"YES! I can't believe it! It's finally working!"

After twelve grueling hours of intensive technical work, which in itself consisted of six hours of soldering and two hours apiece for wiring each of his new machine's components, Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik was actually going to achieve his dreams.

It had taken him forever to find some way of going about building Eggmanland (a theme park designed to recapture the mad scientist's lost childhood.) First he'd taken over some island in the Pacific, enslaved its fauna with technology, and forced them to construct it for him- that didn't work; a hedgehog by the name of Sonic, angered over what Eggman had done to his friends, sped in and all but forced him to leave. Eggman paid this no mind; he figured he would just pack up shop and move to another island…

Another bad move, since Sonic followed him there, new two-tailed fox friend in tow. (Ivo never did get his name.) Instead of using slave labour to build the amusement park, Eggman took Sonic's advice and made the construction process automatic. The hedgehog and fox climbed aboard his contraption and destroyed it similarly. Again Eggman decided it wasn't too much of a concern, since the time he saved by creating the Death Egg was used to research more methods of destruction; what he found in an ancient text was tempting enough to keep him motivated. So he hopped on board his Egg Pod and flew over to the mythical Floating Island, where he met the guardian of said method, Knuckles…

Looking back, Ivo mused, the one good thing he could say about that stupid echidna was that he was extremely easy to trick.

Knuckles was told that Sonic and Tails, who had again followed Eggman to put a stop to his schemes, were evil villains trying to steal the Master Emerald (the jewel that kept the island afloat, which meant that Eggman was going to steal it, which of course made him the real villain. At the time he'd paid this fact no heed.) The guardian believed Eggman and cornered Sonic just as he was streaking onto Angel Island's beach, taking the Chaos Emeralds (proxies of the Master Emerald with similar powers; Sonic had obtained him on his adventure through West Island.) Sonic and Tails, of course, were not affected by this setback and went through the island without them in an attempt to keep a newly rebuilt Death Egg from relaunching- they failed. Partially. Eggman sent it up into space with the Master Emerald, as he'd planned, but Sonic managed to destroy the base before it could get very far. The Death Egg fell back down to Angel Island, leading Eggman to make another attempt at relaunching it with hedgehog and fox hot on his trail; this time he succeeded- the Master Emerald was his, the laser he had constructed for it was in prime condition, the Earth below him was unassuming-

But then he failed. AGAIN. No thanks to that rascally hedgehog convincing Knuckles that he wasn't a bad guy, too- the guardian had gone on to give him back the Chaos Emeralds! (And what the texts apparently called "Super Emeralds", too- again, Eggman hadn't really cared…)

Ivo Robotnik is not a quitter, though. Despite the massive blow he took with the destructions of the Death Egg, Eggman knew that someway, somehow, he had to construct Eggmanland. So he kept trying. He summoned Chaos, an ancient god mentioned in the stolen texts, to help him destroy the world- that didn't work, the damn thing turned on him. He freed Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform, and asked him to help create Eggmanland- didn't work either; hedgehog hated Eggman and other Ultimate Lifeform tried to destroy the world on its own. He summoned Iblis, a flame god worshipped by the Soleannans, so that he could use it to destroy the world on its own- no luck; a part of it went crazy and you get the idea. He summoned Dark Gaia, another powerful god, to literally destroy the world- are you sensing a pattern here?

By the time he'd slumped out of the core of the planet, exhausted after having to endure a beating from Dark Gaia, Eggman had all but given up hope. He fleed into space, intending to take a break from his endeavours for a while, but then he ran into a planet inhabited by strange beings known as Wisps… unimportant fellows if not for the massive potential they hold. Eggman used this potential to create a new superweapon, one that he was sure Sonic wouldn't catch wind of, what with the hedgehog being on Earth at all. He even took the precaution of masking its construction under the guise of a theme park, in the event that he did! The plan was foolproof.

Sonic still stopped it.

Ivo had lost all motivation during the year or so he spent floating through space. He figured there was no point in trying anymore. Sonic was going to foil his plans no matter what he did- not even if he altered the rodent's past, as he tried to do once he learned that the Mother Wisp, whom he used to power his weapon, had enough power to open holes in time… no damn luck. He had no damn luck! What was he going to do with his life? What would Mama say?

Not much, Eggman figured, not much at all… until, that is, he stumbled upon Lost Hex.

Ah, Lost Hex…

He was CERTAIN that Sonic had no way of keeping him down now. This place was literally the jackpot in the good doctor's eyes. It was lush and fresh and had wide open landscapes, despite its strange hexagon-based makeup. There were numerous flocks of animals that Eggman could use to create badniks. The planet was far, far away from anything that Mobians would consider civilization. And the Deadly Six ruled everything.

The Deadly Six were probably the thing that clinched Lost Hex's viability as a location for Eggmanland in Eggman's eyes. There was Zomom, a big orange brute who used his massive strength to crush everything that stood in his way. Zor, a dark sort of fellow who used the shadows to his advantage. Zik, a really tiny man who actually packed a punch- looks could be deceiving among this group! Zeena, a femme fatale who lured unsuspecting people in with her charms then sliced them up before they could even say "Gosh, you're hot". Zazz, who while being exceptionally strong only seemed to laugh maniacally and stick his tongue out at things. Finally, there was Zavok- he was obviously the leader, but none of the Six were brave or shameful enough to admit it. So he remained their unspoken spokesperson, representing the group in their vile villainous ways of vindicating wildlife.

Eggman was thrilled, he truly was. But this time he was going to take precautions. (No need to have the lot of them turning against him at the last possible second, he figured.) So he burrowed himself into a wall in what the locals called Windy Hill and worked on a way of turning the Deadly Six into his loyal slaves.

If the look on Orbot's face when he realized what Eggman had done was anything to go by, those twelve hours he had spent on the project would definitely be worth it.


Oh my god. Sonic Lost World. This game's gonna be AWESOME. So awesome, in fact, that I forced myself to write a fanfic about it four-ish months before its release...

Seriously, though. There's a lot of story potential to bandy around here- I don't believe we have had any new characters to play with since Sonic Unleashed, and even then Chip wasn't that interesting and Professor Pickle is too godly to be used too often. The Deadly Six seem fresh and new- I'm really interested to see why they rebel against Eggman, and why he sees them as being dangerous enough to ask Sonic to help him beat them.

This was originally a oneshot but I figure there's enough content here to stretch it out into two chapters. I'll come back to this tomorrow.