A hesitant look became plastered onto Tails' face as he looked around at the tens of thousands of people in the audience around him. All those people were cheering and excited after watching the obstacle course throughout Spring Yard's racetrack and on-screen.
"I can't believe I did it! I did it, Sonic! I brought my head into the game and did what you told me to try and be." Tails thought as he looked around nervously. "It's too bad he couldn't be in the race to see me accomplish something for once in my life. I hope that I'll find Sonic around here somewhere."
Just then, Breezie began to approach the young fox with a gold trophy cup full of bundles of money and a purple Chaos Emerald. Tails could only get a little bashful as he tries to feign some belief in himself, cracking a small smile while T-Pup yipped around his creator.
"Now it gives me great pleasure to present this beautiful trophy bounded with the ten thousand cash prize, as well as the Chaos Emerald..." Breezie said on the microphone as she hands each of them over to the young winner of the event. "...to Miles 'The Turbo-Tailed Genius' Prower!"
The whole crowd started cheering again, yelling their lungs out because of what happened all over the arena. Tails could feel that the audience's cheers were thunderous, watching them shoot up from their seats and pumping their fists up in the air for the winner.
"T-T-Thank you so much!" Tails answered with his usual stutter.
The nervous expression of Tails became replaced by happiness and appreciation, with every person in the stadium cheering his name or just yelling out at how amazing the race was to them. Unbeknownst to Tails, a bulbous, egg-shaped hovercraft that is green on the upper half and blue on the lower half came flying down and descends to the ground at a halt. Soon, the hatch flew open as Snively exits out of the Hover Unit and glances around for Tails in a very bitter mood. He then spotted the two-tailed fox before he stomps across the arena towards Breezie, who doesn't appear to notice.
"Congratulations, Turbo Tails! You're the first-ever winner of the Spring Yard's COPE obstacle race!" Breezie threw a hand up in the air as a grin came to her face, glancing at Tails. "It was the most challenging course ever for us to devise. We'd thought the racers were to never even get past the Crush Cubes, but you aced it!"
Just before Tails could answer Breezie a bit further, Snively walks towards Tails as he pushes past the female hedgehog, observing the two awards the young fox had gained. With the short scientist that came out of nowhere, Tails became forced to cut himself off as he saw Snively approaching him with Breezie raising her eyebrow.
"Well, it looks you've done quite much, and here I thought you were going to get yourself removed from this race for being a little freak." Snively looked mildly interested, rolling his eyes.
"Wha...?" Breezie glanced at him, and her eyes lifted a bit as she tried to say something.
"This doesn't involve you, Breezie! You've already done quite enough, now that Miles here has the Chaos Emerald." Snively snapped his head and fiercely pointed at her.
"What are you doing here, Slop-ly?" Tails asked, feeling detested of seeing the short human here and now.
"QUIET! It's Dr. Snively to you, little twerp! I was coming to pick you up under my uncle's orders." Snively growled a bit, causing Tails to recoil as the short human calmed his thoughts. "But then I made a stop to watch how you did in this stupid race. So, I saw you win, quite appallingly. What's that all about with you racing alongside our enemy, eh?"
"Oh? Where did you see all that, shorty?" Breezie butts in on the conversation, making the short man dart his glare at the female hedgehog's sarcasm.
"There's not much that goes on anywhere that the doctor doesn't know about right now. Besides, he has eyes everywhere." Snively had a sadistic smirk on his face until deflating a bit when Breezie laughed in response.
"And yet, he still hasn't found one place that keeps biting him in the back every so often?" Breezie countered back with a gained smirk, her eyes rolling at the dullness of Dr. Robotnik's nephew.
Snively then marches up in front of Breezie, having no sense of personal space while he furiously pokes her multiple times on the arm. "You listen to me, Breezie! Don't go poking around in things you don't understand, or Robotnik will be your worst nightmare!"
Tails tried to speak, "W-Wait a minute, Snively-!"
"Shut up, Miles!" Snively told him with a frown, coming to his face. He then put his hands on his hips, stuck out his chest, and walked right up to Tails. "Get into the Hover Unit."
"Excuse me, down there." Breezie's calm eyes focused on Snively, who merely seethed in anger. "I don't care who you are, you little crazy baby-man. Leave my casino at once. It's outrageous."
Tails could only cover his mouth while laughing as he saw the surprised look on Snively's face, and then fake chuckled until he frowns again, grabbing Tails by the arm to take off impatiently. T-Pup followed alongside his creator while still fixing his attention on Snively's threatening behavior.
"Okay! Good talk. We'll be leaving! Let's take the Chaos Emerald and bring it back to Dr. Robotnik at once." Snively also looked back at Breezie with a half-angry smile. "Must have been a misunderstanding. And my apologies, Breezie. You try to be safe."
"Wait for a second, Snively!" Tails tried to invite the short man into a conversation, who would only ignore the boy's words stubbornly as they made their way to the Hover Unit.
Groaning, realizing he has his hands full, Tails then gave his trophy with the prize money inside to a familiar mobian dog before taking off towards Snively. "Here, you can take this!"
The confused mobian dog ogled back and forth at the cash prize in the trophy that the young fox had given to him. Recognizing that this could be enough to buy back his home for his family, the mobian dog thankfully waved to show thanks for Tails' generosity as he rushes off somewhere else in delight. Meanwhile, Snively held a remote to open the Hover Unit's hatch and then snatches Tails by the arm again.
"Get in the Hover Unit, now!" Snively demanded, which made Tails frown.
Tails then yanked himself out of Snively's grip and began to question him, "Then why didn't you or Dr. Robotnik tell me that there are critters inside of the Badniks?"
And just like that, Snively soon became frozen as he stared away from the young fox with widened eyes. Snively seemed to ponder over this question for a minute.
"Why are you so suddenly interested in that?" Snively asked with his usual scowl.
"I've always understood how to create certain robot types that you guys tell me to make, but I've never gotten told how the energy source becomes required for them." Tails answered as his ears drooped down, which made Snively seem a bit tense.
"It's a classified process for us to handle, Miles. Dr. Robotnik was afraid that if you learned it, you'd be a target too. Besides, you're here to support and scavenge for Dr. Robotnik's interests, not waste time with a miserable hedgehog who destroys all of our longtime work."
Miles started to feel angry, his youthful yet genius mind feeling he was misled, for whatever reasoning there became to hide it. "You're wrong about him, Dr. Snively! I don't even know what you're talking about Sonic being this so-called evil troublemaker-!"
"Of course, he'd go after the most naive." Snively just chuckled with a palm on his forehead before sending Tails a glare. "The last thing you want is being around that hedgehog. He's a manipulator who spews his nasty lies all over the place! He can bring anarchy and harm to people who try to help him. Ouch, and think about the kids! It doesn't matter how safe children are, but that hedgehog takes those for his sick pleasure! That's why Robotnik and I are unwilling to let you become yet another victim of that so-called idol!"
"W-what do you mean? H-He would never do anything such as that...!" Miles spoke quietly, as he became unsure of what he was jumping headlong into right now.
"He'd have lots of horrible fun stuff to occupy that short attention span of his, pipsqueak," Snively spoke his white lie with both of his hands behind his back, fingers secretly crossing. "And I bet that hooligan can't think of any reason he would ever want to go out of his way to be friends with somebody like you. Ever."
With that becoming stated, Tails began to rethink back to when he used to help the Badniks look more delicate and add programming to make them act natural to their environment. But after what just happened during the race, each of the Badniks could have potentially killed Sonic or him, and the last thing Tails ever wanted to do was have one of the robots execute someone. All of the designs got created with the sole purpose of either knocking Sonic unconscious or stunning him. And somehow, Dr. Robotnik and Dr. Snively kept on modifying the robots' programs before they get released, and they were making them lethal. All in all, everything Snively had declared was starting to annoy Tails.
"I can handle myself, and I think I've proven that I can throughout the obstacle course, as well as the lies you and Robotnik have been telling me!" Tails shouted, surprising Snively as his anger at being deceived had finally boiled over.
"I'm not lying to you-!"
"Yes, you are! And I've especially seen what you've done with the robians! They were all innocent and harmless right until you put them in the Robotizer! Is all of this a cost for a perfect world that will come ahead? Loss of free will?"
Snively stood frozen at the young fox's question, and Tails wondered if he might have said too much. But it became degrading enough to realize that Tails didn't want anything he created affected by Dr. Robotnik. While grateful he was for being taken in by another genius, Tails was still unhappy that such drastic measures got used without his awareness. Snively could discern now that this two-tailed brat has been snooping as usual back in Robotropolis, giving the short scientist an excuse to robotize him until this argument was over.
"How long have you known?" Snively crosses his arms.
The young fox looked away, showing that his silence had answered enough for him to spy on Dr. Robotnik. Tails could only remember and cringe at the thought about the robians, as well as the implications of them being alive previously. From the time Tails had hidden behind one of the computer terminals, he had seen abducted villagers forcefully shoved into a small tube one by one and horrified by their sudden change from organic skin to solid steel.
All Tails did was do work out of sheer habit, but at this point, he wasn't sure he was striving for what became promised. How many mobians had he unknowingly helped capture and have become mindless robots? Tails felt scared and unsure of what he was going to do. Nothing instantly came to mind since he had lived in Robotropolis from when Dr. Robotnik found him all alone in the world.
"A perfect world," Tails said quietly before raising his voice a bit louder at Snively. "How would turning mobians into robots make the world a better place?! And is killing Sonic another way too?!"
With T-Pup barking in agreement with his originator, Tails did not flinch as much when Snively started giving him an accusing glare.
"You think that gives you the right to spy on your superior? You're bordering on treason here, twerp. And have you not been listening to what I said about that rodent's dishonesty? He's nothing but lying trash who deserves death!" Snively managed to emit a growl as he stared at the young fox.
"YOU'RE NOTHING BUT LYING TRASH, YOU BUTT-MONKEY!" Tails yelled rather aggressively as steam came out of his head, refusing to listen to the short human's falsifications. "I don't need to listen to your lies anymore! I saw you and Robotnik there when I heard their screams and pleading! All you did was enjoy every last bit of it! What are we fighting for, Snively-?!"
Suddenly, a few moments later, the giant Robotnik statue's head explodes, taking the master computer along with it. The statue's head popped out in black smoke with a cartoony broken teeth expression. Furthermore, there became a shower of money and coins ejected through the sky and down below, causing many mobians to reach and take them.
Startled by the sudden sound, it caused the fox to spin around quickly as he gazed at the disturbance. Tails became surprised while Snively gawked on in shock at what started ahead of them. Not before long, both Tails and Snively saw that the slot machines had gotten re-calibrated by using the disruptor, with everyone winning as a giant heap of gold coins pilled over each of their hands in a cheer.
The Marxio Brothers were there as well, each attempting to cease such rough-housing, only to get run over by a mass crowd of mobians. All three siblings looked like they got smushed and covered in footprints on the ground. As for Breezie, her eyes had become more cold stones of ice set on a stern face when seeing her money all over the place. Perhaps this was a minor setback for her plans to become a supreme businesswoman, but Breezie knew that this obstacle race granted the attention that her business deserves.
And she plans to keep it that way for the time being.
Meanwhile, Snively grumbled slightly to himself, hurryingly pulling out a tranquilizer gun. T-Pup barked at Snively in anger for his creator's safety and then hovered right at the short man until he quickly receives a hit from the Swat-Bot, impacting onto the ground with a yelp. When his ears heard the canine robot let out a wail, Tails knew that even the sight of his pet on the ground caused panic and fear to take over his mind once again. Without a single word passing from the dwarf's lips, he fired a barrage of hypodermic syringes at Tails, giving the young fox's body no time to evade the potentially life-threatening attack.
The young fox felt something sharp pierce his skin, pumping a payload of dangerous neurotoxins into his body, stealing away what little remained of the poor fox's energy reserves. Almost instantly, Tails became forced into a deep sleep, filled with violent nightmares. Snively watched, greatly amused, as the fox fell heavily to the ground in a thud and dropped the Chaos Emerald in his hand.
"Swat-Bot, take the brat into the Hover Unit and set a course back to Scrap Brain," Snively ordered one of his to take Tails inside of the hovercraft, just as he walks over to snatch the purple Chaos Emerald gleefully. "Dr. Robotnik's going to be in deep concern about what you've said to his second-in-command, freak."
Speeding their way out of the already destroyed statue of Dr. Robotnik, Sonic handled Rotor by the arm until skidding to a stop to examine the area full of cheery mobians. The walrus handyman was now back on his feet and wipes the sweat off his forehead with his cap.
"Heh, it looks like everyone hit the jackpot after seeing the best bit from yours truly! Right, Rotor?" Sonic let a smile spread across his face, nudging Rotor with his elbow. "I'll admit it, dude. I'm impressed!"
"Hehe! Thanks, Sonic." Rotor scratches the back of his head, exposing a blush on his face.
"That should be the end of this place's evil scheme of Butt-Nik's. And this is just the beginning, though!" Sonic told the walrus, gesturing with a hand. "Now, grab my arm, Rote. We've got to find Tails and get out of here fast to find Sally and Bunnie-!"
But Sonic had to force himself to stop talking once his eyes spotted a familiar two-tailed fox getting carried into a hovercraft, and then soon notices a purple Chaos Emerald in Snively's hand as he enters back inside the Hover Unit. Sonic and Rotor watched in absolute shock when they both saw the Swat-Bot take the poor defenseless fox away. Furthermore, Sonic could hear the short man's laughing at his unconscious friend's discomfort. The evil laughter made Sonic's blood more than boil; it made it superheat.
"HEY! LET GO OF MY FRIEND, YOU JERK!" Sonic erupted, pushing onward to dash towards the flying Hover Unit.
As the Hover Unit lifted, the windshield was then greeted by a spinning blue ball as it caused the glass to crack. Snively shrieked out of fright and jolted on the passenger seat, bringing back his usual scowl at the annoying hedgehog. Back down below with Rotor, he soon notices a robot dog that remained sprawled on the ground yet struggles to stand.
"I said let him go!" Sonic yelled, jerking against the hood of the Hover Unit.
"Get off the vessel, you filthy animal!" Snively then pulls a lever, and the Hover Unit sends a taser shock through Sonic, who falls aside.
"WHOA-AGH!" Sonic struck the ground as his face then got matched with the dirt, struggling to get up until the Hover Unit resumes flying off.
"NO!" Sonic shouted as he threw his fist onto the dusty ground in anger, followed by boosting himself up onto his feet. "We have to go get him back-!"
"Wait for a second, Sonic! Look what I found!" Rotor called out to him, crouching over to handle the whimpering T-Pup. "I think this little guy's gotten hurt by one of Snively's Swat-Bots. And the design looks a lot like that fox friend of yours too!"
"Then maybe it can tell us what happened here and why shorty wanted something to do with Tails!" Sonic crossed his arms with an impatient frown, dashing over to inspect the alarmed T-Pup.
But this act was enough to cause the canine robot to become aggressive, and without any warning, T-Pup launched himself to aim and charge at Sonic's head. The speedy hero quickly and easily dodged the attack, having been fully prepared for it. He and Rotor looked at the hostile little robot and tried to calm him down.
"Whoa! Wait, little guy, we're not going to hurt you. We're here to help find out where your owner got taken." Rotor held both his hands up to calm down T-Pup again.
The robot dog, not trusting Rotor's words, continued to attack the two mobians. Sonic knew he could surely defeat the T-Pup since he has tons of experience fighting robots and those bigger than him. But he couldn't bring himself to destroy this robot. After a while, T-Pup manages to bite Sonic's hand as the blue hedgehog yelped out of pain, shaking his hand and accidentally sending the robot dog onto the ground again. Knowing his mistake, Sonic approached T-Pup and saw that he was still functioning and growling at him.
"Don't worry, little guy. I'm sorry about scaring you just now. We told you, we're not going to hurt you. We want to help you find your master and track down the half-pint who stole him." Sonic tried to convince T-Pup one more time until he warily complied to let the blue hedgehog help him.
"Huh, you've managed to change his mind, Sonic?" Rotor asked with relief as he rubs his finger on the side of his head.
"Guess so," Sonic shrugged and then turns back to T-Pup, showing a hint of sadness in his voice. "Look, I don't know if you can understand me or something like that, but do you know where we can find that hovercraft?"
The blue hero looked at the robot dog's bright eyes, seemingly oblivious to what he had said.
Sonic shook his head lightly with a sigh as if to ridicule himself, "Of course, I'm talking to a robot dog."
"Snively could be taking his master back to one of Robotnik's factories!" Rotor suggested, gaining Sonic's attention. "Sally told me it's called Scrap Brain. That factory is crawling with Swat-Bots. Those things are all over the place, waiting for you to come to town so they can robotize you."
"Seriously, what does Scrap Brain even mean? It seems like a complete insult if you'd ask me. And it sounds an awful lot like a talking egg to boot. Robotnik needs to find cooler names than that." Sonic asked as he rolled his eyes.
"What do you want, Sonic? He's a madman who puts animals into robots and wants to conquer the world." Rotor shrugs, thinking of another idea. "How about Megalopolis Factory?"
"Nah, you're trying too hard, buddy." Sonic dismisses the concept.
"Huh, I guess there are some names that have a ring to it." Rotor said with a confused look on his face.
"Yeah," Sonic spoke up with a finger on his chin, his smile soon turning into a determined smirk. "Well, if any Badnik gets real mad and tries to gobble us up, you can bet we'll do absolutely anything to stop Butt-Nik from being able to carry out his plans."
Then, Sonic turned to smile down at T-Pup and patted him gently on the head. "For a darn cute robot, unlike the bunch of scraps I have had to put up with, you should stick around with us because we're going to find Sally and Bunnie in Jungle Labyrinth. You think you can do that until we get you back with your master?"
Despite being entirely robotic, T-Pup begins to act affectionate toward Sonic and Rotor like a puppy in love. They could see his tail wagging from side to side, his tongue sticking out, and his eyes became locked on Sonic as he yipped in approval.
"Hehe, like master, like pet, eh? All right! Hold onto me, you two, cause we are going to juice warp seven!" Sonic chuckled as he patted his new robotic follower and then got to his feet at a standstill.
Rotor nodded in agreement and held onto Sonic's left arm while the blue hero scoops up the robot dog in his other arm. After that, Sonic pushed forward and advanced his way out of Spring Yard's center once he finally tapped at his rate of momentum. Both Rotor and T-Pup held onto the speedy hedgehog's pace like it's their car ride, especially when the dirt continued spraying behind his feet.
The poor fox weakly awakened from his forcefully imposed sleep to view his new drab surroundings. With the sound of water dripping nearby and machinery noisily working in the background, Tails slowly opened his eyes and became surprised to see he was inside a holding cell.
"W-What the...?" Tails muttered, showing his eyes widen in fear.
Frantic and loud, Tails tiredly tries to pull himself to his feet, only to find his body restrained against one of the cold, concrete cell walls. The young fox's leg was painfully withheld by a metal brace, preventing him from moving an inch up from the ground. He felt around a bit, quickly realizing that he was now chained tightly to the floor. Investigating the matter further, Tails felt his legs held flat on the ground in a brace while his wrists were attached to a single point with short lengths of chain.
After feeling along the chains, Tails could see that he was completely stuck. The braces and restraints were all tightly locked, showing no way to remove each bond. Tails slowly realized that he was wearing a collar around his throat. He nervously moved one of his chained hands up to his neck and felt along the smooth collar, recognizing that it was an electric shock collar. Tails didn't have time to further speculate on the issue, as he soon heard a noise from downstairs, the sound of the main doors opening. Lights suddenly lit up the area around several computer terminals and counters, followed by a portable glass tube in the center of the room.
"P-Please, let me go, I'll give you anything! I have a family!"
Tails flattened his ears to his head in surprise by the prisoner's shout, and then he leaned back against the wall. Eventually, the poor fox couldn't help but hear more voices from the prisoners throughout the area of the prison block. Dr. Robotnik, along with Snively, came forth, in tow by two Swat-Bots restraining a male mobian cat.
"You won't get away with this, you human scum!" The male cat yelled. "The Freedom Fighters will make you pay."
"Sure, I will, just like everyone before you said." Dr. Robotnik said with a smirk.
The Swat-Bots forcefully shoved the male cat into the small tube, sealing it behind him as he actively struck at the casing in an attempt to escape this nightmare. Tails then recoiled back in both surprise and horror when he spotted Snively standing just feet away from him. He quickly glanced around the room and immediately saw how much trouble he was in right now.
"Well, it looks like our little former companion is finally awake, sir." The short man alerted with a slight chuckle.
"Let me go!" Tails demanded as soon as his eyes had adjusted to Snively. "I haven't done anything against anyone. I even made you all those robots, so I've more than paid any debt that I owe you for looking after me. So let me go!"
Dr. Robotnik slowly came over and walked up to the scared fox, his mouth twisted into a sarcastic sneer, "I think not. The news that I've heard about you doesn't please me to the slightest, Miles. Do you want to give up and let this blue demon take pleasure laughing and pummelling everyone into complete misery? How could you be so heartless, fox?"
"I'm heartless for speaking my mind?! And now that so-called stupid choice has me chained up and waiting for somebody more merciless to either cause me great harm or finish me off? Tell me, what are we fighting for?!"
"I've told you before: a world without pain, loss, death!" Dr. Robotnik shook his head and gazed at the restrained fox with a look of supreme disappointment.
"At what cost?!" Tails yelled in an angered tone towards the two evil humans. "How far are you willing to take it?!"
For once, Dr. Robotnik didn't seem to have an answer as the room was utterly silent, leaving Snively to speak up this time with irritation.
"Listen, twerp! Let's put an end to this nonsense, shall we? I know you think you have this all figured out, but if you listen-!"
"I'm not listening to you, and I've done enough of that too. I trusted you, doctor, and this is what I get?" Tails said before he growled out more anger in his voice while he looked pissed.
"Oh, but you can trust me, Miles." Dr. Robotnik told the young fox quietly.
"Can I?"
"Miles, I don't want to have to hurt you." Dr. Robotnik scowled, realizing that he could no longer convince the fox to stay.
"You already have, doctor." Tails sighed while he got a serious look on his face.
"You will stay and help me, Miles." Dr. Robotnik grumbled to the fox, pulling out a small remote control from his pocket for the collar. "Now, when you do something I don't like, I get to do this...!"
There was silence between the trio for just a moment before Dr. Robotnik's finger pushed down. The young fox let out a scream of pure agony as the two metal plates in the collar suddenly charged up and released an enormous spike of electricity through his body, shooting along all of his nerves and lighting them up to their max. With another strangled cry, the poor fox collapsed and fell into an uncomfortable sleep, his body still spasming from the shock.
Dr. Robotnik frowned and fixed an angry eye at the convulsive fox. "I'll teach you for falling asleep when I'm talking to you!" He muttered to himself as he lowered the voltage on the controller.
"GAH!" Tails screamed as the second electrical shock threw him awake.
The fox's body started acting on automatic and struggling to escape from the discomfort, thrashing its limbs against the chains with little result. However, the charge soon stopped, and Tails slowly raised his eyes to look at the bloated tyrant. His body trembled in fright at the mere thought of how much more pain his young body could soon be experiencing. Suddenly, the young fox felt the chains around him becoming released, and he soon struggled to get up onto his feet in confusion.
The evil genius just chuckled, then suddenly grew serious. "Get up, fox."
Moreover, Snively's foot suddenly shot out to impact painfully against the poor fox's ribs. Tails, worried about receiving more punishment, eventually stood before his master, his body staggering as he tried to retain his balance in his weakened state. The young fox then felt a Swat-Bot's metallic hand roughly grab hold of his shoulder and lead his weak body along the center of the room. Walking through the prison block allowed Tails to glance sideways at the prisoners still in their holding cells, and most of them were still asleep.
"Here's the deal, I make a living to try and offer such benefits to people. And with the Freedom Fighters doing their own thing like vexatious little pissants? Feh, they do it for free!" Dr. Robotnik explained bluntly, his hand gesturing over to the captured male cat. "So, when I hear people talking about them, I consider these tree-huggers a threat to my business."
And with a snap of his fingers, the Robotizer began to work as a bright light soon activates within the machine and started to move upward. As it slowly ascended, Dr. Robotnik's maniacal grin stayed glued along with Snively's smugness as the male cat's feet and legs had gotten turned into solid steel.
Strange sounds filled the room, though the male cat's screams overrode them all. While the sufferer continued to cry in pain, Tails closed his eyes and placed his hands to his ears to block it out. However, due to Snively's orders, the Swat-Bot forcefully kept the fox's head straight and eyes wide open, arms bounded as well.
Eventually, the scream ceased to be, leaving an emptiness to the atmosphere it had filled. The light finished its ascent, and what used to be a male cat was now a robotized worker to no longer be himself. The robian slowly stepped out of the confinement's platform and presented itself to Dr. Robotnik, who licked his lips and sighed contentedly.
"Not so bold now, are you?"
The robian walked off on its own accord, and shortly after, the Swat-Bots returned with more imprisoned mobians in tow. The process continued for hours, with Tails forced to watch as countless innocent civilians got turned to cold hard steel. Each one of them had begged and pleaded with Dr. Robotnik for him to show them mercy. However, the two humans almost seemed to relish their misery and desperation. Their outcries would forever become burned into the scared fox's mind. Some mobians pleaded, some threatened, and others just silently accepted their fates like there was no hope.
Another scream made its way to Tails' ears as he realized this shriek was from a child. Tails continued to tremble with seeing this cruelty commence again, tears streaming down his face constantly. He couldn't do anything but gawk and panic to help save the victims now, thanks to the Swat-Bot's forcible grip on him. Finally, the portable tube powers down as Dr. Robotnik placed a hand on the distraught fox's shoulder, with a slight squeeze started to emit from it.
"Did you enjoy the show? Well then, let's get straight onto the rules, shall we?" The round torturer began, wasting no time as his fingers still idly played with the remote. "You will do what I say and when I say. And you will not question me. If I tell you to create a device to blow up cities, you will do it. If I say build a robot to kill anyone or anything, it better kill them for good."
"I don't care if you think that you can do something better! I am the one in charge here, and if you don't want me to press this button again, then do as you get told." Dr. Robotnik said in a creepy voice with a smile as he gestures to the portable tube in front of them. "Or, I might throw you inside of that Robotizer because I'm sure you've spied on me long enough about how unsafe you are by now."
"You better remember that from now on! I am YOUR master, and YOU are MY slave. If you say anything out of turn, wander off without my permission, or get on my nerves, then expect yourself to become punished severely for it! I wish this wouldn't have happened, but I knew you were too curious for your sake." The sadistic tyrant slowly smirked at the poor fox while Snively merely listened. "Do you understand?"
Miles slowly raised his eyes back to his new master. "I-I d-do, M-Master...! I-I will not fail you." Tails stuttered, his mind too worked up in fright to properly manage to talk.
"Good...! Now, here's what you are going to do for me. You will help prepare my ultimate weapon against that meddlesome hedgehog. And I expect it done in a few hours. If it's not done and working correctly, you'll have an extremely uncomfortable stay here. Do I make myself clear?" Dr. Robotnik said as one of his robotic minions led Tails along behind him within the water-filled caverns beneath Scrap Brain.
"Crystal...!" Tails told him quietly, wondering how he will complete two days of work in a few hours.
Dr. Robotnik didn't waste any time hearing the young fox complain about the time limit, snapping his fingers for the Swat-Bot to push Tails onward. Any arguments would end in pain and a shorter limit, so Tails didn't even bother. By the time Tails became merely guided over to where he will find many mechanical components provided for him, Snively just barked out orders to one of the Swat-Bots to persist in monitoring the young fox.
"With this weakling helping me," Dr. Robotnik chuckled, handling a purple Chaos Emerald in his hand. "I will finally be able to defeat any enemy to the Robotnik Empire, especially that irritating blue rodent!"
And with those sweet parting words, Dr. Robotnik turned back to his captive to flick the remote controls again. A maniacal grin plastered on the round tyrant's face as Tails cried out in pain as the high voltage engulfed his body. The shock eventually released the fox into a rapid state on beginning construction, mentally forcing his body to ignore his tired state. Right at that point, Dr. Robotnik's loud laugh echoed up along Scrap Brain, striking deep into the Tails' mind and the evil it seemed along with the entire laboratory.
TO BE CONTINUED...