The energy of the SHIELD conference room was… strange, to say the least. It was a sea of strong, contrasting personalities, and if they hadn't already made up their mind about one of the people, there they were silently analyzing them to determine their initial feelings. For example, Batman was scanning everyone for potential tactical strengths and weaknesses, just in case they had to do battle, either side by side or on opposing teams. Wonder Woman's examinations were more based on emotion, composed of attempts to glean what each person's moral character was from the subtlest of speech patterns and facial expressions. Captain America was doing both, searching for any traits which could indicate that the people in this room could make for good allies, both strategically and in terms of ethics. The Wasp, by contrast, was internally geeking out over being in the same room with so many renowned heroes, all of whom, besides Tony, she'd never met before but always wanted to.

Speaking of which, an emotion nearly everyone on deck, both SHIELD staff and superhero, was feeling in abundance was sheer and utter awe at being in the presence of both the 20th century icon Captain America and the modern hero of legend Superman. To most it would have already been overwhelming enough to meet the shadowy urban myth of Gotham or the warrior princess of the Amazons, but being around those two, especially at the same time, felt like they were stepping on holy ground.

Ironically, the one feeling the most awestruck was Superman himself, as this was the first time ever meeting Steve Rogers, who was one of his primary inspirations and childhood heroes. He had hit Cap with an "It's a true honor to meet you," and a firm handshake upon landing on the Helicarrier, but Supes wanted to say so much more, to just completely gush about just how big of a fan he was and just how much the countless valiant tales of Captain America meant to him. But Superman knew how other people looked at him, as a symbol of hope and a figurehead in the superhero and metahuman communities, so he decided to remain as professional as humanly possible. It was inhumanely difficult to not suddenly burst out into a babbling fanboy soliloquy every second he was near the man, but Superman had accomplished the impossible before.

Of course, Sonic and Tails weren't privy to the near half decades worth of reputation the other heroes in the room were, so they could only judge the others they hadn't met yet via their looks and general "vibes." They soon deduced that Wonder Woman was kind and regal, Batman was grim and serious, Superman was warm and respectful, and Captain America was effortlessly commanding. The others also had no preconceived notions about the two furry creatures, but after speaking with them they all generally regarded them as somewhat immature, but experienced in the fight against evil and sincere in their convictions.

Nick Fury and Maria Hill walked into the room, the latter seemingly unimpressed by everyone in her vicinity and the former mostly unreadable other than being slightly irritated. Fury initiated the meeting by asking Sonic and Tails to explain themselves and the situation at hand, which they happily did, giving the same speech they gave to Tony and Janet not too long ago. Superman also chimed in, explaining his and Batmans encounter with what they now knew was called Metal Knuckles. He also revealed the green emerald he had attached to the back of his belt, raising a question from Diana.

"So if you have that green emerald, Sonic and Tails have those two, and Metal Sonic presumably has Starks, then where are the other three?"

Nick Fury responded with a heavy dose of annoyance. "Well, while the tin man and boy blue here were having their exhibition match over in the jungle, a different azure blur stole the emerald that was contained within a Chinese government facility. I've had to cut short the only interview I've ever done since becoming director to deal with all the world leaders blowing up my phone, so thanks for that." Snark aside, Fury's report confirmed the two alien animals' hypothesis that another blue speedster was at play in all this, lessening Tony's suspicion of them even more.

"So what about the last two?" Batman inquired.

"That's on a need to know basis." Hill said.

"Come now Maria, we're all in this together now." Diana said as calmly as possible in an attempt at diplomacy. "We're going to need to know this if we're all going to help out."

"First off, don't call me Maria." Hill was letting her impatience with the Amazon and others of her ilk show in earnest now. "Second, SHIELD isn't in the business of handing out classified information to a bunch of cowboys."

"I thought people liked cowboys? Are things different here on this planet?" Sonic asked.

"I mean vigilantes." Hill clarified with an irritated grunt. "So-called heroes that don't play by the rules and put everyone else in danger because they won't either get with the program or leave things to the professionals."

"We would be better off following orders, would we?" Batman asked. "Tell that to the people of Rhelasia."

Nearly everyone in the room winced at the mention of the incident, while Sonic and Tails looked on in confusion, Hill was stone faced, and Fury sighed wearily.

"First Lane and now you Bats?" Fury asked. He put his arms up in metaphorical defense. "Look, our hands were tied with that one."

Superman, a sense of righteous fury rising up within him, interjected. "You mean your bosses at the UN didn't see any potential return on investment, so they didn't bother 'wasting resources' saving the people of Rhelasia from that tsunami. If I'm not mistaken that's a direct quote from one of the UN members' private conversations that got leaked."

"What happened to you, Superman?" Hill abruptly changed the subject, knowing there was no answer to this line of query the heroes would accept. "During the war you were constantly working with the world's militaries to combat those aliens, but now you answer to no one. I thought you were on our side."

"I'm on humanity's side, not any government body's. I respect the law, that's one of the reasons I don't kill criminals, but I'll be no one's lap dog. I live life by my own rules."

"Amen to that!" Sonic suddenly shouted out. He quickly turned to his younger brother. "I like this guy!"

Upon hearing Superman's speech, Captain America felt a deep sense of shame, feeling as though he was letting this new generation of heroes down by limiting himself to SHIELD regulations. He started questioning whenever all those reasons he told himself he worked for SHIELD were really just excuses not to try harder or be more creative in his approach to helping his fellow man. Before he could ponder on this much further however, Tony Stark interrupted his train of thought.

"Well, this has been positively enlightening, but I think I'd better be on my way. Come on Jan." As Tony turned to leave, Superman put a hand on his shoulder.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to go get my gem back."

"What, so you can weaponize it? Or find some way to make a few extra billion off it?"

"You got a problem with me, ET? Why don't you just spit it out? The class is waiting."

Superman paused, a dumbfounded look on his face. "You don't even remember, do you?"

Tony looked at him incredulously, so Superman continued. "During the war, I remember you saying that the invasion was doing wonders for your business. Not only were the militaries of the world buying your stock in droves, they'd continue to do so after everything was said and done. After all, they'd want to protect themselves from future attacks with the best weapons money can buy right?"

Superman wasn't even trying to hide his disgust now. "All those people dying, and all you could think about were profits."

Nearly everybody in the room glared at Tony, and even Janet looked surprised at how heartless, or at least ignorant, his friend used to be. Superman had one final cutting remark to finish off his speech. "You're just like Luthor."

"Don't you dare compare me to that asshole!!!" Tony yelled. "He'll sell to anyone with a deep enough bank account, terrorists and dictators included. Even at my worst I had standards. As for what I said during the invasion…" Tony paused, and Superman saw something in his eyes he didn't expect: a deep seated sorrow and boundless regret. "...I was a different man back then."

There was a heavy silence in the air, with the only reprieve from it being the occasional munching. Apparently Sonic had found the commissary, and using his super speed he scrounged up a bowl of popcorn he was now sharing with his fox friend as they watched the drama unfold.

Suddenly, the entire airbase shook violently, throwing everyone around like ragdolls in the air. Alarms started blaring, and a SHIELD agent rushed into the room to deliver the terrible news.

"Sir and ma'am, we are under attack!"

"What?!" Fury exclaimed, his voice a heavy mix of anger and confusion. "How come no one saw it coming!? The sensors on the Helicarrier are state of the art!"

"The ship must have some kind of highly advanced cloaking device like we've never seen before." The agent answered.

"The ship?" Sonic asked, he and Tails gaining knowing looks in their faces.

"Come see!" The agent bought everyone out of the room and down a few hallways, and what they saw shocked them. Right in front of their eyes was a gargantuan red airship, over twice the size of the Helicarrier and significantly more advanced, with its bow rammed straight into the Helicarriers side.

"The Egg Carrier!" Tails exclaimed. "How did he even get that to this planet?"

Tails question would have to wait, as spewing out of the ships various small ports came legions of flying drones. Some were based on wasps with laser blasters for stingers, others were akin to bats with spinning blades in place of wings, and there were also monochromatic ones that looked like they were vaguely modeled after a human being, with wings instead of limbs, rotund bodies, bright goggle-like eyes, and wide mischievous grins. The bots were quickly spreading throughout the ship like a hungry locust swarm, overwhelming the SHIELD agents via the sheer magnitude of their numbers.

"Alright everyone, I know we all have our differences but…" Suddenly Captain America was slammed through the opposite wall before he could even finish his sentence. It was Metal Knuckles, apparently rebuilt and ready for another fight, but before he could get his rematch with the Man of Steel, Wonder Woman smashed the part of her arm where her indestructible bracelet was straight into the android's face, causing the bots nose to cave in and the rest of it to bounce back straight into the Egg Carrier. Wonder Woman then sprinted over to Cap who was lying in the rubble, blood seeping from under his helmet.

"Steve! Are you alright?! Say something!!!" Wonder Woman desperately pleaded to no response. Batman has rushed over to Cap's location as well, and checked his vitals.

"He's going to be alright, just knocked out for the time being. In the meantime we should…" He paused, noticing Wonder Woman had begun breathing heavily. With her face blocked by her wavy black hair Bats couldn't tell what was going on in her head.

"Diana?" Batman asked, before being knocked back by a deafening battlecry that ferociously echoed all throughout the facility. Wonder Woman's warrior spirit had activated upon seeing her dear friend injured, and now she was in a fighting frenzy, crushing and smashing every robot she could get her hands on. Most she punched or kicked straight through, tearing through them like tissue paper, while others she slammed straight into a wall or into another robot to maximize her destruction. In her rage she forgot all about her lasso, most likely because it was more a tool of subduing rather than breaking or killing.

Everyone was stunned at such a display of mechanical violence, but knew they couldn't just sit on the sidelines for long. Batman spoke up. "Alright, here's what we're going to do…"

"As if, vampire dude." Sonic interrupted the dark knight, much to the laters annoyance. "Me and Tails know Egghead better than anyone. We'll handle this." He and the fox then rushed off, hitting or spinning into bots all along the way.

Tony spoke next. "Yeah, I'm not too keen on taking orders either, especially from someone I barely know anything about." Batman realized in that moment that being so secretive and antisocial within the superhero community had its disadvantages.

"So if you'll excuse us…" Tony motioned for Janet to follow him, and while she did so, she also looked back to Batman with an apologetic look on her face.

Maria Hill turned towards Superman. "See what not following orders does?! We could stop this assault easily if we all worked together, but you all are so arrogantly up your own…"

"Hill, stand down! There's a time and a place!" Fury reprimanded her. "Now come on! You cowboys handle things here, we need to head back to the main control room and try to get our defensive systems back up and running, or at least try and land this thing before it crashes instead."

The two SHIELD leaders ran off, leaving only Batman and Superman by the Egg Carriers bow.

"I think I can push the ship out of the Helicarrier." Superman said. "Just keep those robots off me."

"Got it." The dark knight replied, readying his bat shaped shurikens. He was extremely thankful to discover that it took only a few normal batarangs or one explosive one to take the flying drones down. It still wasn't enough to hold them off with their extreme numbers, but after Bats scared some SHIELD agents into helping him they were all able to finally keep the bots from constantly blasting Superman as he performed his Herculean task.

Summoning every iota of strength he had within him, he pushed the Egg Carrier with all of his might, his muscles straining past their limits against the weight of the massive airship. He was quickly coated in sweat, his veins felt like they were going to burst, and his muscles felt as if they contained a raging inferno, but with one final shout of pure concentrated effort which shattered all the glass around him, he finally managed to push the two ships apart. The Helicarrier started slowly floating down towards the ocean below to dock on the water's surface.

Superman wearily flew up to the top of the Egg Carrier only to see every hero there fighting their own individual battles. Wonder Woman was going blow for blow with Metal Knuckles, the robot apparently having found a new arch-rival. Sonic and Tails were busy dueling Metal Sonic, who had gotten his hands on Tails' emeralds and was using their power to combat them. Finally, Tony and Janet were battling the army of robotic mooks that covered nearly every inch of the ship, from the flying ones they saw earlier to land based ones such as wheeled ladybugs, spiky caterpillars, and humanoid troopers.

Before Superman could properly get his bearings and decide who to help, he got the wind utterly knocked out of him by a powerful blow to his back. As he struggled to get up, he saw the shadow of a gigantic hammer raised up and about to crush him against the steel deck. He was just barely able to roll out of the way and get himself facing his attacker, which he sees is a robot three times his size that was purple with red accents. It had a round body, pure green eyes that brightly glowed even in the daytime, and the same wide menacing grin as the troopers and some of the drones did.

Despite his condition, Superman sped towards his foe and knocked him back with a punch, causing them both to stumble. The bot quickly recovered and kicked the Kryptonian away, before winding up for a sideways swing. This time Superman caught the head of the hammer and, with the robot refusing to let go of his prized possession, the Man of Steel swung the hammer and robot over his head and slammed them into the ground, the impact shaking the entire airship and causing the remains of the super badnik to go crashing through the deck into a lower level of the ship. Superman then repositioned his hands so that he'd be holding the hammer properly, and began making wide swings towards clusters of enemies, completely dashing scores of them with each mighty strike.

"Is it bad I'm having fun doing this?" Supes thought to himself as he tore through Eggman's army. It was exhilarating to combat nonliving foes he could therefore go all out on, unleashing his true power. Speaking of, as the deck was cleared of ground based foes, Superman began swinging around and around like he was in the Olympics for hammer throwing, before tossing his weapon straight into what looked like the command center of the ship, causing a huge explosion that reverberated all across the vessel.

Meanwhile, right above him…

*Crack*

*Stab*

*Crunch*

*Slice*

Wonder Woman was in the middle of a brutal scrape with Metal Knuckles, each one causing significant damage to the other, since both were too focused on attacking the other to properly dodge or block due to Diana's rage and Metals programming respectively. Metal Knuckles spiked fists backed by the latest artificial strength technology tore into the Amazons skin, leaving various cuts and puncture wounds all across her body, whilst Diana's god given might made dent after dent in the robots metal plating, causing sparks to fly like flowing blood and it's shape to become more crooked and disfigured with each blow. Eventually, the robot's structure became so weakened that Diana was able to punch a hole straight through its chest, tearing out its core like a beating heart in glorious triumph as she roared in victory.

Tony and Janet on the other hand, were having a much easier experience, casually mowing down badniks with reckless abandon. It only took one shot of Tony's repulsor beams and a handful of Janet's stronger bioelectric stings to completely destroy each bot, so they were having a grand old time, chatting and snarking with each other as they plowed through the army. They did this not just for the fun of it, but also in an unspoken but mutually understood effort to try and forget about the confrontation with Superman earlier. It was most likely a mix of this initial easiness and desperate desire for mental escape that they let their guard down, as a tall red robot with a yellow beak-like face took aim at Janet, charging a beam so powerful it could rip a hole in the Egg Carrier itself.

Janet didn't see the beam coming, but Tony's sensors did. Instantly realizing there was no way of warning her in time, he did the only thing he could do: he took her place. He pushed her out of the way and took the full force of the blast which tore through the remainder of his defenses, past the force fields and metal plating to the man underneath. It began burning his skin, every inch of him feeling like the inside of a dying star, all in one second. He immediately fell unconscious and began falling towards the ground. Janet, horrified, began flying after her friend as fast as her insectoid wings could take her. She knew she wasn't fast enough to catch him, and she knew even if she did she wouldn't be able to lift him off the ground, especially with the bits of armor he still has on. But she knew she couldn't let him die, she had to do everything she could, she had to….

Like an angel from heaven above, Superman appeared, gently catching Tony as he fell. He had seen the whole thing, the sacrifice Tony Stark had made for his friend, without time to even process what he was doing and with no thought to how it could benefit him. The making of a true hero.

Superman rushed down to the Helicarriers sick bay, leaving an utterly relieved Janet floating above the Egg Carrier, which was beginning to turn around. Confused, Janet turned and saw Sonic and Tails desperately trying to keep a heavily injured Wonder Woman on her feet, her body singed by various laser blasts. Janet flew over to them, and alongside Tails helped the barely conscious Amazon fly back to the Helicarrier. Once Janet passed off Diana to the SHIELD agents to transfer her to the sick bay, she turned to the two furry friends and asked what happened.

"We saw how hurt Wonder Woman was. We either had the choice of saving her or getting back the emeralds. By the time you came by, Metal Sonic was already gone with ours anyway." Sonic looked frustrated, but you could tell he didn't regret his decision.

"So Eggman has four emeralds…" Tails started.

"It's worse than that." An exhausted Superman interrupted, walking in from the medical bay. "I dropped my emerald during all the chaos on the Egg Carrier, and apparently the whole reason Eggman attacked this place was because Fury had an emerald here for SHIELD to study."

"So he has six emeralds." Sonic said, a tinge of fear in his voice. "And we still don't know what he's gonna use them for…"