~Father's Be Good to Your Daughters~
(Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the characters, all credit goes to Sega. Please support the official release).
(Note: This takes place after the Metal Virus Arc of the IDW comics).
Chapter 1: The Lost Child
Dr. Eggman was an evil scientist, whose ambition in life was to take over the world and build the Eggman Empire that he had always dreamed of. Those plans however, were always foiled by a certain blue hedgehog named Sonic, who could run faster than the wind.
After his most recent failure with the Metal Virus fiasco, he decided to take a small vacation, away from all the havoc that he caused and perhaps more importantly, to get away from his nemesis and the thorn in his side for years.
Eggman came to the snowy peaks of White Acropolis, over the silence of the surroundings and the fact that he had a thriving base built here for many years that even Sonic never found or even searched for. He had also come here to unwind by studying the local fauna, an old hobby of his.
It had been about three months since he took his vacation, it was nearly mid-winter now, near the end of November. He was enjoying himself with his newfound hobby to pass the time, but he was starting to have his doubts of ever returning to his evil ways again.
Every so often, a voice in his head kept nagging him to retire from his heinous schemes and to live his life with the precious time that he had left.
The doctor was currently sitting in a small tent like structure, but could easily see out into the clearing in front of him. The coverage was disguised as a bush, similar to the foliage surrounding it; his main base was about five feet north from his current location on a large mountain behind him.
He was using radar and thermal binoculars to see creatures farther away, thanks to their body heat giving themselves away.
It was around nine o'clock when the doctor decided to call it a day and started packing up his equipment. Suddenly, he heard his radar going off again; something was in range of his site. The doctor grabbed his thermal binoculars and headed to the opening to take a look.
The animal that he saw in the distance kind of looked like a wolf, over a similar appearance with the pointed ears and mass of fur. The animal was heading straight towards him, but then it turned sideways a few feet beside the camp, revealing its true form.
The doctor gasped at the newly formed silhouette: it walked on two legs, had two skinny arms and a long tail, but the dead giveaway was its head. While it had pointed ears, it also had a small muzzle and a distinctive pattern on the back of its head: a mass of quills.
Eggman looked closely at the quill pattern, and assumed it to be Sonic's quill pattern. The doctor couldn't believe his luck! He really wanted to capture the pesky blue hedgehog for years and use his boundless energy and powers to fuel his machines. The doctor quickly and quietly placed the thermal binoculars on the ground and brought out his gun with a scope equipped onto it.
"Damn it, if only I had thought to bring some more tranquilizers! Guess the stun darts will have to do, but I'll only have one shot at this. If I miss, he'll flee", Eggman said to himself.
He then loaded the gun with said darts, then brought the gun up to his shoulder, looked through the scope and took aim at the hedgehog.
When he took aim at the hedgehog shaped silhouette, the snow suddenly cleared and the doctor had his sights on Sonic. But what he saw next only made his heart sink.
It was not Sonic the Hedgehog…
He didn't even know if he could call what he saw a hedgehog...
It was indeed a Mobian hedgehog with blue fur, female as well, though they looked much younger than Sonic and the shade of blue was much lighter. As Eggman looked at the blue hedgehog closely, using his scope, he saw a number of disturbing things.
The child's fur looked dull and completely disarranged. Her eyes were dimmed and dull, they showed and spoke only of pain and suffering. Her left leg had a slowly healing cut on it and she was limping.
The more upsetting thing was Eggman could see her ribs protruding through her blue hide; she was starving and probably hadn't eaten in weeks. On top of that, she was shivering from the cold climate and probably wouldn't last much longer; she probably wouldn't even survive the rapidly approaching snowstorm.
When Eggman tried to approach the young girl, she noticed him and immediately ran off in fear. "Hey, wait! Come back!", he shouted. He then chased after her, hoping to prevent the child from being lost in the snow before the storm would start.
Soon, she was running through a clearing, but then something went wrong. She tripped over a tree root, hidden by the snow and twisted her ankle. The girl then fell flat on her face in the snow.
"AHHH!", she screamed out in pain.
It was then that the hedgehog realized that she had made a dangerous mistake, her scream would lure anything within earshot to her location to investigate.
She then managed to roll onto her back, panting and trying to catch her breath for a few minutes. She then heard, and felt, footsteps coming towards her, sending vibrations through the ground that she felt from her quills.
She looked up and saw that it wasn't the strange human she saw who had approached her, but instead was a fully grown grizzly bear. She screamed as the bear reared up on its hind legs, roaring at her. Then, a gunshot was heard as Eggman had caught up and starting shooting at the bear to scare it off.
One of the darts had grazed the bear's face, angering it. It approached the doctor and drew back a large clawed paw and was going to swipe with it. Eggman had closed his eyes, bracing himself for his fate. But right before the paw made impact with the doctor's abdomen, there was a sudden strong gust of wind. Eggman heard the gruesome sound of claws hitting flesh and bone.
Then there was a terrible ear-piercing scream of pain, the sound of banging against the ground.
Eggman opened his eyes to see the bear retreating with a bloodied paw that it was holding up, in pain. Eggman didn't feel hurt.
Was he dead?
He checked himself and realized that there wasn't even a single scratch on him. But when he looked down, he saw a few drops of red liquid on the snow white ground.
"There's blood here…oh, no…where's the girl?", he said as he looked behind him at where the hedgehog had been kneeling previously, but she wasn't there anymore. Then he heard something awfully familiar: a whimper a few meters away to his right.
Eggman headed in that direction. Along the way, he saw trails of blood that got bigger and more serious the further he went. After a few seconds and ten meters away, he spotted a disturbing and horrific sight in the snow.
The girl was lying on her right side in a large pool of blood. Her left side had a large wound that blood poured freely out of. Her left arm was broken; shattered from the impact with the bear's paw.
Her chest was rising and falling at an alarming rate and she twitched occasionally. Her breathing came in pants and gasps as she tried to get enough air into her lungs. Her chest rattled from inevitably broken ribs. In her uninjured hand, she held the hilt of a broken knife, which she had presumably used to stab the bear's paw.
Eggman came over absolutely horrified to see the child like this. That's when the doctor realized that she had actually jumped in front of him in a sudden burst of adrenaline and took the hit herself, pulling out a knife to try defending herself and Eggman.
She then coughed up blood and saw more blood on her hand that she used to cover her mouth. "Oh no, you're losing blood fast! I've gotta take you back to my base", Eggman said in a frantic voice. He reached down to lift the poor girl into his arms, carrying her back to his campsite.
She was then getting dizzy over not being able to breathe and she felt her senses were slipping away; she was losing far too much blood. "S-so tired…", she whispered quietly and leaned back towards Eggman, losing consciousness.
The doctor saw what was happening, if she fell asleep, she'd never wake up again. "Hey, HEY! WAKE UP!", Eggman shouted. The girl came back again but she was exhausted and extremely weak, the doctor had to act quickly.
[Time Skip]
The hedgehog girl laid unconscious and under a blanket in the infirmary of Eggman's base, an oxygen mask on her face and an I.V. inserted into her arm; her broken arm in a cast.
When he got her back to his base, Eggman immediately brought her to the infirmary and got to work treating her injuries. The girl was quite scared but the blood loss made her weak and delirious, allowing Eggman to sedate her. Then, he began performing emergency surgery on the wounds she sustained from the bear attack.
It wasn't an easy task, the damage was extensive and ranged from a broken arm, three broken ribs, a ruptured lung, and gashes and cuts on her body. She had even almost flatlined during the operation, but Eggman managed to patch her up.
The girl had seemed to slip into a coma, so he placed her in another room to recover...if she did. Her injuries were so severe and she was suffering from malnutrition, so there was the possibility that she wouldn't survive.
Three days later, the girl was still in the recovery room, sleeping, but she hadn't stirred at all since the day she was found. Her wounds were fully healed so Eggman decided that the cast and bandages could come off.
He then got a scissors and began to cut off the bandages and cast.
Once he was done, Eggman observed the child's body. She looked as good as new, there were no more injuries, except for two large scars across the hedgehog's stomach. A week had passed since the encounter, it was silent in the base and no one was moving. The only sign of life in the base was a light blue hedgehog stirring, she was quietly groaning and moaning as she was coming round.
She slowly opened her light purple eyes and looked around the room in confusion, "Ah…where am I?", she asked quietly. She felt something soft beneath her and something warm above her. Her head felt as though a truck had hit her, however.
"I'm lying on a bed with a blanket draped over me, up to my shoulders. Am I in a hospital?", she said out loud.
She then slid her left arm down her left side, feeling two odd lines across her stomach and then she moved lower to feel her ribs, only to find that she couldn't feel them anymore, just skin and meat.
"My injuries are healed and I'm not skin and bones anymore...what happened?", she said quietly.
Just then, the door to the room opened and Eggman walked inside. He slowly and cautiously approached the bed so as not to frighten the poor girl.
"Hello there, how are you feeling?", he asked.
The girl looked at him in confusion, "I'm okay, I guess. But I can't remember anything...what happened to me?", she said.
"I found you outside in the snow, badly hurt and malnourished. Then a bear came and almost attacked me, but you jumped in the way to save me. You got badly hurt, so I brought you to my base to treat your injuries", explained Eggman.
The girl looked down at what she now knew were scars on her torso, realizing he was telling the truth. "Thank you for saving me, mister. What's your name?", she said. This surprised Eggman, it seemed as though this girl didn't really know who he was or even recognized him.
That was odd because after the Metal Virus incident, Eggman was sure that practically everyone on the planet knew who he was by this point. "I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik, but you can simply call me "Eggman" if you so please. Do you have a name?", he said.
The girl nodded, "My name is Gwendolyn, but you can just call me Gwen. Again, thank you so much for saving me. I'm feeling a little cold, do you have anything warm I could wear? Can I also have something to eat since I'm hungry?", she said.
Eggman nodded as he stood up and left the room, he came back half an hour later holding a nightshirt, sweatpants and a pair of socks. They were human sized, so he had to cut and sew them to fit a small Mobian's body.
"Here, put these on. Then, I'll bring you over to the kitchen so you can get something to eat", said Eggman.
The hedgehog girl, Gwen, took the clothes and carefully put them on so as not to hurt herself. She then stood up from the bed, wearing the blanket around her shoulders as she was still feeling cold, and followed Eggman out of the room.
As they walked down the hallway of the base, they were soon accompanied by Metal Sonic. Gwen wasn't afraid of the robotic hedgehog, she was more curious of him than anything else. Eggman and his guest soon entered the dining room, with a large table and set of chairs surrounding it.
There were a vast number of candles illuminating the room, making the environment look calmer.
"It's been a while since I had any company…why don't you go into the kitchen and tell Metal Sonic what you would like to eat", he doctor replied to Gwen, while pointing to a door.
Gwen just nodded silently and went inside. She walked up towards the double doors, pushed them open and was treated to a very much unexpected sight. A group of Egg-pawns were in the kitchen, all standing at pots, cleaning, moving around carrying ingredients for meals or doing some other type of task in the kitchen.
Gwen was amazed by the sight until her attention was drawn to Metal Sonic, who stood before her and waited for her to ask for something to eat. "Um...can I have a bowl of chicken noodle soup, please? With extra noodles and chicken? Maybe some carrots?", she asked shyly.
Nodding, Metal Sonic immediately got to work prepping ingredients and a pot to make the soup. He gestured for Gwen to leave the kitchen so that he could cook, so she left and went to sit at the table across from Eggman.
"There's a lotta robots in the kitchen, Mister Eggman", she said.
Eggman gave her a small smile, "But of course! I built them all, and they service me by doing daily tasks. And as long as you're here, they'll take care of you as well", he said.
An awkward silence fell over the two, Gwen looking down at the ground as she kicked her legs back and forth. It was then that Eggman decided to ask her questions about herself.
"By the way, you look quite young. Just how old are you?", he asked.
Gwen counted her fingers, "Um... I'm six years old...I think", she responded.
Eggman nearly fell out of his chair when he heard that, not just because a child so young had been in such a horrendous condition when he found her, but also because she looked much too small for a six year old. But then again, she was suffering from malnutrition when he found her.
She was only slowly coming back to full health thanks to the I.V. he gave her, and then when that was no longer needed, he inserted a feeding tube into her stomach to nourish her until she woke up from her coma.
"Gwendolyn, what exactly happened to you? You were in pretty bad shape when I found you, what happened to you? Where did you come from? Where are your parents?", asked Eggman.
Gwen looked down at the floor as tears began to form in her eyes, "I don't have any parents. I used to live on a small farm with my Mama and Papa, we were poor but that was okay because we were happy.
"Then one day, these big scary men broke into our home. They...they killed Mama and Papa, and then they took me away. They kept me in a cage with other kids, and they dragged us all around to scary dark places!", she said as she started crying.
Eggman couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards the young hedgehog, from the sound of it, it seemed like she was kidnapped by Black Market slave traders. They murdered her parents and planned to take her to sell her off.
They were probably also not feeding her enough and abusing her, which would explain the malnutrition and injuries.
"So...how did you get away?", he asked.
"One day, we were traveling through the desert when these strange monsters appeared. They looked like Mobians, but their bodies were all metal and they had red eyes. They attacked the scary men, and I managed to escape while that was happening.
"I stole one of their knives so I could protect myself as I ran away. I didn't care if I got lost, I just wanted to get away. That's how I ended up in the mountains, and how I met you", said Gwen as she wiped her eyes.
Eggman gasped, from what Gwen had described, it sounded like the slave traders were attacked by Zombots. And in the confusion, she managed to escape them. So technically, Eggman had unknowingly saved her life even before they met.
The conversation was soon halted when Metal Sonic came in, pushing a trolley with their meals on them. He presented Gwen with a bowl of chicken noodle soup with extra noodles, chicken and carrots. He then gave Eggman a plate of roasted potatoes and seared steak.
Gwen picked up her spoon and began eating, a delightful smile on her face as she slurped up the noodles. "Mmm, this is so good! The carrots are so crunchy and sweet!", she said.
Eggman smiled as he started eating his own food, "I'm glad you like it. Anytime you're feeling hungry, just let me know and I'll have my robots prepare you something", he said.
Gwen nodded as she continued eating her soup.
[Time Skip]
After they were done having dinner, Gwen requested if she could have a bath since she got a little dirty whilst eating and she complained that she smelled funny. Eggman guided her over to the bathroom, which had beige walls and white tiled floors.
"This is a pretty bathroom", she said innocently.
Eggman laughed, "Glad you think so, I take pride in having clean facilities. So, do you want to bathe alone or would you like some assistance?", he said.
Gwen looked down nervously, "I wouldn't mind if you gave me a bath, I don't wanna be alone anyway", she said.
Eggman nodded as he began helping her undress, then he turned on the bathtub faucet and adjusted the temperature of the water until it was just right. Gwen climbed into the tub and sat in the warm water as it began to fill up.
"I apologize for not having any bath toys for you to play with, I've never had any children in here before", said Eggman.
Gwen shook her head, "No, it's okay. It just feels nice to take a bath", she said.
Eggman reached for the shower head, testing the temperature on his hand before running it along the light blue hedgehog's body. Gwen sighed at the feeling of the warm water hitting her body, it had been so long since she was able to bathe and it felt so good.
Once she was rinsed, Eggman worked some shower gel on his hands into lather and started to rub it down the light blue hedgehog. He scrubbed down her body and quills, but turned away and allowed her to wash her most private areas herself before taking the shower head and rinsing her off.
After Gwen was fully washed, the doctor then dried her with a large towel. He swaddled her in the towel and carried her out of the bathroom, Gwen sighed blissfully as she nuzzled into Eggman's chest, letting out soft purrs.
Eggman was unaccustomed to this show of affection, but he didn't dislike it. In fact, he thought it was a little cute. Gwen then yawned quietly, but Eggman heard her and laughed.
"You feeling tired, little one?", the doctor stated.
"Heh…no I'm not…", Gwen replied, but her eyelids and ears were drooping and she definitely wasn't fooling Eggman in the slightest.
Eggman then looked at the time on a nearby wall clock. It was already 10:30pm. "It's time for bed anyway, let's go", the doctor responded. Soon, they arrived into a large bedroom that was presumably Eggman's, with some comfortable velvet coated furniture and a large king-sized double bed.
"Lie down on the bed and wait for me; I'll be back in a moment", he replied and retreated into the next room.
Gwen stood there for a minute after Eggman departed, she looked around the room with curiosity and fascination. Eggman soon came back, holding another set of pajamas tailored and adjusted to fit such a small Mobian. He was wearing red and white striped pajamas and a night cap on top of his head.
"Here, put these pajamas on. You'll sleep here with me tonight, I don't feel comfortable leaving you in another room to sleep alone. And let's be honest, you don't want to sleep alone I'm sure", said Eggman.
Gwen nodded in agreement as she took the clothes and put them on, then she crawled up onto the bed and got under the blanket. "This blanket is so soft and warm! And the mattress is bouncy like a trampoline", she said.
She then felt the doctor joining with her on the other side of the bed, but the light blue hedgehog still stayed exactly where she was before crawling over to Eggman's side, curling up against his round belly.
Before Eggman could do or say anything, Gwen had already drifted off to sleep. He couldn't help but smile as he reached over to shut off the light and went to sleep himself.
[To be continued...]
Author's Note: This is a story I've wanted to do for a long time but I could never get it off the the ground. Now that I have, I'm gonna see it through to the end, it'll be about six chapters long. Anyways, I'll see you all next time.