The Egg Dragoon

Sonic was whacked in the head by a metal bar, and he snapped back to reality. He caught Tails on his way down, using his stretchy Dark Gaia Spawn arms to grapple across falling debris and reach the floor panel below that he would have splattered on had he not acted when he did. He took a second to catch his breath. He felt like he had swallowed his guts back down.

"YOU MEDDLESOME LITTLE HEDGEHOG!" Eggman shouted from within the Egg Dragoon. A large drill shot down at the platform and cracked it down the center. Sonic felt his legs move into a split position, and promptly stepped over to the right side. "I'll teach you once and for all to not mess around with matters bigger than yourself!" The Egg Dragoon shot at Sonic as he did his best to avoid the bullets. Tripping, rolling… balancing on the edge of the small platform. This was nowhere near an ideal position for Sonic. "Run around all you want, the only way we're going is straight down."

"Geez, Eggman! Simmer down! I beat you already!" Sonic shouted. The Egg Dragoon charged up some kind of nitrogen-based attack. Sonic looked all around as the platform fragmented, splitting into little pebbles save for his last place of refuge. He placed Tails behind him and put up his arms. He was hit by the liquid nitrogen, freezing for a second.

"You did not win! You took my assets… my ambitions! But this long game isn't over yet, and I OWN this board! So GIVE UP and DIE already!" Eggman shouted, shooting Sonic in the hands and in his knee. Sonic fell to the ground, unable to even clutch the wound. His fingers wouldn't curl right. The Egg Dragoon then grabbed him and flew him lower than the seemingly endless tunnel could reach, into the unspeakably colossal cave underneath the mantle of the planet. Sonic was slammed into an island floating above the core. Eggman hopped out of the Egg Dragoon and stood over him, cracking his knuckles. Sonic couldn't make the Egg Dragoon's fingers unlock from around him. He squirmed and struggled. He didn't stop struggling as Eggman began to punch and kick him in the head repeatedly, not stopping for a second.

"I'm TIRED of you getting in the way… EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!" Eggman shouted.

Sonic spat out teeth and blood. "No… please… stop… Please, I won't, I'll—" Eggman picked up a large pointy rock, and slammed it down onto Sonic's head. Sonic's vision got fuzzy. He tried to to protect his head with his hands. Eggman grabbed Sonic by the arm and forcefully pulled him out of the Egg Dragoon's barbed grip.

"Where's all that bravado now? That strength and drive you always pretended to have?" Eggman blabbered as he continued to beat Sonic into a bloody pulp. "Face it! You're done for. I'll bury you and your legion of miscreant allies in this pit you will never crawl out of. I'll make them scream for their lives as I tear them apart for EVERY SINGLE minor victory you've managed to scrounge up!"

"I don't want to die…" Sonic choked on his own dislocated throat. "I… won't…" Eggman dropped him and backed away as Sonic sparkled with Chaos Energy.

"What?" Eggman asked, before being electrocuted. "UAGGH!" He tossed Sonic into the distance, screaming until the electricity died out. At the last second, Tails swooped by and caught Sonic. Sonic gathered his bearings, and locked onto Eggman. Eggman scurried back into the Egg Dragoon, and shot wildly at Tails. Tails flew in close and allowed Sonic to Light Speed Attack the Egg Dragoon, slicing it from every angle. "Quit it! Stop this instant! What gives you the right to stand in the way of progress?"

"Nobody ever gave me any rights!" Sonic exclaimed, as he and Tails bashed into the cockpit from both sides. "You certainly never cared to, so I took my damn rights for myself!" Tails sliced the arms off of the Egg Dragoon.

"You rule with fear, not power," Tails told Eggman, as the fox and Sonic shredded the huge mech. "I think it says a lot that all it took for your grip on a whole regime to falter was us realizing we were worth something!" Sonic and Tails landed on the chestplate of the Egg Dragoon and started running all around it. Once they gathered enough speed, they leapt away and Homing Attacked into the Egg-O-Matic. It was sent crashing down to a small island poking out from the core.

Eggman pulled himself out of the useless wreckage, wheezing and hacking as he clutched a possibly punctured lung. "Lousy piece of junk…" Eggman grunted. Sonic and Tails landed in front of him, shaking the island and almost causing Eggman to slip off of the teetering landmass. He tried to stand, only to fall onto his rear end. Sonic punched him in the nose, and snatched his mustache.

"And now it's your turn to run away, Eggman," Sonic grumbled. Eggman looked to him in fear. Sonic shoved him over so he could fry a little on the searing ground. "Pack your shit, and leave. Don't even think about coming back. I'll just beat you every time." A deafening roar erupted from the inner core of the planet. Everyone covered their ears, watching as… something… emerged from the magma. First, the horns. Then, the eyes. A snakelike body. This could only be one thing…

Dark Gaia.