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“That is your third mistake in under ten minutes,” Robotnik boomed down to him.
“I’m sorry, Doctor.”
“I’m afraid you have outstayed your usefulness.” Suddenly the wall came alive with a twenty-foot graph of Stone Performance against time, showing that he had now crossed the red line into-
“Incompetent,” he read, heavy with dread. He couldn’t argue; after thirty-six hours in the control room he was hardly competent to keep breathing, let alone operate the massive robot’s auxiliary surveillance drones. He’d just narrowly avoided smashing one into the thing’s mustache.
The doctor had never been one for excuses. He was going to kick him out, to eject him from the control room, to send him back to-
“Bed,” Robotnik announced. “It’s time for you to go to bed.”
He looked up blearily. “What?”
“You heard me. You’re a poor thing, a weak little human being who doesn’t have my limitless power. And I’ve been doing my best to juice you up, but I don’t think we should put any more of this-” wiggling his fingers, green sparks “-into your brain until we give it a little time to recharge the normal way. I need you functional when the shit hits the fan; I’d be an idiot to burn you out in advance. Go to bed.”
He had never felt so grateful for an order in all his life. “Thank you, Doctor. I’ll-, I’ll be quick, I’ll just nap a little, I’ll be fine as soon as-”
“I’ll know when you’re fine. I’ll wake you then or when I need you, whichever comes first. Now: sleep.” And he turned away to his magical tinkering.
Stone took off his jacket, folded it a couple of times, and arranged it over his face to block the green flashes and some of the noise. He leaned back in his chair and started to relax-
“What are you doing?” Robotnik sounded beyond annoyed.
He popped up immediately. “I was-, sleeping, sir, like you said. But I can get back up, if you need something?” Maybe the emerald had interfered with the doctor’s ability to tell time; that hadn’t been longer than twenty seconds – and surely he was going to get to nap longer than that?
“Sorry, I was imprecise. I wasn’t really asking what you’re doing, I was asking why you’re doing it here.”
He looked around. “Uh-. You mean you need the chair?” he guessed. “No problem, I’ll go on the floor, I just thought-”
“You’ll go in a bed.” Robotnik snorted. “Just because I don’t need sleep anymore, doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten where it’s supposed to be conducted.”
Stone swallowed. “I, uh. Don’t have a bedroom.” He had scoped the map as soon as he got here, and seen that the living area in the robot had been designed for just one person.
“Yes you do. I designed this. It’s perfect. It has everything.” He waved his hand and the map splashed over the wall. The chamber designated MASTER BEDROOM started blinking. “See? Right there.”
“But… that’s your bedroom. Isn’t it?”
Robotnik hissed with impatience. Flicked his fingers and deleted a word. BEDROOM, the chamber said now. “There. Less confusing for you? That’s the bedroom – your bedroom. Go sleep in it.”
He was still frowning and trying to understand. Had Robotnik not planned a room for himself at all, or…?
Another hiss. “In the unlikely event I need a rest myself at some point, we’ll take turns. Don’t drool on the pillow.”
“Understood, sir.” He rose and shook his jacket out, put it back on, and eyed the map once more to make sure he knew the way. As he was leaving the control room, his brain belatedly cranked out one incredible thought. “If we take turns… do you mean you’d let me drive the robot? Myself?” Was that even possible?
Robotnik didn’t even turn to look. “The state you’re in I wouldn’t let you drive a lawnmower, Stone. Goodnight.”
He made his way to the bedroom, trying to calm and quiet himself. It wasn’t easy. He was so wired, and so overexhausted, and overelectrified, and curious to be allowed free run of Robotnik’s own bedroom – or really, was it their bedroom, if this was its intended use all along? – that he could hardly even make himself lie down.
Finally he managed. He turned the lights out and determinedly stared at the ceiling, waiting for his eyes to at least tire enough to close on their own.
His mind tripped ahead at ten thousand miles an hour though, spinning its wheels, playing disjointed bits of the day over again and re-recalling the new skills he had been trying to absorb.
At this rate he was never going to get to sleep, and when Robotnik came for him he’d be more tired than ever, and-
“Hi.” The doctor poofed into being right beside the bed, standing with hands raised.
Shit. “Doctor. You need me already?”
“No. I need you to sleep. And I can hear from all the buzzing in your brain that you’re not doing it.”
He winced. “I’m trying, sir. I’m sorry. But it’s a lot of excitement, and I just-”
“Sh-hh.” Robotnik put a finger to his lips and reached out with his other hand. “Fine. With my peerless abilities and kind benevolence I can take care of it for you, but I need to concentrate.”
“Take care of it for me?” he squirmed upright in alarm. “Like, mess around inside my brain? Whoa, Doctor, I don’t know-.”
“Sh.” Robotnik hushed more firmly this time. Then: “Actually-. Hold on.”
He disappeared.
…And then reappeared a few moments later. “Okay,” he said, as if the interruption had never happened. “It’s just a matter of a little more current in some places, a little less in others. And I can now do it without damaging the mind – I’ve practiced. Be quiet.” He put a gloved hand on Stone’s forehead and pushed, gently but still, until Stone was lying flat.
“Doctor, I’m scared.”
“Picture a beach.”
“Doctor…”
“Do it. I can’t actually put thoughts into people’s heads,” he explained. “What I can do is supercharge the ones they have. So. Give Daddy what he needs, Stone. Beach.”
He sighed and pictured a beach.
At first he thought just of a vague flash of the sky, the ocean-
And then he was falling, into the sound of the waves and the heat of the sun and the sand underneath him and-
He opened his eyes with a start, and it was six hours later.
And someone had tucked him in.
The End.
After that last one I really wanted something a little softer for Emerald-Time Robotnik, so.
Let me know what you think!