So that's what's actually happening when you fight him in Hidden Palace

Notes:

From the trailer for Sonic Origins which will apparently have animated cutscenes that tie in all the games together among a variety of other features. They even got the guys who helped make the original proof of concept for a port of Sonic 3 & Knuckles back in 2014 to help out. All they gotta do now to make this perfect is clear up that horrible version chart they got going. Chart in question for those wondering