound of footsteps approaching. The ivory bat turned around and saw five Egg Pawns staring at her with a variety of random weapons in hands. They were carrying a broom, a wrench, vacuum cleaner (?). Only two carried deadly laser guns.
"No wonder this place looks like a mess" thought Rouge to herself amusingly as she looked at the Pawns' poor choice of weapons, "Eggy seriously needs to find himself a woman to help with the chores. and his brain."
By the time the Egg Pawns raised their laser guns at Rouge, the bat had already appeared in front of them and disarmed them. She took the guns, jumped on top of one robot and shot the others with deadly precision. After taking out four robots in one swift motion, Rouge pointed the guns at the head of the robot she was riding on and pulled the trigger.
"Sometimes you make this too easy, Eggy" said Rouge as she blew on the guns.
The spy bat's device emitted a beeping sound a second later, the door opened. The bat smirked gleefully and went in ready to finish her job.
Inside, Rouge was met with circuits and machines everywhere. The bat whistled in amazement as she looked around.
"If I were a mother computer, where would I be?"
Quickly locating the main computer among the circuits, Rouge arrived at a giant pole in the middle of the room. After taking out her device and checked the frequency emitted from the machine in front of her, the bat was sure that she had found her target.
"Alright, time to shut this baby down and collect my jewels."
The bat approached the mother computer and pulled out a bomb. She set the timer and placed it on the target.
"Time to make my escape."
With that, the bat ran out of the room and followed the paths she had taken and located the exit. Once she had reached it, Rouge jumped out of the battleship and flew down, waiting for an extravagant fireworks show that was due to happen very soon.