Disclaimer: Sonic and all related characters and settings are copyright Sega Corporation. None of it belongs to me, but all property is theft, man. Whatever that means.
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Chapter Seven - Eye of the Tigar.
Tails flew up high into the air as soon as the horror faced him. Eggor had no means of escape, of course, so he just stood there looking the thing right in the eyes.
Before him was a large metal tiger, coloured red with clashing blue stripes, with more teeth than your average dentist gets to see in their entire lifetime. It snarled in a robotic voice and swirled its tail around, watching Eggor. A sound from above got its attention, and its sharp head snapped upwards.
"Eggor, run!" Tails shouted.
But Eggor wasn't going to run. He could only move very slowly, and had no chance of evading this beast. His only hope, if he had any at all, would be to fight this thing. Extending his arm, Eggor pressed a small button on his wrist and his pizza cutter unfurled. XXtra cripsy base setting, the next best thing to a circular saw. Assuming a battle pose he'd seen people do in movies, he faced the robot tiger.
"Come and get some," he grunted.
The tiger leapt over and knocked his head off with one giant paw.
Tails cried out in anguish. The big cat turned around to depart, leaving Eggor's decapitated body still standing in its fighting position, the head falling into the long grass. Tails took one look at the scene, then flew off in the direction the tiger had gone, furious.
"I don't know what you are," Tails yelled, "but if Sonic's taught me one thing, it's that I should never leave something as dangerous as you to wander around!"
The cyber-tiger perked its little blue ears and turned to see Tails yet again. It growled and arched its sleek body, glaring menacingly at the flying orange fox.
"Can't reach me, can you? What a piece of rubbish! Even some of Robotnik's badniks can fly!" Tails taunted. He didn't expect the robot to understand him; he was just downright enraged. Partly because of what it'd done to Eggor, but mostly because it had scared him so much the other night.
It was actually lucky the tiger couldn't understand what he was saying, because he would have looked very dumb indeed. It leapt up from its arched position, thrusting its powerful hind legs into the ground. The distance it jumped was absolutely incredible, and it managed to reach Tails before he had the chance to dodge. With a short thud Tails was thrown to the ground, landing on his back. The tiger then landed over him, its weight pinning him to the ground. Tails squeaked in panic, but managed to regain enough control to grab the closest thing he could use as a weapon.
"Take THIS!" Tails cried, swinging a think branch around and hitting the tiger on the head. The wood simply broke it two as it connected with the hard metal. The tiger's head was thrown back slightly before it loomed forwards and roared threateningly in Tails's face. The tiny fox shrank backwards away from the horrible creature, and shut his eyes instinctively. When he was able to open them again, the robot had raised its claws, ready to strike at the innocent creature.
"I'm going to deal with you… the way we deal with all robots…" And with that, he curled around into a tight ball, spinning furiously. His twin tails struck at the beast, forcing it to withdraw and give Tails room to escape. Unfortunately, it didn't fall apart as he had hoped, but he was free. And now he knew his advantage. Sonic had once told him that, no matter what advantages the enemy always had against you, you always had to have at least one advantage against them. Flying over to a steep cliff at the edge of the island, Tails utilised his advantage.
"Fine, I admit it," he said mockingly, in a 'you scared me to death before-- is this the best you can do?' tone of voice, "You're stronger than Robotnik's robots. But you're still a piece of rubbish. Know why? Because you're stupid, stupid, STUPID!"
The thing, outraged not by Tails's words but by his threatening manner, leapt straight for the fox again. This time, though, Tails was able to cartwheel out of the way, leaving the tiger flailing through the air, heading straight off the edge of the cliff. Tails hovered over the grass, triumphantly watching it smash against the rocks below and crash into pieces. He especially enjoyed seeing its head fall off in one piece, as it had caused Eggor's to do.
Eggor.
Tails turned quickly and went to the site of the robot's destruction. Even if it had been destroyed, there was an imprisoned squirrel to release. There seemed to be an awful lot of noise though, maybe the animal had escaped on its own.
Tails was dumbstruck when he reached the area where Eggor had been decapitated. The body of the robot staggered around wildly and aimlessly, obviously trying to walk in one direction but continually tripping and falling over.
"Eggor?" Tails said, "what's going on? I thought you were destroyed!"
"No, Dr Robotnik designed many of his robots to operate with their head detached," Eggor said, sounding like a voice-over from a promotional video, "it's an easy target, so each part can run separately." The body fell over yet again, crashing hard on the ground. "The problem is, it isn't easy to control your body when you're watching it as a third person."
Tails didn't understand that comment until he looked toward the source of the voice. Eggor's head lay against a small bush, half obscured by grass. Tails Laughed Out Loud.
"Oh, it's like when you try to move when looking in a mirror!" Tails cried happily, "here, I'll get your head for you." The polite fox picked up the heavy head and plonked it back on Eggor's broad shoulders.
"Thank you," Eggor said flatly, turning his head around disturbingly to screw it back in place, "what happened to that other robot?"
"I destroyed it," Tails said proudly. "Sure wish I knew what is was doing here, though. Are you certain Dr Robotnik didn't make it? It didn't look the same at all, but… I just can't work out who else it could be."
Eggor's face cracked into something that vaguely resembled a smile; "I don't care." He said.
Robotnik held his head in his hands. He couldn't bear to watch as the stupid, useless boat-only-not-really sank down into the depths of the sea. He and Sonic stood side by side, in silence. Eventually, Sonic spoke.
"You lied to me," he said coldly, "that must've been your boat, it had your logo on it."
Robotnik span around quickly, "of course not! You must have seen wrong! I didn't even know this island existed! And I thought that was a boat, but it sank, so it can't have been!" He was gibbering, but he seemed genuinely upset.
Sonic faced away from his adversary, "fine," he said, "whatever. But if you try anything--" Sonic trailed off, and sat heavily on the grass. "I saw something else written on the back of it as it sank." He said quietly, "the word Tigar, spelt with an 'a' instead of an 'e'."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Now, I used to spell tiger like that, until Dr Kintobor showed me how it was really spelt." He tried to keep a steady voice, and hide the anger that was boiling within him. "You don't remember anything from when you were Kintobor, do you?"
"No, I don't." Robotnik said firmly, "oh, except for one thing! I remembered the recipe for the perfect Spanish omelette!"
"Great." Sonic sneered at Robotnik's cheeriness and turned to leave for the tent. He paused, and looked over his shoulder, "Hold on… Dr Kintobor made lousy omelettes!"
"He did?"
"Yeah! He made me one once; it was vile!"
Robotnik walked after Sonic, "I suppose it was my genius that formulated that recipe, then."
Sonic seethed silently, and cursed himself for ever trusting Robotnik out here. The mad scientist had a plan, he had a machine, and he probably been laughing at Sonic all this time. He had a means of escape, and was probably planning to use it as soon as he got the hedgehog out of the way. And the worst thing, the real kick in the teeth, was that his machine had been named after a spelling mistake Sonic had made when he was a child! The whole set-up seemed to be made to make Sonic feel like an idiot, and he hated it. He wasn't an idiot, and tonight he was going to prove it.