Cold Coffee (Stobotnik Snapshots)

-The Blackout-

A/N: 

Agent Aban Stone = "_" 

 Doctor Ivo Robotnik = '_'

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It was a typical day in Montana, The sun was beating its rays down onto the lush landscape. The small town nestled in the basin of the land, bustled with life, as people rushed around. Trees lined the high, sloped hills, concealing a dirt track, leading off into the untamed pine forests. If you were to follow the track for twenty minutes to half an hour, you could glance a small building, its wood timbers adorned with long-dead lanterns, longing for new bulbs, so they could illuminate the now darkened building. The building front itself consisted of two musty glass panels, cobwebs decorating the corners like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Through the heavy wooden doors, the walls were lined with books, all ordered in a precise system, making a particular book easy to find. Near the back of the book shop, past the desk, past the tables, was another shelf of books, covered in a fine layer of grey dust. Every book seemed untouched but one. This one book, if pulled out, revealed an elevator which led to Robotnik's lab.

Robotnik would spend hours in his hunched over his blueprints and machines, scribbling and scrawling different design notes and sketches. With whatever 70s or 80s song from his anarchy playlist droning on in the background. Robotnik could do as he pleased in his lab: he had unlimited coffee and lattes on demand, could break into dance whenever he desired and bask in his intelligence without judgement from inferior humans who would never understand him. His lab was a tall island of knowledge in a vast sea of ignorance.

Until the lights went out.

The only noise that could be heard was the dying whirring of his machines and equipment. There had been no warning, no sign. Robotnik froze, his hands trembling, his face twitching. He called out into the darkness "Backup generators on!" There was no reply. He felt his legs start to shake. He sunk down by what he presumed to be his laboratory wall. The shadows curled around their claws around his neck, causing his breathing to increase in pace. The only noise was his exaggerated breathing. The shadows seemed to cackle at his panicked state. He began to rock back and forth. The memories flooding back to him.

It had been another hellish school day, his tormenters constant torture drilling into his head. Robotnik was getting has bag from the lockers at the back of the room when he felt rough hands grip his shoulders and hold him tight. He tried to look behind him but another hand held his head forward. They dragged him to the caretakers supply closet and forced him inside, their howls of laughter echoing as they locked the doors and began to bang on them. Robotnik curled up in a ball wishing them to leave. It was an hour before they did so. He was left in the closet, the light outside flicked off, and deafening silence befell him, the darkness clawed at him. Slashing at him. He was found by a teacher early the next morning. If he was to say who trapped him, his tormentors would beat him up so he resorted to saying he had locked himself in there accidently. Everyone soon forgot the incident, everyone but Robotnik. He would never be able to forget the darkness and its sharp claws.

Robotnik tried to reason with himself, it was just the dark, there was no creature that only existed in darkness and disappeared in the presence of a light source.

Then there was a distant sound of the door opening.

Robotnik screamed and tried to scramble further against the wall. He flayed and continued to shout 'Get away from me!' He threw out his fists 'Stop! Leave me alone! Please!' Strong hands gripped his own and restrained them to the wall. 'Get off me! Let go!' Robotnik begged.

 "Doctor!" Robotnik cautiously opened his eyes, tears pricking the corners of them. The hands around his wrists let go and Robotnik lowered his arms from the wall.