Deadly Six

"They are nobody's friends. They are The Deadly Six and they are your worst enemies!"

- Dr. Eggman, Sonic Lost World

The Deadly Six (六­鬼衆) is a villainous group of six Zeti that serve as the primary antagonists in Sonic Lost World, with the true antagonist being Doctor Eggman himself. The group was founded by Master Zik many years prior to the events of the game.

In Sonic Lost World, Doctor Eggman harnesses the power of the Deadly Six in an attempt to defeat Sonic the Hedgehog and conquer the world. However, due to Sonic's recklessness, the Deadly Six rise up against Eggman and break free, threatening to destroy the world on their own. As a result, Sonic and Eggman are forced to team up in order to stop them for good.

In the end, the Deadly Six are defeated by Sonic, with four exploding in a puff of smoke (as opposed to exiting the battle arena as they do in their previous two battles) and two falling into the lava. While the Deadly Six's current status is unclear, judge by Eggman saying he'll try to control the Deadly Six again, suggests that they survived and merely escaped.

Concept and Creation
According to Takashi Iizuka, the Deadly Six are meant to bring a “sense of danger and humor” to the story of Sonic Lost World. According to another interview with Takashi Iizuka at Summer of Sonic 2013, the Deadly Six are based off of "oni", which is a Japanese demon.

Trivia

 * The colors of these villains match those of six of the Chaos Emeralds (red, yellow, green, purple, cyan and grey more precisely). They also resemble the colors of various Wisps (Green Wisp, Pink Wisp, Purple Wisp, Blue Wisp, Yellow Wisp, Cyan Wisp and Red Wisp).
 * Two of the Deadly Six, Zazz and Zeena, have tails resembling those of major recurring characters, Knuckles and Espio, respectively.
 * Similar to other powerful entities, Eggman attempts to control the Deadly Six in order to take over the world, only for them to turn against him. The main difference is that it happens early in the game, rather than towards the end.
 * Interestingly, the Deadly Six are portrayed in a more colorful, vibrant fashion than typical Sonic villains, not in the more grotesque and realistic style of previous 3D villains. Despite this, their dialogue and behavior suggest that their personalities are much darker, and they are possibly even more powerful than the aforementioned villains, even going as far as to directly reference death, mind control and even genocide. The game's E10+ rating is mostly due to these characters' behavior, according to the ESRB website.
 * Zazz, Master Zik, Zor, and Zomom are the only Deadly Six members whose names are mentioned in the game.
 * While the Deadly Six seemingly die after their final battles in the Wii U version, in the 3DS version they survive and merely fly away like in previous battles.