Dark Bat

"You can grab these harmless guys for a ride."

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

The Dark Bat (ダークフロート) are one of Dark Gaia's minions that appear in Sonic Unleashed. Easily the most harmless of Dark Gaia's minions, these creatures serve mostly as a method for Sonic the Werehog to travel across large gaps. They only appear during the game's nighttime stages.

Overview
The Dark Bats came into being at the beginning of Sonic Unleashed when their source and creator Dark Gaia broke apart from its premature awakening. The resulting fragments from Dark Gaia then scattered across the world and gave birth to the Dark Bats and the rest of Dark Gaia's minions. Flocks of Dark Bats themselves tend to reside wherever the density of Dark Gaia's energy is at its highest and feed off it. They first appear in Spagonia Night Act I: Alleys of Spagonia on the PS2/Wii version and Windmill Isle Night Act 1 on the PS3/Xbox360 version.

Despite being a member of a highly destructive and evil species, the Dark Bats are quite harmless. They are completely unaggressive and are described as "not particularly hostile". They also never seen attacking anyone as they have no known form of attack or powers other than the ability to float in the air and the only thing they seem to be interested in is floating through air. In gameplay the Dark Bats purpose is to serve as a method for Sonic the Werehog to travel over bottomless pits, waters of large gaps. On the PS3/Xbox360 version this is done by having Sonic stretch his arm out to the nearest Dark Bat which he uses to pull himself forward. Once he has reached the limit of the distance he can pull himself, he can then grab on to the next Dark Bat and use that one to pull himself forward again etc. until he has crossed the gap. On the PS2/Wii version, Sonic stretches both his arms out and holds onto the Dark Bat. He can then ride the Dark Bat through air and control its movements by swinging back and forth until he has crossed the gap.

If a Dark Bat is killed, another one will instantly appear to take its place at the exact same position. This is to prevent the player for not unintentionally halting their progress throughout the stages.

All of the Dark Bats were later reabsorbed by Dark Gaia, along with the rest of their kind, to rebuild the beast again. It was later defeated by Light Gaia and Super Sonic and sealed inside the planet once more.

Appearance
The Dark Bats have a mostly egg-shaped body with purple eyes and small horns on the top of their body. Their lower body mostly consist of a large lower jaw with a horn-like growth at each jaw joint and two in front. They also have small, thin tall extending from their backs.