Sonic: C O U N T E R P A R T

Chapter 5

Years had passed, and the heroes and foes have grown quite well. Sonic had grown from this silly kid who liked taking the credit for being the main heroine into realizing that having a team was essential. He no longer viewed Tails as just his little brother and a liability. In fact, in the past 4 years, the two had grown closer and strengthened their sibling-like relationship.

Tails and Knuckles had both developed new skills. Tails was a quick thinker, brilliant at coming up with other ways to accomplish one thing. Knuckles no longer viewed everyone else as a threat to the master emerald. He learned to see good in others, but more often than not, the trait he developed proved to bring another challenge. Knuckles was a bit gullible, and that was okay. He still had time to improve.

Amy blossomed into a strong and able-minded young girl. Her skill with her PIKO hammer improved tremendously. And her way of preparing and cooking ingredients always brought joy to the doctor's stomach.

But there was an issue. After Eggman was betrayed by Chaos and defeated once again by Sonic, he was starting to lose his A-game. Amy noticed that his new plans were faulty and disorganized.

"Your afternoon tea, Doctor." Amy placed the tray full of food on his desk and placed the warm mug beside the plate. She had prepared Chamomile tea, and honey lemon cake glossed in French vanilla glaze.

Eggman kept his eyes on his screen and reached for the mug. "Thanks, Rose."

"It's my pleasure, Doctor." Amy smiled and peeked over his shoulder. "Are you working on a new robot?" On the computer screen were blueprints. Over the years, the technology had improved. Blueprints could be stored on an electronic device instead of printed on a large sheet of paper.

"No," Eggman shook his head. "I'm gathering data from E-R23's old core. Then I'm going to download it, add on new lethal traits, and install back it into his system."

"E-R23? But that robot was blown to bits years ago..." Amy frowned.

"So those blasted rodents thought!" Eggman swerved around to face Amy and placed his index finger high. "I'm going to make some major improvements. There was a flaw in his last design, the bigger the robot, the slower they move. Sonic's reflexes are too fast for my bot to keep up with. But if I can get an energy-filled power source that can be copied, I could use it to make him move faster! Sonic won't know what hit him! Hahaha!"

Amy blinked at him, unamused. "So you're going to install some battery to power the robot since Sonic and his friends have the chaos emeralds and only make the robot move slightly faster than it did before?" She mumbled sarcastically.

"I thought you would've had a better reaction than that if I'm honest." Eggman cleared his throat awkwardly. "I thought you admired my persistence and fawned over my brilliant plans."

"I do, Doctor, believe me. But this consistency is starting to get a bit boring, and if we pull up the data from your last fights..." Amy pressed a button on Eggman's keyboard, and on the screen popped up past footage of the doctor's battles. "You only tweaked your bots a little bit at a time. Still, all of those modifications have been unsuccessful in getting rid of that bully."

"You've learned quite well, Rose. But you still have a lot to learn—"

"With all due respect Doctor, maybe we should find Sonic's weakness and lean in that direction. Work smarter, not harder."

"How dare you!?" Eggman scoffed. "My IQ is higher than the height you'll ever reach pipsqueak! What do you mean by work smarter?"

"I'm just saying..." Amy tapped her feet and rubbed her arms nervously. "Last time, you had to recruit some water monster to help you. And just when you were about to conquer Station Square, Chaos betrayed you, us."

"Okay." Eggman rubbed his mustache and sat up straight. "But do you think this is easy?! You should try working in my shoes for a day! You have no clue how difficult this is!"

"Excuse me," Amy huffed. "Maybe it's so hard for you because you skipped over the fact that maybe you should CATCH him, neutralize him, and then get rid of him."

"AHA!" Eggman chortled in response and threw himself against the seat laughing. "I'm sorry, this is too good!"

"I don't see why you're laughing, Doctor!" Amy balled her fists.

"I'm laughing because of what you're saying! Do you know how many years I've tried catching that blue blur? He's called the blue blur for a reason!"

"Please, his title won't mean much once we find out his weakness! I could catch him with my eyes closed if you let me!" Amy spat.

"Oh really?" Eggman coughed. "Alright then. Let's see how you do. You should prepare for your first mission Rose. Make me eat my words, prove yourself."

"I don't have to prepare, I'm ready. I've been training for this for a long time!"

"I'll be the judge of that." Eggman snorted and typed random buttons on his keyboard. "I'm transferring his coordinates to you now. He lives in a workshop with that fox boy in mystic ruins."

Amy's wristband began to beep. She pressed the button on it and a glowing hologram of a map for mystic ruins appeared in front of her. She quickly pinpointed the red dot, which was supposed to be the hedgehog she was supposed to go after.

"Catch him, and bring him here. I better not see you come back until you have an unconscious blue hedgehog dragged by the leg!"

"Please!" Amy smirked. "How hard could it be?" What she didn't know was that her assignment would be extremely challenging. Eggman never told her that Tails workshop was smack dead in the middle of the desert. Eggman was sending her off across the entire country just to find her target.

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