And Wanting to Unlock the Mysteries of Life
by Doc Eggman
Chapter 1 - "A Kidnapping in South Island! Sera is Missing!"
(Autor's Note: Story is set in the Sonic OVA universe, which is a bit different from the video game series.)
Planet Freedom, a bustling world not unlike our Earth. Of course, Earth's not divided into two dimensions, nor is full of robots and futuristic technology, but bear with me, it's similar. Freedom sports a mostly-human population, with the exception of a few scattered animal-like beings, the most famous of which is its own self-appointed superhero, Sonic the Hedgehog.
But since the setting and characters probably need no introduction, let's get down to business. We begin our story in the inner dimension of the planet, a barren wasteland known as the Land of Darkness. The only living soul in this otherwise-deserted zone is the nefarious Dr. Eggman, residing in his utopian city, Eggman Land.
"Heheheh! For years all I've ruled over is this empty and abysmal dump, but soon the Land of the Sky will also be under my control, and this time, not even that pinheaded Sonic will stop me!" No one else was in the room, but the Doc just enjoyed giving dramatic monologues to himself. Continuing, he went on "It's simple, really- I launch a frontal assault on the Presidential House with my armored sentry bots, and while Sonic's dealing with them, I slip into the capital, nab the President's daughter Sera, and slip out before anyone knows what hit them! Then I just hold her for, say, a country's ransom, and let the President hand me the entirety of South Island on a silver platter! It almost hurts being so brilliant!"
"To the hovercraft! Let's go, men!" Shrugging, his knight-esque sentry bots piled into the hovercraft, and with the press of a button, the Doc and his squad were off.
--
Meanwhile, at the Presidential House, the commander in chief himself was burried in paperwork. Always well-meaning but less effectual than he'd like to be, the President suffered from a bit of an inferiority complex. Afterall, the only thing standing between him and total conquest of his country was a little blue rodent. Still, he was a dutiful man, ever-dedicated to doing whatever he could to defend South Island from Eggman, which admittedly wasn't much.
"Daddy!" It was the voice of his daughter, Sera, "Can I have fifty rings? I wanna go out and buy that new fighting game that was just released, and I'm a liiiiittle short on cash, so..." Sera was, to put it kindly, a bit of a spoiled brat. At the young age of 18, she was still living at home, depending on her dear old dad's fortune for her needs. To say she was entirely materialistic might be stretching it, but she definitely had a love for the finer things in life.
Sighing, he retorted, "S... Sure. Here you go, dear." Handing over the money, he smiled weakly. He could never say no to her. Suddenly, the house butler rushed into the room, panting. "M- Mister President! Turn on the outside monitors!"
"Hm?" Doing so, he saw a ghastly sight. A short distance away, a troop of Eggman's robots were approaching the capital. "Oh, dear! Don't just stand there, get Sonic's house on the line immediately!"
"That won't be neccesarry, Mr. President!" Sonic chortled, stepping into the room.
"Sonic!"
"Already saw the robots headin' over here, so I decided to drop by. Just leave them to me, okay? You and Sera just stay inside, where it's safe."
"Thank you, Sonic," he replied, "This country would be lost without you."
"Good luck, Sonic!" Sera waved.
Winking, the hedgehog ran out to face the squad of sentries.
Thusly, Sera was- apart from the President- quite alone.
Enter our, uh, "hero"- Dr. Eggman! Wasting no time, the dastardly Doctor fired a blast at the window and swooped in with his hovercraft, laughing like a maniac. "Ha ha ha! Good afternoon, Mr. President!"
"Dr. Eggman!" the big guy shrieked as a claw emerged from Eggman's ship and grabbed his daughter, pulling her up.
"Now hear this, Prez! If you want to see your pretty little daughter again, surrender South Island to me! I know this is a tough decision, so..." He began, thrusting the jets of his hovercraft, "I'll give you time to think it over! I'll do the usual hack-your-communications thing in 24 hours to see what your answer is, nothing fancy. And this should go without saying, but don't even think about sending the cops, the military, or especially Sonic to stop me! Ta-ta!" And with that, he took off, leaving the bewildered man at his desk.
"Get Sonic immediately!" he instructed his butler. "He's the only one who can get Sera back safely..."
"Sir!"
--
High above the Land of the Sky, Eggman was happily making his getaway with his new hostage. "Hahaha! That went smoother than I expected! Pure pilfering genius if I do say so myself!"
"Hmph," Sera mumbled, "You know you'll never get away w-"
"Oh, come now, must our conversation be so cliche? Like it or not, you're stuck with me until your old man surrenders the country to me, so until then, you'd do best to stay on my good side." Eggman chuckled.
"Ha- You're one to talk about cliches. That unfounded overconfidence and 'stay on my good side' business sound like something straight out of a bad action flick." Sera smirked, "I mean, really, as many times as you've tried to take over the world- and failed at doing it- how can you always think that THIS time's the one time you'll win?"
Eggman looked a bit irritated, but sardonically continued, "Heh. It's different this time, that's why. I completely expect that your father's going to send Sonic to throw the proverbial wrench in my plans, despite my warning him not to. So I've got a little surprise for the rascally rodent... And once I've taken care of him, South Island will have no option but to give into my demands!"
"W-What kind of surprise?" Sera asked curiously.
"It's not a surprise if I tell you!" the Doctor snapped, "Heheh, you'll just have to see for yourself. I assure you, though, Sonic's going to get a real bang out of it."
"Rr... You won't get away with this." she muttered.
Eggman laughed, "There you go with that again."
A rush of cold wind blew over them as they approached a strange vortex- The entrance to the Land of Darkness, Planet Freedom's inner layer. Entering the portal, they arrived in the murky fields of the inner dimension a few minutes later, with Eggman Land still a good ways in the distance.
"This place gives me the creeps," Sera commented. She'd been here once before, during one of Eggman's earlier schemes, where he attempted to use his giant mech "Black Eggman" to lure Sonic into a trap, where he copied his life data to create Metal Sonic, an evil robotic copy of Sonic. Sera was brought along on that little venture as well, but after Eggman's defeat, she returned to her peaceful life on South Island.
Eggman calmly retorted, "Eh, it's a little dank, but it's home. I've got the place all to myself- Well, aside from my robots. It's like my own little private world down here!"
Sera didn't seem impressed, "Your own world, huh? It sounds pretty lonely and depressing to me."
"Eh, what do you know? I like it just fine, so there!"
"If you say so," she shrugged.
A few minutes passed, before Eggman chimed out with a hearty "Ha-ha! We're here!"
"Hm?" Sera looked over the side of the hovercraft, and was admittedly a bit impressed with the sprawling city she saw before him. Was it just Eggman who lived here? Well, his robots probably lived in the city too, she supposed. Still, it was an amazing sight.
"Welcome to my not-so-humble abode," Eggman said, his arm outstretched. "We'll be landing shortly."
As if the city itself were cued by his words, a huge landing pad emerged from the central building which bore Eggman's own likeness in a huge neon sign. They landed, and Eggman hopped out of the ship before looking back at his passenger, "You coming?"
Sera started, "What, aren't you gonna restrain me or something? What's stopping me from running-"
"To where?" Eggman smiled. "We're in the middle of a deserted wasteland- My city's the only relatively safe place in this entire dimension! I doubt anyone could survive against the natural elements of this twisted land. You're a smart girl, surely you can figure out why I don't need to lock you up."
"...Point," she sighed. "Alright, so where are we going then?"
"Just follow me!" he said, leading the way.
Entering an elevator bearing the Doctor's insignia, the two went up twenty floors before arriving at their destination- It looked... very different from the rest of his base. When Sera was brought here before, she only saw his factories and industrial complexes, where Metal Sonic was unveiled. This room, however, seemed... normal. Surreally so. It had a couch, a bed, a little kitchen, a TV and videogame consoles... Essentially, it was like a normal- if perhaps overly fancy- house. Definitely not the image she expected of an infamous supervillain's home. "Well, here we are- Just make yourself at home until my plan plays out, okay? Since I've gotta keep an eye on you for awhile, I might as well relax in the meantime." And with that, he took out a TV remote and idly flipped channels, trying to find something to watch.
She slowly took a seat on the couch, still trying to take it all in. This was the notorious Dr. Eggman, afterall. It was, in a strange way, sort of funny to see him off guard like this. When he wasn't laughing like a maniac or barking threats, he seemed... almost like a normal guy.
And then, something caught her eye- "Is that...?"
"Hm?" Eggman looked over at a nearby shelf. "Ah yes! Super Custom Fighter 2! It was just released. You're familiar with it?"
Good grief. He even played the same video games as she did. This wasn't how a villain was supposed to act! "Uh, yeah. I really liked the first, and I was actually going to get the sequel today." She coughed, frowning again, "That is, until someone kidnapped me."
"Heheh... Well, want to play it now?"
"Er... Sure," she answered.
"Then let's start 'er up!" He popped the game in, and the two each grabbed a controller. This wasn't the first time they'd done this- Back during the Metal Sonic plot, they passed time playing the original game in the President's office. The game, as the title suggested, allowed for custom-made characters. Eggman already had one in his own likeness, and soon Sera made one of her own. The match started, and... Eggman soon won. And he won again. And again. "Ha! What, are you even TRYING to win, Sera? You've gotta try harder than if you want to beat me!"
"Oh, shut up and play! I'm still getting used to the controls- I never played this game before today, you know!"
"Excuses, excuses! Admit it, I'm just better at videogames than you are!"
"Oh, be quiet!"
The scene would seem quite amusing to an outside observer- The two were bickering, but seemed to be having a genuinely good time, laughing and playfully taunting each other as time went by. Sera felt strange- Eggman was an evil guy, but she felt so natural and normal around him, not intimidated in the least. "Alright, that's enough of that," she said, turning off the game, "I guess you win. But..." Yawning, she continued, "It's pretty late, but, uh..."
"Oh, right." Eggman rubbed his chin, as if thinking something over, "According to my estimated calculations, Sonic should arrive sometime tommorow morning. I guess getting some shut-eye in the meantime wouldn't hurt. You can stay here, Sera."
"Now wait just a-" she began.
"I'll be in another room, don't worry. Sheesh, do you take me for anything less than a perfect gentleman?"
"Yes, actually," she dryly replied, causing Eggman to falter a bit.
"Yes, well... Anyway, I'll be down the hall if you need anything! Good night."
"Uh... yeah. Good night," she said quietly, still a bit taken aback by seeing this strange new side of Eggman.
And with that, he left, to catch up on some much-needed rest. Tommorow he had work to do, after all!
To be continued…