Inside of a mechanical base deep in the forest, the great Dr. Eggman was fuming and slamming his fists against his own delicate machinery. That day, he had lost yet again to Sonic and his friends. This was a very common event, but it was still just as frustrating every time it happened, and the repeated losses were beginning to get to Eggman. Every time he came up with a new plan, every time he thought he had mapped out each and every little detail, he would still be utterly humiliated by that blue rodent. None of Eggman's inventions could ever seem to match him, not even the one creation made for that singular purpose
"Metal... I'll make that pest pay for what he did to you"
Eggman turned his head and looked over at his greatest creation, Metal Sonic. The robot had been designed to match Sonic in every way, but even he was still defeated every time he went up against the hedgehog, with the latest battle between the two being no exception. Metal Sonic had been badly damaged, and was hanging from chains so he could be repaired. The robot was still activated, but he couldn't do anything except for stare at his creator and wait for the damages done to him to be fixed. After Metal stared at Eggman for a prolonged amount of time, he noticed his creation looking at him, and decided now was as good a time as any to fix up Metal. Eggman got up from his chair and grabbed a small toolbox that was laying on the ground next to him before walking towards the suspended Metal Sonic
After his creator began fixing him up, Metal Sonic seemed to be happier, as much as a robot could show it, but Eggman was still thinking about his loss earlier in the day. He had spent months perfecting Metal Sonic's programming, training him for any possible situations, but Sonic could always outwit him somehow. When Eggman was watching the fight between Sonic and his robotic counterpart, it seemed like they were evenly matched in every single way, except for one thing. Eggman couldn't describe exactly what it was, but Sonic seemed to posses a trait that always allowed him to outwit and defeat Metal Sonic, and all his other robots, as well. Once he thought about it even more, Eggman realized all of Sonic's friends seemed to have this trait. Whatever it was that Sonic and his friends had was the single thing that was causing his losses, it had to be that. If he could find a way to capture that special attribute and make it work for him, he'd finally be able to beat that horrible hedgehog
Metal began making a few small beeping noises to Eggman, making him realize that he'd been thinking about that trait so much that he stopped repairing his creation. Eggman got back to work on fixing Metal Sonic, but he was still thinking about it in the back of his mind. Eggman knew that if he could use the trait against Sonic, he would win, but how could he do this? He knew he couldn't put the attribute into any of his robots, and he couldn't make Sonic's friends fight against him (He had already done that with Knuckles a few times in the past). Eggman thought about it a little bit more, and realized that most Mobians also probably had the trait that Sonic and his friends had, but he couldn't have any Mobians working for him, they were who he was fighting against. At least, that's what Eggman thought for a second before he realized that he could easily capture most Mobians who weren't Sonic or his friends
"Yes. Yes, that's it!" Eggman shouted. He had dropped the tool he was using to repair Metal Sonic, and ran to the door of the room he was in. He rapidly typed a code into a keypad, opening the door to the room he was in and allowing him to dash through the barren metal halls of his base, with ideas about how he would make a team to defeat Sonic swarming through his head. After a short time, he arrived at an imposing metal door with a small keypad next to it, just like the one in his workshop. Eggman put in the same code as before, which once again caused the metal door to open, this time revealing a vast armory. Legions of robots stood unactive, with some deactivated vehicles also residing inside. One of these vehicles was a small, somewhat orb shaped vehicle that was Eggman's most faithful form of transportation. Eggman ran down the stairs of the room as fast as he safely could, and then continued to run over to the section of the armory that contained his signature machine. He hopped into the small vehicle, and began pressing a few buttons on the large control panel that surrounded him. The vehicle activated, along with a small group of assorted infantry robots, and began hovering in the air. After Eggman pressed another button, a massive door in the front of the barracks opened, letting the sun shine into the cold, dark room and onto the unactive robots, rays of light glinting off of their metal bodies. Eggman, unfazed by the rather beautiful sight he had just created, quickly began flying the vehicle out of the open door, followed closely by the small team of robots he had awoken
"Once I gather up enough of these pests and make them work for me, I'll be able to use the special attribute Mobians seem to have against Sonic and his friends!" Eggman shouted with enthusiasm. "They might be able to fight against even the best of my robots, but I doubt that they can defeat an army of robots while also fighting a team just like them"
The first step of forming a team to destroy Sonic was, of course, to find members to put on the team, so he would need somewhere to look. Luckily for Eggman, he built his base inside of a forest, so he was already in a good place to search for Mobians. Eggman maneuvered the small vehicle he was piloting above the treetops and began flying around the area, searching for any Mobians that could be easily taken by the Badniks he had with him. However, he wasn't looking for large groups, as an army of Mobians would inevitably fail just as badly as an army of robots. No, his goal was to create a powerful team, just like the team Sonic had. The hovering pod Eggman was in suddenly jerked forward, nearly causing him to fall out and onto the ground. He ordered his robots to attack, believing that Sonic and his friends had showed up once again to cause trouble, but he quickly realized his mistake when he saw a large tree in front of him. Eggman had been daydreaming about the team he was going to form to the point where he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, and ended up crashing his vehicle into an abnormally tall tree
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Eggman asked the idle group of robots. They hadn't attacked anything like Eggman ordered because there was nothing to attack, at least to their knowledge. Eggman's anger only grew after watching the robots continue to not do anything, and he began shouting at them once more
"Go! Attack this infernal tree that got in my way!" Eggman demanded
The robots began scrambling to follow their creator's orders, swarming to the tree Eggman was currently hovering next to and attacking it with all their (limited) might. After about a minute of the small group of robots wailing on the innocent tree, it collapsed, falling to the ground with a great thud
"Hmph, that's better," Eggman said rather bitterly
Now that he had exacted his revenge on the tree, Eggman remembered he was not out in the forest to attack the flora, and that he still had to find the first member of his team. He continued flying over the forest, scanning the area for Mobians (and any more taller than average trees). After about half an hour of nothing except a few non-sapient woodland critters, Eggman was drawing near what looked like a rather primitive looking village, consisting of many minimalistic wooden buildings. He normally would have begun attacking the village without any hesitation, especially considering how close it was to his base, but he was focused on the current task. The closer he got to the village, the more he slowed down, stopping entirely once he was about 500 feet away. Eggman looked around into the surrounding area, with his robots doing the same, but the sweep of the immediate area didn't return anything. He was about to leave and travel off in another direction when he saw something in the distance
Through the forest canopy, barely visible because of how far away it was, Eggman could see a speck of light blue. This was obviously an unusual color to see in a forest, but it wasn't an unusual color for a Mobian to have, which meant the patch of light blue was most likely a potential candidate for his team. Eggman immediately began speeding towards the patch of color, only slowing down once he got close enough to see what the light blue coloring belonged to. Just as he had suspected, the color was indeed a Mobian, specifically a wolf Mobian. Being eager to capture the first member of his new team, Eggman immediately ordered his small group of robots to form a circle around the blue wolf while he hovered lower to the ground, intending to offer them a chance to join before forcing them to do so
"You shouldn't wander out into forests all by yourself, you know. Although, it's quite fortunate you did, for me anyways," Eggman smugly said
"Who are you and why are you bothering me right now?" The Mobian snapped
Eggman was caught off-guard a bit by how little the wolf seemed to care about his presence, but quickly recovered and began explaining
"I'm Dr. Eggman, the world's greatest scientific genius. You see, I'm creating a team that can help me accomplish my goals, and I've selected you to be a candidate for that team," The doctor explained
"Pass," The Mobian nonchalantly answered
At this point, Eggman was getting angry, as he hadn't expected any Mobian he ran into to be this blatantly defiant of him
"I was trying to be polite, but it's clear to me that I'm going to have to use another method to get you to join me," Eggman gritted
"Listen, I'm already going through a lot right now, and I don't need some maniac hounding me to work for him while I try to figure out what I'm going to do," the wolf responded, sounding just as exasperated as Eggman
"I don't think you understand the situation you're in, you insolent pest. You don't have a choice in the matter. You ARE joining me, whether you want to or not," Eggman explained
"You're threatening me? Why don't you put up some job applications instead? Saves both of us a lot of trouble," the wolf snarked
Eggman had decided that talking was a lost cause, and decided to use his small squad of robots that he had with him to force the Mobian into joining. On his command, the robots circled around the wolf, waiting for Eggman to give them the order to attack
"Well? Does this change your mind at all?" Eggman smugly asked
The wolf looked around them at the arrangement of mismatched robots before turning to look back up at Eggman with a deadpan expression on her face
"Not really," the Mobian answered
"You must have a death wish. But since I'm a generous guy, I'll make it come true for you!" Eggman shouted
Eggman slammed a button inside his vehicle, causing the badniks to begin attacking the Mobian. At this point, he didn't even care about them joining the team, he just wanted to make them pay for wasting his time
The wolf, not taking being attacked lightly, began retaliating against the robots. The first robot to come close to the Mobian was a small one that looked similar to a ladybug. It charged at the Mobian, who kicked it in the side, causing it to spin around and fall over. With the ladybug robot incapacitated and spinning on the ground, another Badnik, one resembling a spiked caterpillar, took it's fallen ally's place in battle. The caterpillar robot slinked towards the wolf before suddenly making a leap towards them, which the Mobian managed to duck under. As a result, the Badnik spun out and ended up exploding into numerous spiked balls, one of which managed to hit a flying wasp robot. The wolf stared at Eggman, confident that they had won, when a single crab Badnik snuck up from behind and captured them with its claws
"No!" The Mobian shouted. They squirmed furiously trying to escape from the robot's grasp, but they were unsuccessful in doing so
"Well, it seems you've finally changed your mind," Eggman mocked. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll enjoy working for me"
"What are you going to do with me, you madman?" The Mobian asked
"I've already told you. You're going to work for me to help me defeat my greatest enemy," Eggman explained
"Is that all?"
"Yes. Do you see how unreasonable you were being earlier by refusing my offer?"
The wolf remained silent for a few moments as Eggman relished in the victory of obtaining the first member of his team, and then began talking once again
"I still don't want to work for you, but it's not like I have much of a choice, do I? Anyways, what's going to happen after I fight whoever your enemy is?" The Mobian asked
Eggman thought for a second, as he was so excited about the team he was trying to create being able to defeat Sonic, he hadn't actually thought of what he would do with the team after that
"I'll let you go, of course! You'll be free to resume your life right after you help me defeat that pest," Eggman told the Mobian. He wasn't really lying, as he didn't plan to keep them working for him after Sonic was defeated, but he knew that he might decide against that later
The wolf looked at him with skepticism for a short time before they finally seemed to accept that they were going to have to work for this nutjob
"Fine," the Mobian responded, their voice completely devoid of any emotion. "Let's just get this over with"
"That's the spirit," Eggman replied with what seemed to be genuine enthusiasm
"Well, this is quite the situation you've gotten yourself into, Luna," the Mobian thought. "At least all I have to do is fight some chump, and then I'm free to get back to Crescent Village and make that monster pay for what he did"
After a rather uncomfortable time being carried through the forest by the crab robot, Luna finally arrived outside of Eggman's forest base. While she was thinking about how she would be able to stand up again soon instead of being grasped by a mechanical crab, a large door leading into the base opened, which Eggman and his robots went through. Inside, there was hundreds, if not thousands, robots lying dormant. Luna stared at all of Eggman's forces, surprised by just how many there were, when another thought crossed her mind
"This guy has a huge army of robots at his disposal, but he still can't beat whoever he wants me to fight? Who am I even up against?" Luna thought
Luna dwelled on the thought of who Eggman wanted her to fight for a little bit, but she started paying attention to what was going on around her again when the crab robot that was carrying her began (poorly) trying to climb a set of stairs. The robots first attempt at going up the steps was to walk forward up them, but it's small legs and even smaller range of motion for said legs meant it couldn't even climb the first step this way. Meanwhile, Eggman was standing at the top of the staircase, staring at the crabmeat with a disappointed look and most likely thinking "I can't believe I created something so useless." The robots second attempt to climb the stairs was to climb them sideways, which ended up working, but was very uncomfortable for Luna, as the ride was very bumpy and her head was dangerously close to the steps the whole time
After the ride up the stairs was over, Luna arrived in a large, empty metal corridor, which Eggman and the crabmeat continued to walk through for a little while until Eggman suddenly stopped walking
"Why'd you stop? There's nothing here," Luna asked Eggman
"It's nothing you need to be concerned about!" Eggman replied, sounding rather angry. The reason why Eggman had actually stopped was because he realized that he didn't think of where the members of his team are going to stay, and he realized that he didn't know where he was walking to. Eggman looked around, trying to find a good room for the members of his team to live, when Luna interrupted his thinking
"Are we going to get moving or what?" Luna asked. "This ride is starting to get really uncomfortable"
"I'm going!" Eggman snapped
He continued walking, eyeing the several rooms around him, before deciding that one room would be perfect for the members of his team. That room was the basement. Luna was somewhat happy when Eggman finally began opening a door to a room, but that happiness quickly dissapeared when the door opened to reveal another set of stairs
"This is where you'll be staying," Eggman stated
"I am not letting this crab thing take me down a flight of stairs, I'll walk down them myself," Luna told Eggman
"No, you won't. The crabmeat is going to take you down the stairs, I don't care if you get hurt or not," Eggman irritatedly replied
As the crabmeat began walking down the stairs with about the same level of skill it exhibited climbing up stairs earlier, Luna tried to escape from it's claws once again before both her and the robot inevitably fell down the stairs, but her thrashing around ended up causing what she was trying to escape, and Luna began falling down the flight of stairs, with the crabmeat close behind. A second after she finished falling off the stairs, the crabmeat landed right next to Luna, breaking into pieces from the fall. They felt a bit of satisfaction from seeing the robot that had put them through so many annoyances busted up, but then they remembered they had also fallen down the stairs, and were still in a good deal of pain
After Luna's pain subsided a bit (and Eggman stopped laughing), she actually looked around the room she was falling, which was a basement filled with old crates and robot parts. There was no furniture, just a bunch of random junk lying around. Luna was not looking forward to staying in this room, so she decided to ask Eggman, who was standing at the top of the stairs, just how long she would be in this terrible room
"When am I going to fight your enemy for you, anyway? Can't I just do it now and get this whole thing over with?" Luna asked impatiently
"Of course not! I don't know if you were paying attention earlier, but a TEAM does not consist of a single member. Even once I get enough Mobians working for me, you'll need to train," Eggman explained
"Seems a bit overkill, doesn't it?" Luna responded
"Do you even know who you're up against? First of all, you're not going to be fighting one-on-one," Eggman asserted. "That pest always has his friends with him, which is why I need a team and not one over-confident wolf"
"Well, hopefully that training won't take long, especially because I don't need it. I've had experience fighting before," Luna stated
"Well, have you had experience fighting an enemy that can move at the speed of sound?" Eggman inquired
"What?"
"You're going to need to know how to, because-"
"No. There is no way that whoever you need me to fight can move that fast. Quit exaggerating, and if there's nothing I can do now, then stop bothering me"
"Hmph, fine. You'll see how much I'm exaggerating when you fight him"
With that, Eggman typed on the keypad one last time, shutting the door behind him and leaving Luna locked in the basement
"This guy is delusional. No living creature could move that fast." Luna thought. "Maybe a robot could, but it didn't sound like he wanted me to fight a robot"
With nothing else to do, Luna decided to give all the junk in the basement a closer look, and hopefully find something remotely comfortable to sleep on. There seemed to be a lot of crates and boxes filled with who knows what, but there were some other oddities lying around too, mostly broken robots. After a little bit of searching around, Luna managed to find a box with a tarp on top of it in the back of the room. She had no idea why this box had a tarp on it, but that wasn't really important. Luna ripped the tarp off of the box it was laying on and set it down on the ground in an area that wasn't crowded with crates. After it was on the ground, Luna slipped under it and began trying to get some rest. The tarp certainly wasn't very soft, but at least it would keep her from freezing
"What have I gotten myself into? Every second I'm in here working for this maniac is another second that she's in danger, I have to get out of here as soon as I can," Luna thought as they laid on the metal floor
While Luna was trying to get some rest inside of the basement she was locked in, Eggman had walked into his workshop so he could fix Metal Sonic, a task he had neglected for most of the day. As soon as Eggman arrived inside of the workshop, Metal began glaring at him, clearly angry about the fact he had been abandoned for most of the day. Eggman was clearly upset about his greatest creation being angry at him like this, and began trying to apologize to him so he could fix him up
"Metal, I'm really sorry," Eggman apologized. "I had an idea and I simply had to act on it. My plan is to assemble a team of Mobians to defeat Sonic and his friends once and for all. I've already got the first member here, in fact"
After hearing that, Metal Sonic didn't get any less angry, but he did also seem to be a bit curious about Eggman's plan, and how one of the members of the team was already inside of the base. Eggman could tell Metal Sonic was intrigued by this, and continued talking about the team he was creating
"Yes, the first member was quite annoying and disobedient, but I'll turn them into a soldier in no time," Eggman remarked. "I put them in the basement, as there weren't any other spare rooms, but it's not like they deserve anything more, anyways"
After Eggman finished telling Metal Sonic about Luna, he seemed to calm down a bit, and let his creator repair him. Eggman was a bit confused about Metal Sonic's sudden shift in moods, since he thought telling him about his team wouldn't have been a good idea, but he was happy regardless since it was hard for him to see his own creation so mad at him. After a couple of hours of work, Eggman had fixed up a good deal of the damage done to Metal and had walked out of the room to get some rest, but Metal still wasn't fully repaired yet, and was still helplessly hanging from a set of chains
After Eggman had been gone for a little while, Metal Sonic began pulling on and hitting the chains he was being suspended by, trying to get loose, but he couldn't get them off of him. He began swinging at the air in rage, furious over the fact that his own creator would replace him with organic creatures. However, he calmed himself down a little bit by remembering that he was going to be repaired soon, and would finally be free from these cursed chains. In addition to that, Metal knew exactly where his creator was keeping those worthless Mobians, so as soon as he was free, he was going to make them pay for replacing him