Disclaimer on chapter 1

Chapter 8: Robotnik's Master Plan

The road was tougher, Sonic found, to get to where the other Badniks where. This part of the highway was blocked by police and military barricades, and for good reason. Large amounts where ether damaged or unfinished. Sonic had lost track of the amount of times he needed to jump to avoid falling down a hole. What was worse was more and more of the badniks he came across where bombs, and in larger groups. They where small, true and slow, but the size of groups made them hard to avoid. Seemed the phrase "Strength in numbers" could be true, for these badniks at least.

There was an up side in them though. At one point one had blown up and three him over an edge. He had landed on a hidden walkway next to the highway and that is where he saw it. Glowing underneath part of the highway, only visible from where he was, was the red Emerald. Five down, two to go.

Now all that was left in this area was to defeat the good doctor. Whatever his name is. It wasn't long after finding the Emerald that Sonic eventually got to the part of the roadway the Badniks accumulated. This meant he was close to Eggman/Robotnik. He would have to ask him about the name thing. Within a few minutes he saw the containment Unit. And there, floating next to it was the doctor.

"Eggman!" Sonic Yelled after him

"Hmm…? Oh so your finally here." The Doctor replied

"What? No attack this time?"

"Not this time Hedgehog. At least, not yet."

"What did you have in mind then?" Sonic asked suspiciously

"Here's the Deal Hedgehog. These robots of mine you have been smashing, the badniks, are not easy to build as you can probably imagine they need a lot of power and my scrap brain facility doesn't have infinite power you know."

"So that's why you need the Chaos Emeralds... to power your machinery that makes them?"

"Exactly"

"Why tell me this?"

"Simple. I can see you are a reasonable fellow... how about instead of trying to defeat each other… we make a deal?"

"What kind of deal…?" Sonic said. He wasn't going to make one with a guy like him. His feelings went against it. But it didn't mean he couldn't lead the doc on.

"If you give me the other emeralds, then we can rule the world, together!" Doctor Eggman exclaimed.

"Gee… let me think about it… how about… NO!" Sonic yelled cheerfully

"WHAT! Why you little…"

"I do have one question, what IS you real name anyway? Eggman or Robotnik?"

"WHAT!" Eggman almost had a stroke "How did you find out my name!"

"Well you had it in that building with the badnik making machinery that I smashed up. On a deed on a computer"

"YOU SMASHED UP MY FRONTLINE BASE? YOU DIRTY LITTLE RODENT! I'll CRUSH YOU!" the doctor roared as he began his attack. He ejected a spikeball from the bottom of his machine which almost hit Sonic on the head. But it wasn't over; the spikeball began ticking down, and as it did so another three where shot out of the bottom of his Eggmobile. Sonic dodged each of them but was to busy to notice the ticking behind him. In a big bang the first one blew up, and threw him towards a wall.

"AHHH" he screamed. He rubbed his head as he got up "So those things are bombs huh?"

Sonic probed the situation. On one side, there was Eggman. Mad scientist and dictator wannabe, who was currently flying outside Sonic's jumping range and could drop spike bombs. On the other was Sonic, who was trying to dodge bombs as they came down or blown this way and that into walls…

"Blown… that's it!" he muttered. He waited for the next one to be shot out of the bottom of his ship and dodged as it hit. He had to time his next move right, or it would all be over. He waited for the ticking to intensify till it was almost sounded like a constant noise and jumped at the bomb. When he was a few inches from it, it blew up, and because he was above it, the explosion blasted him into the air.

"Whaaaat…?" the doctor asked in a confused voice as he watched Sonic fly through the air. Then he realised what Sonic's intention was he tried to back up…too little to late. Sonic was already heading for him and had landed on the machine. He shoved his fist into the front of it and damaged the panel, there by disabling the machine completely. Sonic landed and looked up, surprised to see where Eggman was.

"GAAAAAAH!" Robotnik yelled. He was now floating in the air using a backpack, probably a backup in case his ship failed "YOUR GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!"

Sonic smirked "That's what you always say!" he yelled back. He went to chase Eggman, but found he could not follow as the doctor was flying over empty space above Station Square as a pose to this upper highway. Sonic snapped his fingers in frustration. All that was left here was to push the button on the containment unit, then head out.

"Next time I'm going to make sure he doesn't escape without at least a singed moustache.

XOXOX

"DAMN THAT HEDGEHOG!" Yelled Robotnik to no one in particular "Damn him to HELL! Why is he meddling anyway? Now all that's left is my Scrap Brain Facility and he is BOUND to go there now he knows of its existence! I have to prepare for his arrival."

He turned on his radio and patched it to his factories "Eggman to base, do you read me?"

AFFIRMATIVE DOCTOR, WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS? Replied a badnik

"Get the factory to go into overdrive and prepare the power room for battle mode! We have company coming soon"

AFFIRMATIVE DOCTOR.

XOXOX

By the time Sonic had gotten off the highway, the sun was already off. Station Square, which was once full of bright lights, was now full of the loud and awful sounds of people driving rush hours to get to work. Sonic didn't like it as they seemed rather too push and easy to anger. All of them seemed to be late for some meeting or another. Sonic definitely knew what he was going to do. Ask the next person he met if they new anything about a "Scrap Brain" factory (preferably someone WITHOUT a car), and get out of this city before it drove him crazy. The first person he met wasn't very helpful. It was a Falcon, and he at first seemed friendly enough. But the problem was he worked for the military, known as GUN (Guardians of the United Nations). So the falcon had told him, rather than to go looking for Eggman, Sonic should let the military handle it and get on with his life. Sonic of course ignored him. The next was also a bird. A Duck, who was too busy drooling at a window which… causing much worry to Sonic… was full of explosives, it took all day but he eventually found someone to help. The Crocodile from before that had nearly knocked him down. Being a nice guy at heart, the crocodile had pointed him in the right direction immediately.

"It's to the east of here, close to the entrance to the Underwater Labyrinth, on top of the mountain. Ya can't miss it."

"Thanks buddy!" Sonic replied, running off before the crocodile could get his name.

XOXOX

"Report"

"SIR, DEFENCES MADE, BADNIK NUMBERS REACHING THE 1000 MARK."

"Any Sign of him?"

"NOT YET SIR"

"And what of the final Emerald?"

"NO SIGNAL YET, ITS AS IF IT DOESN'T EXIST."

"WHAT? Give me the hand-held radar terminal here Ball Hog 42"

"YES SIR" the small purple, green nosed pig badnik hopped over to its master giving him a small radar screen. The doctor studied it carefully. It took a few moments, but he eventually started to twitch

'Is that…' he thought to himself

He checked again. And a third time to make sure. Then he threw his arms out and screamed in rage "YOU INCOMPETENT FOOLS!"

"DOCTOR?" the ball hog asked in almost a frightened tone. The reaction was the Doctor grabbing its head, which fitted nicely in his hand, and shoved its face so it had no option but to look at the radar in his other hand

"LOOK CAREFULLY YOU FOOL! See that blimp there? The one that is coming towards the base? It has a power reading equal to five Chaos Emeralds. That is Sonic. Now look at the other blip the one that's meant to be equal to my one Chaos Emerald!"

"SIR I DON'T…"

"THE POWER READING IS EQUAL TO TWO CHAOS EMERALDS YOU CRETINS! THE GREY EMERALD IS UNDERNEATH THE CYAN EMERALD WE ALREADY HAVE!"

"…AH"

The doctor couldn't believe a single machine that he the great doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik had built, could make such a ferociously idiotic oversight, never mind all five of the ball hogs he made and programmed specifically to watch over the master Chaos Emerald Radar, here at his home base in the Scrap Brain Factory. He rubbed his temples in frustration. He looked at the radar again, checking how far beneath the resting place of his Cyan Emerald the Grey one was. He grinned evilly. According to the calculations, it was under the entire factory, in the old, close off section of the Underwater Labyrinth that all his industrial waste ran into when the machines could no longer use them. The same place he had set a trap for Sonic to go into.

"I could use this to my advantage… the Hedgehog is already Collecting the Emeralds… why not just let him do my dirty work for me. And when he collects that last emerald, I will kill him and claim them all for myself…"