An explosion erupted the seemingly quiet afternoon air.

"Hey Ivo, when are you going to retire? You must be over 100 years by now." Sonic mocked as he easily smashed a few robots.

"You ill-mannered rodent! I'll show you! Consider this your Birthday present, Sonic!" Eggman then unleashed another squad of his newly designed robots. Sonic only smirked as he took on the challenge. However, Mobius's heroine didn't notice the eerie smile that stretched across the doctor's face.

Meanwhile, Team Rose, Dark, the rest of Team Sonic, and a few others were all busy keeping the party guests safe. Today was Sonic's 20th birthday and he was celebrating it with all his friends and family. During the opening of gifts, the party was crashed by robots. Shadow, Knuckles, Silver, and Blaze were there with Sonic and helping him in defeating the robot army.

Although he was fighting, Shadow's mind was elsewhere. This attack that Eggman lead was not like his usual ones. Yes, it was the faker's Birth celebration, but even then the number of robots were unsettling to The Ultimate Life Form. I better stay on guard. he noted as he chaos speared more robots.

Far off, the mad Doctor watched the battle below unfold. He pressed a button on his console and leaned in.

"It is time," Eggman muttered into the speaker in front of him.

Even though it had ruined his party, Sonic was enjoying getting to smash some robots. Lasers shot by his head and he turned around only to barely dodge another one. A robot stared at him, emotionless as he reloaded. Not wasting any time, Sonic spin-dashed the metal slave. He could only smirk before turning towards another group. This was way too easy for him. He smashed through many more robots and started to get cocky. Too cocky. Without warning, Metal Sonic, newly upgraded, came up behind his organic counterpart and hit the back of his head. Sonic fell to the ground, unconscious and helpless. Only when Metal picked up the hedgehog, one of his friends took notice.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled towards the unconscious hero.

After hearing her scream, the others saw the 'package' Metal Sonic was carrying. Tails immediately took action and fired one of his weapons at Metal. The robot just brushed the laser aside as if it were nothing.

"OBJECTIVE: Capture Sonic The Hedgehog And Return To Base." Metal Sonic stated in a robotic tone and fired up his jetpack.

Knuckles, Silver, and Shadow sprinted towards the robot but could not get there in time for he had already taken off. Silver picked up some rocks and followed Metal with his telekinesis.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow teleported to where the robot was and threw a punch. The hit made contact and caused Metal Sonic to fly back a couple of yards. Silver then grabbed Sonic, using his powers, and threw the boulders at the kidnapper. Metal dodged the first two and burst through the third, catching the white hedgehog off guard, and shot lasers at him. Silver lost his focused and fell while dropping Sonic, who was caught by his metal counterpart. Shadow teleported again and this time used his chaos spear to attack. Metal Sonic dodged but the extra weight of his counterpart made him slower. Shadow was also growing tired as he had to keep teleporting himself in order to stay in the air. The sound of a jet caught the scientific creations' attention and they turned to find the X-Tornado flying towards them. Shadow then teleported onto one of the wings as Tails, along with Amy and Knuckles, flew circles around the hovering robot.

"PRIORITY 1: Return the Hedgehog To Base For Experiment. PRIORITY 2: Deal With The Organics." Metal listed to himself. Behind him, a portal opened and he backed into it with Sonic the hedgehog in his grasp. Tails tried to fly through the portal but it closed before he could.

There was a moment of silent defeat that hung in the air. The only sound was that of the plane's engine humming in the wind. A sudden slam against the plane broke the silence. Amy stared ahead, tears filled her eyes. The fox did nothing but hanging his head as he flew the plane back to the ground. Shadow, being that he was the only one outside of the plane, had heard what Metal Sonic said. Experiment? What does he mean by that? What is the doctor planning? He wondered as the plane landed.

"Wake up, hedgehog!"

That was the most unpleasant wake-up call Sonic could ever ask for.

Sonic's eyes slowly fluttered open as light blared down on his face. Once his vision cleared he noticed strange circles with symbols on the ground below him. Below him. Confused, he lifted his head to find his worst enemy standing in front of him.

"Ah... so you're finally awake... took you long enough," Eggman grumbled the last part, however, his face didn't show annoyance, instead, it held triumph.

The bald man snickered at the sight of the fallen hero chained up and hanging from some sort of machine. Beside Eggman, Metal Sonic watched in silence.

"So... you finally captured me..." Eggman straightened his back at Sonic's words. "...heh, took you long enough." Sonic weakly copied the doctor's words, mocking him. An aching pain called his attention towards his arms, only to find wiring connected to him.

"Oh don't worry hedgehog, you've been numbed, so you won't be able to feel some of the pain." Eggman turned to walk away to a control table and started typing in commands. Sonic cleared his throat, calling for attention and ignoring the eerie feeling he was getting.

"I believe that this is the part where you tell me your evil plan so that I can stop it?" Sonic inquired. Although he got out of situations like this often, this time was a bit unsettling for him. Maybe it was the wires connected to him or the unpredictability in the doctor's eye.

A worn out laugh broke the hedgehog's thoughts.

"Well since you won't be in your right mind to stop me, I guess I will..." The doctor turned to face the Mobian Hero, a smirk accompanied his large mustache.

Eggman walked slowly towards Sonic with every word he spoke. "As you know you have a bit of a dark side within you that comes with great power. It only comes out when you let negative emotions control you; an example would be if your friends have been severely hurt, but I'm no murderer, so I had to find another way to unleash it. So I did what I do best; create things." Eggman was in front of Sonic's face by now. The hero held his gaze, not showing weakness. It was only now where he realized, that over the years, the doctor had been growing less and less sane. "I have created a computer generated virus that will allow me to control your Dark form. When you go reeking havoc, The Acorn kingdom will come to me and be forced to make a deal. I will defeat you and become the Emperor to rule over my Egg Empire!"

Eggman's hand clutched the air in triumph as his face grew a sinister grin. Now Sonic was getting really nervous. H-he's not going to kill me, is he? N-no, he would never... yet, he has been threatening me ever since we met... Sonic's mind was running wild with the possibility that the doctor might actually end his life today. His family... his friends...

"No! I won't allow it! I promise to always be there to protect others and I intend to keep it!" Sonic shouted at Eggman while trying to break free of the binding that held him. The human chuckled at Sonic's sorry attempt at escape.

He walked back towards his control panel and continued pressing commands. Suddenly, the wires attached to Sonic started vibrating and then something was injected into his body. The hedgehog yelped at the sudden pain. Eggman's hand landed on a large switch while he pulled out a red and purple crystal. Tossing it onto the circles below Sonic, he gave the hedgehog one last grin. "Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog..." with that Dr. Eggman pushed down on the switch. Immediately, Sonic felt his entire body writhe with pain. Then images were forced into his mind. Pain. Failure. The death of friends and family. A dying world. The symbols and circles started glowing a crimson red.

"N-no! Please, stop... Stop! STOOOOOOOP!" His eyes became pure white while his quills darkened in color. His cries of pain would make even the Devil feel sorry for him. Eggman's grin grew wider as a dark aurora appeared around his arch-nemesis. Then the machines started to over heat and fry, but the doctor had noticed and turned off the machine. He had done it. He awakened Dark Sonic.

"HOHOHOHOHOOOoooo I've done it! What do you think of me now, Sonic?" Eggman continued his laugh of triumph, not noticing that Dark Sonic's health statistics were going wrong. Suddenly, a shock wave was released and all technology within a 10-mile radius was fried, including Orbot, Cubot, and Metal Sonic. It was pitch black with only the moon as a light source. Eggman scoffed in irritation until he realized something.

Without his technology, he won't be able to control Dark Sonic. He slowly turned to the hedgehog, moonlight shining down on him. What Eggman saw horrified him. The once hero of Mobius was changing before his very eyes. The hedgehog's tears oozed to blood, his teeth grew sharp like razors, and the dark aurora was absorbed into his body.

A cloud passed over the moon, blinding the doctor's only light source. A sinister, robotic-like laughter could be heard in the shadows. Eggman blinked and when his eyes opened, two glowing ones stared into his; they were a vibrant yet dark red. The moon's light then reviled a monstrous form of Sonic before Dr. Eggman. No whites in the eyes, just glowing, red irises floating in the emptiness of his sockets. A shark-like-teeth smile grew upon its face, the corners reaching the end of his muzzle.

The horrifying image before him froze Eggman where he stood.

Another cloud passed over the moon and with it came another round of the monster's laughter. The last thing Dr. Ivo Robotnic heard was the breaking of his machine and the glowing, red eyes flying towards him.