Work Text:
Dr. Robotnik was a genius, truly, and he always had been. Ever since he was a baby, he'd been doing things that college science professors could never even conceptualize. As far as he or anyone else could tell, he was the smartest person alive, or perhaps ever, and... God, was it a burden sometimes.
See, when you're the smartest person ever, then everyone else seems stupid to you. Sure, he'd seen other brilliant minds come and go, but none were as brilliant as he was. Making matters more complicated was the fact that he was, well, crazy.
He didn't earn the title of a mad scientist for no reason, after all. Turns out that intelligence of that level can overpower any ability to function like a regular person, or at least it did in his case. He was a classic nutcase, but he was too smart (and, therefore, too powerful) for anyone to ever take him down. Even if they wanted to, his brain was too useful for him to just be thrown out, even if it would be safer for everyone if he was soundly locked away in a padded cell.
Agent Stone, meanwhile, was not a genius. He wasn't an idiot or anything, though. No, he was a man of above-average intelligence but, again, when you're up against the smartest human being, you're gonna end up seeming a bit dim.
Robotnik liked him, though, as much as he was capable of liking another human being. Sure, he didn't have some deep emotional tie to the man (because he wasn't capable of such feelings), but Stone made him good lattes and would keep him company even when no one else would, so he appreciated him nonetheless.
Here's the thing about science, though: No matter how smart you are, accidents are bound to happen.
Unfortunately, just as Robotnik was working on a rather dangerous new experiment, Agent Stone walked in with a few lattes, and that's when the invention exploded. Robotnik had wisely been a safe distance away, but Stone wasn't so lucky, and he'd been quite close to the explosion. So, once the dust settled, Robotnik went over to him to assess the damage.
Stone's left leg was gone.
"Agent Stone!" Robotnik shouted, rather frustrated. Stone was still awake and was clearly quite alarmed at his sudden loss of a leg. "You idiot" Robotnik reprimanded. Stone looked up at him, eyes wide. "Do you have zero sense of self-preservation? Risk assessment? You could have been killed"
"Correct" Stone nodded, still more focused on his loss of a leg. "Can you help me with this?"
"Why would I help you, hm? This is your fault, for being such an imbecile"
"Because you like my lattes" Stone said calmly. "And you don't dislike my company"
Robotnik sighed, considered something for a moment, and then went over to his computer. While he did that, Stone did what he could to stem the bleeding. Eventually, Robotnik came back with a small device, scanned the injury, and then something on his computer beeped. Stone looked up and saw that Robotnik's computer was building a prosthetic leg.
"Call an ambulance" Robotnik instructed. "So that can be healed properly. Once you're better, I'll have a leg for you" he said in a low voice. "Never do that again"
"Thank you, Doctor"
"Don't thank me" Robotnik shook his head. "Go"
"Yes, sir"