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I spent a good deal of time making this one. Tell me what you guys think!

The Egg Carrier D was Eggman's newest war machine designed to wipe out Knothole. With a new array of cannons designed to pierce bunkers, it was one of the greatest threats to Knothole Eggman had conceived of yet. Fortunately, the massive power draw on the battle cruiser meant that it could only be powered by a Chaos Emerald rather than a nuclear reaction. Unfortunately, Eggman was somehow able to obtain one of the Chaos Emeralds, and the Egg Carrier D was prepping to take off.

In the hangar containing the massive battleship, Elias Acorn was on his stomach, sliding underneath machinery and timing his movements right to avoid detection by the robot workers. He took it upon himself to nab the Chaos Emerald; as he reasoned with Sally, he wasn't going to stop Eggman from the throne.

"How does Sonic manage to do this?" he asked himself as he made a break for a cart stacked with crates rolled past him. He was able to sneak onto the cart without the robot pushing it noticing him, climbing to the top and laying flat on his stomach. If he was lucky, none of the robots would be tall enough to see him on top of the crates.

"If only I was as fast as him, this would be a hell of a lot easier." Elias watched the Egg Carrier D loom over him ominously as the cart rolled underneath it and onto the entrance ramp. As the cart ascended the ramp, Elias suddenly realized that he was in plain sight of the robots in the cargo hold, and he immediately rolled off the top to the right and ran as fast as he could to the opposite wall. He ducked behind a stack of crates stored near the corner, squeezing into the crack between the crate and the wall and backing up all the way to the corner. He held his breath as long as possible, hoping that none of the robots saw him.

"Where do you want this?" he heard the robot pushing the cart ask who he could assume was the supervisor. "Units 55100-55125."

"CPU motherboards and processors. On the right, next to the wall. Next!" Elias heard the cart rolling over to the wall, and he sidled around the back of the crates and down the cargo bay. He reached the end of the stack, where there was a fifty foot gap between him and the wall. Twenty feet from the corner was the door to the rest of the ship. With the amount of activity in the cargo bay, there was no way he could sneak by unnoticed. He may have to just wait in here until -

Elias jumped and struck his head against the wall as a loud crash echoed through the cargo bay, followed by a tumble of heavy objects.

"The wheel broke!" one robot shouted. "We need some help over here!"

There was a scurry of robots who stopped their own tasks to help with the spill. Elias looked through the cracks between the crates and saw the robots setting a bunch of toppled equipment upright. They all seemed to be preoccupied with the mess. Now was his chance! Elias came out of cover and sprinted to the door. The room inside was small and contained a few robots not tending to the mess in the cargo bay. To his left was another door. Elias didn't make a second thought. He dove through the doorway and found himself tumbling over the edge of the catwalk on the other side of the door.

"Oh SHIT!"

The clamor was overheard by the robots in the room.

"What was that? Do you think it was Sonic?" one of them asked.

"I don't know. Go check it out."

One of the workers, a squat, rotund, orange robot came out to the catwalk and took a look around the room beneath. Everything appeared to be unmolested. There was no way Sonic could have gone through here without half the room being demolished.

"There's nothing here." He responded before going back to his post. "It must have been your imagination."

"That's impossible! I'm a robot! I have no imagination!"

Elias clung to the underside of the catwalk, holding onto a metal bar underneath the platform. It was a long drop to the bottom. Elias moved carefully on the metal bar to a pipe running down the wall and made the transition smoothly. He slid down to the bottom and when he reached the ground, fell to his hands and knees. He was shaking all over. If he didn't grab that metal pole, he'd have broken both his legs, or worse.

"Man, I am not cut out for this hero stuff." He said out loud.

"Who is that?!" Elias froze as he realized that a worker was standing right next to him. The two turned around to face each other. Time seemed to stand still. He was wracked with panic. He couldn't be caught this soon!

"INTRU-zghhhh!" Before the worker could sound an alarm, he was vertically cut in half from the left shoulder to the right waist, just above the leg joint. The robot collapsed in a shower of sparks with Elias standing above him, holding a long sword in his hands.

"Dammit. I wanted to have the Emerald before I get discovered." He muttered, sheathing the long sword. As he made sure that he was alone and unnoticed, Elias realized that he somehow found his way into the engine room. If the Emerald was going to be used as the ship's power source, it would be somewhere in here.

Elias weaved around the heavy machinery occupying much of the space in the room. Heavy turbines filled the room with a soothing hum. The Egg Carrier D looked like it was ready to go at any moment, but it would probably take a few more hours to finish loading. He'd be long gone by then... hopefully.

Elias followed the power cables in the floor to the other end of the room, where they all converged around a pylon-shaped generator with a glass top. The air around it was scorching hot, almost unbearable to get close to. Elias quickly manned one of the control panels and hastily typed in a string of commands. He was no technician by any stretch of the imagination, but Sally taught him enough to be able to handle this.

Slowly, the power was severed in sections throughout Egg Carrier D, identified by a layout of the ship on a separate monitor. Once the first room went dark, Elias knew the alarm was sounding somewhere on the ship. He didn't have a lot of time. Working faster now, Elias killed the power in most of the other rooms, starting with the ones furthest away from the engine room. The unpowered sections one by one turned from dark green to red, and a red letterbox in the corner of the layout screen labeled "ACTIVATING EMERGENCY POWER" popped up. The last room to be depowered was the engine room. The entire room went dark for a brief moment before the emergency power kicked in. When Elias ensured that all power from the Chaos Emerald was severed, he drew out his long sword and smashed the glass dome in with the pommel. Carefully, he reached inside and grabbed the Chaos Emerald, careful not to cut himself on the broken glass. He winced when he touched the Emerald, as it was still hot from radiating all that power. There was no way he'd be able to carry it out as is, and there was not enough time to let it cool down.

Elias drew his hand out and smashed out more of the glass with the sword's pommel so there was a larger hole, then took off his blue jacket and threw it over the Emerald. He rolled the jacket up into a ball and pulled it out of the dome, brushing off pieces of broken glass.

After he obtained the Chaos Emerald, he heard a clamor above him on the catwalks. The worker robots were coming in en masse, armed with laser guns. Quickly, Elias ducked into a corner and held the Chaos Emerald tight to his body, enough so that he could feel the heat of the Emerald through his jacket. The robots converged around the station the Emerald was housed in.

"Where is the Emerald? It's gone!"

"Someone must have stolen it!"

"Do you think it was Sonic?"

"No way. We would have known about it long before then."

"How about that treasure hunter?"

Elias mounted the turbine engine he backed up against and rolled down the other end, being careful to not make a sound as he landed. While the robots were busy trying to come to a conclusion about the Emerald mystery, Elias snuck up the stairs and ducked out of the engine room. Heading back into the cargo room, he was glad to see it was empty. Abandoning all subtlety, he ran as fast as he could to the entrance ramp. It was a clear shot out of here...

"GUAAAAAAAGHHHH!" Elias screamed in pain as he felt an electric charge surge through his body. He fell to his hands and knees and dropped the Emerald. Rolling onto his back, he saw a tall rotund figure approach him, wielding a strange gun.

"I didn't know we would be expecting royalty." The man observed. "Welcome, King Elias Acorn. I am Dr. Eggman!"

Elias's vision blurred as he tried to get to his feet. His body, however, was somehow sapped of all of his energy, and he felt like he ran a marathon. Eggman approached him, unrolled his jacket, and grabbed the emerald.

"So glad you could keep this safe for me." He said. "I've heard we've had burglary problems lately. BWA HA HA HA HA! Grab him!" Two robots grabbed Elias by his shoulders, and one of them snatched away his long sword.

"I'm flattered that you came all this way to witness the maiden voyage, Prince Acorn." He said, leading the way through the ship. "Now come! The preparations are nearly complete! We'll miss the christening!"

Elias clicked his boots three times, which activated a distress signal that would get sent back to Knothole.

'Ughh... I failed, Sally.' He thought. 'it's your move.'

* * *

Back in Knothole, Sally received the distress signal on her computer NICOLE. She nonchalantly disabled the signal, almost as if she expected it to happen. Throwing on her blue vest, she strolled out of the castle, her laptop in hand. She found Sonic lounging about just outside Knothole, snoozing under the shade of an oak.

"Sonic, wake up." She ordered. "Go get Shadow and meet me at Tails' garage. Something's come up."

Sonic stirred in his nap, but didn't acknowledge Sally's presence. She nudged him with her boot, but he still didn't wake up. She was starting to get a little impatient. It was one thing to ignore her, but her brother's life, as well of all of Knothole, was currently at stake, and knowing Sonic, he could end up sleeping right through Knothole's destruction.

"DAMMIT! Wake the hell up!" Sally swore, kicking Sonic hard in his side. Sonic cried out in pain and clutched his side.

"Alright, I'm up!" he yelped, rolling onto his knees.

"Go get Shadow and meet me in Tails garage." Sally repeated. "This is urgent."

"Fine! Fine! I'll be there in a minute." As Sally walked off, she overheard Sonic mutter, "Geez, it's like we're married or something."

Sally hurried ahead to Tails' house, near the cliffs on the outskirts of the city. Tails' house was seated roughly 150 feet from the cliff edge, and a long stretch of runway bridged the two. Sally strolled around to the back of the house, where it sat next to the runway. To her satisfaction, she found the garage shutter door open, and Tails inside, working on his new ship, the Tornado IV.

"Hey, Tails!" Sally called out as she entered the garage. Tools of various kinds hung from the walls in the shop, and recycled machinery from the scuttled previous Tornado incarnations littered the ground in a small clutter around the orange fox. Tails was working on something in the nose of the Tornado 4, but what exactly, Sally didn't know; she was a computer technician, not a mechanic.

Tails didn't answer her call over the clamor he was making with his tools and the music playing on the stereo sitting on the workbench. Sally walked over and turned off the stereo, which caught Tails' attention.

"Oh, Sally!" he exclaimed. "What's up?"

"Is the Tornado IV ready for flight?" Sally asked.

"More or less. The lock-on system isn't installed yet, and the stability of the hyper-thruster is nebulous at best."

"We'll have to make do without it, then."

"Why? What's going on?"

"We'll talk once Sonic and Shadow get here."

A few minutes later, Sonic and Shadow appeared at the entrance to the garage in a black and blue blur, followed by a blast of wind caused by their speed getting here.

"Sorry we're late." Sonic said. "So what's going on?"

"Elias has been captured." Sally explained. "He activated his distress signal about half an hour ago while trying to steal the Chaos Emerald that powers Eggman's new Egg Carrier D. I can only guess his attempt at a pre-emptive strike failed."

"I admire the kid's courage," Shadow commented. "but really, he should have left this to us. He doesn't have what it takes to go up against all of Eggman's armada."

"I agree with Shadow on this one." Sonic said. "Why did you let Elias go on his own?"

"I... I don't know." Sally admitted. "I guess I had faith in him, that maybe it was possible for him to succeed in this mission."

"And you couldn't let us know about this before he took off?"

"I'm sorry! Look, we need to save him, and we need to stop the Egg Carrier D, or else Elias is not going to be the only casualty today."

"Very well, Sally." Sonic said. "We'll take off as soon as Tails is done with the Tornado IV, then."

"That won't be a problem; I just finished." Tails chirped from the nose of the Tornado IV. He shut the casing on the nose closed and hopped down to the ground. He was working on the aircraft while Sally and the others talked about Elias's situation.

The Tornado IV was a departure from the previous versions of the Tornado series. It was a jet aircraft with a triple tandem wing design as opposed to the propeller biplane model its predecessors followed. The chassis this time was painted a dark green that gave off a cyan sheen.

"It looks great, Tails!" Sonic complimented, hoisting Sally up onto the mid wing so she could climb into the rear seat.

"Speaking of which, did you happen to finish the Hawkwind?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, come on over here." Tails escorted Shadow to the right end of the garage, where, suspended from the wall, was a black jetpack with two engines and a wingspan nearly eight feet in length. Tails picked up a harness from the workbench and helped Shadow put it on. To Sonic, it looked like nothing more than a bunch of Kevlar and a complex series of straps, but it was probably vital for using the Hawkwind. After they finished fastening the harness on Shadow's body, Tails handed him an oxygen mask and, while he strapped it around his muzzle, Tails used a mechanical crane mounted above the rest of the garage to pick up the Hawkwind and hold it at level against Shadow's back. He then hurried over and strapped Shadow's harness to the underbelly. Finally, he took the loose tube of Shadow's oxygen mask and inserted it into a hole on the bottom of the craft right next to Shadow's right elbow.

"Do you remember what I taught you?" Tails asked Shadow, who responded with a thumbs up; the oxygen mask muted most of his speech.

"Good. Now brace yourself. I'm releasing the Hawkwind." Tails pulled a lever on the crane control panel, which released the Hawkwind from the machine's grasp. Shadow grunted into the oxygen mask as he suddenly felt the full weight of the craft press down on him. He fell down on one knee briefly before he caught a second wind and stood up, now accustomed to the weight. He slowly walked out of the garage to the runway. The angle and direction Tails had him stand were so he only had to walk forward to leave the garage and avoid banging into things like what happened when they practiced with the prototype.

"I hope you're not planning on leaving without me, sugah." A voice said from the doorway to the house. Bunnie Rabbot entered the garage. "It's been a long time, Sonic."

"Bunnie! How have you been?" Sonic exclaimed, giving Bunnie a big hug. "I've missed you!"

"You're not the only one, hun."

"So are you coming to help us?"

"Of course! I can't just sit idly by as imminent doom hangs over Knothole."

Sonic nodded and helped Bunnie up onto the rear tail of the Tornado IV before climbing on the other side right next to her. Tails sat down in the cockpit and put on a pair of goggles.

"Alright, here we go!" he announced, firing up the engine. Sonic at first expected to hear the sputtering of propellers, but instead heard the shrill howl of a jet engine; He thought that there was a problem with the engine, but had to remind himself that this was not the Tornado 2. Tails slowly moved the Tornado IV out of the gate and aligned it with the runway. Shadow, who stood next to the plane, looked up at Tails and nodded his head. He broke off into a running start to the end of the runway, running slower than normal due to the weight of the Hawkwind on his back. Before he hit the edge of the runway, the twin jets of the Hawkwind fired up, and he was propelled up into the air in a trail of fire and smoke. Following his wake, the Tornado IV accelerated faster and faster to the end of the runway, where it finally lifted itself off the ground. Sonic gripped the tail, feeling the wind press fiercely against him. Not even a few minutes into the air and he could easily tell that this incarnation was much faster, even with the weight of Bunnie on its tail.. The wind pressure against his body was so fierce he felt like he would be pulled off at any moment.

The Tornado IV eventually caught up with Shadow. The ground beneath them began to shrink until they flew above a cloud cover, concealing all of Mobius behind the gray veil.

"Tails, I've located the source of Elias' distress signal!" Sally shouted over the wind. "Move southwest by 36 degress!"

"Got it!" the tornado veered to the left. Shadow turned in a very wide arc, increasing the distance between them by nearly 200 meters before coming back to their side. Sonic returned his focus to what lay ahead of them. Far in the distance, he saw a swell appear in the cloud cover. It rose like a tidal wave before them before a huge airship broke through like a breaching whale. The white vapor spread out like an explosion once the entire body surface.

"That's the Egg Carrier D!" Sally announced. "It's right on top of Elias's distress signal!"

"Right! Preparing the assault!" The Tornado IV and Shadow sped faster towards the airship before them.

* * *

"Dr. Eggman! Two bogeys detected 50 kilometers right in front of us!" One of the robots announced on the Egg Carrier D's bridge.

"Sonic!" Eggman growled, furrowing his brow and leaning forward in his seat. "He must have found out about the failed infiltration somehow."

"But we checked Elias." Another robot explained. "We found no kind of tracer on him whatsoever!"

"Rgghh... forget about it! I am confident in the Egg Carrier D. We can take on two small craft! FIRE THE HORNET MISSILES!" Eggman turned his attention to Elias, who was sitting to his right, his arms tied behind his back.

"Sit back and enjoy the show!" he said. "May I offer you tea or something to eat?"

Elias silently glared at him in response before returning his attention to the two barely visible aircraft in the distance.

'Sally...'

* * *

"Tails, we have a lock-on!" Sally shouted.

"Hold on! Taking evasive maneuvers!" Tails veered them to the left as pinpricks of light flashed across the hull off the Egg Carrier D. As the swarm of missiles bore down on them, Tails made a sharp left followed by a sharp right. Sonic and Bunnie were almost thrown off the tail from the sudden lurch in the craft. For a moment, there was a sense of weightlessness as they hung on to the tail of the plane tightly. Sonic looked up to see the missiles veering towards them sharply, but failing to meet their target and overshooting them. The sheer number of them made it look like a tidal wave was bearing down on them, threatening to swallow them whole.

Just as soon as the Tornado IV leveled out, it went into another tight turn to the left. This time, however, the g-force pressed Sonic and Bunnie into the plane. The missiles tried to recalculate their flight path, but the small jet aircraft was too agile for them to hit. They showered down around the Tornado IV like rain. As Sonic looked up, he realized that even the ones that they dodged earlier were still hot on their tail. Looking above them, he could see the missiles they dodged for the second time were quickly pulling a 180 and returning for another hit once their propulsion was able to counteract their momentum.

The Tornado IV suddenly flipped upside down and pulled a split S maneuver. Sonic lost his grip this time and felt himself slip away from the craft. Bunnie, however, reacted just in time to grab his hand before he got out of reach. She still held onto the craft with her mechanical hand and used that as leverage to pull Sonic back in. He clutched onto the tail of the plane and took a deep breath.

"Get ready!" tails shouted. "here they come again!"

* * *

Once the missiles were upon them, Shadow accelerated higher up. He had little mobility with the Hawkwind in its current state, but he had superiority in speed over the Tornado IV. He used that as his advantage, timing his bursts of speed correctly so the missiles would not be able to recalculate their flight path in time.

Bearing down on the missiles head first, Shadow ascended, then made a sudden dip. The missiles missed him by a matter of a few meters, but now they were behind him, in his massive blind spot. Shadow deactivated the Hawkwind's thrusters and, with a big twist of his body, spun around to look up at the missiles. They were turning around for another pass. Shadow reactivated the thrusters once they got within fifty meters and performed an Immelmann turn, accelerating upwards in the opposite direction and never once removing the missiles from his line of sight. They tried to keep up with him, but the large turn caused them to lose momentum and unable to keep up with Shadow. They finally depleted their fuel and went into freefall, exploding in a shower of smoldering metal and flames that took out the rest of the salvo following him.

* * *

Explosions peppering the sky made Elias's heart plummet. There was no way either of the Freedom Fighters could have survived that.

"Dr. Eggman, the hornet missiles have failed!" one of the crew members announced. "Bogeys at mid-range: 20 kilometers."

Eggman gnashed his teeth together and gripped his seat's arm rest. At his side, Elias let out a sigh of relief.

"How is that possible?!" he exclaimed. "They managed to dodge EVERY SINGLE ONE?! Then let's see them dodge this! FIRE THE MAYFLIES!"

* * *

The Tornado IV leveled out with the Egg Carrier D in time to see another flash of lights. These, however, were much more faint. As the Tornado IV got closer to the carrier, the air around them seemed to darken. At first, it looked like white noise on a TV screen, but they could barely see flares from rocket propulsions behind whatever it was.

"Sally, do we have a lock-on?" Tails asked.

"I don't see anything! There's no lock-on!"

"Oh SHIT! HOLD ON!" Tails made a sudden dive in the Tornado IV. Bunnie clutched Sonic tightly to her body with her organic arm as they descended sharply. Above them, the wall of darkness formed into a cylindrical shape and veered down at them in a snake-like pattern. It was gaining speed, and fast!

"Sonic, hold on tight!" Bunnie shouted before taking a leap off the plane. For a moment, they hung suspended in the air with the plane before they got sucked away from it. Sonic clutched Bunnie around her chest tightly and hung on for dear life as they went into freefall. Bunnie activated the thrusters on the soles of her mechanical feet, and he suddenly felt a lurch downwards as they started flying. The sensation was strange compared to riding on the Tornado. There was no platform to hold onto save for Bunnie, and even then, it didn't feel like he was even holding onto anything. It really felt like he was flying alone! Needless to say, the feeling discomforted him.

Bunnie held out her mechanical arm as the black concentrated wave snaked out at them. Her hand folded backwards across the forearm and expanded outwards to form an energy cannon. She fired one shot at the swarm before making a strong ascension. Sonic watched below to see the energy ball tear through the mass of darkness, causing whatever it was to explode like party snaps. The remaining horde followed close pursuit, breaking off into smaller 'heads' and twirling around in a spiral to cage and close them off from an escape route. Looking closer, Sonic could see that the near-invisible mass was actually a series of simple missiles the size of a fist. There must have been millions of them!

Bunnie fired another shot through the stream in front of her and made a quick dive through that in a very quick burst of speed. Right as they exited the cage, the missiles exploded in a shower of ball bearings that rained down around them. Spinning around, Bunnie fired several more shots from her arm cannon to incinerate the shrapnel or veer other shots off course. Propelling themselves downwards, Bunnie accelerated to the speed of the bearings. They hung around the two like ornaments, and Sonic felt like he could just reach out and grab one. Slowly, Bunnie angled her momentum to pull them slowly out of the dive so the bearings harmlessly bounced off their bodies. Once they were clear of the shot, she made a quick ascension upwards. The wave of bearings fell through the cloud cover, where they would fall harmlessly into the ocean.

* * *

Elias couldn't tell what happened this time, but the two aircraft swerved away quickly in order to avoid what looked like a wave of invisible missiles.

"Dr. Eggman, they mayflies have failed!" the crew member called out. "And we now have one more bogey on our sensors!"

Elias did a double take at this bit of news, then burst out laughing. Eggman was now steaming from the ears. He pounded the control panel before him in rage.

"Dr. Eggman, enemy is within five kilometers!"

"Deploy the buzzard fleets!" he ordered. "Drag them out of the sky!"

* * *

"We're closing in on the Egg Carrier D!" Bunnie told Sonic.

"Good! Take me down low as far as you can so I can drop down onto the deck!"

Bunnie flew high above the Egg Carrier D, then slowly descended, keeping a close eye out for any flak guns. She saw activity on both ends of the main deck. Small figures were being deployed in formation like small fighter jets.

"Incoming fighters, Sonic!" Bunnie shouted. The barrel of her cannon arm shrunk to have a smaller bore, and she fired a stream of laser beams down on the fleet approaching them. Several got hit and exploded, but there were simply too many of them. Bunnie formed her hand back into its original shape and punched one of the robots as it approached them, shearing it in half due to the forces at work. The robots were all small and hornet-shaped with thrusters for wings. And there were hundreds of them!

"I can't take them all on at once!" Bunnie shouted, clutching Sonic tightly to her body. "I have to drop you off on the deck first!"

* * *

Shadow dodged and weaved through the masses of Buzzards as best as the Hawkwind's stiff agility would allow him to. They were smarter, however, than the missiles he faced earlier, and they planned and organized to cut him off and force him downwards. Mechanical hands clutched onto the Hawkwind and weighed him down.

"Get. OFF!" he shouted through the oxygen mask. He kicked and punched at the Buzzards viciously, trying to pull them off the Hawkwind and himself. He growled in pain as he felt them zapping at his flesh with their cattle prod-like stingers. They fired their thrusters off in numerous directions, causing the Hawkwind to stall and spiral out of control. Shadow threw off the ones on the wings and kicked at the one on his back until it got loose, then ripped its arms off and tossed the remains into the air.

Pressing a button on the Hawkwind's underside on his right, the wingspan and thrusters folded into the main body. Shadow finally stopped spiraling and regained control of his momentum, right as another wave of buzzards flew at him. He accelerated back upwards towards the Egg Carrier D and the buzzards, rolling to the side with greater agility than before as they made another lunge at him. In this mode, the Hawkwind wasn't as fast, but it was much more agile. Shadow continued to dodge and weave through the mass of them before flying backwards to avoid hitting the underside of the airship.

* * *

Bunnie flew over the port runway on the main deck, where another wave of buzzards were preparing to deploy. She held Sonic by his shoulders in her arms, preparing to drop him off. Right as they were within 20 meters of the buzzards, Bunnie released Sonic, who rolled up into a ball and barreled down at the crew like a blue cannonball. He bounced off one's head and launched himself down the runway in a wide arc. As soon as Bunnie let go of Sonic, she formed her hand back into the cannon and fired down on the buzzards, who were easily overwhelmed and destroyed under the sustained fire. Once they were disposed of, Bunnie turned her attention to the flak cannons, blasting them with balls of energy before they could target her. Sonic uncurled before he hit the ground and dashed across the deck, bowling through buzzards and crew members and knocking many of them off the edge. He made his way to the bridge, destroying as many of the bots as possible to clear the runway for Shadow and the Tornado IV.

Bunnie soared high above the deck, then circled around to the underbelly of the Egg Carrier D and punched through the hull with her mechanical arm. She broke through floor after floor, tearing through pipes, metal and robots alike. Eventually she pierced the other end of the bow, and she whirled back around and made another pass through.

* * *

A hail of gunfire from the Tornado IV peppered the runway, destroying any remaining buzzards before it made its final approach for a landing. Sally hopped out of the rear seat once the Tornado IV came to a complete stop, clutching her laptop close to her chest. Tails jumped down with her and escorted her up the ramp to the upper deck, where Sonic and Bunnie removed almost all resistance. As they made their way to the bridge, a huge metal fist larger than their bodies combined punched through the metal and tarmac in front of them.

* * *

Sonic burst into the bridge curled in a ball and shot around wildly inside, smashing computers and the crew members. When he ceased his carnage, he looked around for Eggman. He wasn't in here, as evidenced by the lack of an Egg-shaped man sitting in the large chair at the helm.

"Hmm, where did he get off to now?" he asked himself.

"Sonic, is that you?" called out a voice from behind the helm. Sonic hopped up onto the back of the chair and found Elias tied up on the floor, trying to inch his way across the ground like a worm.

"So that's where you got to, Elias." Sonic said. "Here, lemme get you out of these."

"Sonic, we have to get to the others!" Elias said as Sonic untied him. "Eggman is deploying his Eggnaut!"

"Eggnaut? What are you talking about?"

* * *

The Hawkwind was in terrible shape at this point. It may have been the constant punishment of buzzards zapping the craft with their stingers, or it could have been when Shadow collided with one of them at full speed, damaging the left thruster. The thrusters flickered, trying to maintain power. He guided it as best he could to the upper deck of the Egg Carrier D before it lost power entirely. The Hawkwind crashed into the tarmac and tumbled several meters before coming to a stop in a mess of twisted metal and sparks. Shadow ripped off the harness and his oxygen mask and threw the Hawkwind off his body. His skin burned from the hundreds of times he was stung, and it hurt to move. He staggered forward and saw Tails and Sally running up the ramp from the lower deck. Halfway across the upper deck, the two were intercepted by a giant metal fist punching through the tarmac. It withdrew briefly before a massive hulking robot burst forth from the floor. The robot was built in the likeness of Eggman, but menaced with iron spikes across the shoulders, forearms, and knees. The chest cavity was occupied by the Eggmobile and, subsequently Eggman.

"SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DESTROY MY SHIP WITHOUT PUNISHMENT?!" Eggman shouted. His voice was amplified and distorted to a near-deafening level. He sounded borderline demonic. "I WILL CRUSH YOU INTO DUST!"

"Sally, get away!" Tails shouted as the Eggnaut took a step back before charging forward. He grabbed Sally by the arm and pulled her to the side, right as the Eggnaut went charging at them, just missing them. Tails held Sally tighter and took off into the air with her. There was no way they could take on that iron menace head-on.

"FLYING WILL NOT SAVE YOU!" Eggman shouted. The Eggnaut skidded to a halt, tearing up the tarmac and creating a huge shower of sparks. It spun around to face Tails and Sally and leapt into the air with astounding agility.

"I HAVE YOU!" As the Eggnaut made a grab for the two, a black blur suddenly struck the chest cavity, stunning the Eggnaut and causing him to miss the grab. Eggman shielded his eyes from the static that covered the holographic interface on the glass dome created from the impact.

When the dome repaired itself and the interface was restored, Shadow the Hedgehog stood before him.

"YOU! HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU HAVE TO DIE?!" The Eggnaut charged at him and moved to smash Shadow into the ground. Even in his injured state, however, Shadow was too fast for the Eggnaut. He stepped to the side right before he got crushed, and the metal hand went right through the floor. He anticipated the Eggnaut to withdraw his hand, but instead, he dragged his arm across the ground towards Shadow, tearing up chunks of metal and tarmac. Shadow rolled back to avoid the slag being thrown at him, chunks the size of his body and metal fragments as sharp as knives came at him like rain. Even with his speed, it was too much for him to dodge; he got brained with a chunk of concrete and tumbled across the runway. He was knocked unconscious from the impact.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!! I KNEW YOU HAD TO RUN OUT OF LUCK SOME TIME!" The Eggnaut held out his arms. The forearms opened up, revealing a salvo of missiles. "THIS IS THE END FOR YOU!" All the missiles fired at once like a shotgun and struck Shadow, consuming him in a massive fireball. Eggman watched the spectacle with glee, proud that he was able to kill the ultimate life form. His expression changed, however, from exuberance to rage when he saw the fire get blown away by an energy field. Standing between Shadow and the Eggnaut was Bunnie, who created an energy field with her mechanical arm.

"WHAT?! WHERE DID YOU COME FROM!?!" Eggman shouted, but then he noticed the hole in the ground where Bunnie broke through, a foot from where Shadow lay.

"It's my turn." She said before charging at the Eggnaut, boosted by her thrusters. Eggman was unable to react in time, and Bunnie slipped past the Eggnaut's arms and punched the glass dome with her mechanical arm. The force field in front of the glass dome prevented her from punching all the way through, but the impact still got past, creating massive cracks in the dome. The Eggnaut was pushed less than a meter back, but considering the size and weight of the mech combined with the fact its feet never left the ground made that a really impressive feat.

"AUURRGHHH!" The Eggnaut fell to its knees as the computer console and interface inside made another reboot. The power draw brought the energy reserves down to 67%. If things did end up going awry, Eggman would need at least 30% power to return to base in the Eggmobile.

Bunnie made another charge straight at the Eggnaut, but this time Eggman managed to catch her in his hand.

"YOU'VE BEEN OBSOLETE FOR TOO LONG!" Eggman growled, clenching her with bone crushing force.

"UAAAGHH!" Bunnie cried out in pain as she felt the pain receptors in her metal body firing off. She felt like she was getting crushed like a soda can in the Eggnaut's grip. Desperate, she deployed her arm cannon and fired a large energy ball at the glass dome. The Eggnaut dropped her as it staggered back, suffering another power drain. Bunnie fell to her knees as she hit the ground, crying out in pain as she felt parts of her metal chassis give. Oil and coolant pooled around her feet, and she could feel severe motor damage done to both her legs; She couldn't move!

"RRRAARRGHHH! YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN DO THAT!" The Eggnaut's right hand folded back into its forearm and transformed into a cannon. A blue ball of energy materialized at the end of the bore, much larger than Bunnie's!

"EXCEPT MINE..." The Eggnaut lifted the cannon high over his head. "IS STRONGER!" He brought it down on her like a hammer. Bunnie held up her mechanical arm to stop the energy ball, using as much of her power as she could muster to create an energy field around her body. The force from the impact was so intense her feet became embedded in the tarmac, which melted from the intense heat. Her flesh burned and began to disintegrate, exposing the remaining organic muscle tissue underneath. Tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn't die here! She still had to look after everyone! Shadow, Sonic, Sally, Tails...

"ANTOINE!" she shouted, using all of her reserve energy to fire a burst of energy up into the Eggnaut's energy ball, dispersing it up into the air. Her body went limp. She couldn't fight back now, as the last of her energy was depleted. Her fur and skin were burned away from the level of heat from the energy ball. She couldn't feel anything, and her pain receptors were still on. She felt like she was dead already.

"YOU WASTED ALL THAT ENERGY FOR NOTHING!" Eggman announced, stepping back a few meters. "EVEN IF I CAN'T ELIMINATE SONIC..." the Eggnaut formed another ball of energy with the arm cannon. This would leave him with only 35% power. "I CAN STILL ELIMINATE YOU!!!!" He moved to fire the ball of energy, but a blue blur came out of nowhere and struck him in the glass dome right as he fired, causing him to stumble and miss the shot entirely. Sonic flipped backwards and landed before the Eggnaut. The energy ball soared across the tarmac and flew into the cloud cover around them, pushing away the water vapor from the intense heat.

"You leave her alone!" he growled. Eggman growled in frustration. He didn't have nearly enough energy left to combat Sonic. The chest plate on the Eggnaut popped open and the Eggmobile hovered out of the chest cavity. The Eggnaut went limp as it lost all power.

"Fine!" he said, his voice now unamplified. "At least one of you has died today! Next time, the rest of you won't be so lucky!"

Sonic immediately focused his attention on Bunnie, who collapsed in the pool of coolant and oil. She looked horrifically damaged, it was a wonder she was even still alive.

"NO! Bunnie!" Sonic said, running over to her. "Hang in there, Bunnie! We'll get you back to Knothole!"

Bunnie looked up at him and reached out with a burnt hand.

"S-Soonnic..." she whispered.

* * *

Elias led Tails and Sally into the engine room. He memorized the layout from the cargo room to the bridge after he got captured. The hull was perforated from Bunnie's onslaught earlier, but nothing truly hindered the pathway there.

"It's down here." Elias said as they climbed down the starwell. He led them to the back of the engine room, following the power cables in the grating as he did last time. He looked up at the pylon-shaped generator that housed the emerald and -

"What the hell?!" he exclaimed, running up to the generator and pressing his hands up against the glass. "It's supposed to be right here! Where did it go?!"

"Do you think Eggman took it with him when he came out in the Eggnaut?" Sally asked.

"I don't think so. He went straight for the hangar after you boarded." He explained.

"Wait, if the Emerald is gone, doesn't that mean the Egg Carrier D has nothing to power it?" Tails asked. Right after he made that point, the Egg Carrier D's weight shifted forward and to port.

"Great timing." Elias said. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

* * *

"No... that's impossible!" Sonic exclaimed. He watched with wide eyes as the coolant and oil began to recede back into Bunnie's mechanical parts. Her internal components reshaped and realigned themselves, and her chassis once again became smooth and shiny. Her incinerated skin became rejuvenated and restored, and her fur grew back. Her leotard, however, did not get restored, leaving her furry breasts bare. Finally Bunnie let out a sharp gasp of breath as she felt life breathe back into her body. She sat there, stunned and in awe at what happened.

"Huh? What?" She patted herself down, feeling the soft fur all over her body. There was no trace of the injuries she had sustained. "that's curious..."

"Bunnie, what happened?" Sonic asked slowly. He wasn't sure if he was to believe what he just saw. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him? His train of thought derailed, however, as the Egg Carrier D began to lisp forward and to port.

"Huh? What's going on?" he asked, standing up. "Did they remove the Chaos Emerald?"

He looked over at the entrance to the bridge and saw Tails, Elias and Sally running to them.

"Guys, did you get the Chaos Emerald?" he asked them.

"It wasn't there!" Elias replied. "I think the Egg Carrier D was running on emergency power! I don't think Eggman has it, either. He wouldn't have had time to reclaim it before heading to the Eggnaut." The four of them stumbled as the Egg Carrier D leaned further into the drop.

"Whatever! We'll figure this out when we get back to Knothole!" Sonic said. "Get back to the Tornado IV!"

As the three went back to the Tornado IV, Sonic turned to Bunnie, unable to find the words he wanted to say to her.

"Sugah, now is not the time!" Bunnie said. "I'll get Shadow, you skedaddle back to the Tornado IV now!" She ran over to Shadow's unconscious body and hoisted him up over her shoulder. She looked back at Sonic briefly and nodded before flying off into the open air.

The Egg Carrier D was now descending into the cloud cover. Sonic returned to his senses and ran back to the Tornado IV in time to hop on the tail. Elias took Bunnie's position next to him.

"Come on, let's get the hell out of here!" he said. Tails turned the Tornado IV around so it rode down the lower runway at the now 43 degree angle, catching enough speed to lift itself off the ship. Sonic looked back to see the Egg Carrier D get swallowed up by the cloud cover, where it would continue to descend and eventually crash into the ocean. As the group flew back to Knothole, he caught a glimpse of Bunnie up ahead, still flying as if she was never injured at all. He saw the whole thing. He saw her nearly get incinerated by the Eggnaut's attack. How was she still alive, and what restored her body back to normal?