Launch Base Zone

[Gerald Robotnik]

Gerald was following him up to a point. And even then he wasn’t agreeing with him. But it didn’t matter as the Doctor explained. There was no scream; he simply bent over in riving pain with his hands clenching his head. His vision blacked out as a sudden sharp ringing pierced his ears, like it could break glasses. His head throbbed with pain that was worse than before. It was like his head was exploding on him from a large amount of pressure. Even after the ringing stopped he couldn’t hear anything else the Doctor had said.

He brought himself up, leaning against for support. His face went white again, and he was in a cold sweat. His vision was blurry and he felt incredible light headed. His hands still held his head before bringing them down to cover his face. He was feeling faint, and was feeling a lot more down than before.

“What is going on with me…?” He started off slowly and quietly, completely ignoring Dr. Robotnik by now. “First I know things I shouldn’t, blurry dreams, seeing nightmares- and these horrible headaches. I knew I was a little off, but…I didn’t think I’d fall off the deep end so soon…”


It wasn’t like he felt bad before, but this was different. It was like he felt on the verge of death; like he didn’t have that long to live. Strange, but didn’t he hear that from somewhere. He slid his hands off from his face taking off his glasses in the process. Now his real eyes were showing; squinting at the hard light.

[Dr. Robotnik]

The doctor looked fearful as Gerald went to his knees. He didn't say anything, but the doctor could tell how he was feeling just from all the other things he was doing. Robotnik quickly moved over to help him up.

This again?

Robotnik hoped they weren't going to have too many of these episodes. Perhaps he'd told Gerald too much too quickly. He'd need to feed the information on his past to him more slowly so that it didn't overwhelm him. Not to mention, he couldn't help but wonder if he was being too honest with his mentor. If he said too much and warned Gerald of what he might become, it might inspire him to work for Sonic and the others instead of him.

"Listen, perhaps you need some time to rest before I tell you more. I do have some personal quarters on this ship that are..." he waved his hands around. "...considerably more comfortable than this. How about we go there? I'll have refreshments waiting for us."

[Gerald Robotnik]

“Rest? What kind of rest can I have?” Gerald said wearily, waving Robotnik off of him. “Though anyplace would be more comfortable than this.”

He was beginning to feel a little better as the time passed since his major headache. But he still felt shaky and a little unstable. What he would do to see Clarice right about now… she’d make everything better.

[“I’m back~”] rose’s voice came through the intercom, [“WhatdidI miss? Uh, gramps isn’t looking too good there…”]

[Dr. Robotnik]

"And I agree with that, Rose," Robotnik mentioned. The doctor waved for Gerald to join him at a small metallic cage-type elevator. "This will take us to much more comfortable surroundings. And I've already directed my personal chef robot to serve us a fine meal." Robotnik had a small touchscreen in his hands displaying the menu he'd selected.

"Nothing like food to take the edge off of a hard day of..." The doctor paused, as if he was about to say something at the end of that sentence, but then decided it'd be better not to say it. Eventually he came up with something else. "...working."

He'd been thinking of saying 'conquering the world' first but Gerald obviously didn't approve of his work.

[Gerald Robotnik]

“I’m not that hungry…” Gerald muttered as he followed Robotnik into the elevator.

His mind began to wander. He hoped that everyone at the beach was okay. He wasn’t sure with how much time had passed; but he felt like he was dawdling. He blamed Robtonik some for that, and blamed himself for these horrible headaches he had. And so far it appeared that there are only two ways this situation could go. Either he could stall the Doctor, or he could act like he was helping him; while sabotaging the station. The third option was Robotnik somehow seeing the light, but he doubted that.

He looked down and rubbed his forehead briefly. “Listen, there’s something very important I have to tell you. Since you are the one who started this entire mess, I don’t think I have to explain the whole story. Since this whole merge had happened, we are living on borrowed time.”

[Dr. Robotnik]

The doctor raised an eyebrow at that statement.

"Why would you say that?"

It was news to him, certainly. From his studies and research, he certainly hadn't seen anything to indicate disaster was imminent because of the merge. But all the same, Gerald was his mentor, so he decided not to belittle him and let him say his piece.

[Gerald Robotnik]

“Because I know.”

‘Somehow’ He thought slightly to himself, but he wasn’t going to admit it to him.

“I know a lot about the Chaos Emeralds, how their work, their origin. I may not be able to completely understand it, but they’re not just rocks with incredible power. They’re sentient in a way that is beyond what we know to be sentient. I believe you created a paradox, somehow. When you did this a merge began between your own universe and the universe of the paradox.”

He stopped before he even began. It was hard to explain in words what would happen next. He took the time to think of a good way to say it simply. After a short pause he continued.

“Imagine, if you will, that the Chaos Emeralds are leukocytes . And body they protect is- well, what was your normal space a time. When the paradox entered the world, it was like you brought an infection into the body. It wasn’t supposed to be there, thus affecting your space and time. But for reasons unknown it couldn’t simply get rid of the infection; most likely because it needed a user to do this. When that user finally got around to the Chaos Emeralds, the energy built up between the time the pardox started and when the user finally got ahold of the emeralds; they had overloaded!”

He gave a short sigh as he intertwined his fingers and closed his hand. With anther pause, he looked up at Dr. Robotnik.

“Following?”

[Dr. Robotnik]

"So far," Robotnik said, maintaining interest in the conversation. At the same time though, a pleasant 'ding' resonated through the elevator as they stopped off at Robotnik's private quarters on this ship. Unlike the fiery industrial look of the rest of the ship, this one was decorated in a pleasing array of subdued blues, grays, and whites.

In the middle of the room, a large table with white cloth lay before them now, showing an impressive feast of just about anything unhealthy you could think of. Pizza, chicken wings, hamburgers, potato chips, barbecue, lay steaming fresh before them. The doctor rubbed his hands in anticipation, as he quickly moved to sit at the head of the table. As he did so, he continued to talk to Gerald.

"Don't mind me. Just keep talking. I am listening. And help yourself too if you like."

The doctor quickly put on a napkin and began making his selections on a very large plate the size of a pizza dish.

[Gerald Robotnik]

Gerald eyed the food with curiosity. He had no idea what any of these foods were. Except maybe for the pizza, but it was unlike any he had ever seen. Quite frankly, all it did was seem to make him sick to his stomach; and not because he was hungry.

“No thanks,” He declined quietly, bringing up a hand. “I do wonder where the other people are…”

He said this incredible straight and sincerely. He didn’t think that the man could eat all of the food on the table.

“Well to make a long story short, the emeralds being overloaded went a little too far to delete the paradox, thus bringing us all here. That’s why everything appears to be put together like a badly done jug-saw puzzle. And at the same time they blew themselves into the tiny shards like what I have found. While it may appear things are stable, in reality it’s only temporary; most likely because the users used an incredible amount of positive energy. Without the emeralds, this world will be thrown out of balance. It could take years before it could become unstable to the brink of destruction or five seconds. And that’s the worst part of it all.”

[Rose Fox]

[As a note, the ship is sitting above the air. I decided to just skip ahead a little.]

A door from Gerald’s right ( or Robotnik’s left) suddenly opened as a Rose entered the room. She had a happy expression on her face with her eyes closed, and her hands were held together.

“I’m here!” She shouted joyfully as she finally opened her eyes.

The expression soon changed to disheartenment as she saw all the food layed out on the table. She crossed her arms over her stomach as a loud grumble came from it.

“Awwww…no fair.” She muttered low as she bent over a little.