Chapter Twenty-Six:

A Messy Battle with Eggman's Forces

As the Egg Hammer went down, Sonic and the others half-expected this to be the end of the attack. However, seconds after the massive hammer-wielding Egg Pawn collapsed to pieces, the group heard mechanical noises and engines from close by. Both heroes turned, spotting several Swatbot shuttles heading their way, and another Egg Hammer appeared out of thin air.

Those weren't the only Badniks. A pair of EggRobos flew in alongside the shuttles, their guns primed and aimed at the hedgehogs and their foxy allies. A group of Swatbots emerged from a nearby shuttle as it was landing, and just then, a tall robot with blue eyes, wheels for legs and pincher claws glided into the vicinity.

Last but not least, a horde of tall red-gray robots in full metallic armor with intimidating faces and bulky builds marched towards the gang, joining the ensemble of attacking Badnik forces. Whatever these guys were, they could have easily passed off as different Swatbot models.

"Burnbot!" Boom Sonic exclaimed, "Where have you been? Ya massed the last fight from earlier!"

"Those Swatbot variants look like they're gonna be trouble!" Sat AM Sonic quipped.

Lasers streaked passed the hedgehogs, almost hitting them, and scorched several areas of grass. The shuttles flew over, firing lasers upon Sonic and his allies, and the Swatbots charged at the heroes, red eyes flashing, ready to fulfill their programmed directives that their creator had given them.

"HEDGEHOG: PRIORITY ONE!" A Swatbot shouted.

Burnbot made a beeline for Sonic, raising its claws, but Boom Sonic quickly intercepted and knocked down the battle robot. A pair of EggRobos shot at the scarf-wearing speedster and he counterattacked with a spin-dash, Boom Sonic threw himself into the air, curled into a ball and smashed through the attacking robots, wiping them out in a matter of seconds.

Sonic cartwheeled to the side, avoiding a laser blast from a Swatbot shuttle, and turned to Tails, who was helping AoSTH Tails in assisting AoSTH Sonic with taking out a couple of Swatbots.

"Yo, Tails! Gimme a boost with that shuttle!" He called.

Ever loyal to Sonic, Tails flew towards his best friend, picked him up, and flew into the air, following one of the shuttles right as it was making a U-turn. Tails threw Sonic and the hedgehog curled into a ball, smashing through the window of the hovercraft, and attacked the pilot flying the ship.

He smashed the Swatbot and smashed the controls, then he hopped out of the ship quickly. The speedy hedgehog then boosted away before the shuttle crashed into a pair of Swatbots, wiping them out, but there were more shuttles and more Badniks on the attack.

BWOOSH! Burnbot had gotten back up and fired a ball of fire at Sonic, but the hedgehog evaded, rolling out of the way and letting the robot's flaming projectile streak by. He then raced towards Burnbot, avoiding a few fireballs, and linked up with Boom Sonic, streaking towards the battle robot together.

And then, they dashed through Burnbot and Sonic smashed his head clean off.

"Looks like it'll be a while before ya see action again!" Boom Sonic taunted the Badnik.

"SONICS!" Tails called, "MAKE SURE MY HOUSE AND MY WORKSHOP DON'T GET DEMOLISHED!"

"We got our hands full!" Movie Sonic remarked.

"Nothing I can't handle!" Manhog Sonic said, "We can kick butt and protect a fella's residence and workplace nooooo pronto!"

"HEY! SOME HELP HERE!" Boom Tails called, he was being swarmed by Swatbots and shuttles from various directions, even the Egg Hammer wasn't helping. Despite being a capable fighter, the goggles-wearing twin-tailed fox, and almost everyone else, still found himself in a pickle with the attacking robot models.

"Hang on, Tails!" Boom Sonic called with worry in his voice.

"Yo, Sonic!" Underground Sonic threw the blue-armed hedgehog his guitar blaster, "Catch!"

Boom Sonic caught the guitar and raced towards his little buddy's current position, he pulled the trigger and a wave of blue energy burst forth from the tip, accompanied by musical note images, and struck the group of robots, blasting them to pieces while knocking out several of the Swatbot shuttles in the air and knocking down the Egg Hammer unit.

AoSTH Sonic and LEGO Sonic went after the other EggRobo Badniks with Sonic joining in, dodging lasers along the way, and smashed the Badniks. The three Sonics met back up with the others, smashing more robots in the area.

"THAT SWATBOT'S HEADING FOR MY LAB!" Tails screamed.

"Hang on!"

Princess Amy #2 ran towards the Swatbot and leaped into the air, flipped her body over the robot's head, and swung her sword, slicing through the Badnik's neck. The decapitated robot collapsed and the princess lightly kicked the defeated Swatbot.

"Nice defense!" Jim Robotnik called from the sidelines.

Just then, a laser streaked by and the skinny Eggman variant ducked with a yelp. Movie Sonic smashed a robot, ran towards the doctor, picked him up, and carried him towards a nearby hill.

"Jeeze, doc." The hyperactive blue-armed speedster said, "You could at least help, maybe help the Tails' hack some of the Badniks, and contribute. For a Robotnik who joined our side instead of the Eggman Alliance, you're hardly helping us out here!"

"I can't fight like you guys do!" Jim Robotnik exclaimed, "And humans are fragile! I don't have special healing powers. I'm trying to stay alive here!"

"Didn't you use a laser on Ugly Sonic earlier? C'mon, man. Use some gadgets instead of standing around on the sidelines in the open and making yourself an easy target for the robots. You're supposed to be a genius, Jim. A genius! I've seen what you can do and I've seen your tech, now would be a good time to, I dunno, call for one of your drone robots?"

"Well..."

"HEDGEHOG PRIORITY ONE!"

A trio of Swatbots exited a shuttle, firing at Movie Sonic with Jim Robotnik in the crossfire. Movie Sonic acted quickly, putting his powers into use, as blue energy crackled in his quills.

First, time came to a standstill.

Second, he picked up Jim Robotnik, carried him to the lift leading down to Tails' lab and activated it, watching as the doc slowly descended into the underground.

Third, the blue-armed hedgehog then raced back to the hill, smashed the Swatbots and demolished the shuttle. Then he leaped into the air, launching into a spin-dash homing attack, and struck a couple of the other shuttles carrying Swatbots. And then, he made a move for the still-active Egg Hammer, which was frozen due to Movie Sonic's powers.

Just then, he noticed a flicker and saw that Manhog Sonic was racing with him, using the exact same power as him. Since both Sonics shared the same powers, that meant Manhog Sonic wasn't affected by Movie Sonic's time stop power.

"LET'S SMASH THAT ROBOT!" The two Sonics shouted.

Both "hedgehogs" charged, streaking around the Egg Hammer with Movie Sonic grabbing the robot's signature weapon, and then he swung it, smashing through the Badnik's legs. And then, Manhog Sonic leaped up, curled into a ball, and spin-dashed the Egg Hammer's head off.

Time unfroze and the Badnik collapsed. The two Sonics fist-bumped and ran back to join the fray with Sonic, Boom Sonic, the two Princess Amys, the other Sonics and the Tails gang all still battling Swatbots, EggRobos and those other odd Swatbots. More shuttles entered the mix and more Swatbots appeared along with a bigger Egg Hammer.

'Is there no end to this horde?' Sonic thought, wiping some sweat off of his forehead.

He ducked out of the way just as a shuttle dropped a bomb on the area, causing an explosion that ruptured the earth and made everyone scatter. Every Badnik advanced on the heroes, weapons and sights aimed upon them, the situation had just gotten messier...