-
Light and Shadow
Part XI
-

Things had been better; that much he knew, Eggman mused as he felt his mecha shudder, smoke pouring out of the various joints and weapon systems as the power core were began to loudly proclaim it imminent shutdown. "Damn you fox, how dare you do this to my wonderful machine?"

Letting lose with a volley of shots, Eggman growled as Tails evade each one, firing back at him with several shots that shattered the right leg motors, standing him in place. "I hate you!" Punching a quick key combination, Eggman felt his Egg-O-Matic detach from the mecha and hover upwards, the few weapons installed warming up. "Take this!"

Tails quickly bringing his own mecha around felt the sudden tremor go through it as a loud shot rang out through the air, the lone Eggpawn who hit him getting blown up a second later as a blue blur shot past him. "Sonic?"

The blue colored hedgehog sliding to a stop merely held up his hand in a quick show of victory, then faced down Eggman as the Egg-o-Matic began to retreat across the deck. "Hey, where you going now Eggman?" Shooting a quick look over his shoulder, Sonic stared at Tails as the twin tailed fox left the mecha. "Tails, try and see if you can find us a ride out of here."

"Got it, but what about Amy?" Tails responded as he noticed Sonic about to leave, and the absence of the pink hedgehog from the scene. "She didn't, did she?"

Releasing a deep breath, Sonic quickly shook his head. "Long story buddy, I'll tell you all of it later, but right now, Amy isn't here." Rushing off, Sonic didn't offer any other explanation as he literally ran straight up a wall to catch up to Eggman before he got away.

Tails, left behind, merely scratched his head as he found it hard to figure out what Sonic had meant, then slowly lifted up to see if he could find something to get off the flying ship with.

A strong wind had picked up as Sonic cleared the last part, and landed on the tallest part of the egg destroyer, his eyes sweeping across the small deck, before finding Eggman facing him down, strangely enough this time with only his Egg-O-Matic to protect him. "What? Don't tell me you've given up Eggman?"

A harsh laughter came from Eggman as he watched Sonic carefully. "Hardly you little rodent, in fact, I'm going to defeat you this time around." Rapidly pushing buttons, Eggman laughed as several cables shot out from the Egg-O-Matic, each one grabbing onto a part of the Egg Destroyer and tearing them lose. "Face my ultimate Egg-O-Matic, the Egg Blaster!"

Facing down Eggman newest machine, Sonic merely grinned as his took in the large movable laser cannon mounted below the Egg-O-Matic, a green light already glowing around it. "Really, haven't you tried this before Eggman?"

Not responding, Eggman charged forward, raining death down wards as he pounded the metal surface of the ship with a powerful laser, superheating the metal as he watched Sonic dived out of the way and spin dash right towards him, only to rebound off a small shield. "Silly hedgehog, I've learned my lessons, this Egg-O-Matic can't be hurt by your little spin attack."

Sonic grimacing as he came face to face with the powering up laser cannon, far to close for comfort as he had to look away or go blind from the rising brilliance of death. "Dream on Eggman, I'll find a way to get through you shield."

A deep laughter greeting him as Eggman curled one finger up around the firing button. "No Sonic, this time, you can't do anything to stop me."

"But I can!" Both Eggman and Sonic turning around in time to see a massive metal object impact the egg-O-Matic, destroying the shield and leaving the machine wide open for an attack as it went flying off to the side, a metal hammer dropping to the ground. "And I have."

Eggman nearly spitting with rage as he took in the sight of the light purple female hedgehog facing him down, an wide smirk of self satisfaction on her face as she. "How dare you, I'm your creator, you should obey my every command!"

The cyborg Amy merely shrugged as she stepped backwards, her eyes shifting over to face Sonic. "I've paid you back for saving me, we're even now." Stepping off, she grinned as she rose back up into the air, her hands gripping the controls for the spare Egg-O-Matic easily. "I'll be seeing you."

Grinning as he jumped back up, Sonic turned to regard Eggman as he felt a renewed strength flow through him. "Alright Eggman, here I come!"

The egg shaped scientist screaming out loudly as he found himself facing down Sonic, the blue hedgehog giving him little to no chance of defending himself as he was all over him like a rash, his Egg-O-Matic's weapon falling apart after three powerful spin dashed, leaving him defenseless. "No, no, this can't happen, I, my plan was perfect!"

"Yeah, too bad you didn't bet on making her Amy like enough." Hitting the flying machine with one last attack, Sonic landed in time to see Eggman do a most impressive jump out of his machine, the heavyset scientist landing on his feet awkwardly before running off. "Try to do better next time around Eggman."

The only response coming in the form of a loud curse fired at him as Eggman vanished down a hidden elevator shaft.

Sonic merely smirked as he was off, heading back to where he had left Tails behind, the fox waving at him as he slid to a stop next to him. "Eggman's down for now, did you find us a ride out of here?"

Tails merely grinning as he looked over his shoulder at the hovering device. "Oh you could say that, I don't Eggman will mind us borrowing an Egg-O-Matic from him."

Following Tails gesture, Sonic whistled as he took in the sight of the round unit hovering above the ground. "Hey Tails, it doesn't really look like his normal type." Indeed, the machine was far larger, and clearly meant to carry not just Eggman, but also a small force of robots for protection as well.

"I know, but it works, so hop on!" Firing up the engines, Tails let out a small whoop as Sonic landed next to him, the ever present smile growing wider as they lifted off, the Egg destroyer continuing on its course across the ocean. "Hey, shouldn't we have crashed that thing while we were here?"

"Nah." Sonic responded as he dropped down, resting his head on a hand. "I think he's had enough for today." The blue hedgehog frowning a bit as he gazed over at Tails. "You know, Eggman was pretty smart back there, trying to trick us with a copy of Amy."

The color of Tails face turned lightly white as he thought about it, both from hearing that he'd been traveling with a fake Amy, and from the question of where the heck Amy was. "Sonic, we have to go back, if that wasn't Amy, we have to find the real one and-"

His sentence cut of as Sonic merely smirked, and held up a hand to calm him down. "It's okay Tails, my hedgehog sense tells me that Amy's safe and sound at this very moment."

A doubtful look was all he got from Tails as they continue towards their home.

Hours late, Tails and Sonic touched down near the wrecked workshop, Tails doing his best to hide his regret over the damage to his home as he shut down the engine. "Hey Sonic, we're back, you can wake up now." His comment earning him a snore as Sonic merely rolled over and kept on sleeping. "Come on, we can't just stay here, we have to find out if Amy is okay."

"Of course I'm okay." Amy responded as she stepped out from the workshop, her quills lightly fuzzed up as she was holding a mop in one hand and a bucket in the other one. "No thanks to you two, it was Shadow who saved me, which reminds me, what happened to my clone?"

Amy standing right before them, she lowered her gaze to Sonic and shook her head. "Long day huh?" Shrugging, she but down the mop and bucket and turned around. "Well come on, I'll heat up some leftovers for you and you can tell me all about your adventure."

Tails, not even faced by the sudden change in personality merely followed her, only stopping as Sonic decided to snore a bit louder. "What about Sonic, shouldn't we wake him up?"

Regarding the blue hedgehog, Amy merely grinned as she grabbed the bucket and tipped it over, earning herself a loud scream of anger from Sonic and a loud wail of protests from Tails. "See, he's awake now." Amy finished as she ducked away from Sonic as he jumped up, fur dripping with dirty water. "Now hurry up, the foods not getting done if you keep standing around."

"Amy!" The twin protests delivered almost as one, as a twin tailed fox and a blue colored hedgehog trailed after her, the pink hedgehog waving around the half empty bucket of dirty water threateningly, moving backwards as she kept her smile going while laughing as Sonic's appearance.

He had been here for hours, watching all of the data stored within the vast network of the very heart of the Eggman Empire, his AI working at full power to process it all.

Running System check...

All systems at 100 percent.

Memory fully loaded.

Weapon and combat system fully operational.

Main objectives:
1) Defeat Sonic the Hedgehog (Primary).
2) Serve and protect Dr Eggman (Secondary).
3) Aid in establishment of Eggman Empire (Tertiary).

His programming was perfect, yet something was off, something didn't feel right about this. "My designation is ER-001, model type is mark five series, code name, Egg Robo." Slamming one hand down onto the machine, the robot leaned forward as the electric version of a headache flowed through his CPU.

Main objectives:
1) Defeat Sonic the Hedgehog (Primary).
2) Serve and protect Dr Eggman (Secondary).
3) Aid in establishment of Eggman Empire (Tertiary).

Eyes dimming as he reread his preprogrammed order, he felt something inside of him rebelling against it, refusing to serve under anyone but himself.

"Success of Eggman Empire creation estimated at 0,5 percent, defeat of Sonic the Hedgehog, 0,0 percent." Eggrobo's voice droned out as the small robot hovered silently within Eggman's main chamber, each monitor and computer screen showing a different scene from the countless battles against Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends.

It was clear that the good doctor wouldn't stand a chance of ever winning at the rate things were going. In fact, the only way to win seemed to consist of.

Main objectives:
1) Defeat Sonic the Hedgehog (Primary).
2) Serve and protect Dr Eggman (Secondary).
3) Aid in establishment of Eggman Empire (Tertiary).

Warning, system and memory show sign of corruption.

New data conflicting with initial system configuration, repairing...

Overwriting erroneous data.

Moving his attention to one specific screen, Eggrobo merely watched the same fotage over and over again. "Metal-Sonic, Metal-Madness, Metal-overlord." Computer brain working rapidly, Eggrobo lifted his head to face the large picture of Eggman standing before the Eggman Empire logo. "Metal-Sonic plan success rated at 60 Percent."

"I am."

System repairs completely.

Loading Main Objectives.

Main Objectives loaded.

Review objectives:
1) Defeat Sonic the Hedgehog (Primary).
2) Defeat Dr. Eggman. (Secondary).
3) Establish Eggrobo Empire (Tertiary).

"I am Eggrobo, the ultimate robot built by doctor Eggman."

"My goal is to surpass my creator."

Turning around to face the Eggpawns and Badnic's crowed together behind him, the robotic Eggman copy's eyes glowed as he lifted up his right hand, a large laser gun held loosely in it. "For the Eggrobo Empire to succeed, Eggman must be removed."

"Know this, I am Eggrobo and I will rule this world as the supreme-" The rest of the sentence cut off as a laser neatly cut right through Eggrobo forehead, leaving the robot standing still for a lone second, before toppling back over.

The various eggpawns and badnicks slowly turning to face the Eggmobile hovering above them with Eggman sitting silently behind the control panel, one extra large smoking laser gun in his right hand, a dark scowl on his face as he regarded each robot in turn. "Well, now that that's dealt with, you can get back to work1"

Watching the robot storm out of the room with a panic fever until he was alone, Eggman returned his attention to the smoldering wreck before him. "I've had enough of traitors and failures today."

Moving his Eggmobile forward, he grumbled as he watched the various screens. "Although, he had a point, my plans have failed to often." Rubbing one hand across his chin, Eggman slowly smirked as he focused on the image of Metal-Sonic. "Even all of my robot copies of Sonic have failed, but I wonder, how will a cyborg version fair?"

Laughing as he began to call up the data on the Shadow Android and Amy Cyborg, his eyes glinted as he read through the data once more, the beginnings of a truly dark plan forming inside his brain, a plan that would finally destroy Sonic once and for all.

The End.

AN:

Cheesy end, cheesy end, boo!

Is this all they get after such a long time?

Yup.

After so long, this story ends, and despite the promise of a new part to this story, it's not very likely, I will however try and see if I can make this small idea I have about Shadow, Amy and the time stones grow into something.