The great Doctor Ivo 'Eggfox' Robotnik cackled behind the modified controls of his eggmobile, raising his hands into the air in triumph as his lasers sighted over his long-time nemeses.
"AHAHAHAHAAAA!" The mad, goggled and red-uniformed fox giggled like a demented child, Sonic and Tails glaring defiantly up at their greatest enemy as he backed them into a tight alleyway, "I'VE DONE IT! I FINALLY HAVE YOU, SONIC AND TAILS!"
"You won't get away with this, Eggman!" Sonic cried, adopting a combat stance and preparing to continue the fight.
"Ah-ah-ah..." The crazy fox leaned over his console, raising his goggles and waggling a finger back and forth. "I believe I made my new moniker clear?"
"Dude, we are not calling you Egg. Fox." Miles 'Tails' Prower, twin-tailed fox, best friend and honorary brother of Sonic the hedgehog, angrily pointed at his red-jacketed doppelganger. "You're not even a fox, dude! You're a crazy human in a clone of me!"
Robotnik slammed a fist on his console, crazy eyes glaring at the fox he now resembled identically. "INSOLENCE! You know, Fails… it's YOUR fault I'm stuck like this, so I suppose you only have yourself to blame!"
"You know egg-face, I think you're a little too into this whole fox-thing you have going on right now..." Sonic jeered, wearing a lopsided grin as he glared up at his foe, "You got anything you want to admit?"
"The only thing I'm willing to admit," Robotnik scowled at the blue hedgehog, baring his canines "Is that my weapons are fully charged, and ready to reduce you to ATOMS!" Robotnik the 'Eggfox' leaned back and leered hungrily at his cornered nemeses, a finger hovering over the firing button of his lasers. "Goodbye, Sonic and T-"
Robotnik was cut off as the communication systems to his Eggmobile began bleeping, sapping all the tension from the encounter.
"Oh, sorry guys, I have to take this..." Robotnik said, "It's my Mombot…"
Sonic and Tails shared incredulous looks as the Eggfox swiped at his monitor.
"Hi Mombot…" the evil fox said.
"Ivo? Where are you? It's almost supper time, and you still need to have a bath! Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Mom-booooooottt…." Robotnik whined, "I'm just about to destroy my arch-nemeseeeeeeeeeeees!"
"No excuses, young man! You get back here and be ready for your bath!"
"Okay..." Robotnik's communicator bleeped to indicate the call had ended, and he slumped in his seat. "I'm sorry guys, I can't eliminate you right now... Mombot says I gotta go home..."
Sonic and Tails wore bewildered expressions as they shared another look.
"Uh..." Sonic shrugged, "Okay? Catch you another time, I guess?"
Robotnik grunted sadly, turning his Eggmobile around and hovering away on the vehicle's anti-grav propulsion jets.
The two brothers stared after their departing enemy for a moment, before awkwardly looking to one another.
"So..." Said Sonic, unsure what to do with himself, "What do we do now?"
"Ooh, sweetie!" Mombot, the curved pink and red Mechanoid Robotnik himself had built to provide him with unconditional motherly love, scrubbed at her yellow fluffball of a 'son' as he sat miserably in the bathtub. "This new fur conditioner will leave you so soft and fluffy!"
The doctor didn't respond, pouting as he sat submerged in bubbles, arms folded and a ridiculous shower cap containing his ears.
"Oh, is somebody a moody little mechanoid?" Mombot cooed, scrubbing bubbles into his thick fur.
"Momboooot..." the former human moaned, "I'm not a little kiiiiid!"
"Oh, you're my little precious ball of flooff!" Mombot replied blissfully, "Now, let's get you out and dried off and you can join your brother for supper!"
"Ack!" Robotnik squeaked as he was lifted from the bathtub and deposited on the tiled floor, dripping like a wet dishcloth.
"I'm not a little kid..." The doctor muttered, sat on his sofa with the tv flickering, episodes of Thruster the Big Red Rocket playing on the cartoons channel. "I'm not..."
"Woah, dude!" Morpho, the Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension, gleefully entered the room and laughed at Robotnik's expense, "You are, like, the fluffiest thing I've seen in my life!"
The Eggfox glared at his 'brother', yellow fur poofed out to ridiculous extremes now it had dried. "No I'm not, Steve!"
"Toootally are, little dude..." 'Steve' flopped onto the sofa, chucking a handful of chips into his mouth. "Like Mombot says... you're such a pwecious fwuffy boy!"
Robotnik clenched his fists and scowled petulantly. "Shut up, Steeeeeeeeeeve!"
"Uh, my name's Morpho?" The Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension said, blond moustache twitching, "Just remember that, fox-brain!"
The two 'brothers' blew raspberries at one another, before their attention was diverted by a heavily accented synthetic voice.
"Ivo? Morpho? I'm powering down for the night!" Mombot called from the entrance to the room, "Morpho, make sure your brother is in bed before ten!"
"Okay, Mombot..."
"And he brushes his teeth!"
"Yes, Mombot..."
And don't leave the lights on!"
"Yes, okay Mombot!"
Mombot clattered over to her boys and opened her telescopic arms. "Now boys, give your old Mombot a hug!"
Ivo and Morpho complied, giving their Mombot a squeeze.
"Eskimo kisses, Ivo!"
"Mombooooot..."
"Eskimo kisses for Moooommyyy!"
Ivo grumbled as he relented, unenthusiastically rubbing his own black nose with her olfactory sensor node.
"Night night, my boys!" Mombot clacked her hands together, and tottered out of the room.
Morpho waited until Mombot was safely out of earshot, and then shot an evil grin to his 'little brother'.
"Ooh, eskimo kisses for moooommyyyyyy!" The blond-mulleted copy of Eggman's old human form mocked gleefully, "Mwah! Mwah! MWAH!"
Robotnik looked as though he might explode, fur poofing out ridiculously as he clenched his fists. "SHUT UP, STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE!"
"Woah, little dude!" Morpho (That Shapeshifting Robot guy From a Dimension that is Another) cackled at his little brother's petulance, "Take it easy, fluffball!"
"Don't call me that!" the fluffy ball of fluffy fluff retorted, fluffily "I'm a maniacal evil genius! Not some little child to be fawned over!"
Morpho shrugged and gestured toward the tv. "If you're soooo 'not a little kid', why are we watching cartoons?"
Robotnik tensed for a moment, fur poofing out even more, before releasing a dejected sigh.
"Because..." He explained, "while I have retained my experience and knowledge... this brain is cloned from a child's. I can't help but... lapse into these episodes of childlike behaviour..." He gestured to himself sadly. "Some evil genius, huh? I'm small, fuzzy, and... cute... how am I supposed to ever be a recognised and respected mastermind ever again like this?"
The Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension (Morpho) shrugged. "I dunno dude, it's a shame you can't just age yourself up a little, like people do in all those weird fanfics you read..."
Ivo shot his brother look of utter outrage. "WHAT?! HAVE YOU BEEN AT MY COMPUTER?! I'LL... I'll..."
Ivo slowed in his raging, and appeared to consider for a moment.
"Hey... Morpho?"
The Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension in question looked uncertainly to the fluffy yellow fox that had once been an alternate version of his human creator. "Uh... yeah?"
"You..." Ivo rose to his feet, padding over the sofa toward his bigger brother. "Are... a GENIUS!"
Ivo smacked his bigger brother on the head with a sloppy kiss, causing Morpho to recoil in (Morpho is a Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension) disgust.
"EW! Dude, what the heck?!"
"I may not be able to escape this body..." Robotnik mused, considering his own clawed and paw-padded hands with calculating fascination, "But... I may be able to physically age it up... return myself to an adult status!"
Morpho's own brain worked, and a grin formed on his face. "You're gonna build an ager-upper machine aren't you?"
Ivo nodded and grinned. "With your help Morpho, we can get it done before breakfast!"
"Oh, dude, SICK!" Morpho hopped up and clenched his fists excitedly. "We're gonna be, like, the best bros EVER!"
"Mad science experiment?!" Ivo squeaked.
"Mad science experiment!" Morpho replied, extending a fist.
Although they squabbled, the two 'brothers' began to work in perfect unison as they constructed their newest ill-thought out scheme.
The two Robotnik brothers finished their project in record time, finally standing proudly before the Maturation Machine with matching smug postures.
"So..." Morpho the (Shapeshifting) Robot (From Another Dimension) said, "What age are you gonna go for?"
Ivo rubbed his white muzzle and grinned. "Nothing too mature... I don't want to be old again, after all..." He looked up to his bigger brother and wore a smirk. "How about... eighteen?"
Morpho grinned back, before becoming a whirlwind of colour... and morphing into a perfect replica of an eighteen year old Ivo Robotnik… well, almost perfect. The long, flowing blond hair and handlebar moustache hadn't been possessed by this universe's Robotnik.
"Like this?" The shapeshifter said, smugly placing his fists on his hips.
Robotnik grinned evilly. "Yeah... but furrier, I guess.. and more yellow!"
Morpho smirked. "Yeah, I guess!"
"Okay!" Ivo Robotnik adjusted a dial on their brand new invention, and clapped his small hands. "I suppose it's time to check this thing out!"
Morpho raised an eyebrow, after tossing his glorious blond locks over a shoulder. "You don't wanna test it out on something else first?"
"Fortune favours the bold, Morpho!" Ivo squeaked, hopping inside the cylindrical tank-like machine, "See you on the other side!"
Morpho offered his 'brother' a confident thumbs-up, before Ivo slammed the door shut... and the machine began to hum with power.
Energy poured into the machine, white light spilling out from the cracks in the door... before a harsh SNAP resounded throughout Robotnik's laboratory, and lightning slashed around the hastily-constructed contraption. Morpho flinched, covering his eyes... before the smell of burned meat singed his nostrils, and the door swung open...
"Uuuugh…" A raspier, older voice more akin to that once possessed by the middle-aged doctor, accompanied the taller figure that stumbled through the smoke. "Did it work?"
Morpho, the Robot of Shapeshifting ability who hailed from Another Dimension, grinned. "Lookin' good, little bro!"
The shapeshifting robot was met with a malevolent, carnivorous leer. "I don't believe..." The once-again reconstituted Robotnik took in his altered, matured form, seemingly pleased with the results of their experiment, "That 'little' quite befits me, any more!"
"Yeah whatever..." Morpho reached out and roughly patted thick, wavy yellow-orange head-fur, "You're still shorter than me, dude!"
"Sh... SHUT UP STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
The midday sun was reaching its zenith, blazing down upon the sandy shores of Bygone Island as Team Sonic lazily soaked up the rays. The five friends were arranged on deck chairs and sun loungers, the weather too hot today for much more exertion.
"I think..." Sonic muttered, wiping sweat from his brow, "I need a trim..."
"You need a trim?" Tails, the fluffy fox doing his best to hide beneath the cover of a large parasol, looked as though he were about to pass out. "I... I can't breathe..."
"hmmmmm..." A sleeping Knuckles muttered, hands clasped over his abdomen as he dozed, "Sausagezzzzz…."
"Boys..." Amy looked up from her magazine, her and Sticks both wearing shades and soaking up the sun like a pair of roast potatoes, "Can we quit complaining and just enjoy the weather?"
"Such babies..." Sticks grinned, teasing the two brothers.
"Goo goo..." Sonic muttered, attempting to riff along, too hot to put much effort into it.
"Hey!" Tails jerked up and, sweating through his fluff, pointed angrily at the badger. "Don't call me a baby! I'm not a little kid!"
"Well..." A far too familiar voice butted into the discussion, demanding the entirety of Team Sonic's attention, "Hello there, children!"
"Hey chef..." Knuckles mumbled in his sleep.
Sonic and Tails wore matching expressions of bewilderment, while Amy and Sticks simply dropped their jaws and gawped.
Before them, striking matching supervillain poses, Ivo and Morpho Robotnik glared evilly at the heroes. Morpho, blue jacketed and in possession of impressively long blond Glam-Metal locks, now assumed the appearance of a much younger, hairier facsimile of his dimension's Doctor Robotnik.
Eggman himself... now stood a proud four-foot seven, clad in a cut-down variant of his usual red uniform to cope with the heat, now in possession of the lean-muscled, athletic and adult form of a Mobian fox… his usual evil leer unnervingly disturbing on the fully-grown face of Miles Prower.
Tails croaked and his eyes bulged as he took in the full-grown facsimile of himself. "Jeez... what have you done to yourself this time, egg-breath?"
Robotnik slumped. "Oh, I don't know, diet, exercise..." In this form, Robotnik's voice was horribly reminiscent of both an older Tails, and his own human cadence. "I aged myself, you contemptible canine! What does it look like?!"
"I guess the little guy ain't as smart as he thinks, huh bro?" chimed in Morpho, a smirk plastered over the face of the teenage Ivo Robotnik.
"Children..." agreed the doctor, glaring maliciously beneath his goggles, "Pathetic!"
"W... Whu?!" Knuckles woke with a start, eyeing the pair of Robotniks with bemusement. "Huh. Did Evil Tails get into my protein shakes?"
"What are you doing here, fox-breath?" Sonic said, hopping from his seat and striking a defensive posture, Tails and Knuckles following suit. "Come for a fight?"
"Ha!" Robotnik set his fists on his hips, classic Eggman leer plastered over his white muzzle. Morpho adopted the same posture, the two appearing like warped siblings. "In this heat? Please..." He began idly flexing one hand, clicking the claws against one another as though the present situation was beneath him.
"We're just two super cool bros hangin' out, you get me?" Morpho the Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension said, stroking his handlebar moustache, "Doing adult stuff?"
"We wouldn't expect you children to understand!" Eggman added. He frowned beneath his goggles as he glanced at Amy and Sticks, the two girls still immobile. "What are you two gawping at?!"
The two females appeared startled, before hissing and giggling in one anothers' ears.
"So what are you up to?" Sonic, still wary of the now-taller form of his longtime nemesis, nevertheless stood down and relaxed a little. "Aside from gloating?"
"We are going into town, so I can display my new, formidable countenance, and strike fear into the hearts of the pathetic creatures that dwell within!" Robotnik raised his hands and cackled, twin tails slashing and pointed teeth on full display in that classic Eggman leer that was so alien on his present face.
"And dude, we totally gotta hit the bar!" Morpho added, "Have a little sesh, you know what I'm sayin'?"
"Bro, I am on board!"
"Just get out of here, egg-face!" Tails, again uncomfortable in his doppelganger's presence, eyed the taller fox with distaste. "I don't like looking at you like... this..."
"Pssssh…" Robotnik waved away the young inventor's accusatory tone, looking down at Tails condescendingly. "What do you know? You're just..." The Eggfox, taller now than Tails, leaned over and sneered. "A little kid!"
Tails clenched his fists, looking like he were about to explode as Eggfox reared back to his full, enchanced height of less-than-five-feet tall.
"Anyway... I think it's about time I introduce myself to the townsfolk!" Robotnik said, again setting his fists on his skinny hips. "Allow them to see the perfectly-conditioned instrument of their destruction for themselves!"
"Dude, we're gonna knock 'em dead, bro!"
"Ta-ta, children!"
With that, Morpho and Ivo Robotnik turned and began to trudge across the sand, leaving a bewildered Team Sonic staring after them.
"Should we..." Knuckles said awkwardly, "Go... after them?"
"I dunno…" said Sonic, rubbing his chin, "Old egg-face has kind of a weird identity crisis going on right now... I kinda don't wanna get involved..."
"I heard that..." Mumbled Tails.
"Well," Amy, still giggling with Sticks, wore an incredulous expression as they watched the once again reconstituted doctor disappear toward the village, "It's kinda fun to watch him leave..."
Sonic jerked and glared wide eyed at the pink hedgehog. "What the heck is THAT supposed to mean?"
"I don't get it..." said Tails, as the two girls cackled with mischievous laughter.
"Neither do I..." muttered Knuckles, "But Evil Tails has a nice butt!"
Ivo Robotnik wore a malevolent grin as he strutted through the village, highly aware of the points and stares he was receiving. Villagers turned and whispered to their neighbours, people stepped back wide eyed, and he felt a surge of pride at his accomplishment.
"Ha!" The doctor jeered to his brother, as the younger facsimile of blond human Eggman strut beside him, "They're terrified of me! The smell of intimidation lingers in the very air surrounding these miserable creatures! I knew that adding a few points into strength and athleticism would pay off!"
"Uh, yeah..." Morpho replied, unconvinced as he glanced at a pair of young women ogling the doctor's behind. "I... don't think that's intimidation, dude..."
"Huh?" Robotnik turned and glared at his shapeshifting robot brother from another dimension, brow furrowing beneath the red goggles. "What are you blathering about? Have you seen this reconstituted form?! I'm agile! Strong! Vicious! And powerful! My very presence disarms my enemies!"
"Uh huh, dude..." Morpho responded, "Whatever you say..."
Robotnik glared at him. "Don't believe me?! I'll prove it!" The doctor turned and approached an elderly wolf-lady situated behind a wooden drinks stall, leaning on the counter. "You there! Old... grandma... wolf person! I demand you hand me a beverage THIS INSTANT!"
The elderly woman looked him over hungrily. "Oh my, of course! Anything for a handsome, strapping young man such as yourself, dear!"
Robotnik turned and pointed triumphantly at Morpho as the shapeshifter approached. "HA! I told you! My very being commands instant compli- wait, what"
Morpho took the drinks from the lady and smirked as he flipped her a few coins. "Thanks, ma'am!" he grabbed Robotnik by the arm and dragged him away. "come here, you..."
Morpho dragged his former human, presently fox-ified brother into the space between a pair of shacks, grinning mischievously as Robotnik scratched at his head in puzzlement.
"Dude..." Morpho said, downing his drink in one go, "do you have any idea what's going on here?"
"I don't understand!" the doctor whined, glaring at his own hands in bewilderment, "I'm supposed to be intimidating! She was supposed to cower in fear, not butter me up! Is the old bat senile?!"
"Dude..." Morpho reached out and shook his shorter, fuzzier brother by the shoulders. "You. Got it. Goin' on!"
Robotnik offered him a blank stare. "What. What do I have going on."
"Agh, listen to me!" Morpho shook him again, a plan forming in his brain, "You turned yourself into a damn fox-Adonais, dude! All these people? They think you're cool!"
The monkeys inside Robotnik's brain went wild attempting to process this information.
"People think... I'm cool?"
Morpho's face split into a wide grin. "Yeah, dude! And If we do this right... you and me? We could be cooler... than Sonic!"
Robotnik's mouth flopped open, arms and tails slumping. "Cooler... than Sonic? But... To what purpose?"
"The perfect revenge!" Morpho replied, "Instead of destroying the little blue booger, wouldn't it be better to... replace him?"
Robotnik's face scrunched, before realization sparked in his eyes and his classic Eggman leer stretched across his raggedy white muzzle.
"I... like the way you think, Morpho!" He tapped at his chin, twin tails flicking thoughtfully. "I've never been 'cool' before though... what do I do?"
"Dude, we just got to fix you up a little... come here..."
Morpho fussed with his shorter fox-brother's appearance, until he had sufficiently 'cool-ified' him. Robotnik now stood, the collar of his uniform jacket popped, sleeves rolled, and white chest fur tufting from the unbuttoned jacket, head fur quiffed and held in place with the green goggles he habitually wore.
"Okay... that should do for the look..." Morpho said thoughtfully, stroking his blond moustache.
"I feel so undignified..." Robotnik muttered, scratching at his bare arms, "So what now?"
"Now..." Morpho replied, flashing a sly grin, "Watch and learn, little dude!"
Robotnik followed eagerly as Morpho strutted back out into the street, and did his best to appear 'cool'.
"Oh my... is that Eggman?!"
"I thought he was supposed to be a little kid now?"
"Honey, that ain't no kid..."
"Oh no, he's hot!"
Robotnik couldn't believe it as the hushed comments reached his more sensitive ears. People actually... thought he was cool?!
This was unprecedented. He... was enjoying the attention.
"Just follow my lead..." Morpho hissed into his ear, as the two brothers approached the women from earlier.
"Hey girls..." Morpho, smooth as butter, leaned on a nearby lamppost and set his free hand on a hip, "Name's Morpho, Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension... this is my bro, Ive… what's goin' on?"
The girls glanced to one another, giggling as they looked over the two males.
"Nothing much..." one girl giggily replied.
"What brings you boys out?" the other added.
'Ive' Robotnik squeaked as his brother nudged him in the ribs, understanding this was his prompt.
Act cool. You can do it! You can do it... you can do it... what would Sonic do?
With this in mind, Robotnik relaxed his posture, set his hands on his hips, and flashed that lopsided grin the infuriating blue hedgehog wore so easily.
"Oh, y'know..." 'Ive' Robotnik said nonchalantly, tails swishing behind him, "Just two young dudes, hangin' out... y'know how it is..."
"Are you really Eggman?!" one girl said, looking him over with fascination.
"Yup..." The fox replied, acting skills in full play as he adopted the same easy charm as his hated blue enemy, "Though it's Eggfox now... I dunno if you girls noticed, but I'm a little... different, these days..."
"I'll say..." the girl fluttered her eyelashes... and Ivo Robotnik realised something. He was being flirted with.
When the heck had that last happened?
"Uh... I..." The foxified, again youthful doctor stammered, "Uh..."
Luckily he was rescued from his awkward disposition by a well-timed distraction.
"MY BABY!"
The party turned to find a middle aged walrus lady pointing in terror at her child... as the infant hung precariously on a very fragile looking tree branch.
"Somebody save my baby!"
"DUDE!" Morpho punched Robotnik in the arm and grinned wide. "That's our cue!"
The doctor frowned. "What? What do you mean?"
"Fox-hole, you're replacing Sonic! And what does Sonic do?"
Robotnik processed the inference for a moment, before copying his inter-dimensional robot brother's temperament, face splitting into a malicious sneer.
"Don't worry, ma'am!" The fox boomed loudly and adopting a heroic stance, "I'll save that baby!"
He tapped at his wrist mounted gauntlet and aimed it at the infant, a blue beam streaking out to encase the child in a bubble of electricity. Robotnik guided the beam down, said child giggling as he was returned to his mother's arms.
A crowd had gathered around the incident, watching in awe as the new Doctor Robotnik heroically set his hands on his hips.
"Oh my..." Walrus lady clutched her child tight and set a hand on her heart, "Thank you!"
"Not a problem, ma'am!" Robotnik offered a casual salute.
"SOMEBODY! HELP!" Ivo and Morpho turned to now find a wooden building ablaze, old Grandma-Wolf frantically gesturing to the structure. "THE COMBINED ORPHANAGE AND ABANDONED PUPPY SANCTUARY IS ON FIRE!"
Ivo and Morpho Robotnik glanced to one another, and fell into action hero positions.
"Morpho?" 'Ive' grinned, "I think I could use your assistance with this one!"
"On it, hero-bro!" Morpho transformed into a whirlwind of colour, before reforming around the twin-tailed form of his brother... becoming a suit of thick armour, utterly proof against the flames.
Robotnik looked over his new protection approvingly. "Groovy..." He then clenched his fists and turned to address the crowd. "Don't worry, citizens! We'll handle this!"
Without another word, Robotnik sprinted toward the blaze and entered the flames.
"Okay, folks..." Sonic skidded to a halt, flanked by his teammates as the heroes finally reached the site of the emergency, "Don't panic! Team Sonic's here to put out this... fire..."
The party stood, confused as they observed the now smoking ruins of the orphanage/puppy sanctuary... their inhabitants now clustered in the middle of a large crowd of villagers, surrounding their saviours.
"Sonic?" Amy said lightly, "I think somebody beat us to it!"
Sonic hummed, surprised that for once his team hadn't been fast enough to reach the emergency. He shrugged and grinned anyway, simply glad everybody seemed to be uninjured. "Well, I guess we better go congratulate our mysterious new friends!"
The team were met with the sounds of awe-struck villagers musing over the new heroes in town.
"Oh my..."
"So brave..."
"And handsome!"
"Dreamy..."
"Did you see him carry all those children and puppies to safety?"
"And then buy ice cream for all the kids?! What a guy!"
"Hey everyone..." Sonic said loudly, gaining the attention of the villagers as they shifted aside, "Who do we have to thank for taking care of business..."
He trailed off as his eyes landed on exactly who stood at the center of all the attention.
"Sonic..." Tails mumbled, fur bristling and fists clenching.
"HYAH!" Sticks flipped into a battle-ready stance, glaring at the Robotnik brothers with her teeth bared, "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?!"
Ivo and Morpho Robotnik, surrounded by awestruck children and tiny puppies, two voluptuous young women hanging from their arms, grinned maliciously at the sight of their long time enemies.
"Well well!" Ivo jeered, standing confidently with hands on hips, "Looks like somebody was too slow!"
"What are you up to, egg-face?" Tails retorted, anger over his features as he glared at the eighteen-year-old facsimile of himself, "Did you cause this mess?"
"Dude, and I thought the little guy was supposed to be smart?!" Morpho chuckled, swishing his long blond mane of hair.
Robotnik sneered. "Ha! No way, dude! We saved the day this time!"
"Wait, what?" Knuckles scratched at his skull, dreadlock-spines swinging as his head tilted, "Evil Tails saved all these kids? And puppies?!"
"Is that true, Eggman?" Amy said curiously.
The doctor and his shapeshifting robot brother flashed matching grins, and stood back-to-back. "That's right! Say hello to the newest heroes in town... Team Robotnik!"
"Heroes?!" Tails screeched.
"Are you kidding me!?" Agreed Sticks.
Sonic didn't know how to respond to the posturing siblings, simply flapping his mouth open slightly. "You're... heroes now?"
"That's right!" Eggfox leaned forward and grinned maliciously. "So you'd better watch out, Sonic! You might find yourselves out of a job!" the doctor snapped his fingers in the air. "Morpho! Let's head back to Team Robotnik HQ... in style!"
"You got it, bro!" Morpho became a whirlwind yet again, this time transforming into a very large and powerful motorcycle. Robotnik hopped into the seat, lowered his goggles, and flashed that grin to the surrounding villagers. "Ever find yourselves in trouble, folks... Just call the coolest heroes in town!"
With that, Morpho the motorcycle roared and the Robotniks vanished in a cloud of dust, to the cheers of the praising townsfolk.
"HEY!" Tails, along with the rest of Team Sonic, coughed as they were left in the dirt, "What a jerk!"
"My new dress!" squealed Amy, batting at her now filthy magenta outfit (that was identical to every other outfit she owned), "What the heck, Eggman?!"
"AGH! Well..." coughed Knuckles, "Looks like Team Knuckles has some new competition in town..."
"No way!" replied Sticks, wafting dust from her face, "There's no chance that egg-for-brains is being serious!"
Sonic just stared after his departing nemesis, jaw set. "You're right, Sticks... there's no way this is genuine... Eggman has an angle, and it's up to us to figure it out!"
"Yeah!" cried Tails, trading a fist bump with his big bro, "I bet we can figure out his scheme in no time!"
"Until then, team..." Knuckles said confidently, fists on hips, "Team Knuckles should just go on, business as usual! Under my handsome and charismatic leadership!"
"Knuckles..." Sonic sighed, "How many times do I... y'know what? Never mind. Let's just go home and wait this out..."
And so Team Sonic departed, ready to wait and find out exactly what it was their long-time nemesis was planning.
"Ugh..." Sonic spread himself out on the sofa, lazily sweating in the hot summer heat. The tv flickered silently before him, for the moment being ignored. "I'm so bored..."
Beside him, Tails finished fiddling with an old toaster, reassembling it and setting on the coffee table. He stared at it gloomily before throwing his hands up in defeat. "That's it! I have officially run out of gadgets, devices, appliances, doodads, thingamajigs, and hoozits to repair! I've fixed everything there is to fix!"
"How long's it been, a week?" Sonic leaned over and rested his head on the arm of the sofa, "With egg-head and his stupid brother taking all the hero work... there's nothing to do! I think I'm gonna go nuts!"
"What do you think his angle is?" Tails replied, slumping far back into his seat and nudging the toaster with a foot.
"I don't know, little buddy..." Sonic replied, reaching limply for a can of soda, "I'm... kinda worried..."
A yellow head cocked, triangular ears perking. "About what?"
"Well... it's just..." Sonic sat up and hitching into a cross-legged position, "what if he's genuine? About being a hero?"
"You can't be serious..." Tails replied, "After last time, you wanna let him fool us again? There's something more to this..." the fox frowned and stared at his recently repaired appliance thoughtfully, the tv flickering quietly in the background. "And I wanna figure it out..."
"And now for our special guests, Team Robotnik!"
"Wait, what?!" both Sonic and Tails' ears pricked at the sound from the tv, Sonic gesturing wildly at the screen. "Turn it up! Turn it up!"
Tails complied, briefly juggling the remote before thumbing the volume control.
"Soar the Eagle here, and today on Bygone Island Live, we have the two newest and coolest heroes to hit the Hedgehog Village Scene in quite some time... you may know them as Doctor Ivo Robotnik the Fox and Morpho the Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension! Say hello to the audience, gentlemen!"
Sonic and Tails bristled as, to the sound of enthusiastic applause in a well lit talk-show studio, the red and blue jacketed forms of their newest rivals shook hands with the charismatic eagle, and arranged themselves in their designated seats.
"Coolest?! Sonic said disbelievingly.
"Ivo Robotnik… The Fox?!" Tails gripped the remote as though strangling it.
"So, gentlemen..." the eagle went on, "You guys have made quite an impression on the citizens of the island since your big debut last week!"
"True that, bro!"
"Dude, don't we know it!"
"And it seems like the big question on everybody's minds... is why you boys decided to flip from supervillainy to heroism?"
"Well, Soar..." Robotnik, clad in ridiculously tight pants and a short red jacket that exposed his ample chest fur and skinny midriff, adjusted his quiffed head fur and rested easily in his chair, twin tails splayed around booted feet, "You see... when I became a fox, I realised... I have a whole new life ahead of me, y'know? And so... why not try somethin' new? The supervillain thing... it's cool an' all, but I think the kids today need somethin' to look up to, am I right?"
"Yeah, dude..." Morpho, sleeveless blue jacket showing his biceps and long flowing blond hair resting over each shoulder like a sheet, added. "When you're as cool as this? You're wasted on villainy! Cool guys don't terrorize people and try to destroy the world! That's no good!"
"That's no good!" chimed in his fox-brother.
"I see..." Responded the eagle, Sonic and Tails watching in outrage, "And how do you boys respond to accusations by Team Sonic that you are secretly planning some kind of villainous scheme under the cover of suddenly pretending to be protectors of the people?"
Ivo snapped his fingers, as though deep in thought. "Team Sonic... Team Sonic... oh, I remember them!"
"Old news, dude..." Morpho waved a dismissive hand.
"Well, if that's how they feel then I guess that's their right..." Robotnik replied, casually twizzling the end of a tail, "But my bro's right, they're old news. We're here now, and we're the best at what we do, and people dig it, man!"
"Oh, I believe people dig it! What do you think, audience?"
The studio audience, a significant portion of whom were female, went wild, screaming in adoration for their new heroes.
"I think their opinion of Team Robotnik is rather clear!" Chuckled the Eagle, the two brothers seemingly glowing with the worship.
"Can you blame 'em?!" Morpho replied, flexing his sleeveless biceps, "Can you think of any two bros as cool as Morpho and Ivo Robotnik?"
"No, bro!" the doctor replied, nonchalantly opening his short jacket a little to display his athletic build, "I can't think of ANY two brothers as cool as Ivo and Morpho Robotnik!"
The studio audience went nuts again, before the tv flickered off and the screen went black.
"I think that's enough of that..." muttered Tails through grit teeth, remote in hand.
"You said it, buddy..." Sonic agreed darkly, folding his arms, "Just who do those guys they think they are?!"
"Apparently, they think they're rock stars..." grunted Tails.
"Well, little buddy..." Sonic stood from his seat and set his jaw defiantly, "We won't let them outshine us, right? We're Sonic and Tails! Butt-kickers extraordinaire!"
"I don't know, Sonic... people kinda seem hot for those two right now..."
"Pfft, it's just a fad! We've been going for years! All we need is that one call to get us back in the game, and people'll remember Team Sonic ain't no bunch a' zeroes!"
Right on cue, the brothers' wrist-mounted communicators began bleeping in alert.
Sonic grinned. "See?! I bet this is a client calling us for important hero work right now!"
"Let me get this straight..." Sonic said dejectedly, minutes later, clutching a mop. "You want us to... clean the toilets?"
Dave, the eternal intern of the local burger joint, nodded. "The cleaner phoned in sick, and I heard you guys needed the work..."
"Are you serious?!" Tails protested, glaring at the rubber gloves in his right hand, "We're heroes, not janitors!"
"Hey, mopping bathrooms is heroic work!" Dave replied, "People need a place to do their business after eating our... well..." The intern performed finger quotes. "Food!"
"Then why don't you do it?" Sonic said sourly.
"I'm on break..." with that, the intern turned and left them to it, the two brothers looking around their new workspace with melancholy.
"Well..." Tails grumbled, stuffing one end of his own mop into the bucket, "It's a long way to the bottom..."
"Ahh..." Ivo Robotnik, shirtless and eyes obscured by obnoxious shades as he leaned back in a reclining chair in the VIP section of Meh' Burger, sighed blissfully, "This is the life..."
"Dude..." Morpho replied, face down as he received a professional massage, "you said it, bro..."
"You know what, Morpho?" the doctor gestured his burger to his prone brother as two women from the local spa worked on the shapeshifter's back, "Getting myself stuck in this body is the best thing that ever happened to me... I may have had to spend a few weeks as a child, but now look... I'm young, fit, dashingly handsome, and popular... who knew being a hero could be so rewarding?"
"Yeah..." mumbled his brother, "Told you my idea would work..."
Robotnik tensed, leaning up and removing his shades. "Um, excuse me dude? Your idea?"
Morpho turned on his massage bed, glaring at the doctor. "Uh, yeah! Remember it was me who suggested replacing Sonic as the cool hero in town?"
"Hey!" Ivo stood and glared back at his brother, "f I didn't build that damn Maturation Machine, none of this good fortune would have happened!"
"Dude, that was MY idea too!" Morpho also stood, moving to protest against Ivo.
"Was NOT! I acutely remember suggesting aging myself first!"
"Dude, you're full of BS!"
"You're full of BS! And you're just jealous that all the chicks dig ME!"
"Well... are we interrupting something?"
The Robotnik brothers ceased in their bickering and turned to find Sonic and Tails, dripping with sweat and protective cleaning garments covered with filth, staring daggers at them.
The two Robotniks shared a sly grin, temporary truce forming before turning their spite on their present company.
Oh..." Ivo snapped his claws together, frowning as though thinking hard, "ah... Speedy, right? The... Porcupine?"
"Looks more like some kinda… needle-mouse to me, bro!" Chuckled Morpho.
"Oh, and who's this?!" Ivo leaned over and sneered at the sight of Tails. "Well hi! Must be a fan! Great cosplay!"
"What the heck are you up to, fox-breath?" Sonic said, setting a hand on his brother's shoulder before Tails could explode with outrage.
"What?" Robotnik said innocently, "We're just a couple of cool heroes, hangin' out and waiting for the call of these good townsfolk!"
"Is that a crime, bro?" put in Morpho.
"Last I checked, no!"
"Bullcrap, Eggman!" Tails squeaked, pointing an accusing finger at the taller fox, "There's no way you would do something good without an ulterior motive! We know you too well!"
"Well!" chuckled Robotnik, "you're right about that, Tails! Congratulations!"
"HA!" Tails cried triumphantly, "I knew it!"
"So what's the scheme, egg-lord?" Sonic said, preparing for a fight, "What evil things are you planning?"
"Well, Sonic..." the foxified form of the doctor, so unnervingly like Tails and Robotnik, leered as he looked down on the shorter blue hedgehog, "You see... I think I might actually like this hero lark! All the worship, the adoration... people love me like this! I have become the coolest hero this island has ever seen!"
"Uh, dude..." Morpho said, unamused, "Coolest heroes this island has ever seen?"
"Yeah yeah, sure..." Ivo waved away his brother's comments, his attention focused entirely on tormenting his long-time enemy. His tails swished like snakes, malicious grin stretching wider beneath his crazy blue eyes, "Isn't it poetic, Sonic? That after so long of being a villain, trying to defeat you, failing every time... ultimately, I replace you as the most beloved hero ever? Isn't that just... deliciously sweet revenge?!"
Sonic set his jaw determinedly. "There's no way you are as cool a hero as me, Robotnik! This is a stupid phase, people will come around eventually!"
"I don't know, little buddy..." Robotnik said condescendingly, lowering himself close enough to the other Mobians' heights that the individual hairs on his face could be picked out, "but keep it up, kiddos! Maybe someday you two can be heroes, just like u- OOOOOWW!"
Everybody jumped as the Eggfox clutched his back, teeth bared in pain and tails arching.
"Woah, dude!" Morpho bent to help his yellow-orange brother back to his feet, "You okay there, bro?"
"Ung..." Ivo Robotnik grimaced as he steadied himself back up, scowling as Sonic and Tails laughed at his ill-timed misfortune. "Just a twinge..."
"Ha!" laughed Tails, "Does your back ache, old man?"
"Shut up!"
"Come on, dude..." Said Morpho, slipping back into his sleeveless blue jacket, let's leave these stink-bombs to cleaning toilets!"
"Heh, yeah..." Robotnik straightened up, his back twinging slightly, and leered at the two brothers. "Smell ya later, kids!"
"Bite me, faker!" Sonic called after the retreating brothers. He glared in their direction as they left, before nudging his own younger brother. "Replace us... really? egg-head's brains must be pretty scrambled if he thinks he can pull that off!"
"Yeah..." replied Tails, rubbing his white muzzle as though a thought had struck him. "Pretty well scrambled..."
"HEY!"
Sonic and Tails jerked as Dave the intern stomped over the VIP section.
"You guys aren't supposed to be here! You're supposed to be scrubbing bathrooms! You guys have to get back to work before my boss kills me!"
"Yeah yeah, relax dude..." replied Sonic, "We cleaned your dumb toilet already..."
"Toilet?"
"Yeah."
"As in one?2
"Yup."
"You know you're supposed to clean them all, right?"
"... Uh, we took an early break?"
"GET BACK IN THERE BEFORE I GET FIRED!"
Meanwhile, Tails ignored the exchange as he considered the grey hairs he'd spotted in Robotnik's fur... and the misfortune the buffoonish doctor now potentially faced.
He grinned to himself and hoped his sudden theory was right.
In the kitchen of the Robotnik Lair/household, Mombot and Orbot were busily fussing with steaming pans and trays of robot food, preparing dinner for their robot family. The curved maternal machine bent over to inspect an oven filled with meat and vegetables - organic food for the flesh and blood Ivo Robotnik.
"Here you are, Mombot!" Said Orbot happily, "The plasteel steaks are all ready, and beaten to perfection!"
"Oh, thank you dear!" Mombot replied, retrieving the metallic slabs of mechanoid 'nutrition' "You're such a help!"
"Not a bother, Mombot! It's a shame some other people are too preoccupied to shift a servo!"
"Heh!" Morpho, the Shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension, happily tapped away at a gamepad, feet up on the table, Cubot beside him with the other controller. "Who's he talkin' about, Metal?"
Metal Sonic Mark Two, slouched in a nearby, released a disinterested bleep, again ignoring his surroundings as he tapped away at a cell phone.
"Boys!" Mombot called, setting up plates in the kitchen, "Where's Ivo? Dinner's nearly ready!"
"Upstairs, Mombot…" replied Morpho, "Prettying himself up..."
"Well go and fetch him please! I expect all of you boys to have dinner at home tonight!"
"Mombooot…" groaned Morpho, "I'm a little busy here..."
"No buts, Morpho!"
Morpho slapped his controller onto the sofa beside a delighted Cubot, "Okaaaaay..."
The blue-jacketed, blond-locked shapeshifter trudged moodily through the lab, reaching the presently locked bathroom. He rapped at the door. "Come on, fox-hole... get your tails out here! Mombot says its time for chow!"
"Go away! I'm busy!"
"Jeez dude, how long you gonna be in there?!"
"None of your damn business, Steve!"
Morpho shrugged, turning to head back to his video game. "Whatever, jerk..."
Ivo Robotnik, once again eighteen and self-obsessed, busily styled his own fur, battling with the well-groomed fuzz after an excessively long shower. He shrugged into his short jacket, chest fluff sticking out, and fussed at his quiff. He grinned wolfishly, finally satisfied with his appearance.
Cool. For the first time in his life... Ivo Robotnik was cool! He was a beloved hero... while Sonic the Hedgehog was scrubbing toilets! It was perfect! It was better than perfect! It was ASTOUNDING!
It had taken the destruction of his human form and his internment in that of one of the creatures he had tried to destroy for so long... but he no longer cared. He had been old, and bumbling, and incompetent in his destroyed human form. He was better like this. Young! Athletic! Desirable! BETTER. So what if he was Mobian, he wasn't planning on returning to the Human Territories ever again anyway.
"Screw you, Fails!" Doctor Ivo 'Eggfox' Robotnik sneered, happily grooming himself in the mirror, "Who says you get to be the only genius twin-tailed fox on the island!? I'm superior to you in every way, you little brat! And now that I am of age, I'll easily make you obsole…"
The doctor trailed off in his monologuing, blue eyes screwing... and his heart skip a beat.
"Is that... a grey hair?!"
Before he could inspect further, he was jerked from his scrutiny by the harsh banging of a steel fist on the bathroom door.
"IVO!" Mombot's delicate synthesized tones muffled through the door, "Your supper is READY!"
"I'm COMING, Mombot!" Ivo Robotnik snapped back. He glanced back to the mirror and frowned, leaning in close to check where he thought he had seen the... streak of grey. Nothing. He shrugged, playing it off as a trick of the light, and then turned with a swish of the tails to leave the bathroom.
He strutted through the halls of his lair, happily whistling a tune and jangling the keys to his egg-cycle.
"Ivo?" Mombot turned from the table as her mad-scientist-formerly-human-fox-son passed the kitchen, tottering after him on her metal feet. "Where are you going? Dinner's ready!"
"I told you Mombot, I'm going out!"
"Oh no, not tonight! You are going to stay here and eat dinner with your family, young man!"
"Says who?!" Ivo swung around, moody young adult mode activated.
Mombot set her hands on her hips and glared. "So says your Mombot!"
Ivo Robotnik spread his arms obnoxiously. "Not a little kid any more, Mombot! You can't tell me what to do no more! An' if I wanna go out, I go out!"
"Don't you talk to your Mombot like that, mister!"
"Why not?!" Ivo sneered, sticking his thumbs in his jacket pockets. "It's not like you're my real mom... you're just a robot I built to fulfil that function, after all!"
Mombot gasped and clasped her hands to her mouth. "Ivo... you... I don't believe you just said that..."
"Yeah well, it's true!" the doctor spat, "And y'know what? I don't need you any more! Or this stinking family! I'm gonna go off and make it on my own! SO LONG!"
Without another word, Ivo Robotnik tossed his Egg-cycle keys and stormed out into the evening, leaving his mombot to break down into mechanical hysterics.
Ivo Robotnik kicked the stand to his Egg-cycle, a sleeker, meaner, downsized version of his classic Eggmobile, keyed the ignition, and hopped from the seat. His boots smacked into the dirt and he tucked his thumbs into his belt, tails swishing, eyes obscured by biker goggles as he observed his destination - S. Nootz, Hedgehog Village's premier VIP lounge.
The doctor grinned, flexing a sudden twinge in his shoulder before stomping over the dirt toward the club.
"Doctor Robotnik!" The hippo bodyguard greeted him as he approached, shoving aside other club-goers at the doctor's arrival.
"Hippo Guy!" the two males clasped hands with a mighty smack, and shook very manly-like. "Good to see you, dude!"
"Hey, after you you and your bro saved my daughter from those East-Island mobsters, I ought to be sayin' that to you!"
The hippo let the fox right in, and Robotnik made a beeline straight for the bar, smoothly gyrating between dancers, shooting winks to the females.
I. Am. Awesome!"
Ivo set himself at the bar, baring his teeth in a grin as the bartender approached.
"Oh hey, Ivo Robotnik! What can I do ya for?"
"Usual, Mike!" Robotnik replied to the ox, leaning on the bar with one arm and sticking his other thumb in the belt of his stupidly tight pants.
"Here ya go, bud! On 'da house!"
"Y'sure about that, Mike?"
"Hey, least I can do for 'da guy who took out 'da gang of marauding bikers who tried 'ta smash up my bar! Hey, everybody! Three cheers for Eggfox!"
"Hip Hip, HOORAY!" every patron in the bar stopped what they were doing and cheered three times for the reformed doctor, who positively glowed in the hero worship.
"Ah, gee..." He said, with false humility, "What can a fox say?"
Robotnik knocked back his drink, slamming the glass down and gesturing for another. His ears pricked at the sound of tittering, and he turned to find a small group of young women giggling as they looked him over.
He gave a flash of his lopsided grin, stolen from Sonic, and offered them a casual salute. "Can I help you, ladies?"
"Oh..." one of the girls, a long-eared rabbit woman who worked at the local beauty parlour, giggled back, "We're fine, thanks..."
"Are you really Doctor Robotnik?" Another, a goat lady, said with awe.
"The very same! Handsome hero, at your service!"
The third female, a white-furred bat woman, simply looked him over before turning back to her drink. "Eh... seen better..."
Robiotnik scowled as the other two women giggled hysterically at their friend's dismissal, before reaching up to fix his quiff and grinning smoothly.
"So..." He said, turning for the bar, "Can I get you girls a drink..."
He paused. His hand, resting on the bar... was loosely clutching a clump of orange fluff.
Ivo lurched back in shock... and yelped as his spine gave out.
"AAAAAGH! WHAT IN THE NAME OF..."
"Jeez, Doc?" Mike the bartender enquired, while other patrons watched as the fox returned painfully to his feet. "You okay!?"
Robotnik began to sweat as he suddenly felt twinges around his body... familiar twinges that he'd had as an old...
Oh no.
"GET OUTTA MY WAY!" The fox snarled, shoving past other patrons as he hobbled for the bathroom, wincing with aches and pains.
He slammed into the bathroom wall, grunting in pain, stumbled over to the nearby sinks... and gawped into the mirror.
His fur. His beautiful golden fur, as fabulously maintained as his old moustache had ever been, was streaked with grey. Wrinkles lined his face, his gut was expanding, and... and...
Another clump of fluff dropped from his head, floating down into the sink.
"I'm... I'M GOING BAAALDD!"
Ivo Robotnik screeched as he recoiled from the mirror, clawing in horror at his rapidly aging form. Suddenly his jacket was too tight, he ripped it off with lengthening, gnarly claws. Twin tails, missing chunks of thick fluff, writhed around arthritically.
With a final moan of despair, the clammy, elderly form of Doctor Ivo Robotnik fell to his knees... and split his pants right down the middle.
Back at Robotnik's lair, Morpho, Orbot, Cubot and Metal Sonic Mark Two attempted to console their power-core-broken Mombot as she cried heavy robotic tears into a robotic handkerchief.
"Oh..." The maternal mechanoid whimpered, "Oh, Ivo..."
"Please don't cry, Mombot!" Orbot tried soothingly, "I'm sure Doctor Eggman didn't mean it! You know how young men are, after all!"
"Yeah!" Added Cubot, "Jerks!"
"Where did I go wrong?!" Mombot cried, "I love my boy so... how could he speak to his Mombot like that?"
"Don't blame yourself, Mom-bro-Bot!" chimed in Morpho, sat next to his Mombot and holding her hand, "Old Lame-o's been a jerk to me too, lately! Must be his brains acting up again!"
"Hmm..." Orbot said thoughtfully, "Perhaps, in the same way that becoming eight years old again made him behave more childish... aging himself so rapidly to eighteen may be intensifying his 'moody young adult' tendencies?"
"PROCESSING..." Metal Sonic Mark Two added, loading dots replacing his LED eyes for a moment, "AFFIRMATIVE. A LOGICAL DEDUCTION GIVEN AVAILABLE DATA."
"Yeah!" Cubot nodded, "And it makes sense!"
"You see, Mombot?" Orbot said gently, "He loves you really! He's just having major brain problems right now!"
"Oh..." sniffed Mombot, "You think?"
"Absolutely!" replied Morpho, "And you know what? Metal and I'll go bring him back for you! Talk some sense into the twin-tailed twerp-azoid!"
"WHAT" Metal Sonic Mark Two bleeped in alarm, "WHY DO I HAVE TO GO."
"Because, robo-bro, you haven't been relevant since, like, chapter three!"
"FAIR ENOUGH."
"Oh, my boys..." Mombot reached up with her telescopic arms and grabbed her entire present robot family in a tight hug. "I'm such a lucky Mombot to have such darling children!"
"AAAAGH." Metal Sonic Mark Two bleeped, "MOMBOT. YOU'RE BUCKLING MY COMBAT SKIN."
"Yeah yeah... come on, Metal..." Morpho was just able to pry the mechanical hedgehog from their Mombot's grasp and drag him away, "Let's go bring our bro home! Before the little dude gets himself into trouble..."
"AAAAAAAAEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
Patrons screamed as they ran from the disco-lit interior of S. Nootz, fleeing to escape the terror within. Nearby, Sonic and Tails screeched to a halt in the dirt, having been in the vicinity during the eruption of chaos.
"Oh jeez, Sonic!" Mike the bartender wheezed over to Sonic, while the sound of smashing glass came from inside the bar. "Thank Chaos you're here!"
"What's going on?!" The hedgehog replied, ears perking as the sound of insane rambling was followed by something expensive breaking.
"It's Robotnik! He's turned into some kinda monster! He's wrecking 'da whole bar!"
"Oh..." said Tails, smirking, "Has he?"
Sonic set his jaw in determination and furrowed his brow. "I knew this whole 'good guy' act was too good to be true! Come on, Tails!"
The two brothers zoomed across the street and into the bar, ready to deal with whatever had happened to their long-time rival. They stopped short, horror meeting their eyes.
"Oh... my Gods..." whispered Sonic
"It's the most horrifying thing... I've ever seen!" croaked Tails.
Before them, stumbling around the bar, bottle in hand and rolls of obese flappy meat on display, a very rotund and elderly fox, missing half of his grey and yellow fur, madly slammed between the furniture, upturning tables and rambling incoherently.
The fox whipped his meaty head around, eyes obscured by goggles, and leered. The only fur left on his head was wispy tufts of his white muzzle, leaving the pallid flesh bare and domelike. Like an egg.
"WHY ARE YOU IN MY BASEMENT?! Are you two here to FIX MY VC-AARRRR?!""
"Uh..." Neither Sonic nor Tails knew how to respond to that.
"GET OOOUT OF MY CAAAR" the overweight, mutated fox screamed, sliding an arm over another table and sending the contents smashing to the ground, "AND INTO MY DREEEAAMS"
"Dude," Sonic said, shaking his head incredulously, "What the heck happened to egg-head?!"
"I can't fin' my GODDAMN POTATOES"
"Woah!" Sonic and Tails, completely unsure how to handle the situation, turned to find Morpho (The shapeshifting Robot from Another Dimension), and Metal Sonic Mark Two running to join them in the display,
"What the heck happen to fox-hole?!"
"SCANNING." Metal Sonic Mark Two briefly whirred as his optics scanned Robotnik's physical condition. "IT APPEARS THE DOCTOR'S AGE HAS ADVANCED SEVERAL DECADES, AND THE MODIFICATIONS HE MADE TO HIS PHYSICAL FORM HAVE MUTATED HIM INTO... THIS."
"Heh..." tails chuckled, despite the grossness of Robotnik's altered, delirious state.
"Buddy?" Sonic looked to his smaller fox brother, "Did you know this would happen?"
"I suspected..." Tails replied smugly, "I thought I saw a couple of grey hairs in his fur earlier... I figured he'd start aging more rapidly. But I didn't expect such immediate and... interesting results!"
Robotnik smacked onto his butt and wheezed, clammy flesh of his rotund belly resting on his thighs and half bald twin tails spreading without coordination. "CATALOGUES" the utterly scrambled fox-man rambled.
"Okay little dudes," Morpho said, stroking his blond moustache, "How do we fix him?"
"What makes you think I want to fix him?" Tails replied, "I think he got what he deserved!"
"Tails, just answer the damn question..." mumbled Sonic.
"Fine!" Tails threw his hands up reluctantly, and turned to Morpho. "I'll need to take a look at whatever device you guys used to age him up. Then I can make whatever adjustments I need, and then maybe I can put him back to normal."
"Great!" Said Morpho, "Let's get going!"
"On ONE" condition..." said Tails, before anybody could leave the bar, "After I fix him, you guys quit trying to replace us! This is OUR town, and WE are its protectors! Do we have an understanding?"
Morpho shrugged. "Meh, sure. He was being even more of a total jerk with the hero thing anyway."
"Okay then, guys!" Sonic clapped his hands and rallied the party, "So... how are we going to shift him?"
Sonic, Tails, Morpho and Metal all looked down at the quivering mass of obese fur and flesh, as Robotnik made an unsanitary noise and slumped further.
"Dude... with difficulty..."
"Okay..." Tails leaned back and wiped sweat from his brow, having spent the last hour inside the guts of the Maturation Machine. "I think that's the best I can do..."
He wiped his hands off on himself and stepped back to join his present company, Sonic and the Robotnik family.
"Oh, Doctor!" Mombot said, busily fussing at the horribly bloated, wrinkled, half-furred tumorous form of her son as he sat slumped in a wheelchair, "Please tell me you can fix my boy!"
"Yes, please tell us Doctor Eggman will be okay?" added Orbot.
"Well..." Miles raised his safety goggles, and gestured to the machine with his wrench. "With the damage he's done to himself, the best I can do is return him to his younger state... before he aged himself up. That'll allow his body to recuperate."
"I'm sure you did your best, little buddy!" Said Sonic, patting his brother's back.
"So he's gonna be my little brother again?" Morpho said, stroking his moustache and chuckling. "Great, bro! He was a total derp-wad as an eighteen year old!"
"Yeah!" Added Cubot, "You know what he said to Mombot?! He said..."
"Never mind, dear..." Mombot cut off the smaller yellow mechanoid, stroking her 'son's' bald and wrinkled head, "It doesn't matter... as long as I get my fluffy little boy back!"
"GAM NIBBLETS GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, WOMAN"
"Now now, Ivo! That's no way to talk to your Mombot!"
"Okay then, everyone!" Tails said, hands on hips authoritatively, "The machine is ready! Let's get him in there!"
"Okay, Ivo..." Mombot said soothingly, pushing him forward in his wheelchair, "We're just taking a nice little walk, okay?"
"WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME"
"We're just gonna fix you up, little dude!" Morpho said, assisting with guiding him into the machine, "Make you younger again!"
"GET YOUR MITTS OFFA ME I AIN'T GOT NO GHOSTS OR GOBLINS"
They deposited him and his wheelchair inside the machine and retreated, closing the door behind them. The Doctor continued to ramble, his muffled voice echoing inside the tank.
"Okay..." Tails said, situating himself at the controls, "Are we ready?"
There was a chorus of affirmative responses, and Tails grinned as he twisted the dials and tapped at buttons on the reprogrammed machine.
The Maturation Machine whirred into life, white light crackling from inside to bathe the spectators... before a loud crack emanated from inside, and the device began to spool down with the whine of machinery and the crackle of electricity.
Tails turned to his audience, who remained silent, and moved over to open the door with a creak. Smoke billowed out, obscuring the yellow fox.
"Doctor Tails?" Mombot said fearfully as Tails could be heard fumbled with something inside, "did it work?"
"Yeah... it worked..." The entire party gasped as the young engineer emerged from the thinning smoke... clutching a very small, very fluffy yellow-orange bundle. "Exactly as I intended!"
The bundle, a tiny twin-tailed fox cub, made some kind of bemused squealing noise.
"Uh... Tails?" Sonic said uncertainly, "Why... did you turn him into a baby?!"
"Good question!" Tails responded, the cub wriggling in his arms, "One; His body was so screwed thanks to this machine being so hastily constructed, as well as his own utter incompetence, that the only way I figured we could safely return him to the way he was was to reduce him to an infantile state, and allow him to grow back into his body."
"That... doesn't make any sense..." said Orbot.
"Nah, seems pretty logical to me!" replied Cubot.
"Kinda sounds like you pulled that from between your tails, little dude..." added Morpho.
"And what's the second thing?" said Sonic, frowning at the tiny fox in Tails' grasp.
"Well..." Replied Tails, "Two... this is revenge, egg-head!" He held the cub out in front of him, grinning madly into the tiny face, "For all the crap you've done! Now you have to be a baby! HAH!"
The cub responded by sneezing in his face, causing Tails to recoil in disgust.
"Oh dear, let me take him..." said Mombot, reaching out and retrieving her now extremely tiny 'son' from the now older fox. She hitched him in her arms and cooed as he yawned and snuggled in. "Oh... he's so adorable!"
"So, little dude..." Said Morpho, looking over his much younger brother, "How long is he gonna be like this?"
Tails shrugged. "Not long. He'll age in short spurts every so often until he reaches my physical age again. I estimate... a week or so."
"Hmm..." Mombot hummed, lovingly considering the bundle in her telescopic arms. "I don't suppose you could make it two weeks? Just to be safe?"
Sonic and Tails grinned to one another mischievously, before Tails headed back to the machine and adjusted his goggles.
"I think we can make an arrangement!" The fox-boy said, tapping at the controls.
"Hoo-boy..." Orbot sighed, as the machine began to whirr into action once more, "Cubot? Alter the shopping list to include baby supplies..."
"Already on it, old friend!"