Chapter 10: Behind the Moon.
.w.
Light was flickering slightly. For an unaccustomed person, it was hard enough to look at it for too long, not to mention work in it.
But the only person present in the room was accustomed to dim lights, and he could carry on with his task as if he was in a spotlit surgeon's room.
Surgery was the first thing that came to mind upon looking at the table the man was working at. A spread hedgehog's body lay on it, deep unconscious and motionless. The man was delving into his patient's innards with a cutter and, judging by the movement of his lips, was murmuring something to himself.
A wall on the man's right was full of monitors with a traditional control panel below them. Some of the screens displayed desolate metal passages. For some reason, the rest of them showed space, and the Earth from similar angles.
One lonely monitor was playing the United Federation's only channel dedicated to the most mystical and supernatural event in human history. The sound was muted.
"Surveillance reports strange human activity in Central City," came a mechanical voice from the other side of the table.
The man ignored it. A sudden idea visited him, and he threw his instrument onto the table.
"In fact, said activity is present in almost every inhabited area," continued the voice.
Its creator snorted. "Still celebrating? Pathetic. Metal, bring me some tea."
In front of him, a red oval flashed menacingly. A small blue robot was spread in vertical position above another workplace, almost completely disassembled. The belly plate was removed along with the turbine, as was the head's back plate and one eye. Thick cables were attached to its shoulders and knees, providing it with just enough energy to stay awake, observe the table and follow the intel reports. Its creator found the situation exhilarating.
The robot cast a glance at the cables, at the poles supporting him, at the implements lying below. "This unit is immobilized."
"Really?" Eggman slapped his forehead hard. "How could I forget? What a pity. If so, order some from the kitchen."
He bent down, took a screwdriver from under the table, and went back to work.
Metal Sonic took in the scenery before him. According to his creator's words, that pathetic copy below the screwdriver was Eggman's ticket to tremendous success, and Metal himself was doomed to behold its creation. In the meantime, the doctor promised to decide whether the one and only real Sonic needed the ability to use Chaos Control – something Eggman had only recently learned about.
His status was humiliating to the limit, and one part of Metal's CPU made a decision to never, ever cooperate with the creator again. A more rational part decided to try and be somewhat useful, wait for Eggman to restore the engine and power supply, and only then implement his ultimate revenge.
"Subsequent increase in death-rate: three point two per cent per day and growing."
"What!?" This one was a success: Eggman dropped the screwdriver. "Some hardcore celebrating is going on, huh? Let's see a live feed from the Earth."
He removed his goggles onto the top of his head, and it immediately became clear how he managed to see anything in the poor light: the goggles had many filters that allowed seeing in scarce light, magnifying separate parts of the picture, and many others a professional surgeon would need. The doctor rushed to the control panel. He typed in a command, and the monitors showed different scenery. Eggman watched it a little, and quirked his eyebrow. "Looks normal to me."
"You are seeing a junkyard in the vicinity of Apotos. Recommendation: switch to any city in the United Federation."
The man frowned, but did as was told. This time, his both eyebrows traveled up his forehead when he saw the madness going on in the streets. "Have those people lost their minds?"
"Unstable mental state is perfectly normal for organic creatures."
Eggman cringed. Metal was a terrible company when in a spiteful mood. Maybe giving him his eye back could help that?
Anyway, he was intrigued now, and did not need Metal Sonic anymore to start acting. A quick check showed the same scenery in Central City, Westopolis, Station Square. Meanwhile, Apotos, Spagonia and several more cities appeared rather peaceful; well, at least people weren't killing one another on the streets.
Right now, Eggman could notice only one pattern. It was night in the United Federation, and day in the other places he checked. The man drummed his fingers on the control panel, thinking.
"Show me Sonic," he ordered the computer in the end.
A quick search later, it gave out a sorrowful beep. No results.
"Maybe Tails? Or Amy Rose?"
Same story. All of his enemies seemed to have disappeared at once. He didn't even bother to look for Rouge or Knuckles: the picture was clear enough… well, at least a small part of it.
"Does Master desire to go there and investigate the situation himself?" Metal asked after a pause.
Master was thinking rapidly at this point. Something interesting was indeed going on back on the planet, and catching up on the news sure sounded tempting. On the other hand…
On the other hand, he could easily do that from his current location. Death Egg 2, even though it was still under construction, had all the means of contacting the Earth, starting from leeching off the TV channels and finishing with two-way portals for his robots. And while his labor drones were finishing with the trimming, it was better for the spacecraft to stay in the Mars' shadow under Eggman's parental control.
His second thought was about the body lying on the table, and the doctor turned back to look at it. A mechanical black hedgehog, a copy of the Ultimate Life Form, was what was bound to grant his plan a huge success. A being created by two geniuses simply could not fail… but just in case, the man had prepared to produce several dozens of those to support him. The original hedgehog slept on the lower decks of his spacecraft as well, providing Eggman with fresh research material.
If Sonic along with the world decided to go down before the epic showdown began, Eggman would make them regret it dearly.
Plus, going meant leaving the spacecraft to Metal Sonic… Eggman winced at the image and shook his head. "Computer, send the reconnaissance drones. Make sure they record all they encounter. Let them return in, say, three hours. Oh, and gather me all the news articles and TV reports that were released after my retreat. And keep looking for Sonic and his friends."
Metal's single eye stared into the back of his creator. Perhaps, it meant the beginning of his only chance to break free.
.w.
Author's note:
My Light ends here.
Open endings are pretty, aren't they? Sometimes it's so much fun to leave the characters to solve their predicaments by themselves, and watch their struggling as a spectator, not a writer. In a way, writing the events down ruins the freedom of imagination.
Hope you enjoyed the tour.