Sonic didn't know what he was doing as he saw the space shuttle start moving in the distance. His heart had sunk with an omen of something horrible coming when he heard the engine roar to life. So before he knew it, he had already dashed towards, jumped into, and crashed through the window. He landed on the ground, wiping a drip of blood off of a small scrape and proceeding to run off towards the shuttle. His arms flowed freely behind him. He had seen Robotnik board it, along with a small group of Swatbots. He didn't know what they were doing. He had no reason to do this, yet the voice inside had been shouting at him that if Robotnik left the atmosphere, an unspeakable tragedy was to come.

The shuttle began to move, picking up speed as it made its way down the runway. Sonic wasn't about to let this thing get away from him. For most people, running fast enough to catch a shuttle seconds before takeoff would be nothing but a pipe dream. But Sonic wasn't most people. With the muscles in his legs starting to hurt, Sonic locked onto the shuttle the second he was in the proximity necessary to do so. He Homing Attacked into it, and latched on for dear life as it took off into the Karman line in the time it takes to snap your fingers.

Sonic climbed up onto the wing, adjusted his showy golden mask, and marveled at the circular space station ahead, shaped like Lord Robotnik's ugly mug. His cloak flapped and rippled behind him, as he ran up the body of the shuttle. This was impulsive. This was stupid. His brain felt as if it was scolding him extremely harshly in a mix of worry and rage, like a parent towards a child who came home with an eye gouged out... or something like that. But his heart told him he was doing the right thing.

But both knew well that he was in trouble as he left the last circle of the atmosphere.

"You're going to get yourself killed! You've REALLY done it now!" His brain cried from within his pounding head. "Either you fall and die, or Robotnik makes a u-turn and places you in the iron maiden!"

"Go! Robotnik's up to no good, and ya hafta stop him!" His heart encouraged hyperactively as it also tried to steady itself to the rhythm it had before Sonic had reached such dazzling speeds. "If you don't, who will? His rotten scheme can't come to fruition! Faster, go FASTER!"

Sonic smirked, as the shuttle pulled into the fabled space station Robo Utopia. But… he'd call it the Death Egg instead. He was sure that's what the people in the Iron Dominion or United Federation would refer to it as. Besides, it might make Robotnik blow a fuse. The old man hated any and all egg-related nicknames in the book.

Luckily, it seemed Sonic had gone undetected for now. He clutched a bar on the roof as the shuttle hit the landing zone in the Death Egg. This place was told to be the Robotnik Empire's first step towards establishing intergalactic peace… under the iron-clad rule of Robotnik himself. But it seemed more like a superweapon than a hub for all kinds of species to come together in harmony.

Sonic quickly realized that the shuttle wasn't slowing down. Then, it jerked to a complete stop in an instant, throwing him forward. The doors to the Death Egg closed. He hit the metal flooring, and then slid forward painfully with an agonizing screeching sound coming from his body sliding across the squeaky clean floor. He held his head, seeing visions of Flickies flying around him, but then realized there was no time to recollect himself. He looked forward, eyes shrinking in fear.

One could see the reflection in Sonic's once confident green eye as the shuttle doors slid open. Switching perspective to his blue eye, he squinted angrily.

Click, clack, click, clack… went a mustachioed menace as he stepped out of the doors with those tacky boots that shined like plastic, and that bald yet still greasy head, which somehow also shined like plastic. Sonic tried to get up, but failed. He fell back to the ground with a grunt. Robotnik looked over.

"Why… if it isn't Sonic the Hedgehog!" Robotnik exclaimed, smiling and rubbing his gloved hands together. "It would be fancy meeting you here, what with the precautions I took to make sure nobody was near Area 99 during my takeoff. All the cover-ups, the extermination of even the smallest bug in the surrounding desert... The costs… However, here's the thing… I was expecting you."

Sonic remained silent as he looked to Robotnik in indignity.

"You see… Agh, what's this?" Robotnik asked. "You miserable pest! You bled on the floor." Sonic held his nose, and looked at his now red-stained black arm length gloves. There was a spot of dark blue fur showing through on his upper arm from where the window had scraped him. He looked away from his glove, only to see Robotnik's boot swinging at his face. When the kick landed, Sonic felt as if every bone in his face had broken. He went sliding over to the wall.

"As I was saying… with your desire to do the right thing, to fight for the good of other people instead of your own gain, I always suspected… that you might rebel," Robotnik sighed, grinning from ear to ear. Sonic lied motionless on the floor. He wasn't dead just yet, but he was completely immobilized. "Even if I do manage to silence the media and street rumors, there will always be grime in between the cracks of the tiled floor that is my empire. You are only some of the grime. If I can't get rid of it all, I'll settle for exterminating just one little pathetic hedgehog."

Robotnik stepped towards the hedgehog, until he was standing directly over him. "Of course, I can't deny that you have been a useful asset to me since I took you under my wing all those years ago. I trained you myself, I rewarded your adorable Gang with media coverage and fame. I'm hurt by this turn of events, truly… but I trust you don't really want to destroy me once and for all."

Robotnik turned around, and walked off. "Swatbots, take my little boy back home. Get him cleaned up. I know he'll come to his senses, and some day he'll appreciate me wiping our rival countries off of the map. It's all for the good of my people… it is all for the good of my dream of conquering the universe. I know he doesn't have the strength… I know he doesn't have the WILL to get in the way of that."

Sonic's once resting eyes snapped open fully. His pupils appeared like electric blue crystalized diamonds, as blue lightning crackled around his whole body. Robotnik turned around. "What?!" He shouted.

"Heheheheh… Doc, you have no idea," Sonic chuckled, as his eyes glinted beneath the mask. He cackled, and shot a mighty beam of lightning at Robotnik, who saw it coming and dodged uncharacteristically nimbly. As if he had accounted for this as well.

"Grrrr… you'll regret this!" Robotnik cried. "I've given you your last chance. Swatbots, destroy him!"

The Swatbots armed themselves with laser guns and shot at Sonic, but he practically limboed beneath and in between them. Their lasers, even at light speed, were too slow. In a single shot, he blasted a bolt of lightning at them, shanking them all together like a metallic kebab.

Sonic blasted off towards the direction Robotnik went. But then, he felt a strange pull. He looked behind him, and noticed the air lock had opened. It swept away the remains of the Swatbots and their guns, but Sonic was only slowed down. He dashed forward towards Robotnik, who had swiped a pair of high-tech boots that, when put on over his regular ones, stopped him from being sucked away into the void.

"That won't save you now!" Sonic cried. He blasted forward at blazing speeds, but then the doors shut in front and behind him. He had a moment where he was able to recollect himself. His crystalized eyes returned to normal form and color when he realized his unfavorable predicament. He was blocked in. "Oh…"

"Surpriiiiise!" Robotnik exclaimed, from a monitor on the wall. "You thought the air lock opening was all the security system had to offer? You'd be sorely mistaken. It's still a work in progress, but I suppose it works enough to be tested on a puny guinea pig such as yourself. Sonic… meet Metal Sonic!"

Sonic remained still, looking up at the monitor unswayed. A metallic mistake snuck up behind him, and clawed at thin air as he disappeared to the other side of the room. Sonic looked towards it, and saw the spitting image of himself in a shiny metal shell. It lacked any paint, but that just further showed Robotnik's careful craftsmanship in making even the silver figure look like an evil reflection of the hedgehog.

"With careful examination of your abilities, I've made sure that Metal can perform better and beyond many of your own feats! From your Spin Dash..." Robotnik shouted, as Metal Sonic and Sonic himself spun around the room, sometimes colliding and bouncing off each other. "To your electricity powers…!" Sonic and Metal shot small bursts of lightning at each other that simply met and fizzled out. Sonic saw an opening as he got a lucky shot at Metal. The poor robot stood there, looking like its systems had been fried. He dashed in to deal the final blow, when Metal grabbed him by the hand in one heart-stopping motion. "To even your reflexes and oh-so-precious speed."

Metal threw him to the ground. The adrenaline keeping Sonic from fainting finally wore off, and he looked up as the doors opened. He and Metal were slammed into the wall of the small depression they were in by the force of the pull. Metal grabbed Sonic by the chest hair, and threw him through the still-open air lock.

He imagined that the last thing he would ever hear would be Robotnik's evil laughter, as he drifted away in the emptiness of space. He felt the notion that he had lost this fight grow even more true by the second. All semblance of hearing left him, as did sight… or feeling. He imagined the possibility of dying here, alone.

"Yeah right..." Sonic muttered, smiling, drifting off to a deep sleep.