"Bwahahahahaha!!!!!!! Oh, hohohohohohoho!!!!!!!"

Dr. Eggman leaned back in his throne on his flagships central control room and began laughing maniacally to no one in particular, simply basking in his complete and utter victory as his vast legions of warships soared off across the sea. He just couldn't believe how easy it had been! The power of the Phantom Ruby combined with just one of the emeralds was enough to conjure up an entire Egg Carrier completely filled to the brim with badniks of all shapes and sizes, and now that he had six of them he had enough power to create this entire flying battle fleet! And the best part is, even if this puny planet's pitiful resistance actually managed to take down one of his precious babies, he could just use the Ruby / Emerald combo to create an all new one to take its place, essentially giving him an infinite armada!

It wasn't an entirely painless process: it took a while for the phantom and chaos energies to build up and combine, effectively making it so this procedure had to "charge" between uses. For instance, he couldn't use the gems for anything at the moment since he just created this whole fleet with them. However, considering this planet's general level of military technology, he doubted anyone on Earth could destroy his ships fast enough for the delay to become a problem. Even this planet's nuclear arsenal was no match for his atomic energy scanners and long range cannons, allowing him to destroy any powerful bomb long before it got close to his ships. If anything else was strong enough to damage the fleet, he could send Metal Sonic or another boss badnik to deal the weapon wielders up close and personal, hack the contraption remotely, or even just blast the thing to pieces using his insane artillery!

Not that worried he would meet any meaningful resistance: The Helicarrier was the greatest vessel this pathetic world had to offer, and it completely crumbled under his awesome power, even with Earth's mightiest heroes there to protect it. Eggman would never admit this, but he was a bit worried about this planet's extensive population of protectors when he first decided to conquer this land, especially considering they repelled that invasion from the Sarmaks a few years back. But if what went down on the Egg Carrier was truly the best this world's champions could offer, he knew he had absolutely nothing to worry about. Even Sonic and Tails, who frustratingly followed him halfway across the galaxy even though he set up multiple PERFECT distractions for them back home, I mean how did thEY SEE PAST THEM, THOSE INFURIATING, HORRID LITTLE….

Eggman began taking slow, deep breaths while forming a meditative sitting position before he continued his train of thought, remembering what the anger management bot he programmed had taught him.

Even Sonic and Tails, who have followed him to Earth, couldn't stop his devious machinations. In fact, they practically gift wrapped two of the emeralds for him, as Metal Sonic snatched them away from the two fur balls like candy from a baby.

"Ah, I love it when diabolical evil lives up to the hype!" The oval overlord says to himself with an absolutely wicked sense of glee. "When even my two greatest enemies couldn't slow down my master plan, WHO COULD POSSIBLY…."

"Oh, are we taking over Tokyo first?" A grating, metallic voice interrupted his triumphant declaration, coming from a small, yellow robot made out of three connected cubes. "Make sure not to blow it up too much boss! I wanna see some sumo wrestling and a five story arcade and those really cool toilets and one of those anime stores where the aisles just go on and on and on…"

"Ooo! And I'd like to attend one of those maid cafes." Said another small automaton, this one red, spherical, and with a slightly pompous sounding accent. "I think it would be delightful to be the one waited upon hand and foot for a change!"

"Orbot! Cubot! What have I told you about interrupting my villainous monologues!?!?" The doctor yelled in frustration.

"Monologue? That was barely two sentences." Orbot rebutted, completely missing the point of his masters outburst.

"Maybe the rest was this fics narration." Cubot replied. "It can be pretty easy to mix that up with the dialogue sometimes."

Eggman sighed and slumped back in his chair, feeling slightly deflated by his two servants' braindead antics. He would much rather prefer to have Sage or Stone by his side at a glorious moment such as this, but he left them behind on Mobius as he needed someone competent watching over his assets back home. Orbot and Cubot weren't at all programmed to run an empire: they were made to do a few easy yet necessary chores like cleaning up and making him food, while also simply being around to listen to him gloat so he wasn't just talking to himself all the time. Functionally they were fine enough lackys, being decent at the menial tasks they were designed for. That was the only possible reason he hadn't slowly and painfully dismantled them already because sweet merciful heavens were they annoying. Orbots sass and Cubots stupidity were always enough to send him flying into an unstoppable RAGE FILLED TIRADE…

'But not today.' He thought, calming himself once again. He had done it. He had won. Soon Tokyo would be his, and with one of this world's major economic hubs under his control and the Ruby / Emerald combo constantly pumping out new vessels for his fleet once they were back online, nothing could stop him from overrunning this world's forces and turning this entire planet into his own personal theme park!

"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted…" He stared daggers at his two minions, who awkwardly began shuffling away. "When even my two greatest enemies couldn't slow down my master plan, WHO COULD POSSIBLY STOP ME!!!! Bwahahahahaha!!!!!!"

There was suddenly a loud explosion in the distance, as if directly triggered by Eggman's hubris. From how far away it sounded, the mad doctor accurately deduced it was from the front of the pack of battleships, and thus he bought up every security camera he had available to see what caused it. Before him on his holographic monitor were six figures, two running across the bow of his frontmost ship and four flying above it. One of them was his lifelong nemesis while the other five were presumably local humans in bright, colorful outfits, all clearly sporting extraordinary abilities that separated them from most of their species. The confident, focused, and defiant stances they took all exuded an intense sense of strength, unity, and heroism, enough that would make most people feel enraptured in a mix of utter awe and complete safety. Eggman was instead rendered sick to his stomach.

These individuals were precisely and swiftly taking out every single weak point on each of his floating battle stations. Whenever one vessel was sent careening down towards the watery depths, the two non-flyers would either hop to the next ship or were instantly carried there by one of their teammates without even a word spoken between them, showing how well they understood each other. They went across the rows of ships systematically, taking those in front first then moving backwards across the skies, only taking down the bots directly in their path and all the crucial spots necessary to destroy each ship, seemingly trying to make the process as quick and efficient as physically possible. It was all like a vigorously practiced and expertly choreographed dance of metallic destruction, and it would honestly be incredibly impressive if it wasn't happening to his fleet!!!

"What?" Eggman yelled in frustration. "Sonic is back?! And who are all those people with him? Are those the heroes from the Helicarrier? How can they be so perfectly in sync when they were just flopping around aimlessly earlier?!?!"

"There wasn't even enough time for a training montage!" Cubot exclaimed in utter horror.

The doctor looked through his monitors upon the one man that was out of commission during the battle at the Helicarrier to see if he could be the differentiating factor, and indeed he was. On the battlefield the red, white, and blue soldiers' orders were quick, precise, definitive, and always well thought out despite how quickly he seemed to come up with them. This was due to a clear tactical acumen that could only be so sharpened by years of constant battle.

"Badniks!!!!" Eggman shouted into his microphone, sending a message only his robotic minions could hear. "Focus on the one with a star on his chest! He's the one giving the orders!!!"

At first, the plan seemed to be going well, with the Captain taking multiple hits from the robotic army as he began to be overwhelmed. Even as he threw his mighty shield, smashing straight through several of them, a super badnik redirected it's trajectory, sending it blasting straight towards the edge of the ship, where this great symbol of freedom and democracy would inevitably be lost forever under the endless Pacific waves.

That is, it would have been, if it wasn't caught mid-air by one of the soldier's companions. It was a raven haired warrior woman with long silver bracelets, and she started to wield the disc almost as well as its owner, bashing and smashing through badniks with a barely contained fury, even throwing it around and having it ricochet off multiple foes and come back to her, just as the Captain often did. Eggman deduced the two must have some sort of connection and trained together, and if the shield truly did belong to the Captain he must have taught the woman how to use it like him. This theory was practically confirmed shortly after, when the woman broke the soldier free from his pile up and pulled him up.

"Can't have you taking another nap on us, now can we?" The woman quipped, handing the man back his weapon of protection. They smiled warmly at each other, and then began brutally tearing through badniks together. They were tossing the shield back and forth between themselves, bouncing it between enemies on the way to the other's hand like the world's most destructive game of pinball. They were even more in sync then all the others, in a way Eggman had only really seen before in the pair of Sonic and Tails, who were practically brothers.

With the two now working in tandem he couldn't single out the Captain anymore, so the doctor tried to find some other weakness he could exploit in this group. It was difficult to focus on doing this as a black jet shaped like a flying rodent was busy bombarding all the ships that weren't being destroyed by the band of heroes. There were also some ships that were seemingly busy spontaneously combusting, being wracked by explosions and gunfire coming out of literal thin air. Eggman figured it must be another fighter, this one armed with a permanent cloaking device, but he was bewildered as his sensors couldn't pick up on it at all despite him having the most advanced cloaking technology on the planet. It was almost like it was being rendered undetectable by magic, though Eggman knew that was a ridiculous notion. The only way to fight off an invisible foe without any sensors was to visually try to see where the bullets and explosives were coming from, but his bots weren't programmed to do such creative tactical thinking. They were designed purely to rely on him for commands and high-level planning, and he had more important things to worry about at the moment.

Eggman focused back on the group of heroes and zeroed in on the other woman, the one with speedily flapping wings, a form-fitting black and yellow outfit, and energy blasts shooting out of her hands. She was constantly changing sizes from regular human to insect small to alternate between weaving around foes and their gunfire to hitting them with laser beams and energy enhanced punches and kicks. Despite her aptitude, between all the heroes out there she seemed to be the least formidable. I mean, how impressive could the power to get small really be?

"E2000! Blast that bug girl out of the sky!"

As the red and yellow badnik began charging up its giant laser, the winged woman saw it aiming at her and with a single glance got a vengeful look in her eye, as if she had a personal vendetta against this robot specifically. She immediately changed trajectory and barreled toward him, circling around the laser as it fired upon her. She shrunk down so much she became invisible to the naked eye as she flew straight into her foe, and for a moment there was nothing. However, the robot began twitching, sparking, and smoking, at first subtly but with the effects getting increasingly violent and rapid in mere seconds. Suddenly the bot exploded into a myriad of pieces scattering every which way, and in its place the woman stood, bathed in yellow and white lights and giving an angry battle cry. She had apparently flown inside her foe and destroyed it by simply getting bigger!

Awkwardly realizing that the woman wasn't the weak link he thought she was, Eggman desperately looked for anyone else he could target, someone he could single out and destroy to weaken the overall team dynamic. The doctor got a smidge of hope when one of his Egg Hammers got the jump on the one with the red cape, clobbering him with a mighty blow to the back and sending him flying across the open sea. This hope was quickly dashed as the man didn't even lose his stride careening across the entire width of the armada, as he turned himself around midair and blasting the Egg Hammers head clean off with his laser eyes. He then swiftly flew back into position alongside his fellow heroes, as if nothing had even happened.

Eggman then turned his attention to Sonic, hoping at least that hated hedgehog was having a bad time. Perhaps that showboating egotist didn't like having to share the spotlight with so many others on a world where he wasn't worshiped. It would be a small and petty victory seeing his nemesis having an unpleasant day, but it would be a victory nonetheless.

But no, he couldn't even have that apparently. Eggman saw through his cameras that not only was Sonic having a great time destroying his dreams once again, but he apparently had made some friends along the way, particularly a man in a red and yellow flying suit of robotic armor.

"...And that's 200." The metal-clad hero declared. "That puts me in the lead, Stitch."

"You sure your sensors aren't busted, bucket head?" Sonic responded. "I've personally seen just how fragile those tin cans of yours can be."

"I designed them myself, so yeah, I'm pretty sure my sensors are accurate." The armored avenger says confidently with a heavy dose of snark. "Besides, you got the drop on me last time. Give me about a week and I'll have an all new suit specifically designed to completely wipe the floor with you."

"So it's a rematch you're after, eh french fry fighter? Well, I'll be more then happy to oblige. I'm always up for a good challenge, if you can actually give me one this time that is."

"Oh, you so so on, Hedgehog! You're done for!"

Eggman recognized that level of playful back and forth banter as the kind only between those who truly enjoy trading barbs despite how their words may come across to those unfamiliar. It reminded the doctor of how Sonic and Knuckles often interact, and he could see Sonic was enjoying both the action and the mutual ribbing from his wide grin and the tone of his speech, and despite not being able to see the armored one's face he could tell from his voice he was smiling in enjoyment as well. Yet another FRUSTRATION in a sea completely full of them.

Speaking of, he had focused so much on finding a weak point in the teams formation that he failed to realize that said team was quickly advancing straight towards his position. Not wanting to get captured, especially on a foreign world he didn't completely understand, his panic overran his anger as he activated both his escape pod and set his distractions in motion. He didn't like having to leave behind the emeralds and ruby, but worse case scenario he could always recapture them later for his next scheme. He could only hope his distractions or the rest of the Egg Fleet either finishes them all off so he can continue his current plans or at least eliminates one of them to make things easier for him next time.

As his Egg Mobile speeded away towards the safe zone, the doctor pressed a button to broadcast back to his computer room so he could tell the heroes exactly why he shouldn't be followed, pushing down his fury at his latest plan nearly being foiled deep within him in order to cultivate a threatening sense of control during his message. Besides, with what he had planned, the game wasn't over yet.

Bursting through the roof of the central control room, the heroes quickly looked around but were surprised to find no mad doctor present.

"This is weird. This looks like exactly the kind of place Egghead would command his fleets from." Sonic explained, using his familiarity with the doctor's patterns cultivated from his lifetime of battling him. "Plus this is the main headquarters of the big ol' flagship. So where is he?"

"High tailing it out of here it looks like." Tony said, typing away at one of the room's keyboards. "It says here the 'Egg Mobile' just ejected from this command center."

"Alright!" Wasp exclaimed excitedly. "We've got him on the run!"

"Superman." Cap commanded. "You're the fastest flyer. Go out and…."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A voice dripping in mocking playfulness spoke over the room's speakers as thick sheets of metal clanged over every possible exit to the chamber, including the hole the heroes made to enter. The room's countless screens sputtered before showing the oval overlord himself, finally giving the Earth heroes a human face to compare to all the robots and icons made in his likeness. He looked pretty much exactly how they expected based on those previous facsimiles, though the genuine articles face wasn't any less punchable, particularly when he was acting all maliciously confident as he was right now.

"It's over Eggman!" Captain America soundly declared. "Your forces have been routed, and it's only a matter of time before we destroy your entire fleet. Tell your men to stand down!"

Eggman laughed nefariously at the very notion of surrender. "Stand down? Please, my badniks won't stop fighting until their servers are completely rusted. Though I doubt you'll last that long."

The doctor theatrically pressed a button on his Egg Mobile, opening up the largest pair of doors in the room. From within the darkness arose two figures: one was the by now familiar sight of Metal Sonic, while the other was a mechanical being three times the size of Wonder Woman. Once again built in the image of the blue blur, this model was completely silver except for bright scarlet shoes and piercing red eyes. Both its quills and claws were razor sharp, tearing apart the borders of the entrance it was approaching from with their incredible strength and sturdiness. Whereas Metal Sonic was built for speed and mobility, this badnik was clearly designed with pure power in mind, and the combination of its dramatic entrance and sheer dominating presence made everyone in the room feel at least slightly intimidated.

"Oh, and I saved the best part for last!" Eggman smiled wickedly as he pressed another button, causing the entire ship to begin violently shaking.

"I've got a bad feeling about this, guys." Wasp said, speaking for everyone in the room.

"Tony!" Cap directed. "Quick! Find out what he just did!"

Tony navigated Eggman's systems once again and, upon reading his findings, stepped back in utter horror. "Oh no…"

"What is it?" Superman asked, dreading the answer.

"He's charging up this ship's central laser cannon, and it's aimed straight at Tokyo." Tony explained in an abject state of shock. "It's enough to wipe out the entire city."

"What?!?! Why would he even do that?!" Wasp asked with an urgent sense of both confusion and desperation. "He can't take it over if it's nothing but a pile of cinders!!!"

Eggman, still on the monitors happily watching his cursed enemies flounder in terror, was quick to chime in. "First off, you all fruitlessly trying to stop my cannon from firing makes for the perfect distraction for my getaway, and hopefully one of you costumed cretins will perish in the process. At worst you'll still be greatly emotionally scarred by your utter failure to save all those worthless lives. Secondly, destroying one of this planet's most famous and populated cities will make this world fear and remember the name Eggman for all of eternity. And third, well, I honestly just think it would be fun to do. Ah hahahahaha!!!!!!!"

His laugh echoed throughout the facility, and with the added context of just how depraved the man behind the cackle was, it now sent intense shivers down everyone's spine.

"You sick, disgusting madman!!!!" Wonder Woman shouted at the monitors in righteous fury. "You'll never get away with this!"

"I literally just escaped all of you, so I'm pretty sure I just did." The doctor delivered the heroes a wide smirk, mimicking the design of his robots heads and the symbols upon his flags. "Farewell friends! Hopefully this will be the last time we see each other. Oh hohohohohohoho!!!!"

The screens turned off and the Sonic doppelgangers, who were patiently waiting for their master to properly explain his vile scheme, now jumped into action. Metal Sonic instantly grabbed the real deal and dragged him across the wall of the room, Sonics sharpened quills tearing through the steel causing sizable waves of sparks to trail behind him.

The Silver Sonic lunged at the rest of the heroes, but stumbled back when he got hit with the insane combo of quadruple beams from both Wasp and Iron Man, a shield throw to the face from Cap, and a simultaneous punch to the chest from Superman and Wonder Woman. It was forced into one knee, but took that opportunity to curl up into a gigantic speared sphere and charge furiously at the other heroes. Wasp and Cap managed to dodge, but it barreled through Stark and Diana causing them to be violently thrown to the side straight into the walls of the facility, causing massive indents and great amounts of damage to their suit and person respectively. Superman didn't even make an effort to move despite the spindashing monstrosity charging straight at him. Instead, Supes put up his hands and attempted to catch the rolling ball of spines, with the buzzsaw-like hunk of metal clashing against his indestructible hands causing a blinding collection of sparks to fly as the immovable Superman struggled against the unstoppable force attempting to run him over. With his palms getting bruised from the attack and his strength waning, Supes gathered up his remaining power and with a mighty shout threw the automaton over his head straight into the roof of the room, causing a decently sized hole to form. Beams of sunlight began to shine down upon the team, showcasing how the opening led to the outside of the vessel.

As the Silver Sonic recovered, Cap spoke into his earpiece. "Tails, you get all that? How do we stop the cannon?"

"We can't!" Tails shouted in a panic, his answer creating a dark pit in everyone's stomachs. "There's no time! That thing is going to fire any second!"

The entire team, even the righteous Captain America, began to succumb to horror and despair as the weight of what was about to occur started to settle in. All those lives about to be snuffed out in an instant, and they couldn't do anything about it.

There was one exception. Superman, true to the Kryptonian crest he wore upon his chest, never lost hope. Instead, without a word he soared through the opening he made in the ceiling and blasted a few miles away in front of the cannon's barrel, bright particles flying every which way around it making it clear it was preparing to fire.

"Hey Bats." Superman spoke calmly into his earpiece on a channel only he and his friend had access to. "Remember that new move I learned about recently? The one where I unleash all the solar energy within me at once?"

"Wait," Batman responded cautiously. "You're not…"

"I've been training with it, trying to be able to concentrate the energies into a beam instead of just having it be a big explosion."

"Superman, don't! You don't know what will happen to you!"

"That doesn't matter. All that matters is that the people are safe. Just make sure someone catches me, ok?"

"CLARK!!!!"

As the flagship finally fired its massive weapon straight at the man of steel, he was bathed in an unholy reddish light from the oncoming blast before he screamed two simple words at the top of his lungs, the phrase being able to be heard from every edge of the pacific rim.

"SUPER FLARE!!!!!!!!"

From every pore of the Kryptonians body came a blinding golden light that all flew straight ahead towards the cannon's fire. The two beams clashed spectacularly, causing a light show unlike anything Earth has ever seen, a mix of red and gold struggling against each other in a blinding clash. Eggman's laser seemed to have the upper hand, but Superman saw this and screamed again, a primal shout that this time was heard from every corner of the planet. He pushed himself to the absolute limit using every single ounce of strength and will within his very core, finally overwhelming Eggman's beam and blasting it back to its source. The impact decimated both the flagship and all the ships behind it, crippling the doctors fleet once and for all.

As the dust settled, all that was left of Superman was a wrinkled, spindly figure, one that looked like he hadn't eaten in decades and had all the color drained out of him. He floated in the air for about two seconds before growing unconscious and began falling down towards the ocean's surface.

He collapsed into the open cockpit of Batman's plane, who quickly explained the situation to the rest of the team, who had just escaped the collapsing flagship.

"I could put him under some industrial powered solar lamps." Batman explained. "But that would only put him on life support. I don't know how we could get him back to normal without throwing him straight into the sun!"

While the rest of the team was attempting to fully process Superman's sacrifice, Tony spoke up. "Batman, take Superman to this address I'm sending you while we take out the stragglers. I have an idea!"