Eggperial City

**Eggperial City** is a hi-tech urban sprawl that served as the capital of the Eggman Empire following the Metal Virus plague. The city was powered by several artificially-generated Chaos Emeralds that appeared as large crystalline spires growing out of the ground across the various wards of the city. The crystals were integrated into a construction system in the city's foundations that consumed minerals from the ground and used them to build more structures. As such, Eggperial City would continuously grow and expand until it eventually covered the entire planet's surface.

## History

### Past

Some time after the Metal Virus plague, Dr. Eggman built Eggperial City as his new headquarters and capital city.

### Imposter Syndrome

As part of Operation: Remaster, Dr. Starline planned on taking over Eggperial City to serve as the capital of his new "Starline Empire". He planned on sending Surge and Kit, preparing for this mission by having them overthrow Egg Base Alpha, starting a fire in Forest Ridge, and wrecking Central City. When the operation began, Surge and Kit fought against the Badnik forces within the city while Starline went about hacking into the main computer network, planting a malignant program that brought all Badniks in the city under his control.

With all Badniks under Starline's command, Eggman was forced into retreating to his secret bunker while Starline took the throne. From the central tower, the doctor transmitted his signal across the globe, taking control of every Badnik on the planet and summoning them to Eggperial City.

### Battle for the Empire

After Starline's control signal went out across the world, Belle the Tinkerer and Motobud were also affected. After a brief altercation, Tails planted a Zeti Zapper on Belle that blocked the control signal, bringing her back to her senses. Motobud was still being drawn to the signal's source, so Sonic, Tails and Belle decided to follow it and see where it led them. Along the way, they encountered large numbers of Badniks heading in the same direction. As they reached the city limits, Belle was forced to deactivate Motobud to keep it out of Eggman's grasp.

When the heroes arrived in the city, they were attacked by Surge and Kit. Belle became separated from Sonic and Tails, but found Metal Sonic lying in a lower street, badly damaged after battling Surge. She dragged Metal away to a safe spot and made some quick repairs, bringing him back online. After recovering, Metal led Belle to his master's location.

While Sonic and Tails were busy fighting Surge and Kit, Dr. Starline was also fighting for his life. After escaping from the tower, Eggman had fled to the Memorial Garage where he manned his Egg Emperor mech and returned to the tower to eliminate Starline. The platypus fled and made his own way to the garage where he commandeered the Super Eggrobo before engaging Eggman in an epic mecha battle. In the end, Eggman proved to be the superior mech pilot and Starline resorted to exhausting his Tricore to bring down the Egg Emperor. This didn't bother Eggman at all as he then swiftly beat and humiliated Starline hand-to-hand.

### Escape from the Empire

After Sonic and Eggman were done with their respective fights, the heroes regrouped. Surge was believed to be dead after her battle with Sonic, Belle had witnessed Starline's death after he was crushed under falling debris, and Kit was unconscious. Dr. Eggman soon brought his Badnik forces back under control and sent every one of them after Sonic and his friends.

While Sonic tried to keep the bulk of the Badnik army distracted, Tails and Belle took Kit and made their way to a hangar in order to steal a shuttle. They succeeded in hotwiring a shuttle and took off, picking up Sonic along the way, but Eggman then sent Metal Sonic to intercept them. Metal used his Maximum Overdrive to tear through the shuttle and bringing it crashing down into the city. Sonic and the others survived the crash, but now had Metal Sonic chasing them.

Metal fiercely pursued Sonic and the others through alleyways and backstreets. During this time, Kit regained consciousness and Sonic convinced him to help with their escape. Kit recharged his hydro-pack with water from a breached silo and used his hydrokinetic powers to hold Metal back while Sonic and Belle fled to the city limits. This didn't hold Metal for long as he soon caught up to Sonic, even slapping Belle aside to get to him. However, an explosion occurred back near the central tower and Metal was forced to retreat to make sure Eggman was safe, giving Sonic and the others a chance to get away.

Back at the tower, Dr. Eggman had discovered that Surge was still alive and now in possession of one of his inventions: the Dynamo Cage. The doctor ordered his Egg Pawns to kill Surge and take the device back in one piece, but the robots' energy shots were absorbed by the Dynamo Cage. After smashing the robots, Surge fled from the city with the device.

### Urban Warfare

Following the defeat and disappearance of Surge and Kit, Sonic and the Restoration would organize a surgical strike against Eggperial City. The new Diamond Cutters team - consisting of Lanolin, Tangle and Whisper - would accompany Sonic into the city and attempt to determine how great a threat it posed. After entering the city, the group made their way to the area that had been previously damaged during Sonic's last visit. The damage had already been repaired, despite no evidence of Badnik activity in the area. The group would make their way beneath the city's foundations where they discovered that there were no mineral deposits or plant life as all had been consumed to fuel the city's repairs and expansion. Sonic surmised that Eggperial City would continue growing until it completely covered the planet.

As the group were observing the city's foundations, a mysterious portal suddenly appeared before them. Sonic tried to run away while pulling the girls in tow, but Badniks attacked and separated them. Whisper, Tangle and Lanolin fell into the portal, leaving Sonic on his own and surrounded by hostiles. Fortunately, the Restoration had sent backup: Tails, Amy, Blaze and Silver arrived just in time to destroy the horde of Badniks surrounding Sonic. Sonic filled the group in on what was happening and the heroes sped off to one of the large crystalline spires growing up from the middle of one of the city wards.

Meanwhile, the Diamond Cutters were still alive, but the portal had dimensionally displaced them. They were in the same area as Sonic and the others, but were on another plane of reality and unable to interact with the physical world. Though Tangle tried to get Sonic's attention, he could not see nor hear her. Lanolin decided that the girls could take advantage of their circumstance; in their invisible, intangible state, they could bypass the city's defences altogether and infiltrate the central tower without interference.

After fighting off another horde of Badniks, Sonic and the others reached the crystal spire where Tails analysed it and discovered that the crystals were artificially-developed Chaos Emeralds which were responsible for powering the city and allowing it to grow. While the group headed for the tower, they took notice of an explosion in the distance. Sonic and Tails went to investigate the explosion while the others continued on towards the tower. At the site of the explosion, Sonic and Tails found that Team Dark had joined the fray and were smashing Badniks left and right. The two groups joined together and continued to fight against the robot hordes.

From the central tower, Dr. Eggman watched Sonic and the others fight for their lives against his army, sending out a squad of Shadow Androids to intercept the heroes. The androids proved to be far more powerful than regular Badniks and the heroes struggled against them. Shadow was able to tap into the energy from the crystalline spires and use Chaos Control to immobilize them long enough to destroy them. However, the energy from the spires was not the same as that from a true Chaos Emerald and Shadow found himself losing control of his Chaos powers. He unleashed a blast that caused tremendous damage to his surroundings and caused a massive power overload within the city's energy grid. Eggman was able to prevent catastrophic damage to the city by shutting off the main grid from his control room.

By the time the power had been deactivated, the Diamond Cutters had made it inside the central tower. However, when the power went down, the girls became visible again and Eggman noticed them. Whisper tried shooting Eggman with her Wispon, but she was still intangible and her blast passed through Eggman's body harmlessly. When the power rebooted, Eggman reactivated his spatial-displacement traps which caught Whisper and Lanolin. Tangle was almost caught herself, but phased through a window and fell out of the tower.

Tangle survived her fall since she was still spatially-displaced, but Metal Sonic had pursued her and attempted to trap her again. She was able to evade Metal and managed to find her way to Sonic and the others, who could now see her. Metal followed and attempted to use the spatial-displacement devices on the heroes, but Blaze and Silver managed to destroy them and Metal was knocked out by Amy. Sonic, Tails, Amy and Tangle then proceeded to head for the tower while Blaze, Silver and Rouge continued fighting the Shadow Androids. Shadow and Omega had found themselves within the Display Museum where several Egg mechs were stored, with Shadow having become trapped inside a crystalline formation that had grown around him when he attempted to use Chaos Control.

Sonic's group would make it to Eggman's control room, despite Metal Sonic's efforts to stop them. While Sonic fought Metal, Eggman drew a gun and shot at Amy, causing her to drop her Piko Piko Hammer. Tails accessed Eggman's controls and triggered an overload in the artificial emeralds by shutting down the limiter system. This caused the emeralds to grow out of control as crystalline spires began erupting all across the city, causing tremendous damage. Eggman then pressed a button on his jacket that caused the central tower to rise up from its foundations on a set of large, crab-like legs, becoming a mobile fortress.

Sonic then attempted to attack Eggman, but the doctor summoned a spatial-displacer trap that caught Sonic in midair. He then set Metal on Tails and Amy, but Tangle tried to intervene, finding that she had become solid again. However, Eggman grabbed her and picked her up by the collar before holding a gun to her head, ensuring that Tails and Amy wouldn't try anything. But to the doctor's surprise, Lanolin and Whisper then entered the room, having been freed from displacement following the power overload. As such, the displacement system wasn't able to hold Sonic for long and he returned in time to knock out Metal.

The heroes escaped from the tower through a broken window, landing on a nearby crystal formation. Blaze, Silver and Team Dark had also emerged and regrouped with the others. Having recovered, Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport the emerald growths themselves, using them to cage the Eggperial Tower. With a boost from his friends, Sonic launched a final strike against the colossal mech and caused massive damage. With the artificial emeralds no longer being regulated, they began to overload, threatening to generate an explosion that would annihilate all of Eggperial City. Shadow then tapped into the artificial Chaos energy one more time, generating a Chaos Control warp that teleported the entire city into space, and Eggman along with it. All that was left in the city's place was a vast expanse of ruined land and emerald fragments, which rapidly disintegrated.

## Notable areas

* **Central Tower** - The nexus of Eggperial City. From here, Dr. Eggman observes and controls all goings-on within the city limits. The tower itself is also a gargantuan-sized mech, its body concealed within the city's foundations.
* **Display Museum** - Eggman stores several of his older machines here for display. The museum was incomplete at the time that Dr. Starline launched his attack.
* **Memorial Garage** - A large hangar where Eggman stores several old mechs which have been restored to full functionality. Among the mechs stored here were the Egg Dragoon, the Egg Emperor and the Super Eggrobo.

## Trivia

* Eggperial City's sectors are colored identically to each Deadly Six member.
* In the official solicitation for *Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome* #4, Eggperial City was referred to as "Eggtropolis".
* It is not known how many people/animals inhabit Eggperial City, but the city does not appear to be populated by any living being other than Eggman, making it less of a city and more of a hermit village/hamlet.

## References

1. ↑ SONIC HEDGEHOG IMPOSTER SYNDROME #4 (OF 4) CVR A FONSECA. Previews World (18 February 2022). Retrieved on 18 February 2022.