Thunder Bat

"These upgraded Dark Bats let out a mean jolt."

- Description of the Thunder Bats in Sonic Unleashed (PS2/Wii)

The Thunder Bat (サンダーフロート) is one of the types of Dark Gaia's minions that appear in Sonic Unleashed. Mutated from the Dark Bat, these offensive aerial troopers can generate electrical surges to shock their opponents. They only appear during the game's nighttime stages.

Overview
The birth of the Thunder Bats and the rest of Dark Gaia's minions occurred when the entity named Dark Gaia broke into several thousands of fragments in the opening of Sonic Unleashed after awakening prematurely. By the influence of people's negative feelings, these fragments gave birth to Dark Gaia's minions and the Thunder Bat. More precisely, a Thunder Bat is created when a Dark Bat absorbs too much of Dark Gaia's free energy and as a result mutates into a Thunder Bat. The first appear in Arid Sands Night Act II: Scorched Rock on the PS2/Wii version and Savanna Citadel Night Act 1 on the PS3/Xbox360 version.

In contrast to the rather harmless Dark Bats, the Thunder Bats can be quite hostile as result of absorbing too great amounts of Dark Gaia's energy. While this make them capable fighters, the Thunder Bats only directly fights Sonic the Werehog on the PS2/Wii version, while on the PS3/Xbox360 they only attack when Sonic comes close to them. The Thunder Bats shares the Bat variant's ability to float in mid-air and they can surround their bodies in a high-voltage electrical field that stunts anyone that makes physical contact with them. On the PS2/Wii version they can also shoot bullets of electricity from their tails which can damage and stunt their opponents.

Like the Dark Bats, the Thunder Bats can serve as a method for Sonic the Werehog to travel over bottomless pits, waters or large gaps. They usually appear alone in a line Dark Bats that leads over such pits. By grabbing onto these guys one by one, Sonic can cross over them. However, the Thunder Bats can be quite dangerous to use in these situations if not timed correctly, since they can shock Sonic and cause him to lose his grip. This can often cost the player a life.

In some cases, killing a Thunder Bat will only cause another one to instantly appear and take the fallen one's place at the exact same position. This is a game mechanic that prevents the player from unintentionally halting the progress throughout the stages.

As Dark Gaia was recreated throughout the game, all of the Thunder Bats and other of Dark Gaia's minions were returned to the beast to reform it, but later sealed inside the planet's core.

Appearance
The Thunder Bats look much like the Dark Bats and Dark Bat Sniper. They have a mostly egg-shaped, neo blue-green body with cyan eyes and markings. They have small horns on top of their body and their lower body mostly consists of a large lower jaw with a horn-like growth at each jaw joint and two "antennas" in front. They also have a small, thin tail extending from their back with a tip that has thunderbolt-like growths.

Trivia

 * The Thunder Bats can only be used for transportation in Jungle Joyride Night Act III: Deep Jungle on the PS2/Wii version.