Sonic looked around in confusion as they burst into Eggman's base. It was clearly his, Sonic would recognize something he made anywhere, but that begged the question of why were they not being attacked? There were no robots to impede their progress deeper into the base like last time. Even if Eggman hadn't been expecting them surely he would have noticed them. They hadn't exactly been subtle when they busted in. "Stop thinking so hard, you're gonna give me a headache." Super grumbled. Clearly he was upset by the lack of robot violence so far.
Ignoring the mild jab, Sonic shook his head. "It's just odd." Sonic thought back as he dashed around a corner, still nothing. "If Eggman is here then why have no bots tried to stop us yet?"
"Beats me. I don't really care so long as I can get my hands on the doctor." Super growled. "Left here."
Sonic skid to a quick stop and took off down the left corridor. "Still managing to track the emeralds I assume?"
"Yeah. They're so close now I can manage like this. It's almost like Eggman isn't trying to hide em anymore." Super sounded mildly confused. "Weird, but whatever."
Sonic blinked as he glanced around. Looking behind him confirmed that the others were still keeping up, even after the sudden turn. "Maybe Eggman's planning something." Sonic frowned. "I don't know why he'd want to try and mess with you again, but I wouldn't put it past him to try."
Sonic felt rage wash over him before Super managed to reign himself in. "If he tries it again…"
"No killing remember? Or seriously maiming." Sonic reminded
Super was silent for a moment before sighing. "Fine, whatever. I'll hurt him right up to those limits though."
Now it was Sonic's turn to sigh. "Fine."
"Good, oh by the way right." Super said, clearly getting bored.
Well at least Sonic managed to make that turn without having to stop. Though judging on some… colorful language from Knuckles Sonic guessed the echidna hadn't been so lucky. Super's amusement at that was palpable and Sonic had to admit it was kinda funny. Hopefully Tails wouldn't try and repeat any of those words later though. "Hold on, stop. Now." Super's voice had a slightly panicked edge to it.
Sonic did as asked and glanced around. Looking for what he assumed was some sort of danger. "What's up?"
"It's… the chaos energy. I can feel it. Everywhere here…" Super sounded slightly dazed.
"Huh… well that's not normal. Don't suppose Eggman's trying to bring you out again do you?" Sonic tilted his head as he continued to scan what still looked like a nondescript hallway.
"What's going on Sonic?" Tails wandered up next to him, glancing around. Likely also trying to find the reason they'd stopped.
"Super says there's chaos energy all over here." Sonic gestured widely in front of them. "I guess it's making him feel kinda weird cause I can sort of feel it too."
"I can confirm that. The presence of the chaos energy at least." Shadow moved up to join them. "It's almost like it's being vented here. For what reason I'm not sure."
"It's possible that Eggman's just trying to get Super to go crazy and kill us." Knuckles shrugged as he also finally moved up.
Sonic tapped his chin. "Maybe… might explain why there hasn't been anything trying to stop us. The doc doesn't want Super smashing up his bots."
"It's not concentrated enough to do that." Super finally said, sounding a bit clearer. "He might think it could do it, but it's not on purpose. Unless Eggman is an idiot." Super growled. "Which he is, but not about this. He's… controlled me once he should at least know enough to know that this wouldn't trigger anything."
Sonic quickly passed along the relevant info from what Super said. Shadow frowned but slowly nodded. "This is far from being concentrated. I suppose that Super is right in that every other time he's managed to forcibly take over it's been using a more concentrated surge of chaos energy…"
"So what do we think Eggman is up to then?" Knuckles glared down the corridor.
"It's possible that this has something to do with whatever he's working on. While we didn't give him a lot of time to work on something we know he can work fast." Tails placed a hand on his chin in thought.
"Whatever's going on I say we just get a move on. Clearly we aren't going to figure out anything by standing here." Sonic walked a couple steps forward before turning back to face the others. He gestured behind him with a thumb. "Eggman has to be where the emeralds are and Super says they're this way, so let's go."
"Fine. Just be careful." Shadow shot Sonic a serious look as he crossed his arms. "At the moment we have no idea what the doctor's planning."
Sonic gave the other hedgehog a confident smirk and a thumbs up. "We've got this. He can't pull the same trick he did last time." Shadow looked at him unconvinced for a moment before shaking his head and skating ahead. Guess that was the que to move. Sonic took off after the other hedgehog and the other two followed.
The four, well five if Super counted, continued to run down the corridors. Seemed like they were on some sort of straight away. Sonic could easily imagine having to take down some badniks on the way yet the place still remained empty except for them. "Alright I'm starting to agree with you." Sonic thought frowning. "This is getting kinda boring."
"Us agreeing?" Super scoffed. "What a weird thing."
"Hey we agree about a few things." Sonic tilted his head. "I think."
"Oh yeah? What else do we agree on?" Super asked, clearly not expecting Sonic to have an answer.
"Well… we both like Tails and agree we wanna protect him right?" Sonic smirked.
There was a moment of silence before Super responded. "...I'll give you that."
"No one can resist my little bro forever." Sonic let his smugness be known. "Maybe if you're good after all this is over you can continue to hang out with him."
More silence. "Just focus on our current mission." Super sighed, but Sonic knew he was getting through to him a bit. "Shouldn't be much farther."
Great, nearly there. As he focused back in he realized that Shadow was turned around and shouting. Had he been so unfocused that he hadn't noticed? "SONIC!" The black hedgehog's voice was finally clear. "Next to you!" Sonic turned his head as Shadow started dashing back towards him.
The sound of a whirring engine was heard as he locked eyes with Metal Sonic. Before he could even register the fact that the bot had managed to sneak up on him he was being slammed into the wall. Instead of being stopped like he expected he went straight though, the light from the hallway quickly vanishing. Some sort of moving panel? Before he could think about that more he was colliding with the ground. The air was knocked out of his lungs from the impact but Sonic was glad that Metal had let him go after that. Hoping up to his feet he glanced around the room. There wasn't much around. Just a mostly gray room with, ugh, Eggman's ugly mug plastered on the walls. It would be a room that'd be pretty easy to build up speed in though…
He looked over at Metal, who was watching him with crossed arms. "So… you here to slow me down? Stop me from stopping whatever Eggman has planned?" Sonic rose a brow at the robot who only continued to stare. "Not in a mood to chat huh? Well that's just fine. I've got some very important things to do today that don't involve messing around with you. Let's get straight to it yeah?" Sonic took off and started to build up speed. Metal wasn't far behind him, catching up in the way that always excited Sonic when Metal wasn't actively trying to kill him.
"You know I could pretty easily rip that pile of scrap to shreds…" Super offered.
"Nah it's fine. I've dealt with Metal a lot. I can take him. Plus I don't really wanna see him permanently scrapped. It's… complicated." Sonic hopped over Metal as he attempted to take a swipe at him. Had to be careful to stay alert this time; even if he was talking to Super. Wouldn't be good to get caught off guard again.
"Oh yeah. You raced him before. I remember that. You nearly drowned." Super stated matter of factly.
Sonic winced and slowed down enough to let Metal pass in front of him. He quickly picked back up speed, jumped on the bot's head and shot forward. The furious whirring of Metal's engine quickly followed. "Yeah… not a great memory to have brought up thanks. But Metal did save me, for whatever reason. He's an odd bot but not entirely bad, hence why I don't wanna see him scrapped for good ok?"
"Fine. Just deal with him quickly. I still have revenge to get." Super relented.
"I always do things quickly." Sonic smirked.
"You're insufferable." Super mumbled before going quiet to let Sonic focus. Alright, time to get to work.
"C'mon Metal. Keep up!" Sonic sped up as he came to the far wall of the room. Not an issue. Without slowing down he turned to follow the new wall. He did wish this room was a bit longer but he could make due. Metal moved up to swipe at him and Sonic jumped over the attempted strike. Curling up he spin dashed forward to put some distance between himself and Metal. Uncurling he glanced back; Metal was hot on his trail. He wouldn't expect anything less from the bot though. Sadly Sonic couldn't really afford to mess around right now. They had bigger things to deal with. "Alright Metal. Let's keep things short and sweet. I'll owe you something more… sporting later."
Without warning Sonic put the breaks on. Metal beeped in surprise as he flew past Sonic. Sonic once more curled up and began to rev up in place. Once he'd built up enough speed he shot off and collided with Metal's back. He slammed the bot into the ground and the two skid across the floor for a moment. Sonic uncurled and jumped off, landing a few feet away. Slowly Metal peeled himself off the ground. Sonic sighed. "Look dude. I don't really have the time to be doing this right now." The now damaged bot stood fully up and faced him. "You're damaged and clearly are not beating me right now. Why not give it a rest? Just this once?"
As an answer Metal shot forward and collided with Sonic's chest. Well that hurt. "I could always help." Super offered. Sonic could feel Super's excitement rising as it mixed with his own.
"No. Don't wanna reveal our trump card just yet. I've almost got him. Just a bit mo-" Sonic was cut off as Metal slammed him into a wall. Sonic could feel the sense of satisfaction and smugness from Super. "Hush." Sonic thought as he curled up into a spin dash again to try and free himself. He felt as his quills dig into Metal and eventually the bot lost his grip and was launched backwards.
"But I didn't say anything~" Sonic could practically see the massive grin Super was sporting at that statement.
Sonic popped out of his spin dash and balanced himself with one hand on the ground. "You were thinking it though. Hard to hide things from each other, remember?"
"Oh I'm well aware." If anything he sounded more smug, somehow.
Sonic decided to drop the conversation in favor of making sure Metal stayed down. The robotic hedgehog was currently laying motionless on the ground, but that could change. Slowly Sonic approached and gently tapped the downed robot with a foot. Ok yeah, he was down. There was no way he wouldn't have sprung up at that and attacked Sonic.
Sonic sighed as he turned to look up where he thought they'd tumbled into the room. "Think we can get back up there, and if so are the others still there?" He thought, placing a hand on his chin.
"We can get up there just fine with my help." Super replied. "But as for your friends still being there? Less likely. They probably went looking for another way down here."
"Yeah… if they could have gotten through the hatch they probably would have already." Sonic nodded. "Let's just get out of here and go find them then."
"Shall I?" Super sounded excited.
"Not yet. Like I said, don't wanna reveal you just yet. Eggman probably has cameras in here." Sonic stretched his arms out in front of him. "I've got this." Sonic began running around the room picking up as much speed as he could. Eventually he started making his way up the walls. Once he was high enough, and had found the hole Metal had taken him down through, he jumped. Nearly slipping on the smooth metal surface he immediately picked up speed again after getting some traction. Thankfully he was able to get his footing enough to move upwards. As he approached what was likely the wall that closed off the chute he braced himself. "Mind helping just for a sec? Wanna make sure we can get through this wall."
"Happily." Super replied, excitement clear in his tone.
Sonic curled up as his quills took on a golden color. With the extra power behind the spin dash the wall caved in as they collided with it. As Sonic uncurled and skid to the side his quills faded back to blue. "Perfect. Thanks."
"Sure. Whatever." Super replied, but clearly even the brief moment had been exciting to him.
"Alright… now let's see if we can find the others. Don't suppose they went looking for Eggman do you?" Sonic tapped his chin.
"It's possible. Might have gone looking for him hoping they'd find you." Super replied.
"Maybe… best lead we have in any case. Straight down this hallway yeah?" Sonic began stretching out his legs.
"Yeah. As far as I can tell there should be no more turns. Just one straight shot to the doctor." Sonic could feel Super's excitement building.
"Let's go then." Sonic shot off down the hallway. Hopefully everyone was there and alright. It didn't take long for Sonic to come across a massive set of doors. No doubt Eggman was beyond there. "What do you think? Should we look for the doorbell?" Sonic smirked as he felt Super's excitement mix with his own. "Maybe we should just knock."
With a mild added power boost from Super, Sonic burst through the door with a spin dash. The mild gold in his quills had faded before Eggman would ever be able to see it. He continued forward keeping the spin dash going. No reason to slow down now. "Looks like he has your friends." Super said with a growl. "If we cut through the arm of his stupid mech that should free them."
"On it." Sonic increased his speed and went straight for the arm. He barely heard the startled exclamation from Eggman and the excited noise from Tails before he collided with the arm. While he didn't go all the way through he damaged it enough to allow his friends to free themselves. Dropping down before Eggman could try and retaliate he uncurled and shot Eggman a cocky look. "Looks like your distraction didn't work too well Eggman." He stood up and brushed the dirt off his shoulders. He could feel Super's rage build as they stared down Eggman. "Did you really think Metal would keep me occupied for too long? I thought we knew each other better."
"Why you spikey little blue pest…" Eggman growled out as his mech took a step back. "I should have known you'd only be stalled for so long. Well at least now you'll get to join in on the fun. Might I ask how your little problem is going?" Eggman said the last line with a smugness that made Sonic frown. He really was just trying to rely on Super again? Well maybe that wasn't all but still.
Either way Sonic stepped back, a look of mock horror on his face before he quickly looked away and pinned his ears against his head. "It's going fine. Nothing you need to worry about." Sonic could feel the amusement and excitement from Super. "You ready?" Sonic thought as he turned to give Eggman a defiant look.
"More than ready." Super's excitement had reached a peak and Sonic was so caught up in it he forgot to even remind the other not to seriously hurt Eggman.
"Well I'm sure you won't mind a little dose of chaos energy again then? I might not be able to control that thing but at least it'll take you off the playing field!" Eggman said with excitement. Instantly Sonic could feel the chaos energy that flooded the room. Maybe this was why SUper could feel it earlier? From testing maybe? A quick glance at the others told him that even Shadow was being affected by the massive amount of chaos energy that had flooded the room. The hedgehog had wide eyes as he locked eyes with Sonic. Sonic shot him a confident look before dropping it and turning back around. Gripping his head in mock pain he curled in on himself. Super's excitement was infectious and he could feel a grin creep its way onto his face once he knew Eggman couldn't see it.
"Guess you're up then." Sonic thought. "Wanna see if you can mess with him a bit before you trash his machine?"
"Sounds like a good time." Super replied and Sonic let himself slip into the background.
Once Super felt like an appropriate amount of time had passed, which wasn't really all that long, he uncurled from the position Sonic had put them in. "Haha! Have fun trying to deal with me and that thing." Eggman gloated. Clearly he had no idea what was in store for him. Super grinned and turned to the others. He shot them a wink and he could see them all relax slightly. Tails shot him an encouraging look and a thumbs up. Well he couldn't fail now could he? Not when the fox believed in him.
He flexed his claws. Might as well play it up a little. "Well well well. Looks like I'm gonna get another crack at this huh? Really it was a dumb idea to come here when you still can't control me." He spread his arms wide. "What was your plan huh?"
Tails looked confused for a moment before realization flashed across his face. He put on a scared look, which looked rather fake to Super but perhaps Eggman wouldn't be able to tell, and the others soon followed his lead. Shadow stepped forward as if to fight him. Though as the two locked eyes Shadow gave him a small nod. Super hoped that meant he knew they were not going to fight. Right now. "I'm sure Shadow gets it." Sonic confirmed. "He knows me well enough and I know him. He's in on it."
Excellent. Super's grin widened. "Well I think it's about time I finished this huh?" He whirled around to face Eggman and without another word he shot off towards him.
"W-what!?" Eggman shouted as Super collided with his mech.
"Didn't wanna draw it out too long huh?" Super could feel Sonic's amusement.
"No need to." Super responded as he started to rip off a panel of the mech. "Ooooh this looks important." Super ripped a piece out and tossed it away before Eggman managed to fend him off.
"What is this!? Why are you attacking me?" Eggman questioned as the mech stumbled slightly.
Super cracked his knuckles. "Because you pissed me off doctor." He bared his teeth. "And I care a lot more about taking you out than any of Sonic's friends right now."
"Grrrr, fine then. I'll deal with you myself and let my robots deal with the others. All weapons fire!" Eggman shouted as a barrage of weapons were fired at Super. With a wild grin he began diving through the attacks; nimbly twisting out of the way of several close calls. He noticed at some point that those down below were fighting off hordes of badniks. They could handle themselves against the fodder though.
Once Super got close enough he curled into a ball and shot closer. At the moment before impact he uncurled and collided with the head of the mech feet first. It tottered for a moment before righting itself. "Annoying yellow pest!" The mech swiped at him rather clumsily. Super yawned before chaos controlling to the other side of the head. This repeated a few times until Eggman clearly got fed up and released another barrage of shots. Some of which actually managed to catch him off guard and hit him. While he didn't really feel it he knew from the way Sonic was wincing that it would hurt the other hedgehog later.
"Ok quick timeout. We need a plan." Sonic spoke up, likely wanting to save his body from getting any more hurt.
"Talk fast." Super frowned as he continued to move out of the way of the shots Eggman was throwing at them.
"Ok so. You know that synced feelings thing we tried to get to work but couldn't?" Sonic asked.
"Yes." Super shot a laser at a missile that was coming straight for them. "What about it?" He dodged under another missile.
"Well maybe we couldn't do it before because we need more… well I guess incentive to. We really do have to be thinking the same. Feeling the same thing. I think we could do it. Right now. It should give us just the edge we need in order to get up close and end this." Sonic was talking fast but Super had no issues understanding him.
Getting clipped by one of the shots Super growled. "Let's do it."
Super focused on the mixing of emotions that had been going on. Tails had said in theory that they should be able to sort of "sync up" if their emotions were strong enough. Well right now, as much as he didn't want to admit it, their goals and emotions were pretty aligned. Super focused in on how much he wanted to take down Eggman. The feeling of his own determination starting to mingle with Sonic's was weird but instead of trying to push it away he grasped onto it.
Eggman began another barrage and they rocketed forward. Mixed emotions only heightening as they charged into battle. Both separate yet together. At the very least it made things easier to dodge when no words had to be exchanged between the two. They dove out of the way of another missile before spin dashing straight through the damaged arm of the mech. It fell to the floor with a loud metallic clang; taking out several of the badniks swarming the others with it.
They narrowed their eyes as the mech reared back its remaining arm for a punch. While they could easily chaos control out of the way, where was the fun in that? With a wild grin they backflipped over the incoming punch before bracing with a hand on the arm and springing off. "Why you… Seems I made a mistake…" The chest of the mech opened to reveal what was probably a large laser. "One I intend to correct!"
Their eyes widened in surprise for a moment before they grinned. "A mistake huh doctor? We would have taken you down anyway." They dropped down just as the laser fired. It blasted through the air space they had just occupied. They whistled, mildly impressed. "Not bad. But not good enough." Their grin took on a more wild tinge as they shot forward again.
They landed on the cockpit of the machine and began tearing out wires and other pieces. "Eh!? Get off of there!" Eggman attempted to swat them away with the one still attached arm but any time it got close they warped away to somewhere else to continue their destruction.
"Game over doc." They flexed their claws before driving into the newly made weak point of the machine with a spin dash. They put all their power behind it to dig deeper and deeper. They grasped for the power of the chaos emeralds and they responded like they always did. Granting them the extra power they needed to completely cut through the mech. Clearly they'd hit something important as it began exploding. They watched in mild contemplation as Eggman's small vessel left. The doctor was getting away. They wanted to chase him but… no. They had to go help the others.
With one last look at the doctor's retreating back they dove for the badniks still attacking the others. The crowd had thinned considerably, the three fighting them were no pushovers, it was likely that they could have taken the whole group on their own. Though they just wanted to have a little more fun before they called this whole thing. They dove into the crowd and began tearing through robots wildly. It felt good to let loose. To not be worried about hurting anyone. They were only robots after all.
Slowly as the group thinned they could feel everything beginning to dull. Blinking Super looked around, slightly dazed. That had been- "Weird?" Sonic finished for him.
He shook himself out in order to shake off the last of the odd feeling. "Yeah. Weird." He looked over the field of destroyed robots. The last few were already being taken care of by the others. He watched as Shadow and Knuckles tensed at his approach. "You take back control. I don't wanna deal with those two right now." Super sighed.
Sonic hesitated for a moment before Super felt his agreement. "Oh Super? One more thing."
"What?" He paused.
"I'm proud of you. You kept your word and you did a great job. Thanks for the help." If he could see Sonic Super knew he'd be grinning.
"Sure… you're welcome I guess." Super certainly did not want to try and sort through the mess of emotions that were the result of that nope. Not right now. Maybe never.
Super practically shoved Sonic back in control. While he expected to feel some sort of amusement from the hedgehog he just felt a sort of gentle understanding. Whatever. He wasn't going to think of that right now.
Sonic approached the others, a massive grin on his face. "Looks like we did it! Good job all around. Everyone ok?"
Both Shadow and Knuckles looked mildly shocked that Super had given Sonic back control. Meanwhile Tails sent a proud look Sonic's way that Super was pretty sure was meant for him. He was going to choose to believe that anyway. He decidedly ignored Sonic's mental chuckle at that. "Yep we're all fine." Tails nodded as he walked over. "You two good?"
Sonic rolled his arms back, but nodded. "A little sore but otherwise good. Don't even think Super needs a recharge since we managed to use the emeralds during the fight. I think. It's a little fuzzy."
"Huh. Interesting. You can tell me more about it later though." Tails did look curious, but he turned away. "We should get out of here for now."
"Agreed. I don't want to leave the bat alone with the master emerald for too long." Knuckles grunted as he started to make his way towards the door.
Super tried to keep to himself as much as he could as the group all left. He felt a bit… unbalanced. Though he was mostly thinking about what was going to happen to him now. Their deal had been fulfilled, so now what? Super didn't want to admit it but the uncertainty had him… scared. Based on the lack of reaction from Sonic he guessed he was hiding his thoughts pretty well or the hedgehog didn't care anymore since they'd beaten Eggman. Either way it was those thoughts that continued to plague him on their return trip.
Sure they had won, but what was going to happen next?
