Dr Eggman grunted as he heaved himself through his front door and collapsed into a robots arms, who had been waiting for him.
"Doctor!" the robot's voice was bland and only had one note, but it could raise it when it needed to "You look rough. Your bed has been made. A bath is waiting for you. It is eightey degrees fahrenheit to soothe your aches. Please give the co-ordinations of your broken machinary so that it can be retrieved." The robot pushed Dr Eggman back to his feet and he stumbled against the wall, too exhausted to tell the robot to be more gentle. He weakly gave the co-ordinates and closed his eyes as he leaned on the hard cool interior of his house. "Doctor, are you aware that these co-ordinates lead to the bottom of a steep cliff? This will mean only Drillster will be able to retrieve your broken machinary. Drillster cannot handle with care. All of your metal will be broken beyond repair and will have to be recycled." Eggman sighed, he'd already figured that out. Even in his deterioriated state his mind was still above average intelligence.
"I'm aware of that." he confirmed miserably. The doctor attempted to walk towards the bathroom, but slipped clumsily and fell flat on his back with a cry.
"Doctor, are you aware that Sonic tried to destroy all of your robots here? Defense number twenty four was put into place. Your base was flooded to stop him. He left ten minutes ago. The floor is still damp. Some areas still have puddles. It is recommended that you have an escort to your bath. Shall I call one?" the robot asked in his monotone voice to the heap of a fat defeated genius that was his boss.
"Yes." he mumbled "I want bubbles in my bath, too."
"Affirmative sir. Is there anything else?" the robot slowly looked down, making a buzzing noise as he did. Eggman sniffled.
"I want some icecream and the councilor bot to come and I want Fuzzywuzzy!" he demanded.
"Fuzzywuzzy is still in the drying stage. He will be ready when you go to bed." Eggman whimpered at the robot's reply.
"Fine." Suddenly Eggman was gently lifted and placed onto a hovering wheely bed. He closed his eyes as he let himself be wheeled off and felt his weariness begin to shut him down. He welcomed it.
Sonic appeared, a horrid gleam in his eye as he prepared to cut through Eggmans latest genius robot machine, but Eggman had a back up plan and pressed a button to reveal what was inside his robot. A pink fiesty hedgehog. "Uh, uh, Sonic! Amy is a companion of yours, isn't she?" he asked and smirked as Sonic skidded across the grass to stop himself. The robot kicked him into a tree and he crumpled to the ground as Eggman continued "If my robot dies, so does she!" he laughed.
"Let her go, Eggman!" he snarled as he stumbled back onto his feet.
"Only for a chaos emerald, hedgehog!" the doctor replied, as equally hostile.
"No way!" Sonic prepared his spinning attack, but at Eggman instead of his machine. He quickly flew high and Sonic missed him, but only just.
"I can garuntee that you'll be giving me a chaos emerald, Sonic, if you ever want to see her again!" he pointed to Amy, who was attempting to hammer her way out of his robot, but he'd had it toughened by bits of diamond. Even Sonic would have difficulty cutting through that!
"I'm not holding my breath, Egghead!" The hedgehog had a quick mind and Eggman could see it at work as he jumped at him again, but Eggman just hovered up again and Sonic missed. In some ways, he felt that Sonic could be as smart as him if he put his mind to it, but the hedgehog obviously had no interest in having intelligence as complex and as interesting as the doctors.
"Ok, Eggman, how about we swap? You let Amy go and you can have me!" Sonic decided boldly and Eggman hid a grin. He'd been hoping that Sonic would go for that conclusion. The genius pretended to think about it.
"Ok, Sonic! You jump in through the mouth and I'll activate Amy's freedom." he tried his best not to look too pleased as Sonic leaped confidently into the gaping mouth of the fierce robot, even though Amy was trying to signal 'No! Don't do it!' However, she was forced to slide out of the robots stomach and onto the delicate grass to watch as Sonic disappeared into the robot. The robot was sealed up again and Sonic waited for Amy to disappear to get help before trying to cut his way out, but as soon as he did electricity poured into him, even though he hadn't gotten near any electrical wires. He hadn't even begun to cut through the metal at all! He quickly realised that a metal spike had been shot into his arm and pulled it out with a hiss.
"That's dirty, Eggman!" Sonic growled, but Eggman was laughing too hard to notice how frustrated the hedgehog was getting. He pressed a button and suddenly thousands of metal spikes were shot at the hedgehog and he screamed in agony as the volts poured through him.
"Feel like handing over an emerald, hedgehog?" he asked as the spikes retracted and left the steaming Sonic in a heap. However, the mention of an emerald seemed to give him an idea, and before Eggman knew it, a yellow Sonic had ripped through his robot cage and had Eggman by the shirt.
"If you ever play dirty like that again, you'll get worse than what's coming this time!"
"And then he threw all of my stuff over the cliff and blew up my Egg Mobile!" he sniffled as he took off his bunny slippers and settled down in his bed with Fuzzywuzzy, his bear that sometimes turned into a killing machine. "While I was still in it..." he added bitterly as the coucilor bot took in the data. Her voice had a metallic edge to it, but wasn't monotone either. She looked like a metallic version of a business woman.
"That must have been very upsetting. Are you feeling better now?" she sympathised mechanically and patted him on the shoulder.
"Not really. I wont be happy until that damn hedgehog is either so far away he can't get back or six feet under!" Eggman tilted his head "The best thing would be if I was too powerful and no one respected Sonic anymore because he was easy to beat." A large smile came across the refreshed Eggman as he thought of this.
"How would you go about ensuring that, doctor?" she asked. Eggman sighed despondantly.
"I don't know. I've tried everything there is to try on blasted Mobius, but he has help all the time and even alone he can crush me." A small ounce of fear wormed its way into Eggmans stomach, but he quickly dismissed it. He would find a way to complete his dreams one way or another!
"What about planets that are not Mobius?" the councillor suggested. "Maybe you just need to broaden your horizon and find something from another world that could defeat Sonic."
"That's a brilliant idea!" Eggman beamed, but then narrowed his eyes "If anyone asks, I thought of it, ok?"
