NOTICE: I ran out of muse for this story, so I've decided to make the Shadow Eggman storyline a part of Comic Edition over on my second account @Heartsthekitteh I might update this story in the distant distant future, but until them, consider this s...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"I've done it," the doctor whispered aloud, still not believing what he was seeing being projected on the previously lifeless screen. The odds of him choosing the correct frequency on the 795th try were one in a billion. Still, the picture was blurred and small details in the background were too hard to make out, but at least he could tell what he was looking at. It was a dimension, a plane of existence, a zone far removed from their own, and yet he could peer into it from his humble workshop.
The machine ran off of simple electricity like any appliance he owned, though it was far more of a strain on his finances than his energy saving panini press. The energy bill had been far higher these past few months than at any other time that year while he wasted time tuning in his latest invention. However, dozens of portal generators existed that ran on alternative fuel sources like ring and chaos energy, but they still all had the same fatal flaw.
You see, giving a portal an electric charge caused it to fluctuate in trajectory, causing its target location to flicker in between two zones. However, by generating the portal entirely with electricity, you could get it to stay on that "in between zone", effectively making all possible zones accessible, not just a few. Wait until the Zone cops find out about all the zones they're neglecting.
The zone he had been using as an experiment to get this to work this whole time was between some of the zones in Sonic 1. Eggman was hoping that it would be some sort of unfinished or discarded zone. The zone pictured on-screen appeared discolored and desolate much like the anti-Island zone, but far more "sleepy" with lack of a better word. It felt empty, but supernaturally so. Plus, there was strange, blue electricity coursing through the atmosphere. Eggman wondered if it was dangerous to enter. The ruined buildings were a sign that the land had once been hospitable, but how long ago had that been?
"I've done it, but is it safe to explore? What if the air is unbreathable?" Eggman peered into the portal. He slowly reached his hand inside…
"Hey, Doctor! You won't believe what I was able to get my hands on!"
At the sudden shout coming from the agape door to his lab, Eggman lost his balance and fell headfirst into the portal.
On the other side, it was warm, but a dry sort of heat, and it felt like there was an electric charge in the air much like static. He stood back up and the first thing the intruder saw was his mustache all puffed up by static. She held her stomach and laughed.
"What kind of strange experiments are you performing now?" the intruder, Honest, asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Like you can't already see, I'm creating portals to help me visit alternate planes of existence," the Doctor explained with a scoff. "What's that in your hand?" He cut his eyes at the sheets of paper she had grasped in her left hand at her side.
Honest smirked in a manner which indicated she was unbelievably proud of her discovery but was downplaying it in an effort to appear cool. "The thing that you won't believe I was able to get my hands on," she said, turning her nose up. "The King proved his worth once again by hacking into GUN's databases and scouring them for anything recovered from the Ark during the raid. And… He got me this!" Honest held the stack of papers in front of her so that Eggman could read the first page. He crouched down and inspected the bolded text at the top of the page.
