1
It was rare that Eggman was in a good mood, but considering how he acted usually Bocoe, Decoe and Bokkun were doing everything in their power to keep his mood positive.
Eggman's good moods could be attributed to 'things going right', as he would put it. His current plan involved having all seven of the Chaos Emeralds. At the current time, Eggman had five in his possession.
But the joy of his plans going well wasn't long lasting. Progress was far too slow for him and he was getting increasingly bored. Bocoe and Decoe were helpful in that regard, they kept Eggman comfortable well he waited and even managed to prepare him some quality food.
Bokkun was put out by this. He didn't mind Bocoe or Decoe, to be honest. He just didn't have their skills.
All three of them had basic maintenance skills, they kept the bases from falling apart well Eggman was building some super special awesome giant robot with the sole desire of putting a certain blue hedgehog in his place.
But Bocoe and Decoe were more than just maintenance bots. As previously mentioned, they could cook, they cleaned and they offered ideas to Eggman. Sure he never went through with their plans, but it was more than Bokkun had ever done. He was a mailman, for crying out loud.
It was for this reason that Bokkun was outside the base, sitting on top of one of the tall towers. He used to wonder why Eggman built them, but since he didn't dare ask he'd never found an answer. The towers did make useful places to brood, though.
And that's what he would've done, if he hadn't noticed something out the corner of his eye. It was a fleck of blue in the distance, moving towards the base. At first Bokkun experienced fear, that fleck had to be Sonic who had caught onto their plans, but then Bokkun became confused.
The fleck was moving too slowly.
"It can't be Sonic, he would've already blown up the base by now." Bokkun mumbled to himself. If it wasn't Sonic, then Bokkun had no idea what it could be. Despite his better judgement he decided to check it.
'Eggman would probably kill me if it turned out to be something useful.' Bokkun reassured himself.
Bokkun jumped off the tower. The wind pushed past him, causing tears to appear in his eyes. His chest was starting to hurt, but it felt amazing. With a grin Bokkun activated his jetpack and he suddenly stopped.
He let out a shaky breath before flying as fast as he could towards that fleck of blue.
It wasn't a long flight, but Bokkun did see the asphalt beneath him that marked the base turn into a more rocky terrain.
In few minutes Bokkun found himself around a mile above his target. Whatever it was, it was slowly moving towards the base and with purpose. Bokkun flew there a moment, wondering whether he should back off or confront the stranger. After some thought he went with the latter.
"Stop! You're trespassing on private property!" To his surprise, the blue thing did stop. It turned towards the sky and stared right at Bokkun.
"Vocal recognition activated. Analysing…match confirmed. Bokkun, is that you?" The voice was monotone and Bokkun instantly recognized it and dropped out the sky.
"Seven, is that you?" Bokkun said with a smile. After he got a good look at the robot, however, his smile fell.
X-Series 007.
Designed to locate and track just about anything no matter the cost.
Seven had clearly seen better days.
For one thing he was missing an arm, having been ripped off at the joint. One of his leg joints was bent in a weird way, which was probably why it had been moving so slowly.
Seven's head had always been a featureless dome, with two red lens that imitated eyes. One of his eyes was cracked, revealing the wires and circuits behind them. His dome shaped head was also missing a chuck.
"What the heck happened?"
Seven just stood there, progressing what Bokkun had said.
"I was searching for Chaos Emeralds." Seven held out his working arm to Bokkun, who grabbed the item on autopilot. He glanced down to find the green Chaos Emerald.
"I have also gathered data on the location of the red Chaos Emerald. I shall go acquire it now." Seven turned to leave.
Bokkun gently grabbed his shoulder, "Are you crazy? You're in no condition to continue your task."
Seven seemed to stop still for a moment, "Your assessment is accurate."
Bokkun let out a sigh of relief, "Good! Now, I'll fly us back to the base. Don't worry, I'll fix you right up."
With no warning Bokkun hovered behind Seven and grabbed the robot around the waist. Then they were in the air.
The added weight slowed Bokkun down slightly. It would take at least a quarter of an hour to get back to the base. Seeing a chance, Bokkun asked a question.
"Do you want to give me your mission report?"
"Sure." Seven spoke in a monotone, "This unit's mission was to retrieve remaining Chaos Emeralds. The Green Emerald was located on Angel Island."
Bokkun winced, already figuring out what had happened.
"An attempt at stealth was made, but it failed. Knuckles found this unit and damaged it. Task was still successful. Information acquired at this time. Red Chaos Emerald located with Cream the Rabbit."
"Who is that?" Bokkun's didn't know many people outside of Eggman's base. Sonic, Tails…Knuckles. He wasn't aware of any one else at all.
"Information unknown."
The conversation lulled for a moment, neither knowing what to say to the other.
"You see the game last night?"
"Your attempts at small talk suck."
"Well sorry…"
Bokkun took Seven to his room and told him to stay there. Bokkun would really wanted to work on fixing him, but Eggman wasn't the sort of person that should be kept waiting.
Bokkun flew down a hallway, the green Emerald in hand, his destination was Eggman's command centre. He knew the base fairly well, but since the hallways were featureless it was still really easy to get lost. Eggman refused to personalise the halls since he went through bases so often that it would be pointless.
Bokkun's saving grace was that he knew the route from his room to the command centre perfectly.
As he got closer he could hear voices, "Do you enjoy the steak, sir?"
"How about the wine?"
Bokkun rolled his eyes, Decoe and Bocoe were still trying to distract Eggman. A sinister grin crossed Bokkun's face as he realised that soon he would steal the show.
"I must say this is quite nice…" Eggman was saying as Bokkun flew in, "And just like that, it's gone."
"Bokkun! What are you doing?" Decoe said in a strange hushed shout. Its true oddity came from the robotic pitch of Decoe's voice.
"I have something to tell Eggman~" Bokkun said in a sing song tone, automatically causing all present to cover their ears.
"I demand that you shout your mouth!" Eggman shouted in outrage.
Bokkun huffed, his voice wasn't that annoying.
"I think you should leave." Bocoe gestured towards the door. Before Bokkun could respond Eggman spoke up.
"Wait a moment Bocoe," Eggman turned towards Bokkun, "Tell me whatever you wanted to tell me."
Blue lenses met yellow eyes. Eggman's face was calm, but something told Bokkun that if what he had to say wasn't important enough there would be severe consequences.
For a moment he wondered if what he had say actually was important enough, before he let out a weak chuckle. Of course it was, it was a Chaos Emerald.
"Seven returned today and he brought you a present!" Bokkun threw the green Emerald at Eggman.
The Doctor hadn't been expecting something to be thrown towards him. He tried to grab the Emerald, accidently bouncing it back into the air. Once, twice and so on. After the seventh time he actually managed to grab the Emerald.
Bokkun clapped in astonishment, "Wow! That was very impressive!"
Eggman focused on Bokkun with a scowl and a smirk. He was at the same time impressed and annoyed with Bokkun's antics.
"Seven, you say? X-007?"
"Yeah, and guess what? Go on guess!" At Eggman's look Bokkun gulped, "No guessing? That's okay. Seven told me where the last Emerald is."
There was a moment of silence, before Eggman let out a high pitched noise that vaguely resembled a laugh, "Ho Ho Ho!"
Bokkun smiled, "All we've got to do is take it from someone called Cream the Rabbit."
Just like that Eggman stopped laughing. Bokkun held his breath in fear. Had he said something wrong? He didn't think so. He glanced to Decoe and Bocoe but they were shrugging their shoulders, almost as if to say 'don't drag us into this'.
"Do you know who it is?"
"Do I know?" Eggman spat out, "Of course I know her. Our plan just got that much more annoying."
Eggman mumbled to himself, trying to rapidly sort out any issues with his plan. His audience was silent, they knew what would happen to them if they dared break his concentration.
"Decoe!"
Decoe snapped to attention, "Yes, sir?"
"Make sure all the cameras are working perfectly." Without another word Decoe was out the room.
"Bokkun!"
Bokkun gulped, "Yeah?"
Eggman was writing something down on a piece of paper, "Take this, I need you to retrieve a 'package' for me."
Bokkun read the paper, it was an address. Then it clicked.
"Got ya." Bokkun flew out the room.
Eggman let out a breath, "Bocoe."
"Yes?"
"More wine." Eggman sat down with a sigh.
"Quite good, sir."
Bocoe poured out another glass for Eggman, 'Why do I always get the boring job?'