Robotnik stood proud in his weapons factory, looking over the machines creating his Badniks and inserting the various cuddly animals inside to serve as a power source. An old technology, and one he hadn't used in some time, but a fairly efficient means of creating an army.
Behind him, half obscured by shadows, was a hulking red being with black horns and blue claws and a blue ponytail wearing spiked bracelets who was glaring at the Doctor. Three more figures stood behind him but were totally obscured in the darkness.
"What do you think of my little operation here, Zavok?" the evil Doctor asked the large man, "not to root my own horn too much, but I'd say I run a pretty tight ship!"
"I think you are a coward, Robotnik," Zavok replied coldly, "you snivel and scheme behind armies, and use innocent creatures as shields."
Robotnik scoffed and turned back to his machines, his mood clearly soured.
"Contractors, always with the opinions," he waved off Zavok's comments, "you're even more annoying than a certain crocodile I know."
"I would hardly call you my employer," Zavok growled and took a steadying breath, "yet I am obliged to follow your orders for now."
"Hmph, don't act so high and mighty," Robotnik sneered, "the way I hear it, hiring your little 'Deadly Six' is a decent way to end up with a knife in the back!"
"How DARE you!" from the darkness a second horned figure emerged, this one lanky and pink with purple hair and wearing the same spiked bracelets as Zavok as well as a choker, his face set in a snarl, "Lord Zavok is an honorable man, not like some conniving-!"
"Peace, Zazz!" Zavok yelled to his purple companion, though he was clearly having trouble containing himself as well, "remember the Master."
"O-of course, Milord," Zazz inclined his head to Zavok and took a few deep breaths, but seemed to be about as wound up as before.
Robotnik seemed to be about to make another comment, as always a stranger to restraint, but was interrupted by a voice coming through the intercom.
"Doctor, it seems Sonic has taken the bait and is moving through the first of the zones outlined in your plan as scheduled," Orbot said through the speaker, "unfortunately, he's also destroying the security network rather wholly, so we can't ascertain if he's alone right now."
"Whether he's coming alone or not, it doesn't matter," Robotnik sneered, "without the Tornado, his friends likely won't be able to keep up with him anyway."
Robotnik turned to look at the two members of the Deadly Six that were visible to him and scowled.
"As for you, I'd say it's about time you pulled your weight around here!" he pointed at Zavok boldly, "send someone to the first checkpoint outlined in the plan, I'll trust you know enough to handle the rest yourselves."
"You disrespectful-" Zazz walked past Zavok in a rage, "over and over you insult and belittle us, I should rip you apar-"
"Prisoner status," Robotnik said simply, grinning as Zazz stopped and both he and Zavok looked at him fearfully.
"The prisoners are currently stable," Orbot responded through the intercom, "but I am linked to their cages and prepared to administer a controlled shock at your command, Doctor."
Zavok growled upon hearing the robot's information, and Zazz clenched his fists together and clenched his eyes shut but didn't back away from Robotnik.
"Remember the penalty for insubordination," the Doctor said coldly, "keep letting that temper of your fly and that old man you all seem to care for so much will get it!"
"You... snake, I-" Zazz raised one hand, flexing his clawed fingers menacingly. Robotnik simply looked past him to Zavok with a smirk.
"Control yourself!" Zavok yelled through a grimace, making Zazz lower his arms instantly, "no matter how distasteful he is, you must be calm."
Zazz clenched his teeth and hands and took some deep breaths. Zavok eyed him closely. He wasn't used to seeing this much restraint from his temperamental friend. Seeing him struggle like that was a new experience, and a part of him wanted to keep on watching, but it would be bad for all of them if he actually lost control.
"Zazz will take the first checkpoint," Zavok declared suddenly, his authoritative voice drawing the room's attention to him immediately, "no matter how difficult you might find this hedgehog, I'm certain that Zazz will have him well in hand."
"Really?" Robotnik eyed the purple warrior up and down skeptically, "he doesn't exactly look like much, why don't you go to the first checkpoint instead?"
Zazz growled at the insult but stopped when Zavok put one of his large hands between the angry zeti and the Doctor.
"Don't underestimate us, Doctor," Zavok said coldly, "Zomom and I had already worked out a strategy for dealing with your blue pest days ago."
Robotnik raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting him to elaborate. Zavok simply chuckled.
"We don't exactly have the time to waste chatting here," he said and nodded to Zazz, who started to leave, "unless you want Sonic to reach the checkpoint before Zazz."
"Hmph," Robotnik crossed his arms and looked away haughtily, "well whatever plan you have, I hope you enjoy seeing it blow up in your face."
"Whatever Lord Zavok has planned I'm sure it will work better than your machinations, snake!" Zazz spat before running out of the factory.
"Wait, HE doesn't know the plan?" Robotnik asked incredulously and pointed after him.
"He doesn't need to," Zavok said simply as he walked into the darkness.
"Tch, insufferable," Robotnik stalked away, "you should all be glad I'm not doling out punishments for attitude!"
Whether Zazz succeeded or failed actually mattered little, though Robotnik didn't need to know that. Zavok took a steadying breath.
He couldn't trust the Doctor to keep up his end of the bargain, but he had to play along until he could figure something out. And if a few inconsequential pests happened to get squashed then that was fine by him.
The area was covered in beautiful green grass as far as the eye could see, dotted with healthy trees and oddly small cliffs that were at a good height for supersonic hedgehogs to vault over.
But it was also dotted with machinery and crawling with Badniks, though the number of each was being reduced as a blue blur streaked across the fields and blasted the various machines to bits.
Sonic smashed through a line of Badniks, releasing the animals contained within. He stopped for a moment to look at them, making sure that they were okay before he continued running.
"It's exhausting taking out each one, but I can't just leave them in there," Sonic said aloud before realizing there was nobody around to hear, "right, Tails is back at the Tornado..."
Sonic wasn't a stranger to being alone, but it had been a while since he'd last traveled alone. He hadn't kept far from Tails ever since...
He let his thoughts trail off and he slowed to a walk. It had been a while since he'd thought about the time before he and Tails had stopped going their separate ways.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. There was nothing to be gained by getting lost in thought. He took a deep breath and was about to start running when he noticed something odd.
Just to his left, there was a dead sapling. The tiny tree was small, but its cracked bark and the blackened leaves around its base made it stand out against the otherwise vibrant flora.
"Well, that's one point for Knuckles I guess," Sonic said as he glared to the machinery visible just ahead, "things definitely aren't very simple, are they?"
Sonic sped off to take out the Badniks ahead. He knew he was being led into a trap and being slowed down, but he couldn't abandon the animals. Robotnik knew that.
It was an old trick, but it had never thwarted Sonic before and it wasn't going to this time. He had to believe that.
Knuckles ran through the greenery in search of Sonic, his face screwed up in a grimace. Thankfully the piles of Badnik scrap and various animals walking away from them made finding the hedgehog's trail fairly simple. Catching up was proving difficult however.
"Grrrr, would it kill him to slow down and listen to me for once?" Knuckles asked aloud, rather used to talking to himself from the solitude on Angel Island.
"You'd think he'd learn not to go rushing into obvious traps after he got jettisoned into space multiple times," Knuckles continued to grumble, noting that the distance of the animals from the Badniks they'd been released from was growing shorter.
He was catching up, at least. All the quicker to give Sonic a piece of his mind and get him to cooperate for-
Knuckles stumbled suddenly and almost fell. Something was. Wrong. Very wrong.
"I knew it," Knuckles glared ahead, and started running once more, "I wouldn't even be surprised if Sonic could feel this."
Knuckles started running as fast as his legs could take him. Robotnik had too much time to plan, and there was no telling what he had come up with this time.
"I've come up with the perfect plan this time, if I dare to say so!" Robotnik chuckled, looking at the readouts on his computer monitor, "at this rate I might even have my latest ultimate weapon finished before Sonic gets done thrashing those so-called Deadly Six!"
The monitor was attached to a large machine with two glowing windowed chambers to either side. A slight green glow came from the right window, and a slight purple glow came from the other. The yellow Chaos Emerald was stored in a glass container next to the terminal.
Behind Robotnik was a pulsing energy cage was sitting behind Robotnik, and from there a small and frail voice spoke.
"Such little confidence in the mercenaries you worked so hard to acquire," Master Zik, a tiny and wizened zeti, sighed, "I'm not sure if I'm more upset at the insult to my pupils, or more frustrated at your shortsighted arrogance."
"Hmph, don't flatter your students so much," Robotnik waved the old man off dismissively, "if I needed extra muscle I could have just built it, your knowledge was the real prize."
"The arrogance of youth," Zik spat, "you assume much of what your machines can accomplish."
"And you assume much of what your pupils can accomplish!" Robotnik rebuked, raising a fist dramatically, "for all your hokey mysticism you fail to comprehend the power of Robotnik!"
"And here's the ego," Master Zik turned away, "please spare me the idle boasting, I've heard the like many times before."
"Think what you want," Robotnik muttered, studying the readouts once more, "I've built this off the back of my grandfather's research and my own hard work, you were just one more piece of the puzzle."
Zik closed his eyed and focused himself inward. In a thousand years he'd been through far worse than anything the Doctor could put him through, so his being confined was hardly an issue.
He focused a thin tendril of consciousness through the energy field around the cage. It was designed to completely block his psionic abilities, but as with everything Robotnik created there were flaws. Unfortunately his innate zeti ability to control electronic signals was rather limited.
He was an old man by the time computers came around and the ability was even discovered, so he couldn't control the machines like the young'uns. But he was able to tune in to the data feeds and observe Robotnik's security reports. He could only hope he'd manage to get a chance to use the information he gleaned...
It didn't take him long to find the camera trained on Zazz' position. The feed crackled to life inside his mind, showing both Zazz and a wide area in front of him.
True to form, his most volatile apprentice was pacing around impatiently and staring out into the distance. He was on top of a Badnik deployment platform guarding one of Robotnik's animal-holding capsules, overlooking the wide green fields where the Deadly Six had first had the misfortune of meeting Robotnik.
Bait, it was clear, for that 'Sonic the Hedgehog' that his captor was so worried about. The name was familiar to Zik, everyone had heard of the famous hero who had saved the planet so many times over of course, but he had trouble putting faith in the tales.
Never in all of his years had any being matched what stories told of Sonic, and Zik was sure that his reputation was mostly exagerrated. Zazz would almost certainly crush the famous 'Blue Blur' and Zik would have to keep looking for a way to keep Robotnik from disposing of his pupils once their usefulness was up.
A shape blurred into focus in the fields, zipping around to various clusters of machines and destroying them. The speed was there, it seemed, but Zik doubted still that the fabled hero would put up much of a show against his apprentice.
The shape coalesced into a thin blue figure faster than the camera could process, and Sonic the Hedgehog was there.
"Hey, spiky!" the cocky hedgehog called out to Zazz, who turned in surprise as he hadn't noticed the hedgehog's approach, "you one of Robotnik's latest welcome mats?"
The hedgehog grinned, and from what happened next Zik almost had no ability to react.
In some ways the stories had undersold that hero, Sonic the Hedgehog.