Chapter 5: Onboard the Egg Continent

With Tails in control of his bi-plane the Tornado Mk. III, the group of heroes consisting of the yellow fox himself, Sonic, Shadow and Riku climb through the sky at a gentle pace alongside the latest of Eggman's massive battleship, the Egg Continent. The ship is so large in fact that the heroes have to rise up through the clouds before they can bypass the sides of the ship and hit the main section.

Riku flew beside the bi-plane and took at look at the very heavy metal plating on the sides of the ship, and with a concerned look in his eyes he thought to the dragons of light and darkness that inhabited another realm "Sodenko, Takashi, do you think you can handle this type of ship if need be?"

"I could, but it wouldn't be easy." The black dragon replies in a very swift yet blunt tone of voice, and he proceeds to ask afterwards "Say, shouldn't you tell the hedgehogs and the fox about us?"

The teenage Overlord shook his head out of view of the three other heroes, saying to the black dragon afterwards "If you can't help with the battleship, I don't think it'll be necessary to tell them about you…Sodenko, are you ever going to speak to me again?"

"Have you changed your mind about keeping me bound to this accursed chain?" The dragon of light replies in a serene yet alluring tone of voice meant to try and earn the teenage Overlord's favor.

However, Riku is not fooled and he quickly insists to the dragon "I'm not going to budge until you show some genuine regret."

"Then my answer to your earlier question is no, I cannot deal with this supposed doctor's massive battleship." Sodenko replies with a tiny hint of deception in her voice.

The teenage Overlord lets out a tiny sigh and interprets Sodenko's words as though she WOULD be able to deal with the ship, but simply refused to do so when there was nothing to gain on her part. However, because a sigh was vocal enough thanks to how quiet the engines of the Tornado were, Sonic spoke up towards Riku as the boy ended up flying off to the left of the ship. "Getting a little anxious there?"

Riku looks at the blue hedgehog as the Tornado swerves to the left and heads towards the sky above the Egg Continent, saying to him in a confident sounding tone of voice "Nah, I'm not too worried at the moment. You?"

Sonic smirks and alternates thrusting his fists back and forth against the air, saying in response to Riku's question "You kidding? I can't wait to get this party started."

The teenage Overlord points out in a joking sort of voice "It kind of did start already when we fought Shadow."

Sonic responds in a fully joking tone of voice as he gestures towards the boy "Heh, Shadow was more like the appetizer you have before a party."

The black hedgehog, who was within earshot of the blue blur, glanced at him in an annoyed fashion and said in response to his comment "Sonic, the least you could do for me is take this matter seriously."

The blue blur glances back over at Shadow and says to him with a light smile "Oh lighten up Shadow. Its not like I've never needed to be serious to stop the ol' Egghead before, right?"

Shadow sighs deeply and looks back forward, and Sonic quickly turns back to face Riku and says to him after a short laugh "Hehe, I'm glad Shadow's back to his regularly serious self."

After this short little conversation, the Tornado has finally made it past the sides of the Egg Continent, and its there that they are able to get a good look at the armaments that Eggman has assembled across the gargantuan surface. Hundreds upon hundreds of gigantic turrets line the rim of the battleship, the thin barrels of the weaponry suggesting that they fire lasers instead of missiles. The turrets are protected by fields of electricity, meaning attacking them from the bi-plane would be a bad idea.

The vast majority of the Egg Continent was unsurprisingly covered in machinery that not only worked to keep the place afloat, but also formed a series of buildings that acted as a city for this massive ship. At the front end of this ship was something that surprised Tails and Shadow while also exciting Sonic. Rebuilt almost perfectly into the Egg Continent was the Final Fortress, a shark-shaped battleship that acted as the head of Eggman's Egg Fleet quite some time ago. At the very end of the Final Fortress was a wide pillar that supported a large circular platform and a rectangular tower with a face at the top that unsurprisingly looked like Eggman's.

Looking down across this lengthy battleship, Tails only notices one platform that he would be able to land on quickly before the turrets would have a chance to take aim at his Tornado. Eggman was clearly expecting him to land on there though, since he sloppily painted the center of it with the twin-tailed insignia on the side of the bi-plane. Dully slanting his eyelids and sighing at what the doctor had done, the yellow fox turned to face Riku and gestured down at the platform, proceeding to descend down upon it after a slight turn.

Sonic and Shadow kneel down and grasp the front of the Tornado's wings so they don't fall off, and the black hedgehog takes a moment to glance at the Final Fortress. He thinks to himself as he glares at the tower at the end of it "Enjoy your safety while you can, doctor."

Tails lands the Tornado swiftly upon the platform, and when they were stable Sonic and Shadow jump off the wings while Riku falls down and lands in front of the bi-plane. The yellow fox spends a good few seconds shutting down his plane before he joins the rest of the heroes at the front of the platform as they look towards the large city up ahead along with others. There were no visible pathways up ahead that would take the heroes to the city or the Final Fortress past it.

"Sheesh, Eggman sure went all out on this ship! All its missing is the freaky lightning skies and a giant holographic projection of his largeness." Sonic says in a very enthusiastic tone of voice as he folds his arms behind his head and glances left to right across the ship.

On cue, a giant holographic projection of his larg-Err, of Dr. Eggman appears in the air between the platform and the large city in the distance. Shadow immediately thrusts himself into an aggressive stance as he swings his right arm out and exclaims to Eggman "Doctor, you will pay for what you have done to me!" Wasting little time in getting straight to the point as he did so.

However, Eggman merely ignored the black hedgehog for the time being and raised his arms into the air, laughing jollily like he always does in the face of his eternal nemesis Sonic before going on to say in a hospitable tone of voice "Welcome to my Egg Continent Sonic and Tails…I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you both made it here. After all, it wouldn't be any fun for either of us if you succumbed to the first enemy I tossed at you."

Sonic happily gestures at the doctor while saying to him "Heh, you know me too well Eggman. So what you gonna send at me now? Badniks? Egg Pawns? A one-way road to spikes and bottomless pits? Come on, surprise me with your best shot!"

"Oh, I will most certainly 'surprise' you, my dear dear nemesis. But this surprise will be gift-wrapped without any return address or postage!" Eggman matches Sonic's jokes with an attempt at humor of his own, but the blue hedgehog merely shrugs at it and says to him while closing his eyelids halfway "Come on Egghead, that was rather lame."

Before Eggman can start talking again, Shadow flings out a Chaos Spear at the hologram with a great deal of anger thrown into his swing. The hologram distorts, but this move managed to grab Eggman's attention all the same. Glancing down with grumbling hesitation, Eggman asks "What do you want Shadow?"

Shadow then clenches his right fist as the yellow energy within fizzles out, looking up at the mad scientist as the remaining heroes focus on him while he says "Come down with your strongest machine, and I will take great pleasure in tearing both it and you apart for what you did to me!"

Eggman nudges his glasses upward with a nonchalant gesture of his right hand, putting them in such a position that they gleam white as he creepily grins and says to the black hedgehog from the safety of his projector "Unfortunately for you, my strongest machine isn't quite yet complete, and even if it was I have no intention on wasting it on a bit-player such as you."

The black hedgehog responds angrily with "Smile all you want doctor, but no matter where you hide on this ship I WILL find you."

"Empty threats, I assure you." Eggman sees in an overly confident tone of voice as he lowers his hand from the front of his face and looks down upon the black hedgehog, saying to him and the rest of the heroes not long afterwards "But here is a threat that isn't quite so empty."

Gesturing towards the front of his clothing ensemble, Eggman presses down on a button swiftly and immediately every single turret along the rim of the Egg Continent aimed at the heroes, some of them even rising up to not cross in the paths of the others. The cannons cocked downward with the central areas glowing a bright red, and Riku quickly draws his sword in a panic while Shadow makes his hands glow yellow just in case he'd need to fight back with Chaos Spears.

However, Sonic keeps his cool after an initial moment of surprise and gestures towards Eggman, saying in a jovial tone "Heh, so what type of gaming we playing here Eggman?"

"The 'game' is simple, Sonic." Eggman responds with before snapping his fingers beside him. The turrets then raise their cannons towards the sky and fire off lasers simultaneously, creating a perfectly sized cage around the Egg Continent that didn't leave a single gap wide enough for the Tornado to slip through. The doctor then continues off from the end of his last sentence by saying "You four are now trapped on my Egg Continent."

Riku glances around at the many laser cannons the good doctor had assembled on-board the Egg Continent, noticing from his position with the help of his powers that they were all connected to a singular energy source underneath the surface of the battleship. "Is this really supposed to be a threat?" The boy asks himself as he turns around enough for him to glance at Eggman to gauge what was going on.

Tails is quick to point out to the doctor in a coy tone of voice "Oh please Eggman, your laser defense system would be easy for me to disable from right here. This is a low-grade threat, even for you."

Eggman just as quickly responds with a creepy laugh as he smile and says to his foxy rival "Oh, are you sure about that Tails? If you try to disable even ONE of my turrets, you'll trip the detonation switch for my nuclear generator and blow the Egg Continent apart, killing everyone on-board and spreading radiation across the entire planet."

This bit of information makes all the heroes flinch in differing manners, with Riku thinking to himself as he grits his teeth "Has Eggman lost his mind?! He put a bomb in his own ship when he's on it?!"

Eggman then goes on to mention with a cocky waggle of his right pointer finger "Oh, and don't even think about having the element manipulator disable the electric flow to the generator. If the electricity is cut-off from even one of the turrets, the turrets have been programmed to self-destruct, which will take out the middle of the Egg Continent and cause the bottom half to drop down wherever we may be. I'm sure you don't want to put the humans in any danger, right Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog takes a pause for a moment, his smile deflating as he looks up at Eggman and says to him "Huh, so you really are taking things seriously, aren't you? You've become a big-time villain yet again Eggman."

The doctor swiftly replies with a docile yet serious sounding "I have always been serious you pesky blue hedgehog, but after failing to defeat you even with the help of my past-self I am no longer willing to take any chances. So long as you are aboard my Egg Continent, you and your friends will do everything I say, and if you disobey even a single step I WILL activate the charges myself and blow this ship sky-high! Do. I. Make. Myself. CLEAR?!"

Before Sonic answers the doctor, Riku dispels his sword and faces the hologram, saying in a blunt tone of voice "You're just putting your own life in danger by having the bomb on here. That doesn't sound like you at all."

Eggman nonchalantly mentions "Who even said I was on this ship? I could have just led all of you into an inescapable trap while I keep working on my ultimate machine from another place!"

"That's not your style Eggman." Sonic replies quickly with a smile on his face as he wags one finger towards the hologram of the good doctor.

The doctor drops the nonchalant act and looks at his long-time foe with joy, saying to him happily "You know me too well Sonic. I guess years of conflict will do that to two people. But either way, I am looking forward to confronting you with my ultimate machine."

The blue hedgehog says to Eggman "Well first we actually need a way through your silly little continent Eggman. So come on, cough up a pathway or something for us."

Eggman whips out a serious tone of voice yet again as he says to the blue hedgehog "Uh uh uh. I'm the rule maker here, remember? Your snappy remarks aren't going to get you anywhere this time, hedgehog."

Sonic raises his hands in annoyance and puts on a rather impatient expression, saying to the doctor in response to his attempt at imposing control "Whatever! Just hurry up already, I'm getting bored standing around here flapping my mouth off to a hologram!"

"Fair enough." Eggman says as he follows through with a gesture towards his foes. The good doctor then reaches for a button on the side of his sleeve, tapping it quickly to summon forth a spinning platform in front of the heroes that is big enough to fit one person.

"First things first, we are going to separate your little party up. I want Shadow to board this platform that I have summoned. If you do not agree to this, then-" Before Eggman finishes, Shadow has already boarded the platform, which surprises both Sonic and Tails.

"Sheesh, you're really gonna go through with this?" Sonic asks the black hedgehog, who proceeds to face his more heroic counterpart and state with his arms folded against his chest fur "I won't be slowed down as much if I don't have you three holding me back with your laid-back attitudes."

The blue blur doesn't take offense to what Shadow said and leaves him with a quick smirk before the black hedgehog turns to face the hologram and says stoically to him "Doctor, if you would."

With another tap of the button on the sleeve of his ensemble, Eggman has the platform Shadow is on carried away from the other three heroes. The black hedgehog is carried towards the doctor's man-made city in the distance, and once he was out of view Eggman directed his attention back at the remainder of his opposition and said to the unknown boy in front of him "Now then, I do believe you are capable of flying on your own you unknown little interloper. So if you'd kindly make your way to the bottom left building up ahead I'll be sure to greet you with a little robot of mine."

"Fine by me." Riku says as he wastes little to no time in leaping off the ground and levitating in place as Sonic turns to face the boy and says to him quietly "Hey, don't go losing to ol' Egghead out there, ok?"

The teenage Overlord nods his head and cracks a gentle smile, saying to him "Same to you, though I don't think that's something I need to doubt." Sonic gives the boy a lighthearted thumbs-up, and after Riku does the same he flies off quickly in the direction of the building that Eggman wanted him to go to.

Tails then turns to face the blue blur and says to him as he gestures both his hands out in front of his body "Well Sonic, looks like its just you, me, and Eggman's big fat hologram now."

Sonic jokingly says to his friend as he taps the side of his head with his right hand "Like that's any different from our last couple of adventures…Minus the fat Eggman hologram part and the freaky laser show keeping us here anyways."

"I can hear you both you know." Eggman states to drag the hedgehog and fox's attention back towards him. Sonic sways his right hand at him and says in response "Yeah we know, but don't you think you've been around long enough by now Eggman?"

The doctor smiles and says to the two heroes "Fine, if you are so tired of my glorious presence, then perhaps its time you had someone else around to entertain you both. Have fun, Sonic and Tails!"

With the hologram zipping out of view in a near instance, the platform the two heroes are on jolts in place as two large metallic rings rise up and connect around the edge of the platform to increase its size exponentially. Sonic quickly comments "Oh hey, Eggman is assembling a battle arena for my next opponent! How nice of him."

Tails, with a worried look in his eyes, turns to look at Sonic and says to him "Sonic, I've been thinking about it a bit since you fought Shadow and well…I think it's entirely possible that Shadow won't be the only one of our friends that Eggman put under the control of the Nega Hyper-go-on energy."

Sonic, who was focused mostly on the expanding platform as each subsequent part clicked into place, said to his buddy in a slightly more serious tone of voice "You think so Tails? Well, we'll just have to beat whoever we fight into unconciousness to free them, won't we? …Unless of course you happened to drag along a stun cannon of some sorts."

The yellow fox sarcastically replies with "Yes Sonic, after seeing Eggman's giant battleship and rushing to get the Tornado running while also seeing you fight Shadow not long afterwards, I managed to rush right back to my workshop in the five free seconds I could have had to grab my stun cannon. Thank you for thinking about how impossible that sounds." As he spoke though, he had a light smile on his face, signifying that he didn't take much offense to that.

Sonic jokingly states "Heh, you could have just said no. Oh well, the hard way it is then." The blue hedgehog then does some stretches while he waits for Eggman to drop his opponent.

A few seconds later, an egg capsule descends from overhead and crash lands behind the Tornado. This time however, the figure inside leaps out of the green smoke and lands on the right wing of Tail's bi-plane. Sonic lets out an unsurprised sigh while Tails plants his right hand against his face upon seeing who their opponent it. It was the red dreadlock haired echidna that was the famed guardian of the Master Emerald on Angel Island, Knuckles. Like with Shadow, Knuckles had a cloud of purple fog around his head and a glare that made him look like a zombie.

"You know, I'm not surprised that Knuckles got captured by Eggman." Tails says after letting out a light sigh. Sonic responds to his friend's remark with a snappy "We could have put a wager on it if we had more time, honestly."

The blue hedgehog then faces his red echidna friend and says to him in a taunting manner "Alright Knuckles, what did Eggman put in your mind to get you angry at me?"

The red echidna scowls at Sonic and promptly raises his right, spiked glove into the air, roaring loudly as he brings it right down into the center of the Tornado's structure. With the amount of force applied into his blow, Knuckles manages to cause the bi-plane to explode instantly, the pieces of it scattering across the platform as the durable echidna lands on the ground in the center of the burning wreckage. Knuckles then faces both Sonic and Tails, saying in a very frustrated and hot-blooded tone of voice as he pounds his fists together twice "Darn it Sonic, I can't believe you would take the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald to try to take over the world!"

Sonic slaps his forehead and groans, saying as he pulls his hand away and shrugs his shoulders "Really Eggman, you went with something that simplistic? Oh well, I guess that's all that was needed for ol' Knucklehead. So Tails, you ready to help free Knuckles?"

The blue hedgehog presses his fingers together to crack his knuckles in front of his body while turning to look at his buddy, only to find that Tails' mouth is partially agape while his left eyelid twitches uncontrollably. "T-That was my finest version of the Tornado yet…" His voice was filled with distraught, which transforms into a fit of anger as he clenches his fists tightly and exclaims towards Knuckles "Knuckles you idiot! I don't care if you are under Eggman's control! When Sonic and I are through with you, YOU ARE GOING TO REBUILD MY TORNADO FROM SCRATCH WITHOUT MY ASSISTANCE!"

Tails reaches into a hyperspace compartment he had built into the back of his fur and pulls out a circular red arm cannon that he attaches to his right arm, while Sonic merely lets out an impressed whistle and looks back at Knuckles, saying with a gesture towards him "Geez Knuckles, you really blew it this time. Oh well, if Tails is this motivated, then I am too! Lets do this Knuckles!" Pumping his fists into the air, Sonic was ready for battle against his red echidna friend.

Next Time: Team Sonic Collision