Robotnik was playing with some defective Freedom Fighter Action Figures. Truthfully, they were marionettes, or rather dolls, and really broken ones too. Oh sure, they looked fine, but truthfully, they had crappy voice boxes… no, the voices sounded accurate, but the words weren't accurate. The princess Sally doll was saying dumb things such as "Math is Hard", and the Bunnie Doll was saying "My place is in the kitchen". He had made his own "Snively" doll though that made stupid whiny noises and whimpers, making him sound like a coward and an idiot. The Sonic toy had its voice box removed though.
"Sonic the Hedgehog has been a thorn in my side… but…" The villainous sexist laughed evilly. "Girls just wanna have fun!" He held the girl dolls tightly causing them to say whiny things that talked about how dumb girls were and how they should stay in the kitchen or some such nonsense. "You little ladies have given me a brilliant idea!"
"Um… Pops?" Robotnik looked up to see Junior entering the room. "Are you playing with dolls?"
Robotnik was embarrassed. "Erm, no, of course not! I'm merely plotting and scheming, scheming and plotting, you know, the usual…"
Junior didn't buy it, but he had learned to keep his mouth shut on such things. His creator was very eccentric after all. "Sure, Pops, whatever. So, what's the plan?"
"It all boils down to this…" Robotnik got up from his desk as he placed the dolls on it. "Know thy enemy!"
He walked over to a large banner that had the core Freedom Fighters on it; Sonic, Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, Tails, Rotor, and Collin. Collin was in his signature cloak on the banner, and looking a little surprised to be on it. At the bottom of the banner was the words "If you can read this, you're too close."
"And I know that my enemies make a formidable team, but separated, they are weaklings!" He grabbed at the banner and started tearing at it. "Once we get rid of the Hedgehog, and the other token heroes," He then held out a very impressive set of paper dolls in the shapes of Sally, Bunnie, and one in the center that looked like Collin being held by chains. "Then we are left with paper dolls, which can easily be shredded!"
Shortly after sunset…
Sally and Bunnie had been doing a night patrol with Collin. Collin had started to show them more of the areas he patrolled when they thought he was still in Knothole. It was starting to get dark when the trio saw searchlights. "What the?" Collin pulled his cloak tighter around him, and walked over to a tree where he pulled out a satchel with his herbs and tools in it. "That's new."
"Well looky there," Bunnie was just as surprised.
"Searchlights!" The lights were raised high into the sky, aiming to attract attention. "Wonder what all the hub-bub is about… We'd better check it out." Collin nodded and led the way through the forest, making sure the girls were with him the entire time as they ran through the darkened woods. He felt a pang in his heart as he remembered something similar, but pushed it aside to focus on the night's events and what needed to be done.
The trio eventually got into a clearing where they found a super tiny building that claimed to be a mall. "You've got to be kidding me." Collin rolled his eyes, sensing a trap right away.
"Well, kiss my grits! If'n that ain't the second smallest mall I've ever seen!" Bunnie exclaimed.
"I hope their prices are lower than Robotnik's morals." Sally snickered as they entered, aware of a chance of a trap, but not of where. They certainly didn't expect it to be right on the other side of the door, that was for sure. The trio were dropped through a trap door into the basement. "I've heard of basement bargains…"
"But ah didn't know ya had to fall into the basement to get them!" Bunnie shrieked as they fell through the chute.
Collin had a sinking feeling in his chest. The three of them were quickly picked up after hitting the ground and were held. The girls were held with their hands behind them by one robot each whereas Collin had two robots holding him up and exposed as though for someone to beat him. It didn't take long for Robotnik to come in. Collin gritted his teeth.
"Ah, good evening, ladies… and Snively."
"My name is Collin. You know this. You're not that stupid. OOF!" That comment had earned him a sucker punch to the gut by the fat man himself. The wind was knocked right out of the short man.
"Shut up, Snively. Learn your place." Robotnik then turned to the princess and cyborg. "Sonic may be the brawns, and this freak may be the brains, but you two make excellent bait." He grabbed Sally by the face and mocked her. "All you two can do is wait around to be rescued." He then let go and turned to Collin. "While this freak gets to play our favorite game of 'Lab Experiment!' Mwahahahaha!" Collin's blue eyes widened as his pale skin went paler if possible. The girls had never seen Collin so scared before.
Collin swallowed his fear and growled though. "I knew you were racist, but I didn't realize you were also a sexist pig, uncle." The pain in him causing him to forget who was in the room. Bunnie's eyes widened before hardening into a glare. "OOF!" With another punch to the gut and a knock to the head, the young overlander was unconscious, his skin seeming to turn a faint green, but no one really noticed it.
"You pig!" Bunnie snarled. She used her robot arm to throw the swatbot that was holding her over her head.
Sally managed to slip out of the grasp of the one holding her, and a quick sharp kick knocked the bot back. "We're more than capable of protecting ourselves, and our own." She growled.
"Time to raise some consciousness…" Bunnie slugged one of the bots that was holding up Collin.
Sally threw the other bot over her head. "and lower the boom!"
Robotnik's eyes widened as his swatbots were destroyed by these two teenage girls he had thought of as weaklings. Collin was slumped on the floor, his cloak covering him, and still out cold. Robotnik made to grab for Collin, only for him to grab an empty cloak! "Wha?"
"Don't mind me, I'm enjoying the show." Collin was sitting up on one of the pipes above the fight, holding his stomach and occasionally rubbing his head. "What? You think I wouldn't take the chance to get out of those bots grasp as soon as the girls knocked them down?"
"You were knocked out! COLD!"
"Meh," Collin shrugged. "We've survived worse." He was making notes on the girls and their capabilities. "Found your toys..." He showed the dolls that were defective of Princess Sally and Bunnie. He also held up the doll of him with a deadpanned look. "This is disturbing, even for you, by the way." Robotnik's face went red as he stuttered and stumbled upon his anger.
"What a workout!" Sally smiled as she and Bunnie trashed more of the bots that kept coming after them. "How are you holding up, Bunnie?"
"It ain't how I'm holding up, it's what I'm holding up!" Bunnie chuckled as she threw a bot over her head. "An' throwin' out!"
After a few minutes, the girls were done with the bots. "That was fun." The two girls high-fived.
"Yeah! Sonic usually hogs all the fun!" Bunnie smirked before they remembered Collin. "Collin?"
"I'm up here." He looked tired, but he was fine otherwise, merely tinkering with the strange dolls the fat man had. He smiled at them. "Not bad, girls. I'm glad you had fun. It is getting late though, so why don't you wrap this up?" He indicated to the fat man and some ribbon near him.
"Right!" The girls turned back to Robotnik with death glares and tackled him before tying him up. They had to hurry before more bots than they could handle would show up. They left a sign saying that the mall was going out of business and another that said not to untie him until X-mas. "There we go."
Collin hopped down, though more clumsily than usual. He picked up his cloak and sighed as he tossed the three dolls over to Robotnik. "Frankly, I don't know why I'm giving you back your dolls, but I suppose I'm just nice like that. I even fixed them up for you too." He smirked as he activated the Princess Sally Doll.
"Never Underestimate the Power of a Princess!"
The Bunnie doll responded with "Girls can do anything!"
Then, just to annoy the fat man more, he activated the Collin doll. "I'm not dead yet." This voice was a bit of a taunting one.
The trio made their way out the door just as Junior entered the room and noticed his creator was tied up. "Um… what was that about shredding paper dolls?"
"Shut up, and untie me!"
Later back at Knothole…
An adult duck was running around a room in a lab coat while Collin was rolling his eyes, having been brought to Knothole's only real doctor, Dr. Horatio Quack, after having been knocked out by Robotnik earlier. The girls had been worried about him, which, was touching, but nevertheless, Collin insisted he was fine. Dr. Quack was a white mallard (duck for those who don't know) and had a touch of a bedside manner, but he and Collin worked together to keep Knothole healthy while facing Robotnik.
"Honestly, Dr. Quack, I'm fine. I just got knocked on the head and two punches to the gut. Nothing too bad considering what he did to me the day he took over the kingdom…" Collin tried to calm the elder.
"And yet, this was what got you unconscious, Collin. I don't even know how you survived that day!" Horatio pointed out. He finally found what he was looking for it seemed. "Here it is!" He pulled out a small pill bottle and looked in it. "I just want you to take a couple of aspirin really, Collin. I know those berries you keep eating help you out a lot, but the girls were really worried. One day, those berries might not be enough to keep you going… and don't think I'm not aware that you ran out of your other medicine…"
Collin sighed as he accepted the medicine. "Yeah, well… it wasn't an ideal situation…" Collin muttered. "As for my other medicine, we can't afford to keep making it for me. I'll be fine. We need the supplies for other things…"
"You know I hate it when you sacrifice your health for a good cause… and when you're right too…"
"You'll get over it, Dr. Quack…"
Over with Sally and Bunnie…
"Sally…"
"Yes, Bunnie?"
"Did y… ah, must be crazy because I thought… I… ah thought that I heard Collin call Robotnik his uncle earlier…" The bunny looked over to her friend who had the expression of being caught in the headlights.
"Oh! I didn't realize he had even said that! It must have slipped. He's usually more careful about that." Sally suddenly looked embarrassed while Bunnie thought about this.
"Huh…" Bunnie shrugged. "No wonder he hates Robotnik then. How is poor Collin related to him anyway?"
"Robotnik is his real biological uncle. Uncle Chuck just adopted him before knowing about it, and when he found out, Robotnik said that Collin would be better off with Charles. That was probably the only time he did something good for Collin." The two of them went back to talking about better things, but now, Bunnie knew the truth about Collin's human family, and she silently promised to help protect him from that kind of abuse.
That night, Collin was only wary of sleeping with a concussion, rather than with fear of a nightmare where his friends hated him because he was related to the enemy…