Chapter 14

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[Time - 12:45 A.M.]

[Date - July 2nd, 21XX)

(Location - The Sapphire Sea, Dr. Robotnik's Egg Carrier, Infirmary)

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"You're sure he's asleep?" A mysterious voice called out from behind the dangling hospital curtain as the person had come to the infirmary here in the Egg Carrier to check on the progress his partner had made. "The last thing we need is for him to discover who I am and what we're planning. Hehehe."

Eggman rolled his eyes as he checked Sonic's vitals using the monitors the hedgehog was hooked up to while laying in a hospital bed. "He's completely out. I gave him a hundred and fifty milligrams of ketamine and fifteen milligrams of diazepam. He's not waking up until morning, especially after all the energy he exerted."

"How was he?" The voice asked curiously. "Did he live up to expectations?"

Eggman laughed gleefully. "Hahaha! And then some! He was amazing! You should have seen it!" The chubby genius announced with a flourish of his arms. "LASERS! The little guy had lasers coming out of his eyes!"

The silhouette of the man on the other side of the curtain scratched its head as he said "What, like blasters?"

"No!" Eggman continued to exclaim enthusiastically. "Like literally beams that just kept coming! Like Superman!" He clapped his hands before doing a fist pump into the air. "I can't believe this is going to work out better than we planned! Oh my god, I'm so excited!"

"I'm unfamiliar with this Superman." The voice stated bluntly.

Scoffing, Eggman waved the voice off. "Bah. You're such a buzzkill. Superman is a fictional superhero who has all sorts of superpowers."

"Super, super, super, super…" The voice grew annoyed with Eggman's tomfoolery. "What's up with you and repeating everything lately. It's as bad as your eggs. Egg this, Egg that. Think of something new for god's sake."

Dr. Robotnik grumbled as he heard the automatic door to the infirmary whoosh open. It was then revealed to be the medical robot who had previously taken care of the hedgehog during his last visit. However, as it pushed past the curtain to come closer, Eggman caught a quick glimpse of the lower half of the equally tubby man who had been assisting him in this spectacular endeavor. Nonetheless, he gave him the middle finger once the curtain hung still. "Oh yeah? Well, you won't be bitching when you get to own a part of my new empire, which by the way is gonna be called the Eggman Empire." Turning away from the mysterious character, he watched as the medical robot approached Sonic's bedside to inject him with a liquified solution of the very same pain pills the hero had been downing for the last week and a half. "Besides, you have no sense of humor. It's not a pleasant trait."

"I saw that middle finger!" The voice of the fat man behind the curtain retorted. "That's not mature of you at all. Not to mention, I do too have a sense of humour. You let me have a go at sleepyhead over there with a surgical scalpel and you'll get to see the widest smile on my face you've ever witnessed."

Eggman raised an eyebrow as he shook his head. He didn't want to make it seem like he wanted Sonic kept alive. It wasn't like he was playing favourites or becoming fond of the blue blur, he merely needed the rat in order to exact his revenge upon society for never letting him be the top dog, the rightful leader that he should be. "NO! No! No... Don't do that." Thinking of something else to say, he gave the reason why. "We need him if we're going to take down the Guardian Units of Nations." Waving the mysterious figure off again, he said. "Why don't you just go work on The Bell? We still need it calibrated for our next phase."

"Fine." The voice spat. "But, I'm going to make sure he's on track with our schedule as soon as he wakes up in the morning."

As the figure turned round, Eggman argued with his choice of words. "What, you don't trust me?"

While walking out of the room, the voice claimed "I don't trust anybody. Not even you."

.

[Time - 9:27 A.M.]

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Opening his eyes, Sonic took a few seconds for his sanity to return. The last thing he remembered was fighting Eggman's Monster Machine, trying his hardest to defend the Station Square jail. Now, yawning and blinking away the sleep, he realized where he was. Eyes widening, the fur on the back of his neck stood on end as he saw the cold steel walls of the Egg Carrier's infirmary. Freaking out, he thrashed about the hospital bed, yanking on the same restraints that held him down less than a week ago. "W-What the hell!? What's going on!?" He shouted as the memories of being abducted gradually returned. "EGGMAN! LET ME GO!"

Waking up from a nearby chair, Eggman's head shot up as he rubbed his eyes. Standing up, stretching, he came over to the bed. "Alright, Alright… Calm down!"

"SCREW YOU!" Sonic continued to thrash a while more. "I WARNED YOU WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF I EVER SAW YOU AGAIN."

"Yeah, yeah… You'll kill me... blah, blah, blah." Crossing his arms, he let the blue blur struggle a while longer, exhausting some of his energy. Only when the captive hedgehog stopped resisting against the restraints did the mad scientist inform the hero of what was happening. "You're fine. Just like last time, I didn't kidnap you and you're not being held hostage. I rescued you from going to prison for the rest of your life."

Immediately beginning to chew through the restraints, Sonic didn't listen to a single word he was told. He didn't believe anything Robotnik said to him.

"Really?" Eggman inquired with an eye roll. "Stop chewing through those restraints like a wild animal and I'll take them off for you."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Sonic growled viciously as he ceased gnawing on the leather straps.

Checking the blue blur's vitals on the medical machines he was hooked up to, Dr. Robotnik chose to ask. "And why would that be?"

"Because I'll kill you, ya dastardly prick!" Sonic cautioned his arch-nemesis. "Whether you let me out of these straps or I get out of them on my own, either way I'm going to have your head on a silver platter for all the atrocities you've committed!"

"Sonic, I just saved your life for a second time." Changing out the empty bag of saline that hung on the I.V. stand, the human decided to reword what he said. "On second thought, I saved your life once and now I've granted you your freedom. Why would you want to kill me after what I've done for you?" Hanging the fresh bag of saline and then connecting it to the cannula on the hedgehog's arm, he yawned one last time as he woke up from his uncomfortable chair nap. Although his outfit was a bit crumpled from sleeping in it, as always, his bushy mustache was immaculate. "You've got to put the past behind you and move forward in the direction of a brighter future!" Taking off his pince-nez glasses, revealing his beady blue eyes that squinted at the hero. "Honestly, you should be thanking me."

Staring at the insane human, Sonic bursted out laughing. "Are you serious? I could spit in your face right now for all the bad things you've done, all the lives you've ruined. There's absolutely no reason for me to thank you for a damn thing!"

"How about saving your life and giving you your freedom?" Eggman wondered with a pretend pout plastered on his face. "Can you at least thank me for that?"

"HOW DID YOU GIVE ME MY FREEDOM!?" Sonic returned to shouting as he tugged at the restraints with both legs and both arms, making the hospital bed squeak from the force of his pull.

Eggman held his index finger to the hedgehog's lips, intending to shush him. "Shhh… Stop screaming, it's too early for that and I didn't get enough sleep last night." Right then and there, to his utter shock, Sonic bit his finger making him bleed and bruising the bone. "OWWW!" Eggman hollered out in agony as he jerked his hand back and tried to shake away the pain. Hissing, he had a burning desire to smack the blue speedster upside his head for that. He'd have to cleanse that wound later unless he wanted it to get infected. Due to Sonic's necessity in the upcoming plans the mad scientist had for him, he had no choice other than to play nice. "That hurts! B-But… I'll give you that one… ONE!"

"What makes you think I'm going to s-..." Sonic tried to say.

"The police worked together with G.U.N. to make sure you were incapacitated, then they arrested you for crimes you didn't commit! I gave you your freedom by saving you from them, from persecution by a corrupted court system!" Putting his glasses back on, he kept shouting the response that Sonic wanted, answering what the hero wanted to know most. "Seven murders! Can you believe they were going to try and convict you of seven murders?! I mean, fuck, I hate your guts and even I know that's bullshit, that you wouldn't kill anybody, especially not premedatively." Throwing his hands up in the air, the crazy human said "Don't you get it?! They were going to ream you, they were going to throw you under the bus and right into prison for seven murders you didn't commit! Think about it! If they went through so much trouble to take you down as they did, then they already have the evidence they believe they need to find you guilty!"

"Who is 'they'!?" Sonic demanded an answer.

From behind them as well as the curtain, the automatic door flew open with a whooshing sound. The curtain was pushed aside as the medical robot who had been tending to Sonic returned from charging itself as well as replenishing on-board supplies. As soon as its sensors picked up on the blue blur being conscious, it slowly wheeled toward him while repeating in monotone the first thing it ever said to the hedgehog several days ago. "You. are. awake... This. is. good… I. shall. notify. Dr. Robotnik. of. this. development." Following that, the Eggman Empire logo on the robot's monitor changed to that of an emoji representing an old rotary phone. Noise coming from it resembled a retro dial-up modem.

Tapping his foot with a huff, Dr. Robotnik walked over to and slammed his fist down on top of the older robot's body, smacking it like a vintage television that couldn't get a signal. "Oh, shut up you hunk of junk! I'm right here, there's no need to notify me of anything!" Entering a secret combination of taps and swipes onto the touchscreen face of the medical robot, Eggman gave it a command to shut down.

"Goodbye." The medical robot said as it powered down.

"Sorry about that. Hehehe." Eggman apologized for the robot's intrusion. "I really need to build a newer model. That thing is ancient."

Sonic thrashed violently as he gave a burst of energy while trying to break free. "I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR MEDICAL ROBOT! ANSWER MY FUCKING QUESTION!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Eggman retorted, reprimanding him for using expletives. "Language, Mr.!"

Going at it even harder, Sonic tugged at the restraints with his arms and legs, making the hospital bed creak as he pulled so hard his neck veins bulged. "GO TO HELL YOU FUCKING FUCKER! EAT SHIT AND DIE! BITCH!"

"Okay, pottymouth. If you're going to pitch a fit like a baby, then I'm not going to do anything. I'll just let you wear yourself out until you're logical again." Crossing his arms, he turned his back to Sonic as if he were some sort of twisted father figure punishing his child. "Oh, and did I mention that I've upgraded the restraints since you last laid in that bed?" Reaching behind himself, without even looking in order to continue playing into the 'don't care' attitude, he pressed a button on the side of the hospital bed. "Now you can really go to town."

Sonic's eyes scanned the room rapidly in an attempt to figure out what was about to happen, what that button did. Suddenly, metal cuffs automatically extended from hidden compartments on the bed itself. Those cuffs ratcheted downward, enclosing across his wrists despite them already being strapped down. Like mechanical shackles, the metal cuffs locked into place in advance of tightening by pulling his hands down. Now he was restrained by old-fashioned leather straps plus automated metal shackles. Seeing that he was double fettered served only to provoke the hero tenfold. Knowing that it just got harder for him to escape incited a violent response, that of flailing every part his body was capable of moving. "I'LL KILL YOU!" Sonic screamed as he twisted, wiggled and jerked every way imaginable, immediately beginning to test the limits of what the metal restraints could withstand. "DAMN YOU, EGGMAN! I'M GONNA TURN YOU INTO FLATMAN AS SOON AS I GET OUT THIS!"

"Oof." Eggman grumbled. "That was horrible. Absolutely horrible. Can you think of a better comeback than that? Try to do it without cussing too; it makes you sound so dumb."

Not listening to what was being said, the hedgehog didn't even realize he was playing right into what the chubby bastard wanted. Nonetheless, he hurled a few brutal threats that would be enough to make anybody shiver if he spoke like that too. "I'M GONNA RIP OFF YOUR HEAD AND SHIT DOWN YOUR THROAT! I'M GONNA TEAR YOUR INTESTINES OUT AND STRANGLE YOU WITH THEM! YOU'LL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN AFTER I PLUCK YOUR EYES OUT! YOU'LL NEVER SPEAK AGAIN AFTER I RIP YOUR TONGUE FROM YOUR SKULL AND SHOVE IT SO FAR UP YOUR ASS THAT YOU CAN TASTE YOURSELF!" Thrashing about on the bed, the metal restraints groaned as Sonic tugged at them hard enough for his muscles to flex like a bodybuilder. "NGRRRR!" He groaned from the intensity of using all he had. "ALL I GOTTA DO…. IS…. BREAK…. FREEEEEE!"

"Oooohohoohoooooo!" Eggman gave a slow sarcastic clap while closely observing Sonic's enormous level of strength in spite of the hero having been unconscious for hours as well as having exerted a tremendous amount of energy the night before. "Those were much better! Hehehehe! Could you imagine it? Huh? Huh? Being choked with your own guts?!" The maniacal genius bursted out into laughter for thirty solid seconds before wiping a genuine tear out of his eye. "Oh my god! Hehehe! The pain of having them torn out of your stomach! And they'd have to be slippery with all the blood! It would be like getting strangled by an eel covered in oil! Gross! Hehehe!"

"YOU'RE A SICK TWISTED FUCK! GO TO HELL, BITCH!" Sonic stopped thrashing for just a moment in order to hawk a loogie at Robotnik, spitting it directly at his cheek.

Nose wrinkling up in disgust, the crazed doctor walked over to the sink and grabbed a paper towel, wetting it prior to wiping the dripping wad of lung butter from the side of his face. "If you ever do that again, I'll-... I'll…" Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Eggman recomposed himself. Stopping himself from what he was about to say, a smile formed on his lips that gradually widened into a grin while thinking about all the things he could do to the defenseless hedgehog. He could do alot of terror, were the rat not vital for their grand plan to succeed.

Sonic's eyes widened as the grin on Eggma's face reminded him of the nightmare he'd had at Amy's apartment. Beating faster than it already was, his heart jackhammered into his ribcage, easily exceeding a hundred and fifty beats per minute. Like a flashback, his brain recalled an event that never even occurred. In a way, he was becoming mentally disturbed at the aspect of having to kill himself or his lover, to pick his life or Amy's, regardless of the fact that it was all a dream conjured by the worries of his subconscious. In response to the callback, he struggled far more vigorously than previously. Not only being enraged but scared too, as all the veins in his body bulged, with foam coming from his mouth from putting so much pressure on his arms and legs, a familiar static surged across the surface of his skin, making his quills lift up.

"Huh?" Eggman enquired as he looked at the data readout on the information screen belonging to one of the monitors in the room. A chart on-screen appeared to be reading how much force Sonic was utilizing to try and lift the metal cuffs. "Whoa… An average of eight hundred and seventy three pounds per square inch… Did I say something that pissed you off?"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Sonic continued to flail like a madman. "GET AWAY FROM ME AND STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE!"

"That's really impressive, Sonic. Who knew you could damn near deadlift a ton with your wrists and ankles alone!" Eggman retorted in glee from the statistics.

Sonic stopped thrashing for a moment in order to look around, noticing that there were more monitors surrounding him than the last time he was there. To his surprise, many of them were monitoring things he'd never heard needing to be kept track of; such as Beta and Delta Brain Waves, bone density, and something known as A.C.E. Half Life Toxicity. He had no clue what any of it meant, however, he had a feeling he was a test subject for a matter rather nefarious. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!?" He continued to scream as loud as he could. "WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM!? SOME SORT OF EXPERIMENT!?"

"Life IS an experiment, my boy." Eggman chortled as he walked over to the cabinet and opened a drawer, rummaging around inside its contents.

"I'M NOT YOUR LABRAT!" Sonic immediately started flailing again, this time getting further as that brief electrical aura that had enveloped him began to turn into sparks zapping from the tip of his nose. Knowing that he was trapped like a guinea pig in a cage, about to have all sorts of horrible treatments forced upon it, the anger building within him began to pour out the same way it did at the jail. Narrowing his eyes with determination, not caring that he was hurting himself a moment ago, he tugged on the metal cuffs, making them creak loudly in advance of slipping upwards a notch with a loud click as the mechanism caught itself on the notch above. Using an incredible amount of strength, the metal bowed a bit as the furious hedgehog thrusted his wrists and ankles upward. "YOU'RE REALLY PISSING ME OFF!"

A beeping noise went off on one monitor in advance of a trill coming from another. Both were joined by an additional alarm a moment later. Eggman dug faster until he found what he was looking for, pulling out an individually packaged sterile needle. Quickly unwrapping it, he removed a bottle of medicine from the overhead cabinets and swiftly proceeded to use the syringe for pulling a dose of the liquid concoction. "I really think you need something to calm down." He replied with a tidbit of hesitation in his voice. "You're starting to push past a thousand PSI and your heart isn't going to be able to take much more tachycardia."

Sonic saw the needle and broke out in a sweat. "NO!" He rejected the offer in spite of knowing it wasn't a choice. Either way, the inferno burning in his heart had him so mad he could hardly think. "DON'T YOU DARE POKE ME WITH THAT THING! DO YOU HEAR ME!?" One of the metal cuffs restraining his arms clicked up another notch from all his struggling, allowing him to pull his arm back just enough to slip his hand beneath. Using all the muscles in his arm, now that he could get a good grip, he pushed up on the restraint with all his might, manually forcing the mechanism up a couple of inches with the power of sheer brawn. With enough room to slip his arm out and away from the metal shackle, he started chewing on the leather restraint in an attempt to completely free that arm. While he did that, he started doing the same thing to the other arm.

Hurrying, Eggman darted to the hedgehog's bedside and stabbed him in the neck with the needle, getting him right in the vein. 'Just in time.' The tubby lunatic thought to himself as he witnessed Sonic's fur beginning to turn from a bright blue to navy blue. He understood that to be a sign of the hero's transformation and certainly had no intentions of allowing that to happen while here on the Egg Carrier; it was obvious the catastrophic damage his flying fortress would sustain. "You're such a wimp. I wonder if all your fans know that you're afraid of water and needles…. and me… Hehehe!" He quipped joyfully; meanwhile injecting the light sedative into Sonic's neck.

Seething hysterically, Sonic grunted as the sedative entered his bloodstream. "FUCKING FUCK!" He screamed more expletives as the needle was removed. Within half a minute, the medicine began coursing through his circulatory system, slowly weakening his resolve. Precisely as Eggman planned, however, the hero's disturbingly intense aura faded away as well. The static electricity dissipated as his fur returned to a normal blue hue. "WHAT HAPPENED-..." He stopped to cough. "What happened to letting me tire myself out?! Instead you have to jab me with a damn needle! Always a needle!"

Eggman waved off the hedgehog's concerns by informing him "Because the last thing I need for you to do is go Dark Sonic and destroy my entire Egg Carrier. I got all the data I needed from you anyway. Now, it's time to calm down and move on to the next stage of our plan."

"Dark Sonic?" Sonic enquired as he calmed down, his heart rate gradually decreasing as his senses were dulled from the sedative. "W-What the hell are you talking about?"

Registering his mistake, Eggman tried to rectify his slip of the tongue with a lie in addition to diverting the topic. "I meant to say Super Sonic." While the hedgehog was still discombobulated from the sedation, he took the opportunity to grab Sonic's free hand, shoving it back through the shackle attached to the bed before tightening down again. Letting go of the hero, he wiped away some sweat from his own brow while trying to hide the anxiety rising within him. "It's going to be truly useful for me to know your limits of approaching that state if I'm going to use you to better society."

"That's impossible!" Sonic rejected the explanation. "I couldn't be going Super Sonic! I don't have any Chaos Emeralds to empower me!" Shaking his head, he continued to find fault in what he was told. "No… No, it couldn't be that! It doesn't even feel like Super Sonic! Whatever this is, it's much worse!" Even though his pulse was settling down, he kept hyperventilating as he tried hard to understand what was happening to him. He even stopped resisting in order to try and get an answer that would satisfy him. "Since I woke up from my coma, any time I get mad, I wind up going totally berserk. The smallest things will sometimes set me off until I'm as angry as a person on steroids, like I'm going through some sort of roid rage! I don't get it!" Thinking back to each incident where he felt himself losing his cool, he connected the fact that his rage worsened tenfold both times he was presented with a dangerous situation. "The Concrete Junkies, you at the Jail with your crazy ass robot's! Something happened to me on the inside! It's like I went into a bloodlust and my body ran on auto-pilot, smashing anything that came close to me!"

Making a face from finding it intruiging, pretending to be interested so as to throw off the scent of being suspicious, Eggman said "Perhaps it's due to your constant handling of the Chaos Emeralds. They emit an energy, a radiation of their own that is often absorbed by living creatures. That's how beings that utilize the divine gemstones are capable of doing so. In most instances, the radiation is either benign or beneficial, with the effects wearing off a few hours after removal from exposure. Then again, it's entirely possible that long term exposure in close contact with a Chaos Emerald for a period of above several days might have lingering consequences that are more detrimental to one's psyche."

"That's not-..." Sonic wanted to argue, but stopped himself. "That can't be. I don't have any access to the Chaos Emeralds right now! They're all safe with Chaos and the Master Emerald; Knuckles has been guarding them! Knuckles is keeping watch! If one had gone missing, that echidna would know without even having to look!"

Giving a gallic shrug, Eggman said "I don't know what to tell you. It's possible the long term effects of the radiation extend much further into the future than you or I had fathomed."

Beginning to calm down, he grew more willing to accept that for an answer. With all the stress, the hedgehog had already forgotten the term his nemesis had used; 'Dark Sonic'. Not thinking of that, he figured the given explanation made the most sense. Despite holding no trust for the mad doctor, it was a relief to believe everything was fine, to not have to worry that his anger was eerie or unnaturally disturbing. Laying his head back against the stiff hospital bed pillow, he sighed loudly. Although he was satisfied that he wasn't going crazy, misled to think it was merely a strange effect of the Chaos Emeralds he had handled during his adventures, he still found himself concerned with the current predicament. Regardless of the sedative coursing through him, he was scared of what was going to happen to him.

Eggman could see the fear brewing in Sonic's eyes and he had to hold back from smirking, stifling laughter at how scared the Anthropomorphic Hero was of him. Pretending to be sympathetic, he tried to calm the blue blur down by finally answering his question from earlier in regard to who was trying to take him down. "Now that you've calmed down, I feel that I can tell you who's trying to frame you." Right away, Sonic's eyes darted over toward Robotnik, vision locked onto him as the human continued building more trust between the two. "It's the new government that emerged from the ashes of the old one, the group of people who placed themselves in charge of the United Federation. I'm talking about G.U.N. The Guardian Units of Nations. That's who 'They' are. 'They' worked with S.S.P.D. to arrest you and they fabricated six of those murders to make you a wanted criminal."

"What?! No way!" Sonic didn't want to believe that, not wanting to accept the fact that it was the government itself that was trying to falsely imprison him. "Why would they do that after all I've done for them!?"

"Because they're humans, Sonic. Greedy humans with a thirst for power and they've grown tired of sharing the world with anthropomorphs." Grabbing a chair, the mad scientist pulled it up to the side of the hospital bed in advance of sitting down on it. "It's in our nature to be narcissistic bigots."

Sonic shook his head as he shed a single tear. "Selfishness is in all our natures, but being civilized is what makes us rise above it! The United Federation is supposed to be civilized! There's no way the entirety of G.U.N. fell victim to such primitive thinking! I saved their country more times than they have! Why would they want to lock me away!?"

"Get real, Sonic." Eggman bursted the blue speedster's bubble. "It doesn't take the entire organization to villainize somebody. All that has to happen is a few of the higher ups convince those below them that you've become a menace and then BAM! The rumour goes down the entire line until it hits the bottom rung of the ladder. The next thing you know, everybody hates you and thinks you're a blight on society."

"Are you saying The President is responsible for this?" Sonic enquired curiously.

Eggman gave yet another gallic shrug as he responded. "Maybe, I don't know. It's entirely possible. All that matters is that a few officials made up this story about you being a murderer so they could get you out of the picture."

"What would they possibly gain from that!?" Sonic still couldn't comprehend why the government would suddenly turn hostile toward him.

"Gain?" Eggman asked with a raised eyebrow. "Well, control of course. Without you to interfere, they're the top dogs again. Somebody in the government got tired of you being stronger than them and decided it was time for you to go."

Thinking about it, Sonic recalled the police commissioner, Richard Bradshaw, whispering to him that somebody was trying to frame him. Due to that, he started to believe what he was being told by Eggman, in spite of the villain being known for lying. After all, it did make sense. He just didn't understand why the government would flip the table so abruptly. "What do they think they're going to do without me?"

"Who knows?" Eggman admitted rather quickly. "Does it matter? What's important is that they ARE doing this to you."

Sonic grit his teeth and clenched his fists as he shook for a moment, letting out more frustration. "How do you know all of this?"

"Easy…" Eggman replied. "I sold them the weapon they used on you."

"YOU WHAT!?" Sonic freaked out a bit.

"Relax, Relax…" Dr. Robotnik eased the hedgehog's concerns. "I didn't know they were going to use it on you when I sold it to them. It was a standard transaction through a security front I own. Hell, I doubt they even realized it was me who created that Hyper Foo-Net Cannon."

Banging his head against the side of the hospital bed, the blue blur groaned loudly in frustration. "FUCK! Those dirty bastards… After all I've done for them." Pursing his lips, he felt more hot salty tears flowing down his cheeks. It pissed him off a bit to know he was displaying such sadness in front of his own enemy, but he couldn't help it. He felt betrayed by those he'd served to protect. "How do they think they're going to better society without me?"

Eggman chuckled as he crossed his arms. "How do you think the Concrete Junkies felt? Hmm? From my understanding, they were human supremisists that had a hankering for hardcore drugs. My point is, they believed that humans were the rightful owners of Earth and that one day they would take back the entire country from overgrown animals such as yourself." Chuckling more, he said. "People like that think they're better and should be on top. You're a completely inferior species to them."

"What about you!?" Sonic exclaimed with concern. "How can you tell me that you're not the exact same as them?!"

"I did rescue you. Twice." Eggman reiterated, making sure Sonic understood that.

"Why?!" Sonic snapped back. "Why in the hell would you rescue me?! You hate anthros like me too!"

Rolling his eyes, Eggman grumbled. In a way, he acted like it hurt him to have to say. "I don't hate anthropomorphs just because they're anthropomorphs."

"The fuck you don't." Sonic refused to believe that was true. "You're just as much of a racist as the Concrete Junkies."

Holding his hand to his chest, Dr. Robotnik pretended to be greatly offended. "Ouch, that hurt. It's not like I'm a monster." Standing up from the chair, he pressed a button on the side of the bed, making the shackles holding down Sonic's legs automatically lift up and away from the exhausted hedgehog. "Just because I want my fellow humans to return to their former glory doesn't mean I hate everything that isn't human. I know that the earth has changed a lot since Skaldi's Comet. There's so many of your kind that humans only have a quarter of the land they used to own. It's too late for us to be a single global species in control of world order. But, we can get back on track with progressing as a whole race, making the cities we do have resemble the utopia's of the old world." Walking over to the cabinet, he pulled out the same box of nutrient snack bars he'd had the first time Sonic was here. This time, however, instead of sharing, he opened it and took a bite of it for himself. "You want to know why I saved you? Because I still believe you can help me achieve that golden age of enlightenment. Together, you and I can put society back into its place; we can pluck the cancers of the world out of the genepool and replace them with more beneficial people."

Sonic laughed, thinking he was being sarcastic. "You've got to be joking!" Realizing that Eggman was telling the truth, being sincere, he laughed even harder. "You still think I'm going to team up to help you subjugate humanity?! You've got rotten meat for brains, dude! I'm not helping you do anything!"

"You're still going to protect this society?" Eggman wondered aloud. "Even after all it has done to you? You were their hero and you failed a single time, just once, and all of the sudden everybody thinks you're garbage. Your friends abandoned you, gangs targeted you, your home was destroyed, your date with Amy ruined with a bullet to your shoulder and now the police are being fooled into arresting you. What's next? What is it going to take for you to realize that you're not as beloved as you used to be and that it's time to wake up and smell the roses? Being a hero like you wanna be is just a pipedream. Sure you can help a few people here or there, but you'll never solve the real problems of the world."

Watching the obese human chow down on a protien bar, Sonic's lip quivered as he thought about what was said. He didn't want to admit it, especially not to his arch-nemesis, but it seemed true that a large majority of humans had lost faith in him. It hurt him to be seen by the public as another forgotten superhero after years of being their savior. What encouraged him to keep going, to fight the constant threat of evil wasn't necessarily their approval, yet it certainly boosted his ego as he did so. Heroes weren't supposed to do things solely for a reward, on the other hand, to get absolutely no recognition or even worse, to be villainized, that was the ultimate insult. To him, the citizens of Station Square were just as ungrateful as the rest of the people living in the United Federation. It took pondering to figure why he'd even want to keep protecting those that could care less about his health and wellbeing. It wasn't possible for him to feel remorse for an entire species that just sold him out to feel superior.

"Humans were never as perfect as you're pretending they were." Sonic said as he looked up at the cold metal ceiling.

Eggman finished up eating his nutrient bar before throwing away the wrapper and then brushing the crumbs off his hands with a few claps. Approaching Sonic's bedside, he held his finger to a button attached to the hospital bed. "Promise you'll behave? If you do, I'll take the shackles off your arms and tell you a story of simpler times."

From his bed, he nodded, knowing that it would be futile to try and use medically suppressed muscles to resist. While under sedation like this, it was useless to fight back. "Yeah…. Sure, whatever." Sonic gave up while closing his eyes.

"Good boy." Eggman gave the hedgehog a degrading pat on the head with one hand while pressing the button on the side of the bed. As soon as the button was pressed, the metal cuffs holding down his wrists automatically lifted off him, retracting back inside of a compartment. "How's that? Better?" The evil madman feigned empathy, even as he secretly thought 'Little bastard chewed through the leather straps. Those were antiques.'

Without metal shackles restraining his wrists or legs, he was free to relax a little since it wasn't quite as uncomfortable as previously. Nonetheless, he didn't consider himself freed from his bondage seeing how he still had leather straps. Feeling like a prisoner, he merely sighed and turned his head away from Eggman, refusing to look at the fat human. On the inside, he felt like he was losing his mind, that everybody was turning against him and that hope was lost. If Eggman is right about getting framed by a corrupt government willing to do anything to make sure he never sees the light of day again, his entire past was useless. If every cop in the United Federation considered him a criminal, then there was no way he could go out and be a hero of the people without risking being caught and sent to prison for the rest of his life. His whole herodom truly was collapsing before his very eyes and it was incredibly sad for the blue hedgehog to think about. Plus, as his thoughts drifted over to Amy, he knew he made the right choice by leaving her, by staying as far away from her as possible; because she would never be able to live a happy life loving a fugitive. It would be impossible to have a relationship while constantly looking over his shoulder for bounty hunters.

"Do you know what Skaldi's Comet is?" Eggman asked, taking the hedgehog out of deep contemplation.

"Y-Yes…" Sonic replied with a wavering voice, finding it hard to speak with an emotional lump in his throat. "It's the comet that nearly destroyed humanity and mutated the DNA of all the surface animals on earth."

"Very Good. I'm surprised you knew considering how dumb the average person seems to be these day." Eggman chortled before stopping with a weird look on his face, realizing that he could have phrased it a bit better than he did. Nonetheless, he ignored it and continued to inform Sonic of past events. "That's not all the comet was either. It was so much more than some irradiated hunk of space rock." Shaking his head and pursing his lips, he said "It was a weapon of foreign origin."

Sonic turned his head toward the tubby human, looking at him in confusion. "What do you mean foreign origin?"

"Maybe it was aliens." Eggman shrugged. "Maybe it was a secret organization. Hell, it could have been from God himself. Truth is, it doesn't really matter where it came from, all that matters is that it did as designed."

"How so? You humans are still around to wreak havoc; it doesn't look like it worked to me." Sonic grumbled hatefully in response to knowing it was almost always a homo sapien causing him issues.

Eggman snapped his fingers, pointing in Sonic's direction with a smile. "Good one! See? That's the kind of humour I like! Ehehehe!" Slapping his knee a few times, he laughed at what the blue hedgehog said. "My point, however, is that it taught us a lesson. While it might not have happened as intended, it did take us down several pegs in what you might know as human confidence." Clearing his throat, he got more serious in order to actually tell him the story. "You see, what information remains pertaining to the matter states that Skaldi's Comet appeared out of nowhere. No earthly sensors spotted it until it was already too late. They believe it traveled across space as a single stellar object. Yet, when it entered our atmosphere, they witnessed it split apart into thousands of shards. It's a common misconception that the shards hit the ground. If they had hit the ground, the crater would have likely managed to contain a third of the radiation. In reality, it was much worse. The shards became meteor air bursts that detonated mid-air over nearly all major cities, valleys, mountains, lakes, rivers, seas and oceans."

Watching as Sonic leaned up in the bed, staring at the I.V. drip in his arm with disdain, the human proceeded onward with his knowledge of the event that led to anthropomorphic creation. "It came to be known as the Total Metamorphic Cataclysm by people of the time period. Almost everything manmade was wiped off the face of the planet, anything and everything that was on the surface was destroyed by the blast. The people living at the time, unless they were underground or deep underwater, they were likely incinerated into dust; pets and animals included." Reaching into his pocket, he noticed Sonic watching him in case he planned to do something nefarious, but Eggman simply rolled his eyes as he pulled out a circular electronic device resembling a bracelet. Wrapping the bracelet around his wrist, he pressed a button on the side of it before the device turned on, projecting a holographic wheel of options. Using his other hand, he selected the laboratory, then scrolled through a list of options available. "You might be thinking that those outside the blast range were safe, and they were for a little while. But, the radiation from the shards swept over the land like a plague. During every rainstorm, every change in the weather, the radiation came in the clouds or rode on the wind, spreading to nearly every nook and cranny of the world."

"At first, the radiation didn't even bother the animals." Eggman resumed storytime as he appeared to be reading a message on his holographic device at the same time. "At first it only affected what little remained of humanity that wasn't hidden away. Only those who weren't in the safety of an underground city, like the humans of Station Square, those on the surface grew sicker as their hair fell out and skin sloughed off." Seeing Sonic make a face of disgust, Dr. Robotnik nodded. "Yeah. It wasn't pretty. The ensuing radiation sickness reduced humanity from eight billion to about a hundred and seventy five million. That's almost ninety eight percent of the population that was annihilated in only a few weeks." Looking away from the holographic wrist device, it turned off automatically. "The remaining two percent were lucky to survive at all, on the other hand, they had no clue what was to come. There still isn't an answer you know, even after all this time. Nobody, not even I know as to what precisely was in the radiation that made it cause a gradual anthropomorphization to almost every non-human species on the planet."

"Maybe it was from aliens." Sonic said sarcastically.

"Could be." Eggman replied instantaneously. "But, again, the point is that it doesn't matter how it did what it did, only the effects that it caused." Sonic swung his feet over the side of the hospital bed, but didn't get up yet. In the meantime, Dr. Robotnik continued beguiling the hedgehog on how his kind was created. "The radiation killed humans by breaking down their DNA. For animals, their genetic code was instead mutated. Each generation, every offspring became increasingly more humanoid than their ancestors. Some say it was forced-evolution, others say it was simply due to the radiation adding additional chromosomes to non-human genomes. I've even heard it was God's will to give to the animal kingdom what he once gave to us; a kiss of sapience."

"Even back when it was only us as the dominant species on the planet, humanity was always a species that conquered a land and then subjugated the original inhabitants, either gentrifying those they considered uncivilized, or by commiting genocide upon them." Eggman said as Sonic hung his head back, craning his neck upward at the metal ceiling so he wouldn't have to stare at his arch-nemesis. Eggman himself didn't care what the blue blur did so long as he paid attention to what was being told. "So, it's not surprising that the remnants of human power basically did the same thing to you as their ancestors did to almost every other anthropomorphic species on the planet. Although my ancestors didn't have enough numbers left to commit mass murder like many of them wanted, there was enough authority left by important institutes of science to guide the future of our newfound bretheren."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic interjected with furrowed brows. "Humans didn't treat any of us like brethren. They also had plenty of soldiers left to fight us. I might not have been alive at the time of The Resistance, but I've heard plenty of stories about how we were treated like slaves or blown up by atomic bombs." Scoffing, he shook his head. "For a species that was nearly destroyed by radiation, you people sure do like splitting atoms."

Eggman turned his head toward the door as he heard it automatically woosh open. Another robot entered the room, this time revealed to be an EggPawn with a chef hat, carrying a silver dinner tray. Sonic tensed up as soon as he saw the war machine, even going as far as to crawl backward on the hospital bed, moving away from the EggPawn as it proceeded to come toward him. "Relax, would you?" Dr. Eggman tried to ease the hedgehog's concern as the robot placed the tray down on the end table next to Sonic in addition to a vanilla flavoured nutritional milkshake. The EggPawn then gave a bow to the both of them prior to leaving the room, going back to the kitchen. Walking over to the tray, he lifted the lid to show Sonic that it was just a small plate of smoked salmon filet over a bed of sauteed spinach. The steam coming off of it indicated that it was freshly made. Robotnik lifted the plate and gave it to Sonic. "Here, eat this. It'll give you protein."

Sonic made a face of displeasure, his ears flattening as he took hold of the plate. "I'm not a big fan of fish."

"Eat it anyway." Eggman demanded before going back to his story. "You know, fish weren't affected by Skaldi's Comet; the radiation half-life dissipated upon contact with sea water. Who would have guessed?" Chuckling, he gave Sonic a fork by stabbing it into the smoked salmon filet. "The fish were the lucky ones. They didn't have to deal with anthropomorphism like your ancestors and other animals did. Regardless, you're right about the wars, the bombings and the constant skirmishes. But, that didn't come until later."

Grumbling about having to eat a food he didn't really like, the blue speedster took the fork from the filet and went for a mouthful of spinach first. He found it lacking in salt, but edible enough to scarf down due to the raging hunger yelling at him from within his barren stomach. 'What is the point in telling me all of this?' He thought as he chewed. 'Oh well… I'll just let him prattle away. I give up. I don't care about anything anymore. Whatever he's trying to do, I doubt it'll work anyway.'

"When anthropomorphization occurred on a world-wide scale, it was decided to try and educate anthros. Institutes and universities called forth to regular citizens for help." Eggman kept talking as he watched Sonic take another bite of spinach before a much smaller bite of the salmon, hoping the spinach would cover the fishy taste. "Other than the hardcore bigots, three quarters of the human populace became makeshift teachers, role models and parents. We weren't gods and we didn't pretend to be. In a way, my ancestors acted as a sort of older sibling to those first anthropomorphized animals. Coming together as a whole, putting aside our own differences in order to help a bunch of confused humanoids. All of your kind needed help adjusting to your abrupt sapience; most of them didn't even understand how to ambulate with arms and legs similar to ours. These creatures were once regular earthly fauna, some even pets kept by humans. To suddenly be an individual with a conscience, I'm sure you see how scary that must have been."

"I've thought about it a few times." Sonic replied after swallowing a bite of his food. "I imagine, in a certain sense, it would have been the opposite of waking up. You know how you're in a daze those first few seconds while you're waking up and you don't really know what's going on? Most people wake up after that and they realize who they are and everything that's happened to them. For the first of my kind, they probably woke up realizing they truly didn't know who or what they were, nor where they came from."

Eggman nodded in agreement. "That's a good analogie. It's that reason why humans felt a moral obligation to teach anthros to walk, talk and live a better life than their wild ancestors. With us overseeing their development, it didn't take long for the next two generations to handle things on their own." Robotnik cleared his throat as he grabbed the nutritional drink off the end table and gave it to Sonic, damn near forcing it into the hedgehog's hand.

"You're not my father." Sonic spat as he grew upset from being forced to eat and drink. "I told you that you lost those rights."

"What?" Eggman suddenly asked in a curious tone. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me." Sonic didn't back down, merely taking a gulp of the vanilla flavoured nutrient shake.

Shaking his head, Eggman waved it off to continue with what he was saying. "Whatever… I hope you understand what I was saying, because I'm not going to repeat myself. As a matter of a fact, it's a cocky attitude like that which made so many people go against wanting your kind to have full citizen status. From the start, it made humans cringe to think of other species as having the same rights as them." Chuckling, he flourished his hand. "Thus came the wars."

"Mhmm…" Sonic responded rather unenthusiastically as he forked a bite of smoked salmon. "That's a riveting history lesson, but I don't see how you think that was such a grand time to live in. You want to go back to humans and anthros warring with each other?" Stopping, he rolled his eyes. "What am I saying? Of course you do."

"Huh?" Eggman asked before shaking his head. "I'm just telling you how the world changed. How Skaldi's Comet taught us the lesson that we have to share the planet for it as well as everyone on it to thrive. The humans who initially taught the first waves of anthropomorphic were in fact from the Old World, the same one I want to replicate. Sure this new world is healthier than the one from the past, but that's largely in part of the massive reduction in carbon emissions once ninety percent of factories were destroyed. But, the Old World was already rectifying that issue." Holding his hands behind his back, he explained. "A decade before Skaldi's Comet, numerous nations across the globe came together to form a new world order. Countries like The United States of America, Great Britain, China, Russia and Africa all came together, uniting upon the precipice of destruction. Together, as one government, they were able to reverse the progress on their own demise. For centuries, mankind had treated the earth like the dirt beneath their feet. My ancestors had no clue how damaging to the environment pollution was or the impacts it would have on later society. Just before the new world order took over, the world was in shambles. The air was close to toxic and mass production led to more garbage than municipal systems could deal with."

Watching the hedgehog finish off the majority of his plate of food, Eggman said "Three quarters of the way into the twenty-first century, life expectancy dropped by nearly fifty percent due to how grungy civilization had become. Newer generations demanded a change be made. Eventually, it did occur. Society had already been in the process of metamorphosis long before Skaldi's Comet ever hit. Schools, Jails and Prisons, even multi-million dollar businesses joined charities and non-profit organizations in cleaning up the pollution." Tossing Sonic a folded napkin square, he continued "A large majority of the ocean bed was dredged to remove debris, while barges used giant nets to remove floating trash. Carbon Emissions were reduced by fifty percent as vehicles were required to use electricity instead of gasoline. Enormous air purifiers were built in cities with extensive smog problems. Synthetic Meat was developed by institutes of science. This new government even went as far as to rezone residential areas determined to be of vital importance to the recovery of the environment. There were so many changes made by the new world order that many places barely resembled what they did in the past."

"Big whoop." Sonic retorted, not finding the history lesson amusing in the least. "So, the humans cleaned up their act. What of it? Am I supposed to be impressed that they finally realized their actions had consequences?"

Eggman chuckled heartily, coughing into his fist afterwards. "What a perfect reply!" Suddenly getting serious, he said "But, in a certain sense, yes. You should be impressed by that, because it's a dangerous issue that isn't being addressed in today's time. Instead of the peace and tranquility that was granted to us by the end of the Old World, we've returned to our destructive ways. Think about it… We haven't progressed as a society in almost a hundred years. If anything, we've regressed into a miniature Dark Age all because of Skaldi's Comet stalling our development. Why do you think the average citizen still uses these crappy smartphones developed over a hundred years ago, or are driving around in wheel-based automobiles instead of hover cars? I mean, sure certain cities and the more affluent have better access to technology, but most places and the general public aren't near as futuristic as they should be, because it took so long to get back on our feet as a species." Shaking his head, he sighed loudly, seemingly annoyed by the way human development had turned out. "Some say that you can't always be pushing civilization toward further development. On the other hand, it's hard to call this anything more than a great depression."

"You're losing me." Sonic rolled his eyes. "What's your point?"

"My point, Sonic…" He grumbled, bothered by the interruption. "Is that all the problems you're seeing in today's society is because humanity has become stuck in a rut dealing with problems from the past. Instead of advancing our technology. Instead of being in a golden age of civilization, we're dealing with sociological nonsense that encourages everyone to try and be equal instead of facing problems head on. It's because of our misplaced focus that we're dealing with such heightened crime inside big cities and a lower quality of life outside them. You know, we've lost so much that we developed to better ourselves that most people either can't remember it being better or couldn't fathom it being better than their current living. If you think about it, it's hard to imagine that we don't have it as good as those in the past did, or that we have ten times more crime than the Old World."

Sonic snickered while trying hard to hold back a fit of laughter. "You're the biggest source of crime in this world, Eggman. You need to take a good look in the mirror before you start blaming petty crime on all that's wrong in the world."

"Am I really the biggest threat?" Eggman enquired, trying to get the blue hedgehog to look at it from a different perspective. "Sure, I tend to wreak havoc. But, I'm a single person. It's not me causing crime in every city in the United Federation, hell, the entire world. You might even tell yourself that it's a small amount of crime, that it's petty crime; yet all of it eventually adds up. The thefts, the assaults, the rapes, the robberies." Looking at the blue speedster with a raised eyebrow, he continued. "How about the corrupt politicians or the broken court system? Do you think the Old World became so sophisticated by having ineffective police departments? How about an oppressive government; do you think a golden age of society would be so grand if they let a group of unscrupulous officials lead them?"

Sonic looked away, trying to ignore everything that was being said. Nonetheless, a part of him heard and acknowledged what Eggman told him. He didn't want to admit it, but when seen from a different perspective, the hedgehog felt that his arch-nemesis was right about humanity going backwards. After everything he'd witnessed; being shunned by the public and his adoring fans over a single failure, being subjected to gang violence, having to kill a human for attempting to rape a woman, getting falsely accused of murder by the police departmen and sold out by the government, it really made him think.

Hearing a beeping sound, Eggman tapped the electronic wristband to activate the holographic projection on his wrist. Instead of a wheel of options, he was immediately met with a message telling him to {Hurry up and make the switch outside the infirmary. I've made decent progress with calibrating Die Glocke. Go to the cargo bay as soon as you can… P.S. Don't forget to give our famous rat his medicine.} Once he was done reading the message, he turned off the sophisticated device and took the plate away from Sonic. "Would you like to go somewhere a bit more relaxing than here? I prefer the lounge over this place." He asked as the blue hedgehog downed the majority of his nutritional drink.

Wiping his mouth of the frothy vanilla shake, he nodded. "You think you do? I hate hospital settings in more ways than one. They weren't ever a place of happiness for me, but you completely tarnished them, making me associate them with horrible memories."

Putting the plate down on the counter, Eggman looked at Sonic in confusion as he pulled out another pill bottle from the cabinet. Upon tossing the medicine at the blue speedster, he decided to enquire as to what he had done to ruin hospitals for the hero. He knew he shouldn't, considering the circumstances of his incognitus, but his curiosity made him have to ask anyhow. "What are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about." Was all Sonic said in return.

Waving him off, not wanting to push the limits on what he could say or do, he instead returned his attention to ensuring Sonic was able to get up and move around. "Forget it. Just take one of those pills and come follow me." Walking towards the door, he waited for it to automatically open in advance of glancing back. "I'll be waiting outside whenever you've gotten yourself together."

"What about the I.V. in my arm?" Sonic hurriedly asked as Eggman walked out of the door.

The tub of lard laughed as he walked out of view. "You can remove it yourself. It's nothing complicated.".

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Authors Note: Hello to all my valued readers. Thank you kindly for supporting me through likes, follows and reviews; all of it certainly encourages me to keep going! Always feel free to message me; for my story or just to chat!

I've been going through an exceedingly difficult year that has threatened to push me to the brink of insanity. I crashed my car at the beginning of the year, lost a family member and my job as well. Worse, my wife had a mental breakdown and straight up abandoned me in the middle of the night, went back home with her mother. She won't communicate with me anymore. I'm sure her autism has something to do with it, but I'm still left in shock that I woke up to a note saying she was sorry she didn't feel well anymore and had to go home. Her parents are... strange... mostly out for themselves. So, no help there. Essentially, I've begun to consider her deceased. It's the only way I can carry on. After all, how can you love someone so much that you claim you would do anything for them, but then suddenly leave them? No fight, no argument, no cheating... just, mental stuff? She didn't feel well? Seven years of a relationship down the drain without any real explanation, no communication... I tried my absolute best to be an amazing husband. I never hurt her, mentally or physically. That's not to say I don't have my own problems, but don't we all? She certainly did... I know there's tons of people out there that go "Well, I didn't deserve this." When they are actually assholes... But... I wasn't... I didn't...

I dunno... It's made me lose a lot of faith in humanity...

Which is what made me remember how Eggman always felt in my original story. Those feelings made me wanna remake my original Sonic story, only with better detail.

Sorry for rambling,

What I'm trying to say is that this story has been a help to me as much as you readers who like and review are. It's been an outlet for my emotions channeled into creativity.

I hope you all like it. There's only one chapter to go for Book 1. Book 2 will be out next year and is already in progress. I'm going to do it that way, posting this section as complete so I can get more views. You know, I doubt that many people read in the incomplete section.

Thanks,

Love Ryan

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