Deep Nightmare

"Powered-up versions of the Nightmares: a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger."

- Description of the Deep Nightmares in Sonic Unleashed (Wii)

The Deep Nightmare is one of the Dark Gaia's minions that appear in Sonic Unleashed. They are a stronger variant of the Nightmare and is one of the strongest members of the Dark Gaia minions' footsoldiers. They only appear during the Sonic Unleashed's nighttime stages.

Overview
The Deep Nightmare was born at the begining of Sonic Unleashed. When Dark Gaia fell apart from its premature awakening, many of its fragments became Deep Nightmares by the influence of the negative energy from peoples dark feelings. The Deep Nightmares themselves are born from people's grief and anger, much like their Nightmare cousins, but more from the deeper wellsprings of these feelings. They first appears in Spagonia Night Act I: Alleys of Spagonia on on the Wii/PS2 version and Windmill Isle Night Act 1 on the PS3/Xbox version.

As being born from the deeper negative feelings of people, The Deep Nightmares are much stronger, smarter and faster than the regular Nightmare and they have more health as well. They fight much in the same manner as the Nightmares, meaning they fight with hand-to-hand combat, but they do so in a more refined way. While they usually strike the opponent with their stretchy arms, they are also able to guard against attacks and slightly enlarge their arms and attack while spinning, much like Sonic the Werehog's Were-Tornado and Were-Cyclone. Also, unlike the normal Nightmare, the Deep Nightmares often appear alone or are spearheading a group of the lesser members of their kind. They also come in a stronger variant called Red Deep Nightmares.

The Deep Nightmares and all of their kind were reabsorbed by Dark Gaia when the beast was resembled, and were later resealed in the Earth's core.

Apperance
The Deep Nightmares look much like the regular Nigthmare, but has some distinguished traits as well. While they appear as humanoid lizards with thick arms and has purple smoke emitting from their like the Nightmare, they are slightly taller, their horns and tails are larger and more jagged and they have much large and many more spikes on their back than the Nightmares. They also have a darker blue colored skin and their marking glow in a darker purple.