Eggman grumbled furiously as he stalked around his base, hands folded behind his back. Orbot and Cubot watched as their boss paced out his frustration. Once again, he had been beaten by Sonic and his friends with no hope of winning to begin with. His robots were destroyed, his plan in tatters and his domination plan for next Thursday was heavily relying on a win today.

"Why do I always lose?" He hissed. "My plans are perfect!"
"If I may say so, Sir," Orbot piped, "You are an impeccable villain! But you do not seem to utilise all of your absolutely evil genius." Orbot nervously leant away as Eggman whipped around.

"What did you say? Didn't you just hear me – my plans are perfect! Too perfect! Too perfect to fail. That means I must be doing everything correctly one hundred percent, you metallic moron!" Eggman folded his arms and straightened as he chuffed. "I've thrown everything at that blue pincushion and he still wins seventy five percent of the time."

"Yeah. It's almost like he has plot armour or something." Cubot chimed in, setting his hands on his non-existent hips.

"Plot armour…" Eggman grumbled, "How stupid can you be?" He twizzled his moustache as he continued to wrack his brain for ideas. He hummed, then plopped down in front of the TV, disheartened. No plan was coming to mind. Perhaps if he just relaxed for a while he would come up with something. He picked up the remote and flicked the screen on, pulling up a movie channel.

As the film played, Eggman zoned out somewhat. Then he frowned. Why was the villain in the movie so much more evil than himself?

A guttural chortle played from the TV speakers as the bad guy pulled out a gun, shooting it into thin air. Suddenly, a portal appeared, and the set pieces were sucked towards the hole, including the main hero.

Eggman sneered. Those sorts of things don't work - he knew that from experience. Sonic has already overcome black holes and being zapped into other dimensions. Then, gradually, a smile crept onto his face. If I can't beat the blasted hedgehog, he can have this God-forsaken island. If I go somewhere where he can't stop me – then I win! Eggman suddenly burst out laughing. Orbot and Cubot tilted their heads in confusion as the Doctor shot up and sped off to his workshop. The two bots looked at each other, surprised to see Eggman perk up so rapidly.

A few days later, Sonic and his friends were laid out on the beach, catching some rays. Sonic had his hands cushioning his head and his eyes covered with shades.

"Guys?" The unsure voice of Amy Rose came.

Sonic tilted up his shades and glanced over at the other hedgehog; Tails looked up from building a sandcastle; Knuckles hit a punching bag that then swung back and hit him when he looked at Amy and Sticks stopped polishing her bayonet.

"Don't you think it's weird that we haven't heard anything from Eggman in a while?" She sat up on her deckchair. "He's usually plotting something big when he goes quiet like this."

There was a brief silence cast over the group. Tails' expression began to morph into worry.

"Ah, don't worry about it." Sonic adjusted his shades to sit over his eyes again. "We can take on anything that Egghead throws at us." He closed his eyes, but then yelped and flailed as Amy pulled him up by his ear.

"Sonic! That's not the right kind of attitude to have!" She scolded, removing his sunglasses so that she could lecture him to his face. "People are relying on us to protect the village! You can't just ignore Eggman if he's cooking up something big."

"Amy has a point." Tails hummed as he rubbed his chin. "Most other times when Eggman's gone silent he's been doing something big! Aside from that whole… procrastination episode." He idly allowed his two tails to sway. "Maybe we should just check on him?"

Sonic continued to flail until Amy let go. He straightened himself up, adjusted his quills and retrieved his shades, setting them back over his eyes. He laughed at the concern in the air, trying to turn things around towards being more humorous.

"Oh, come on, guys! You don't actually think that lardass can be dangerous, right?" His face dropped slightly as Amy and Tails continued to look concerned. He looked at Knuckles, who also appeared concerned, then set his wrists on his hips. "Oh, come on, Knuckles! Don't tell me you're worried too?"

"Worried?" Knuckled laughed. "Knuckles is never worried." He patted Sonic's head. "I think you're venting your emotions on me. Never fear, Knuckles will always be here!"

Sonic grunted his disapproval of the petting. He folded his arms and tapped his foot as the tense atmosphere created by Tails and Amy began to sink in. He growled, flinging his arms out. "Fine! I'll go." And with that, he raised his leg and was gone in a flash. Amy and Tails relaxed a bit after Sonic left. Knuckles scratched his head.

"Was it something I said?"

When Sonic arrived at Eggman's base, he knocked on the door politely. He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for an answer – any answer. Receiving none, Sonic's posture sunk as he groaned. He took a step back and charged up a spin dash, smashing the door down. He landed on his feet and began to zip through the base, hands cupped around his mouth. "Come on out, Eggbreath! I know you're here! Show yourself!" He yelled. He checked the living room, the kitchen, the bedrooms, the evil basement, the workshop…

Sonic huffed as he stood in the control room. There was no Eggman in sight. Come to think of it, there was no Orbot or Cubot in sight, either. Nor were there any badniks. Sonic took off his shades as he stared at the large screen showing all the security footage in the base. The place was completely devoid of life, with everything still running. "Huh… it's like he just… disappeared." Sonic observed, brief concern filling him before he shrugged. "Free vacation for us I guess! I'm sure he'll leap out some time or another." Sonic folded up his shades as he strolled out the base, returning to relax with his friends.

A/N 10/06/2019
OK, first point is that this story is currently 2 years old. It was first released on Quotev and Quotev will always be updated first. I'm not moving it here to reach a wider audience.

This story is not a re-telling of the show. It is a separate entity written after season 2. If the show continues in the future, I sadly can't time skip and reference it. There may be elements in this story that could clash with potential future elements to the show if it were to continue. If you wanted a re-telling, my apologies.

I may change the title in the future. Don't be surprised if I do, I just find the title too boring and I can't be bothered to think of a decent one yet.