Chapter 18: The Final Showdown - Part 2:

I am Dr. Eggman! The greatest scientist in all the world!

Somehow I knew that Sally would eventually blow it, and an attack

from Sonic would follow soon after! You see, I never intended to become

a permanent ally to the gullible squirrel; I only hired her as a pawn to lure

Sonic into my trap, so I could steal all of his Emeralds, thus granting me the

strength I need to easily snatch the other emeralds from his friends! However,

I must've gotten too cocky, and fallen asleep before I had completely set

up my trap, and now I can't even defend my own fortress! (sigh) Well...there's

still hope that my plan will still succeed! And if it does, it'll give me time to decide

how to break the news to Sally! Heh heh heh! And it seems that Sonic could arrive

any second now! Nyah hah hah hah hah!

Without warning, Sonic burst through the bottom of the Death Egg, damaging the engines, and powered down. He then proceeded to run quickly around the interior of the fortress, boosting through masses of robots.

Fuck you, Eggman! Fuck you! He thought.

In less than thirty minutes, Sonic had run through the entire interior of the Death Egg, nowhere near breaking a sweat or running out of breath as he finally found the control room.

"You've pissed me off one time too many, Eggman! I'll make an omelet out of you!" He said, getting into a fighting stance.

Eggman's face was split apart with a grin, as if he had been expecting his arrival, which he in fact was. He pressed a button, and a protective see-through barrier appeared, blocking access to his half of the room. The floors, ceiling and walls on Sonic's half turned inside out, revealing a shiny, reflective surface. A small laser gun appeared out of the ceiling and began firing lasers, which bounced off the surface the room was covered in. Sonic was managing to dodge the lasers, his mind set on saving his pink-furred fiancé. Amy was cheering him on from the other side of the wall (though her voice was muffled through the transparent wall) as he jumped this way and that, running up and down the walls, avoiding the flesh-burning lasers. A short while later, Sally Acorn appeared by the door into the room.

"Eggman! He found out! I tried to come here as fast as I could! Sorry I didn't get here in time! The main pillar in Sky Sanctuary Zone was destroyed, so I had to trek all the way across the ruins to climb anothe-AAH!" She said panting, though her sentence was cut off as she darted out of the room, for the tuft of hair between her ears had just been burnt by a laser beam.

Sonic was getting tired of dodging the lasers. With careful timing, he used a homing-attack on the laser gun, which was destroyed, and by chain-reaction, everything that had appeared after Eggman had pressed the button disappeared. Sonic was about to boost into Dr. Eggman, when the lasers which had been bouncing around the room all hit the control panel, rendering the Death Egg uncontrollable. The panel exploded, sending Eggman hurtling to the back of the room. Sonic bent over backwards in order to duck under the flying Eggman that was headed his way, and then performed a mid-air split as the doctor charged him from behind. However, he was unprepared when he charged him a second time, knocking him over and throwing punches.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, SONIC! NOW HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIX THIS!?" He shouted.

After kicking him once in the nose, Sonic managed to get out from under the fat scientist. He log-rolled into a corner and coughed up some blood.

"Sonic!" Amy gasped.

"I'm fine. Really." Sonic replied, only to realize that Eggman was charging him again, a stream of blood running out of his nose.

This time, Sonic jumped out of the way and homing attacked him, creating two deep gashes on his sandwich-filled belly (causing him to burp loudly each time) and then proceeded to spin-dash in place on Eggman's head, splattering blood all over, right between the two wounds he had previously gotten. Bleeding, Eggman dropped to the floor, holding himself up with his arms and grimacing in pain. Orbot and Cubot went to inspect their wounded boss.

My name is Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails!

Sorry about that last time I was asked to monologue! I was kinda'

wired after I chugged an entire 12-pack of 'Red Echidna' last night, but

I'm fine now! That aside, we've just received word that Sonic left to deal

with Eggman again! And all by himself too! Talk about ballsy! But yeah,

the rest of us are all stoked for him, and not one of us has left the room since

we first heard about it on the radio! As for me, I've been thinking about what

exactly could've tipped him off! Could it have something to do with Sally Acorn?

I was told that she attacked Amy the other day, and since Amy was apparently

gone this morning, could she possibly be pulling the strings behind this? And if

so, why would she be allied with Eggman of all people? I've worked with her before,

and from what I remember, she never would've done anything so heartless!

Back at the house, everyone was still anxiously waiting by the radio to hear more on the news story.

OK, I know what to do! Knuckles thought.

"I'll be right back!" He said, leaving the room, "Tell me if anything new is revealed."

He went to his and Tails' bedroom and pushed the dresser out of the way. He opened a trap-door underneath and lifted the Master Emerald out of it. He sat in front of the magnificent jewel and began to pray.

Sonic was in the control room. He looked around the smoke-filled room, and saw that the plate of sandwiches was completely intact even after Amy had dropped them; not one of them had touched the floor. Having knocked Eggman out again, Sonic helped himself as a reward, his barely noticeable tail wagging like that of a dog as he grabbed one and took a big bite, only to spit it out in disgust.

"Yecch! Mayonnaise! Eggman, you've got some weird taste! Seriously, how do you like these?!" Sonic asked the doctor, who was in too much pain to respond.

"Now you know how I feel about you and chili dogs." Amy replied.

Suddenly, the Chaos Emeralds were summoned for reasons unknown, and they began to rotate around Sonic and glow radiantly. But this time, they were shining much brighter, and were growing larger. Sonic's entire form started to glow a pure white, and then a blinding flash filled the control room. Sonic then looked at himself and saw that his quills were standing on end again, and that he was flashing multiple colors; Sonic had become Hyper Sonic.

"Wait! What the hell is happening to me?!" Sonic gasped, shocked at how he managed to harness so much power despite not having any Super Emeralds.

Orbot and Cubot had worried looks on their faces as they saw his transformation.

"Oh well. Least it should be fun!" Sonic shrugged, proceeding to grab Amy and charge up a spin-dash in mid-air.

He then flew full force towards the wounded Eggman and his minions, still curled into a ball. Orbot and Cubot dashed out of the way in fright, leaving their boss wide open to attack. At light speed, Hyper Sonic rammed a large and bloody hole right through Eggman's obese torso, knocking him out immediately. Not stopping afterwards, he burst through the bottom of the Death Egg, creating a second hole.

"Sonic! Wait!" Amy said, pointing back at the flying fortress, "The ring!"

Sonic flew them back up to the severely damaged Death Egg, and saw Sally hurrying to an escape pod. At full speed, Sonic managed to zip by and grab the engagement ring off of Sally's finger. Sally was about to complain about her plan being ruined, but figured it was more important to escape. Amy put it back on her own finger, and the two hedgehogs left, ramming a third hole through the bottom of the Death Egg. Orbot and Cubot attempted to drag their heavily bleeding and unconscious boss into an escape pod as well, but he could not fit.

"I guess we'll have to leave him." Orbot said sadly.

"And just a day before the surprise 50th birthday party we were gonna throw for him!" Cubot sighed.

He and his partner reluctantly ditched their boss and closed the escape pod's door behind them, but when they attempted to leave, the controls were being unresponsive. Sonic and Amy were miles away from the Death Egg, when it exploded. Eggman and his minions were inside it, (though Sally had escaped). Upon finally landing back on solid ground, Sonic and Amy took a look at the smoking ruins still hanging in the sky.

"Man, I can't wait to play the game that gets based off of this!" Sonic exclaimed.

The couple sank into a deep kiss. It was good to be back.