Tiny planet built of technology
Verdant life taking all as its own
Machines of technology
Creatures of stone
A conflict raging
Watched from within a tiny space
Too small yet perfectly fit
A work of genius
A sudden distraction

         “No, no, no, no, no!!” Doctor Eggman shouted and smashed his hands down on the control panel in front of him.

         Flashing on the screen just inches from his nose was real time data highlighting the destruction of the Death Egg’s core. It was the latest in a line of similar casualties throughout the space station as power stations all over had been failing. The screen in front of the would-be world conqueror was more than happy to show him that path of destruction as well.

         “Wait…” Eggman remarked and rubbed his chin while adjusting his glasses as he did indeed recognize it was a path of destruction. Something far more structured and organized than the clash between his machines and the ever-spreading vegetive overgrowth. “It couldn’t be… Oh but of course it is!!”

         With a few masterful strokes of the controls in front of him, Eggman’s screen switched from displaying structural data to live security footage. Surely enough, standing in the now lush and partly flooded core of the Death Egg was none other than Sonic himself. The smoking remnants of the machine that served as both the main core and defense systems of the core rested in a heap before the sapient hedgehog who looked at it with a frown and crossed arms. He was obviously troubled, but not as much as when he heard Doctor Eggman’s voice come across the air from hidden speakers.

         “Dah~ hahahahaha!! I should have known you’d be paying me a visit soon Sonic!”

         “I was wondering when you’d make a nuisance of yourself, “ Sonic smirked as he looked around to spot any camera’s that Eggman could have been watching him from. “I was starting to think you were lost in your new gardening hobby. It’s not a bad look though, even if you’ve gone a little out of hand.”

         “Delight in your jokes while you can Sonic!!” Eggman countered with a dry tone in response to Sonic’s irreverence. “I may be preoccupied with some undesirable maintenance, but I’ve still been building since our last battle, and I have a fine surprise for you that will highlight the works of my genius!!

         “Dah~ hahahahaha!!”

         …

         “You insolent…!!” Eggman fumed even as his mustache drooped in response to the devastation that Sonic had wrought on his latest creation.

         "Wow!” Tails' voice remarked across more hidden speakers as some time later Sonic had made his way to the exterior of the space station and now stood over the sparking crumpled remains of a robot that heavily was influenced by him, even if it had stood at more than twice his height when it arrived. “You absolutely wrecked that machine, Sonic! It’s hard to imagine it looked like you when it arrived.”

         “What can I say?” Sonic shrugged with a smirk. “Eggman’s taste is getting better, but you can’t just make me from a few scraps of metal.”

         “Do you know how much effort I put into that!!” Eggman continued to fume as Sonic and Tails made a mockery of him. “I only had a week to perfect it and hadn’t even done any test runs of it yet!! It was going to be a delight seeing your image destroying all of this unwanted greenery!!

“Dah~ hahahahaha!!”

         “I take that back, Tails,” Sonic scratched at his ear as he sighed exasperatedly. “Eggman’s taste still sucks.”

         “He-he!” Tails laughed at Sonic’s wit, though failing to realize that Eggman was watching the whole scene. A scene he did not see Tails as part of.

         “Oh!!” Eggman mused to himself before he started gracefully working the controls in front of him. Security feed after security feed flashed across the screen in front of him, and soon he found what he sought and screamed. “What have you done to my beautiful creations!!”

         “Uh-oh!” Tails yelped. “It looks like I’ve been found, Sonic!”

         “Yeah, don’t hang around if you don’t have to Tails. Grab what you need and get yourself and the Tornado out of there.”

         “What about you Sonic?”

         “What else, I still need to pay Eggman a visit. I mean, I just have to see the master gardener who made this mess because it is so weird standing on the surface of the Death Egg with it overgrown by grasslands and forests like this with the blue sky above. I need to give him my praise to his face. Heh!”

         “Ha-ha! Gotcha Sonic! I’ll meet you topside as soon as I can.”

         “Don’t think you’ll get away with this mistreatment of my beautiful works fox boy!!”

         “Sorry, but your code is too much for me, so I had to make my own way in.”

         “Of course it’s too much for you, fox boy!! It was made by none other than super genius scientist, Doctor Eggman!!

         “Dah~ hahahahaha!!”

         “You know Eggman,” Sonic interrupted the exchange between the other two, “I’m still here looking to figure out what your latest scheme is, and make sure this thing stays as a floating botanical attraction.”

         “Latest scheme?”

         The question left Eggman’s lips and Sonic’s heart skipped a beat. He tried to play it off casually as he challenged the doctor’s confusion accusingly. “Really Eggman? You think I don’t know that you have a scheme cooking?”

         “I believe you’re mistaken Sonic,” Eggman corrected Sonic, still confused. “I’ve been so busy trying to salvage the Death Egg I haven’t had time to put together my next masterpiece stroke of genius. You’re simply being a nuisance while I deal with other problems that are far more pressing than you and your troublesome interference.”

       “You expect me to believe that?”

         “I’m amused that you feel so threatened Sonic,” Eggman chuckled and stroked his mustache as he gleefully watched the discomfort creeping into Sonic’s features. “It’s so nice to have my countenance finally respected and feared by you. I’m so delighted that it saddens me that I don’t have time to crush you beneath the heels of my latest and greatest creation. But alas Sonic, I really don’t have time for you. I’ll have to leave you and fox boy to my beautiful machines today.

         “Dah~ hahahahaha!!”

         Sonic’s ear flicked as he heard the intercoms cut out and was left alone by Eggman in a most disconcerting of scenarios. Troubled by the whole affair he sought some familiarity as he called out. “You still there, Tails?”

         “Not for much longer,” Tails commented, his hurried actions to collect what he needed from the control room he took over lost to Sonic. He didn’t like the way Sonic asked the question though and swallowed loudly as he tried to get Sonic to get out of his own head. “But it sounds like Eggman doesn’t have the answers you’re looking for either. Whatever you experienced Sonic, I don’t think it had anything to do with Eggman.”

         “I find that hard to believe,” Sonic irritably denied the possibility as he started tapping his foot and again scratched at his ear. “Eggman is always causing trouble and more than happy to pick a fight with me. Besides, what about the Chaos Emeralds?”

         “Asides from the energy you’re giving off Sonic, not here,” Tails shot down Sonic’s hope to pin things on Eggman. “And even that has been siphoned off to a rather large degree now. It’s still pretty impressive, but I’m sure in a few more hours you won’t be any different from normal. There were some odd Ring signatures showing up in Eggman’s systems though, so I’m going to check those out and then catch up with you topside.”

         “Just be careful,” Sonic warned. “Eggman may claim he’s busy, but he had no problem talking to us as I trashed his stuff and you just told him exactly where you’re going.”

         “He-he…,” Tails laughed nervously. “ I guess I did, huh?”

“Don’t worry about it too much,” Sonic shifted his tone to comfort Tails as he started to stretch and prepared to start running again. “I have a few more power stations that I can wreck to take Eggman’s attention off of you. I’ll just make sure he has no reason to even think about you.”