Author's Notes: This chapter is shorter than my loyal fans are used to, and certainly shorter than you can come to expect even within this story. However, the chapter is necessary, and it's also necessary that it contain precisely the level of detail it does. So please don't whine. Every chapter is deliberate in length, and complaining about things like that (namely content and quality irrelevant aspects) only irritates me. Sit. Play dead. Good boy.

Chapter 2- The Doctor's Latest Plan

Within the darkness of his lair the doctor brooded, the dim illumination provided by a computer screen reflecting eerily off his perfectly circular eyeglasses. Two of his fingers twisted his almost comically large mustache, as he often did when he was concentrating.

The feed on the screen showed a news report that was covering the destruction of the Black Comet, and the salvation of Earth at the hands of the hero as the now called him, Shadow the Hedgehog. The fickle peoples of Earth had gone from one moment despising and spurning him to the next venerating him, and they would likely go back to hating him when it was next convenient. It was the destiny of a hero, and it made Robotnik sick.

He couldn't explain why he felt depressed. After all, the planet had been saved, which not only meant his life was saved, but he also needed a world to dominate, and he couldn't exactly do that if it was ravaged by the Black Arms.

And yet, he felt a discontentment within him, the same ambitious lust had burned in his veins since his childhood. The world was still not his, and he'd been at this a long time, without success. His plans would have succeeded for sure were it not for the interference of that meddling blue hedgehog that he so greatly detested.

If only he could destroy him once and for all, he could finally achieve his lifelong dream.

His thoughts were distracted by the program, which was giving details of the recovery.

"Whole cities have been destroyed, thousands killed, and millions more displaced from their homes across the globe by the Black Arms invasion. Now that this threat is eliminated thanks to the efforts of Shadow, one can only wonder how government officials intend to get things back to normal," the reporter said, the distinctive edge in her voice that inexplicably, all reporters seemed to have.

"Ah, some good old mayhem and destruction."

No-one could accuse the doctor of being a man of simple tastes.

"It's too bad that it's not my handiwork," he commented, as the program showed collapsed bridges, downed power lines, and destroyed buildings.

"It would be a terrible shame to let all this perfectly good devastation go to waste," the nefarious doctor chuckled slightly, while thinking over his prospects with intense concentration, and although his features softened as if inspiration has struck, there was no shout of acclamation.

"Yes, that could work... and I would... yes, then let's see them stop that!"

His excitement was slowly rising, and the rotund scientist rose and began pacing back and forth, still twirling his mustache. Turning abruptly and staring greedily at the screen, his eyes ravenously devoured video showing clips from the invasion and aftermath set to sombre orchestral music.

The video was designed as a tribute to the brave soldiers who had given their lives to protect the freedom and well-being of the free world. Ironically, footage could not be found of G.U.N. soldiers actually winning any battles, so the feed served more to irreverently yet unintentionally demonstrate their failure and the resulting destruction that Robotnik was reveling in.

Now that the aliens were no longer a threat, the doctor saw the aftermath as an opportunity, a chance he couldn't afford to pass up to take a cheap shot at the world while it was still hurting. He might never get another chance this ripe.

Amidst the rubble and remnants of society, he saw innumerable soldiers aiding in the clean-up and reconstruction, acting as police officers and construction workers rolled into one.

"Hmm... with that many soldiers on the ground, a straightforward assault would prove unwise," he commented, his brow furrowed in thought.

"An air assault should do beautifully, then."

The report continued to drone on in the background as the genius inventor unrolled a blank blue-sheet on his desk and began drawing furiously.

"I'll need some sort of weapon," he said to himself, "Something that will finally eliminated my wretched archenemy, Sonic, once and for all!"

A few more moments of scribbling in desperation on the plans passed before the doctor's head sunk into his hands, the veins in his temples beginning to pound and bulging to unbelievable size. He cradled his skull gently, lovingly, massaging it with long, bony fingers that starkly contrasted his tubby belly.

He glanced up at the news program with the haggard look of defeat clearly written upon his stony features, before wiping a few droplets of sweat from his brow. "Damn it, it's like an inferno in here!" he shouted at nobody, before furiously adjusting the thermostat and beginning to sob.

Suddenly, an image appeared on the screen of a shining, golden hedgehog with crimson streaked quills. The seven Chaos Emeralds were orbiting slowly and obediently around his body like seven multicolored planets circling their star. Shadow was heaving up on the massive Black Comet, tearing it forcibly for Earth's crust with his bare hands.

"Chaos Control!"

The golden hedgehog vanished from the screen, taking the entire comet with him.

"Now if only I could control that sort of power, I-" Eggman stopped, his own words registering on him with such force it felt he'd walked headfirst into a brick wall. "That's it... That's it! Oh, why didn't I ever think of this before!"

With excitement burning behind his eerily shining glasses, the doctor got back to work on his blueprints, now drawing with an even greater fervor, and glancing up periodically at the screen, which showed first the comet's destruction with the Eclipse Cannon, and then the hero's triumphant return.

"Yes, YES! With this, I'll be unstoppable! The world is mine already," he boasted arrogantly.

As he began putting the finishing touches on the sketch of the centerpiece to his newest plan, the doctor grinned maniacally. He whipped out more blue prints, writing notes on each one for creations he planned to use.

"Nothing will stop me this time. Not even Sonic."

Spinning around in his chair, he sprang up like a flash, stepping forward into the light. The illumination revealed his dramatically changed appearance, which had taken place over the course of the Black Arms invasion. The stresses of long years of failure had profoundly affected him, and the tremendous losses he'd received in the war with the Black Arms had added to their severity.

The doctor was the same overweight, genius inventor he had been before, but there was a certain severity in the perpetual grimace on his face that revealed a sense of newly discovered cynicism. His glasses had become thicker, and yet more like reading glasses in the sense that one could see his brilliant blue irises shining behind them.

The hair of the doctor's mustache had lost its coloring, and was beginning to fade to a dark shade of grey. His dress also had changed, and now he sported a suit that resembled his old one, but the colors had been reversed exactly, with a deep ebony on top and a dark crimson on the bottom.

Pulling out his to-do list and squinting in the light, the prematurely aged doctor scratched off everything that had been on the list, and penned in a single entry, grinning furiously in a way that made the newly formed wrinkles on his face show all the more clearly.

"Get Shadow."