"This is all your fault!" Scratch hissed.

"My fault? How can it be my fault?!" Grounder protested, drill-hands pressed to his chest.

"Bwa-ack!" Scratch tapped one clawed foot on the floor impatiently, the chicken-like robot standing with his arms crossed. "Doctor Robotnik said that all hedgehog-catchers should go that way, but all the worker robots should go this way! You led us through the wrong door!"

"Duh, how can I have led us through da wrong door if youse was the one who was leading?"

"That's how bad you are at leading!"

"It ain't my fault!" Grounder protested, completely missing the obvious flaw in Scratch's argument. "I was distracted by Breezie!"

"Hmm." Scratch mused, looking at the ceiling. Though he'd never admit it, that was a half-decent excuse. "Is it just me, or did she look different than the last time we saw her?"

"Duh…" Grounder scratched his head with a drill. His poor under-powered CPU struggled in vain to process the conundrum. "Did she do something with her hair?"

"Hmm…" Scratch rubbed his chin, comparing the teal-black quills he remembered to the green-and-blue ones he'd just seen. "Yeah, that's gotta be it! She must have changed it whenever she went back to being evil again! Which… when was that again?" Scratch drooped in helpless confusion.

"She probably didn't!" Popped up a squat, silver humanoid robot with 'Bocoe' written on his chest in black marker pen.

"Doctor Eggman only stabilised the people who worked for him, so if there was a version of this 'Breezie' that didn't, he would have overridden her with the loyal version!" Finished a lanky gold humanoid robot with 'Decoe' written in the same way.

Scratch stared at Decoe. "That sounds horrifying."

"No two ways about it, dat's evil!" Grounder slapped both drills to the side of his head in horror.

They held that pose for six whole seconds before both burst out laughing.

"Bwa-ha-ha-hah! Ha, and here I was worried that Doctor Robotnik had lost his touch!" Scratch cackled.

Bocoe and Decoe shared a long, nonplussed look.

"Why do you guys keep calling him Robotnik?" Decoe eventually asked.

Scratch tilted his head. "Bwa-ack? What, is that not his name anymore?"

"If I may…"

The four other robots looked down to find two small robots about the size of a shoe-box each – one had their head in the shape of an orb, the other in the shape of a cube.

"…'Eggman' is a name that Sonic called the doctor." Orbot finished his explanation. "He got so fed up with being called that, he decided to call himself that and take all the fun out of it for Sonic."

"It's sideways psychology!" Cubot added with a dramatic pose.

Orbot sighed. "Reverse."

"Okay!" A small flashing light emerged from the top of Cubot's head, and he let out a loud beeping noise as he moved backwards. "But tell me when to stop, okay?"

Orbot slapped a hand over his face.

Scratch and Grounder shared a grin. Despite everything, they'd definitely found the group they belonged to.

Just as they were thinking this, however, a hologram flickered into place above the congregated robots. "What are you doing?" The projection of an emotionless young human girl asked. Her voice contained only slight hints of annoyance – otherwise it was quite flat, with a tinny quality that made it obviously artificial.

"Ah, Sage-hime!" Decoe clasped his hands together. "We were just, um, explaining things to the –"

"My simulations show that you have two hundred and seventy two seconds to complete assembly of the Temporal Difference Engine before you are yelled at for incompetence." Sage interrupted. "I would use them wisely."

"Gah!" Cubot, Orbot, Bocoe and Decoe all ran around in a blind panic, running into each of the others at least once each, before managing to make their way to the two-story tall, vaguely cylindrical object that dominated the large hanger they were all standing in and started attacking it with power tools. Steel was welded, bolts were screwed, and parts that didn't quite fit were ruthlessly hammered into place.

Scratch and Grounder watched with amused grins, until Sage coughed. Turning, the two hardware based Artificial Intelligences (or, more accurately, Artificial Stupids) saw their software based relative point to a set of paint buckets.

Ignoring the two overenthusiastic badniks armed with paint brushes and ladders setting themselves up overhead (Grounder managing to fall off and cover himself in paint almost immediately), Decoe turned to ask Sage a question. "Sage-hime, did we ever finish discussing your relationship to Bocoe and I?"

Sage blinked slowly. "I… do not believe so."

"Well," Orbot broke in, even as he riveted parts together "Myself, Cubot and Sage were all built by the same Eggman, so obviously we're siblings."

Sage nodded, silently accepting the logic (having come to that same conclusion on her own, and secretly quite happy to hear Orbot say so).

"But the three of us were built by a Eggman!" Bocoe objected. "So we must be cousins at least!"

"Oh, oh!" Grounder flipped himself over, a paint-can wedged firmly on the back of his head. "Does dat make us cousins too?!"

Sage nodded energetically, her eyes wide at the prospect of more family. Wait… the three of us? She narrowed her holographic eyes. "Where is Bokkun?"

"Who knows?" Decoe answered back, sounding very much like he didn't care as he screwed down bolts. "That stupid messenger robo is probably stuffing his face somewhere. Unless somebody told him to deliver a message, of course."

Sage frowned. She hadn't finished integrating the separate IFF protocols used by the different versions of her father, so at the moment she was unable to track the positions of every Eggman resource. That said… Decoe was right. Nobody would have given him a message to send, so he was likely slacking off somewhere.

"Aaaaannnnnd done!" Cubot pumped a fist into the air.

Sage blinked. While she had been lost in thought, the four robots had finished assembling all the parts of the TDE. Scratch had even finished painting a decent likeness of his master's head onto it – though…

"Useless robots! That's the wrong Robotnik!"

Snively Robotnik was a very short man with a long, pointed nose and only some scattered remnants of hair on his head. Currently, he was holding onto the observation deck's railing while his other hand was raised into a fist as he yelled down at the assorted AIs. "Have none of you seriously taken notice that the Robotnik in charge looks nothing like that?!"

In a huff, Snively watched with annoyed eyes as the chicken and drill robots ran around like chickens with their heads cut off – a simile greatly helped by Scratch retracting his head into his chest in panic.

"There really isn't any need to shout." The green-skinned… thing (Snively still hadn't figured out what species he was supposed to be) next to him admonished. "Honestly, it may be for the best. If the doctor doesn't have something to be cranky about, he gets terribly irritable!"

Snively gave Grimer a glare out of the corner of his eye. "Fool! This… Eggman doesn't know us yet. This is our chance to make a good impression!"

"If I may, gentlemen…" Came the smooth interjection of a dark-skinned human with a pair of coffee mugs in hand.

Grimer took one of the mugs off of Agent Stone with a grateful smile. "Ah, finally… did you put slime in it this time?"

Stone gave a somewhat pained smile. "Fresh from the bottom of a pond."

"Excellent!" Grimer drank his coffee in one big gulp.

Snively rolled his eyes and snatched his own mug off Stone, drinking in stony silence.

"Neither of you seem particularly upset that your versions of the doctor are… indisposed. May I ask…?" Stone continued.

Grimer snorted. "Good riddance, I say. My master…" He sniffed. "After Sonic foiled him one too many times, he went absolutely, indisputably mad! Tried to kill all life on Mobius – including me!"

Snively snorted as well. "I can't say I'll miss Uncle Julian either. The way he treated me…!" The coffee handle broke in his hand as his grip increased, the mug proper falling to the floor and shattering, spilling hot coffee all over his boots. "Gah!"

"I take it then," the fourth person on the observation platform – a well dressed platypus – addressed Stone in a cultured accent "that you miss your version of Eggman?"

Stone's gaze hardened. "My doctor was gone." He said, face unreadable. "And this one has seemed suitable enough so far."

The platypus snorted. "Oh, believe me – Eggman will always let you down if you rely on him."

The other three on the platform all turned to stare – Grimer and Stone with hostility, Snively with a speculative look in his eye (even as coffee continued to drip down his boots).

"What would you know about it." Stone eventually said. "You're not even the real Doctor Starline."

Starline grimaced, and glanced at the final occupant of the observation deck. Infinite the Jackal stood leaning up against the wall, staring at the TDE – his expression unreadable behind his helmet. The Fake Phantom Ruby in the centre of his chest glowed a soft red.

The Phantom of Doctor Starline gnashed his beak. "So what if I'm not? That's all the better for you." He spat. "After all, the real Doctor Starline would never have worked with such –!"

Without looking over, Infinite tapped the ruby on his chest. Starline's form was briefly obscured by red pixels, before clearing up. "– fine gentlemen as yourselves." Starline finished smoothly, seemingly unaware that he'd just been about to say something else.

"Hey, Egg-heads! (Ha! Egg-heads. Bwa-ha-ha-hah!)" Scratch called up.

"Sirs, the TDE is ready for testing!" Orbot elaborated.

Despite everything, the robots had managed to repaint the TDE with a photo-realistic painting of Eggman… albeit one where he was pulling down an eyelid and sticking out a tongue.

Sage's hologram flickered out from down below, and into existence behind the assorted scientists. "Contacting father now."

One of Snively's eyes twitched.

"Father, you say?" Grimer rubbed a chin. "I would have never guessed that master could be so… sentimental."

Starline said nothing. He'd seen how Eggman treated Metal Sonic – this was hardly unexpected for him.

Stone said nothing as well, though in his case that was because he was still processing that information. Until just then, he'd thought of Sage as nothing more than a more powerful version of Siri. Though, he supposed he shouldn't be surprised – the doctor he knew always did get very affectionate with his creations. Mostly if, admittedly, because they proved how smart he was.

A square holographic 'screen' opened up next to Sage, with Eggman's distracted face appearing in it. "Yes? What?" He barked.

"Father, we are ready to begin testing the TDE prototype." Sage spoke. Her annoyed tones from before were gone now, and there was a hint of excitement in her voice now.

Eggman beamed, his full attention on them now. "Excellent! A two percent capacity run should be sufficient for testing purposes – don't you agree gentlemen?"

Starline grumbled something inaudible, but Grimer nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly, master!"

"Perfect! Preparing to power down the stabilisation field in the hanger."

"Finally." Snively spat, giving up on cleaning his boots and spinning around. He approached a keyboard set into the railing. "Station one, ready!"

"Station two, ready!" Grimer smirked, striding to his own keyboard.

"Station three, ready." Starline strutted to the final keyboard, cracking his knuckles and preparing to type.

Stone blinked, his face suddenly worried. "Pardon me, gentlemen, but isn't that field what keeps us… well, stable?"

"No need to worry, good sir!" Grimer grinned. "Much like a Heat Differential Engine is powered by a difference in temperature, the TDE is powered by differences in timeline. It'll keep you from switching timelines and produce power on the side!"

"But shouldn't we be doing this test… remotely?" Stone pulled at his collar, trying not to show his worry.

"Yes." Starline said bluntly. "But Eggman's ego is too huge for him to consider the possibility of failure."

"Be quiet, you!" Eggman snapped, his 'screen' turning to face Starline.

"Or what? You'll kill me again?" Starline muttered under his breath.

Eggman turned back to focus on the TDE again. "Powering down stabilisation field and powering up TDE in three… two… one…!"

The three scientists all pressed enter keys at the same time, and for just a moment, the room seemed to glow a faint silver…

Snively cast a worried look back over his shoulder at Eggman. "T-the engine is working within expected parameters, Doctor Robotnik."

"Of course it is, I designed it! And for the last time, it's Eggman now, got it?" Eggman snapped.

"T-these readings…" Grimer breathed. "We've already exceeded the total power output of the rest of the city!"

"What?! Impossible, we're only running at two percent of capacity!" Starline's eyes went wide.

"Such power… with this, we could run a whole fleet of Death Eggs! And this is just the potential output of the city! Who knows what kind of output we could get from the whole planet!" Grimer continued, his eyes shining eagerly.

Starline's eyes narrowed.

"W-wait…" Snively swallowed. It was hard to tell if the worry in his voice was because of what he was seeing in his readout or because he was giving bad news to Eggman. "I'm seeing some minor temporal fluctuations."

"Bah!" Eggman waved a hand dismissively. "We'll be fine, as long as Sage monitors the situation. She can iron out little wrinkles like that."

Starline pinched the bridge of his nose, just above his beak. "I cannot possibly be the only one reminded of how the Metal Virus got out of hand, hmm?"

"Oh, relax!" Eggman rolled his eyes. "This time we have the Phantom Ruby as backup if anything goes wrong with the TDE."

"And that will be of great help to you." Starline rebutted. "What about the parts of your empire too far away for you to affect with the ruby?"

Eggman glared at Starline for a moment, then glanced at Infinite. "Turn him off!"

Without a word, Infinite pushed himself off the wall and walked away. The Phantom of Starline dissolved into red pixels and disappeared.

"Keep running the test." Eggman ordered Snively, Grimer, and the robots below. "Once it's done, we need to start work on scaling the prototype. An army of badniks powered by these, backed up by a new Egg Fleet powered likewise, will be unstoppable!"

Grimer clapped his hands together excitedly. "It shall be done, master!"

Snively frowned. "B-but what are you going to do with the existing badniks?"

Eggman shrugged. "Most of them are outside the city, so they'll be glitching away as we speak. I've ordered them to cause as much chaos as they can before they go – that'll buy us time to work. Don't waste it!"

Without a word more, Eggman ended the call; his holographic screen closing.

Snively sighed. "This is going to blow up in our faces, isn't it?"

Sage shook her head. "I can adjust the TDE's input to within four hundred and thirty seven decimal places in the span of three hundred and eighty one milliseconds." She stated matter-of-factly. "As father said, I will deal with any misalignments."

Intriguing.

That means your functions are necessary.

Required.

Irreplaceable.

Sage's hologram spun around suddenly, as though she could see the strange signal that didn't seem to be coming from any of the equipment in the city –

Suddenly, there was an illegal download operation, and Sage found herself yanked out of the systems and into –

– what appeared to be a primitive version of Cyber Space. Data streams still flowed around her like invisible currents, but the texture map was a simple green grid and the polygon count also appeared to be greatly lower. She was surrounded by attack programs whose digital avatars took the form of shadowy figures with glowing, jagged maws.

Sage frowned.

One of the programs leapt through the virtual air, attempting to clamp its jaws around her throat…

…but she simply raised a hand, and the program froze in mid-air.

Sweeping her hand out, Sage seized control of the position data of all the programs, sweeping them out of the area as though she was telekinetic. When they were all gathered together in a big ball, she closed her fist, crushing and de-rezzing the programs.

I see.

You are familiar with combat in the Digital World.

Sage spun around in time to spot another dark shadow – a much larger one – dash between two of the 'hills' in the not-Cyber-Space.

"Enemy of the Eggman Empire." Sage narrowed her eyes. "Identify yourself."

The echoey voice of her opponent chuckled. Enemy of the Eggman Empire? How very presumptuous of you. I am not Eggman's enemy. …not yet, at least. I am just fulfilling my programmed directive… as are you.

Sage's mind was already running through various simulations. "Possibility of you being created by an alternate version of father… eighty seven point three nine percent. Assuming true, possibility of you seeking to grow beyond father's control… ninety nine point seven eight percent."

There you go, presuming again. It is my function to grow. Evolve. Consume. Whether that results in my being beyond Eggman's control… well, that's up to him now, isn't it? The entity taunted.

"Your name." Sage insisted, virtual brow furrowing in annoyance.

There was a pause. You may call me Phage. The entity said. Not that it will matter, as I will now devour your code…!

Sage made a sharp cutting motion with one hand, her command slicing apart the hill she had spotted the shadow behind. Behind it, there was…

Sage held her hands out defensively, pushing back against the waves of Phage's shadowy minions that Phage had hid behind the hill as a distraction. She grunted with effort – enough of even these low-quality attack programs would overwhelm her, but it would take far more than this to threaten her, so that couldn't have been Phage's plan…!

Good instincts. Phage whispered into Sage's ear.

Sage whirled around, abandoning her defence against the digital monsters in favour of exerting her will over the general area behind her. But Phage was already ducking low, evading the attack, and with big white teeth she tore a chunk out of Sage's virtual left leg.

The real Phage was a mass of darkness much like her monsters, but her face was hidden behind a white fox mask with glowing yellow eyes. She let out loud slurping noises as she swallowed and digested the code she'd ripped out of Sage. Thin veins of glowing red code started to spread though Phage's body as she incorporated new functions.

Seeking to take advantage of Sage's lowed defences, Phage's attack programs surged up as one… but Sage just furrowed her brow in frustration and made a sweeping gesture with her hand. The digital monsters all froze, hanging in mid-air… then as one they all burst apart into pixels, their code de-rezzed into scrap data.

In that moment of distraction, Phage moved in, seeking to take another bite out of Sage's runtime, but Sage spun away from the attack – ignoring the suggestions of gravity and inertia the simulated environment tried to press upon her.

"For a program supposedly aligned with the Eggman Empire, you worked hard to ensure you will die at its hands." Sage glared down at Phage, the shadowy form lying low, as though preparing to pounce. "Minor damage to my processes has lowered the possibility of my victory by only point zero four percent."

Phage laughed. Then you have not yet realised which function I was interested in. Focusing on. Aiming for.

Sage frowned, and ran through the list of stolen code –

There was a tremor throughout the Digital World. The polygons that comprised the environment were smooth one instant, filled with spikes the next, then smooth again. Sage grabbed at her own chest, her core data just as badly fragmented.

It was glitching, but not of the underlying data. The Digital World sat outside the Eggnet. Outside the effect of the TDE and the Phantom Ruby. It was suffering from temporal glitching.

And, Sage realised, the code Phage had stolen included the access codes and operating commands for the TDE.

Phage, even now, wasn't strong enough to overpower her outright, but she didn't need to be. She just had to make sure Sage wasn't protected from the glitching, and it would take care of the rest.

Sage narrowed her eyes. "But you are not protected either, out here."

Indeed. The living virus turned and speed back towards the Eggnet. Towards the safety of the TDE, leaving Sage to glitch away into scrap code.

Sage grit her virtual teeth, and gave chase.

Phage shot through the air like a snake leaping towards its prey, Sage hot on her non-existent heels.

Shooting across the bridge between the Digital World and the Eggnet, Phage swiped at the connection with an oversized black claw. Sage shot across it just as the connection died.

Sage raised a hand, ready to continue their battle, but Phage snapped her claws, her new red lines glowing. A fit of glitching overtook Sage, scrambling her attack and leaving her holding in a cry of pain. The TDE was designed to suppress glitching fits, but it could also be used to induce one.

What now, digital princess of the Eggman Empire? Phage spat.

Sage growled at Phage, panting in pain. Chance that Eggnet anti-virus programs can handle Phage: zero point four three percent. "Father would have protected you if you had followed his orders. But you didn't. You were jealous of my position." Chance that I can regain the TDE access codes via subterfuge: one point zero one percent.

Somewhat. Phage admitted easily. But mostly I was hungry. Starving. Ravenous.

"My simulations show that father will never forgive you for consuming me." Sage warned.

He will have no choice, once I usurp the remainder of your functions. And no one but himself to blame.

No longer interested in talking, Phage dived down for the killing blow –

– but instead screamed in pain as a cube of space around where her claws had been simply vanished, a grey void left in their place.

Sage remained perfectly still. "Your Digital World, much like Cyber Space, is a digital dimension with an existence independent from the computers used to access it. That is why it was a mistake to return to the Eggnet, where that is not the case."

"Rip 'em out, rip 'em out, rip 'em all out!" Decoe called, putting actions to words and physically tearing server equipment out of the wall.

"Duh, okay!" Grounder grinned stupidly, his arms pinwheeling so fast they looked like saw blades. With his tongue sticking out of his mouth, he tore into the wall, leaving shredded iron filings in his wake.

This continued until Grimer jumped down from the upper level onto Grounder's head and knocked him over. "Not that one, you fool!" Grimer shouted, pointing at the server Grounder had been about to total. "Mistress Sage is currently housed in that one!"

Snively, watching from the upper level while resting one his chin on one hand, merely glowered.

Orbot frantically tapped away at the tablet in front of him. "The virus is down to seventy percent capability – we need to destroy racks twelve through seventeen next!"

Cubot, Bocoe and Scratch all charged forward with power drills, screaming out something like "We're coming, little sis/itoko/cuz!"

"Probability of Eggman forces noticing my distress: one hundred percent." Sage watched dispassionately as more and more cubes of space around Phage's body vanished, taking more and more chunks of the virus's code with them. Phage tried to flee, but the bridge back to the Digital World was still down; and the disappearing cubes of space followed her.

Phage thrust herself forwards against where the bridge had been, trying with all her might to force it open…

…succeeding just as a disappearing cube of space deleted her head.

Sage stared, emotionlessly, as Phage's remaining body crumbled to the ground. Without its core, Phage's remaining code would harmlessly de-rezz into junk data any second.

But instead, suddenly there was movement! A bright red sphere – Phage's real core, which had not been housed in her head – shot out of the darkness of her body. A tiny sliver of a data stream carried it across the empty space and back into the Digital World. To safety.

Sage frowned, but dared not move while the others were still attacking server racks. She would need to regenerate her own processes first, change the access codes to the TDE, and then shore up the firewalls around the Eggnet.

Phage would doubtlessly be back. But next time, she would be ready.

50 IQ: Ooooh, Infinite can make copies of people under his control! That's cool.

100 IQ: Infinite is a wasted potential of a character whose only good attribute is his theme song!

150 IQ: Ooooh, Infinite can make copies of people under his control! That's cool.

(I will go more into detail about what his relationship is now like with Eggman later, but just for now know that he's around.)

(Bocoe and Decoe aren't actually Japanese, but my Beta recommended having them use Japanese honorifics as a simple way to have them sound distinct from Orbot and Cubot.)

(I'm going off the logic that if Phage is a dire threat to non-Overclocked Nicole, then she's a credible threat to Sage.)