A/N - Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Chanukkah everyone! We've got two great holidays coming together today so I hope everyone's having fun! I was going to wait a few more days before posting this newest chapter but I've decided to post it first as a "thank you" for all of your patience over my slow posting schedule, also for all of you who have helped pushed this story past 5,500 views, and especially for those of you who have been kind enough to give me some feedback. And speaking of feedback:
Shadowkey392 - I agree with what you said. It actually helped me with the first part of this chapter so thanks for the comment.
A. Lane - Glad you like the chapter. I don't know if only Mobians can be roboticized against their wills but not humans. The SatAM show never went into that and, as I've said before, I never read the "Archie" series, so for purposes of this story anyone can be roboticized.
Stitchfan 82 - Heh heh, read this chapter and find out.
Stallion6 of Deviantart - Well that's "one" way Robotnik came to be called Eggman, and the Doctor has indeed escaped from worse situations. I hope you like what's coming next.
Well having said all that I had fun writing this chapter. I hope you have fun reading it.
As always, standard disclaimer: Neither Doctor Who nor Sonic The Hedgehog belong to me. Doctor Who is property of the BBC. Sonic The Hedgehog SatAM is property of Sega and DIC. The only thing that's mine is the story itself and any original characters I might come up with. Please read and review; I always appreciate feedback. Constructive criticism is welcome, however no flames please.
26 – ROBOTNIK VERSUS THE TARDIS
Snively led the Doctor and Sarah Jane down several levels until they reached the dungeon level at the bottom of the building. It was a very dank and gloomy place. They walked down a hall that had empty cells on both sides of it. Eventually they came to an open one and Snively motioned for the Doctor and Sarah Jane to enter, which they did.
Once the door was locked behind his prisoners Snively spoke.
"I know who you are Doctor" he said, causing the Doctor to raise an eyebrow, "you were here before but it wasn't just a short time ago, it was also a hundred years ago during the fight with the Cybermen."
"You know about that?" asked the Doctor, "I was under the impression that was all kept very hush hush."
"Some of us take the opportunity to learn secrets when we get access to them" said Snively with a smirk
"Does Robotnik know?"
"Him?" said Snively with something like contempt in his voice, "he doesn't bother with anything he can't turn to his advantage and he certainly wouldn't care about something that happened that long ago." Snively stopped and considered the Doctor. "I don't know how it's possible for you to be here now," he went on, "but the image I saw of you in the records is an exact match. How long has it been for you?" The Doctor said nothing to this so Snively turned to look at Sarah Jane.
"You weren't there" he said to her.
"No, but I've met the Cybermen before" she said.
"Where are you really from?" asked Snively.
"It wouldn't mean anything to you" said the Doctor, "and why do you care? Soon Robotnik will roboticize us and you'll get all your answers."
"I think not" said Snively who suddenly turned around and unlocked their cell, although he didn't open the door. "I'm leaving the Swatbots here to stand guard but I'm sure you'll be able to deal with them. When you do, please be loud about it so I can claim that you escaped on your own."
"Why are you helping us?" asked the Doctor. Snively took a moment before answering.
"I'm not doing this for you" he said, "I think that the only way you can be here is if your ship can travel in time. If my uncle gets his hands on that who knows what he could do? I'm not a good man Doctor, but I'd much rather Dr. Eggman as you so accurately called him – " here Snively sniggered, " – I'd rather he spent his time being obsessed with that blue hedgehog who always thwarts him. The more obsessed he is with that, the more I can arrange things the way I want them."
The Doctor nodded in understanding.
"Your ambition is safe with us" he said to Snively, "one more thing: how do you get to the roboticizer from here?"
"Why do you want to go there?" asked Snively, puzzled at this unexpected question.
"I have my reasons" said the Doctor. Snively nodded.
"Very well" he said and quickly gave them the directions, "good luck Doctor" he finished and left them alone.
"Now that he's gone, shall we go too?" the Doctor asked Sarah Jane after giving Snively a few minutes to get away.
"By all means" said Sarah Jane.
"Good" said the Doctor, "Snively has been most helpful and since Dr. Robotnik didn't bother to have us searched – " he pulled his sonic screwdriver out of one of his coat pockets and adjusted its setting, "come along Sarah" he said, opening the cell door.
As soon as they stepped out of the cell the Swatbots began to turn towards them but before they could even begin to raise their weapons the Doctor activated his sonic screwdriver and sent out a loud sonic pulse that immediately caused all of the Swatbots drop to the ground, deactivated.
"Still as primitive as the last time I met one of these things" said the Doctor with a huff, "now let's go see that roboticizer."
"Doctor" asked Sarah Jane as they began moving down the hallway, "if Snively meant to help us all along why did he lock us in the cell first?"
"To show us that he could have kept us prisoner if he'd wanted" answered the Doctor, "he's a lot smarter than his uncle gives him credit for."
"You knew he would help us" said Sarah, "you let us get captured on purpose."
"I didn't know for sure he would help us" said the Doctor, "but I thought it was a strong possibility considering the dynamic between him and his uncle. But even if he hadn't done so the sonic screwdriver would have gotten us out easily enough."
"But why get us captured in the first place?" asked Sarah.
"Some times it's prudent to appear weaker than you are" said the Doctor, "and I want to have a look at that roboticizer on my own terms."
They were just about at the end of the hall leading out of the dungeons when Sarah Jane stopped the Doctor.
"What if Robotnik had searched you and taken away your sonic screwdriver?" she asked.
"Remember what I told Tails to do?" said the Doctor, "I think some help will be heading our way soon. Really Sarah you need to learn the first lesson walking directly into danger: always cover all of your options."
"I've heard that one from you before" muttered Sarah under her breath as she followed the Doctor out of the dungeons.
Tails had watched the entire chat between Robotnik and his friends. As soon as they were led away by the Swatbots he remembered the Doctor's instructions. They had been two simple words: "Call Sonic."
"Something has definitely gone wrong" Tails muttered to himself as he activated his communicator and put it on the "emergency" setting. Almost immediately Sonic's image appeared in front of him.
"Tails!" exclaimed Sonic, "what's going on? What's wrong?"
"Sonic we need your help" cried Tails.
"My help? Are you back on Mobius?"
"Yes. We were heading for Knothole but the TARDIS was pulled off course by Robotnik and now he's captured the Doctor and Sarah Jane and he intends to roboticize them!"
"Way uncool!" said Sonic, "where are you?"
"I'm still in the TARDIS" said Tails, "the Doctor didn't want Robotnik to know there was any connection between us and him. But if he's roboticized Robotnik will know everything."
"No kidding" said Sonic, "did they go straight to the roboticizer?"
"No. Robotnik took them to the dungeon until he's ready to deal with them. But I don't know how long that will be."
"Hang on little bro." said Sonic, "the Freedom Fighters are on the job!"
They broke the connection and Tails stood in the middle of the TARDIS console room to wait. He had absolute faith in his big brother but he was still worried. Looking up at the view screen he saw that Robotnik was still outside the TARDIS..
"Why is he still here?" Tails said out loud.
"He intends to try to get inside of me" said the TARDIS in Tails' mind, "he won't manage it. I'm more than a match for the likes of him."
"I believe you" said Tails, "can you keep him busy until Sonic gets here?"
"Oh yes" replied the TARDIS, "the Doctor told you to enjoy the show, did he not? Well I hope you're comfortable as you're about to see how I deal with people I don't like!"
Dr. Robotnik was very frustrated – a state he was very familiar with from having been foiled by Sonic so often. No matter what he did he could not get into the TARDIS and it was infuriating him to no end. The worst part was that it seemed to him that the mysterious craft knew what was happening and was deliberately keeping him out just to make him angry. He had no idea just how right he was.
Before he could start trying to enter the TARDIS he had to deactivate the force field around it. This he did with a simple portable device that Tails watched him use on the view screen.
He had started by simply trying to open the doors. When he grabbed the handles he both pushed on the doors and tried to pull them. Obviously neither worked since the doors were locked. He was not fazed by this; in fact he had expected it.
Observing the lock on the door he noticed that it seemed to be an ordinary lock for an ordinary door. Although he didn't really believe that it was he decided to try a key anyway. He produced a standard skeleton key and inserted it in the lock. It slid in easily.
Success! Or was it? When he tried to turn the key it wouldn't turn. After a few tries the key broke, leaving the head in his hand and the rest of it in the lock. Before he could react to this beyond a simple growl of mild frustration the rest of the key suddenly ejected from the lock, as if propelled from the other side.
"Hmm" said Dr. Robotnik to himself, stroking his chin. Next he decided to try drilling the lock. He activated a power drill and began drilling around the TARDIS lock – or rather he tried to drill around the lock. No matter what he did the drill would not latch onto anything. It kept sliding away from the TARDIS door. Again and again Dr. Robotnik tried to drill the lock and again and again he failed. Finally, with grim determination etched in his face he decided to put his whole body behind the drill to give it an extra base to work from.
This time when he tried to drill the door the drill was suddenly flung away from the TARDIS with great force, and since Robotnik had put his body into it he was flung back with it being unable to let go in time.
"Ahh!" cried Robotnik as he fell to the floor a couple of meters from the ship. Inside the TARDIS Tails saw the whole thing and was trying hard not to laugh.
"It's okay" said the TARDIS in his mind, "you can laugh. Otherwise I'm not doing it well enough." So Tails did laugh. The sight of Robotnik thrown to the floor like that was just too funny.
"I'm not done yet" said the TARDIS, "just wait."
Robotnik was clearly getting angry now. He pulled a ray gun out of a holster at his side.
"I'll blast you open" he growled. He fired his gun at the TARDIS. Immediately a force shield appeared around the TARDIS, absorbing the rays and neutralizing them until the gun ran out of power. Robotnik increased the settings on his gun but it made no difference. Shaking his fist at the TARDIS Robotnik tossed his drained ray gun away and turned and left the chamber.
"Is he done already?" said Tails.
"I don't think so" replied the TARDIS, and she was right. After another minute or two Robotnik returned, this time pushing a larger, mounted ray gun into the chamber which he maneuvered to point directly at the TARDIS doors.
"Yipe!" said Tails seeing the gun.
"Let's see how you like this you miserable blue box" he cried out in fury, "ugh! And you're blue too – just like that wretched hedgehog!" He pressed a button on the gun and a huge ray shot out of it and rammed the TARDIS doors. This time the TARDIS reacted more violently. When the ray hit the TARDIS it deflected the ray right back at its source. There was a large explosion as the gun blew up. Robotnik was thrown across the chamber again and this time Tails could feel the explosion rock the TARDIS a little.
There was a long moment while the smoke of the explosion cleared away. When it did Tails saw that nothing was left of the gun but lots of little burned pieces. Robotnik was lying on the floor on the other side of the chamber.
"Is he dead?" Tails asked.
"I highly doubt it" said the TARDIS.
Another long moment passed and then slowly, painfully, Robotnik picked himself up off of the floor. After checking that he was still in one piece he stalked towards the TARDIS in a rare fury. When he reached it he took a deep breath and began kicking the door as hard as he could.
"Open up, you blasted thing!" he yelled, "I COMMAND you to open up!"
Tails was laughing freely now and he could sense that the TARDIS was quite pleased with itself.
"You really got to him" said Tails through his laughter, "what's next?"
"Activate my visual voice interface" said the TARDIS, "and you'll see."
Tails pushed a button on the console. Outside of the TARDIS a large hologram of Dr. Robotnik himself appeared next to the real Robotnik who stepped back several paces in shock.
"Kindly stop kicking me" said the hologram in Robotnik's own voice, "you'll damage my paint job."
"What is this?" growled a baffled Robotnik, "what are you?"
"You are speaking to this ship's visual voice interface" came the answer, "I am programmed to take the form of the person you most respect due to the increased likelihood of your listening to reason from them."
"I can't fault your judgment there" muttered Robotnik, "what do you want with me?"
"Merely to advise you that further attempts to gain access to this vessel will continue to be futile" said the hologram, "this ship cannot be accessed by any means known to you or anyone else native to this planet. I would strongly suggest that you drop your attempts before you hurt yourself even more than you already have."
"Your advice is noted and rejected" said Robotnik, "I claim all technology on this world for my personal use and that includes you, even if you came from somewhere else originally. You are here now and subject to the rule of Robotnik."
"It doesn't matter" said the hologram, "no matter what you do I will not allow you to invade me."
"I admit you've managed to stop me so far" said Robotnik angrily, "but every defense system has a weakness."
"It amuses me to see your attempts" was the response, "what will you do now? Your biggest gun didn't succeed."
"That is far from my biggest gun" retorted Robotnik.
"You should be more careful" said the hologram, "all attempts at using force are repelled with equal or greater force. You're lucky you didn't break any bones with that last attempt. Or maybe it wasn't luck. You have so much body mass it probably cushioned your falls."
"Are you calling me fat?" demanded Robotnik.
"You are rather round" said the hologram, "I was surprised you didn't bounce. You really should go on diet. You'll live a longer life, especially if you drastically cut down on your food intake and immediately begin a regular regimen of exercise. As a doctor yourself you should know the value of healthy living."
"Stop it" said Robotnik, "stop talking."
"I'm only trying to help," said the hologram, "it's for your own good. You could be svelte and strong. Right now you're just a giant Eggman."
"DON'T INSULT ME!" roared Robotnik coming up to the TARDIS doors and pounding heavily on them with his fists, "I'LL DESTROY YOU!"
"I think not" said the hologram, "eggs are fragile things. They break so easily."
Suddenly Robotnik was flung violently back from the TARDIS. This time he landed flat on his big round bottom. Inside the TARDIS Tails was laughing uncontrollably, and even the TARDIS was chuckling.
After another long moment Robotnik got painfully to his feet. He looked angrily at the TARDIS. The hologram had disappeared when he was thrown back from the ship but he had no doubt he could still be understood.
"You think you've beaten me" he said darkly, "not yet. Once I roboticize the Doctor I'll know all about you, and then you'll be all mine to do with as I please." The TARDIS was silent. "No answer?" chuckled Robotnik evilly, feeling he had scored a point, "I thought not." He activated a wrist communicator. "Snively" he called, "prepare the roboticizer for our 'guests.'"
"Hold it right there 'Buttnik" came a new voice, causing Robotnik to spin toward it, "didn't anyone ever tell you it's way uncool to try to steal things that don't belong to you?"
"Blast it!" roared Robotnik "You!"
"Yupp" was the reply, "me." Standing in one of the chamber doorways was Sonic the Hedgehog.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - And that's that. Yes, Sonic the Hedgehog is back and ready for action! I hope Snively didn't seem too out of character in this chapter; by late in the SatAM run his contempt for Robotnik was becoming quite plain so I hope his actions here worked. Also to anyone who was wondering, the TARDIS talked to Robotnik in the same way it did to Clara in the episode "Hide."
Before I go I saw the DW 50th anniversary show "The Day of the Doctor" on Monday and it was awesome. Will its big revelations eventually affect this story? To quote Tom Baker's Curator "Who knows?" (picture right forefinger touching right side of nose here).