Silver Sonic's sturdy frame was utterly unaffected. Utterly. It was like trying to fight a statue—A statue made of steel. But, his insides had something different to say.

The robot had suffered multiple exploding things, many missed attacks (that resulted in ramming into something hard), intentional ramming to burrow through the mountain itself, and a blast that sent it flying across the industrial city. Its eye lenses were cracked and busted looking, and it was covered with dents and char marks. As much as it seemed the young man's strikes were doing nothing, there were irregular noises beginning to come from inside the 'bot.

Nonetheless, it raised its free hand, straightened its bizarre gun-fingers, and pointed all five point-blank into Sheffer's face. It was so close that the normally quiet, shrill, increasing "charging" noise from its capacitors was clearly audible. ... And so was a bad crackling sound. Then came the inevitable blast.

Bang.

... The panel on the back of the thing's hand burst off and sparks spewed out like water from a garden hose. Electricity arced up its arm, and its head tilted, jerked, and jolted in a series of small seizures. Then, a high whir draaained down to a low one, like something electronic was winding down inside it, and, releasing Sheffer, it dropped to one knee on the ground, and froze there. It no longer moved, but instead just emitted a "bzz-bzzt"-like noise at regular intervals, as its shorted electronics periodically sent electricity surging across its body, making it unsafe to touch.

The pipe struck, and Silver Sonic lurched and twisted to face Sheffer with fiercely glowing eyes, and sent a raking spew of plasma bolts through the air with its one good hand. They all missed pretty badly, but they did hit some nearby structures, which started dropping potentially hazardous debris.

It then lapsed back into inactivity once more. Maybe it'd be best not to disturb it.


***


The 3D, translucent image of President Towers floating in the air did not reply to Eggman's greeting. He instead glared holes through the doctor, and remained rigid. News microphones were visible in the image in front of him, as was a podium; he was clearly broadcasting, and this made Eggman all the happier.

"... Don't keep me in suspense, Mr. President," said Eggman, still grinning like the cheshire cat. "If you hold that unpleasant face too long, it'll freeze that way, you know. Do you have an answer or not?"

Towers' unpleasant face did not change. "I have an answer," he replied.

"And?" blurted Eggman like an impatient little child, leaning forward in his seat, wringing his hands.

"After careful consideration, my advisers, chief of defense, and I have come to a decision," he stated flatly. (Eggman looked ready to froth at the mouth over his surely-ensuing victory.) "We have unanimously agreed that you can go to hell."

The rotund doctor's brow line wrinkled fiercely upward and his jaw nearly hit the floor for a split second, before he immediately lit up with rage and slapped at the volumetric display on impulse, then began stomping the floor of his Egg Mobile.

"You dare talk to me like that?! You—You said that on live TV, didn't you!!" he spat incredulously, very nearly babbling his words. He leapt to his feet in his vehicle and begin jutting his finger through the image. "I'm your future emperor, dog!! Whether you like it or not! And after I finish obliterating your capital city, I'll drop the rest of your entire impudent little continent beneath the sea for that comment!"

He heaved a couple quick breaths, then really inhaled like he was gonna let the president have it for another few rounds... but then closed his mouth, exhaled out his nose, and whipped his head off to one side like a wounded child. Sinisterly, he hissed, "You have sealed your fate," and disconnected the transmission.

He then crankily seized the control stick of his craft, and heaved it roughly around, blasting the Egg Mobile too quickly and harshly through the opening of his tower, such that he severely bashed and dinged the doorframe and made a loud crashing noise once inside. The metal door tried to hiss shut behind him, but got stuck with a crooked grate and grind.

As Rock sat there resting, staring at the sparking mess of the turret's former mount, he had an idea. It was one of those idle, destructive thoughts, the sort that had no particular goal, but seemed like a good (that is, bad for the enemy) thing to do. So, he reached down, grabbed the thick, broken power conduit, and pulled what little slack he could get out with some brute force. He then pressed the frayed of the thick cable against the dangling chain next to the platform, and sent untold amounts of electricity surging up through the antenna said chain was hanging from.

Sparks exploded from above in a wild shower, and lights all over the structure flickered and dimmed. The remaining turrets froze in place, and their guns dipped and sagged low, robbed momentarily of power thanks to the unintended circuit formed by the destructive monkey's curious actions.

Feeling entirely satisfied with himself, and somehow energized (if only in a morale sense) by making things explode and stop working, the cruelly grinning primate tossed the cable aside, grabbed the chain, and rapidly ascended remainder of its length before the tripped breaker (or whatever it was) could be corrected. Swinging off at the top, and landing on that same mid-level platform Eggman had been on just moments prior, he quickly dispatched with a pair of smaller gun-turrets with similar brute force to what he'd used earlier, and very shortly before power returned, too; just as the second one was getting ripped off the platform and chucked into the lava far below, the lights came back on, and business resumed as usual.

He looked back to the half-jammed door, but hesitated to enter the inevitable tower of doom alone. Instead, he surveyed the small platform upon which he stood, and quickly homed in on an important looking lever jutting out of a small, bulky, metal box mounted on the floor.

"DOCKING RAMP RELEASE"

He looked at the ledge, and noted that there did seem to be a natural "edge" to it, like something was supposed to go there. So, he tried his luck, and pulled at the lever.

Locked. There was a security device next to it, equipped with a keyhole and what looked like some sort of keypad and digital interface. Rock blinked at the device a couple times, and stood there in relative silence.

Then, he punched it. Plan B—Rock's favorite plan.

And he punched it again, and again, and again, until the security device was all but entirely unrecognizable, and the metal panel upon which it was mounted buckled in so badly that the corners came unriveted, and stood up. He then grabbed one, yanked the panel off, fiddled around inside for a moment, tore a thick wire free, and bridged the electrical contact that the big lever would have made a circuit with had it been flipped.

Sure enough, the edge of the platform jutted outward, and a long, metal ramp began to quickly extend upward from the ground far below, near the chasm's edge. With more force than was necessary, the huge ramp rammed into the tower and connected, forming a long, steep walking path for those who remained below.

By the time the crew got to the top of what was basically a very, very, very long gangplank, Rock was messing with the jacked-up, partially-open door that Eggman had damaged. He was trying to pull it up, to no avail. It was well jammed, and a quick fit check resulted in nothing but the fellow very nearly getting his head stuck. (He managed to avert embarrassment and pull free before anyone reached the top, though.)

The worn-out primate dusted himself off, turned to the others as they arrived, and greeted them with one of those curt, upwards nods and a tired grin. He took pause, though, looking between each individual—Ace, Jam, Toby (and Kyle!), and Sheffer (and possibly Tails if John has time to post) had all made their way up.

"Heh! Look at'chu guys," muttered Rock quietly, but jovially. Their odds had gone up considerably, if only by the blessing of numbers. He seemed to be looking at the hedgehog in particular at length, though, as if thinking something.

"Hey, Spiny," he eventually called out past the rest of the group to Sheffer. "Got a sec?"