Chapter 1: Dark Intentions

The Indians have told stories of how human would become one with animals' spirits. How they would take on characteristics of those very animals. Courage. Strength. Sight. Alertness. Smell. Speed.

It was all a farce, of course. Animals were animals. Humans were humans. They each had their own characteristics and that couldn't change. Not by the methods of these Indians, anyway.

Years ago. Before the first real human civilization; before the first city; and before the first law code was drawn up. Back when strange beasts roamed the earth beside the humans, there was a prophecy. It spoke of the ones who would save the world one day by taking on the characteristics of certain animals.

Back then, that prophecy was looked upon as undisputed fact. In fact, anywhere you saw a tablet or writing with that prophecy on it, you were under law to kneel down and say a prayer of thanks for it… but this was before writing. This was before law... of the humans, anyway.

But soon humans prospered. They grew in numbers and in intelligence. The creatures that had written this and that had prayed for this became under their control.

But in bitterness toward the humans, the prophecies were destroyed. All were destroyed except the very original. The race of creatures would never allow humans to know that prophecy. They would be blind to it.

But to every child of that race, the prophecy was taught. For generations, this prophecy was passed on. But soon, the humans became greedy. They wanted more power and although this other race was under their feet already, they desired that there was no chance to an uprising. Ever. So they killed the race. Everyone, save a few hundred that escaped and lived in hiding, was killed.

More generations passed. Thousands of years went on. The humans forgot about the strange race—the race of the human-animal mutants. From history to story to legend to myth to bedtime story. Soon it was forgotten completely.

But the few hundred that escaped lived on. They didn't prosper. They couldn't afford to let themselves be known again, so they lived in limited numbers. They stayed in deep forests and jungles. They lived amongst the creatures of the wild and they for the most part lived like them.

The years went on and they felt that the time of the prophecy was coming near. They started dispersing around the world, looking for the Ones that would fulfill it.

A fatal mistake it was. Divide and conquer. They refused to let themselves grow to high numbers and by dispersing they were at a loss. They couldn't live on if they couldn't reproduce. And so the race dwindled. From thousands to hundreds. From hundreds to one last family. A family of Echidnas. They had stuck together instead of splitting apart. They were the keepers of the Chaos Emeralds. Although they didn't realize it at the time, those very Rings that would play a major part in the prophecy.

That family came upon a small town. And there… as the father of the family breathed his last, they stopped looking.

They settled underground, digging tunnels hundreds of feet underground. They were the last of the race without a name and they would die that way. They would die isolated and alone.

It was a beautiful day in the city of Mobius, Indiana. Actually, dark rain clouds bordered the horizon and there was a strong and cold wind from the east. But it was still a beautiful day to Edgar Wilsans. It was the last day of school. And as he sat in his last sophomore class, waiting for that stupid bell to ring, he couldn't help but to wonder if this was the year he was going to ask Summer Anderson out.

Summer had been his best friend since kindergarten. With her shoulder length auburn hair, emerald green eyes, and perfect skin, she was breath taking. At least, that's what he thought in kindergarten. Now, ten years later, she was all that and ten times more.

Edgar had short brown hair so dark that unless it was in light, it looked black. He had deep brown eyes that shone with the joy of being a constant optimist. There's nothing he couldn't put a good spin on. Even when Summer's parents had divorced years before, he had managed to make her see the 'silver lining'. There was nothing he couldn't smile about... Well, except for his own name. Even though he pretended to enjoy its uniqueness, he despised his name with a passion. But his mother just had to name him after his—what was it? Grandfather's best friend's dog? Something like that. But at least it could be changed to the semi-better name of Eddie.

Eddie had loved Summer for years now. Starting back at kindergarten as a crush and escalating to the love he felt now. He had never spoken of those feelings though, because he knew she didn't return them. She loved him all right, but as a best friend. Nothing more.

His mask of total optimism faded slightly at those thoughts but as the bell rang its shrill good-bye, the thoughts were forgotten. It was summer break—a time of joy and endless possibilities. Maybe his greatest dream would be accomplished this summer, maybe not. He didn't know, but as always, he was optimistic. Always optimistic.

He was the first out of the classroom, although ironically he wasn't the fastest person around. In fact, most people would call him slow. He was out of shape, that's all it was. He had a wiry build and when it came to brute strength, he was a toothpick. He was also a bully magnet. And although he wasn't physically picked on much anymore, the names never ceased.

But Summer was always there to defend him when he didn't do it himself. She was always ready to stand up to whoever decided to verbally attack Eddie. She wasn't impressive in size and there's no way she could take on the bullies, yet she did it anyway. And that, of course, gave rise to another level of verbal abuse. "What? Can't stand up for yourself, Ed-boy? Need to hide behind a girl?" Eddie never let that one bother him though. In fact, the names and ridicule hadn't fazed him for years now. He had gotten used to it and had decided to don the eternal optimist attitude.

Many bullies left him alone when they realized their jeers and mockery had no affect of him, but there was one that never did. Max Keepers—grade 'A' jerk. At 6' 2", he stood over a head taller than Eddie and he weighed over a 120 pounds more as well. All in muscle, of course. He had sandy blonde hair that often was left unkempt (although since it was so short, it was hardly noticed).

And now he stood in front of Eddie's locker, causing the smaller boy to stop. "Max, school's over. Not even your worst insults could ruin this for me. Now, if you saved them 'til the first day of school at the end of summer…"

"Shut up, Wilsans." Max said with a smirk. Eddie just shrugged and folded his arms across his chest.

"What is it this time? Wimp? Freak? Retard? Idiot? Come on, you'd better have something more original than those or I'm just going to leave right now."

Max's eyes flashed. "How about mass of broken bone and flesh!" He stepped forward threateningly and Eddie, looking at something behind Max, just smirked.

"Naw… still sounds boring. How about 'saved by the teacher who's standing right behind you'?" Max froze and looked over his shoulder, only to find Eddie's History teacher and uncle (on his mother's side), Charles Reister, known to his friends as Chuck.

"Problems, boys?" He said, while looking right at Eddie.

Eddie grinned. "Nope! Max here was just wishing me a good summer!" He turned back to Max. "Well, the same goes for you!" He slapped Max on the back as hard as he could and Max walked off grumbling.

"Smart move." Uncle Chuck said with a smirk. He checked his watch and sighed. "I can't believe they hold a teacher's conference right after school lets out for the year… Oh well, I'd better not be too late!" Eddie grinned and nodded. With a wave, Uncle Chuck walked off.

Smiling and shaking his head, Eddie walked up to his locker and reached inside, grabbing his books, and depositing them into the backpack that he also kept in his locker. He also grabbed everything else, just gym clothes and shoes, and stuffed them in it as well.

"Are you finally ready to go?" A feminine voice asked from behind him and Eddie involuntary stiffened and turned to face his best friend and secret love, Summer. "Are you all right?" She asked when he didn't answer after a few moments.

He shook his head and grinned. "Of course! Just was, um… looking at a cute chick that walked by!"

Summer looked around. "Um… we're the only ones in the hall."

With a grim feeling in his gut, Eddie saw that was true. Everyone else was already gone, eager to leave this personal hell known as high school. He scrambled for an answer. "Exactly! She's already left! And I think we should too! Come on!"

Summer raised an eyebrow, not totally buying his excuse and pitiful attempt to change the subject, but she then shrugged and started walking towards the exit, Eddie on her heels.

THUD! Eddie's backpack made a satisfying crunch as it landed in the trashcan. "I can't believe you just threw away your backpack… again!" Summer said with a smirk.

Eddie grinned at her. "It's what I do every year! You know that! I get rid of my books—"

"And anything else in your bag." Summer added.

"And throwing away my backpack is a symbol of being free from school! For a few months anyway!" Eddie finished with a grin.

"You waste a lot of money that way." Eddie simply shrugged at that and reached into his pocket, pulling out a few dollars.

"Come on, let's hit Dogs 'n' Chili before the rush! I feel hungry for some chili dogs!" He said with a grin. Summer simply rolled her eyes and nodded, prompting him to head towards the restaurant. He did so and she followed.

SHING! Eddie slid smoothly down a metal rail and landed easily on the concrete sidewalk. His Soap brand name shoes were built for this very thing—grinding.

"Hey, you kid! Quit that!" Somebody walking a few meters ahead of Eddie yelled. The teen just ignored him though and grinned at Summer who was walking calmly down the steps. She just rolled her eyes and muttered something.

Just down the block was Eddie's favorite place to hang out. Dogs 'n' Chili was a small fast food joint that served all kinds of hot dogs and chilidogs, Eddie's favorite food.

The small yellow shack was a wondrous sight for Eddie who was exhausted from the five-mile walk to get there. He wasn't good with speed or endurance. The brown dog holding up an overflowing chilidog painted on the building welcomed him as the duo walked into the air-conditioned restaurant.

"Ahh! It's my favorite customer!" The owner of the shack, Johnson Prower, said with a grin. He was a large man, in height and weight, with a balding head and a full black beard. He wore a greasy white t-shirt and worn blue jeans topped off with a plastic apron covered in all kinds of food.

"Hey, John! Ready for my order, 'cause I am hungry!" Eddie said before plopping down on the nearest table to the counter.

"Already ahead of you, Eddie! Five chilidogs with cheese and hot sauce plus one big sized soda to boot!"

"You got it, bubba!" Eddie said loudly, matching the larger man's booming voice.

Summer rolled her eyes at this. These two were so crazy at times. They would often show off their 'manliness' with belching contests (when there were no other customers, of course) and chilidog eating matches. Somehow Eddie always managed to keep up with the larger man fairly well too when it came to eating. Surprisingly for his small size, he could eat many chilidogs easily.

"And one chili cheese dog for the lovely lady?" Johnson said much calmer this time to Summer. She nodded with a smile but didn't say anything.

As the large man walked back into the kitchen, Eddie called out, "Hey, is Miles around?" Johnson merely replied by jerking his meaty thumb to the direction of the back room and with a grunt. Eddie smiled at Summer. "I'll be right back." With that he walked into the backroom.

There, hunched over a desk and tinkering on some contraption, was the twelve-year-old boy named Miles Prower. He had sandy blonde hair and a freckle covered face that was just beginning to show the signs of adolescence. Having just completed eleventh grade that very day, there was no doubt to anyone that he was a child prodigy. That label had also gotten him labeled as a geek at the high school and he was a target for bullies. Even more than Eddie was.

He turned around in his spinning chair to reveal that his eyes were covered up by huge safety glasses that looked like they were barely staying on. In front of him was a small misshapen mass of metal parts and screws. At a closer glance, you could see the definite beauty of the 'creature'.

"Eddie! Just in time! This here's my RoboSpider! I just finished it! Wanna see?" Miles said in his slightly squeaky voice.

Although in truth, Eddie held little desire to watch yet another one of Miles inventions, he grinned and nodded anyway. He knew that Miles was really good at this and he loved it when Eddie watched, so he didn't find any reason not to other than the boredom.

So with a smile, Miles spun back around and pressed a small button on the side of the robot. A red light clicked on and with a whirr, it came to life! Eight small legs that were folded beneath the body unfolded slowly and the 'spider's' body rose slowly off the table to stand on them. It took one step forward and then another, until it was quickly scurrying across the desk.

"It's working! Yes!" Miles cried with a tinge of boyish joy in his voice.

"Uh, Miles?" Eddie said as he watched the robot.

"I can't believe this! Usually my inventions down work so well on the first run!"

"Miles?"

"Oh, man! This thing is so great! I could win the upcoming robotics contest with this!"

"Miles?"

"What?" Miles snapped, obviously frustrated that Eddie had ruined his moment of joy. Eddie simply pointed at the spider, which was walking quickly towards the edge of the table. "Hey!" He jumped up and tried to grab the robot before it tumbled over the edge, but he was just a split second too slow and the robot toppled over, crashing onto the hard floor below. Its pieces were crushed, broken, and scattered around the crash site and the once wonderful spider became what it truly looked like to Eddie at the beginning: a heap of metal and screws.

The young boy's joy soon turned to sadness as he observed the broken robot. "Aww…" He said solemnly.

Eddie walked over to him and patted him roughly on the back. "S'ok, Miles! You can fix it! And this time you can make it so it won't walk off any tables too!"

Miles looked up at him; joy once again was etched on his face. "Yeah! And this time I can make it huge! As big as a house! I'll call it the MegaRoboSpider!"

Eddie just patted him on his back again. "Sure you will, Miles. If anyone can do it, you can! Now come on and grab a bite to eat! Maybe you can convince your dad to give me my food for free again!" Miles grinned and walked out of the room and Eddie followed.

Not too far away, Doctor Julius Eggman was doing something very similar, only on a much bigger scale. With screwdriver in hand, he opened up the 'chest' of a large and dark green robot. The robot was humanoid in shape but its head was built almost like a disk, only fatter. It had a single spike on the top of its head.

He rubbed his gigantic orange mustache that extended far past his fat cheeks and adjusted his dark glasses as he looked closely at the robot. SwatBot is what he called the model. It was the security of the huge complex that he lived on. With 'hands' that converted into high-powered laser guns and powerful sensors able to detect anything out of place within a 100-meter radius, it served as a much better security guard than any human could.

With a yawn, he closed the chest compartment of the robot and flicked the switch on its neck to the on position. Immediately, the SwatBot whirred to life and sat up on the steel table on which he lay. "Unit Two-Nine-Six-Eight online." It said in a mechanical voice.

Eggman looked at it with mild interest. "Go join the others." Without a reply, the SwatBot got off the table and marched with perfect precision out of the room, where it would continue its march to a large warehouse. There it would automatically shut down and wait until reactivated by remote.

Although it was the perfect security guard, Eggman had no plan to use it as so. He already had plenty of those. No, he was creating an army. An army that would help him achieve his sweet revenge on Mobius and one day the world!

Some would call him insane. Some would call him eccentric. Some would call him a mad scientist (which was probably as true as his name was Eggman). But there wasn't one person in that world that would call him stupid. He was a genius with an IQ of 300. He was the leading scientist in the area of robotics and countless magazines dubbed him the "smartest man ever" which in his opinion, was completely true.

When he was just ten years old, he completed his first robot from scratch. When fifteen he had managed to gain a scholarship to the Mobius University of Robotics, the leading most fluent university in robotics! By then he had already completed high school. Three years before to be exact. From there, he worked day and night at the university to shoot to the top of his class, which he did with ease.

Then it all came crashing down around him. He was in his last year of college. After he finished this year, a huge robotics company would hire him where he would earn a seven-digit salary each year! But then he was sued. Sued by a stupid twerp by the name of Mark Wilsans. The man claimed that one of Eggman's robots had shot at him. Now, whether this was actually true or not, Eggman did not totally know. Sure, one of his SwatBots had gotten out that day and it was fully armed with a laser, but…

Anyway, he had won the case and had lost nothing physical, but the damage had been done. The robotics company found out that he was creating robots as weapons and had immediately turned him down. Then the school threw him out as a 'threat to the students'. And then, last but not least, he was thrown in jail for a few years by the government for building war machines.

When Eggman got out, he was the hardened man he was now. He immediately got started on building more SwatBots and started selling them over the black market for huge sums. He was earning more money than he would have through the robotics company, but he was still extremely bitter towards them. So, he promised himself revenge. And he had now been working for years on creating an army of robots, getting ready for when he'd invade Mobius and then one day the Capital! He would either rule or decimate (he hadn't yet decided which he'd rather do) this country using the mindless, heartless drones. They felt no remorse and they felt no pain. They'd follow his orders one hundred percent even if it meant certain destruction. They were the perfect soldiers. Smart enough to be able to go against a human army and stupid enough to follow Eggman's orders without second thought.

And now, as he looked at his current number of SwatBots, he knew that the time for invasion had come!