Rough Criminals

"Preparations are complete now, are they not?"

"Indeed, Ivo, they are."

"Then, let us review our plan once more."

The two mad doctors were sitting in front of a square table in comfy chairs, each scientist having a small pile of paper sheets filled with informations along with pencils on their sides.

The one wearing red took a sheet, along with a pencil in his hand and although he did not write anything down, he tapped the table with the tip of it as if to mean that he was about to start talking.

"First, the day of Sonic's birthday, we shall hide on Angel Island four hours before the start of the day. With the echidna's sleeping pattern in hand, it will be easy for us to sneak past him and just wait for them."

The one in black nodded, taking two sheet of papers in his hands: one had a picture of a purple chameleon, the other had a picture of a black hedgehog. "Second, after taking into account Espio and Shadow's detection abilities, we will be stationed fifty meters away from where the Master Emerald resides as in theory it should be where the party takes place." The man said, staring at the picture of Shadow for a second before continuing. "Time Eater will be positioned twenty-five meters behind us, so seventy-five meters away from the Master Emerald, in case his presence might be detected more easily than ours by those two beings."

"Third, Nega Hunter will go along the « bait ». Although one of us will be using your impenetrable shields, your creation will act as extra insurance for our safety. He will also make sure that nobody escapes the place."

"Fourth, once we start our attack with the Time Eater, we have to make sure that we separate the hedgehogs, the cat and the echidna from each other once we initiate the Time Drain as those four are the biggest threats to us. Taking Blaze out first is our priority as it is highly probable that she has all of the Sol Emeralds with her."

Time Drain, an ability of the fearsome time and space bending creature that Nega and Robotnik found very recently. Although they did not understand how it exactly worked, they were very much aware of the effects it had on… Well on quite literally everything.

Once the Time Eater hit something or someone with this particular move, the target would be transformed into an impossible to break statue of stone, frozen forever in time.

Yet even though it's not exactly draining the remaining time to live of a target and thus killing them by old age in an instant, the two scientists still decided to call the phenomenon as the time of the target being eaten, or drained as Nega preferred to say, feeling like it would sound less redundant.

The ability was not perfect as it needed time to be used and the more targets that needed to be drained of their time, the longer it would take for the monster to drain the targets.

Erasing a target in its entirety was not a possible feat and rather than taking the risk of sending their opponents to another dimension and have them alive in there, knowing that there's a hint of a chance the pests might pop back in their world, they opted to go with the Time Drain.

A much more effective solution as the Eggmen were sure that there was no possible way out of it.

"Five, we have not decided yet which one of us will be the bait, and which one of them we will provoke." Robotnik continued, staring very seriously at his counterpart. "Let's decide about who we should get to move first."

"The obvious choices would be either Blaze or Shadow. Taunting Sonic to make him attack sounds difficult." The white mustached villain admitted.

"It's not that hard actually, just touching his friends will make him snap very easily. The problem is that we would have to waste the element of surprise on one of the least important targets to get him to react seriously."

Nega frowned, not liking the idea of losing the opening strike. Even with all the power they held in their hands thanks to the Time Eater's incredible abilities, the bad doctor couldn't help but try to be as cautious as possible in each step of their conquest. "Let's forget about Sonic then. So either Blaze or Shadow…"

"Let's choose which one after we review once more the flaws of our plan." Ivo said, making Nega nod in agreement. "So… We are unsure if some of Sonic's friends will be there. Those I have doubts on are as follow: Team Dark, The Chaotix and the Babylon Rogues."

"We do not know if the Time Eater's abilities will work perfectly, without side effects on us or our surroundings, if he does get attacked by the blue pest and his friends."

"We do not know if the Sol Emeralds or the Master Emerald will have any impact during the course of the fight."

"We do not know if the Time Eater will have to fight Burning Blaze and how that would impact our mission."

"Finally, we do not know if messing with time or space will make an element we are not aware of or we cannot control appear."

Although there were several other flaws that could be pointed out in their plan, those few points were their biggest worries.

At least, they were aware that Blaze was indeed in this dimension as the media easily pointed it out with their fuss over an insignificant meeting the cursed duo had.

It was a very important advantage the villains had over the heroes. Had they been unaware of Blaze's arrival, it would have made everything much more difficult for them. The last thing they wanted in their plan was a sudden surprise element that'd go against them.

"Are we being too cautious, Ivo?" Nega questioned, feeling like they might worry themselves too much for nothing.

However, having the power of the time beast in their hands required at least that much discussion and planning. Even if Nega understood that, he wanted to hear what his counterpart thought about it.

"No, we're not." Robotnik answered swiftly. "This much is necessary for such a grand operation. We will be affecting reality itself, after all."

Nega nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Now for the very last issue: Which one of us will be the « bait »?"

The most troublesome problem for the genius was who would go directly meet the party of animals. A crucial step to their plan.

Because they wanted their plan to be as successful as possible, catching their enemies when they had their guard down would make their chances of wiping out all of them in one clean attack rise tremendously.

And to get that effect, the doctor decided on making an extremely bold move.

So extreme that anyone in their right mind would call it foolish.

They decided to have one of them go by foot to the place where the party was and provoke one of the participants.

They would be completely unarmed and even with Nega Hunter hidden near to react if any of the animals try to attack the scientists, they were aware that the machine wouldn't be able to stop something that had the speed of sound from harming them.

Nor would the Molecular Shield protect them as they wouldn't be able to activate it fast enough.

No one sane would feel like that was a good idea and yet, both doctors had agreed to go with it, to make their opponents lower their guard as much as possible.

Calling them mad doctors was even more fitting now.

"Seeing as neither of us is eager to go to the front lines, how about we decide that with a game of chess?" Ivo suggested, smirking. "The loser ends up being the bait."

"Oh, what an interesting proposition! It has been so long since I have had an actual opponent on that game."

Nega took on the offer while grinning madly.

Both doctors competed in the game of chess to see which would put their live forward, and even though they were also both slightly afraid of losing, there was another emotion rising inside of them.

Thrill.

A few hours later, after their little game of chess, the scientists went to continue their own preparation.

Robotnik quickly did a check up of his robot army while Nega went to take care of his newest creation.

The doctor in red soon joined the one in black, curious of the beast Nega had come with.

Said beast had been placed inside Robotnik's amazingly large test chamber, a room he used mostly to test the firepower of new weapons and robots safely, although it had multiple different functions installed inside of it.

The decoration wasn't much to speak of as the ground, walls and ceiling were covered in a dull white color.

Right now, art and esthetic was not something that the egg shaped man cared about. What had caught his interest was the monstrous being that was the Nega Hunter.

Nega was currently inside of his hover pod, tending to the arm that had previously regenerated itself, fixing a few wires. He had noticed Ivo coming him and had only given him a glance and a nod as a greet before getting back to focusing on his work.

Anyone else would have found the greeting rude, but Robotnik didn't mind. He thought it was a good opportunity for him to observe thoroughly the cyborg in front of him.

Bioengineering, genetic modifications… fields the doctor in red preferred to avoid as it could lead to unnecessary complications. The doctor in black, however, thought otherwise.

Standing in a what looked to be a T stance and now illuminated with the bright lights of the room, the creature could now be examined more thoroughly than last time by Robotnik.

Covering nearly the entire body of the beast was the thin yet strong, metallic colored armor. Only where the elbows, knees and the left hand were was missing the protective gear.

The right hand had been replaced with a large, menacing energy blaster.

On the uncovered parts, you could see the midnight black fur coming from the Hunter, the good doctor was unsure if it was the natural color or if it came with the extreme modification of the creature's genes.

Talking about whatever « natural » part of the monster was left, his muscles definitely were far from being normal. Every single part of his body looked extremely developed, with the large torso being the most developed part, the arms and legs following right after.

Nega Hunter also had large shoulder pauldrons with small, short spikes coming from it. In a way, they looked similar in design to spiked maces.

The head of the creature was completely covered with a helmet, entirely hiding his face behind a visor. The only visible part was the terrifying red gleam that came from the Hunter's eyes, gleam that possibly came from upgrades given to the monster's pupils, such as infrared vision.

The creature had an unusually long tail devoid of armor with the same black fur as before on it.

Finally, the creature's feet were encased in metal armor with small spikes under them, capable of latching onto most hard surfaces easily.

At the amazing height of 6,11 meters, along with its muscles looking like they would burst from his tough armor from being so thick, calling the beast simply imposing was an understatement.

In fact, after hearing about its destructive power from Nega, if there was one word the good doctor would choose to describe this monster, it would be…

Juggernaut.

A massive, unstoppable force.

Why Nega had called it Nega Hunter instead of Egg Juggernaut or Egg-Naut puzzled the doctor in red for a second.

"I've had to make a few modifications." Nega suddenly said, catching the attention of his counterpart. "His earlier design had useless elements: Too many horns or spikes that would hinder his movements more than anything, wheels that were supposed to make him go faster but in the end slowed him down… Regular maintenances are also important."

"I see you've been taking care of him very carefully."

"Of course. There's a reason I call him my masterpiece."

Robotnik nodded and after this, the room became silent once more.

The man in red left, having nothing more to do or say to the one in black.

As Ivo wandered through the halls aimlessly, his thoughts were on the nearing mission.

They had an enormous amount of firepower at their disposition, yet Robotnik still had doubts on whether they would be successful or not.

Those pests, no matter what he threw at them, they always managed to foil his plans and defeat him.

But he never had as much power as today in the past. With him was not only his robot army plus the Time Eater, but another genius working with him and his incredible giant pet.

Losing over and over and over… Robotnik had had enough.

He wanted to see his blue rival's face distort in pain before falling to the ground. He wanted to win, he wanted to beat him and repay him in kind for all the humiliations he suffered.

They had to be successful.

They just had to.

Or at least, they had to take out either Sonic or Blaze, then meet up again to deal with the remaining animal.

They can do it.

"We will rule over reality itself and then, nobody will be able to stop us ever again." He muttered.

They will do it.

Father. He loves me.

I will. Protect my father.

With my sword. With my shield.

For the glory of…

For the glory of…?

…

What is.

A sword?

A shield?

A war?

It does not. Matter.

Father only. He matters.

I will. Protect.

I swore.

My oath.

I am.

I am…

A…

Unwanted memories detected. Rebooting system.

System has been rebooted. Commencing lockdown of memories.

Lockdown successful.