Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Gears whirl. Pistons sigh. Lasers shriek. Sparks fly. Bullets ricochet. Smoke fades.

The Death Egg IV, a damn fine machine in and of its own might, falls apart. Explosions eat away at its surface and innards- an antacid in soda won't react as strongly. Watch the debris of egg pawns, badniks, mechanical baddies of all sorts, of all kinds, watch all of it orbit and crash down to the surface. The light of the sun illuminates one side while the other is bound by a darkness broken by rapid flashes of fire. And if you look ever so carefully, why you just might see something crazier than this- life forms! Yes, we close in and take a gander at what is- my, what a great chase!

Here comes the Egg-mobile. It lumbers down this long hallway. The hallway itself, as it is scratched by the machine, you see that one side is a line of windows revealing the prime spectator, planet Earth and Earth mocks the egg man's frantic motions. His machine grinds against a- here it comes, crash, crash, it front-flips, and Robotnik's bald and greasy head rubs against the ground (how it hasn't started a fire!). In its escape, the machine grinds against a wall, tumbles, crashes into another, twirls, plummets 'tween dented pistons, rides the ground, and skips on. A typhoon of sparks follows, splashing against and off of his aggressor.

And his aggressor is Sonic. He leaps from wall to wall and then lands- sticks that landing- on the floor and continues his chase at a seamless pace. Doctor Robotnik abuses every lever and crushes every button to force his machine past its limit to escape. Sweat stings his eyes as his machine begins to fail him. What sting? He feels no sting.

He knows that with every vain attempt at world domination, he risks inviting Sonic's wrath. Eggman- does he dare?- looks back. He can count the teeth in the rodent's grinning mouth.

"Hi! I'm Sonic. Have we met?"

"Gahhh!" Eggman makes a hasty decision- he slams his fist into a big, red button. His seat springs out, and the oval man rolls ahead, leaving the Egg-mobile to crash into the ground. Passing through a rectangle of sunlight, Sonic leaps onto a window and uses his angle to pounce on the adrenaline-high scientist.

Backed to the wall, Eggman turns around, panicked and red-faced- but the elevator door stops his death. A ram into the doors fails to punch through it, and, after falling to the ground, Sonic wipes fragments of shrapnel off of his face. Several jump-steps back, he wraps himself into a ball and rockets through the steel door. Here he begins free fall, and below him is the elevator. Bigger than his thumb when he comes through, as soon as he begins his fall, the car is larger than the tip of his pinky. A deluge of sparks flow from the skidding corners, and, further down the shaft, the elevator car passes through opaque clouds of smoke.

From above, a spark erupts into a fireball, and half destroyed debris pierces the compressed air. Even a toilet from a level above is among the falling objects- and here's a second, a third explosion! The latter punches a hole in the walls, the only thing separating the two warring animals from utter death in space's indiscriminate hands of doom. Further below comes a score more blasts. The car mindlessly ignores all puffs of smoke, continuing its frantic rush downward. As the elevator passes near several windows, it is lit by small cracks of light from the sun. The light filters down the entire way through. Sonic is illuminated each time as well, except that he experiences the light for increasingly briefer moments Once more, he rolls into a ball. His descent is slowed only once as he nears an elephantine break in the shaft- a point where there is no wall, and the tube-like descent is separated in two. The zero gravity just barely affecting him, he drops through the top of the car like a hot knife on butter.

"Sonic!" Eggman backs his wall to the door. His face puts Niagara Falls to shame. He kneels at Sonic's feet, hands clasped together. A foot to the head can end it now. Years of aggression, years of harassment, years of adventure- over in one final strike. "Please! I-I promise, I won't bother you anymore! T-th-this could be a new b-beginning! A partnership between me and you! Think of it- y-you and me, helping people! J-just let me go, and I'll leave in peace! Please!" He nearly gags upon the word 'help.' He does at 'please.'

Sonic throws up his lower lip and rests his wrists on his hips. Even thick-headed Knuckles would know better. Eggman has always promised to- but has never followed through on- changing his ways every single time he's backed into a corner. In fact, in one exceptionally extreme case, Robotnik had begged for mercy, only to shatter the world into seven pieces.

"Is that the best you can do, Eggman?" Sonic's equanimity is met by Eggman's annihilated nerves. The doctor looks up, then, faster than Sonic can pick up, glances at the ceiling a second time. The light in the shaft dying every other second, Eggman can see, in intervals, blue binary seeping in from the hole. A vicious smile gradually grows.

The glob of digital goo drips down onto Sonic's shoulder, in a manner no different than water from a leaky pipe, and the hedgehog only passingly notices it until it comes down en masse. He falls to his knees. Sonic reaches for Eggman, fully outstretching his spaghetti arm, but the victorious human quickly rises to his feet.

Ding. The pressure of the elevator desists. As explosions shake it around, the door's two walls slowly creak away from each other.

Let it fly open!

Machine guns stab into Sonic's personal space. With a smile slapped on his face, Eggman rushes out into a massive control room, only to jump into another egg-shaped flying machine.

"Attack! Blast that hedgehog to smithereens! Blow it apart, now, now, now!" The robots mindlessly obey. A dense tsunami of lead blankets the entire elevator room. Eggman cannot tell if Sonic is still alive and in one piece as he looks over his elbow, shielding his ears. His mind happily assumes this, that there won't be anything recognizable. He looks on as bullets ricochet and crash into each other. "Cease fire! Cease fire! I said cease fire!" Smoke quickly blossoms out of the elevator as the last of the lead casings patter onto the ground. Does it, it does- the air reeks of gunpowder! Just smell this vomituous air, and see the wispy fingers of smoke swimming away. It is, however, the momentary fading of this irritating odor that signals Eggman to lean out and have a closer look. His excitement is through the roof, until his jaw brings it through the ground.

He sees the digitalized ooze, but he doesn't see anything that suggests a hedgehog was ever there. It doesn't make any sense! Eggman exits the Egg-mobile and runs into the bullet-flooded elevator. After Eggman claps twice, the blob rises from the ground and arcs backwards into a microchip-fashioned card. This is only a minor distraction as Eggman, dazed and confused, stares at the bullet-hole ridden wall and scratches his bald head. Surely the attack didn't...

CRASH! All heads about-face too slow to see that Robotnik has disappeared. Eggman throws out a coughy yell as fists drive into his spine. First the hazard doors crack. He's against them, breaking through them. They crack, crack, crack, crack, burst. A spontaneous debris flurry showers the next room and the scientist is sent three rooms down in a single second with force that would tear any other creature apart. Eggman has become a battering ram destroying his own creation. Then the pressure subsides and Eggman is pushed by inertia. He wobbles on the ground like an egg.

Gently touching the ground tip-toe first is Sonic. Eggman looks up and examines him to his horror- his quills are, yes- they're skywards and golden. Around his enemy is a fire, but not an ordinary fire. This one is sparkling and throws up something akin to sunlight. And his eyes- how red they are! They glow with crimson fury!

"Thought you had me?" Sonic throws. Had Eggman possessed super strength, he would have smashed a hole through the floor, and he's gritting them so hard, his teeth are in danger of breaking. Super Sonic walks for him with his iconic cocky smirk, content with his rescued victory. Every footstep slams into Eggman's ear drums like wrecking balls. He raises his hand, palm towards the hedgehog.

"Don't come any closer." Silent anger drenches his tone, and his blackened, pissed-off rage is backed up with the crack in one of his bifocals.

Without warning, the ground collapses in on itself. Half of the entire hanger comes crashing down. Super Sonic looks around, stunned at this- he combs his mental vocabulary for proper word- thisdevelopment. He takes a step back, then spots Eggman- or at least where the man had once lain. Eggman had descended into a chamber below the hanger, using the maelstrom of debris as cover.

"Eggman!" Sonic runs only for the entire hanger to implode. His muscles acting on impulse, the hedgehog raises his aura and rushes out into space. A massive, five ton slab of metal slams into the zoned section where he had just been standing. He waits for Eggman's next move. Out comes a giant entity covered in a massive, black veil all too similar to the grim reaper. The top of this veil opens up, revealing Eggman in a cockpit.

"Behold! My latest and grrrreatest creation! The Egg Phantom!" Eggman speaks in an overly boastful tone. Nothing new. Sonic folds his arms, eyes unimpressed by the specs.

So that's what Nik's been working on. Super Sonic readies himself. The Egg Phantom raises itself, slower than a sloth, before standing off with the super hedgehog. Super Sonic's the first to react, dashing straight into its chest. A crystal bowl in the centre shatters as he blasts into it at light speed. Under them all is the Earth, a spectator to this ultimate showdown.

"Gnahahahahaha!" The Egg Phantom throws a truck-sized fist at Sonic. The golden hedgehog dodges just in time, the edges of the fist ruffling his golden fur. Barrel rolling to the side and sticking a jump on top of the Egg Phantom's black arm, he runs up the arm as he would a ramp; the other arm flies behind Sonic in a failed attempt to flick off the hedgehog. "Grrrr! Stay still, you filthy, flea-infested rodent!"

"What's wrong, Mrs. Eggbuttnik? Can't catch a li'l ole hedgehog?" Sonic retorts. Eggman's brow lowers. A toothy smile raises by the same amount, insidious on its own. His finger crushes a hazard-stripe button. Then comes a hushed whirl from below his feet. Super Sonic floats back, throwing his arm behind him. He sneers. Before his eyes, the Egg Phantom undulates, becoming evermore transparent, until it becomes akin to a mass of nearly invisible gel. Its texture continues to undulate, refracting the stars behind.

Super Sonic growls. "So that's your secret, eh?! OK, bring it on!" Already bathed in gold, Super Sonic charges his aura to silver and rockets for the Egg Phantom, rifling as he picks up speed. Nothing. Shooting around and coming back, he attempts to attack the cockpit. Again, the super hedgehog fails. With a mighty punch from the Phantom, the super hedgehog is shot into the distance of space microseconds after passing the head of the beast.

Now he realizes the Egg Phantom lives up to its name- it's become completely intangible! Not impressed. Regaining his posture, golden sparks and wisps undulate and flutter around his body before the energy explodes. His aura sharp and upwards, Super Sonic rockets back for towards the remains of the Death Egg, dodging space debris and meteoroids screaming towards him. Growing in his sights is the Egg Phantom. Once close enough, he slows down and levels with the cockpit.

His aura expands, growing several times the size of the hedgehog himself. Super Sonic pulls himself in, then, with a war cry, explodes his aura. The golden edge of the sphere engulfs the Egg Phantom. Suddenly, the undulation stops and the machine twitches. Electrical sparks sprint up and down its body; small explosions erupt from the points some of the electricity originates from. Jerky motions prevail despite all efforts to control it. Robotnik slams the controls. At that same moment, the bullet Sonic smashes through the cockpit of the Egg Phantom, trailing gold. He comes back again and again and again before the first afterimage even vanishes.

A warning signal flashes in the cockpit. The metaphysical machine is about to explode! Robotnik ejects. A fireball expands before dissipating. Behind it, a parachute comes to form. Robotnik, in a space suit, drifts..

"Curse you, Son-" Super Sonic cuts short Robotnik's spit-filled rant. In a strike that would rip a hole in any normal person, Sonic attacks Eggman. Inertia annihilates the chair, sending millions of pieces into the void as Eggman shoots past the edge of sight. Eggman becomes a twinkle. Super Sonic, with a triumphant smirk on his face, watches with scornful eyes. He doesn't take the time to wonder where Eggman's new galactic home might be. Nor should he care.

"Don't mess with the best, Eggcheese! Don't mess with the best!" Sonic brings his energy over his head once more, and lets it shine ever brighter and brighter. At light speed, he rips through the mouth of the Death Egg IV. "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooo!"

He tears it apart; large sections continue to explode. As if it hadn't been decaying before, the rate of explosions increases many fold until most blasts fuse into each other. Rays of light fire off from within the space station until, at the zenith of smaller scale devastation, the grand moustache of the Death Egg shatters into ten thousand pieces, sparks and flames infesting its innards. All of it falls downward, caught in Earth's grip, and it does nothing more than to reveal the true extent of damage the Death Egg has been wrought internally.

There goes Sonic, speeding over the northern pole of the Death Egg IV. He stops, however, and makes a beeline right through the pole in a sharp downward blast of speed . In what one can see from the gaping mess left by the orbit-bound moustache, the yellow streak tears through it all in fractions of a millisecond. Earth is his next destination. The Death Egg IV rips in half straight down the middle.

The Death Egg IV explodes like a firework going supernova. Bits of the space station fall to Earth like a spring shower while others disappear into the void of space. As Super Sonic flies through the atmosphere, the sun peeking over the horizon as he goes, space debris parallels him almost as fast as he. He makes the best of the circumstances and brings himself towards one slab of burning material, sprinting and leaping for others until reaching earth. Super Sonic lands in a sepia-painted crag-infested wasteland. The remains of a city and an armada of Egg Carriers and Egg-Pawns lay wasted and mired in flames, the flames brightening the amber skies. Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow stand ready to greet Sonic.

"Yeah! You did it!" Tails cries with a bitter smile. Even with two bandaged hands, he still offers one for a high-five- he nearly trips on himself as small shocks of pain ride through his dirt-smothered legs.

"Eggman's gonna be feeling that one for a while!" a black-eyed Knuckles adds, giving his friend two pats to the back. Sonic stumbles forward from them, but corrects himself just in time to listen in to Shadow.

"It was chance at best you were thrown into the Doctor's 'Skylab Labyrinth'. But at least you were." Even Shadow is battle-scarred, his chest hair being ruffled and so slightly reddened. "Otherwise Eggman may have won." Sonic cocks his head as his grin grows wider. Shadow's nihilistic criticism and reverse flattering flew over his shoulder.

"It was nothin'. Besides, I gotta thank you guys too for keeping Egghead's robots outta that city... mostly." Super Sonic's sanative Chaos power heals the three as they bask in his swath of light. All of their wounds begin to vanish as if sketches removed by a pencil's eraser. "But it was nothin'."

"But Sonic, that has to have been the biggest pounding you've ever given Eggman," Tails sawders. "I think you stopped him for good this time." Sonic shuts his eyes and turns away, failing to hold back a grin.

"Meh. You know him. He'll be back." Sonic stares to the sky. Not frowning, but this is a smile he has, as if relishing the thought of facing Eggman once again. "But man! You gotta hear about how I whooped his butt in space!" A bright, sunny, and awfully yellow-tinted day eventually follows their conversation.

Over.

The four heroes exchanged a few more words as Sonic waited for his rings to disappear. The rings, the waste of the Chaos Emeralds, are what allows him to say in this Super Saiyan-esque form. Sonic watched with new thoughts already forming in his head as the last three rings fizzled out. He'd rather to never have used it in the first place, but enemies often grow so impressively powerful that, should he dare fight them as he is now- fleshy and blue- he would have been wiped out in seconds, a mass of gelatinous remnants of what was once a hedgehog. And it's because of his reluctance to use this form that he knows and likes the fact that he knows so little about it and it's various secrets. He knows nothing of just how powerful he can become, the limits of the form, or even why he turns gold. But why should he? Even though so many of his enemies and opponents become that strong, Super Sonic is always stronger. Is that not enough to know?

Shadow left first, then Knuckles. Sonic followed Tails.

The two friends arrived back at Tails's Mystic Ruins-based workshop. From the outside, one might believe it to be incredibly humble, even unassuming. The workshop is only part of the young fox's home, but it is large enough for everything the boy genius needs.

It was that pleasant kind of March afternoon. Butterflies danced in the air and dandelions slowly dissolved in the wind. It was the kind of day that could kill a frown on even the most depressed, the most emo, the most misanthropic face.

Sonic's best friend and mechanical genius, Miles Prower, whom most refer to as "Tails", was in the first stages of drawing up the preliminary blueprints of a new kind of scramjet plane he had recently thought up when Eggman began his ill-fated shot at world domination. He was planning to unveil the details of the hypersonic aircraft concept at a later date but couldn't resist showing it off to Sonic. The basics of the plane, however, were to concealed under 45 by 40 feet white sheets Tails had recently bought and dragged into his home. Nothing at that point had actually been built. On several desks were scaled down models of what the vehicle might have looked like, perhaps, if designed by someone with a less honed sense of craft.

Sonic wasn't fully interested at the time. Having erased all presence of hostile robots from over 3 countries, Sonic was still filled with energy and blind with cockiness. After a few minutes of examining his friend's new pride, he had left in search of new adventures.

The origin of robots was his arch-nemesis, Dr. Ivo Julian Robotnik (or, as the man himself puts it, Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik, depending on who's asking), also more humiliatingly known as Dr. Eggman due to his comical shape- believed to be held only because the man must eat a great deal to maintain his monstrously high intelligence. They were left over from the previous adventure Sonic had just wrapped up. Before Sonic could deal the Death Egg IV a death blow, he had to stop the mad mechs from tearing the world apart at its own increasingly fragile seams.

Eggman had been stopped once again. Sonic had intended to relax the only way he really knew how- by running. After all, what could be more relaxing that wind flowing through your hair at the speed of sound? More adventure. So he embarked on what was to be another grand world odyssey in the hopes to make a new adventure if one wouldn't come to him. After running into snowstorm after snowstorm, however, Sonic made the decision to return to the Mystic Ruins for a short time...

A spider web-like trail lie scorched by sheer speed; he didn't even have time to pant as he began touching mach two. This is Sonic's way of telling everyone he's bored. Tails innocently continued work on the plans to his jet, oblivious to his friend's antics. Outside of the unusually thin air, a single odd point of light on the horizon, and the lack of many of the usual tropical bugs and critters, nothing was out of the ordinary.

His eyes were closed. His legs had their own minds. He didn't have a care in the world.

Then the ground disappeared. This stupid mistake fast developed into a near fatal mistake, the kind the hedgehog has never been known for, as Sonic panicked and tried to slow down. By slowing down, the only thing assured was that several protruding, weathered, and jagged rocks protruding out of the water like the devil's fingers had their bloody way with the hedgehog. Tails had not even seen Sonic's mistake. It was Sonic's cries for help that alerted him. The brightness of the day, its cloudless sky, its spring freedom... Oh, how the gods have conspired against him! Fate has delivered a crushing pimp-slap!

Sonic has been crippled!