"Puny, worthless fool…I am the supreme being. I control the reality of your senses," Eggman's voice echoed in his head.
Laughter followed. Only the real Eggman could cackle that way. Sonic was neither in a dream nor fully conscious. Eyes deceived him. Ears created a waving noise in the background.
"Help us…" a whisper came out of nowhere.
It was the wakeup call he needed. Looking around carefully, Sonic could still see nothing but steel walls and the powder-cracked glass ceiling on the Death Egg's surface. The space station's owner remained suspiciously unseen. To top the awkward awakening, Sonic's senses were back to normal.
He wasn't too glad to have them back. The piercing wound made him hiss and snort. Healing was out of the question. It meant the Chaos Emeralds' absence.
All of a sudden, a surge of relief reached him. Cells multiplied and began rebuilding the tissue stitched away by Signature Omega's spear.
Comfort proved itself temporary; flames swallowed the hedgehog's form. He was burning alive and could not identify the source! Fire seemed to creep out of the surroundings. Momentarily, the hero would have sworn he was hallucinating. But no, fate had never allowed him the easy way out. Before he had a chance to run out of the heat circle, he bumped into an obstacle.
Signature Omega appeared before his eyes. Like a fearsome devil, his metal frame emerged from the lethal tongues. He looked serious.
The claw, still hot from flammable liquid, snatched Sonic. Without any rings to give him strength, the hedgehog could not get out. The smouldering squeeze burnt into his skin while sharp, razor-like fingers dug deeper through the burnt fur.
Sonic groaned helplessly, wrapped in a cyclone of pain. It swirled and vibrated inside him before wreaking havoc on the nerves. Fortunately, Eggman soon got bored of merely gripping the enemy and smacked him into the ground.
"I will cure the world of this sickness called heroics. You will set the example for all, so my base can annihilate life unharmed." The tone was cool and collected, yet tainted with tension. "Your kind struggled against science, and suffering was always your only reward."
Eggman glared at the hedgehog who kept ignoring the words as he lay on the floor. "Not even Super Sonic is capable of stopping me now. My fortress is within minutes of turning the planet into a wasteland."
A heavy metal leg pressed atop Sonic's body. The magnet sole pulled it closer, adding gruelling pressure. Blue Blur coughed for a shout, his psyche broken into pieces along with the physical form.
"If I told you…that someone else will be the hero this time… W-would your pompous ass shake in fear?"
There was a powerful stomp with immediate physical response. "That hound of a friend you had is irrelevant. My genius is unmatched throughout the universe…the Death Egg is bioenergetically attached to Earth."
Robotnik could never have enough. He stomped the hedgehog into the ground more and more until the dent in the tiles was becoming too great for him to dig the lifeless hero further. Wanting the dirt off his feet, Signature Omega sent a high kick to Sonic's skull.
A small cry burst out. Sonic shivered inside the mental shell. Why did he grow up to be a hero? Had his eyes not been shut so tight, a tear would have easily escaped those burnt eyelashes.
The maniac cheered in disaster, footfalls announcing approach and new torture. "First Rouge and the echidna, then Amy, Cream and Shadow…weak-minded drones died instantly. I should thank you for luring them to me. It saved me a trip to get you, too," Eggman smiled.
A whimper came from Sonic's direction, mourning the loss of his friends. "Bloated loser…"
Eggman grunted like a predator at the remark. The gauntlet was down! Sonic would die now!
Both the emerald eye and hidden cannon in the doctor's clawed arm powered up for an extreme attack. A targeting marker remained on Sonic's head. The eye flashed a ray of light at the opponent, sucking colour from his fur. Then, the chaos jewel lodged in the cannon joined it with a black lightning beam, turning the hedgehog brown. Another flash, more lightning. It became a chain reaction. Light and darkness flickered in the room, distorting matter and time, and Sonic was in their epicentre.
Tides of clairvoyance and comatose stormed his brain. His world would come to life and die again. The melody that was his existence was being cut and eroded. Memories changed, new events appeared in his mind, and things he would have never thought of scribbled into the imagination. Regularity ceased to exist.
He remembered Cream, who he had murdered in a burst of blind animalistic rage. The hero recalled Shadow imprisoned in the energy vat, lacking his red stripes, with a dark veil over the white of his eyes. Sonic could even find images of a grey hedgehog…an innocent voice asking him to carry on.
But then there was Robotnik, trying to turn the hedgehog into a living corpse. Sonic could not fight him now…he was using gems of great power. And the power was too great!
Fine! He would be defeated, yet Eggman would not find pleasure in it.
"Who you are…nothing but a scared man…degraded senile crone…waste of my time."
Eggman stopped shooting and trotted up to the barely audible offender. Enraged, he glared into the hedgehog's half-open eyes, holding the rodent up with the claw. He tried to say something, but only spit escaped his mouth amongst feral cries.
Robotnik was none of those things! He'd prove Sonic he's far greater than anyone by…by…what exactly?
The human eye darted around the area, trying to locate something spectacular to accomplish for the hero. And he found it!
"Muwuahahahaha!" he laughed whole-heartedly.
The hedgehog was then discarded in a quick throw. A new hermetic helmet replaced the old to cover the man's head.
"See me as I am! The one that holds the power to create life and take it away."
His target marker moved from Sonic's head to the fragile ceiling. Robotnik watched horror tumble the hero's expression into greater pits of gloom.
Why was the obese villain stalling for so long? Didn't Sonic deserve a better death?
A click turned on the communicator. Tails should have known of the imminent: "I'm sorry, buddy… I can't defeat him. You're the world's last hope."
Laughter interrupted remaining thoughts: Eggman has finished charging his plasma cannon. "Smile, Sonic! Smile like you've never smiled before! Offer agony every bit of your happiness!"