Speedy's note: This oneshot is a direct tag to Dr Namgge's "Another Setback" and its sidestory "Pressured Into It". The idea for it was born over a chain of PMs and review replies with lots of talking about Robotnik, Nam's series, and the reminisencent monologues I tend to write for Robotnik at end of one of my own stories. By the end of it, I was writing one of those end of story monologues again, but this time not about my own story.
For you as a reader, that means this oneshot will contain spoilers for "Another Setback" and "Pressured Into It", as well as possible spoilers for other installments of Namgge's series. Still, I think if you want to, you can just read this story as Robotnik's musings after a lost battle. He's got many of those, and I guess this story can also work as a standalone.

Anyway, have fun reading. Hope you like it, Nam. :)

Aftermath

It was quiet. Down in the spacious planning room, a couple of idling computers let out the soft noise of whirring fans. Apart from the pale blue light cast around by the numerous screens, the only source of light was a small desk lamp that currently threw a round spot of light onto a huge, but empty piece of paper.

The large chair in front of the desk gave out a small screech that appeared much louder than it was in the quiet room. The tall, round and bald man in it shifted his weight into a more comfortable position. It was particularly hard to achieve at the moment, and after a few futile attempts Robotnik gave up and just sank back against the cushioning. Slowly, his hand went up to stroke his moustache.

Usually, he came to rooms like this one for planning new robot models, new traps for that dreadful hedgehog, or just get his new plan for world domination going. As it was, inspiration was nothing he was blessed with at the moment. Too little time had passed since the last battle with Sonic, since his last plan had been foiled. The efforts of months had been reduced to shards, and they still stung too prominently to let new ideas flow.

Coming to think of it, Robotnik wasn't even sure why he was here. Maybe because it was a good place to think. Maybe because all he wanted was clear his head and move on. Both things proved not that easy.

Sometimes when he sat over the ruins of a plan, Robotnik wished that dreadful excuse for a technicolor woodland creature would get to experience the stale taste of defeat for once. Just once, one lousy time in their both existence. Just for one time, Robotnik wanted the hedgehog to know what it felt like to, well, lose.

Then again, what would it mean? On the bigger scale, what did the hedgehog lose at the end of the day? To him, it was all a game, a fun little adventure of trashing robots, breaking the brilliant creations of another into a thousand little pieces and freeing insignificant people from inside of much for significant machines.

From Robotnik's eyes, if Sonic lost, he lost a game. Robotnik didn't lose a game. It had never been a game for him. There was too much put into everything to call it a game. He spent weeks, months, maybe even years planning, building up his machines, inventing, perfecting, and finally achieving a pure, genuine design.

During this long time spent on planning and plotting, hardly a thought was ever wasted on anything else. Anything else was unimportant. Robotnik worked for the higher goal, the one real goal he had. He never stopped, didn't take holidays, pushed back rest or sleep for the sake of his work, to make sure his time was never wasted.

And then, in a few critical days, sometimes mere hours even, all that thought and effort and, may he say it, passion went down the drain, metaphorically speaking. In mere hours that blasted hedgehog tore all his wonderful creations to pieces. In mere hours the work of months was destroyed so utterly and completely picking up the pieces was hardly ever an option. Better start from scratch right away instead of dwelling on the few poor remains.

If Sonic lost, he lost a game. Everytime Robotnik lost, over and over again, he lost his life. Not in the most direct sense, of course. Maybe he should consider that he always survived the final confrontation with the hedgehog the one case in his life he ever got lucky… Well, maybe his adversary was too weak to finish him off in the end. Robotnik didn't know if he wanted to take it for pity. He didn't need pity, not him, and certainly not from his worst enemy.

But the point stood as it was. Everytime again, Robotnik was left with the shards of his work, with mere fragments and dust left over from his life's work and effort, while that ignorant hedgehog just walked away. Well, sometimes he limped away, and knowing that Sonic was at least sore and tired after beating him offered a slight ring of satisfaction. It meant it had not been all that easy.

To be fair, it was rarely all that easy. This time, Robotnik was convinced what had separated winner and loser in the end had been mostly luck. The escape plan had surely been one of his best yet, taking full advantage of the hedgehog's biggest weakness.

Robotnik wondered for a moment why he had so rarely used submarines or other water vehicles before. It seemed obvious that his chances to beat Sonic in the water were better than anywhere on land. He couldn't take advantage of his terrible super speed, he was reliant on searching for bubbles of air to breathe and keep from drowning, what took a remarkable amount of time. Time Robotnik could use to think, work up better strategies, or simply fire a weapon.

When it came to weapons, mixed feelings lingered on Ivo's mind. On first thought, putting a toxin into the water had been a stroke of utter genius. It didn't only put more or less the whole of the planet's population in his mercy, and that way achieved the final goal of world domination more easily than even the thread of firing the Eclipse Cannon did.

By comparison, Robotnik mused, poisoning the water had been the much more promising idea. The power of the Eclipse Cannon had taken him by surprise, and although pulverizing half of the moon with a single shot had been a great display of power, actually using this weapon to make his threat come true would have been idiotic. He who pulverized the planet had little to build an empire on; a painful, yet true fact. In retrospect, Robotnik was glad nobody had thought quite as far back then.

This time, looking back on his plans wasn't any less sobering. The toxin had been a great idea. A brilliant idea. It had given him power over the world, and even in his escape when everything else had failed him, it also helped in incapacitating the hedgehog even further. A brilliant plan indeed.

If not… something had gone wrong. Something always went wrong, and the plan that seemed so promising on first look had a flaw. A flaw that he had even been pointed at before. He had not been willing to take the hint. Who was he to take the word of some Monster of Chaos serious that took over one of his robots, randomly appeared in front of him, insulted his work and his genius alike, only to disappear again? No, he didn't need the help of some freaky monster creature, chaos involved or not. Especially not if it treated him with such disrespect.

On second or third thought however, Robotnik had to admit the mysterious creature had been right in at least some points. His plan had contained a flaw that would have cost him the world domination he worked so hard for, not directly, but it would have been just a matter of time. The toxin was unstable on the long run. A great robotist wasn't always a great chemist, it seems…

Now, as he sat by himself in a quiet, secret hideout, Robotnik considered it didn't really matter in the end. The hedgehog had trashed his water park, navigated around the carefully laid out traps without much harm, crashed the beautiful Egg Battalion into a mountain side, and even destroyed his submarine.

Maybe, Robotnik thought, maybe he should have really taken on the deal with the mysterious monster and worked on getting rid of the rings and Chaos Emeralds. Then, on second thought, it still seemed a stupid idea to him. A lot of things tended to go that way at the moment.

The bald human shook his head, drawing a slow hand over his moustache. Of course, it did not do you much good to keep mourning a loss. The best you could do was learn from past mistakes and move on with the experience in mind.

And that was what he would do. That was what he always did, so many times he had given up counting. In an odd way, him and the hedgehog were stuck on a carousel that would keep spinning them around and around until either of them would decide to retire and spend the rest of his life swirling ice cubes in a glass of Chaos Cola and getting sunburnt at the beach of Emerald Coast. Robotnik didn't plan on retiring, and by his concerns, as unfortunate as it was, the hedgehog was far from retirement age.

So, it looked like the carousel would keep going. He would build up a plan, produce robots, threaten the world, and think he would really do it this time. And then… Then the hedgehog would come and break everything. Spoil all his artful plans, and grin in his face in the end.

One day, Robotnik had sworn to himself, one day he would be the one grinning in the end. In a twisted way, this was what kept him going. One day, he would win. Once and for all, he would defeat Sonic.

The scientist's eyes wandered over his huge desk, full of blank paper and empty screens that threw a dim, blue light over the scene. Starting over wasn't as easy as it sounded. You had to give up on old ideas, clear your mind of the last defeat, and find the power to come up with new plans, new designs and whole new concepts. Sometimes, it was easier to take up old plans and put a new spin on them. Perhaps that was part of learning from your past mistakes.

Robotnik picked up a pencil, drawing a lazy, undecided line at the very edge of the nearest sheet of paper. What had he learned this time? Pay more attention to chemical formulations? Listen to mysterious random monster creatures? Didn't sound like a helpful lesson to learn. Don't let the hedgehog crash your flying fortress?

Ivo leaned back with a sigh, spinning the pencil between his gloved fingers. The loss of the airship hurt. It was a little irrational, but Robotnik loved airships. During most of his past schemes, he had build a sky fortress at some point. Not only because a sky fortress was epic, a vehicle worthy of one out to conquer the world. No, an airship brought along many advantages.

Firstly, it was mobile. You could easily move from one place to another, threaten more zones in a shorter time. It was also a very practical means of transport. Its size allowed you to easily bring along a lot of robots, even manufacture smaller numbers while airborne.

Of course, a flying fortress was also a great place to hold prisoners. It was hard to escape from between the clouds. Any escapee not capable of flight would have to think about his escape plan twice and consider if jumping a few thousand feet down would really make for a good option.

In terms of dealing with his notorious nemesis, an airbase was almost as good as a base in outer space or underwater. It was hard to reach, impossible to run to, and the hedgehog could not go and destroy it that easily without risking his own life. Even if he wanted to crash it, he had to think about the timing and place carefully. In turn, even destroying an airship slowed Sonic down considerably.

Robotnik gazed at the pencil. His airships always got destroyed, it seemed just a matter of time. Next time, he would have to put more effort into making them indestructible, so the hedgehog couldn't escape from them.

Or maybe… Maybe escaping wasn't the core idea. Maybe timing was the critical thing. A sky fortress could also be a brilliant trap if laid out correctly…

A grin a mischief tugged on Ivo's lips and he leaned over the paper again. Why not? What kept him from making a flying trap? An airbase the hedgehog would never see the exit of...

Robotnik's grin grew another bit. In his head, the gears were slowly starting to turn again. He had ideas, and the hedgehog better prepare.

Or, maybe not. It was best he wouldn't know what hit him. And Ivo would do whatever he could to make sure it hit him hard.