Jack's shots did hit their mark, despite the tail's wild thrashing. If she looked a little deeper into the busted confines of the vessel, though, she'd find...

No Eggman.

The thing's cockpit was actively on fire, small pops and explosions were coming out, and electricity was arcing all around, yet the robot continued dealing out devastation hand over fist (or rather, drill over drill). Maybe that was just its way of freaking out and ceasing to function properly all on its own. Or, perhaps Eggman was just a jerk, and had consciously programmed the machine to go into seizing, destructive fits if it took too much damage. It was always hard to tell with him, but whatever the case, it couldn't go on much longer—The thing had already begun finding ways to damage itself, including falling on its own drill at least once. It had also begun to spew what few munitions it had left from the tail area, and the vast majority of them hit itself on the back, creating yet more lovely explosions, fire, and smoke.

So where was the man of the hour if not at the center of it all? A particularly large explosion and belch of flame out of the rear of the cockpit area cued the ejection of a surprisingly fresh-looking Egg Mobile with a frazzled and charred looking Eggman on board. The nimble craft zoomed skyward, but stopped somewhere high above the wreckage of the town.

Was he running away? Waiting to see if the Egg Scorpion's death throes finished the job? Or did he have a last ace up his sleeve? It was anyone's guess at that point.

Seeing his gunfire hadn't been particularly effective, Rekk had more or less abandoned the idea of counterattack in favor of the idea of running like hell. He wasn't sure where he was running or how he'd avoid a mech that big on anything other than sheer dumb luck, but he did know that if the emerald he was holding got damaged by Eggman, everybody there would probably become very dead very fast.

Vaulting over a car, and taking a second to look back and see how close the mech was, Rekk took a precious couple seconds to catch his breath and make sure the emerald was still okay. Good God, Cotton, what's taking so long?!

Meanwhile, once Toby's chao had succesfully gotten Rekk's trunk open, two small robots floated out, spherically shaped and only slightly larger than the two Chao. They stopped to consider the little animals that had let them out for a moment, before one snapped one of its little robotic arms out and snatched Rekk's keys right out of its hands. The two then darted off down the street, back towards the station.

Rekk's head snapped towards the two drones as they came flying down the street, and the closest thing to relief he'd felt all day washed over him. He jabbed a thumb at the rampaging Egg Scorpion and roared "CONTAIN THAT MECH!" at the top of his lungs. The drones didn't need to be told twice - one shot to the scorpion's left and one to its right. Panels unfolded over the drones and hummed as the two warmed up...there was a crackle in the air, and then just as quickly as the robots had arrived, a blue spherical shield (or cage, more accurately) appeared between the two, enclosing the Egg Scorpion where it was, and stopping its rampage.

Rekk peeked over his cover again and let out a long breath. That had been way too close.

The field stopped the scorpion in its tracks. It was amazing that the little drones could create such a large, encompassing field and still keep it strong, but at the same time, it didn't look like the robot had any fight left in it. It was a burning, smoldering, collapsing mess by the time the barrier formed, so all it did was slump against it.

It seemed Toby had a giant punching bag to take out his aggression on. The already-damaged leg, gigantic as it was, buckled sideways with the blow, and the whole, humongous machine toppled off balance. Like a tree chopped by a lumberjack, it fell to the ground, its fuselage warped, the metal armor ripped under the strain of its own unevenly dispersed weight, and...

... The Egg Scorpion exploded, with Toby trapped next to it.

The first blast was muted inside the shield dome, which bulged as it filled with flame and rapidly expanding gases. A couple seconds later, it ripped wide open with a roar like a bomb going off, and pieces of the robot flew in every which direction. A couple legs fell on the gas station, segments of tail landed all down the street, its "head" went flying into the Sheriff's department, and one of its drills arced through the sky, and plummeted directly down on top of the vehicle Rekk was standing next to.

Well, "on top of" it as much as, say, a diesel truck could be "on top of" a bicycle. That is to say, it eclipsed and obliterated it.

There was a sickening crunch that sounded something like a chorus of metal grinders singing in unison through an overdriven set of subwoofers. The drill crushed by the car and the gem into the ground utterly.

There was silence; the drill began to glow an ominous, superheated orange.

Could Ace run fast enough?

No.

It was only a couple seconds after Jam tackled Rock with her protective shield that the drill was utterly eclipsed by a blinding flash, disintegrating into nothing as a white-hot explosion erupted in all directions with force enough to send flying every single individual, every single car, and every single thing that wasn't absolutely bolted down. The desert sun may have seemed bright and hot, but it was nothing compared to the devastating, nuclear-bomb-like blast that instantly consumed the town, and probably some distance beyond—Not that anyone there to witness it would be able to actually see the extent of the damage.