Dark Gaia's Minions

Dark Gaia's Minions are a species of supernatural monsters that appear in Sonic Unleashed. They are energy fragments fragments of Dark Gaia, having gained physical form and life of their own after its premature awakening caused it to disperse across the shattered Earth. They serve as the enemies fought by Sonic the Werehog in the nighttime stages of the game.

Anatomy
Dark Gaia's Minions are a very diverse in terms of anatomy, coming in a variety of different shapes and sizes, ranging from the insectoid Killer Bees, to the anthropomorphic lizard-like Nightmares, to the towering and cyclops-like Titans. Physical characteristics they share are usually freakishly appearances, blackish blue skin, and glowing body markings in different neon colors. Stronger variants of them though possess neo red skin. Their bodies are all completely composed of Dark Gaia's energy.

Characteristics
Dark Gaia's Minions lack any traits of sentience and operates solely on an innate desire to cause destruction, despair and harm to others. As such, they are very hostile and aggressive, attacking everyone that comes anywhere near them. They are also naturally compelled to cause psychological problems in other beings by possessing them and drive them to perform irrational actions and strange behavior.

Most of Dark Gaia's Minions are simple and animalistic in nature, only giving of growls and roars, and only have enough intelligence to fight effectively or carry out their goals of despair. Some members of Dark Gaia's Minions, however, such as the Master variant, are born with exceptionally high intelligence, allowing them to take on a more humanoid appearance.

As the night and darkness are their element and they cannot withstand light, Dark Gaia's Minions are exclusively nocturnal creatures and only comes out at night.

How Dark Gaia's Minions are created differs between each type. Usually, one of Dark Gaia's Minions is created when Dark Gaia's energy comes in contact with certain negative emotion, with the type of Dark Gaia's Minions depending on the emotions. In other cases, Dark Gaia's Minions can be the environment or flora that has been mutated by Dark Gaia's energy.

For many of Dark Gaia's Minions, there exists an empowered version of it, such as the Dark Fright and the Red Fright. These Dark Gaia's Minions are usually born from stronger forces related to those that created their weaker counterpart and are both stronger and tougher. These variants can be recognized by their neon red skin with cyan markings.

Abilities
Dark Gaia's Minions as a whole possesses a diversity of powers, with each variant possessing their own specified selection of powers, such as elastic limbs, flight, reproduction, or even energy projection for power argumentation or devastating attacks. Humanoid members of Dark Gaia's Minions, such as the Nightmare variant, the Master variant and the Titans, have profound skills in hand-to-hand combat, and can be dangerously ruthless fighters, while more animal-like members simply attack by biting or stinging.

The level of physical abilities between Dark Gaia's Minions differs greatly between their rank; lesser members are very weak and slow, while more evolved members can be much stronger and faster. In other words, the bigger and/or more monstrous the Dark Gaia Minion, the more powerful it is. The most powerful members tend to have abilities that reaches superhuman levels, such as super strength, super speed and other excessive abilities.

A common power amongst Dark Gaia's Minions is their ability to terrorize humans on a psychological level by literally possessing people and directly generating despair, negative emotions or even erratic behavior that are completely opposite to the person's personality, by latching onto the deepest, darkest part of the heart. An example of this is when the Ice Cream Vendor in Apotos starts to have a nervous breakdown when Sonic and Chip meet him again at night. People that are possessed by Dark Gaia's Minions have small purple clouds emitting from them. Each of Dark Gaia's Minions can also teleport to another location in a puff of purple smoke or emerge from black puddles on the ground. When Dark Gaia's Minions are defeated in battle, they dissolve back into energy form.

Dark Gaia's Minions have certain unique weaknesses. They cannot handle sharp sources of light which tend to weaken them or at least disturb their powers. As such, they can be exorcised with the light from the blitz of a camera. Also, if a person possesses a strong enough will, the psychological-changing effects from Dark Gaia's energies are nullified.

History
The entirety of Dark Gaia's Minions were created in the beginning of Sonic Unleashed. Seeking to harness Dark Gaia's limitless energies to construct Eggmanland, Dr. Eggman sought to awaken the entity within Earth's core. As such, the doctor lured Super Sonic into his Chaos Energy Cannon and used the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds to force Dark Gaia to emerge from its slumber prematurely. However, because Dark Gaia had yet to reach full maturity inside the Earth's core when Dr. Eggman awoke it, it was unable to support the weight of its own mass when it rose form the core, and as a result, broke into countless energy fragments that scattered across the globe. It was from these fragments Dark Gaia's Minions were born from.

From this point on, Dark Gaia's Minions began to terrorize the world as monsters that would appear at night and endanger the safety of Earth's people, and making Sonic's quest to restore the world back to normal more difficult as well. This continued for some time, until Dr. Eggman, being the one at fault for the sudden appearance of these monsters, devised a machine that created a homing beacon which could make all of Dark Gaia's Minions converge in one spot, so that he could rebuild Dark Gaia.

At the time Sonic the Werehog and Chip confronted Dark Gaia in the core of the planet, the beast had presumably reabsorbed all of its rouge minions in order to restore its being. When Perfect Dark Gaia then was defeated by Super Sonic and the Gaia Colossus, it was then sent back into dormancy and sealed in the Earth's core with Dark Gaia's Minions sealed along with it.

List of minions

 * Little Rex - Small monsters that attack by piercing enemies with the small horns on their heads. They are common in all of the Werehog stages. They do however come in much larger quantities and often overwhelm resistance by their sheer numbers.
 * Red Rex - Advanced stages of the Little Rex that differentiate from their weaker cousins with their crimson colorations and more pronounced horns. While they are still quite common, they do not show up nearly as often as the Little Rexes.
 * Nightmare - Standard troops that serve as the backbones of Dark Gaia's army. Their appearance is similar to that of an indigo chameleon that stands on its hind legs. They attack primarily by landing punches or kicks on opponents and swinging their heavy arms in a club-like manner.
 * Red Nightmare - Stronger versions of the regular Nightmare that still fight in the same manner. They resemble the Nightmare, but have reddish-pink skin and cyan markings.
 * Deep Nightmare - More formidable versions of the Nightmare that are much stronger and faster. Their appearance is virtually unchanged compared to the Nightmare, with the exception of their dark purple skin and the usage of spines on their backs as melee weapons.
 * Red Deep Nightmare - These are the strongest of the Nightmares and a more powerful version of Deep Nightmares. Their skin color changes to pink. Their attacks are stronger than regular Nightmares. It is easy to lose a life when battling them.
 * Dark Fright - Small blobs with glowing facial features. They attack enemies by ramming into them with considerable speed.
 * Red Fright - A stronger and red version of a basic Fright. Their attacks are unchanged.
 * Killer Bee - Insectoid enemies that attack opponents with their barbed stingers. Contrary to their name, the Killer Bees look more like wasps or yellow jackets than bees.
 * Red Killer Bee - More developed Killer Bees. They use the basic attacks of ordinary Bees and can also repeatedly jab Sonic in rapid succession, one blow after another.
 * Dark Bat - Aerial troops that hover out of Sonic's reach to avoid attacks but are unarmed. They can be grabbed onto and jumped from in a manner similar to poles.
 * Dark Bat Sniper - Pink Dark Bats that launch small projectiles from their tails on a regular firing basis, about once very five seconds. Sonic can also grab onto the Snipers, but the enemy will often release a shot to protect itself.
 * Thunder Bat - Neon blue Dark Bats that can surround their bodies in an electrical field. This enemy can also be grabbed, but it can use electricity to damage and stun Sonic.
 * Dark Master - Phantom-like wizards that float in the air. They lack a projectile attack, but can attack the foe by using their staffs as weapons.
 * Fright Master - Phantom-like wizards that can summon an endless supply of Dark Frights.
 * Fright Master - Phantom-like wizards that can summon an endless supply of Dark Frights.
 * Lightning Master - Phantom-like wizards that can move very quickly and launch balls of concentrated electrical current. Throwing water on this enemy will instantly defeat it.
 * Cure Master - Phantom-like wizards that can restore the health of other enemies.
 * Power Master - Phantom-like wizards that can temporarily increase the vigor and power of nearby foes.
 * Fire Master - Phantom-like wizards that can surround their bodies in flames and launch balls of condensed fire. These pyrotechnics can be negated with water.
 * Evil Flower - Mutated flora that can shoot energy balls, but are immobile due to their roots.
 * Dark Eel - Large serpents that suddenly emerge from the ground. They can slam into the ground and shoot several energy balls at once.
 * Spike - These little floating, orb-shaped creatures act as time bombs, and when Sonic touches them, they begin to grow and will eventually self-destruct. Sonic can use these as weapons by picking them up and throwing them into other enemies.
 * Titan - Massive cyclops-esque monsters with thick, spiky armor. It wields a huge wooden club with which it uses to try and smack Sonic about. Its immense weight can produce powerful shockwaves when it jumps.
 * Red Titan - Empowered versions of the regular Titan. While maintaining the Titans attack pattern they stand stronger, faster and more endurant than them, and is the strongest of Dark Gaia's lesser minions.
 * Big Mother - Smaller than the Titan, but still quite large. It has a second and larger set of jaws in its torso that can both bite at Sonic and spawn Rexes. Its other attacks consist of swinging its large arms and slapping the ground to make shockwaves.

Bosses

 * Dark Moray - A giant serpent with the ability to breath ice heaps and manipulate several Nightmare minions.


 * Dark Guardian - A monster resembling an overgrown Deep Nightmare with Greek armor and long green hair. It's about the size of a Nightmare and carries the ability to spin around maniacally.


 * Dark Gaia Phoenix - A large phoenix corrupted by Dark Gaia's power. It has the ability to radiate fire and shoot its flaming, purple feathers at its enemies. However, extinguishing the fire surrounding it weakens it.

Appearances in Other Media
Dark Gaia's Minions also appear in the Sonic the Hedgehog and its spin-off comic series' published by Archie Comics, where they are called Dark Gaia Monsters. In this media, they began appearing around Sonic's World during the Shattered World Crisis where they would appear at nighttime, and are tied to a dark energy leaking from the planet. They first appeared in Sonic Universe #63 where a group of them ambushed Knuckles, but were defeated by Knuckles and the Chaotix.