Giant Ally Spider
"Look, Eggman, I know you're angry, but we can't just go to Angel Island by ourselves! Okay, we CAN, but we'd be facing an entire army by ourselves!"
"That SOB has Vanilla and Cream Sonic!"
"And what do you think he might do to them them moment he sees you coming?!" He yelled back. "Besides, that's exactly what he wants you to do, go to Angel Island angry and alone. Plus, last time I checked, none of us have wings, and the shuttle is back at HQ."
I hated to acknowledge it, but Sonic was right. How were we supposed to go to a floating island without meeting with the others? I could have just make something out of the many wrecked robots surrounding us, and even the base itself, but at the same time I wasn't stupid, I couldn't just take on Neo Metal Sonic head on, I would need Sonic and the others. We needed a lift.
But then I remembered. Silver wasn't just a telepathic.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" The silver hedgehog asked worriedly, but I didn't notice, staring at him intently while also thinking.
He was a also psychic, just like jedi, psionics, maybe biotics... and we all know that, with a bit of effort, telekinesis can be used to build things. That game me an idea.
"You! Inside my head, now!" I exclaimed at him before grabbing his head, him panicking for a second before realizing what I wanted him to do, while Sonic took Whisper's rifle from her before she did something too hasty.
By now it should be clear to you guys what I wanted to do, combine my creativity and capacity for armed vehicles with Silver's telekinesis, which would have enabled me to build something both fast and well armed, like a gunship.
However, despite literally inheriting nothing from Eggman, I was still him, and while I still wanted to be a hero, hearing both Metal Sonic and that platypus doubt (if only at first) that I was the real deal just because I became good, I decided to remind not just them, but everyone in Mobius, that no, I had not hit my head in a rock and forgot everything and became another person, or that I got infected by 'good', that I was still the good ol' doctor.
And what else to remind people that I was still Eggman that making a ridiculous and impractical machine that could kicks ass anyway?
And one based on a certain steampunk Western comedy, plus several upgrades, at that?
Slowly but surely, anything made of metal and close enough was grabbed by Silver's kinetic field and taking on a certain shape: legs, inner rooms, mechanisms, whirly things, fans, rails...
By the time I let go of Silver, we had a huge, looming and (most imporant of all) perfectly functional tarantula-shaped walker-helicarrier hybrid standing above us, with two railguns on its chin and several pairs of large rotors hanging from its sides, which also were the mech's power source, like with wind turbines. Don't ask me to explain it how it worked despite the scale difference, it just did.
"Woah..." The three mobians behind me breathed in awe as the took on the massive vehicle, even Whisper. Okay, only two mobians; Silver had dropped to the ground holding his head and complaining about being a treated like tool for the first time in his life. Apparently being used as a building machine takes its toll. Too bad for him I didn't care.
"Get in! We've got some robots to scrap!" I cried to them.
"But where are the-" Sonic began to ask before I simply climbed up one of the legs and onto the head (which was just as big as it was in the film plus a specialized control panel for a single-armed person) and remembering he could just jump. "Oh right. C'mon, let's follow him!" He said before jumping, with Silver flying behind and grabbing Whisper.
"Alright, all systems functional and the rotors are revving up! Prepare for the take off, so hold onto something!" I yelled as I prepared the spider to fly.
"Eggman! The roof!" Silver screamed before we simply flew through the metal roof of the base, the sunlight blinding us for a moment. "Nevermind."
When the spider was high enough, I looked around, wondering where would I put my island if I were a hot-headed echidna. In the end I didn't have to search for long. In the distance, far away but not enough that the curvature of Mobius hid it, I saw a large thundercloud surrounded by flying spots that I knew were armed airships. I was a genius, but even if I hadn't been it was pretty damn obvious what it really was.
"So... what's the plan?" Silver asked me as we approached the island. Despite the racket the rotors made, I could still hear him since he was just a couple feet away. "Because I don't think you'll just give yourself up to that guy and Metal Sonic."
"First we have to get there. Then, I'll think of something."
"That's it?" Silver said in an incredulous tone as the tarantula advanced forwards. "Make me build a big spider that flies, get to Angel Island, and done?"
"I said I'll think of something, alright?!" Yeah, I was doing the classical missing steps plan, but what else would have I done, just blast the island then and there? I didn't want to harm the girls by accident, and as much as I loathed him I didn't fancy leaving Knuckles without both a home and a job, at least for the moment.
Funny, I ended up forgetting the last part and attacking the island itself, if only a bit.
Eventually we were close enough to see just how how many defenses had Metal Sonic placed on the island, how large was the fleet protecting it, and the large, ugly statue depicting me when I was still evil, grinning and with one hand raised and pointing at the sky.
"Eggman, there's a ship approaching us." Whisper said, speaking for the first time since we got on board.
"From what direction."
"Behind us, and far."
"I see it." Sonic said after going through the spider, taking a look from its rear, and coming back. "It's far, but I recognize that shape. It's the Resistance shuttle. Maybe we should-"
"Another ship, this time in front of us!" Silver screamed, interrupting Sonic. Sure enough, one of the ships making out Metal Sonic's fleet broke off and flied towards us.
"Eggman, that ship is getting awfully close to us..." Sonic warned as the ship came closer and closer.
Which was exactly what I wanted it to do.
Now, you might be asking why I was recreating the Thunder Child tactic (that is, allowing an enemy to get close to you before blasting them to hell), and I'll give you the answer, which is twofold: first, I didn't want to waste a single railgun shot since, as genius as I am, I can't create matter out of thin air; I only had fifteen shots per railgun, thirty in total, so I had to make them count. Again, don't ask me how I knew, it'll be too complicated and long for me to explain-ok, fine, I just lied: I made Silver add an ammo counter.
Second reason? I wanted to test a theory of mine: superpenetration, basically overpenetration except the first target still dies from the shot. Yes, I made up the word, but who cares?
"Eggman?" Silver warned me as I aimed the head towards the approaching airship. We were already inside the storm, but neither the wind nor the thunder worried me. In fact, I liked it, being inside one of the most primal forces of nature and yet utterly defying it with engineering.
"Now, partners, watch as Metal Sonic gets a load of... THIS!" I yelled with a ferocious snarl before pressing the firing button of the left railgun.
There was a roar of thunder, and the ship, and a small part of the island behind it, exploded into a million pieces by the force of a 75 kg projectile being propelled at a speed of approximately 30 kilometers per second, creating a explosive blast equivalent to ten tons of TNT or, in layman's terms, the equivalent of a sabot delivering the same energy of a MOAB.
Yes, a bit stupid of me to attack an immobile target at very close range with a high-hypersonic gun, but c'mon, railguns!
"Wohoo!" Silver cheered as I continued my onslaught, destroying other three ships, with two slugs keeping going and hitting the peak of a mountain and the underside of the island; it didn't matter when they finally realized what was going on and attacked. Obviously this wasn't what I had in mind, but at that moment I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't care if I ended up destroying it. Sonic, however, wasn't as gleeful nor forgetful, which was a good thing for me, because, well, read below.
"Knuckles is gonna get a bit upset. And by a bit upset I mean frothing at the mouth with unstoppable rage."
"Sonic, Knuckle Boy can kiss my behind for all I care." I said as one ship got close enough to us to allow me to get right above it and crush it with the tarantula's legs.
"What about the rabbits we're supposed to rescue?" Whisper... whispered. "What if you end up damaging Ange Island enough to make it drop to the sea below? Worse, what if you end up destroying them by accident?" I don't know if she really was worried for them or just wanted to make me suffer, but I don't care.
THAT made me stop attacking, if only to make sure the next shots wouldn't hit Angel Island. I hadn't forgot about them, I was just too carried away by my anger and the feeling of invincibility you get by piloting a weapon of partial mass destruction to notice the flaw of my plan and forget the reason I didn't want to attack the island to begin with. I was like that.
So I updated my plan: destroy the fleet surrounding Angel Island, land on it, scare the shit out of Starline and Metal Sonic, and rescue Vanilla and Cream. The others would do whatever they wanted to do, I just came to get the girls. Not that I wouldn't help them taking the island back, but it wasn't my main concern at the moment.
"Incoming fighters!" Sonic yelled. Sure enough, at least a full squadron of small, fast aircraft strafed us with lasers and missiles. The lasers barely even scratched the armor of the tarantula, but the missiles were enough to shake it. Worse still, several flying Badniks were behind them, much slower but numbering in the dozens, obviously planning on a boarding action.
Immediatly after the mech righted itself, I pressed another button and three rotary airguns popped out of the back of the tarantula. Yes, airguns. Don't be fooled by the name, though: thanks to my engineering, the air pressure was enough to propel bullets at hypersonic speeds, and were both big and fast enough to deal with the fighters. Plus, it would give Whisper, who had been using her gun until now with limited success, a REAL weapon to fight back.
"Whisper, if Silver did it right there has to be a terminal outside of the tarantula next to those turrets! It's their control! Man it and take those fighters out, I can't shoot at something so fast!" Then, not caring if she agreed to my plan, I turned to the hedgehogs. "You two, go on a rodeo with 'em!"
The hedgehogs promptly jumped into the fray with wide, daring smiles, with Sonic landing and destroying, or doing the top-spin thingy on the robots to wreck them, and Silver kicking, punching or grabbing machines with his psychich powers to throw them at others. Whisper, despite my fears, did as I had asked her, and it turned out she was one hell of a crackshot with the airguns even though she was using what was basically an screenless arcade under enemy fire, alternating between the turrets and her rifle if a flying Badnik got too close.
While they were demonstrating why I always lost when I was evil, I was doing a strafing dance with a battleship, the biggest (and eventually the last) of the fleet. Its weapons were simply too slow to hit my tarantula, but at the same time it was too close to Angel Island for me to just send it to airship hell, and I didn't want to test if I could to the same thing with the legs as I did before since it was bigger than the walker.
So, taking another page from the Thunder Child with a Robotnik twist, I sped towards the enemy ship, even as its guns hit my flying walker, doing negigible but still noticeable damage. Then, when I got close enough that whatever AI controlling the ship decided to not risking the tarantula exploding and taking it out, instead of stopping, I flew around and rammed its engines; after that I grabbed the ship with the tarantula's legs before it fell to the island below, the servos of the mech being strong enough to keep the now defenseless ship secure on its grasp as I flew over the statue.
Then, making sure that it couldn't move at all, let the ship drop over the statue of me, destroying it.
Sonic and Silver (and as I found out later, the Resistance, now close enough to see the battle in person. Sans Knuckles and Shadow, obviously) cheered when the enemy ship fell, while I landed the tarantula on the island.
And then, just as I got up from my seat with revolver in hand (at that distance firing the main guns would have been suicide), my mind made me remember what happened to the Thunder Child after it destroyed two tripods.
Unfortunately, either The War of the Worlds existed here in some form or the universe I was living in decided to recreate the last stand of the Thunder Child completele,y because at that moment Neo Metal Sonic decided to take matters into his own hands.
By ramming the tarantula with enough force to cut it in half from the middle and sending me flying.
Should have seen it coming, but by being a moron I didn't!
I fell for at least five seconds, before crashing my head against a rock, and losing consciousness. The last thing I saw was Metal Sonic, who now sported a golden hull, flying towards me with his arms outstreched.
And Vanilla screaming.