Sonadow: Night Falls

Chapter Seven

Dr. Eggman sat in his chair in his fortress, looking over the progress of the planet's condition and the containment of the dark entity arising from the center. A red and white robot rose from the side of his desk.

"Your dinner, Doctor." It droned in it's metallic voice. Eggman turned to find a sub sandwich on a plate.

"Thank you." He said (for once in his miserable life!). He walked over and picked up his simple dinner, then asked, "What's the progress on the Dark Gaia-powered Eggman Land construction system?"

"Current status is. . .27 percent complete." Orbot answered with a look of worry on his robotic face. "Progress is significantly behind projected timetable. Presumed cause of delay. . .is Dark Gaia's dispersion across the globe."

"Oh, of all the lazy. . ." Eggman said, finishing his sandwich. "Here I go to the trouble of waking that Dark Gaia thing up, and it causes me nothing but delays!"

"Dark Gaia had yet to reach maturity within the planet's core." Orbot explained. "Ergo, it was still incomplete at the time of its awakening. Ergo, it was unable to sustain its own weight upon its release. Ergo, it is scattered around the world."

Eggman sighed deeply with irritation. "I don't want to hear about its weight issues! We've already got enough of that with Sonic." He turned his back on Orbot. "So what if I gave a bit of a sudden awakening?! This is unacceptable!"

"Ergo, this is the repercussion of your hasty actions." Orbot responded. Eggman whipped around.

"What was that?!" Eggman snarled. He was ready to unleash his full wrath upon the model, but turned away again. "I'm having a bad enough day as it is. First that professor runs off with the Gaia Manuscripts, and now the planet's coming back together!" Eggman breathed heavily for a few moments as his rage died down a bit.

"That, Doctor, is the result of the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Which you discarded along with Sonic. Ergo, another repercussion of your hasty actions."

Eggman remembered and that caused his rage to quickly spike again. "Q-quiet, you junk heap! That was, uh, all part of my plan! Part of the big picture! Where's the fun in having my plans succeed without any challenge?" Orbot gave Eggman a strange, almost skeptical look. Eggman cleared his throat and resumed. "Anyway. What's the status of the remaining Temples of Gaia?"

"Eggman forces have currently secured all locations." Orbot explained and showed him on the digital map. "Defensive preparations are nearly complete." Eggman sat down in his chair and relaxed a bit.

"That'll take care of Sonic for now, which leaves the problem of Dark Gaia. It'd be difficult to collect every piece scattered all across the world."

"Searching conventional wisdom banks for topical advice. . ." Orbot took one second to do so and continued, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Slow and steady wins the race. Nobody like a whiner."

Eggman turned his chair a full 180 degrees. "Hmm, isn't there a more efficient way? Some way to, oh, I don't know. . .gather them all up at once? Wait, that's it! Of course!" He turned his chair back around and literally slid to the other corner of the room. He stood up at a much smaller desk thingy. "With this. . .This! All my plans will be realized!" He started pressing buttons and working on some sort of blueprint.

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Monsters prowled around in the darkness covering the land of Shamar. A tower that was projecting what looked like lightning rose high above the landscape, drawing the monsters toward it.