Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Here we go 'round the Mobius Strip ❯ Hedgehog Pâté ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

It was always the same: a streak of blue, a monitor going dead, then the alarms screaming, letting him know that one of his robots had been deactivated. In the weeks since Dr. Robotnik had come to these primitive, backwater islands, never had any of the vermin that lived here been able to deactivate so many of his robots in such a short period of time! It was all in just one area of one island: a steady path of destruction that had woven its way through the grassy hills by the beach, always with a streak of blue! It was something Robotnik hadn’t seen in years, not since the day he’d taken over Mobotropolis. When Sir Charles’s nephew- But there was no way that annoying child could be so far from home.
He slammed his human hand down on the metal arm of his chair as another alarm went off, the palm of his still-flesh hand growing hot from the force of the blow despite the glove he wore.  “What IS that!?” he roared, standing up. “When I find whatever it is that’s deactivating my robots, I’ll crush it like an egg!”
He stormed out of the control room, hand still throbbing. ‘It has to be something living; there’s no other reason for the alarms to be silent overnight. Whatever it was had to have sleeping. Why else would they start up again after the sun came up?’ He paced the length of the room, muttering to himself.
“If I had ONE SWATbot factory up and running, I wouldn’t have this problem! Once my Death Egg is complete, I won’t be bothered with this primitive technology and the lack of resources on these pitiful islands!” There would be no more rationing of resources, no more worries about transporting supplies from Robotropolis. “As soon as I find those Emeralds, I’ll be able to power not only my Death Egg, but enough factories to cover these islands with robots and robotize everything on them!”
He glowered at the hovercrafts in the hanger, sizing each of them up to see which would be best for his purpose. “THIS! I’ll smash whatever is deactivating my robots with the wrecker.” The hover unit, made especially for Robotnik, had a several-ton wrecking ball attached. He’d designed it to level the ruins near his fortress, but it would do for smashing one blue streak.
‘Soon, all this will be metal,’ he thought as he left his stronghold. ‘All this marble, crumbling, ruined. Even at its peak it couldn’t stand up to my factories. I’ll knock it to the ground, use the rubble for asphalt! When I’m done with this island, there will be NOTHING but concrete and metal! Even those hills by the beach will be brown and barren.’

“WHAT?!” he roared, slamming on the breaks of the hovercraft so hard, the front end pulled up and the wrecking ball swung forward.
Robotnik recognized the blue hedgehog before he opened his mouth to shout at him. It had been seven years since he’d last seen the hedgehog. He’d held that thin body in one hand, quills stabbing him even through his glove. If he’d had just another second, he would’ve crushed those ribs like an eggshell and thrown him into the roboticizer. He’d asked the little rodent who he was while he held him and the answer he’d received was still fresh in Robotnik’s mind. Who was he? Someone Robotnik would learn to hate, and oh, did he hate him- now more than when he’d been knocked into the roboticizer and his left arm had been turned to metal.
“Who ARE you?” Robotnik demanded. This hedgehog that had appeared again out of nowhere after seven years, looked like Sir Charles’s nephew only older, and was identical to the blue hedgehog that had nearly wrecked his coup and robotized his arm.
“The name’s Sonic!” He was boastful even as he ducked under one of the floating platforms to avoid getting smashed by the wrecking ball, a tone that infuriated Robotnik with its bravado.
“SONIC!” He recognized the name as that of one of the brats that escaped from Mobotropolis during his coup; Sir Charles’s nephew was a blue hedgehog named Sonic. Though he was sure this was the same hedgehog that had knocked him into the roboticizer all those years ago, that was impossible….
“And don’t you forget it, Ro-butt-nik!” Impossible or not, the blasted hedgehog beneath him was there and who the pest actually was really didn’t matter. If he could just hit the rodent once with the wrecker, the point would be moot.
“Hold still!” Robotnik bellowed. His hovercraft shook; the rodent was hitting the bottom of it! Then the alarms started again. The stabilizers were unable to adjust for the swinging of the wrecking ball with the little beast trying to hit the release!
Again and again and again, the alarms got louder and the ship shook. Every time the ball got close. The hedgehog moved and oh, how Robotnik wished he’d outfitted the hovercraft with a laser or something before he left. That hedgehog would’ve been finished before he’d had time to move.
Just when he thought he might actually hit the hedgehog, when he could almost picture the wrecking ball squashing that little blue menace, crushing his bones like eggshells and ridding him of the annoyance forever, the wrecking ball went flying. Robotnik saw nothing but red as he tried to keep the hovercraft from flipping. Next time, next time he found that meddling blue menace he’d see to it that the hedgehog was roboticized, even if he had to personally taken him back to Robotropolis and throw him in the roboticizer himself.
The ship flew back, almost turning upside down as it spun like a Frisbee. The alarm wailed, and Robotnik could’ve sworn he saw the hedgehog doing a little victory dance as he struggled to keep the ship upright. He roared in anger, and when he finally got the ship to stop spinning, he was back over the ruins. He looked back at Sonic in the distance, shouting the one thought that filled his head at the moment.
“I HATE that hedgehog!”

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