Miles Above Earth...

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

The Death Egg 4 falls apart. Explosions eat away at its surface and innards— an antacid in soda won't react the same. Watch the debris of Egg Pawns, Badniks, mechanical baddies of all sorts 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— my, what a great chase!

Here comes the Egg-Mobile. It lumbers down this long hallway. You see that one side is a line of windows revealing the prime spectator, planet Earth, and how it mocks the eggman's frantic motion. 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!)—his 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 Eggman abuses every lever and crushes every button. 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 looks back. He can count the teeth in the rodent's grinning mouth.

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

"Gahhh!" Eggman 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. 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. Further below comes a score more blasts. The car punches through all smoke puffs, 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 gags at the word 'help.'

Sonic throws up his lower lip and rests his wrists on his hips. Even thickheaded Knuckles would know better. Eggman has always promised to change 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 cocksure composure is met by Eggman's annihilated nerves. The doctor looks up, then glances at the ceiling a second time. Living binary seeps in from hole.

His smile is vicious.

The glob of digital goo drips down onto Sonic's shoulder, no different than a leaky pipe, and the hedgehog ignores it until all falls on his head. Sonic reaches for Eggman but the doctor rises to his feet and backs away with a swagger.

Ding. The pressure of the elevator is gone.

Machine gun barrels stab Sonic's personal space. With a smile slapped on his face, Eggman rushes out into his control room and jumps into another Egg-Mobile.

"Attack! Blast that hedgehog to smithereens! Blow it apart, now, now, now!" The robots obey. A tsunami of lead blasts into the elevator. Eggman cannot tell if Sonic is still alive and in one piece as he looks over his elbow, shielding his ears. He assumes there won't be anything recognizable, and oh how lovely that would be!

Bullets ricochet. "Cease fire! Cease fire! I said cease fire!" Smoke blossoms out of the elevator as the last of the lead casings patter onto the ground. And just smell this noxious air, and see the wispy fingers of smoke swimming away. Eggman leans in. His excitement is through the roof, until his jaw falls through the ground.

There's the digital ooze, but not even a shred of the hedgehog. Eggman exits the Egg-Mobile and runs into the bullet-flooded elevator. He claps twice, and the blob slithers off the ground. It arcs into that card Eggman holds, a card decorated like a microchip. Once contained, the wires of the card shimmer a slate blue.

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 falls forward. 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 eardrums like wrecking balls. He raises his hand, palm towards the hedgehog.

"Don't come any closer." Silent anger drenches his tone.

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- this development. 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. The chair explodes, 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 folds until most blasts fuse into each other. Rays of light fire off from within the space station until, at the highest point of smaller scale devastation, the grand mustache 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.

X

XX

XXX

XXXX

XXXXX

XXXXXX

XXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXX

XXXXXX

XXXXX

XXXX

XXX

XX

X

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 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 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 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 gawks. "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.