"Sonic, watch out!"'

The hedgehog whipped around to face Tails then just as quickly pivoted to face in the direction the kit was pointing, but by then it was too late. Eggman's beam was already upon him. He lunged to avoid it, but he wasn't fast enough and the purple laser grazed his side, sending bolts of electricity racing across his nerve endings and hurtling his body through the air.

"Sonic!" Amy cried as she ran to him, narrowly missing a charging Knuckles in the process. As it was, the echidna just barely managed to swerve around her before he continued his assault on the badniks that were currently swarming their position.

"Hey watch it!" Knuckles growled, miffed, but Amy paid him no mind, already crouched beside Sonic, hands positioned to shake him awake.

"Sonic?" she tried as she anxiously nudged his shoulder. "Sonic, can you hear me?" There was no response and she whipped around to face the Doctor, hammer at the ready. "What did you do to him?!" she screeched.

Eggman, in the midst of a fit of diabolical laughter, turned away from where his robots were tormenting Knuckles and Tails, and faced the pink hedgehog, a smarmy grin plastered on his face. "What? Worried about your precious little boyfriend? Well don't be, I've only made him better." And at that he began cackling all over again, throwing his head back and holding his stomach with unadulterated glee.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Knuckles growled as he finished off the last of the machines, Tails right behind him.

"Oh, a lot of things," Eggman preened, "but mostly it means my victory and your defeat, my annoying little pests." He glided his egg-mobile over to where Sonic still lay unconscious and puffed out his chest. "You see, after this blue rodent wrecked my last ingenious plan, I did a little soul-searching."

The echidna and fox both breathed twin groans of exasperation before they were abruptly cut off by the Doctor's harsh "Silence!"

When he had their full, undivided attention once more, Eggman smoothed down his bristling mustache and cleared his throat. "As I was saying," he continued, "I did a little soul-searching and came to the conclusion that…perhaps… the little twit was a formidable foe. He'd certainly ruined enough of my schemes to necessitate his elimination," the Doctor growled, slamming his hand on his vehicle's dashboard to emphasize his point. Then he paused and straightened up, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But then it occurred to me: wouldn't it be a waste to rid the world of such an invaluable resource? After all, Sonic was only intolerable when he was my enemy; if he were by my side, at my beck and call, he would make me nigh unstoppable!"

"Yeah, like Sonic would ever do that," Tails scoffed as he stepped forward, brandishing his wrench menacingly, "He'd rather die than work for you!" Knuckles and Amy nodded.

"Well," Eggman grumbled, irritation at being interrupted written clear across his face, "it's a good thing I hit him with a ray that obliterates the morals of its target then, isn't it?"

All three heroes gasped and Amy whipped around to face her crush. It wasn't true – it couldn't be! She ran to Sonic's side and shook him a little harder, then harder still, but she got no response.

"You did what?!" Knuckles barked. He snarled and popped his fingers one by one, advancing on the Doctor. "I've had just about enough of this."

He took a flying leap at the egg-mobile, intent on knocking the piece of trash straight out of the sky, but the vehicle swerved to evade him and the fight was on again. Tails, momentarily stunned by the revelation, shook his head and jumped back into the fray, destroying the robot minions that appeared seemingly from nowhere before they could distract Knuckles from his fight with Eggman.

Amy, however, could do nothing. She was frozen to the spot, kneeling at her Sonic's side and staring down at the limp form before her. The fight was raging on behind her but she didn't pay it any attention. Sonic was out for the count. If they couldn't rely on him then Eggman might actually have a chance of winning, and if that happened…

She shook her head. There was no way Sonic would let something like that happen. He would come to her rescue and save the day like he always did. If only she could get him to wake up! "Please!" she cried, tears welling in her eyes as she moved to give the hedgehog one last shove, "If you can hear me, Sonic, I need you! Wake up!" She wound her body up then pushed with all of her might…

Only to have her wrists caught in an iron grip. Amy blinked. In front of her the blue hedgehog was sitting up and stretching, a long yawn nearly splitting his face in two. He dropped her wrists then popped his neck, rolled his shoulders, and slowly got to his feet, looking down at Amy. She stared up at him for a moment, surprised, then jumped to her feet as well.

"Sonic!" she cried, her shout attracting the attention of Knuckles and Tails as well. They turned to watch as Amy rushed to give Sonic her customary tackle-come-hug…

Just to have a hand end up in her face. She grunted and fell back, clutching her bruised nose and wincing.

Silence descended on the group.

"Give it a rest, will ya?" Sonic sighed and Amy stopped cradling her face long enough to look up. Tails and Knuckles glanced at each other, their eyes wide. The lack of sound was so complete, you could hear a pen drop.

And then Eggman busted out laughing.

"Hahahahahaha!" He cackled, clutching his straining stomach and wiping imaginary tears from his eyes. "You should have seen the look on your face!" He breathed, wheezing as he tried to get some air into his lungs before he passed out. "You probably believed your hero would actually pull through." Still chuckling, he steered his egg-mobile to land behind Sonic then stepped out onto the grass to approach his new employee. "Well I've got news for you: my laser was a complete success! Sonic is now completely corrupt, and mine to command!" He crowed, glee etched into every line of his body. He took a deep breath, savoring the matching looks of horror on his audience's faces and the sweet scent of victory in the air, then turned to his new favorite weapon. "Okay minion," he said, a thread of authority in his tone, "I tire of this. I command you to destroy them!"

Nothing happened. A stiff wind brushed through the clearing that they had temporarily declared as their battle arena. The fox, echidna, and pink hedgehog all glanced at each other, then turned to Eggman.

The evil genius cleared his throat.

"I said," he growled, gritting his teeth, "I order you to attack your former friends."

Still nothing happened. The blue hedgehog threw a lazy glance over his shoulder at his so-called master then went back to buffing his nails on his chest. The members of Sonic's team began to give each other hopeful glances. Perhaps the earlier behavior had been a fluke and Sonic really wasn't under the influence of a corruption ray? Knuckles and Amy turned in unison to stare at Tails but the fox only responded with a shrug and a quizzical look. He was just as confused as everyone else.

"Sonic?" Amy finally asked, stepping forward cautiously. She wasn't completely certain that Sonic was alright, but she was positive that he wouldn't hurt her and she wanted to do everything in her power to help him.

The hedgehog flicked his gaze at her and raised an eye ridge as he waited for her to continue.

"Um…" she hesitated, "are you feeling all right?"

All eyes turned to watch Sonic's reaction. Even Eggman was curious now. The hedgehog sighed, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

"I'm fine," he groused, "I just don't take orders from old, fat guys in suits."

"Hey!" Eggman barked, outraged but Sonic just shook his head, throwing a dismissive wave over his shoulder as he walked away. "Where do you think you're going?!"

"What does it look like? I'm going home," he replied, never once slowing down. There was another moment of absolute silence as four jaws dropped at the same time and then Amy seemed to snap out of her trance.

"Wait for me, Sonic!" she called as she ran to catch up and, after a moment, Tails and Knuckles shrugged and did the same. Apparently the fight was over.

Eggman stood in the middle of the wreckage, somehow feeling more defeated than usual. He glanced around at his ruined robots, then self-consciously pressed a hand to his stomach, squeezing the layer of fat between his fingers. He sighed.

"Orbot. Cubot. Clean this mess up and let's go home."