Archive of Our Own

It had only been a week since the last time he’d stopped Robotnik, blasting away from Christmas Island and Knothole, leaving behind everyone he’d saved.

He remembered the actual first encounter pretty well. Almost getting crushed under a hydraulic press, dashing up the arm of an egg mobile and yanking his moustache. He might’ve slapped that idiot. He wasn’t going to stand around and do nothing while Robotnik recklessly destroyed the environment, destroying life and convert people into robots.

No nonsense. He was so much younger then, taking it all so serious. Eggman listened… but it went out the other ear.

He wanted to show him the consequences. He tried to warn him against them, just a little kid. He couldn’t even peel out yet (thanks Amy), no spindash (thanks Tails) or even use an emerald.

Green Hill was the first place he’d found himself. He’d been there a lot of times now, but the first time was the one he remembered. Shame it all mixed together now…

A flash of crimson,
space bleeding white,
cyberspace,
sand and flames,
mechanic conversion,

It wasn’t the first Badnik he’d dug his quills into, popping open to reveal a small flicky inside-

He gave it a pat on the head and threw himself at the flying one after a jump, releasing another.

Robotnik had gone from trying to turn people into metal to stuffing animals into metal.

That’s just what motivated him to keep going. Across the springs and spikes, swinging platforms underground and his first emerald.

The Eggmobile, piloted by Doctor Eggman himself. He yelled it at him, jumping over the wrecking balls.

——

Over the bridges, into the jungle-

A marble temple, now sunken into the ground, the roof now forming walls that got in his way. It wouldn’t be fun if he went around it, probably faster to go through.

All this from Robuttniks operations: more Badniks to break, more critters to save.

He almost got singed a few times, thanks random monitor containing a shield. Yes, a literal shield that he tried surfing on.

More and more of the grass was burnt away, mineral extraction and whatever else it might take to cause so much of the terrain to sink and shake.

——

The further parts of the forest, near the mountains were equally plagued by the mad doctors creations… and those emeralds hadn’t been much help, but it seemed he wanted to get his hands on them and that wasn’t about to happen on his watch.

He knew it was where most springs ended up on South Island, but there was way more giant spiky balls.

He plunged into the the depths of the labyrinth when a spike hit the floor after he burst open the capsule-

Another emerald he missed that time. What he’d give to go back and get it all right the first time around, to blitz through everything…

Nobody’s perfect.

——

And that’s how he found out about the labyrinth below. 

Full of water, spikes and even more Badniks. Flickies seemed to survive almost anything, from lava to not needing to breathe air. Amazing critters, aren’t they?

can’t swim
can’t swim
need air
slowed down
need air
fire
arms heavy
legs weak
vision blurry
jump up
fire underwater

he could BLAST over the water nowadays… probably into spikes.

There wasn’t anybody by his side here, just him standing alone with that jerk to defeat, just out of reach.

——

The light of the stars, that’s what the next place reminded him of. Not fully constructed and four emeralds under his metaphorical belt.

it took longer than he’d like to admit to get all seven

He rolled from here to there, leaping over spikes and rolling down elevators into Badniks trying to kill him.

How many of these inventions could be used for good? Defensive shells for smaller creatures, capsules to preserve resources… some of these parts could easily work for prosthetics! This jerk could be doing so much good!

He started to smile when he launched Eggmans own bombs back at him. Come on, he openly called his ride the Egg Mobile, he was asking for that nickname!

less of all this mechanical strain overtaking the wildlife. they could co-exist, couldn’t they?

Since when did the fastest thing alive get pushed about by a fan? It was dampening his almost relaxed attitude.

And why the heck was there warp rings leading into a world crystal mazes that spun around and a sky that kept changing into all these different shapes?!

——

Eggmans internal base was next. The final area, the piece da resistance.

Flamethrowers, electricity, chainsaws and tubes weren’t what he expected… who was he kidding? It’s an Eggman base, of course he kinda expected it.

He had to keep the emeralds out of eggmans hands, defeat Eggman, break all the Badniks and open all the capsules and then finally-

A door slammed shut behind him.

he’s not strong enough to just blast through it yet

Eggman stomped his foot directly onto a button.

toxic water
can’t breathe
all metal
same labyrinth?
must keep going
almost empty
must keep spinning
out of air
must keep winning

One last red spring, scraping his quills against a random block suspended in the air. 

——

There he was, right at the end. Eggman had stuck himself in some sort of metallic pillar… and then it went into the ceiling.

How the heck was he moving between them? He could barely avoid being crushed while energy balls were firing at him- is what he would say if there wasn’t plenty of room to jump around a little between the pillars, striking the contraption repeatedly.

He wasn’t sure how (maybe he was just that good) but he threw an emerald at the underside of the egg mobile-

for a moment, just a moment, time seemed to stop.

And it STRUCK the underside, leaving Eggman inside as a self-destruct sequence initiated.

So he did the first thing he thought of - hijacking one of Eggmans planes, sleek and red with its own power source and everything.

he really should’ve retrieved that emerald.

And so he flew back through the zones, shredding through each Badnik he could find- by landing and breaking them, not flying rotor-first into them.

Eventually, he landed back in Green Hill, three emeralds with him. He rolled his body a down a hill like it was second nature as Flickies enjoyed their lives again.

Three emeralds suddenly floated above him, trampled flowers blooming back up-

but not all of them, some remaining too damaged to bloom again.

he wouldn’t risk missing any magical gem again.

But a smile still came to his face. If Old Mans Chucks stories were true, Little Planet should show up any day now and he had a way to fly right there.

——

Years later, maybe eight, maybe ten… he opened an envelope. An invitation to the marriage of Agent Stone and Doctor Ivo ‘Eggman’ Robotnik.

“Heh, took them long enough.”