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Sonic will need the help of the Freedom Fighters once again if he is to save Mobius and Knothole.", "count": "5", "submission_left_submission_id": "64519", "submission_left_file_name": "84071_Lost_sonic_the_hedgehog_chapter_4.txt" } ], "description": "", "description_bbcode_parsed": "", "writing": "Somewhere far away from Knothole, there was an ancient ruin – probably of the Echidna Empire - reclaimed by nature. The stone temples and pathways were crumbled and cracked, but still standing tall and strong in a futile silent war against time. Knuckles was drawn here by something. It was that feeling he got whenever one of the Chaos Emeralds was nearby. It would also explain the spectacle in front of him.\n\nScouring the ruins were a battalion of robots bearing the Eggman insignia. They had transformed a once abandoned city into what now looked more like a construction site. Steel frames were being set up, and on top of those were placed bright orange bulkheads. These forms slowly shaped into the forms of pylons, air control towers, and communications arrays. Far off in the distance, the workers were constructing what looked like a giant factory, probably to construct more workers and equipment. Strewn everywhere between this activity were power generators fueled by Helium-3.\n\nSomething big was going on. Dr. Eggman wouldn’t tell his minions to set up shop out in the boonies for no good reason. Combined with the familiar sensation Knuckles had, it confirmed the existence of a Chaos Emerald in the area.\n\n“Biological mammalian life signs detected.” A robotic voice said behind him. Knuckles turned around to see a robot, nearly 5 feet tall but still large enough to dwarf him, approaching.\n\n“What? Omega?” Knuckles asked. “What are you doing here?”\n\n“Sensors detected power consumption spikes in the area.” E-123 Omega stated. “This and the presence of rapid industrialization, these signs point to the presence of Eggman.”\n\n“His industry, yes.” Knuckles corrected. “But I doubt Eggman himself is actually here.”\n\n“There is insufficient data based on initial reconnaissance operations to confirm or deny the presence of Eggman. Mission priority, however, states that the destruction of Eggman’s war economy is a primary objective, secondary only to the destruction of Eggman himself.”\n\n“Wait, you just plan to march in guns blazing?” Knuckles exclaimed.\n\n“Affirmative.” Confirmed Omega.\n\n“That’s just suicidal, but maybe you help me with my own objective.”\n\n“Elaborate. What is your objective here?”\n\n“Well, I’m looking for some object of considerable power called a Chaos Emerald. It’s about the side of a fist and should give off a lot of energy on your sensors.”\n\nThere was a moment of silence between the two of them.\n\n“Destroying this base is the number one priority. All other mission objectives are tertiary.”\n\n“I get that.” Knuckles said, rolling his eyes in frustration at the single minded robot. “But if you happen to see anything like what I just described, would you kindly bring it to me and not destroy it? I’ll help you out with your mission if I help you out with mine.”\n\n“…Affirmative.” Omega replied. There was a hint of reluctance in his synthetic voice, almost like the idea of not vaporizing everything in the area that wasn’t Knuckles or Omega did not sit well with him.\nThe two returned their attention to the construction zone.\n\n“What’s the plan, then?” Knuckles asked. “How are you going to do this?”\n\n“Initial tactical reports suggest a quick strike to energy generators from the East.” Omega replied. \n\n“Generators explode. You should probably do that.”\n\n“Affirmative. I will suggest spreading out and refraining from crossing paths to avoid collateral damage.”\n\n“Fine by me. You go first.”\n\nOmega walked with heavy steps to the right, making a large berth around the perimeter of the site. He continued until Knuckles saw him as a small figure almost a hundred yards away. In the far distance, he could hear gunfire. The robots all panicked and their right arms opened, spun, and refolded into energy cannons. Before this swap animation finished, however, Omega managed to hit several of the energy generators, which caused them to explode in a ball of blue fire. A klaxon alarm was sounded shortly afterwards, alerting the entire excavation site to the attack.\n\nKnuckles hurried down the gentle slope and used his momentum to leap into the air in an eagle dive. His slim form and broad dreadlocks made him very aerodynamic, and he was able to glide swiftly across the field. He angled himself low to swoop over the ground and bowl through several of the bots, which tumbled across the ground and landed in a heap of broken limbs and parts. Knuckles hit the ground and continued his pace in a run, ducking and weaving through the skeletal towers and generators. He couldn’t risk getting caught in prolonged combat with Eggman’s robots if he could help it. His top priority was the Chaos Emerald. Omega would understand.\n\nOmega, meanwhile, was maintaining a constant stream of gunfire at the fleet of robots charging him, returning fire with their laser cannons. The focused energy blasts were refracted off his plasteel armor harmlessly, and they didn’t carry enough kinetic force to throw off his aim.\n\nOnce his guns dried out, he charged forward, boosted by the thruster pack on his back. He punched through the robots coming at him, tearing through their mass-assembled armor like it was tinfoil. He needed to find a weapons cache compatible with his platform.\n\nKnuckles hid behind a bulkhead a good mile from the chaos Omega was creating. The chaos he sought, however, was much smaller. That sensation in his mind was stronger than ever. It was close by.\n\nThe robots here were setting up automated security guns. Their placement was very organized and their progress was almost complete; this wasn’t in preparation for Omega. Knuckles sidled across the bulkhead, hoping none of the robots saw him. Peeking out the other side of the bulkhead, he could see the beige ruins of the ancient Echidna empire punctuating the landscape of orange and green. Large stone housing settlements designed for thousands of Echidnas to live in was set into the canyonside to his left. Several hundred meters further down, there was a cliff edge where there was probably more city. There was a noticeably smooth section of the canyon wall, where there were no windows or walkways. There was probably a waterfall that used to go there. Most likely Eggman’s robots changed the course of the river or dammed the waterfall or something. Curiously, he decided to get a closer look. He’s also be able to get a better view of the surrounding landscape.\n\nOmega used his thrusters to quickly dodge a missile from a robot. They were starting to bring out the heavy artillery, finally processing the information that their little peashooters would have no effect on him. Bumping into a bulkhead, Omega had an idea. He spun around to the other side and pushed against it. Boosted by his thrusters, Omega managed to wrench the structure out of the ground and topple it over onto the robots charging at him. They tried to scatter to avoid the several tons of metal falling down on them like a giant shoe on ants, but to no avail, they were flattened in a satisfying crunch of metal and circuit boards. He gently floated down before shutting off his thrusters a few feet above the ground and landing with a heavy thud.\n\nOmega spun his head around quickly to check for any survivors in the area. Seeing that there wasn’t, he checked around for an ammunitions cache. He found one that didn’t get destroyed by his assault. Scanning the serial numbers, he discovered that they were compatible with his platform. Somehow, he found a way to interpret that as insulting.\n\n“It appears these worthless scraps of aluminum can only be halfway functional by copying my superior hardware.” he muttered, sifting through the numerous weapons. 5-barreled Gatling guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, laser cannons… it was clear they were copying his platform’s hardware. Unoriginal, but surprisingly, the weapons here of somewhat decent quality compared to his own. Once Omega replenished his ammo supply, he destroyed the rest, making especially sure that the weapons were in unrecognizable bits. They had no permission to copy his platform.\n\nKnuckles saw the carnage Omega was wreaking as he scaled the cliff face. The robot’s single minded determination to destroy everything Eggman was incredible. He most likely wouldn’t hold his fire on neutral or friendly targets. At least he had the courtesy to warn Knuckles about that. The Echidna continued his ascent up the cliff. He got a good view of the territory Eggman’s robots had developed, which stretched several miles away from the base of the cliff. None of the robots built anything up here.\n\nKnuckles sat down at the edge of the cliff. There was simply too much territory to cover, and Knuckles couldn’t fight the entire army of robots. He couldn’t just allow Omega to go and destroy everything, either; he’d still have to sift through the tons of scrap metal, and that’d be equally unpleasant. How was he supposed to find the Emerald?\n\nHe was quickly given an answer. A sharp pain surged through his head; the sense of someone using the power of the Chaos Emerald. It was very close by! And someone was using it. Knuckles stood up and scanned the area very quickly. It was a big energy spike. It had to be a big machine. But where?!\n\nIn the far end of the territory, a giant mechanical scorpion slowly rose up from one of the few finished factories in the area. At the helm, Eggman was rapidly keying in commands and watching the status of the Egg Scorpion. Most of the secondary drives were not finished being installed. When the report on the attack on the outer territory came back as dismal, he immediately decided to launch the Egg Scorpion. He didn’t know who this was, but he had his hunches. He wasn’t about to lose another Chaos Emerald like he did on the Egg Carrier D.\n\n“Primary and secondary engines running at 80% capacity.” One of the three robot crew members in front of him said. “Temperature leveling out at 133 degrees Celcius.”\n\n“Good. Good. How about weapons?”\n\n“Online. The energy draw may cause an interference with the engines.”\n\n“The system hasn’t been properly calibrated. It’s to be expected.” Eggman clutched the throttle and slowly pushed it forward. “Alright, we’re launching the Egg Scorpion now!” he announced over the loudspeaker. “Clear the way!”\n\nThe Egg Scorpion slowly moved forward. There was a dull thud every second or two as each leg took a step. They were slowly accelerating out of the hangar. Nearing the exit, the legs warmed up enough to make a better pace.\n\n“Moving port.” The Egg Scorpion turned to the left to face the direction the intruder would approach from.\n\n“Doctor! We have an intruder from starboard!” one of the robots announced.\n\n“What?! I thought the intruder was coming from the West of the territory!”\n\n“This isn’t the same intruder!”\n\nKnuckles glided from the cliff down at the giant machine he found slowly lurching out of one of the hangars. That had to have been it! He flattened himself even further until he was speeding at the scorpion machine like a bullet. He aimed for the legs in an attempt to knock the thing off balance, but before he made contact, he was suddenly blown back by a powerful kinetic force. Knuckles tumbled across the ground, but caught a foothold on the ground and stopped himself from crashing into an orange steel wall behind him.\n\n“Should have known you would show up, Knuckles!” Eggman said over the loudspeaker. “You’re not taking the Chaos Emerald this time!”\n\n“It doesn’t belong to you! Now give it back, and stop defiling the grounds of the Echidna Empire with your machines!”\n\n“This noble streak of yours doesn’t you! What happened to the old Knuckles I met back on Angel Island?”\n\n“I’ll show you!” Knuckles charged at the Egg Scorpion again, but before he could even get close to it, the same kinetic force knocked him backwards again.\n\n“Owww…” Knuckles felt like he got punched with a giant fist covered by a very soft pillow. He got hurt mostly from tumbling across the ground, but not enough to debilitate him.\n\n“What’s the matter? Hard to get anywhere close to me, huh?” Eggman taunted over the loudspeaker. “It’ll be a lot harder to hit me from a distance! BWA HA HA HA HA HA!”\n\nThe Egg Scorpion fired a series of red and blue lasers from its tail. Knuckles quickly ran in a wide berth around the Egg Scorpion, ducking and weaving around the walls and bulkheads, trying to dodge the laser blasts. The walls and ground became pockmarked with scorch marks and small potholes. Where was that force weapon? Maybe it was on the tail? The tail swiveled on a joint to track his movements, and it was much more agile than Knuckles. Dammit, if only he had Sonic’s speed.\n\nSpeed… that gave Knuckles an idea. He hid behind another bulkhead and let Eggman tear into it with his laser weapons. The metal melted away and exposed the steel frames underneath holding it together. With his tremendous strength, Knuckles ripped one out of the ground. The pole was about 7 feet in length. He hefted it, testing its weight. Yeah, this will work.\n\nKnuckles broke off into another run. The Egg Scorpion turned on him and fired another volley of laser blasts. He veered closer to it and charged at it, pole raised to strike. Just as he predicted, he got blasted back again by the kinetic force. As he flew back, he jammed the pole into the ground, which made him rebound and fly back at the Egg scorpion, faster than before.\n\n“What the?!” Eggman didn’t expect Knuckles to make that maneuver. Knuckles swung as hard as he could at the transparent aluminum dome, but only managed to crack the thing. As he flew away, Eggman fired another kinetic blast, which launched him uncontrollably at a bulkhead. He hit his head very hard and fell to the ground, his vision full of stars. The Egg Scorpion turned around, its tail and shoulder cannons taking aim.\n\n“A clever trick, but the end result’s the same!” Eggman announced triumphantly. “Say good-“\n\n“Target locked.”\n\n“Eggman, someone has a missile lock on us!”\n\n“WHA-“ Eggman’s voice was drowned out by a series of explosions from several dozen missiles hammering into the Egg Scorpion. Knuckles looked up. His vision was still obscured by stars, but he managed to make out the angular contours of Omega approaching. \n\n“Voice pattern identified: EGGMAN.”\n\n“Omega!” Eggman growled. The smoke cleared. The Egg Scorpion was pretty badly damaged from the attack. Parts of the chassis were blown off, along with the tail.\n\n“Eggman, the core has been compromised! We’re now operating at 60% of our previous capacity!”\n\n“What is still operational?”\n\n“Shoulder cannons and missile pods. We lost the tail cannons!”\n\n“RGHH! I spent an entire day last week inventing the blueprints of this machine! Tomorrow, I’ll start a better design, but today, both of you will die!”\n\n“Mission objectives do not schedule either of our demise.” Omega corrected. “Yours, however, is scheduled immediately.”\n\nHe opened fire on the Egg Scorpion with his twin Gatling guns, aiming at the dome that protected Eggman. Even cracked, it still managed to protect him from the rain of lead.\n\n“We’re locked on target. We can fire when ready!” one of the robots announced.\n\n“Fire all weapons on Omega!”\n\nThe Egg Scorpion’s entire front opened up, revealing a series of machine guns, anti-armor cannons, and missile launchers. Omega stopped firing and immediately took evasive maneuvers to avoid being vaporized from the sheer number of bullets and missiles. He used his thrusters to take off into the air, bounding off the walls at angles to avoid the missiles locked onto him. His mass was great enough that the walls toppled over, and the ones that didn’t were blasted into pieces by the missiles tracking him.\n\nKnuckles slowly crawled to his feet. He was starting to regain his vision and consciousness. There was still a heavy pulsing pain on the top of his head. Looking up, he saw that the Egg Scorpion was completely preoccupied with trying to destroy Omega. The tail was destroyed, and he was pretty certain that’s where the kinetic force cannon was set in. He took his chance and flung himself onto the back of the machine. The chassis was blown off. He began tearing into the circuitry and mechanisms underneath, ripping everything apart that he could get a firm grip on.\n\n“Eggman, we’re losing power, fast!” one of the robots panicked.\n\n“What?! What’s going on? Did we get hit?”\n\n“Negative, negative! I think something’s tearing itself apart inside the Egg Scorpion!”\n\n“Core capacity falling to critical levels.”\n\n“Mobility lost! Weapons are offline!”\n\n“Dammit! What the hell is going o-“ Eggman looked up to see Knuckles standing on top of the dome, holding the purple Chaos Emerald that was previously powering the Egg Scorpion.\n\n“No! NO!” Knuckles ran off with the Chaos Emerald, leaving Eggman trapped in the powerless shell.\n\n“Dammit all, activating emergency power.” Eggman muttered, furiously typing in commands to eject in his escape capsule.\n\nOmega landed in front of the Egg Scorpion and Knuckles with a heavy thud.\n\n“I got what I came for.” Knuckles said, holding up the Chaos Emerald. “You can do what you want now.”\n\n“Affirmative. Executing Eggman.” Omega raised his gun arms and opened fire on the Egg Scorpion with all his weapons. Knuckles looked back at the machine in awe. The mechanisms were exploding, and Eggman was still inside!\n\nKnuckles shielded his eyes from the explosion that engulfed the Egg Scorpion. No… it couldn’t be! Eggman was finally killed?! That was such an anticlimax!\n\n“Omega, did you just…?”\n\n“Affirmative.” Omega said, lowering his gun arms. “Eggman has been eliminated. Mission…”\n\nKnuckles looked back at Omega, who was just standing there.\n\n“Mission… what?” Knuckles asked. “Completed? Accomplished? Fulfilled?\n\n“…Omega?”\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Somewhere far away from Knothole, there was an ancient ruin – probably of the Echidna Empire - reclaimed by nature. The stone temples and pathways were crumbled and cracked, but still standing tall and strong in a futile silent war against time. Knuckles was drawn here by something. It was that feeling he got whenever one of the Chaos Emeralds was nearby. It would also explain the spectacle in front of him.

Scouring the ruins were a battalion of robots bearing the Eggman insignia. They had transformed a once abandoned city into what now looked more like a construction site. Steel frames were being set up, and on top of those were placed bright orange bulkheads. These forms slowly shaped into the forms of pylons, air control towers, and communications arrays. Far off in the distance, the workers were constructing what looked like a giant factory, probably to construct more workers and equipment. Strewn everywhere between this activity were power generators fueled by Helium-3.

Something big was going on. Dr. Eggman wouldn’t tell his minions to set up shop out in the boonies for no good reason. Combined with the familiar sensation Knuckles had, it confirmed the existence of a Chaos Emerald in the area.

“Biological mammalian life signs detected.” A robotic voice said behind him. Knuckles turned around to see a robot, nearly 5 feet tall but still large enough to dwarf him, approaching.

“What? Omega?” Knuckles asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Sensors detected power consumption spikes in the area.” E-123 Omega stated. “This and the presence of rapid industrialization, these signs point to the presence of Eggman.”

“His industry, yes.” Knuckles corrected. “But I doubt Eggman himself is actually here.”

“There is insufficient data based on initial reconnaissance operations to confirm or deny the presence of Eggman. Mission priority, however, states that the destruction of Eggman’s war economy is a primary objective, secondary only to the destruction of Eggman himself.”

“Wait, you just plan to march in guns blazing?” Knuckles exclaimed.

“Affirmative.” Confirmed Omega.

“That’s just suicidal, but maybe you help me with my own objective.”

“Elaborate. What is your objective here?”

“Well, I’m looking for some object of considerable power called a Chaos Emerald. It’s about the side of a fist and should give off a lot of energy on your sensors.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of them.

“Destroying this base is the number one priority. All other mission objectives are tertiary.”

“I get that.” Knuckles said, rolling his eyes in frustration at the single minded robot. “But if you happen to see anything like what I just described, would you kindly bring it to me and not destroy it? I’ll help you out with your mission if I help you out with mine.”

“…Affirmative.” Omega replied. There was a hint of reluctance in his synthetic voice, almost like the idea of not vaporizing everything in the area that wasn’t Knuckles or Omega did not sit well with him.
The two returned their attention to the construction zone.

“What’s the plan, then?” Knuckles asked. “How are you going to do this?”

“Initial tactical reports suggest a quick strike to energy generators from the East.” Omega replied.

“Generators explode. You should probably do that.”

“Affirmative. I will suggest spreading out and refraining from crossing paths to avoid collateral damage.”

“Fine by me. You go first.”

Omega walked with heavy steps to the right, making a large berth around the perimeter of the site. He continued until Knuckles saw him as a small figure almost a hundred yards away. In the far distance, he could hear gunfire. The robots all panicked and their right arms opened, spun, and refolded into energy cannons. Before this swap animation finished, however, Omega managed to hit several of the energy generators, which caused them to explode in a ball of blue fire. A klaxon alarm was sounded shortly afterwards, alerting the entire excavation site to the attack.

Knuckles hurried down the gentle slope and used his momentum to leap into the air in an eagle dive. His slim form and broad dreadlocks made him very aerodynamic, and he was able to glide swiftly across the field. He angled himself low to swoop over the ground and bowl through several of the bots, which tumbled across the ground and landed in a heap of broken limbs and parts. Knuckles hit the ground and continued his pace in a run, ducking and weaving through the skeletal towers and generators. He couldn’t risk getting caught in prolonged combat with Eggman’s robots if he could help it. His top priority was the Chaos Emerald. Omega would understand.

Omega, meanwhile, was maintaining a constant stream of gunfire at the fleet of robots charging him, returning fire with their laser cannons. The focused energy blasts were refracted off his plasteel armor harmlessly, and they didn’t carry enough kinetic force to throw off his aim.

Once his guns dried out, he charged forward, boosted by the thruster pack on his back. He punched through the robots coming at him, tearing through their mass-assembled armor like it was tinfoil. He needed to find a weapons cache compatible with his platform.

Knuckles hid behind a bulkhead a good mile from the chaos Omega was creating. The chaos he sought, however, was much smaller. That sensation in his mind was stronger than ever. It was close by.

The robots here were setting up automated security guns. Their placement was very organized and their progress was almost complete; this wasn’t in preparation for Omega. Knuckles sidled across the bulkhead, hoping none of the robots saw him. Peeking out the other side of the bulkhead, he could see the beige ruins of the ancient Echidna empire punctuating the landscape of orange and green. Large stone housing settlements designed for thousands of Echidnas to live in was set into the canyonside to his left. Several hundred meters further down, there was a cliff edge where there was probably more city. There was a noticeably smooth section of the canyon wall, where there were no windows or walkways. There was probably a waterfall that used to go there. Most likely Eggman’s robots changed the course of the river or dammed the waterfall or something. Curiously, he decided to get a closer look. He’s also be able to get a better view of the surrounding landscape.

Omega used his thrusters to quickly dodge a missile from a robot. They were starting to bring out the heavy artillery, finally processing the information that their little peashooters would have no effect on him. Bumping into a bulkhead, Omega had an idea. He spun around to the other side and pushed against it. Boosted by his thrusters, Omega managed to wrench the structure out of the ground and topple it over onto the robots charging at him. They tried to scatter to avoid the several tons of metal falling down on them like a giant shoe on ants, but to no avail, they were flattened in a satisfying crunch of metal and circuit boards. He gently floated down before shutting off his thrusters a few feet above the ground and landing with a heavy thud.

Omega spun his head around quickly to check for any survivors in the area. Seeing that there wasn’t, he checked around for an ammunitions cache. He found one that didn’t get destroyed by his assault. Scanning the serial numbers, he discovered that they were compatible with his platform. Somehow, he found a way to interpret that as insulting.

“It appears these worthless scraps of aluminum can only be halfway functional by copying my superior hardware.” he muttered, sifting through the numerous weapons. 5-barreled Gatling guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, laser cannons… it was clear they were copying his platform’s hardware. Unoriginal, but surprisingly, the weapons here of somewhat decent quality compared to his own. Once Omega replenished his ammo supply, he destroyed the rest, making especially sure that the weapons were in unrecognizable bits. They had no permission to copy his platform.

Knuckles saw the carnage Omega was wreaking as he scaled the cliff face. The robot’s single minded determination to destroy everything Eggman was incredible. He most likely wouldn’t hold his fire on neutral or friendly targets. At least he had the courtesy to warn Knuckles about that. The Echidna continued his ascent up the cliff. He got a good view of the territory Eggman’s robots had developed, which stretched several miles away from the base of the cliff. None of the robots built anything up here.

Knuckles sat down at the edge of the cliff. There was simply too much territory to cover, and Knuckles couldn’t fight the entire army of robots. He couldn’t just allow Omega to go and destroy everything, either; he’d still have to sift through the tons of scrap metal, and that’d be equally unpleasant. How was he supposed to find the Emerald?

He was quickly given an answer. A sharp pain surged through his head; the sense of someone using the power of the Chaos Emerald. It was very close by! And someone was using it. Knuckles stood up and scanned the area very quickly. It was a big energy spike. It had to be a big machine. But where?!

In the far end of the territory, a giant mechanical scorpion slowly rose up from one of the few finished factories in the area. At the helm, Eggman was rapidly keying in commands and watching the status of the Egg Scorpion. Most of the secondary drives were not finished being installed. When the report on the attack on the outer territory came back as dismal, he immediately decided to launch the Egg Scorpion. He didn’t know who this was, but he had his hunches. He wasn’t about to lose another Chaos Emerald like he did on the Egg Carrier D.

“Primary and secondary engines running at 80% capacity.” One of the three robot crew members in front of him said. “Temperature leveling out at 133 degrees Celcius.”

“Good. Good. How about weapons?”

“Online. The energy draw may cause an interference with the engines.”

“The system hasn’t been properly calibrated. It’s to be expected.” Eggman clutched the throttle and slowly pushed it forward. “Alright, we’re launching the Egg Scorpion now!” he announced over the loudspeaker. “Clear the way!”

The Egg Scorpion slowly moved forward. There was a dull thud every second or two as each leg took a step. They were slowly accelerating out of the hangar. Nearing the exit, the legs warmed up enough to make a better pace.

“Moving port.” The Egg Scorpion turned to the left to face the direction the intruder would approach from.

“Doctor! We have an intruder from starboard!” one of the robots announced.

“What?! I thought the intruder was coming from the West of the territory!”

“This isn’t the same intruder!”

Knuckles glided from the cliff down at the giant machine he found slowly lurching out of one of the hangars. That had to have been it! He flattened himself even further until he was speeding at the scorpion machine like a bullet. He aimed for the legs in an attempt to knock the thing off balance, but before he made contact, he was suddenly blown back by a powerful kinetic force. Knuckles tumbled across the ground, but caught a foothold on the ground and stopped himself from crashing into an orange steel wall behind him.

“Should have known you would show up, Knuckles!” Eggman said over the loudspeaker. “You’re not taking the Chaos Emerald this time!”

“It doesn’t belong to you! Now give it back, and stop defiling the grounds of the Echidna Empire with your machines!”

“This noble streak of yours doesn’t you! What happened to the old Knuckles I met back on Angel Island?”

“I’ll show you!” Knuckles charged at the Egg Scorpion again, but before he could even get close to it, the same kinetic force knocked him backwards again.

“Owww…” Knuckles felt like he got punched with a giant fist covered by a very soft pillow. He got hurt mostly from tumbling across the ground, but not enough to debilitate him.

“What’s the matter? Hard to get anywhere close to me, huh?” Eggman taunted over the loudspeaker. “It’ll be a lot harder to hit me from a distance! BWA HA HA HA HA HA!”

The Egg Scorpion fired a series of red and blue lasers from its tail. Knuckles quickly ran in a wide berth around the Egg Scorpion, ducking and weaving around the walls and bulkheads, trying to dodge the laser blasts. The walls and ground became pockmarked with scorch marks and small potholes. Where was that force weapon? Maybe it was on the tail?  The tail swiveled on a joint to track his movements, and it was much more agile than Knuckles. Dammit, if only he had Sonic’s speed.

Speed… that gave Knuckles an idea. He hid behind another bulkhead and let Eggman tear into it with his laser weapons. The metal melted away and exposed the steel frames underneath holding it together. With his tremendous strength, Knuckles ripped one out of the ground. The pole was about 7 feet in length. He hefted it, testing its weight. Yeah, this will work.

Knuckles broke off into another run. The Egg Scorpion turned on him and fired another volley of laser blasts. He veered closer to it and charged at it, pole raised to strike. Just as he predicted, he got blasted back again by the kinetic force. As he flew back, he jammed the pole into the ground, which made him rebound and fly back at the Egg scorpion, faster than before.

“What the?!” Eggman didn’t expect Knuckles to make that maneuver. Knuckles swung as hard as he could at the transparent aluminum dome, but only managed to crack the thing. As he flew away, Eggman fired another kinetic blast, which launched him uncontrollably at a bulkhead. He hit his head very hard and fell to the ground, his vision full of stars. The Egg Scorpion turned around, its tail and shoulder cannons taking aim.

“A clever trick, but the end result’s the same!” Eggman announced triumphantly. “Say good-“

“Target locked.”

“Eggman, someone has a missile lock on us!”

“WHA-“ Eggman’s voice was drowned out by a series of explosions from several dozen missiles hammering into the Egg Scorpion. Knuckles looked up. His vision was still obscured by stars, but he managed to make out the angular contours of Omega approaching.

“Voice pattern identified: EGGMAN.”

“Omega!” Eggman growled. The smoke cleared. The Egg Scorpion was pretty badly damaged from the attack. Parts of the chassis were blown off, along with the tail.

“Eggman, the core has been compromised! We’re now operating at 60% of our previous capacity!”

“What is still operational?”

“Shoulder cannons and missile pods. We lost the tail cannons!”

“RGHH! I spent an entire day last week inventing the blueprints of this machine! Tomorrow, I’ll start a better design, but today, both of you will die!”

“Mission objectives do not schedule either of our demise.” Omega corrected. “Yours, however, is scheduled immediately.”

He opened fire on the Egg Scorpion with his twin Gatling guns, aiming at the dome that protected Eggman. Even cracked, it still managed to protect him from the rain of lead.

“We’re locked on target. We can fire when ready!” one of the robots announced.

“Fire all weapons on Omega!”

The Egg Scorpion’s entire front opened up, revealing a series of machine guns, anti-armor cannons, and missile launchers. Omega stopped firing and immediately took evasive maneuvers to avoid being vaporized from the sheer number of bullets and missiles. He used his thrusters to take off into the air, bounding off the walls at angles to avoid the missiles locked onto him. His mass was great enough that the walls toppled over, and the ones that didn’t were blasted into pieces by the missiles tracking him.

Knuckles slowly crawled to his feet. He was starting to regain his vision and consciousness. There was still a heavy pulsing pain on the top of his head. Looking up, he saw that the Egg Scorpion was completely preoccupied with trying to destroy Omega. The tail was destroyed, and he was pretty certain that’s where the kinetic force cannon was set in. He took his chance and flung himself onto the back of the machine. The chassis was blown off. He began tearing into the circuitry and mechanisms underneath, ripping everything apart that he could get a firm grip on.

“Eggman, we’re losing power, fast!” one of the robots panicked.

“What?! What’s going on? Did we get hit?”

“Negative, negative! I think something’s tearing itself apart inside the Egg Scorpion!”

“Core capacity falling to critical levels.”

“Mobility lost! Weapons are offline!”

“Dammit! What the hell is going o-“ Eggman looked up to see Knuckles standing on top of the dome, holding the purple Chaos Emerald that was previously powering the Egg Scorpion.

“No! NO!” Knuckles ran off with the Chaos Emerald, leaving Eggman trapped in the powerless shell.

“Dammit all, activating emergency power.” Eggman muttered, furiously typing in commands to eject in his escape capsule.

Omega landed in front of the Egg Scorpion and Knuckles with a heavy thud.

“I got what I came for.” Knuckles said, holding up the Chaos Emerald. “You can do what you want now.”

“Affirmative. Executing Eggman.” Omega raised his gun arms and opened fire on the Egg Scorpion with all his weapons. Knuckles looked back at the machine in awe. The mechanisms were exploding, and Eggman was still inside!

Knuckles shielded his eyes from the explosion that engulfed the Egg Scorpion. No… it couldn’t be! Eggman was finally killed?! That was such an anticlimax!

“Omega, did you just…?”

“Affirmative.” Omega said, lowering his gun arms. “Eggman has been eliminated. Mission…”

Knuckles looked back at Omega, who was just standing there.

“Mission… what?” Knuckles asked. “Completed? Accomplished? Fulfilled?

“…Omega?”
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