A New Future
Twilight was beginning to set on Splash Hill, as the sun was making it's way past the horizon. From his Eggpod, the Doctor accepted he had been beaten, as his wrecking ball laid at the feet of his arch nemesis.
"Bit of a swing and miss, Robuttnik," Sonic taunted.
"You realise you haven't won yet," Robotnik scowled. His craft, his beautifully made, lovingly polished craft, was now slightly dented, and there were a few puffs of smoke coming from the battle damage, "But I concede defeat," Robotnik smirked, "You were too quick that time."
"I'm just guessing there's a capsule full of my friends not too far from here," Sonic grinned. He dusted his spines off slightly, the battle had taken slightly more out of him than he had expected. The hedgehog would never admit it to Robotnik, but he had been caught off guard by the change.
"Correct," Robotnik answered, as he noticed that the hedgehog had succeeded in disabling all but the craft's ability to hover. Robotnik would need to stall for time, but something came to his mind almost immediately"You're not as quick as you think you are."
"I still got the better of you just now, Egghead,"
"Maybe so, but for 'the fastest thing alive' you took your time getting here."
Sonic didn't respond. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the large steel prison that would undoubtedly contain his friends. Without hesitation, Sonic made his way towards it, pressing the gigantic release button on the top. Several small animals exited from the prison egg, fleeing back to there homes, away from the mad scientist.
"There's more where those came from dear boy," the human reminded the hedgehog, his moustache wriggling above his lip as he spoke, "You might be fast enough to save them from being made into Badniks, but lets face it, yet again you've been too slow to actually prevent anyone from getting caught."
"I always beat you though," Sonic replied, "I'm the one whose beat you in the past, and I'm the one who'll beat you once again." Sonic carefully watched Robotnik's craft, keeping one eye wary incase this was all a trick to lull him into a false sense of security.
"You don't beat me though." Eggman continued, as he kept hovering out of reach of the hedgehog. Over the years Robotnik had learnt just how high Sonic could jump, how far he could reach in an attack, and while he was yet to score a proper win against the hedgehog, Robotnik kept learning, taking more and more information, and developing more and more complex plots. He'd win one day, even if he had to destroy the world to do it.
"Twice I blew up your Death Egg, I wrecked three of your robot factories, I even got the time stones back and saved Miracle planet from your tyranny. Even now, I just beat you. There's no device you can make that eventually I won't destroy."
"Yet here I am," the doctor laughed, "Still able to do as I please, still able to create my armies. You don't win hedgehog, because no matter how fast you run, you can never catch me."
A cool wind was blowing through the zone. It sent a shiver down Sonic's spines, and the hedgehog was eager to make a move. Sonic didn't want to let Robotnik win this war of words, but he didn't quite know how to reply.
"Times are changing Sonic," Robotnik continued, "Every year I get develop more and more new technology, that can handle faster speeds, process more information, come up with more complex and detailed schemes; but what do you actually gain? A few new tricks, maybe another sidekick or two, but it won't always save you spikeball!"
"I won't quit until I've beat you Eggman," Sonic replied, starting to grow rather found of how that sounded rolling off his tongue, "You can make as many robots as you want but I'll smash 'em all!" The hedgehog stood upright, in stubborn difiance to Robotnik's plans. He didn't want to show it, but actually Sonic didn't fancy going around smashing every device, but he knew he'd do it if it meant stopping the mad scientist.
"Arrogant words rodent," The doctor reassured, "Are you really sure you can live up to them? You gave it your all last time, and only narrowly beat me. Sure it might seem easy with rose tinted glasses, you might even re-play it in your mind, familiar with what happened, and that will make it seem like fighting me was a cake walk, but I was there too Sonic, and I know you struggled."
"This is an entirely new challenge," Robotnik gloated, his craft finally stabilised, and capable of actually making an escape, "I strongly suggest you don't get cocky just because you beat me last time."
"And the time before that, and the time before that, and even the time before that," Sonic sarcastically mocked, "I get it, you're trying to make me nervous, but lets face it Eggman," Sonic continued, deciding the name seemed to annoy Robotnik more than any other, "If the best you've got is rehashes of stuff I already broke before, maybe you're the one whose too content to live in the past?"
"You'll soon find out yourself," Robotnik answered, as he began to make an ascent in his craft, "I'm sure you'll see assuming you make it through the next zone." With that Robotnik made a hasty exit, flying over the dense jungle. Sonic braced himself, things were indeed different this time around, but only time would tell if things had changed for the worst.
A/N
This story was inspired by reading Hawki's "You Can't Go Home Again", which is an excellent Oneshot fic that sets up before the battle. It inspired me to write this, a post battle discussion, and also (hopefully) something of a counterpoint to Hawki's original piece. Not that this is intended as glowing praise towards Sonic 4, just that erring on the side of caution is a good way to go about approaching it. Personally I'm hoping Sonic 4 is just a solidly enjoyable game that captures what made the old games great. Whether or not it captures the essence of how the zones looked, how the music sounded, matters nowhere near as much as how the game plays.
After all, we've still got the classics to go back to if we really want the nostalgia trip.