Chapter Text
At the beginning of time, there was space and time. The area an object inhabited and at what point it was in at a certain moment. Although... that wasn't the only thing from the beginning of time.
This third thing however, has been unknown to all of living organisms in the universe ever since life was created. A geode, with powers far beyond what anyone or anything could dream of. The single thing holding the fabric of space and time together, but a mystery to all... well, until now.
Doctor Ivo Robotnik, infamous inventor and scourge of Mobius, has detected a powerful energy signature sealed off in a nearby cave. Normally, he would just send his badnik forces to retrieve the source of energy, but it's proven to be even more powerful than that of a Chaos Emerald, which also means that it's more unstable.
Who could he have hired to retrieve the souce of power?
Well... they're a little eccentric.
This is the story of...
Robotnik Industries HQ, 8:07a.m.
A purple jerboa was standing at a reception desk, tapping his foot with inpatience. He had a brown Stetson hat, a belt with a golden buckle, and some big brown boots. He had a popgun, but he had it hidden under his hat so he his ride wouldn't be salvaged. "Any day now, Eggman..." he muttered to himself, looking around the building.
After a minute or two, he got sick of waiting. He leaned on the desk and looked over... seeing a little Coconuts badnik cowering under the desk. The jerboa rolled his eyes before clearing his throat, getting the Coconuts full attention. "Meeting with Eggman for eight o'clock," he peered at the Coconuts, his arm resting on the top of the desk as the Coconuts got up from under the desk.
The Coconuts looked at a computer and searched for the meeting, looking at every meeting planned for today. He found the meeting and looked up at the jerboa. "A-Are y-you F-?" the Coconuts tried to ask, but when he saw the name he shuddered. "Yes, that'll be me," the jerboa responded, seeing a door labelled 'Meeting Room' and walking over to it while the Coconuts kept stuttering.
Eggman was sitting at the end of the room, in his Eggmobile, while Orbot and Cubot were trying their best to get everything ready for Eggman. He was eyeing the door, clearly waiting for someone. "They're late again..." he groaned, glancing at Orbot dragging a whiteboard into the large room. "Why do I even hire these lunatics for anything..." Eggman muttered to himself, now glancing at Cubot, who was drawing on his forehead with permanent markers.
It was only a matter of time before the purple jerboa entered the room. "G'day, Robotnik! You really should be hiring a receptionist who can keep his bolts from flying out," the jerboa walked towards the doctor, but was blocked by the comically long table that Orbot and Cubot wheeled in. "Nack the Weasel... for what do I owe the pleasure-" "It's Fang the Sniper, doc," Fang told the doctor, cutting him off. "...Huh? So it's not Jet the Jerboa either?" Eggman replied, clearly confused now. "It's Fang, and that's all it'll ever be," Fang responded, ticked off.
Eggman was happy to see Fang, but realised that there were a few people missing. "Where's the rest of your gang?" Eggman asked, now angry why the others were late. "Dunno actually," Fang quickly said, looking around the meeting room.
The room was really big, but lacking a lot of furniture to appear intimidating in a way, with large windows in the back but no other source of light in the entire room. There was a very long table in between Fang and Robotnik, to also appear intimidating. The walls and floors were almost pitch black, with the walls made of marble and the floor made of some metal that Fang couldn't name.
The arrival of the others would come soon, however, as there would be a loud screaming noise, quickly getting louder, coming from outside. One minute, the room was spotless, the next minute, there were glass shards all over the floor, with a destroyed glass. A green woodpecker crashed through the window, slowly getting up from a pile of glass. He was wearing a red scarf and white gloves, with shoes similar to a certain blue hedgehog.
"Jeez, and I was told that you had tungsten windows!" the woodpecker called out, brushing some glass shards off of his behind.
Eggman sighed, frowning at the sight of his perfect room being ruined. "Bean the Dynamite... you're LATE!" Eggman yelled at the woodpecker, scaring Cubot into falling on top of Orbot. "Relax, Baldy McNosehair. At least I wasn't dead last!" Bean chuckled to himself, before turning to Fang.
"Hi Nack!" "It's Fang, bomb-mook," Fang groaned.
Finally, the door that Fang went through was opened, and out came a large, hulking figure, slowly walking towards Bean and Fang. It was a yellow polar bear, wearing a red beanie and a long green scarf. He reached Bean and Fang and stopped walking, before looking up at the doctor. "Bark the Polar Bear... now, I had full faith in you being early... why were you LATE?!" Eggman yelled at the polar bear, crossing his arms.
Bark shrugged bashfully, before giving Bean a little wave. Fang frowned before looking back at Eggman, "What's the job, Eggman?" Fang asked the doctor. They were called here for a reason, but Eggman never specified. This got the attention of both Bean and Bark, so they too looked at Eggman, awaiting a response.
The doctor cleared his throat before Orbot brung the whiteboard to him.
"Three weeks ago, my badnik forces detected energy signature sealed away at the top of a mountain. I immediately sent them to drill a hole in the side of the mountain in hopes of finding where it was sealed. When they finished drilling, I was informed of the source of the signature being... quite unstable. The badniks reported that any badnik that touched it was disintegrated, torching the flicky inside too. So, I have brought you three hooligans here today to capture the source of energy and bring it here to me!"
Cubot and Orbot were drawing some visualisations of what the doctor told Bark, Bean and Fang to aid them in understanding the situation.
"Alright... now, this is where I think we have a problem, Doc," Fang started, peaking Eggman's attention. "Where's the mountain, what's the source of power, how do you expect us to get something that'll kill us, and how much are you willing to pay me?" Fang asked, listing everything off on his fingers as he paced left and right. "Hey! What about us?" Bean interjected. "What about you?" Fang swiftly replied. Bean's happy expression slowly turned into a frown, giving Fang a very stern look. "...And how much are you willing to pay us?"
Eggman facepalmed and sighed. "It's Mount Prism in Emerald Hill. The source of power is a brightly glowing geode, you'll know it when you see it. I expect you to use some of your... interesting gadgets to retrieve said geode... and you'll be paid... hmmm... how does 300 rings sound to you?" the doctor explained, glancing at Orbot and Cubot, who were trying to clean up the whiteboard and drag it away.
Fang hesitated for a bit, before piping up. "I dunno, Doc. I consider finding and retrieving two different jobs," Fang smirked after saying that, knowing that Eggman would be forced to pay even more to get their services.
"How does 400 rings sound?"
"It's a deal, mustache man."
Three Kilometres From Mount Prism, Emerald Hill Zone, 17:09p.m.
Bark, Bean and Fang were on their way to the mountain that Eggman specified, zooming in the Marvellous Queen, Fang's custom airbike. Fang was sitting on the main bike in the centre but Bark and Bean were sitting in deattachable sidecars. They were speeding through valleys and under bridges, just hoping to get to the cave.
"Hey Jet?" "It's Fang, bomb-mook," "Why is there a black and red guy speeding towards us?" "Whaddaya mean- HOLY MOLY!"
Shadow was zooming behind them, trying to catch up to them or to surpass them. "Hmph, typical hire from Eggman," Shadow mumbled to himself. Bean, Bark and Fang all turned around to see the Ultimate Lifeform speeding towards them. Bark had a worried expression, Bean was chuckling that they were probably about to die, and Fang was trying to floor it.
"Hey scarf-mook! Think you can get the drongo off our tail?" he asked Bark, trying to do zigzag turns to get Shadow off their tail. Bark nodded and stuck his fist in the dirt as Fang was drifting. He yanked his hand out once he got a large clump of dirt and rock.
Bark grunted and flung the ball of earth at Shadow. He missed, but it left a large cloud of dust, allowing them to drive far away from the hedgehog and get closer to the foot of the mountain.
"Y'know, if it was me driving then this wouldn't be problem," Bean added on, despite not even having a driver's license.
"Sure it wouldn't, bomb-mook."
The Foot of Mount Prism, Emerald Hill Zone, 17:20p.m.
"Ah, Mount Prism," Bean said, looking up at the mountain that stood before them, still in the sidecar. "...Not very prismy, is it?" he remarked. Fang sighed before clearing his throat. "Alright ya mooks! Eggman said that the cave is at the tippity top of that mountain!" he told the rest of the hooligans, before looking back at the controls for the Marvellous Queen.
"How do I activate spring mode again?" he was looking at all the buttons, before he pressed a big red button, which activated drill mode. Fang yelped as the Marvellous Queen was thrust into the ground, drilling down into the ground at a fast pace.
The hooligans were lucky that Bark immediately slammed his fist down onto another button, stopping the drill. Unfortunately, it was the mace button.
All three hooligans started screaming as the mace swung high above their heads, almost piercing their heads. "Fang, the spring shaped button!" Bean called out to Fang, pointing at a button next to the drill button. "Oh! There it is!" Fang slammed his hand down on the bright green, spring shaped button.
Immediately, the vehicle bounced out of the hole it dug itself into and started to scale the mountain, jumping onto a lot of flat terrain parts that stuck out from the side of the mountain.
I mean, it was only a matter of time before they would reach the rop, right?
The Top of Mount Prism, Emerald Hill Zone, 18:20p.m.
"It's been an hour and we've only now reached the top?" Bean yelled as the airbike reached the top of the mountain... after (you guessed it) one hour on the dot. "Listen 'ere bomb-mook! At least we're here before sundown, alright? Don't get your dunny in a twist," Fang yelled back, hopping out of the Marvellous Queen and taking a giant, shiny claw device from the bike and heading towards the centre of the cave. Bean sighed and followed suite, waiting for Bark to hop out too. The entrance to the cave was raised up by around ten metres, so the actual cave flooring was lowered down.
Right in the centre of the cave was the source of power.
Clear as day.
Shaking with power.
It was the brightly glowing geode that Eggman spoke of. Fang walked closer to the geode and reached his hand out, his eyes shining like the night sky. He almost touched it, before Bark pulled him back slightly. "...Ya coulda been faster, scarf-mook," Fang sighed, remembering the whole disintegrating part. Fang got out the claw and started positioning it properly.
The geode was glowing bright shades of red and blues and greens, as well as yellow and purple. It was so unstable that it was actively quaking in its place. Sparks of energy flying off of it. If it hit any one of them they would surely be paralysed.
"How are you this'll even work, Fang?" "Be quiet while I'm workin', bomb-mook! I'm trying to get my paycheck!" Fang snapped back to Bean, delicately placing the prongs of the claw onto the top and bottom of the geode.
"...Did you just say your paycheck?" Bean replied. He didn't say it in his usual goofy demeanor. It was... negative, like the start of an argument.
Bean walked up to right behind Fang, scaring him as he turned around. "Do you really think that you deserve all the money from a team effort?" "Team effort? You haven't even done ANYTHING!" "Me and Bark make sure you don't get yourself into trouble, Fang. Bark just saved you from being turned into dust!" Bean exclaimed as Fang walked back to the Marvellous Queen. "Who'll drive us back while you hold the shiny?" "You, bomb-mook," Fang tossed the claw to Bean, with the geode still in its grasp.
"So I'm a coat rack?" "We'll go with that"
Leaving the Cave, Emerald Hill Zone, 18:28p.m.
Fang hopped into the main car as Bark hopped into one of the sidecars. Bean was clearly annoyed now, and Bark's expression had changed from bored to concerned.
"Remember Fang, it's our paycheck, got it?" Bean sighed, hopping into his sidecar, holding the claw.
"It will be both of yours' paycheck when you mooks start carrying your weight!"
"...Carrying our weight?!"
"Yeah, bingo! Took ya long enough to figure that one out," Fang said, starting the engines and flying through the air on the airbike. Since it wasn't a flying bike, it slowly started to arc downwards.
"Y'know what? Bark and I are tired of what you always do!"
"Oh please, like Bark can have thoughts."
"I've been best friends with Bark for as long as I can remember, and I know for SURE that he only speaks his mind with people he keeps close. Y'know, come to think of it... you haven't been too close with us, haven't you?"
"Close to your throats, definitely."
"All you've done is bark orders at us and try to claim all the mission money!"
The bike landed on some trees, now in spring mode, bouncing along the tree line. "If both of you wanna leave, then just leave! I ain't stoppin' ya!" Fang said, just focusing on where they were going.
"Yeah, we'll be leaving... with the shiny!" since Bean was holding the geode he immediately stood up in his sidecar, about to jump off into a nearby lake to survive to fall. Bark covered his ears, ready for the ensuing argument.
"Oh no you don't!" Fang was finally taking this seriously, grabbing Bean by the tail feathers and taking the claw off of him. "Sit back down!"
"Don't think I will, Nack!" Bean yanked part of the claw, with Fang still holding onto one side of the claw. "For the last time, my name is FANG!" Fang yanked it back, now closer to him.
"Nack!" "Fang!" "Nack!" "Fang!" "Nack!" "Fang!" this constant cycle kept going on and on, until the claw sorta... popped out of both of their hands... along with the geode.
The geode was tumbling far below, into the lake.
All three of their faces dropped before Fang screamed, looking over the edge of the airbike.
"...For Gaia's sake!" Fang yelled at Bean. "Ya dropped my payday!"
"I dropped it? It was YOU!"
"You!" "You!" "You!" "You!"
This time their argument wouldn't last very long, as the airbike the hooligans were once in simply crumbled into many tiny shards.
The Skies of West-Side Island, 18:35p.m.
Bean, Bark and Fang were falling through the sky at intense speeds, watching as the world around them started being sucked into the middle of the lake, right where the geode landed.
A whirlpool formed where the geode landed, sucking everything into it, from trees to entire cliff faces. Not to mention giant patches of empty void and giant patches of the same colours glowing on the geode.
The whirlpool was now bigger than the entire lake.
It was now a mixture of water and earth itself, quickly consuming the entire zone. It wasn't long until all the hooligans would see was the whirlpool, as the whirlpool slowly engulfed the trio.
It was only a matter of time before all of Mobius was consumed by the whirlpool.
Where did the trio even go anyway?