//------------------------------// // 52. Stone Garden Zone Act 2: Egg Breaker // Story: Spider in Equestria // by DarkSpider //------------------------------// Dark blinked as he saw the bot and the machine it was on. Cece then said, "Is it me or does that thing look like the bad guy from Sonic? What was his name…?" "Eggman," Dark answered as he stared at the robot. "Looks like we know who made those bots now…" “The Doctor prefers to go by the name, Robotnik.” The EggRobo said, piloting the machine to float downwards. Behind the robot, a group of black and blue robotic bees flew up to it, many of them aiming their stingers at the trio. "Great, another group of killer bees," Cece muttered with an annoyed tone as she readied her hammer. "As if the pokemon weren't bad enough." “Please,” It started, raising its gloved hands in a calming gesture. “There is no reason for us to fight. We were only sent here to collect the Chaos Emeralds. It would be within your best interest to surrender them to us.” It said, lowering down its right hand to receive the emerald. “Give us the Emeralds, and we’ll leave. There doesn’t have to be any strife between us. Once we get what we came here for, we’ll leave peacefully.” "Give Eggman the Emeralds?" Dark asked. "I'm pretty sure a main point in the franchise is to make sure to keep those things away from old Baldy McNosehair, so we'll pass." He then summoned Lycan Web and gripped it as he took off his hood to no longer obscure his vision. “Aren’t you a hero?” The robot asked, pulling its hand away from them. “Is it not your job to deescalate the situation, to stop violence not cause it? Especially when there’s a good chance civilians could get caught in the battlefield?” It questioned, its eyes briefly turning to the farm house before looking back at Dark. "It's also my job to make sure bad guys don't get their hands on dangerous items if I can help it," Dark growled out as his eyes started turning red, though the bot seemed completely unfazed by it. “The Doctor isn’t bad.” It responded, shaking its head. “His goals align with yours! You both seek to make Equestria a much better place. He seeks to make Equestria a utopia!” It said, spreading its arms out wide. “No crime, no villains, only peace and prosperity! There won’t be any need for heroes, because Equestria will become a paradise when the Doctor’s mission is complete. You should be helping us!” It stared at Dark, noticing how its words were having no effect. “But alas… you are far too narrow minded to see the glory Dr. Robotnik will bring. What a shame.” Rainbow looked at the siblings. "You getting tired of this guy too?" The Displaced nodded and spoke in unison. "Yup." "Okay then," she said before she sent a few ice shards at the main bot and some bees. The robot calmly started fiddling with the console on the hovercraft, after pressing a few buttons, a large shield made of fire suddenly appeared, protecting the Badnik. The bees were quick to hide behind the fire shield, all of them avoiding the ice attack. As soon as all the ice melted, the bees quickly swarmed the heroes, the Buzz Bombers all stayed high up in the air, trying to keep their distance as they all fired bolts of energy from their stingers. Seeing that the heroes were now all distracted, EggRobo began pressing a few more commands on its console. Behind the Egg Mobile, two large portals appeared, and suddenly a large horde of insect-like robots began pouring out of the portals. Seeing their targets, the machine army wasted no time in swarming them and attacking as one. Dark hissed, feeling one of the large ladybug robots cut his leg with its scythes. He swung down Lycan Web on the retreating Motobug, only for it to out speed him and get away. Before he could chase the bot, a large purple caterpillar burst from the ground, the Caterkiller hissed at him before biting down on his Keyblade. Dark tugged on his Keyblade, trying to pull his weapon out of the robot’s mouth. Upon finally pulling the weapon out of the bot’s mouth, he quickly sliced the bot’s head in half, causing it to fall backwards. The fallen insect’s body began thrashing about, causing Dark to point his blade at it, preparing to strike. However before he could attack, the middle segment of the Caterkiller suddenly opened up, revealing a glowing green orb. The orb shined brightly for a moment before disappearing, leaving a dazed squirrel behind. The animal looked at its surroundings in confusion before darting in a random direction, squealing as it ran. Before Dark could think or respond on what he just saw, he was forced back into the fight by his spider-sense screaming at him to dodge. Looking back at what triggered his spider-sense, his eyes widened when he saw a checkerboard pattern wrecking ball swing past him, barely managing to dodge it at the last second. Looking towards the source of the attack, he spotted the egg shaped robot piloting the hovercraft, a chain connecting the wrecking ball to the vehicle. Dark was suddenly forced to crouch down as he felt a weight being pressed down onto him. Cece then jumped off of Dark, her hammer raised high to strike the Badnik Commander. With a yell, she swung her hammer down at the Egg Mobile, causing the robot commander to fly off of it. The egg shaped robot crashed onto the ground, his blaster landing right next to him. The hovercraft fell out of the sky, crashing onto the ground and crushing a few badniks that were under it. Wanting to finish the fight quickly, Rainbow darted towards the fallen robot, a sword made of ice forming on her hand. Just as she was about to cut down the machine, the robot quickly rolled to its side, dodging the strike. Before Rainbow could attack again, the robot’s rockets burst to life, flames shooting out from under the rockets as the EggRobo quickly few away from the pegasus. Satisfied with the distance it created, the top of its head suddenly opened up, a volley of missiles shooting out of the opening. Rainbow gulped, taking off to the skies to try to lose the missiles, only for the missiles to curve upwards, following closely behind her. Turning around, she shot out a few icicles at the missiles, successfully managing to take down a few of them. She grit her teeth a sharp pain in her back as one of the buzz bomber’s projectiles hit her. She turned and spotted a trio of Buzz Bombers shooting at her. Flying straight down, she tried to lose both the airborne enemies and remaining missiles. She pumped her fist in the air when she heard the missiles hit the Buzz Bombers. From the explosion, a trio of green orbs fell from the sky, crashing onto the floor. The orbs flashed brightly for a second before disappearing, leaving a trio of confused animals behind. The animals were quick to scurry away from the danger. The EggRobo let out a series of beeps, doing its best to dodge the swings of Cece’s hammer. The hedgehog continued to swing her hammer into her foe, not giving the robot any time to rest or counterattack. Already the strategy began to pay off as she managed to land a few blows, creating sizeable dents on the robot’s armor. Suddenly the robot commander’s chest split open, causing Cece to pause. From the EggRobo’s chest, a large, bronze colored cherry bomb rolled out from it and fell in front of the duo. The bronze colored bomb had two holes meant to resemble eyes, and possessed a white mustache under the bomb’s eyes. Cece’s eyes widened, and she quickly raised up her hands to cover her face before the bomb exploded. The force of the explosion was enough to send her flying back towards the farm house, knocking her unconscious. From the large dust cloud the EggRobo flew out of the cloud and back into his hovercraft. Pressing a single button, the Egg Mobile hummed to life and started floating mid-air once again. Dark gritted his teeth when he saw his sister get knocked out, wanting to go out to help her but being unable to. He allowed himself a sigh of relief when he saw the others pulling Cece inside the house. Upon knowing his sister was safe, he began giving his robot foe his full attention once more. Now sneaking glances at the Badniks' commander while trying to come up with a plan to defeat him. Before Dark could destroy the giant mantis robot, the machine was suddenly hit by both a volley of small fireballs and a single large ball of water. Both attacks managed to cause the Slicer’s upper body to explode. A single green orb fell out of the upper body, leaving behind another animal. Dark turned back and saw both Emily and Mike running towards him, looking behind the two he spotted Screwball with Mike’s pokeball in her hand. Dark gave a small nod towards the pink filly, he then turned towards EggRobo, and began shouting commands to his Frogadier. “Mike, Smokescreen!” The ninja like frog nodded and jumped above the robot commander. He then spat out a large cloud of smoke, completely blinding EggRobo. The smokescreen continued pouring out of the pokemon’s mouth, covering not only the leader, but blinding the badniks as well. Wanting to take advantage of the enemies’ sudden blindness, the pokemon covered himself in a white aura before darting towards the smoke cloud and headed towards the hovercraft. From the smokescreen, the Egg Mobile was thrown out, spinning around as it crashed onto the ground. The EggRobo hurriedly tried to restart the vehicle before any of the heroes could get to him. Upon seeing his enemies run towards him, he began calling at the remaining Badniks, commanding them to protect him from them. Seeing the remaining robots line up to shield the robot commander, the heroes stopped, then Rainbow, Mike and Emily stepped forward, gathering up their energy. The three then released their energy towards the robots, hitting them all with fireballs, icicles, and large blast of water. The Badniks all crumbled under the attack, their armor not being strong enough to withstand the attacks. Many of the robots’ bodies exploded from the combined assault, creating a large dust cloud. From the dust cloud, many animals scurried away from the danger, all of them darting to random directions. Once the dust settled, Dark quickly darted towards the downed Egg Mobile. Upon spotting the panicking EggRobo, Dark restrained him with his webs on to the hovercraft. Seeing that the robot was now trapped, Dark let out a small sigh of relief. “Got anymore tricks?” He asked, keeping his distance from the Badnik. The robot’s eyes gleamed as it stared at Dark, “Just a few more.” Suddenly the ground in front of the heroes exploded as a small group of large, red mole-like robots crawled out from underground. The group of Grounders pointed their drills at the heroes, their drill arms whirling menacingly. Taking advantage of the group’s surprise, one of the Grounders immediately darted towards the EggRobo and used its drill arm to cut the webbing that was trapping him. Quickly turning on the Egg Mobile, the robot commander began to float away from the group. Turning back down at them, his eyes shined brightly once more. “I’ve tried being nice, I tried to give you an easy way out. But since you insist on being difficult, I’m afraid more drastic measures must be taken.” A large portal opened up behind the EggRobo. Turning his vehicle around, the robot flew into the portal. It only took a few seconds before something else jumped out of the same portal, landing behind the red Grounders. The object that landed was a giant machine that was a head taller than the Pie family’s house, the EggRobo having sat at the top of the machine’s head. The machine was humanoid in shape, with a black underside and a red and blue color scheme at the top. The legs of the robot was blue, with the feet being a bright red. On the robot’s left hand was a giant blue ball with yellow spikes. The green eyes of the robot lit up as it glared down at the heroes, its spike-like nose briefly whirled as if it was a drill. The mouth of the machine opened up and chomped down, showing off its sharp teeth. Dark sighed. "You gotta be kidding me…" “Now, let me show you just what fate awaits those who defy the Doctor!” The Egg Breaker briefly flexed its arms before  the giant mech leaped forward and brought down its mace arm to crush the assembled group. The group all quickly scattered, avoiding the giant mace. The impact shook the ground though, and caused them to stumble. Seizing the advantage, the EggRobo spun the Egg Breaker’s upper body. That caused everyone around him to get hit by the mace, even destroying a few of the Grounders close to him. Rainbow let out a cry of pain when the mace hit her in the back, causing her to be flung towards the rock farm’s front gate. She crashed into the wooden fence, breaking it. She groaned as she struggled to get up, hissing in pain when she tried to flap her splintered wings. Turning back towards the fight, she quickly dropped towards the ground again and narrowly avoiding the spiked ball that was shot towards her. The ball soon returned, being drawn back in by a chain that connected the ball to the mech. Her eyes widen as an idea popped into her head, she quickly got up and looked around the field and spotted Dark. “Tito! We gotta break the chain!” “As if I’d give you the chance!” The EggRobo called out, making the mech jump towards the cyan pegasus. Before Rainbow could get out of the way, she was quickly pushed away by Mike. The Frogadier held onto to her as he used his speed to pull them both away from the mech’s range. As soon as they were out of the danger, she turned back towards the pokemon and smiled. “Thanks Mike.” The frog nodded, letting out a single croak. Dark let out a sigh of relief at Mike’s action. Turning back towards the EggRobo, he scowled at the bot as he gripped the keyblade tighter. Darting towards the mech, he dodged the robot’s swipes and jumped high into the air. Making direct eye contact with the badnik leader, he swung the Lycan-Web down at the EggRobo with the intention of cutting the robot down. The egg-shaped humanoid quickly threw his left arm up in the air, trying to block the blow. The EggRobo let out a high pitched beep as his left arm was cut off by the keyblade. His eyes shined brightly as the robot began to feel something within him bubble. With his remaining arm, EggRobo quickly took out his blaster from his waist and began firing at Dark. The Spider let out a cry in pain, as a few of the blaster’s energy bolts tore through his clothing and left scorch marks on his skin. Taking advantage of the situation, the EggRobo quickly began piloting the mech once again and had the Egg Breaker leap towards Dark. When it got in front of him, the mech pulled its mace arm back and backhanded Dark towards the large boulder that was next to the Pie family’s home. Not giving Dark any chance to recover, the top part of the EggRobo’s head split open as he fired a volley of missiles at the boulder, breaking it apart with most of it flying at Dark and burying him. “Tito!” Rainbow yelled, fearing the worst, the two pokemon besides her also calling out with the same emotion. “Do not worry.” The monotone voice of the EggRobo called out to them. “You’ll all be joining him very soon.” The Egg Breaker leapt towards the trio, its spiked ball raised high in the air. The three of them scattered, dodging the attack and getting out of the range of the shockwave in time. Turning towards the two Pokemon at his left, the EggRobo’s head split open once more as a volley of missiles shot towards them. The Frogadier quickly grabbed his partner and ran from the missiles using Quick Attack. The Fennekin in Mike’s arms began shifting around, and as soon as she got in a proper position, she began firing embers at the missiles and trying to destroy them all. Suddenly the ground beneath Mike collapsed, looking down, the frog pokemon spotted one of the red mole robots under him. The Grounder unit grabbed the Pokemon’s leg, refusing to let go of him. Both Mike and Emily let out a shriek as the missiles caught up to them, the deadly explosives went off catching the three of them in the blast. A large cloud of smoke obscured everyone’s vision of the pokemon. When the smoke cloud disappeared, both of the Pokemon were found on the ground, battered and unconscious.  Rainbow paled when she saw the damage the pokemon took. Taking a step forward towards them, she was stopped by the Egg Breaker planting its foot right in front of her. EggRobo’s eyes gleamed maliciously as it stared at the now scared pegasus. “Do you see now, the consequences of your actions? Had you simply surrendered the emeralds, none of you would’ve been hurt, and we would’ve left peacefully.” The mech took a step forward and slowly brought its spiked hand down, stopping when it was right in front of her. “Now because of your foolishness, all of your friends are now suffering. And the family of this farm are now terrified, because you didn’t think!” The EggRobo said harshly. “Perhaps now I’ll take those two animals of yours with me. They’ll make fine batteries for our Super Badniks.” Next to the house, the pile of rubble that buried Dark began to shift. A single black arm shot out of the pile of rocks, a moment later the bonded form of Dark and Venom crawled out of the debris in Venom's monstrous form. They glared at the EggRobo with red eyes as they growled. Seeing that the robot was distracted, they grabbed a large rock and flung it towards the mech’s pilot. The EggRobo let out a series of panicked beeps as the Egg Breaker stumbled around, the left eye of the mech getting smashed by a large rock. Turning towards the source of the rock, the robot ‘glared’ at the bonded pair. “So this is where you disappeared to LS-1. What a shame. You had so much potential. Unfortunately for you, the empire does not tolerate traitors!” The mech turned away from Rainbow, EggRobo giving the bonded symbiote his full attention. The mech flexed its arms for a brief second before running towards them, its spiked arm pulled back as it prepared to punch them. The bonded pair quickly grabbed another large stone and leapt out of the debris. Seeing that they were now above the mech, they extended their arm downwards, successfully managing to stab the mech’s chest and lodging the stone deep into the machine. The Egg Breaker let out a mechanical groan, its upper chest shaking slightly. Taking advantage of the situation, the pair began claw at the machine’s chest, creating large gashes and claw marks. The EggRobo growled, feeling something inside him bubble. Meddling with the console, he tried to regain control of the battle again. He had the Egg Breaker swing its mace around in a vain attempt to hit the symbiote. The mech suddenly stumbled forward. When the bot turned around to see the reason why, it spotted the rainbow haired pegasus launching icicles at him. The robot’s eyes shined brightly as it turned the mech around. “STAY OUT OF THIS!” The left arm let out a hiss as the spiked ball shot out towards her. Rainbow only had enough time to bring her arms up to shield herself. The spiked ball then crashed into her, tossing the pegasus away. Rainbow fell hard onto the floor, her body shuddering as she struggled to breathe. Her eyes were dazed and unfocused as she just stared blankly at the sky. Taking a sharp breath, she struggled to stay awake before finally falling unconscious. "Rainbow!" The pair shouted together as she was knocked out. They then glared at EggRobo. "We'll make you pay for that!" “Make me pay?” The EggRobo repeated, letting out a chuckle. “Look around you!” It said, spreading out its remaining arm in a gesture for him to look around. The duo spotted Mike and Emily’s still forms. “All of your allies have tried to make me pay and they all have fallen. Quit embarrassing yourselves! Even with LS-1 at your side, you cannot hope to stand up against the genius that is Dr. Robotnik.” The mech raised its arms and flexed once more, before slamming its mace down at the ground in front of them. “The animals will serve the empire as batteries for future badniks. You, that pegasus, the hedgehog, and everyone else in this rock farm will not live to see the end of the day.” The bonded pair stared wide eyed at their fallen friends, as a feeling of dread began to fill their body. They opened their mouth to speak but couldn’t utter a single word, as they felt their throat tightened. Taking a step backwards, the bonded symbiote brought a claw up to their head as they grumbled, their other claw clenched into a fist as it trembled. “What is the matter?” The EggRobo jeered, seeing their reaction to be one of fear. “Do you now see your folly in challenging the Doctor? It is far too late for you to change your minds now. But perhaps if you surrender the emeralds now I might be able to find it within me to give you a small mercy.” The mech stomped forward, causing the duo to stumble a bit. “I’ll give your allies a quick and painless death! You on the other hand, must be made to suffer for all the trouble you’ve caused!” The pair then dropped to one knee as they placed both hands on their head in pain. As they did so, Dark started panting as they started to shrink down, reverting to Dark's normal size. “So you surrender?” The robot’s orange eyes gleamed, using its single hand it began inputting the commands to the mech. “What a shame. I didn’t expect you to give up so easily… But perhaps you’ve finally come to your senses, and realized how futile your actions really are.” The Egg Breaker rose its spiked hand above its own head. “Either way, I suppose this is goodbye hero. Don’t worry, your friends will join you very soon.” At that point, something inside both Dark and Venom snapped. They started panting as pieces of Venom started to rise in small tendrils from Dark's body as they started to straighten up a bit into a crouch and glared at EggRobo with narrowed, blood red eyes, with their "mask" torn, resembling a mouth more like Carnage than Venom's usual look. The next moment, they let out a loud, animalistic screech as if to challenge the Badnik. The EggRobo leaned back in surprise, its eyes dimmed at it stared at the new form the duo took. “And here I thought you came to your senses. No matter, you only delay the inevitable.” its eyes shining once more, the Egg Breaker swung its spiked ball down to crush the duo.  The pair dodged the attack, jumping out of the way as the ball struck the ground. Growling, the duo leapt towards the mech. Letting out a high pitched screech, the bonded pair raised a single claw at the air and slashed the Egg Breaker’s chest, leaving behind three large gashes on the robot’s armor.  The mech stumbled backwards, almost falling until the EggRobo regained control of the battle armor. The EggRobo let out a small metallic growl, leaning forwards to look down at the damage, the badnik slammed its fist onto the head of the mech. “I don’t believe this! The Egg Breaker should’ve been able to absorb any of that “hero’s” attacks! The power boost LS-1 gives must’ve been greater than initially thought.” Hearing another shriek, the EggRobo let out a distressed beep as the duo swung its claws down to destroy the badnik. Managing to avoid the initial attack, it brought up its blaster to fire, only for their tendrils to shoot out and impaled the blaster, destroying it.  The pair screeched animalistically, swinging a claw down at the EggRobo. They let out a pained screech as their body began to be filled with electricity, the electricity flowing freely out of the EggRobo’s Thunder Shield.  Taking advantage of its stunned opponent, the EggRobo quickly switched off the Thunder Shield that protected it and turned on the rockets on its back. With a burst of speed, the robot tackled the bonded symbiote onto the ground. The Badnik wasted no time, flying back onto the mech to pilot it once more.  The Egg Breaker leapt backwards, creating a large distance between the two fighters. Raising its spiked ball, it fired the ball towards the duo.  They growled, dodging the attack. Letting out another shriek, the bonded pair leapt towards the chain and began pulling it towards themselves. Seeing what they were planning to do, the Egg Breaker began pulling back, trying to pull them towards it. With a yell, the pair snapped the chain connecting the ball to the mech, causing the mech to stumble backwards. The duo continued to pull the chain, stopping only when the spiked ball was in front of them. Grabbing the giant ball with both of their claws, the pair let out a screech and chucked the spiked mace towards the stumbling mech.  The EggRobo’s eyes dimmed at it stared at the mace flying at it. Quickly looking down, the badnik disconnected the Egg Mobile from the Egg Breaker and quickly flew away from the mech. A second later, the spiked mace crashed onto the Egg Breaker’s upper body, completely crushing its head and most of the upper body. Taking a step backwards, the mech fell onto the ground, causing the ground to shake momentarily. Sparks of electricity flowed through the mech, as parts of its body began blowing up. In a flash of light, the mech exploded, sending parts of it flying all over the rock farm.  The EggRobo’s eyes were almost black as it stared at the destruction of its mech. The bubbling feeling within itself began surfacing again, as it could feel its body tremble as it was filled with the urge to continue fighting the hero. Bringing its remaining hand up, it clenched its fist as the badnik was finally able to register just what the feeling was. “Rage…” It said to himself. A loud, high pitched screech brought it back from its thoughts. Turning towards the duo, it saw the pair darting towards it on all fours, the tendrils on their back whipping all over the place. “This mission is a failure. Continuing to fight will only result in self-termination.” With that said, it turned the Egg Mobile around and began flying away. The Badnik’s head split open once more, firing a volley of missiles towards the pair, the bonded duo let out a screech as the missiles blew up in front of them, the heat of the explosion causing the pair to jump away to protect themselves. Suddenly a large portal appeared in front of the hovercraft, allowing for the badnik to fly inside. The portal then quickly snapped shut, preventing the rampaging duo to follow it any further.   The pair let out another enraged scream as they looked around for EggRobo. After a few moments of finding nothing, they started panting as their arms started to go limp. A minute later, they fell over as Venom retreated inside Dark, both the host and symbiote falling unconscious.