Chaos Corrupts Absolutely

by Ryan-Sinclair

By himself and on his own, Sonic suffers a horrible loss in the heat of battle. Rejected by society, he's saved by the most unlikely individual. Will he be convinced to serve for what he is told is a greater good, or can his friends save him from a dark path? -/Reboot\-

15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

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[Time - 10:25 A.M.]

[Date - July 2nd, 21XX)

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

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Clenching his fists together, Sonic groaned in frustration. Regardless, he definitely wanted to get out of the infirmary as he was sick of being in a hospital setting. The beeping of machines and sterile walls were driving him mad. 'Bastard.' The hedgehog thought in regard to Robotnik leaving him alone. In the meantime, he popped open the pill bottle, mindlessly tapping out a pill and using the last of his nutritional shake to take it with. 'What does he want from me?' He speculated as he swallowed the pill. Standing up, he continued to wonder what Eggman's plan was. 'Does he really think I'm just going to go relax in a lounge with him? Does he think we're friends? What the hell gave him that idea?' On his feet, he felt his muscles stiffen from being in bed too long. Either way, it was better than being laid up like an invalid. It was frustrating to have such a crappy sleep schedule. Half of the time he'd been getting too much sleep and the other half he hadn't gotten enough. Part of him hoped he could return to normal soon as it was beginning to make him depressed. 'I'm not his friend… I don't even know whose friend I am. Tails, Knuckles… Amy? All of them... They need my protection more than my friendship.' Gently smacking his fist to his forehead, he tried to bring himself back to reality. 'I need to figure out what he's doing in order to do that.'

Having talked himself into not giving up, he took hold of the intravenous cannula, swiftly yanking it out from the inside of his elbow. Wincing from the slight pain, he held his hand over the spot. After the uncomfortable sensation went away, he pulled his hand away to see a single drop of blood welling up from where the needle was removed. Making a face of revulsion to seeing his own vital fluids, he disregarded it and threw his nutrient drink in the garbage can. Walking over to the door, he found himself moving much slower than usual. Rather than quickly and hastifully, he felt like he was being weighed down, like his legs didn't want to move or that his feet were stuck in glue. The only times he'd felt that way were after enormous fights, fights that took everything out of him. Realizing this, it made him wonder what happened yesterday.

Unable to remember anything other than brief snippets of what happened to him toward the end of yesterday, he decided to do his best to move on, hoping he hadn't forgotten much. Walking passed the deactivated Medical Robot, he pushed the hospital curtain aside prior to the automatic door opening for him. Limping a bit, he finally managed to get outside of the infirmary. He mentally prayed that he wouldn't have to be in another hospital setting for quite a while. Rubbing his eyes there in the steel plated corridor, he looked around for Eggman. Noticing that the villainous human was nowhere to be found, he started getting frustrated again, feeling as if he were being toyed with. Assuming he would have to go hunt the tubby scientist down across the massive nearly two and a half thousand foot floating fortress, were it not for the sedative currently coursing through him or the twinge in his side, he likely would have dashed outside to where the lifeboat was the last time he was here. In fact, he still contemplated doing just that. However, he knew better than to think he was free to try and escape. Sonic knew that Eggman had already taken precautions to ensure the hedgehog couldn't flee; be it by removing the lifeboat or watching his every move, there had to be a failsafe in place.

"Hey, you old rotten egg sandwich! Where are you?" The blue speedster shouted with his hands up to the sides of his mouth to assist in creating an echo.

Glancing left toward the end of the hallway leading out onto the deck of the Egg Carrier, he didn't see Robotnik anywhere. Peering in the other direction, the right, the red metal paneled corridor kept going until hitting a corner turn. Abrupt machinery noises made him return his attention to the left. The sounds appeared to be coming from the Robotic Manufacturing Room a few doors down. "Is that you?" Sonic asked as he began walking in that direction. Feeling wary, he wondered why Eggman wouldn't respond to him if he was that close by still. Part of him figured it was because he couldn't hear over the whirring of machinery, yet another part prepared to be walking into a potential trap. "Come on. Don't make me go looking for you." The hedgehog tried cutting through the bullcrap. "If you want to fight me, then you best do it now without any hiding. I'm not in the mood for that right now."

There wasn't a reply, so Sonic had no choice other than to head in the direction of the noises he was hearing. Approaching the door to the Robot Assembly Plant, he realized that it was closed. Nonetheless, the grinding, banging and whirring from the other side was so loud it could be heard from down the hall. Grumbling, he knocked on the door. "Eggman!" Waiting a moment, he started tapping his foot due to his impatience. "I can hear you in there!" Placing his ear to the door, he tried to listen for Robotnik's voice, seeing if he could distinguish it from amongst the machinery sounds. 'Where the hell is he?' Sonic wondered. 'And, what's going on in there?'

"Sorry about that!" Eggman's voice took Sonic out of his contemplation, making the hedgehog spin around from the door of the Robotic Manufacturing plant in order to bear witness to the evil genius hurrying around the corner at the other end of the hallway. "I had to make a few alterations to the flight path after receiving weather reports on a storm brewing out here in the Sapphire Sea." The insane human said as he walked closer, all the while using a comb to straighten his mustache, which had somehow become messy in the mere five minutes he was away. "Nothing to worry about."

At first, Sonic shrugged as he didn't particularly care what Eggman had been doing. Then again, he found himself wondering how the human went from looking wide-awake to worn out with fatigue. Looking at the villain from head-to-toe, he also spotted what appeared to be a dark purplish band of skin around his neck, obvious strangulation marks. Blinking, Sonic suddenly tried to recall whether those were there before or not. With a raise of an eyebrow, his ear twitched as he stared suspiciously. "What's wrong with your throat?"

"Huh?" Eggman immediately asked while rubbing the area in mention. "What do you mean?"

"It's purple." Sonic stated rather bluntly.

Catching onto the skepticism, Eggman attempted to avert the wariness by giving an honest explanation. "That? Are you kidding? That's what happens when you try to choke a human to death because you went crazy during Super Sonic." Nodding, he continued. "Yeah, that's right. It's purple because you tried to strangle me yesterday."

Sonic huffed while rolling his eyes before narrowing them. "Too bad I didn't succeed."

"You nearly did." Eggman quipped. "That's why I had to shoot you with a tranquilizer."

As the hedgehog kept staring at the human's ruffled mustache and pressure marks on his neck, he again tried to recall last night. Unfortunately, he was only able to remember a few more snippets, a couple of flashes showing him destroying robots and lunging at Eggman while he was inside the Monster Machine. For a split second, he also remembered the human prison guard that helped defend the jail. He could remember the officer being slung against the fence, but that was it. He didn't have time to worry if the person was still alive or not either. So, all he could do was take his memories with a grain of salt and move on to the future instead of focusing on the past.

"Whatever." Sonic responded with boredom in his voice. "Where are you taking me to now?"

"My private quarters." Eggman replied as he walked by Sonic, headed in the direction of the bridge.

The blue hedgehog made a nauseated face in advance of shaking his head and waving his hands. "What the hell?! No way! I'm not going with you to your room so you can do perverted stuff to me."

Eggman pinched the bridge of his nose, acting completely different than a few minutes earlier. "Get a hold of yourself, Sonic. It's a Captain's Chamber with three different rooms. Since one of those rooms is the lounge, I figured you'd enjoy relaxing there instead of in the infirmary... That is, unless you want to stay there."

"No…" Sonic replied while narrowing his eyes as he started following behind the human. "I just don't know why you'd pretend to be nice to me."

Clasping his hands behind his back, Robotnik kept walking until he reached the end of the hallway. Upon turning around, he said. "Ah... Still don't trust me, huh? And I'm sure you're thinking, 'why would I?' too, huh? Fine. You don't have to trust me, not yet... But eventually you will... I'll keep being honest with you until, just once, you see my way on this one matter." Turning to the door, simply looking at it made the registration system scan his form, once again proving that only he had access to certain sections of the Egg Carrier. The door opened as soon as his identity was confirmed. Walking through the doorway out into the mid-morning sunlight, he waited for Sonic to continue following him before he jested "Besides, where else did you want to relax around here? Unless you want me to finally teach you how to swim down in the pool room, I'm guessing the lounge is a better bet for you."

"Screw you." Sonic spat in response to the double insult to his manhood. 'The last thing I need is to be reprimanded for never learning how to swim, nor do I need to have an offer to learn be extended to me by my arch-nemesis.' With a small flame of hatred still flickering in his eyes, the hedgehog said "I've told you several times to stop acting like you can parent me. Those fucking days are over!"

"I'll never stop telling you what to do, Sonic." Eggman retorted while trying to hide a subtle look of hurt from the blue blur's harsh words. Nonetheless, whatever flicker of sanity he had just managed to achieve was swiftly replaced by his usual convoluted insanity. "Now come. I don't have time to waste on a whining blue rat." Ambling down the deck of the bridge, he walked on the portside of the Egg Carrier, heading in the direction of the bow.

Sonic grunted and grumbled as he proceeded to follow Dr. Robotnik. However, after a minute, the twinges of pain were beginning to turn into agony. The poor hedgehog's muscles pulsed in fatigue, his feet ached, his arms and sides throbbed and stung. He couldn't tell whether it was the sedative or exhaustion, either way, he found himself panting from the summer heat in addition to the intense sunbeams bouncing off the metal out here on the bridge. Trying not to limp, all in all, it was frustrating to display such weakness in the face of his enemy, no matter what temporary truce they currently had. In order to occupy his mind and not focus on the discomfort, he took a look around the deck where he noticed several of the Egg Carrier's cannons were tracking his every move with their aim locked on him. It was unnerving; worse, there wasn't anything he could do about it. Besides, he figured he could dodge their cannonfire if he really had to. Following another minute of walking, the blue speedster finally complained about having to walk so much. "Why are we walking? Couldn't we have taken your monorail system instead?"

"Yeah, we could have. But, you need to be walking as it'll help you stretch out your muscles." Eggman said as they made it halfway across the deck of the bridge in the direction of the bow. "It's not much further anyway, so don't complain."

Sonic ignored the request to not complain and did precisely that once they came to a set of stairs that led up to a platform attached to a building centered in the middle of the Egg Carrier's deck. "My muscles feel like they've been stretched to the moon and back. I don't want to walk much further."

"Always the fussy one." Eggman proclaimed the blue hedgehog to be as the human made his way up the staircase. "You're not a kid anymore, but that attitude hasn't changed one bit, has it?"

"Everything's changed." Sonic informed the tub of lard while making the decision to use an automatic circular shaped lift located off to the side of the staircase. Normally he wasn't a big fan of elevators or anything similar, yet he was so enervated by previous events that he wanted to use as little energy as possible. "Nothing is like it was when I was a kid. You made sure of that."

"You always have a comeback, don't you?" Eggman asked as they ascended higher on the deck.

"Yes, I do." Sonic made sure to prove his point while exiting the circular lift. Following Eggman as he turned the corner of the structure protruding from the deck; together, the two made it to the front of the embedded building. The door leading to the inside of the place bore the logo of the Eggman Empire. "Are we there yet?" The hedgehog lamented the time being wasted. "I need to sit down before my legs fall off."

Opening the door, Dr. Robotnik was the first to go inside, still followed by Sonic. The evil doctor's mere presence caused the lights to automatically come on. "If you don't want to be treated like a child, then you need to not act like one, my boy." Eggman replied in response to the hero's childish impatience in spite of often being guilty of doing the same thing himself. "Yes, we're here. You'll have to excuse the mess though, I haven't had time to clean. I haven't had time to schedule for one of the maid bots to come clean either."

Going inside, Sonic saw that the room was different from the last time he'd seen it ages ago on his previous adventure. Instead of looking like a mad scientist's funhouse with colorful gadgets and numerous assortments of fancy doo-dads, it more closely resembled that of an actual home. The window's actually had curtains now. While the floor was still made of metal, it did have a nice oriental rug in the center of the hexagonal room. A curved glass desk sat atop that rug, serving as the maniac's study table. Off to the right was where the fat man's personal refrigerator used to be, only to now be replaced with an entire kitchenette complete with a miniature fridge, an oven and a microwave. Even the murphy bed was larger, more regal looking. All of these changes made Sonic curious as to what made Eggman want to remodel.

"What do you think?" Robotnik asked half seriously as the door closed behind them. "I decided to go with a different look. It's a bit retro, but I like it."

"What's up with the mobile?" Sonic asked instead of answering, pointing up at a clockwork model of the solar system that protruded from the ceiling of the room.

Eggman glanced up before looking at the hedgehog like he was an idiot for not knowing what it was. "It's called an orrery, Sonic. Not a mobile; mobiles are for babies." The device activated in correspondence to a touchscreen built into the wall. The mechanism had an orb in the center to represent the sun and half a dozen arms that rotated in a circle around the orb. At the end of each arm were smaller orbs of varying size that are used to represent planets. Since it was on, the arms gradually rotated around the center orb in order to represent the entire solar system in motion. "An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system that lets you visualize planetary locations in response to their time of orbit."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Sonic insulted the human without a care or wonder as to why Eggman would have such a thing in his room.

"Man, you are in a rotten mood." Robotnik replied to Sonic's pissy attitude. "Come on, let's go to the lounge. I'll make you a drink."

Shaking his head, the blue hero stayed where he was while watching the planets circle the sun in the orrery. "Nah… I don't drink."

Eggman laughed. "Yeah, that's why you stole a bottle of vodka… to not drink it. Am I right?"

Sonic returned his attention to the madman by saying "How do you know I did that? Have you been stalking me? Huh?" Feeling a sudden burst of anger, the blue blur wondered if all of this wasn't a trap, but rather an intelligent ploy to alienate him from his friends. It was a bit too sociological for the evil genius to do on his own without the help from others out in society, but he knew better than to put anything past what his arch-nemesis was capable of. "Is that what this all is? You've been following me around, gathering a bit of your nefarious intel on me so you'd know exactly what to say? I'm not stupid… I know what you want. You want me to join you still and do your bidding so you've brought me here to convince me." Making a one-eighty turn, the hedgehog actually started to leave the room before he was stopped by Robotnik.

Reaching out and grabbing the hedgehog by the shoulder, Robotnik told him "Would you relax? I haven't been stalking you anymore than usual." Letting go, he pointed over his own shoulder toward the door leading to the next room. "If you would just follow me to the lounge so we can relax, I'll make a drink and then I'll tell you more about what you want to know."

"Why should I?!" Sonic began getting increasingly irate. "Why should I believe a word you've said to me?!"

"How about because I haven't attacked you in a long time? Doesn't that count for something?" Eggman tried to convince the blue speedster that he didn't have anything up his sleeves.

"You haven't attacked me?" Sonic raised both eyebrows as he tried to determine if the human was being sarcastic or not. Suddenly he had another flash of a memory come into his mind. In the memory, he could see the torso of the Monster Machine bursting open to reveal Eggman on the inside operating it. Due to that recollection, he knew what had been said wasn't true. Eventually, he turned away from the exit, but only in order to use his index finger to poke the tub of lard right in his chest, calling him out on the mistruth. "You're a liar! You attacked me just last night!"

Dr. Robotnik waved his hands as he tried to defend his actions. "That? No, no… You're misremembering what happened! I was just trying to rescue you from the prison! It was you who attacked me first; I was only trying to protect myself! Besides, it's not like I ever thought you'd turn into Super Sonic that moment, or else I never would have come in the Monster Machine." Chuckling, he pursed his lips. "I don't think I would have come at all. Anything I brought with me would have been utterly annihilated by you in such a state." Seeing that his reasoning was still insufficient to the angered Sonic, he mumbled about the hedgehog being a pain in the ass before divulging the information he knew was wanted. "Fine! Fine! You want to know how I knew about the vodka you stole from Liquor Station? It's because I hacked into the S.S.P.D. network to try and help remove your wanted record! I don't know what those bastards are using though, they must have back-ups, because the next day everything on the page was refreshed."

"You're joking? You hacked into the police database?" Sonic enquired. "To help me?"

"Yes!" Eggman exclaimed. "That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"SHUT UP!" Sonic demanded as he gently pounded on the side of his head where a migraine was beginning to form. "Don't you get why I don't believe you?" Exhaling a sigh of exhaustion, he kept explaining why he couldn't accept the fact that his arch-enemy would do anything beneficial for him. "Why? Why!? WHY!? Why are you doing this? Don't you know how much I hate you?"

Dr. Robotnik walked over and flipped the switch to the orrery off. Afterward, he stayed facing the wall as he shared his own feelings. "I know I've said it to you a number of times… I've told you that I hate you because you're always trying to stop my plans. Nonetheless, I don't hate you, not really. You just pester the shit out of me. But, again, that's not true hatred."

"Eggman… What are you trying to say?" Sonic suspired heavily. "You know things can't ever go back to the way they were before, don't you? It's why I've repeatedly told you that way of life is over. You and I are enemies now. It'll stay that way for as long as you're a menace to society. Since you can't control yourself, since the lust for Chaos Emeralds has completely overtaken you, I don't foresee your deteriorated state of mind changing... I'm the hero… you're the bad guy… That's just the way it is."

Not accepting that as an answer, Eggman spun around using what little charisma he had left to try and convince Sonic there was another way. "You're still not getting it, are you?" He started out with; strategically throwing the blame of the circumstances onto the hedgehog instead of himself. "You're not listening to the whole of what I'm saying, because you're so stuck in the rut of us being enemies." Before Sonic could say another word, Eggman kept talking in hopes of being heard this time. "I'm telling you that I'm open to working with you as a team to eradicate crime and corruption. You join me, I join you, none of that matters. There isn't any such thing as a hero anymore! There's too many laws and regulations for the good people yet hardly any consequences for the bad people... You saw it... You saw all of it with your own eyes after the Death Egg Robot smashed into the overpass. Once you weren't blinded by the fame and fortune constant success covers you in, you were able to see how nasty humanity is becoming again, how their morals are slipping and societal standards are much lower than the past. As usual the particularly ineffective government is too busy bickering about individual rights to protect the species as a whole. Corporations are monstrous behemoths, monopolies that have sucked the life straight out of our once thriving economy." He laughed half-heartedly as he walked across the room toward the entrance of the lounge. "So, you go ahead and keep considering yourself the hero to a group of people who will eventually find a way to permanently despise you after you fail enough times. Go ahead and keep fighting me instead of the real criminals. Go ahead and let the Station Square Police Department keep proving how useless they are as well."

Even though Eggman went into the lounge, Sonic continued to stand there as he contemplated everything that was said. As usual, part of him had to take everything that was said with a grain of salt since it was being said by a maniac. It made no sense to him why his nemesis would want to work with him to get rid of crime and corruption. 'What's his ulterior motive? He must have one.' The hedgehog proceeded to think. 'There's no way he'd be doing this for the betterment of humanity. He'd have to be doing it for himself. He has to be merely pretending to want to help.' Seeing the door still open to the lounge, Sonic could also hear the evil mastermind presumably preparing himself an alcoholic beverage as the sounds of glasses clinking echoed throughout the hexagonal chambers. 'Maybe he wants to eliminate the competition? No, that doesn't make much sense… unless… What if he feels like he needs to be topdog, so he devised a plan to use me to kill off his competitors?' Shaking his head as he realized that still didn't make sense, he kept trying to figure it out, unable to believe anything Robotnik did was for a good cause. Wrapped up in thought, he spoke aloud the next sentence. "Maybe he's trying to make me look like a bad guy so the government and police department turn against me…wait... Oh, that's right…...No… Dammit, that doesn't make sense either because they're already against me. What could it be?"

"Are you done mumbling to yourself in there?" Eggman called from within the lounge. "Come sit down and have a drink with me… I'll tell you another story."

Snapping back into reality, Sonic took a deep breath to gather his racing thoughts and then casually strolled toward the lounge. After going into a small antechamber that separated the living quarters from the lounge as well as the restroom, he saw right away that the room had been remodeled as well. The blue hedgehog recalled seeing this room in the past, but it was full of wacky greebles and automated gambling machines. Now he understood why Eggman kept calling it a lounge. Going into the room, he was met with the smell of stale cigar smoke mixed with the sweet zesty scent of brandy. Right away it made his fur stand on end as the scent reminded him of a place long ago and long since gone. Blinking off the deja-vu, he scanned his surroundings. To the right was what appeared to be comfortable theater seating, two rows in fact. A projector was propped up above the seats. Embedded in the ceiling appeared to be a spot where the projector screen would descend from. To the left of him was a large open front wet bar with dozens of finely aged spirits in addition to a bunch of wine. There were several stools in front of the bar, making the hedgehog curious as to who the mad scientist had been hosting. In fact, instead of a robot as Sonic had expected, it was Eggman himself who was manning the bar.

"What do you want?" Eggman asked.

"To kill you and achieve world peace." Sonic retorted sarcastically.

Robotnik pulled his lips back and rolled his eyes. Reaching up to grab a bottle of alcohol, he chose an expensive decanter of fancy whiskey. Placing the decanter down on the bar, he grabbed two shot glasses in advance of putting them atop the counter as well. "Very funny. But, I was talking about an alcoholic beverage. Pick your poison."

"I already told you." Sonic turned his nose up while crossing his arms. "I don't drink. All I ever had was vodka and it was… yuck."

Smirking, Eggman pulled the glass cork out of the decanter and poured himself a full shot. For Sonic, he only poured a dash, a small gulp to see if he liked it. "That's just because you've never had a good drink. You need to start with cocktails, that'll help you get accustomed to the taste of the alcohol. So long as you drink responsibly, there's nothing wrong with using it to occasionally unwind." Swiftly downing the entire shot of well-aged whiskey, he pushed the other glass over to Sonic prior to rummaging around in the bar.

Taking hold of the shot glass, Sonic held it up to his nose, smelling the aroma. Although it smelled like musky wood with hints of caramel, Sonic's nostrils flared as the exceedingly strong scent made him gag a bit. "Uggh… This smells awful. I don't think I want any." The hedgehog shook his head with his tongue sticking out.

"Hold your nose and toss it back." Eggman said while putting a cocktail glass on the countertop. "I'll make you a rum and coke to wash it down."

Doing as he was told, the hedgehog lifted the shot glass and let the whiskey flow down the back of his throat. Almost immediately he spat a bit of it up, but managed to swallow the rest. A few drops of alcohol landed on the bar counter from him spitting it up. "God!" He gasped as a tear flowed down his cheek. The taste was horrendous and the burn was almost as bad as the vodka. "It's awful! Ughh… Why do people drink stuff like that? Yuck!"

Dr. Robotnik chuckled heartily as he grabbed a bottle of rum from off the racks behind him. The rum wasn't in an expensive decanter like the whiskey, nonetheless, it was obviously still top-shelf booze. Opening a mini-fridge off to the side, he retrieved an old-fashioned glass bottle Coca-Cola. Letting the door to the mini-fridge close on its own, he placed the coke bottle on the counter before twisting off the cap to the rum. "You'll get used to it if you keep drinking. A lot of alcoholics proclaim it tastes like water to them."

Sonic grabbed the Coca-Cola and used force to pry the cap off the bottle. In one quick motion, he took several gulps of the drink to cleanse his palate of the god awful flavour. "Yeah, right." He replied in doubt regarding anything that foul being able to taste like water after enough of it was consumed. "If that's the case, then I guess I'm not an alcoholic like you."

Eggman's face scrunched up as he poured a quarter of a glassful of rum. Twisting the cap back on the bottle, he returned the rum to the rack prior to taking the glass of coke away from Sonic. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not an alcoholic and you won't be either, not so long as you drink responsibly." Pouring enough Coca-Cola into the cocktail glass to fill it up, all that had to be done to it was to get stirred and then it was a true rum and coke. "Just try this. It's rum and coke. The coke will take away some of the rum's flavour as well as the burn."

"Look, just tell me what you want." Sonic cut through the fake kindness and boring prattle, not in the mood to be buttered up or to get drunk; whatever it is that his arch-nemesis was trying to accomplish. He knew Eggman was plotting something and just wanted the evil human to get on with it instead of wasting his time. "I'm not stupid. I know you didn't bring me all this way, to the Egg Carrier and then to your personal quarters, only so we can drink rum and shoot the shit. Quit beating around the bush, get to your point." Taking a sip of the rum and coke, he actually found himself surprised at how decent it tasted in comparison to other spirits he'd consumed straight up. Still, he couldn't enjoy it. No matter how much he wanted to relax, it was impossible to do so in the presence of the very man who'd been trying to kill him for years.

Understanding that the blue hedgehog was beginning to lose his patience, Dr. Robotnik poured himself another expensive shot of well-aged whiskey. Staring at Sonic, he asked him "Did you know I used to work for a prestigious company here in Station Square?"

Shrugging, Sonic responded with "Yeah? Well… I knew you worked somewhere and built robots, but I never really found out about the entire situation." Stopping, he sighed in advance of quipping. "You didn't exactly share the news with me before you became… this." He ended by pointing toward the bald human.

"That's true as well." Eggman admitted to the truth. "Better late than never, I suppose." Ready to explain things, first he drank his second shot in order to ease the stress as well as his heightened emotions. "I used to work for Cyber Net Incorporated. I'm sure you've heard of it. The company has been around for quite a while and it's literally the biggest, nicest skyscraper in Station Square. They make and distribute a tremendous amount of the electronics. In fact, if things haven't changed much since I worked there, Cyber Net Inc. is the third largest electronic business in the entire United Federation. They're always trying to create the most amazing technology around, so they have a rather extensive research and development department, of which I was one of. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't always fantastic to work there, what with the long hours in addition to a brutal amount of time needed to be spent on a computer, but it was definitely the best job I have ever had. My passion was able to thrive far more than when I was an electrician or a…" He shuddered for a moment before naming the worst job he'd ever done. "Pizza delivery boy."

"No way!" Sonic burst out into laughter. "I couldn't imagine you as a pizza man!"

Eggman chuckled softly before leaning against the bar. "Boy." He corrected Sonic. "I was a pizza boy. It was my first job, my father made me get it as soon as I got out of college and I hated it. There was nothing about bringing pizza to someone that required a Doctorate in Engineering or a Master in Coding. Besides, I doubt you would have recognized me when I was a pizza boy. Back then, I was much slimmer and didn't have my famous mustache that all the ladies love."

The blue speedster made a face of disgust at the thought of any woman being attracted to Eggman. Still, he soon smirked, unable to resist the opportunity to sling a verbal jab in his enemy's direction. "Is that what made you fat, too much pizza?"

Staring the hedgehog down due to the jest at his weight, Dr. Robotnik eventually scoffed but gave in nonetheless. "It didn't help." Trying to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand, the evil scientist explained more of his younger years. "But, what really drove me to eat all the time was being unhappy. I had a hole in my life that was too empty, so I was always trying to fill that hole with food. While I was an electrician and a repair man, I was actually heavier than I am now. It wasn't until I decided to go into the military serving G.U.N. that I lost enough weight to perform my duties. I was selected as well as assigned to work as an operative in the Technical Corp of Engineering. Most of my time was spent working with a team developing super weapons and prototypes for three quarters of the robots being used by them in modern day."

"I was happier in the military than I was as a pizza boy or an electrician. Serving the United Federation taught me humility and endurance in the face of defeat. Only thing was, I started to find myself not agreeing with the policies. I actually started wanting to help the populace instead of building things to subjugate them." Glancing at Sonic, he smiled, laughing as his bushy mustache bounced from the volume it held. "You know, I guess you could say that I wanted to be a hero too. So, when my time was up, I didn't re-inlist. I left the military after six years with the intent of using all that I had learned to better the lives of those I knew around me."

Shaking his head, he exhaled from bringing up his failures. "After my discharge from G.U.N. I wanted to go home, fix up my parents' old house and finally make my dad proud of me." His smile swiftly disappeared, replaced with a scowl. "Guess what I found? I didn't find a proud father, that's for sure. I found a dying drunk incapable of cleaning his own messes. My family home was in shambles. To make matters worse, I didn't receive a warm welcome either, certainly not a return from duty celebration." Looking at Sonic again, he saw that he had the young hedgehog's attention. When their eyes met, Robotnik huffed in response to the crappy father he had. "If you haven't figured it out by now, my dad was an absolute asshole, a real dickhead. He was that way for as long as I knew him. Even though he didn't physically hurt me, the mental abuse was often too much for me to bear. Him being a bastard was the biggest reason I went into the army anyway."

"Why?" Sonic interrupted with a quick question. "Why was your dad such a jerk?"

Eggman chuckled. "I don't really know, not exactly. My mother died when I was really young, but he would always tell me that I'm just like her. 'You're just as fucked up as your mother.' He'd say to me. 'You and her ruined my life.' He'd always remind me when he got absolutely wasted on whiskey. Funny thing is, after coming back from the military, for someone who loathed me so much, he then blamed me for abandoning him. At that point, it was 'I needed you and you left me.' and 'You're the reason this house is falling apart.' I think it took a full five minutes before he started talking about how I 'Did exactly what your mother would do to him.'." Grabbing the decanter of whiskey, he poured himself half a shot glass. It was obvious the memories of his father were painful, even after all this time. Whether or not he knew or realized, Sonic understood how having a terrible male role model can scar you on the inside. "I hated that old fucker, but I still did my best to fix up the house for him. Before long, however, I couldn't take it anymore and started reaching out to a few old friends. I stayed with a couple of different people just to get away from my father before I ran into a buddy from college, Taylor Burnham."

Drinking the shot of whiskey, he hesitated to smile, able to only give a half-hearted one. "Reconnecting with Taylor was definitely a good thing, he and I had a lot in common and we enjoyed hanging out. When I told him my situation with my father and not having any place to go without a job to pay rent, he sympathized with me and offered me a more permanent place to stay until I got back on my feet." Chuckling, he started feeling better, be it from recalling better memories or from the alcohol finally kicking in. "Unfortunately, despite becoming best friends, I knew Taylor wasn't all there in the head. You could say, it was he who introduced me to conspiracy theories. He loved to read about unlimited power sources and was always in awe of things like nuclear power plants and engines. Although he drove me crazy, he had a lot of good points that always stuck with me. It was because of him that I learned to look past the basics and into the mythical. Cold-Fusion really was far less likely to be achieved than others such as biological batteries or perpetual motion engines, that much was obvious. But, when he first told me about things like Pyramid Power, Chaos Emeralds, Ley Lines, Aliens, using Divining Rods and his family being a part of a secret cult, I just thought he was high. Still, he went on about so much crazy crap that I eventually got tired of listening to it and found another job that I had to relocate for."

"Everything changed whenever I found a job that incorporated my passion for engineering. My resume, both of my Phds, experience in the Technical Corp of Engineering in addition to the robot projects I'd tinkered on over the years successfully scored me employment with Cyber Net. To this very day, I still remember the first time I walked through those doors." Nodding along with his thoughts, he continued "The skyscraper is so much more futuristic than the surrounding areas. Station Square is far more sophisticated than the outlying rural towns, yet not as advanced as Empire City or Central City. Regardless of either, the Cyber Net building is on a completely different level than anywhere else I'd ever seen."

"I felt like I was right at home." Eggman proceeded to say. "A few coworkers became friends and I managed to excel at my position until they gave me a promotion. My status in the company eventually granted me enough money to afford my own inner-city home not far from Cyber Net itself. It wasn't anything special, but it was my own place… Well… What am I saying, I'm sure you remember the house." Clearing his throat, he opened the mini-fridge to grab himself a bottle of water to stay hydrated. Twisting the cap off, he took a sip before recollecting more of the past. "Anyway, my time at Cyber Net led me to pursue my dreams of being a hero. My skills were put to use on all sorts of projects. One project had me developing super servers for the internet, another an advanced desalinisation filter that was three times more efficient than what Station Square had been using up until that period of time. Mind you, I still had a team of people I was working with, so not everything was completely my doing. Nonetheless, my favourite project was in the robotics division. The company listened to so many of my ideas that I eventually got promoted to head of the research and development department, surpassing people who had been there for decades."

Taking another gulp of his water, he reached under the bar, retrieving a cigar box. "In the robotics division, I was in charge of making beautiful machines, machines that made human and anthro life alike much easier. Drones that trim trees and other tall flora, laser defense turrets that targeted pesky insects, search and rescue robots capable of squeezing through tight spaces to find trapped victims, automated municipal streetsweepers and garbage collectors, even that robot from infirmary; all of those were of my design, envisioned by me since I was a young man." Opening the cigar box, he removed a single cigar, giving it a good whiff by sliding it beneath his nose before pushing the box over to Sonic. The blue hedgehog immediately rejected the offer, but Eggman was too busy cutting the end off the cigar to notice. "I even made a hella interactive children's toy. It's what my Kiki robot was modeled after. Out of all of them though, I became the most enthralled with one particular project; the project to develop a fully automated security robot. Project Meteor is what it was called. It went through so many different stages that it's hard to describe. We even started over twice. There were so many problems with building a robot capable of being trusted to carry out the peace. Before we could even deal with its artificial intelligence, we had to build an on-board navigation system capable of maneuvering around Station Square."

"Hadn't they already built walking robots by then?" Sonic asked as he took a sip of his rum and coke. "You said you had served with G.U.N. by then, so what was the issue?"

"Smart. At least I know you're paying attention." Eggman said as he grabbed the box of cigars, retrieving a book of matches from inside to light his cigar with. "You're right." Taking a puff off of the cigar to get the cherry going so he wouldn't have to relight, he continued "I did the majority of the designing when it came to the Guardian Units of Nations' own robots. But, the difference is that almost all of their technology is made to be remote controlled by a handler. My security robot was to be fully independent of human operators, able to think and move on its own without the need for the constant input of commands. At first my prototypes ran on Global Positioning Satellites in addition to Passive Infrared Sensors and Optical Data Scanners, which proved to be enough to have a machine capable of knowing both where it's at as well as where to go. My next task was to design an artificial intelligence capable of differentiating between friend and foe, which wasn't easy at all. I had to make a combat inhibitor that determined the likelihood of an individual becoming violent."

"This was all legal?" Sonic enquired.

"Yep." Eggman replied as he puffed on the cigar, holding the smoke in his mouth a moment before blowing it out. "We had to get approvals from the United Federation, which gave us a few grants, but along with that came tons of restrictions. Every regulation had to be strictly abided by, or else our project would be shut down. This made it more difficult to complete our task, on the other hand, in the end it made the prototypes far safer than they likely would have been."

Sonic shook his head, waving away the cigar smoke as he whistled. "Sounds difficult."

Eggman blew out a cloud of smoke before responding. "It was. In fact, it was so difficult that some of my coworkers quit or requested reassignment. I couldn't give up, not me. I told my boss that I would be there to see the project to the end." Holding the cigar between his teeth, he grabbed the decanter of whiskey, poured himself one more straight shot, then replaced the quartz cork. As he put the expensive decanter behind the bar, he puffed on the cigar a few times. "Nonetheless, after a while, Project Meteor was eventually whittled down to a handful of engineers and researchers. To keep our budget intact to meet our quotas, I was forced to lay off several of my last remaining employees until it was literally me and three other individuals. Since I was the head of the research and development department, I tried to push the idea of how revolutionary this robot would be if it was completed. I did everything in my power to make sure the executives above me knew how important it was to keep the project going."

Puffing on the cigar, he held in the dense cloud of tobacco before spewing it out. Drinking half the shot of whiskey, he walked around from behind the bar, coming out to face the blue speedster. "Still, before long, it was just me working on the project. The CEO contacted me and told me they were ready to pull the plug. Somehow, be it luck or the grace of god, I was able to convince him to keep me on the project at half pay; that I'd finish it on my own without anyone else helping me. I wasn't completely out of the woods yet, even though he accepted my offer. It came with the stress of working overtime and being the only one available to make any progress. Worse of all, I was only given a year to complete the work or the project would be terminated." Passing by Sonic, Eggman kept walking across the room before sitting in one of the comfy leather theater chairs. "Working at half-pay took some toll on us too. It's the reason why I couldn't afford to fix the house. Besides, I had to save all I made to buy parts myself."

"That makes sense, I suppose." Sonic interrupted while coming to terms with the way things were. Drinking a bit more of his rum and coke, he sat the cocktail glass down on the bar before walking over to Dr. Robotnik, standing in front of him. "I was wondering why you let your home fall into such disrepair. But, if you had to save up all your money and spent all your time working, then you really didn't have the opportunity to clean, huh?"

"Not really." Eggman replied as he inhaled a cloud of tobacco smoke, holding it in his mouth prior to exhaling. "All of my time was devoted to completing the prototype. I knew I had other things to do, but I had no choice other than to work constantly, never stopping. The promise I had made to the CEO of Cyber Net was far more pressing than anything else, it also ensured I kept my focus on my job and not my homelife." Lightly swishing the whiskey in a circle in the shot glass, Robotnik took one more puff of the cigar. "My determination could be considered a gift or a curse, either way, it's what drove me to keep going. Funny thing is, I actually made really decent progress on the project. I was about a month away from completion and three months from my deadline when everything went to hell in a handbasket." Grumbling at having to recall the horrible memories, he explained his career's misfortune. "One of the executives above me passed away from colon cancer. He was replaced by an anthropomorph poised to be the first non-human supervisor for Cyber Net."

"A lot of my dislike of your kind comes from him, the bastard." Robotnik groaned as he pushed a button underneath the arm of the chair, waiting as the legrest was gradually deployed. "This new anthropomorph boss had it out for me from the first day he started working. I don't know what it was, maybe he just didn't like my looks. He tried his best to cut my project, calling it a waste of time and a pipedream. After just two weeks of working there, he somehow managed to convince the CEO to end my project early so I could move on to something else. They wanted me to work on making a new space exploration robot capable of exploring Mars so they could sell it to the United Federation Advisory Committee for Aeronautics." Eggman chuckled. "There was a big renewed interest in Mars going on at the time. People were obsessed. Most people, that is. I could care less about that cold red chunk of space dust. All I wanted to do was finish my security robot."

Sonic slowly sat down in the chair next to him, wary of being so close, but sympathetic to his villain's story. "Did you try to convince the CEO to let you keep going until the agreed upon deadline?"

"Of course I did." Robotnik responded. "I tried reminding him that I promised I'd have it complete in a month, which was still three months before my deadline. But, whatever 'Mr. Butch', the slobbering fuck had said, he managed to convince the CEO that any further time was a waste of precious resources. For whatever reason, despite me mostly using my own supplies, the CEO took this new executive's side over mine. After all I had done for Cyber Net, after all my years there, I was ordered to move on to a new project or else be terminated from the company." Turning his head to look at Sonic seated next to him, he took a puff of his cigar in advance of spewing the smoke in the opposite direction. "You might be thinking that it shouldn't have been such a big deal for me, that I'm just stubborn and didn't want to quit. You'd be correct about that last part too. Unfortunately, it was a huge deal to me because they wanted to lock-away all the progress I'd made on the prototype. Years of work were going to be put in a storage facility to never see the light of day again; I wasn't allowed to take any of it and carry on the work." Laughing, he proceeded to say. "It was a shock to me that they were being so cruel. They were very lenient up until then by letting me do work at home, so I was surprised when they denied me, much more so when they rejected my offer to work on a new project while finishing the other at home."

Sonic sighed at how businesses can often be cold-hearted to their employees. "Man, that sucks." Using his memory, however, he recalled the results of Cyber Net trying to play keepaway with things Eggman loves. "Is that why you stole the prototypes?"

"You're damn right it is." Dr. Eggman confirmed. "That and the fact that Butch fired me two days after convincing the CEO to dissolve Project Meteor. Because of those reasons, I snuck into the lab the day after my termination and stole those puppies; backed up my old pick-up truck and plopped them in the back…" Smirking, he conitnued with "Well, that is, after I had them destroy Butch's hotrod. Hehehe." His smile soon faded and all that was left was a frown. "I was hoping that day would end way better than it started. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way, as I'm sure you remember."

"Yes…" Sonic immediantly said before waving his hand through the air. "But, I don't want to talk about that part. Why don't you just skip to what you're trying to accomplish by telling me all this?"

Letting out a long exhale from having to avoid the subject at hand, Eggman drew a puff of his cigar, noticing the fact that he'd smoked a quarter of it and had a decent amount of ash on the end. "Are you sure?" He asked with a look of sadness on his face.

"I'm sure." The blue hedgehog replied. "The sooner you get to the point, the sooner I can figure out what I'm going to do with myself from here on out."

Spewing smoke from his mouth, he gave a wheezy cough prior to standing up. "My point, Sonic, is that the world can be a cruel place, most of the time simply for the sake of either money or possessions." Making his way over to the bar, he tapped the cigar on an ashtray to make the ash fall. Drinking the rest of his whiskey, he placed the shot glass down on the bar counter. He stood still for a moment, seemingly contemplating what to say next. To Sonic's surprise, he spun around with a remote in his hand, pressing a button as he aimed it directly at the blue blur.

Sonic didn't have the time to react as metal cuffs popped up from the arms of the chair, quickly snapping closed to secure his arms and legs, keeping him from being able to move. "DAMMIT!" The heroic hedgehog exclaimed with both anger and surprise in his voice. "I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU HAD SOMETHING UP YOUR SLEEVES! LET ME GO, YOU FAT BASTARD! LET ME GO RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" The headrest seemed to tighten as well, gripping his head to keep him looking straight forward. Struggling with the restraints, he realized they were pretty much the same as those that held him to the hospital bed back in the infirmary. Considering the fact that he was in a chair instead of a bed this time, he had even less leverage with which to resist the restraints. "EGGMAN!" He screamed as he kept struggling.

"Oh, relax." Robotnik replied to Sonic freaking out. "I did that so I could ensure you'd watch this film explaining everything to you in intricate detail." Pressing another button on the remote, a whirring sound could be heard followed by a click. From out of the ceiling came the projector screen. The screen fully lowered before Eggman pressed another button, both dimming the lights as well as activating the projector.

Not in a trusting mood and certainly not about to believe his arch-nemesis after this stunt, Sonic tried to break the restraints around his legs first, hoping that would give him enough freedom to leverage himself against the legrest. "GHAAA! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! I NEVER SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED YOU!" As the video started with the emblem of Eggman Empire, at first Sonic refused to watch it as he was too busy trying to free himself. "LET ME GO! I HATE BEING HELD DOWN LIKE THIS! YOU KNOW THAT!"

"It's a five minute video, you watch it and I'll let you go as soon as it's over." Dr. Robotnik told him without smirking or displaying any indication that he was lying.

Sonic, without any other choice, gave in and directed his attention to the projector screen in front of him. Right away, the video came into focus to reveal images spliced together of them battling one another, one of the previous times the hedgehog had bested the bully of a human. The frames of each image moved faster and faster until it appeared to be a motion picture of Eggman flying in his Egg Mobile and Sonic in hot pursuit. There wasn't any sound yet and every colour was slightly dulled. The movie carried on showing Sonic fighting badniks and freeing captured critters. Nonetheless, it soon changed as an audible explosion could be heard from the speakers as an on-screen mecha of Eggman's was annihilated by both he and Knuckles working together. Then, it displayed Tails and Sonic hugging; up next, a snapshot of him and Amy kissing. "W-Where did you get these?!" Sonic asked angrily, upset that he was seemingly being spied on.

"Shh…" Was all Eggman said as the colours of the film gradually sharpened, returning to full contrast as the motion picture like quality shifted over to what is typically displayed in movie footage.

"WHAT IS THIS!?" Sonic shouted due to not getting an answer. Regardless of not understanding why he was being forced to watch this, he bore witness to the movie changing to show Eggman toiling away at building new inventions, new robots with which he planned to enforce his empire with. It showed Robotnik smiling as he wiped the sweat off his brow. "WHY ARE YOU SHOWING ME THIS!?"

"Because…" Eggman replied. "Because you need to understand how similar we are, how we're both trying to help society, just in two vastly different ways." On-screen, it continued to show as Eggman made numerous devices that would all in all be beneficial to humanity as whole, if only he cared to share the technology; things such as miniaturized nuclear reactors, medical robots, maid robots, a warship capable of flying or floating through the sky. When looked at from a different perspective, even if some of it was for nefarious reasons, Eggman made amazing accomplishments in scientific engineering. "You think I don't want what's best for humanity? Do you think I don't want us to be better off than we currently are, to be more advanced than we currently are? Of course I do! To me, I feel like we live in the iron age. We're not where we should be on the scale of constant advancements and I'm willing to do anything to jumpstart our progress until we're back on track."

Suddenly the reminiscent images were replaced by a zoom out showing all of earth. At the top of the screen was a date listing the current year. The earth looked like it always had to the blue hedgehog; nothing appearing to be out of the ordinary. As it had been since he'd been born, the planet had deep blue oceans as well as green forestation covering a third of the continental landmasses, the rest a dull yellow to represent arid deserts or temperate plains. While the 3-D model of Earth gradually rotated, a demonstration occurred with a timelapse. The camera panned to the other side of the planet to show what it looked like at night. 'What is he trying to do?' Sonic thought as he grit his teeth. 'Is this some sort of sick psychosamatic treatment to hypnotize me?' Although he didn't look away from the film, he still occasionally struggled to see if he could get the restraints to budge at all. 'He should know that this won't work on me. I'm not susceptible to such mumbo-jumbo.'

While the model of Earth rotated, since what was being viewed was on the side facing away from the sun, making it nighttime, the lights from big cities illuminated the dark shadow. After the demonstration repeated a few revolutions, things changed. The 3-D model brightened as it went back to day. However, the timescale at the top also began to spin in reverse, going backwards in time. At first, things didn't change much. For the most part, the planet looked the same. Things didn't start to change until about fifty years ago. Without being able to see a cause, it seemed as if out of nowhere, the deserts reduced in size and the forests grew bigger. Even the oceans receded a bit, exposing land the hedgehog had never seen before. 'What in the-...?' He looked on curiously, more so than he expected he'd be. 'Okay… That's different.'

"Do you see how much healthier the earth was a mere fifty years ago?" Eggman asked.

On-screen, the timestamp returned to modern day, switching over to nighttime in order to properly show the location that the population is rather dense. As the demonstration reversed time, the population rapidly decreased. Lights from cities were extinguished from there being less humans and way less anthropomorphic animals. A scale for carbon emissions decreased as the Earth spun backward, providing visual evidence to show precisely how much factories and heavy machinery contributed to pollution. When the 3-D model of the planet switched back over to a daytime representation, it proceeded to keep going back in time over a hundred years until there was hardly anybody left on the globe at all, maybe a mere five percent.

"This is a decade after Skaldi's Comet struck." Eggman educated the hedgehog as he slowly ambled around to go behind Sonic, who was still trapped in the chair. "Can you see how much healthier the world is? Not bad at all for ten years after the apocolypse… Do you know why?"

"Because you humans weren't pumping out pollution in the atmosphere or contaminating the waters?" Sonic halfway asked and explained at the same time. "Your charts and scales are making that crystal clear."

"Good. That's my point." Eggman replied as he pressed another button on the remote, making the video move on. There was such a difference in population as soon as the representation went back to before Skaldi's Comet hit the Earth, that it almost seemed like a different map altogether. Most of the cities in modern day still existed back then, yet were three to five times the size they are now, with triple the population. Nonetheless, overall, things didn't seem too bad considering the increase in people and absolutely no anthropomorphic beings. The forests weren't quite as full as after the comet, but the deserts hadn't encroached upon civilization like it would in the future/ what is current day. "This is our Golden Age. Do you see?" Eggman asked as he got closer to Sonic, close enough to whisper. "Do you see?"

Sonic stared at the screen as he witnessed pictures flashing by, images of what it looked like in the 'Old World' as Robotnik constantly called it. Although it was only pictures selected by his arch-nemesis, he watched as a string of photos displayed buildings as sophisticated as ones currently in Future City. Despite there being no hovering cars, people were using jetpacks and the vehicles that did exist ran on a battery. Manufacturing plants were filled with gigantic 3-D printers instead of heavy equipment. Different races of humans were all working together in harmony to make an ideal world. Agriculture was far more automated than it is today. A clip played of a machine harvesting wheat without the need of human assistance, then a video of robots tending to tomatoes as well as digging up carrots.

The screen soon switched to a group of scientists killing a strange looking animal, butchering it and cooking it. While the group of scientists ate their meal, they worked on typing on their computer tablets. Soon it was revealed they were toiling away at designing synthetic meat to consume instead of having to kill a living creature to eat it. Other breakthroughs in science were quickly shown, such as a miracle medical salves and artificial organs for sickly individuals, high-tech solar orbs that were more efficient than traditional solar panels, wireless electricity devices based upon the work of Nikola Tesla and amazingly, robotic animals to play the part of parents as well as keepers of endangered species. Several other inventions were shocking to see for a different reason; because they were still being used in modern day, over a hundred years after these photos were taken. Things such as smart phones, video games, television, music and clothing were all relatively the same as they are in today's time. The blue hedgehog wondered why he lived in a world that had technologically stalled out, why society wasn't more advanced than it was after a hundred years. It made sense that some of the lack of progress was due to Skaldi's Comet, but even that was over a hundred years ago.

"Get ready." Eggman interrupted the film. "You're going to see what the Earth looked like before the Golden Age of Civilization."

With the press of a button, the 3-D model went back further into the past, toward the year 2075, decades before the start of the Golden Age. The population seemed to increase exponentially, exploding to nine and a half billion people. Cities weren't the only place that was lit up on the night map either; at this point in time, all the rural towns had been developed until they resembled the larger metropolises. Forests shrunk to a mere twelve percent coverage of the surface of landmasses. Deserts swallowed areas that were once dense jungles. What appeared to be clouds blanketed nearly the entire planet, yet it was obvious that it was smog instead of any natural weather. Seawater levels were similar to how they were today, only much worse. There were several places underwater that aren't now, places beneath sea level.

Onscreen, the image zoomed in, showing footage of the United Federation first. It began with the flag of the United States of America, the country that assisted the most in the creation of the New World Order. The streets looked similar to what is seen in modern day; albeit with wheeled gasoline guzzling vehicles. Buildings weren't near as futuristic either, in fact most of the working class infrastructure was poorly constructed; only the rich lived in homes made of better materials. Then, there was the smog, which seemed to be choking out the majority of the vegetation. Acid rain had grown to dangerous levels and microplastics were so commonplace in the environment that they were literally floating in living creature's bloodstreams. Construction crews continued to devastate what little flora remained in order to make way for more apartment complexes or suburbs, demolishing natural atmospheric cleansers with machinery that couldn't operate without spewing noxious thick fumes of smoke. Factories produced nonstop toxic gasses as they manufactured an endless amount of consumer goods for an abundantly spoiled population.

Switching to footage of the populace, it showed the riots, the revolutions, the death in the streets as people worked to overturn an oppressive government. At the same time, those working together to be freed from what they considered a greater evil were also at one another's throats for other reasons. Violent rallies against opposing political parties, demonstrations in favour of racism, it all made the humans of the past seem utterly unhinged. To make things worse, people were so obsessed with social media on the internet that they forgot how to interact in-person. Humans of the time were so passive-aggressive that the slightest argument would set them off. Mental illness was completely out of control, no matter the hospitals and institutes that claimed to have the situation under control with medication and therapy. Criminal activity skyrocketed, as did murders and assault. The life expectancy of every living creature was cut in half due to the harsh environmental conditions in addition to all the dangers of the world.

The United States government, being oppressive the same as the majority of the nations at the time, had no problem with trying to squash any rebellion. They wanted to keep money in the economy to line their pockets with, not using their funds to right the wrongs of their society. Because the quality of life had decreased, so did the respect for individual life. Since there were so many humans, the systems in place by the government often considered people cattle, nothing more than a number in a giant chain of endless links. "You wanna know what made the Old World able to achieve a state of enlightened prosperity?" Eggman asked as the screen showed a corrupted court system as well as dirty law enforcement officials or selfish politicians. "They got rid of all the crime, of all the insanity, of all the corrupted people. Monopolies were once again banned to keep corporations from taking over the economy and pocketing all the money and taxes for the rich were enforced as seriously as taxes for the poor."

"It's not just the bad people who had to be eliminated either." Robotnik continued to explain as the on-screen 3-D representation of Earth zoomed back out away from the United States, showing that the rest of the world was in the same shape, if not worse. "Good people who were ignorant to environmental protection had to be reeducated too, while those that refused to listen altogether were forcibly relocated to allow nature a chance to regenerate." Pressing a button on the remote, the timelapse began going forward; this time showing how the population decreased and green returned to the map in areas once inhabited by humans. Without constant deforestation, land returned to nature as well as a reduction in the smog choking the vegetation. The expansive deserts even managed to shrink. "The population had to work together to nurse their planet back to health, but that thought process had to be instilled in as many people as possible for it to happen. That meant it had to be a worldwide effort, which is the whole reason an entire New World Order was installed atop local governments at the time."

"Grrr!" Sonic clenched his jaw and tightened his hands into fists as he started growing wearing of being restrained. "WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR POINT!"

Knowing precisely what the hedgehog is capable of, Eggman did his best to keep Sonic calm by explaining things when he appeared to be getting too anxious, doing whatever he could to keep him from getting mad enough to go Dark Sonic. "My point is that some level of force was needed to keep society on track. Not everyone could be convinced that the ways which were healthy for the planet were necessary. Selfishness knows absolutely no bounds, Sonic. There will always be people who reject change, even if it's for the better. That's why there has to be somebody capable of using that force, somebody capable of making the changes needed for the betterment of humanity." Eggman chortled as he exclaimed "Do you think it was the government or police who enforced these changes? No! No! It wasn't either of them because they were too selfish, too focused on themselves to see the bigger picture! Those who had the power to make necessary changes didn't, while those who wanted to make the change were too oppressed!" Grumbling, he came even closer to Sonic. "Do you think the companies and governments making millions if not billions off the common rabble cared about what was going to happen in the next hundred years? Or, did you think the rich and powerful cared about how advanced civilization became? No! Of course not! They couldn't think of anything other than sustaining their lavish ways! They didn't want to work hard and refused to let the working class one-up them!"

"So you think you're going to be this hero?!" Sonic spat in vexation. "YOU'RE DELUSIONAL!"

"No…" Dr. Robotnik immediately replied without showing any frustration with the hedgehog's harsh tone. Then, he pointed at Sonic. "You are. You're going to help me enforce new laws, to eliminate corruption and stop crime before it happens. Together, we can resurrect the golden age of enlightenment for not just humans this time, but anthropomorphic beings as well! I can guide you to the criminal masterminds, I can find out who's dirty in the next election, I can tell you if City Hall is spending money on its citizens or skimping off the top to create an underground 'mayoral shelter'. Hell, with you working alongside me, we could put a stop to the corrupted charities so they'll start actually being beneficial to civilization again. With my tools and knowledge at your disposal, we can be that New World Order!"

"That's crazy!" Sonic struggled against the chair. "We can't bend people to our will or kill those who disobey us, Eggman! That's evil!"

Dr. Robotnik hung his head with a sigh as he pushed a button on the remote, making the timestamp gradually go forward in time again. "Is it evil? Or is destroying the only planet we live on, keeping us in a stone age evil?" On-screen the model of Earth went through a span of over a hundred years, showing how the population reduced after the 2100's; there was a rebirth of forests as hundreds of millions of trees were planted around the globe to create oxygen, deserts shrunk, the smog cleared up and the colour of the ocean became a brighter blue. "Look at that? Do you see?" Eggman asked in reference to how much healthier the planet is. "The Earth is miraculous, but it didn't just fix itself, not that fast. The smog and pollution didn't simply disappear. All the damage that was sustained from careless humans had to be cleaned up by the descendants of those careless humans!" Coming back to the Age of Golden Enlightenment, the age which Eggman seemed so desperate to get back to, the tubby madman said "If we want this, if we want a new Golden Age of Enlightenment, we have to work for it!"

Sonic watched the demonstration as Skaldi's Comet hit. Watching it forward this time, it made sense now that the planet appeared even healthier after the apocalypse; it WAS healthier because there was an even bigger reduction in humanity as well as pollutants. Without humans causing constant scratches on the surface, nature had time to scar over and move on, retaking what once belonged solely to it. However, as time went on and humans returned alongside several new species making their own contaminants, the state of the planet slowly worsened, ceasing the progress that had been made on healing. At first it wasn't much, the damage to the environment being minimal considering there being a still functional civilization. Regardless, once the timespan reached modern day, a lot of the aspects that made the world so rotten were raised from the dead. What is currently the United Federation, where Sonic and Eggman both were, it looked a lot like the United States of America.

More footage appeared, this time of current events. Like in the past, societal issues were becoming a problem. Gangs were running rampant in big cities. Forests were being destroyed to make room for either suburbs or agriculture to feed the growing masses. Use of nonrenewable resources went through the roof, not as bad as the Old World, but a decent fraction. Smog was beginning to return to dense yet primitive metropolises or areas with a lot of factories. People were once again spreading all over the globe exactly as they did in the past. More people also meant more pollution and more money being taken away from proper sources to be stored in individual bank accounts. Everything about the modern day resembled not the golden age, but the dystopia that came before. The video shifted to downtown Station Square where there were homeless bums living on the streets while drug dealers carried out business in broad daylight. It also displayed captured footage of prostitutes looking to turn tricks and people abducting regular citizens to sell them off to illegal kidnappers. Bank robbers, murders, child rapists, politicians bribing police and animal abusers. There was so much crime that wasn't dealt with by heroes like Sonic that it seemed like a completely different place.

"Don't you get it, Sonic?" Eggman questioned the hedgehog as he strolled over to the bar, casually grabbing his cigar to puff on it before the cherry went out. "The world doesn't need a hero. It doesn't need you to stop me from bringing about a utopia, It needs an anti-hero, someone who's not afraid to give both humanity and anthropomorphs tough love." Pressing another button, the footage sped up, displaying horrible acts of violence recently caught on film, people doing awful things to each other. The images went by quickly, but Sonic's eyes managed to take all of them in, letting his brain process the true atrocities people are capable of. "You've been so busy focusing on me that you don't realize how evil the general populace can be when left unchecked."

Pressing another button, the pictures on-screen sped up even more until they were a nonstop barrage of violent imagery. Sonic wanted to look away, but for some odd reason he couldn't. Seeing such monstrous behaviour was almost hypnotizing in a certain sense. He gulped and his eyes rapidly scanned the videos as he saw humans committing the most heinous of crimes. His stomach turned as he saw a person being stabbed repeatedly or a brutal rape caught on camera. Police bodycame footage of a child sex ring being broken up made his face redden with anger that such people who could do such a thing even existed in the first place. Humans lynching an anthropomorph. Anthropomorphs savagely stabbing a human. Watching a lady overdose on narcotics while she was right across from the hospital, all of the videos begin to chisel away at his fragile psyche, making him loathe the human species altogether for the evil crimes they're capable of committing.

"Don't you want to stop these people, Sonic?" Eggman asked while pretending to sound a bit desperate. "Wouldn't you rather go against serial killers and child molesters than me? What am I doing that's so bad to you?" Puffing on his cigar, this time he spewed out the smoke, letting it all drift into the restrained hedgehog's face. "I'm trying to prevent the world from being so out of control by conquering a dying dynasty, yet every time, you stop me. Every single time, you stop me from helping the world become as advanced as it should be. Every single time, you stop me from bettering humanity."

"It's because you're a maniac!" Sonic tried to keep himself sane by spitting facts. "You're a killer!"

"YOU HAVE TO BE! DON'T YOU GET IT!?" Eggman shouted back at the blue hero. "YOU HAVE TO BE A KILLER IF YOU'RE GOING TO FIX THE WORLD!" Holding the cigar in his mouth using his teeth, the tubby human pointed at the screen. "Do you really think you can rehabilitate these people? Huh?" Shaking his head, he screamed again. "NO! OF COURSE NOT!" Puffing on the cigar, he continued "People like that must be eliminated if we're going to shape this rotting world into the golden age."

"How!?" Sonic desperately asked. "How can we eliminate all the crime in Station Square!? It's not possible!"

Chuckling, Eggman took the cigar out of his mouth, walked over to the bar and snuffed it out in the ashtray. Pressing a button on the remote, the projector turned off while the screen retracted back into the ceiling. With the press of a different button, a circular protrusion on the floor in front of him began to rise up, revealing a hidden display armoire containing an intriguing costume. "Again… You, Sonic." Dr. Robotnik answered the hedgehog's aforementioned question. "Only you won't be Sonic anymore. You'll be someone else entirely, someone even more capable of stopping crime than that foolish blue speedster." Waving his hand toward the costume, he said. "What do you think?"

The outfit in the display armoire resembled a mix between a dictator's outfit and a superhero like Batman. From top to bottom, it started with a black helmet shaped like an officer's hat that had a flashlight on the left temple in addition to a mirrored visor so nobody could see the wearer's face. A black skin tight shirt made of stretchy breathable material was beneath what appeared to be form fitting kevlar body armour. There was also a stiff black genuine leather overcoat with a flipped up collar as well as a red armband bearing a black symbol for the Eggman Empire atop a white gear. A belt that was meant to attach around the overcoat had numerous pouches for additional supplies. By the left hip, the belt also had a gun holster while the right hip had a rather large sheathed knife. The radio on the belt also held a shoulder mike, whose cord stretched up the back of the coat to attach to the shoulder straps. Aside from new gloves, on the right wrist was a device similar to what he saw Eggman using earlier. As for the pants, they were gray jodhpurs, flared-hip breeches like old fashioned generals used to wear. Finishing off the costume was a pair of wax coated hobnailed jackboots that came up to the mid-calf on the jodhpurs.

"What the fuck!?" Sonic exclaimed in shock as he stared at the costume with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not wearing a Nazi outfit, you disgusting bastard!"

Jerking his head around, Eggman seemed surprised at Sonic's choice of words. "Oh, what do you know of the Nazis? This is the costume of an anti-hero, not a Nazi."

"I'd look like a villain! I'd never wear something like that. It's offensive!" Sonic retorted, refusing to even so much as imagine himself wearing such a thing. Being the hero he was, it would be severely out of character to don such a malicious outfit. Just seeing it made him think of bad guys. "There's no way a hero would wear this. How do you expect society to listen to me when I'm wearing the outfit of a fascist!? The armband, the jackboots… What the hell?!"

Dr. Robotnik pressed another button on the remote, releasing the metal clamps grip on Sonic's legs, freeing them from the restraints. As the restraints retracted into the hidden compartments on the seat, he attempted to explain his reasoning to the frightened hedgehog while hoping the provided evidence that he would soon be released would give Sonic enough focus to keep listening. "You're not going to be making society listen to you, Sonic. That's part of the problem. Like I said, you can't rehabilitate what's wrong with civilization, not corruption and mass crime." Walking in front of Sonic, he stood between him and the costume. "As an anti-hero, you need to be dressed the part, plus you need to be better equipped than you are. You wouldn't be the teen running around doing child-friendly things while fighting your usual arch-nemesis… No, that has to change… You have to fight the real crime and to do that, you have to play dirty. You have to be a specter, a vengeance manifested by the lives that have been ruined, the advancements that haven't been made because of backstabbing double-dealers."

"And that suit is going to help me accomplish that?" Sonic enquired as he grumbled.

Nodding with a smirk, Eggman said "Yes… Yes it will." Touching the form fitting kevlar body armor, he clarified "Your super speed normally protects you from being shot as you can just outrun the bullets or laser blasts. But, with this armor, if you do get hit, you'll receive minimal damage." Pointing to the visor, he continued with "You'll never be recognized with this nifty visor either. Plus, it's not just for show. There's a lot of technology packed in there; a sophisticated heads-up-display capable of showing you your speed and the time. It also contains an onboard navigation system so you'll never have to stop and look at a map. There's a built-in phone with crisp text message display capabilities as well as three separate modes of vision aside from standard... Night vision, thermal and scope." Grabbing the right wrist of the leather overcoat, he lifted it to show off the device clamped on it. "I've included my patented Circuit Bracelet too. It's a hologram based touchscreen projected from the bracelet onto your forearm. You can use it to contact me, use the internet and wirelessly control compatible robots as well as monitor their operational status. Not only that, but it gives you full access to the Egg Carrier as well."

"You trust me with all those gadgets?" Sonic inquired curiously, wondering why the evil scientist would give him such access to all his machines and more.

Shrugging, Eggman glanced back at the befuddled hedgehog in advance of saying "Of course. It's not a problem to give a gift to an ally of mine."

"We can't be al-..." Was all Sonic managed to get out before he was interrupted by Dr. Robotnik.

"See these?" The insane villain motioned toward the pants of the outfit, not letting Sonic finish his sentence. "They're jodhpurs designed so you can move around freely, not restricted by normal pants. Your range of motion should be much better as well considering the fabric is looser around the hips than most trousers." Going up to the belt, he unlatched the holster prior to removing a laser pistol shaped exactly like his, a replica of an old german luger. "I gave you a gun. I know you don't generally use one, but you will if you're going to take on real criminals. Besides, it's more-or-less a backup weapon. Your main weapon will be this…" Putting the laser blaster back in the holster, he unlatched the latch on the knife sheath before pulling that out as well. "A very special knife." Showing it to Sonic, he told the anthropomorph what it was constructed out of. "It's made of tungsten with replaceable porcelain blades." Brandishing the blade, he smirked "I guarantee you'll take out a decent number of gangsters with this." Chuckling, he slowly put the knife back in the sheathe, hearing a grinding noise as he did. "The best part is that the sheathe re-sharpens the blade every time you hilt it."

"I… I…" Sonic struggled to find the words he wanted to say. "I… don't…. there's no way…"

"Why don't you just take a little while to think about it?" Dr. Robotnik semi-asked, mostly commanding the blue hedgehog. Pressing the same button on the remote, the restraints clamped to Sonic's wrists retracted into their retrospective hidden compartments. "I'm sure you'll come to see that I'm right about everything I told you. Just don't leave the Egg Carrier, because you're still a wanted man… err… hedgehog."

As soon as the metal cuffs were removed from his wrists, Sonic shot up out of the chair and started running for the door of the lounge.

Eggman didn't bother to try and stop him. Instead, he just yelled. "DON'T FORGET EVERYTHING YOU SAW, HOW BAD HUMANS ARE! HAHAHA!"

Dashing out of the lounge, Sonic's heartbeat felt like a jackhammer as he made a break for the exit of Eggman's Personal Chambers altogether. With his nerves shot due to extreme duress, he couldn't think of anything other than escaping from this floating metal prison. 'This is…' He tried to console himself, only to find that he could barely string together words in his own head. 'There's no way… I can't…. He's…. No…. He's got to be wrong…. He can't…. No….' Shaking his head, he rushed out the door to the outside, letting the sunlight soak into his fur as he continued making his way across the deck of the Egg Carrier, heading for the bow. "I'm a hero!" He screamed while trying to convince himself that it wasn't even possible for him to be an anti-hero. "I'M SONIC THE HEDGEHOG! DO YOU HEAR ME!?" Visions of the violent images flashed across his mind as he kept yelling. "I'M NOT A CRIMINAL! I'M NOT A VILLAIN!"

He tried his best to think of other things, to think of all the adventures he'd been on, with Tails and Knuckles. He wanted to occupy his thoughts with Amy or how glad he was to have an adoptive family that cared for him like Vanilla and Cream did. Nonetheless, those thoughts were swiftly overtaken with memories of being beaten up by a gang, having nobody to rely upon and the loss of faith in humanity he'd experienced. His tail hung limp and ears flattened back. 'Amy…' He mentally called out for help to the pink hedgehog as he raced up to the bow of the Egg Carrier, stopping to grab ahold of the railing. He tried distracting himself with the acknowledgement of how much he loved her and wanted to live a happy life with her. Yet, he couldn't keep it on his mind for long. Flashes of being ambushed at Twinkle Park, of Amy's look of horror when she had a gun pointed at her, all of it made him feel as if his sanity was melting away.

Allowing himself the opportunity to imagine wearing the costume, he thought about what he could do if nobody realized it was him; if he were a new hero with the same powers that the populace didn't know about yet. In all likelihood, the burden of retaining his friendly neighborhood hero status, that wouldn't exist anymore. He wouldn't have to worry that a few extra punches on a bad guy would make people think he'd turned evil, or that he was too young to deal with mature crimes of humanity, such as murder, rape or slavery. The hedgehog had been so busy dealing with Robotnik's trivial bullshit that he'd overlooked the United Federation's political treason and corporate espionage. For a split second he used his imagination to envision himself setting things straight. He could see himself in that costume taking out the trash of Station Square, completely eliminating major crime. What the police and courts were unable or too scared to do, he could do for them, free of the obligation to be kind to those who don't deserve it, free of the obligation to uphold tainted laws, free of the obligation to never kill. Becoming an anti-hero instead of a traditional hero, he could very easily take out the Concrete Junkies and make a better world for himself, his budding family and his friends.

Retrieving his phone, he looked at it with a sniffle. The power was low from not being charged. Despite his mind racing rampantly and being in the presence of his enemy, he still wanted to call his friends. In a sense, he was desperate to get a hold of someone who would put him back in the right frame of mind. For a moment, he thought about calling Tails or even Amy to explain everything that's happening. However, he immediately realized that the government, the Guardian Units of Nations, would have wiretapped their phones in preparation for him calling. Same as before, he knew he didn't want those he loved and cared about to get into trouble. If he communicated with them, there was a good chance that he'd cause them to be charged with accessories in assisting a fugitive escape from the law. In fact, looking at the phone, he realized that the device could be in the process of being tracked by the police at that very moment.

Accessing his photos, he pulled up a picture of his last birthday party where almost everyone he knew attended. All of his friends and adoptive family were there; from Tails, Vanilla and Cream, to Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, Blaze, Vector, Espio, and Charmy. That group was who had been there for him through thick and thin. Now, he felt not only the urge to protect them like he always had, but to distance himself in order to keep them out of trouble. It would be hard, harder than anything he had ever accomplished. Yet, he knew he had to do it so his loved ones could live their lives free of torment. Nonetheless, he held back from cutting ties because he knew he needed them just as much, if not more, than they needed him. Zooming in on Amy's face, he felt a hot tear roll down his cheek. All the cherished memories he had with them were once in a lifetime experiences that he refused to abandon. "I… I can't…" He huffed in sadness. "I can't leave them behind forever. I need them in my life." Sucking in a breath as he hiccuped from the tears, he continued to feel hopeless. "I have to protect them by staying away. But, I don't want to. I need them."

Growing angry, he hollered off the deck of the Egg Carrier towards the choppy blue waters of the Sapphire Sea. "FUCK!" He was furious the government had framed him, that typical criminal lowlifes caused him to go into such a rage that the police were now after him. "DAMMIT! WHY!?" He dipped into self-loathing "I'M SUCH A DUMBASS!" On the other hand, he knew the blame was more on G.U.N. than him. "THOSE SON-OF-A-BITCHES! I NEVER SHOULD HAVE HELPED THEM, I NEVER SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED THEM!" Rattling the railing of the deck, he had an urge to hop over it, hit the water and sink into the depths of the ocean. Thankfully, he had far too much self-preservation in him to ever attempt such a thing.

Sighing, he glanced back down at the screen of his phone, staring into Amy's eyes. Zooming out to see everyone once again, he stared for several minutes straight. Suddenly, he gradually lifted his head as a realization came to him. Out of nowhere, he started thinking that he didn't have to abandon his friends forever, that he wouldn't need to give up a life of happiness with those he loved. Staring up at the clouds in the bright blue sky, he came to understand that there just might be another way to go about this situation. Instead of waiting to either be sent to prison or have lawyers and public defenders try to clear his name, he could right the wrongs himself by taking out the corrupt parts of the system. Without those opposing him there to make more lies, he could simply find evidence of their deception as well as their manipulation of the legal system. In addition to fixing mistakes, he could also take out the trash stopping society from progressing. All that he needed to do was wear the uniform Eggman presented to him, to become an anti-hero. It wouldn't be permanent, just a path leading to the means of the end.

Reeling back his arm, he chucked his phone over the side of the Egg Carrier, watching as it fell to the water with a miniscule splash. The water would destroy it, preventing the authorities from tracing his location. Although he wouldn't have access to his contacts or his photos, he knew that all it took was getting a new phone since all his pictures were backed up to The Cloud. Without a way to track him down, he'd be free to go undercover for as long as he could sustain the illusion.

He didn't want to do it, but he had no choice and he knew it. "I can do it." The blue hedgehog told himself, psyching himself up to fulfill the role of an anti-hero. "I have to do it." Once more, as he'd done repeatedly as of lately, he tormented himself by seeing flashes of the gang members who beat him up, ambushing him at a park when he was at his lowest, or Amy's look of terror as she was held at gunpoint by a king of ruffians. "I have to do it for my friends and family." Drifting over to the corruption in the government, his nostrils flared as his fists clenched in anger. "I have to do it for the people." Narrowing his eyes, he finally admitted that Eggman was likely right on this issue, that crime as well as political strife needed to be utterly eliminated, by force, in order for the remaining good people to usher in the golden age of humanity. Then, he settled on the cause by thinking about the Earth, remembering the destruction and climate change he'd witnessed during earlier's demonstration, knowing that issue had to be dealt with too unless he didn't want to have a planet to spend time with his friends on. "I have to do it for the world."

.

Back with Eggman, the human was pouring himself another shot of whiskey, savoring his potential victory when he abruptly received a message on his own holo-bracelet. Downing the shot of his favourite alcohol, he pressed the button on the remote to make the secret armoire descend down into the floor where it's stored. Setting the shot glass down on the bar, a shiver went down his body from the buzz of the booze coursing through him. "Whew!" He exclaimed as he shook his head, eyes blinking as his tongue flapped side-to-side. "Strong stuff." Wiping the corners of his mouth, he decided to see what his buddy in arms had to say.

Looking down at his wrist, he tapped the device to make the message be displayed on his forearm. {I saw him run out of your room looking freaked out. Did it work? Is he going to join us?}

Chuckling at the progress he'd made, Dr. Robotnik wrote a response in advance of sending it. {Don't worry. He'll come around... I promise.}

.

- END OF BOOK 1 -