(THIS STORY TAKES PLACE DURING THE EVENTS OF SONIC RUNAWAYS: STOLEN.)
Eggman. A name that is often used as a form of mockery for Lord Robotnik of the modern-day Robotnik Empire. The act of using this name to refer to Ivo Julian Robotnik or his country is a weak comedic shelter used by cowards who wish to find amusement from one of the most feared men on planet Erius. They know not the true origins of the name, its primal usage that was passed down from legend until even that legend fizzled out. It once referred to a great and powerful family that could harness all Seven Deadly Sins, bending even these fearsome unknowable entities to their will. They were gods among men. For many eons, they ruled the dark lands of Erius, providing order and control to the scattered races of the world. With their home planet already under their control, they set their sights on conquering the universe through early machinery.
However, over the span of countless centuries, the Eggman family began to see their magic power dissolve due to changing times. With the advent of alien technology that they themselves helped bring about, they could only hope to adapt and conquer in this new growing society based around machines and robots.
This desire to maintain their control across the turn of the new age would ultimately be for nought. Not long after the Enlightening, where seven Chaos Emeralds rained down from the sky and lit up the universe, factions were formed around the world to war over the emeralds. These factions would eventually form modern-day nations, including what would eventually become known as the Top Two. The United Federation… and the Iron Dominion. The Eggman family was powerless to beat even the power of just one Chaos Emerald, and eventually settled into the United Federation, the holder of the Green Chaos Emerald at the time. They greatly aided the United Federation, the country was built off their backs, but the family could never regain the dignity they once had. Their prior name having lost its value and significance, they devolved into the Robotnik family. Eventually, the majority of the Robotnik family were wiped out, the last few members migrating to the Yurashian country Robotnik Empire. Founded by their very own Ivo Julian Robotnik upon the ashes of the Kingdom of Acorn. Instantly rising to power again with assets stolen from the United Federation and land seized from the Acorn monarchy, the Robotnik Empire is the most recent addition to the Top Two, or rather… the Big Three.
And yet, with the Phantom Thief of Hearts, Cherry the Ladybug, having rampaged the world… not even Lord Robotnik was safe. His personality was stolen from his robotic vessel, leaving him as an empty husk. However, it was returned in a matter of minutes. In that one moment where his very Core was devoid of sentience in the physical plane, he went on a rather strange spiritual journey that he has not told a single soul about to this day.
This is the story of his journey. His journey through the O-Void. The very journey that would end up changing the course of his life, as well as the meaning of the name "Eggman" forever.
Sonic Runaways: HATCHED
…
Ivo woke up to a purple and blue sky full of stars and floating islands. "What in the world…?" Ivo asked himself, sitting up. He looked around, he was in some kind of field. It stretched on for a good half a mile until reaching any semblance of civilization. A single small house. "Where am I?" Ivo got to his feet, but felt something slip out from between his arm and torso. He looked down at the strange pillow in the dirt. It appeared to have been sewn in the image of Sonic the Hedgehog. It was even blue. He stared into its multicolored button eyes confusedly.
Attached to the Sonic pillow was a tush tag with "The Eggsack" written on it in permanent marker. Ivo turned up his nose in disgust.
Ivo looked to his arm. Then down to his gut. He was in polka-dot pajamas. "I don't remember putting on my PJ's, in fact, I don't even remember going to bed," Ivo stated. "How did I get here?" He looked all around at the valley and held the Eggsack close to his chest. "I must be in foreign territory. This doesn't feel like home." This was partially a lie. Ivo didn't recognize this place in his mind, but he did recognize it by heart. Very vaguely, at least. He stared off at the farmhouse in the distance. His best bet was to ask the people living there for answers and shelter. He stepped towards the house. "Ah! But what if I am recognized?" Ivo asked himself, a sudden wave of fear washing over him. "Why am I shaking? Why am I afraid? I should just call Agent Stone for help! Yes!" Ivo opened a pouch on the Eggsack, and dug around for his phone. All that he found was a fresh hard-boiled egg. His heart sunk as he turned the egg around in his hands. He looked off into the distance, and gulped. The house was his only chance to find out what had happened to end him up in this glorified gas station rest stop. "I hope they take me in. I hope… that they don't call me 'Eggman'." He slung the Eggsack over his shoulder and ran. The soil… almost had the consistency of scrambled eggs.
…
Ivo opened the creaky door to the farmhouse and stepped inside cautiously. He didn't know why he forgot to knock. It felt like he didn't need to knock. "Hello? Is anybody there?" Ivo asked meekly. He could hear humming from the other room, and the sound of something frying. "Hello? Umm… I'm sorry for coming in unannounced. Where am I? What is this place?"
Ivo walked into the kitchen, and saw broken eggshells on the floor. He carefully crept around them until he reached a rather large woman in a pink dress. He could hardly control his arm movement as he reached for her arm and tugged on her sleeve. "Mama?" He asked. He covered his mouth so quickly that there was a slap sound, he instantly realized how ridiculous he sounded. "Umm… uh I mean mom! Mother!" Ivo couldn't say anything else but synonyms for one's female parent. "Goodness, mum! I mean— I'm so sorry, ma'am! I don't know what I'm saying anymore!" The woman turned around slowly. "Would you happen to know where I am? I appear to be los—" The woman had a big, bushy, unmistakable mustache and a pink nose. Her eyes appeared like gaping black holes. "Aah! No way, I can't believe this!" Ivo exclaimed, stumbling back only to slip on a fried egg and fall onto its shell. He yelped in surprise and a little bit of pain.
"Benedict, Ivo's home!" The woman who could only have been Ivo's mother shouted, as Ivo sat there sputtering incoherent sentences. "Get your poached patootie down here and smooch your son!"
"I believe there's some sort of mistake!" Ivo exclaimed as a tall man stumbled into the room. "You… you can't be my mother! Bertha Robotnik has been dead for forty-eight years!" He looked to the man who must have been his father, and screamed. This Benedict guy had to slouch over as to not hit his head on the ceiling!
"Ah-ah, Bertha Robotnik died forty-NINE years ago!" The woman growled. Ivo opened his mouth to speak, but… "Don't worry. I am not her. Not anymore. I have hatched from my shell and left that pale shadow of myself behind, to become my complete and ultimate form! I am Gyeran-Mari, G-Mari for short, and this realm is the O-VOID! There is no shorthand for the O-VOID!" G-Mari sat down at the table. Ivo stood there with egg on his face.
"Th-this is absurd!" Ivo spat, a vein visible on his head. Benedict, his apparent father, nearly tumbled out of his chair, yet caught himself on the table just in the nick of time. "Why are all of your names egg puns?! If this is a trick, how dare you?! If this is real, then what are you all DOING?!"
"Ivo, we've been meaning to talk to you about this for a while now," Benedict murmured softly, clasping his hands together and looking at Ivo in sadness. "You were just never around to hear it."
"We understand what you're doing is special, but you could be doing so much better," G-Mari sighed, tilting her rocking chair back. "All this 'Robotnik' nonsense… it's holding you back from your true potential."
"Have you gone mad?" Ivo asked, dumbfounded. "The Robotnik name is a glorious title, and 'EGGMAN' is an insult to that glory. You both know this."
"We used to think that," Benedict mumbled after drinking a medium-sized glass of water. He scrambled to the sink to get more water and quickly returned, sweating from every pore and drinking a bit more. "When our corporeal selves died, the O-Void called to us. As members of the Eggman family, we knew we had to heed it. So that's why we're here. That's why you're here too." Ivo's head began to hurt. He clutched the sides of his hat, as the events of the previous day flooded back to him.
"That's right… I'm dead, aren't I?" Ivo recalled, devastated as he looked back on those eyes he saw through his TV. "That lethargic ladybug killed me. I need to go back! Let me go back to the real world!"
"We can't," G-Mari growled. "There's only one way to get back to your 'Chaos Dimension' from the O-Void, and that's by reassembling… the Chaos Egg."
"The Chaos Egg…" Ivo mumbled, looking to the ground.
"The Chaos Egg, once assembled, will grow a special being known as a Fallen Star. It will grant any wish you want. It could even send you home. SHOULD you find all the pieces of the Chaos Eggshell," Benedict said, matter-of-factly. "But, are you sure you want to do that? We have everything we need right here in the O-Void."
"Yes! I'm sure! I have an empire to go home to, a country to rule over!" Ivo exclaimed, daydreaming of his Robotnik Empire. "I have a world to conquer! I can't very well do that here." G-Mari and Benedict glanced to each other, then back at Ivo.
…
The three walked outside the house, into the chilly nighttime valley and past the property line of the Egg Farm. "The O-Void was created a long time ago by one of our ancestors," G-Mari told Ivo, holding his left hand while Benedict held his right. His feet barely reached the floor. They were practically carrying him. "With our control of the Seven Deadly Sins fading, Overlord Ivan Kintobor used the last of his power to create this realm. This way, we could live in peace and joy while the so-called 'real world' fell apart without our guidance."
"Greatest Grandfather Ivan… You told me about him when I was little," Ivo gasped. "But… he was a lord like me…?"
"He was. He had a big ol' half of the planet Erius all to himself," G-Mari answered. "Not only did he harness the Deadly Sins like the rest of the Ancient Eggmen, but he was the one to initially bend them to his will. Without him we would have never reached such great heights…"
"He sounds like a wonderful man," Benedict said. "He lives here too, but he's been keeping to himself a lot lately. He never really approved of me." Benedict looked over to G-Mari.
"We're here," G-Mari said. She gazed ahead, prompting Ivo to look up at an island in the far distance, across the ocean. "Ivo, that island is yours."
"It seems rather small," Ivo mumbled disappointedly.
"That's just because you're looking at it the wrong way," Benedict told him. "If you swim over there, it'll end up a lot bigger than you think." Benedict patted him on the back gently.
"Swim?" Ivo asked. "That hardly seems efficient. Or safe. Do you have a hovercraft? A yacht?" Benedict and G-Mari looked to each other, thinking about it and then promptly shaking their heads no. They stared back at Ivo, their gazes pushing him towards the ocean. Ivo groaned. "This place is very primitive. It'll take some getting used to, but I WILL reassemble that Chaos Egg. MARK MY WORDS!" Ivo dove into the ocean and began to backstroke across.