The doors to the Death Egg's lab gave a high-pitched almost serpentine hiss of steam as the thick metallic doors parted ways. The bright, marble white flooring of the lab shone with the lighting within the room and the walls were decorated by an incredibly wide assortment of shelves, cases, stands and containers for a wide variety of necessary items for a science lab such as: Blueprints, tools, protective equipment, notes etc…
It was certainly an impressive place to create Doctor Ivo Robotnik's machines. Mechanical marvels of incredible strength, endurance and engineering prowess that would take the finest minds on Mobius months to even create the blueprints for.
It was an honour to be able to step into such a room and that singular thought echoed throughout the mind of Miles Robotnik, the young fox's eyes ogling at each individual blueprint that decorated the walls of the nigh cavernously large lab.
His father noticed the amazed, astounded look in his son's eyes and chuckled lightly, giving the fur on top of his head a gentle ruffle causing it to become unkempt and frizzy.
"Impressive isn't it?" he said with a distinct air of smugness that was more noticeable than a solar eclipse in a clear sky.
"Y-yeah dad…wow…" Miles spoke, unable to find the words appropriate to how he truly felt about being within this room.
Robotnik smiled, it was a heart-warming thing seeing his son so amazed and a small part of him knew, just knew that he would inevitably build something truly incredible within his room, like he did on an almost monthly basis.
It almost extinguished his overwhelming, white-hot rage and hatred of that irritating blue rodent who always misunderstood his machines and destroyed them without a second thought, completely disregarding just how valuable they were and the sheer mechanical genius that had gone into their designs.
But Sonic didn't matter, not now and not for a long time to come, Robotnik had bigger things to worry about than pursuing an old rivalry. His son and his education in the arts of mechanics, engineering, mathematics and other forms of the art of science mattered more.
He sat Miles down on a seat at one of the many sturdy lab tables before he turned to face one of the many cupboards and drawers and he swiftly found what he had been looking for, an appropriate first step on Miles's journey to becoming a mechanical genius.
He swiftly turned back to Miles and walked towards him handing him what he wanted his son to work on. It was a disassembled kitchen timer, it's internal gears and parts were neatly spread out on the table while it's empty plastic shell stood on the metal table awaiting for it's mechanical parts to be inserted within it once they had been correctly assembled.
"Ok son, this is a relatively simple task. I want you to reassemble this timer and get it to work correctly. The only tools you'll need are the ones you believe to be the most effective when assembling it. If you need anything then I'll be next door in the engineering room where I'll be working on more…advanced machinery. Good luck son." Robotnik said, once again ruffling Miles's fur before he walked to the opposite end of the room and disappeared through a thick steel blast door.
Miles smiled before he looked down at what he was dealing with, there was an assortment of springs, cogs, gears and other little do-hickeys that needed to be perfectly in place in order for the clock to correctly function…just how hard could this be?
He swiftly got to work, delicately placing each tiny gear in place, each little spring within it's correct place, his sapphire eyes burning in intense concentration at his task, he remembered reading a damaged book on mechanics when he was still an orphaned toddler living within that horrible, grimy alleyway and he exclusively remembered reading on clockwork motors and staring for as long as he could at the pictures that described the anatomy of the different machines and especially the anatomy of motors, clocks being no exception.
Within minutes every single intricate, miniscule gear had been placed in the correct position and the now assembled gears had been placed within the plastic shell of the timer and the aforementioned shell had been sealed shut using a screwdriver. Miles then took a deep breath, now came the moment to see whether or not his creation would be met by success and he slowly winded back the timer by 10 seconds.
He was delighted to hear the faint ticking noises of the gears as the timer did it's job and he felt a twinge of pride grow in his mind at his mechanical success with the kitchen timer, but that was only the first step in his journey to becoming a master of engineering and mechanics and he wanted more. He wanted to assemble something greater and to find something that would impress his father and show his true colours as a Robotnik.
He carefully climbed out of the rather tall lab chair and made his way over to one of the incredibly large cupboards searching for something he could hopefully assemble that was within his skill range but would still impress his father. The drawers to the cupboard were rather heavy and he had quite a bit of trouble getting them to open up, his thin, tiny little arms struggling to pull at the heavy, metal reinforced plastic and it took all of his strength to open the first of the drawers, his little body then collapsed backwards as the drawer flew open, sending the toddler to the floor with a small thud, however thankfully he wasn't hurt.
He dusted himself off and quickly began to search through the first drawer, it was filled with a multitude of blueprints, each one for a different gadget or robot that the Doctor had either succeeded or failed at constructing within his career as a scientist.
He searched through them with intense fascination, each of these blueprints held the workings of potential mechanical brilliance that was just waiting to be constructed and used in the manner they were designed to be used.
Be it hyper advanced infrared spectacles, detection systems for galactic anomalies, or perhaps civilisation ending super-weapons the list of blueprints for these potential machines in the drawer was almost endless and he was blown away by how…advanced they were, they were almost certainly beyond his abilities to build but that was the thing…almost.
He picked out a singular blueprint and read through it thoroughly, a mischievous smile spreading across his lips and he swiftly folded the blueprint up and placed it gently in the front pocket of his jacket. However he swiftly heard a very familiar voice calling to him,
"Oh hello Miles! I see you've finished assembling the timer?" the voice was posh, not unlike that of a Victorian gentleman, yet it had a profoundly metallic sounding tone and was clearly coming from a robot.
He turned to see the very robot that had found him in the alleyway and had brought him to the Doctor,
"Oh hi Orbot, uhhhh yeah I did, I was just looking for something to do."
Miles's brain was filled with the same thought that echoed louder than the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa.
"Please don't say anything, please don't say anything…"
Orbot spoke again in a merry tone, all of the tension in Miles seeping out like water from a soaked flannel, "Ah excellent! Would you like me to tell your Father that you've finished?"
Miles nodded immediately and gave his most convincing grin as Orbot disappeared into the other more advanced lab, he let out an incredibly large sigh of relief, that was close…incredibly close, he didn't want anyone finding out his plan. He wanted to surprise his father and he wouldn't be able to do that if anyone found out. He just hoped that he wouldn't come that close to being discovered again…
