A wild grin stretched over Super's face. He gave Eggman a quick glance. Well an enemy of Sonic was a friend of his apparently, so long as the doctor stayed out of his way. He turned to look at Sonic's concerned friends. Super drank in their expressions before locking eyes with Shadow. The other hedgehog held his gaze but Super knew he was unsettled. "I think we have a bit of unfinished business Shads~"

The hedgehog stepped forward and shot Super a glare. It was funny how he thought he could intimidate Super. "Take care of Eggman. I'll handle him."

"Shad-" Rogue tried to say something, but Shadow cut her off by raising a hand.

"I said I'll handle him. Go!" The other hedgehog growled out.

Super watched as Sonic's other friends ran past him to go engage Eggman; he made no move to stop them. "A bold move hedgehog. That eager to die that you'd send your back up away?" Super chuckled darkly. "Well I won't keep you waiting then." Shadow's look darkened but he said nothing. Well it looked like the teasing was over. Time for the fun part.

He launched himself at Shadow, who warped away. Though Super was prepared for it, he whipped around to where he could feel Shadow would reappear and leaped. He managed to grasp a surprised Shadow in his claws. "I've learned your tricks. You stand even less of a chance now. Oh!" His ears perked up in excitement as Shadow struggled. "But don't give up. That will make this much less satisfying." Throwing Shadow away he watched as the hedgehog struggled to get to his feet after landing. Looks like he wasn't recovered from their last fight, or those pathetic robots of the doctor's had worn him out.

Super slowly approached, a bored look on his face. "C'mon, at least make this interesting for me." He shrugged off the chaos spear that Shadow launched at him. "Don't you have anything new and exciting? Or have I seen everything already?"

With a growl the other hedgehog disappeared. Super sighed as he went to intercept the attempt again. He reached out to grab Shadow as he reappeared but the other hedgehog twisted away from his grasp and landed a solid kick on Super's head. He stumbled back from the blow. Well, looks like he wasn't fully recovered either, but he was still plenty strong enough to rip all of Sonic's friends to shreds, starting with Shadow.

Super pinned his ear against his head and lunged at Shadow again. As Shadow braced for impact Super quickly used chaos control to get behind him and strike him in the back with his claws. His hand came away stained with red. The other hedgehog grunted in pain as he stumbled away and turned to face Super. He stumbled and fell to one knee "I've learned a few things." Super started. Things were starting to get boring. "Clearly you haven't. I think this ends here." Super began slowly walking towards the other, who stood his ground despite his injury. "I'm sure I'll find some enjoyment out of ripping you to shreds."

With a defiant look Shadow looked up at him as Super towered over him. "Sayonara Shadow the hedgehog." Before Super's strike could connect he suddenly felt an explosion on his back. He stumbled forward but kept his footing. Through the smoke he could see something swoop in and grab Shadow. Growling he whipped around to see what had attacked him. As soon as the smoke cleared he saw that annoying robot with arms outstretched. The bat landed next to him, holding Shadow in her arms.

"TARGET NOT NEARLY MAIMED ENOUGH. PERMISSION TO CONTINUE ONSLOT?" Omega stared him down.

"Permission granted." Rouge said with a fiery look in her eyes. "Sonic if you can hear me, I'm sorry about this, but he hurt my teammate." That was all the warning Super got before Omega unleashed a massive storm of bullets, rockets, and all sorts of other things. Super was forced to jump out of the way of the larger weapons. This was ridiculous! How could he be kept on his toes by a mere robot! He wouldn't stand for this insult. He just had to get out of the blast zone. If only he could focus enough to chaos control but- He fell to his knees as a large blast hit him in the back. He glared in the direction he knew they were, he could still sense Shadow's chaos energy as weak as it was right now, but he couldn't see them through the smoke. Alright that was enough…


"Alright hold fire." Rouge held an arm out in front of Omega. She'd bangaged up Shadow as best she could at the moment, but he'd need time to heal. Even as the "ultimate lifeform" a wound like that would keep him down for a while. "While I'd normally be happy to let you keep going, we need to remember it is still Sonic under there."

"THAT IS IRRELEVANT. HE IS AN ENEMY NOW AND MUST BE DESTROYED. MY SCANNERS INDICATE HE'S STILL BREATHING. THAT MUST BE RECTIFIED." Omega shot back, but he complied anyway.

"Calm down big guy. I'm upset too but that doesn't mean we can take out Sonic." She glanced back at where Knuckles and Tails were keeping Eggman busy. She was thankful the two of them had told her to take Omega back to go support Shadow.

As the smoke started to clear she could vaguely make out the hunched shape of Super. Looks like Omega had gotten him pretty good. She'd have to apologize to Sonic properly later; it probably wouldn't feel good once he's back in control. Her ear twitched as she began to hear laughing. As Super's head lifted up his piercing red eyes cut through the smoke. She shivered involuntarily but put herself between him and Shadow.

"You really thought you could stop me? With all your pathetic little weapons?" Slowly his hunched figure began to stand up taller. "You clearly have no idea who you're dealing with." Super rose from the ground and out of the smoke. He peered down at Rouge and Omega with a sneer on his face. "Tell you what? You give me Shadow and I'll make your deaths quick and painless. That's a good deal. You should take it."

"NEGATIVE. WE WILL NOT BE HANDING OVER ANYTHING." Omega raised his arms to target the floating form of Super.

"You'll have to get through us first." Rouge spread her wings wide despite the foreboding feeling she had.

"So be it." He brandished his claws. "I'll happily go right through."

Rouge beat her wings hard to dodge Super's first strike as he shot down. Quickly looping back she grabbed Shadow and did her best to keep out of Super's reach. Shadow groaned as she maneuvered around Super as Omega distracted him with as many shots as he could get in without risking hitting her. "Sorry Shadow." She grit her teeth as she had to make another jarring movement. Super yelled in rage as he was hit in the back with another shot. "Don't have much of a choice right now. Just hang in there."

Rouge went into a dive as Super swooped right over her. She winced as she flared out her wings to slow her descent. It would be hard enough to avoid someone so fast if it was just her, but with Shadow still in her arms it made it even harder. This wasn't sustainable, eventually she'd slip up or get too tired to move properly. "Stop running!" Super shouted as he dove after her. As she landed she stumbled. Looks like she was more tired than she thought. She turned to try and shield Shadow from the blow despite his weak protests. The blow never came though.

"HURTING MY TEAMMATES IS HIGHLY INADVISABLE. SUGGESTION: GIVE UP." Omega had intercepted the blow. Rouge could see the damage it had done to him though. Cracks covered his plating. There was probably more damage that she couldn't see as well. It was clear he'd need repairs after this fight.

Super jumped back and growled at the trio, ears pinned against his head. "You're all starting to get on my nerves." He flexed his claws. "You pathetic idiots should just roll over and die already!" Before he could lunge again he froze, a surprised look on his face. "Huh?"


Tails grabbed Knuckles and came scrambling over as Eggman's mech moved closer to where team dark was fighting Super. Super dropped to the ground and grit his teeth as they reached the others. "Well what a delightful demonstration." Eggman's voice boomed out. Tails glanced at them, they looked rough but not too injured except for Shadow who was currently laying on the ground eyes closed in clear pain. "Now let's see if we can't harness that destructive energy to be something more precise. I can see why you failed when you were on your own." The chaos emeralds were exposed again and Super was slowly risen into the air by some sort of rings of energy. Super struggled as he was moved against his will. "You have plenty of raw power and with my genius you'll be unstoppable. The best part? You'll work for me."

As Super yelled out and closed his eyes, Tails couldn't help but pin his ears against his head. It sounded so much like Sonic that he almost forgot that wasn't him. "What are you doing! Charging him with more chaos energy is a disaster waiting to happen!" Knuckles stepped forward and yelled, sweeping a hand through the air.

"Oh quiet you." Eggman shot back. "I know what I'm doing." Eventually Super went silent and limp in the grasp of the rings. Tails sucked in a breath at the sight. "Perfect. Now let's see what you can do with a bit of guidance." Super was lowered back to the ground. He stumbled as he was released but he stood. Tails was mildly relieved at that. Super opened his eyes groggily and scanned the group. "Now then. Get the echidna."

Super lurched forward, his eyes widening in surprise. He took a clumsy strike at Knuckles that he simply stepped back to avoid. "What are you doing Eggman?" Tails shouted, stepping forward. "I can guarantee you're not going to like the outcome of this!"

"Quiet fox. It just has a few kinks to work out. I should have guessed that you'd be just as stubborn as Sonic. If you just submit to my control things will be a lot easier on all of us. Or we can do it the hard way. Your choice."

Super strained to look back at Eggman. "I… don't take… orders from… anyone." He managed to get out. Tails shivered at the anger he could feel almost radiating off Super.

"The hard way it is then." Eggman said, the mech lurching back. "This might be a bit painful, for you."

Super curled in on himself and grit his teeth. Tails wasn't sure what Eggman was doing but whatever it was it was only going to make things worse. "Guys we have to take down Eggman." Tails glanced back at the group. If he could get the emeralds away from him…

Rouge locked eyes with him and nodded. "With pleasure. Omega be a dear and lay down some cover fire for us."

"AFFIRMATIVE. UNLEASHING ARSENAL ONTO EGGMAN." Omega open fired at the mech.

"Oh ho, I don't think so." Eggman jeered. Super launched himself in the way of the attacks Omega was laying down. Tails winced. "Take care of the defective programming." Eggman ordered.

Once again Super lunged, this time much less clumsily. Knuckles intercepted him before he could collide with Omega, but Tails knew he wouldn't last long. It felt like the best option right now would be to retreat but… He looked over at Super. They couldn't leave Sonic. As Tails was watching the struggle between Super and Knuckles, Super's eyes flicked to him. The fox sucked in a breath. Did… did Super look scared? Or were his eyes playing tricks on him? Just as soon as it happened the moment was broken as Super tossed Knuckles aside. Once more he forced himself to turn around and look at Eggman. There was such rage in those eyes that Tails was fairly certain he'd imagined the fear. "I'm going… to kill… you… Eggman… slowly… and… painfully." Super grit out before he was seemingly forced to lunge for Omega again.

"Yes yes, your threats are all well and good, but you don't have much of a choice in the matter right now do you?" Eggman's voice had a smug tint to it. "Now take care of that nuisance!" The arm of Eggman's mech raised to block some of the shots from Omega.

Tails could hear the frustrated growl from where he was standing. He felt… frozen. He should be trying to do something, anything but he just couldn't. He watched as Knuckled dragged Super back from Omega and got a nasty hit for it. Thankfully no claws were involved but it looked painful. Finally Tails shook his head, he needed to act. He glanced between Super and Eggman's mech. He had a pretty stupid idea… but it might just be the way they all got out of this. Without a word to any of the others he made a dash for the mech, going airborne so he could get to the still exposed chaos emeralds in its chest. "Let's see if I can't shut off whatever is controlling Super…" Tails trailed off as he hovered in front of the chest.

"Eh!? Get away from there!" Eggman shouted as Tails started to mess with the housings for the chaos emeralds. "How dare you! I'll have you know this took many hours of fine craftsmanship to make. I won't have you going and messing it up. Come take care of the fox!"

Tails faltered as he looked down and saw Super turn to look at him. The hedgehog pushed off the ground and began quickly flying towards Tails. There was nowhere to go, being backed up to Eggman's machine. As Super arrived at him and rose his hand to make a strike, Tails rose his arms in a hasty defense and yelled, "Super wait!" To his surprise no strike came as Super seemed to be holding himself back from hitting Tails. Tails locked eyes with Super, there was that look again. Maybe it was Sonic leaking through? He wasn't sure.

Slowly Super's arm returned back to his side and he glared up at what was likely the cockpit of Eggman's machine. "You're dead." Super said it in such a flat voice. Like it was a simple statement of fact and somehow that was far more terrifying then how he normally talked.

"How did you break free from my control?!" Eggman shouted.

"I told you." Super flexed his claws, angry gaze unwavering. "I don't take orders from anyone, least of all you ." With that Super flew towards the cockpit and started to hit it.

"Gah. Get off!" Eggman brought the hands of his mech up in an attempt to swat Super away.

Super seemed so focused on getting to Eggman that he didn't notice. "Look out!" Tails shouted and Super's head immediately whipped up to look at the approaching hand. With a short blast of lasers from his eyes the hand was destroyed enough to not be a problem anymore. Super glanced back at Tails with an odd look on his face before going back to attempting to break into Eggman's cockpit.

"Alright, I know a lost cause when I see one." Eggman grumbled. "Until next time!" The chest plates began to slide back into place and Tails quickly moved away in order to keep himself from being crushed. Super yelled and began to fall off the mech as some sort of charge ran through it. "Enjoy dealing with the aftermath of this experiment. Perhaps if I'm lucky it will bear some fruit." With that he began retreating. A quick glance down at the ground told Tails no one was in good enough shape to chase him down.

"EGGMAN!" All except one. Tails looked over as Super practically roared out his name. Super admittedly didn't look good. Tails had been unsure if he could actually sustain damage but this pretty much proved that he could. Possibly because of him not having the emeralds? Now wasn't time for theorizing though. Right now Tails had to get Sonic back. Taking a deep breath he flew towards Super and threw himself at the hedgehog's back, clinging on. "Eh?!" Super froze as he registered what was happening. "What do you think you're doing runt?! Get off of me!"

"C'mon, the fight's over. You can let Sonic have control back now. Eggman's gone." Tails tried to reason with Super. He wasn't sure why, but he also wasn't sure what else to do.

"I can still catch him. Eggman's not getting away from me." Super growled, ears pinning against his head.

Tails shook his head into Super's back. The chaos energy that was arching off Super was warm, and almost painful. "You're hurt. What happens if he tries to take control of you again? Let Sonic have control back and you can rest, be ready for when we see Eggman next." Tails wasn't sure why he was saying these things, but he just wanted to get Sonic back. If that meant trying to reason with someone like Super so be it.

There was silence for a moment before the two started drifting back towards the ground. "You're lucky you're right." Super grumbled as they landed on the ground. Super pitched forward and the gold started to give way to blue again. Tails hopped off Sonic's back and caught him. Honestly he was shocked that had worked.

Sonic looked up at him tiredly. "Heh. Good work bud." Tails helped him up with a small smile before leading him back to the others. They needed to get out of here and figure out what they were going to do. Tails felt like they had a long night ahead of them