"Grimer? Snively? Anybody? If no-one bothers to answer me this instant, you'll all going to the Scrap Brain Zone!"
Darkness. Darkness, darkness, and more darkness. That was where Eggman found himself. He was trapped in a pitch-black void, and could not see anything except, well, darkness. He lifted his arms up or at least tried. He wasn't even sure if he had them, but he had to at least see if he could still feel them. And he could. So he knew he still had appendages. That was something. But beyond that, he couldn't tell much of anything else.
A spotlight then flashed over him, as though he were suddenly the center of attention. He was sixteen years old, dressed in black slacks and a red t-shirt, much to his shock and horror. "I remember this. I remember…"
Another spotlight then flickered to life. Beneath it was a tall young man dressed in blue jeans and a red and white striped sweater, with a well-combed hair cut. He pushed back his glasses like a lawyer preparing for his case.
"Lucas?" said Eggman. "How—?"
"Order in the court!" Another light flickered on, this time to Eggman's right. Sitting atop a podium was none other than Snively, dressed in a black robe and a white fluffy wig. "Order in the court!" He pounded the podium with his gavel, the sound resounding throughout the void before trailing off into nothingness.
"Snively? Just what are you doing in that getup? And co-conspiring with one of my most hated enemies, no less? Get yourself off of that glorified tree-stump right now, lest you want another dip in the toilet!"
"I'm afraid I'm the one giving the orders now!" Snively grinned like a shark closing in for the kill, and his large, pointy nose didn't do him any favors. "Now, if you don't mind, let us introduce the rest of the jury, shall we?"
Another light flashed in the blackness, this time revealing a tall, gorgeous woman with long, flowing, orange hair and a blue silk dress. Eggman's eyes went wide, as if a great treasure he had long sought to gain but believing he never could have was finally within his grasp. "Lucinda?"
Yet another light. Standing between Carl and Lucinda was a hulking monster of a woman, her pink dress and hat doing nothing to conceal her massive bulk.
"Mama?!"
"Don't you 'mama' me!" she said. "You're the same lousy sack of piss now that you were then! You aren't worthy of being called my son!"
"Mama?"
"She's right you know," said Lucinda. "I"m sorry, Robotnik, but you just don't have what it takes. You're just so ugly and gross and uninteresting, and Lucas is so hot and handsome! Lucas is where it's at."
Eggman was heartbroken, as though his soul had been cut in two. "Lucinda?"
"She's got the right idea, Robuttnik!" said Lucas. "You think some whiny, scared little punk like you could ever win Lucinda's heart? Think again!"
"Well now," said Snively, "I do believe most of the Jury has rendered its' verdict. There's just one more left unaccounted for— oh, I believe I spoke too soon. Here he is!"
Eggman slowly looked behing himself with dread, as though there was some small part of him that knew what was coming. If he squinted, he could almost make out another silhouette in the darkness. One that was all too familiar. "Oh no."
The light flashed on, and standing within was a tall, lanky freak of a man with purple-skin and wild, crazy eyes that did nothing to conceal his insane nature, nor did his well-pressed labcoat. He raised his arms and let out a wild, piercing laugh that one could only hear in their nightmares. Eggman kneeled to the ground, covering his ears and wincing as he tried his best to block it out, but to no avail. He could do nothing. Nothing to stop the laughing. Nothing to stop the insults and the putdowns and how he felt so inferior to anyone and everyone. Nothing at all. Nothing. Nothing…
Eggman rose up from his seat like a rake. He was sitting in his chair in his room, right in front of the golden egg-holder on his table. He looked around. Sure enough, no-one was there. Not Lucas, not Lucinda, not Mama, and certainly not HIM.
He took a moment to let out a few long, deep, heavy breaths. They always did wonders to calm himself. In any event, there was work to do. He got up and headed straight for the door. He reached for the light switch and made ready to turn off the lights, but he thought better. After all, who knew what lurked in the dark? He left the lights on for now, and like a man on a mission made his way to the control room. With any luck, Snively wouldn't be wearing a wig.
Snively was slumping in his seat in the control room, as usual. He was watching the screen with a considerable lack of interest. He drummed his fingers on the chairs' arms as he observed the various Mobians being put to work rebuilding the city. Once beautiful and majestic homes and towers had become cold, lifeless laboratories and storage facilities. Others were digging up paved city streets, replacing them with gravel roads and large conveyor belts. And several citizens were lined up in front of the central laboratory to await roboticization. Not that it had been an easy task to fix it after that Coyote had damaged the entire system. Still, with the aid of Grimer, they made do.
Snively looked down at his breakfast sitting on his lap. It was a plate of fried eggs, just like mother used to make. How he hated mother. But mother wasn't the only one he hated. The more he looked at it, the more it reminded him of someone he was beginning to feel very strong feelings for. Very strong, nasty feelings for. His hand trembled, and his teeth clenched, and before he could stop it, he found himself wolfing them down and tearing into them as though he were ripping apart human flesh with his bare teeth.
After finishing his meal, Snively pounded his chest and let out a loud burp, as though both his rage and hunger had finally been sated. For one brief moment, he seemed to be at peace.
It wouldn't last long.
"Good morning, Snively."
Snively sprung up in his seat like a rake and spun his chair around to face Eggman, dearly hoping that he had not seen his most peculiar display of expressing one's anger. Not that it would do him any good.
"Did you enjoy your breakfast?"
"Yes, sir. Very much, sir."
"I see. Well, Snively, do you know what I'd like for breakfast this morning?"
"I haven't the foggiest, sir."
"Fried Snively. Which you will be if you continue to 'enjoy' your breakfast in such a manner! Do I make myself perfectly clear?!"
Eggman could see right through Snively, and this Snively knew. Better to play along than get himself roboticized. "Uh, ahem, yes sir! Very sorry, sir! Will never happen again, sir!"
"See that it doesn't. Now, with that out of the way, we have business to attend to. Normally I would have you bring up the morning report, but for now, that can wait. Bring up the file on Marcus Coolete, will you?"
"At once, sir." Snively tapped the keys on the keyboard as though he were casting a spell, like an wizard who was completely devoted to his craft. If only he had a spell for getting rid of Eggman. In any case, he typed in the final necessary commands, and like magic, there was Marcus Coolete. Or at least his file.
Just then, Grimer walked into the room for the morning meeting, and as he did so, he couldn't help a certain someone's name in large letters on the monitor. "Ah, yes, the one who got away. Or at least one of them. Any particular reason you've suddenly taken such an interest in him, Julian?"
Eggman pushed back his glasses, as though he were about to declare checkmate. "Let us say that I've put some considerable investment into him. And I believe it's time for him to start giving us back pay. Now, Snively, there should be a tab labeled 'internal diagnostics.' If you would do the honors?"
Snively wasn't sure what 'honors' he was supposed to be doing, but he supposed he might as well carry them out nonetheless. Snively found the tab. It was sitting in the far-right corner of the screen, as if it were doing its best to hide from anyone who wished to reveal its' contents. And with one click of a button on the control room's command console, Snively did just that.
"Sorry, kid, but visiting hours are over. Kid? You hear me, kid?"
"Hm?" Antione tilted his head, looking up to see Doctor Quack giving him the evil eye. He had been sitting next to his father for so long that he'd almost forgotten his name, or at least he felt that way. For all he knew, it might as well have been 'kid.'
His father was still lying in bed in the back room of the hospital wing. It wasn't much to look at, nor was the wing, but they still had all of the necessities. He was hooked up to a monitor, and while his life signs were stable, there wasn't much sign of him getting better. If he didn't wake up out of that coma soon, what was he supposed to do?
"Oui. Thank you, Doctor. If I may ask…"
"Yes?"
"…what would you say are his chances of recovery?"
"Hard to say." Quack looked at Marcus, almost as if he were looking at a dead man. "He isn't getting worse, but he's not getting better. Though to be honest, he should've."
Antione nearly jolted out of his seat. To be fair, he had been getting somewhat sleepy, but this was almost like being splashed with a pale of ice-cold water. "Come again?"
"Don't get me wrong. There's always the chance the patient may or may not come to with these sorts of things. Even a bonk on the head can be fatal depending on the circumstances. However, while your father did suffer some extensive injuries, as far as I can tell, there was nothing that should have produced a coma. Based on my latest assessment, he should've been up ages ago."
Antione almost couldn't believe his pointy ears. "Then why is he not up?"
"I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker. Sometimes, things happen and we can't explain why. But I can tell you this much. If he doesn't wake up soon, then you're going to have to decide what you'll want to do about him."
Antione slumped into his chair. His legs knocked and his hands fidgeted, as though his very life were on the line. Except it wasn't his life that was at stake here.
"You don't have to decide now," said the Doctor. "But if he doesn't wake up, or we can't figure something out, you're gonna have to make the call. It's up to you. For what it's worth, you've got my sympathies." Quack then walked out of the room. He had patients to attend to. But Antione wasn't very concerned with other patients just now. All he could do was sit in his seat and wonder, would this be it? Was this be how his father's life was going to end? Lying in a hospital bed, growing weak and feeble, without even putting up a fight? Antione may not have been a knight in shining armor, but his father certainly was. And he knew that this would not be the way he wanted to go.
He had to take his mind off of his father somehow. If only for a moment. He thought back to just five hours ago. He pictured him and Bunnie walking to the hospital underneath the beautiful, fiery rays of the setting sun, poking through the leaves of the forest around him. And as he closed his eyes, he could swear he almost began to hear her say…
FIVE HOURS AGO
"You okay, Ant'?"
"Yes," said Antione, "I am fine." He and Bunnie were walking along the dirt road, passing by house after house as they got closer and closer to the hospital wing. He wrung his hands together, and his teeth began to chatter before he managed to shut them up. "It is just that I worry about my father. Deeply. He is still in a coma, and he is not getting out. And so, I am not sure what I should do about it."
"That's a tough question, sugar. I don't know if I'm one to talk. Both my parents are still trucking, bless their hearts. Or at least I hope so."
"You worry about them too, do you not?"
Bunnie sighed, as though what Antione had said was all too true. "I mean, I'm sure they're alright. They' in Emerald Hill. That's all the way on the other side of the island. No way Eggman's gotten over there."
"But what if he has?"
"Don't even say that I know my folks are okay. They can take care of themselves."
"But you do not know for sure, do you?"
"No. Guess not. But you don't know they ain't alive, do you?"
Antione mussed the yellow toupee sitting atop his head like several well-brushed pieces of hair. "No, but we do not know if it the other way around, do we?"
"No. I guess not."
"Bunnie, I am not trying to make you worry. In fact, I am trying to not make myself worry. Not too much. However, my father had always told me, 'Hope for the best, but expect the worst.' Those words have served me well."
"So, what, you think we should just sit around do nothin'? Wait till my parents have kicked the bucket, is that it?"
"My point is, Bunnie, that we cannot take everything for granted. Nor must we assume that everything will work out for the best. I am terrified at the mere prospect of losing my Father." By this point, Antione's legs were knocking, his heart pounding. If this kept up, he could well have turned into a nervous wreck. "Terrified that no matter what I do, I will still lose him in the end. But there are times when one must accept the inevitable, and do what they must. I am not sure I shall have to just yet, and I pray to Gaea every day that I do not. But if the time comes, there may be nothing else to be done."
"'Accept the inevitable', huh?" Bunnie folded her arms and looked down to the ground, as if something were finally starting to click. But that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. "So what you're sayin' is, if there ain't no way to go back, then one should be lookin' at how they can move forward?"
"If necessary," said Antione. "Sometimes, there is not much else you can do. Even if the mere thought may one day give me a heart attack."
"Huh. Never thought of it that way before." By this point, the pair had arrived at the front door of the hospital wing. From the outside the wing wasn't much to look at it. It was a wooden building with white curtains for doors, but it got the job done. "Thanks, sugar. Ya know, I think you helped me more than I helped you."
"Come again?"
"Nothin', sugar." She then pecked Antione on his furry cheeks, to which all Antione could do was blush like a bright red cherry.
"Sacre blue!"
"Thanks, Ant'. I'll see ya when you're out. In the meantime, I've got somethin' I've gotta do." She then rushed over to the lab, running like she were racing in a marathon. "See ya soon!" And as Antione stood there under the setting sun, all he could wonder was, 'What in good Gaea' name was that noise'?
NOW
"Wait a minute. What noise am I referring to?"
Just then, Antione began to hear something faint. Almost like a pin-prick. To nearly anyone else, it would have been nigh-impossible to detect, but Antione's large ears were more sensitive then most. He closed his eyes and held his hands to his ears, like his father taught. He tried to put away his fears and anxieties; to shove it all aside so that nothing remained but that sound. Mind you, he failed miserably, but he was able to concentrate just enough to hone in on that faint noise. And as his eyes opened wide in shock and horror, he knew where that noise was coming from. And if he hadn't heard it himself, he wouldn't have believed it.
"Father?"
He looked towards toward the small desk sitting next to Marcus. He reached into the bottom drawer and pulled out a spare stethoscope. One never knew when one would need such things. He might have just been imagining things, but if his father had taught him anything, (and he had taught him a lot,) it was that no stone could be left unturned. He placed the two prongs into his ears and placed the round portion of the stethoscope onto his father's chest. He moved it around, from the chest, to the stomach, to even his legs. Perhaps it may have been better if he had called in Doctor Quack to do this, but he was afraid he might not even believe him. But if he did ever find anything-
He stopped at his father's heart. He could hear a heartbeat, yes, but as he listened closely, he could hear something else besides. It was that same sound from earlier, only under the stethoscope, it was much louder and far more pronounced. It was a shrill beep. Almost like something one would hear from a tracking device…
Oh, Gaea.
"DOCTOR QUACK!"
