Disclaimer: Sonic and co. © by Sega
Chapter One
His Greatest Invention
2 Months and 3 Days before Black Egg Armageddon
He always had this power hidden deep within his vaults, knowing that using it would mean the end of the world and for himself. He just needed someone to push him into using it.
A tired and fatigued man in his mid fifties stumbled into a dark room before falling onto his knees. The door behind him sliding to a close so the man could be left alone in his so called office. The man was panting hard, as if he had just escaped death and sweat was cascading off of his face and onto the cold hard steel underneath him. This was yet another defeat for the man at the hands of his enemy, a particular blue hedgehog with a cocky smile.
Every time he would fail. Every time he thought he had the solution, the science of it all would go up in smoke once that hedgehog stood above his destroyed invention. With power fueled by his own anger, the man pounded his fist against the ground. Loud thuds could be heard from outside of the lavish office, but no one could hear it because no one was there. Only three thuds were heard, before a loud cry of anger and frustration erupted into the air.
Red blotches started to appear near the knuckle section of the doctors white gloves, as the new wounds on his knuckles bled out. Hot tears poured out of the man's eyes from the pain and the tears mixed with the sweat and blood. He didn't want to be weak anymore. He wanted to win badly and he wished that he had the power to wipe the cocky grin off of his nemesis's face. No matter how much planning and effort he put into it though, his dream would never come true and for the first time, the man considered himself a failure.
Smoke and fire lifted up into the sky from a destroyed forest covered with the shut-down and mangled bodies of robots. In the middle of the carnage, sat a blue hedgehog with his trademark grin and eyes closed as he relaxed to another normal day. Moments before, the hedgehog's foe launched another hopeless attack on him and failed like every other day. It was starting to get old and the hedgehog wondered when the fat man would finally retire. But after working so hard, for so long the hedgehog knew that there would be no end to the meaningless invasions until the man had succumbed to old age.
Sonic the hedgehog, Mobius's greatest and fastest hero was yet again the victor against his fat nemesis. The hero was now happily sitting amongst the deactivated bodies of robots as if he was in the middle of a placid park and he was ready to take a relaxing nap. Before the hedgehog could dose off into his dreamland, a young male voice called out to him and the cobalt hero cracked his eyes open to find a familiar friend advancing towards him.
"Sonic! Is that you!?" asked the far off voice.
In the distance, a golden yellow fox ran toward him. Only two steps into his run, the fox began to fly over to Sonic, using his two tails as a propeller naturally. Sonic recognized the fox as none other then his best friend, Tails. Even though the fox was young, he was still able to catch up to his greatest hero and friend using those same two tails of his and probably without those two trademarks, there would have to be another nickname for the boy. A smile creased onto the blue hero's face as his friend approached him and once he did, Tails didn't look surprised to see the destroyed robots.
"Eggman again?" asked Tails curiously as he look around at the destruction. Sonic grinned at the question, even his best friend knew of Eggman's annoying persistence.
"Yeah, another failed attempt at an attack." said Sonic plainly as he got on his feet, a calm look on his face. "You can go ahead and scavenge for stuff if you want." He said, thinking that his friend might need some spare parts for a weapon or some new equipment for the Tornado.
Tails shrugged in a 'whatever' sort of way. "Nah, these are just some heaps of useless, outdated junk. I could probably build blender with all of this junk." boasted Tails, as he kicked the immobile robot body. The blue hedgehog chuckled at the statement.
"Yeah, I guess ol' Egghead is starting to get his parts from the junkyard." stated Sonic, before he and Tails walked off toward Station Square.
"Damn that cursed hedgehog!" cried Eggman from within his laboratory. More failures were starting to pile up within his head from the beginning of his career as a criminal to present day. Every idea, plan or scheme crushed by Sonic and his allies.
"You're weak, that's why!" yelled a voice from within the darkness of Eggman's office. The plump man jumped to his feet and he started to look around frantically trying to locate the speaker. His office was dark from the lack of power and the only useful amount of light was coming from the small reading lamp on the doctor's desk.
"Who's there?" asked Eggman in a frightened tone. Hand to hand combat wasn't really his specialty and having to go through close encounters like this without the aid of his robots made him deathly afraid.
The voice laughed manically. "Even now you're weak, not even strong enough to defend yourself." mocked the voice menacingly as Eggman continued to look around. "You can't fight!" yelled the voice before Eggman felt something punching him across the face, causing him to fall down onto the cold ground.
Eggman was scared for once in his life because every day he lived with the aid of his robots. Every day his machines would do everything from making meals, protecting him, and planning. Whoever his opponent was, he chose the right time to strike. "What do you want?" whimpered the doctor, not willing to die, but after seeing his forces get crushed by Sonic yet again, he was reconsidering what he wanted.
Another maniacal laugh erupted from the mysterious voice, giving Eggman the feeling that the person would kill him either way. "I want to make you stronger." said the voice slyly, the answer shocking Eggman entirely.
"Wh- wh- wh- what?" stuttered the nervous Eggman, trying to figure out of the person was lying.
"Power! Do you hear me!? Power!" yelled the voice, the sudden increase in volume startling the doctor. "I just have one question. What are you willing to do to finally beat Sonic the hedgehog?" asked the voice.
Power from a stranger, enough power to destroy his enemy, some things are just too good to be true. "You lie, no one has enough power to beat him." spat Eggman, tired of impossible dreams that would never come true. He would rather die then follow some hopeless dream. A kick then slammed into Eggman's abdomen, the kick having so much power that Eggman slid across the ground and smashed into a wall. Eggman coughed up blood from the violent attack. "Stop hiding in the darkness! Show yourself!" yelled Eggman, tired of the man's shadow-walker games.
"Answer the question! Do you want the power!?" asked the voice again in a more infuriated tone, before kicking Eggman again.
More tears started to pour out of Eggman's eyes, not just from the pain he was experiencing but from the mental stress he was going through. He knew that the man was lying about the power, he was just taunting him with it. Everyone would have real power, while Eggman would just survive off of mechanical power. More kicks were unleashed on Eggman's pudgy body, each kick feeling like it was breaking a rib.
Eggman mustered as much courage he could and finally blurted out what had to be said. "YOU'RE LYING!" yelled Eggman finally. The kicking stopped, surprising Eggman. Before he could say anything else, the person picked Eggman up by the scruff of his jacket.
"Fine, then you die." spat the man coldly before punching Eggman square in the face.
There was no mercy shown, as the man continued to punch the helpless Eggman. The doctor felt ashamed, he couldn't even see his assailants face and he was still going die. The doctor was going to blackout now, the sudden realization that he was going to truly die finally settling into his head. If it was death he would accept it. After so long, death didn't seem as scary as it did before. Now he was willing to stand there, waiting through the pain before his heart would stop. But before he could do that, he revisited his past
One Year Earlier
"Doctor, the serum is complete." said a robot who stood next to a proud Eggman.
The robot was humanoid, standing on two legs that had wheels instead of feet and had some chubby attributes that matched the doctors. Days before, the doctor came up with a so called 'perfect plan.' Now it was finished and he had to see the final product. It was something new for the doctor that actually reflected on his title as 'doctor.' Instead of playing with robots, for once Eggman would play with genes and DNA.
The doctor smiled and turned around to face the robot. "Good, bring it to me." demanded Eggman calmly, knowing that robots would always obey, since asking politely would have no use to robots built to do everything he'd say.
Minutes later, the humanoid robot brought the doctor a tray. On top of the tray was a syringe filed with a black liquid. "I do have some bad new doctor." said the robot with its mechanical voice box.
The doctor raised an eyebrow at the statement. "What is it?" he asked.
"Ninety percent of the test subjects did have negative effects from the solution. Such as dementia, bloodlust, suicidal attempts, massive amounts of hysteria, delusions and in some cases even death." said the robot promptly. "But the ten percent that did make it, have shown a great increase in strength and agility." added the bot
The news was less then enlightening for the doctor and he reconsidered his options. Power was something he direly needed and at that time he wasn't willing to take any chances if the science behind it was flawed. He sighed sadly before finally making up his mind.
"Lock this up, I'll think it over."
The memory shot into Eggman's head and he knew exactly where the serum was. The serum might be risky even life threatening, but Eggman would rather go out in a bang then get killed like some nameless nobody. He felt his assailant's hand retract from his face in preparation for another attack, but before he could unleash again on Eggman's face, the doctor broke away from him and scrambled for the light switch. With the flip of a switch the small room was illuminated with white light that came from the fluorescent light bulbs built into the ceiling. At that moment, Eggman finally got a glimpse at his foe.
Clad in a long black coat, the man was at least Eggman's size. The long coat prevented him from seeing anything else, but he did see his face. The man had similar facial features compared to Eggman, he had a long black mustache fashioned in the same way, a somewhat long nose, and even a pair of round glasses, except the man's were green. A psychotic smile appeared on the man's face as he stared at Eggman before the doctor ran out of the room.
Eggman ran out of the door and into the hallway. Sweat dropped off of the doctor's face as he ran since he wasn't really in good shape, but he still pressed on. Behind him, he could hear the slow calm footsteps of his assailant. With the storage room in sight, Eggman put all of his effort into running and in a matter of seconds he was in front of the room. He burst into the room and looked around, everywhere he could see shelves filled with metallic boxes.
"Box number 698." said Eggman to himself as he began to run in the number's direction.
He ran into the aisle looked around. The footsteps could still be heard as Eggman rapidly pulled out boxes with the wrong number on it. His heart was racing now as he threw the useless boxes filled with broken down machine parts to the ground.
"You can still reconsider Ivo." said the man as he was seen at the end of the isle.
Seeing him made Eggman even more nervous as he still pulled out the boxes. Almost miraculously, he finally found the metal crate he was looking for. He grabbed the box and tore the lid off, throwing it aside. Within the box, he could see the same syringe with its same black liquid. Eggman smiled at the sight and turned his head to find that his assailant still stood where he was before. The doctor then withdrew the syringe from the box so his assailant could see.
The assailant had a look of shock on his face as he looked at the syringe. "What is that?" He asked. Eggman could sense a hint of fear trembling within his assailant's voice and thought this would be one good way to test his experiment.
"An experiment deemed too powerful even for my standards," said Eggman as he rolled up his sleeve a smile on his face. "I call it," The doctor said before injecting the syringe into his flesh. "Serum 92 Codename: Darkness." He slowly pressed on the plunger of the syringe, letting the fluid enter his blood stream.
Once the syringe was empty, Eggman violently threw it to the side. Pain was crawling all throughout his body, his head felt as though someone was pounding nails into it and his body felt as if he were on fire. Flooded with pain, Eggman fell to his knees, then onto his stomach, his body convulsing and jerking around as if he was having some sort of seizure. As he experienced all of these things, he was still conscious and he could see his assailant slowly walk over to his convulsing body.
"Now you've answered my question." said the man as he knelt down to look into Eggman's panicking eyes. A smile was on the man's face, making Eggman wonder if he was going to end his meaningless life. "Call me if you need my help, Ivo." said the man as he began to walk away. Eggman watched as his assailant left him on the floor, consciousness starting to slip away. "You'll thank me later." Was the last thing Eggman heard before finally falling unconscious. A faint heartbeat was coming from the doctor and moments later, there was no heartbeat coming from the doctor at all.
"Have you ever wondered how Eggman feels when we beat him?" asked Tails out of nowhere.
The two were still walking toward Station Square, as they walked, Tails started asking some questions. Sonic found this particular question funny, since he really had no idea what Eggman felt. He had taken down the doctor so many times that he never really had the time to think about it. Tails was now making Sonic think from two perspectives, the hero's side and the villains. Heroes always feel good when they win and of course when the villains lose they feel saddened and ashamed. But what about Eggman? Surly after being beaten so many times by so many different people, something must still motivate the man to keep on trying.
"I don't know actually. You should ask him next time." joked Sonic as he playfully pushed the fox. Station Square was in sight now and it the sun was setting, for the heroes it was just another day of kicking evil butt and relaxing under the beautiful blue sky.
A low groan sounded throughout the laboratory halls. Someone within the storage room was awakening.
"Wha- what happened?" asked Eggman as he got up, his head a mixing pot of migraines.
The doctor got to his feet and almost instantly the headache was gone. In fact, Eggman felt refreshed, as if he had taken a long and needed sleep. Adrenaline pumped through Eggman's veins and he could feel the power within him flowing freely. He raised his hand up to inspect it and found that it look normal. Once he curled his hand into a fist however, the glove tore apart from Eggman's new muscles. A devious smile made its way on Eggman's face and he was enjoying the sudden increase in power.
Eggman then looked around and stretched his legs before beginning to perform back flips. He ended with a spectacular twirl onto his feet at the end of the storage room's aisles. The doctor then performed a sweeping kick, knocking over one of the steel shelves over easily, making all of the contents on the shelves fall off as the shelf itself began to fall. Before the shelf could hit the ground it jerked suddenly and seemed to stay frozen in mid-fall. Eggman was holding the two ton steel shelf up with one hand with ease. He then grabbed the shelf with one hand and threw it straight up into the air. Everything was getting easier for Eggman now and his physical strength and agility have increased.
Before the shelf could slam into the ground, Eggman punched it and sent it flying toward the opposite wall. A loud crash sounded throughout the lab and smoke filled up the storage room. Along with the smoke came a laugh, not the trademark 'hohohohoho!' that normal Eggman used to use, it was more of a manlier and scarier one, almost psychotic. Eggman walked out of the Storage Room. Robots started to clamor around him asking if he needed medical attention and so on. The doctor replied by smashing each and every robot into the wall, following up with his new laugh.
"My greatest invention ever." said the new Eggman evilly as he walked out of the room.