Doctor Robotnik has been granted parole and is out of prison.
The news came as quite a shock. Doctor Robotnik had been sentenced to life in prison, and Sonic and his friends thought that he would never get out. Apparently, some mysterious person had paid a lot of money to some of the finest lawyers in Japan to get Robotnik paroled and they managed to succeed.
“Can you guys fill me in on Robotnik? I know he wanted to take over the world or something but this was before my time.” Shadow said.
“Oh yeah, I honestly forget that you are an actor and that we didn’t even know each other back then,” Sonic said. “There really isn’t that much to tell. Robotnik tried to take over the world, we were at the right place at the right time and we stopped him.”
“What are we going to do Sonic?” Tails sounded very worried.
“What are we going to do?” Sonic shrugged. “I think we will do nothing about this. We are too old to be doing any hero business, if he tries some shit again like before let someone younger do the job I honestly don’t care. Besides what is Robotnik going to do at this point. He is 72 years old at this point, he has no resources, he is probably going to get a job and work until he dies.”
As much as Sonic’s attitude frustrated Tails it had a ring of truth to it. What was Robotnik going to do in his age? The Japanese government confiscated all of his robots once he was arrested. He could build new ones but he doesn’t have the money.
Sonic continued: “We also have other things to worry about. You have your exams you need to study for and I have my game to design and direct. We are not in the same positions we were back in the old days.”
“You’re right, we should ignore this,” Tails nodded.
The group continued their day as if no news of Robotnik ever came. Sonic had practically erased Robotnik from his mind while Tails still worried about what was going to happen next.
***
Months have passed since the news of Robotnik’s release dropped. Since then, no new updates were given about Robotnik, Sonic, and Tails thought that would be the last they would ever hear from him. They believed Robotnik retired to a quiet life.
Sonic was in the SEGA building working on his new video game. Shadow had already completed his part of the game and now Sonic was alone there. During his work hours, Tails would be studying and Shadow would be at home working on his comic book or surfing on the internet.
The video game Sonic was working on was in its final stages, a few more weeks and it would be done. After finishing work on one of the levels Sonic walked around the SEGA building. He wanted to go to the company lounge and drink some coffee but before that, he decided to walk around for a bit.
The company hallways were spotless and sterile. Everything looked efficient and clean but lacked any kind of soul. It looked like the interior of most giant corporations. While he was walking he heard a familiar voice in the distance:
“I can’t find the computer room.” The voice was unmistakably Vector the crocodile. Sonic walked towards him.
“What are you doing here?” Sonic was angry. He still hadn’t forgotten how he got scammed.
“I am looking for the computer room,” Vector replied confidently as if it was completely normal for him to be snooping around the SEGA building.
“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be here. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call security.”
Vector’s demeanor changed, his expression became that of panic. “You can’t do that.”
“I fucking should you scammer.”
“I gave you the right information about Shadow. We charged you for the valuable information we possessed. You would have never found Shadow if you didn’t turn to us and you would not be directing your game right now. You should be thanking us.” Vector gave a cheeky smile.
Sonic was fuming now, there was no way he was going to let this scammer just walk free. A way to get a little revenge. There was a phone on the wall one could call if they needed security. Sonic began to walk towards it and Vector grabbed his arm to stop him.
“You wanna fight me?!” Sonic jumped away from Vector and clenched his fists.
“Listen, I know you are not going to believe me but the reason I am here is of international importance.” Vector leaned in closer and had a very serious expression.
“Bullshit. I am not getting tricked by you twice. You guys aren’t even detectives.”
“I swear I am telling the truth.”
Sonic crossed his arms. “Okay then prove it. Tell me what is this international importance that brings you here.”
“I am afraid I can’t tell you that. It’s classified. I need permission from my clients.”
Sonic smirked. “You must think I am very stupid If you think I am going to believe this?”
“I SWEAR I AM TELLING THE TRUTH YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME!” Vector yelled and the whole hallway echoed. He had real sincerity and seriousness on his face.
“Is everything all right here?” A SEGA security guard emerged from the other side of the hallway and began approaching them. He came this way because he had heard Vector’s yelling. “Is this person bothering you Mr. Sonic? Should I remove him from the premises?”
Sonic really wanted to tell the guard ‘Yes get this charlatan and scammer out of here’ but Vector’s yell really made him question himself. The way Vector spoke and his seriousness didn’t seem like he was lying, would he really go to such lengths if it wasn’t something truly important. Then again he and his gang are professional scammers, he wants me to believe him in order for him to keep snooping around. His story is also absolutely ridiculous.
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The guard stood there waiting for Sonic’s response. Sonic looked at Vector and Vector’s eyes were begging him not to say anything to the guard.
“Nah, this guy is with me. We started yelling 'cause we were excited about a new video game coming up.” Sonic caved into Vector’s pleas. The guard nodded and left.
“Thank you. I promise you won’t regret this.” Vector said.
“Look you owe me for this and you better not attempt to scam me again.”
“I never scammed you. I sold you information.”
Sonic immediately regretted his decision. “You know I can still call security to kick you out.”
“Haha, I’m just joking Sonic c’mon.” (Vector wasn’t joking, he still firmly believes that he didn’t scam Sonic but it was best to drop the issue if he wanted to keep searching the SEGA building).
The two went their separate ways. Vector would continue searching for the computer room while Sonic went to the lounge. He sat at his usual table and ordered coffee. He looked at the city skyline through the giant windows, outside the sky was gray and a thunderstorm was beginning.
I feel like I should have reported that crocodile but I somehow want to believe him, Sonic thought to himself. He took out his phone and texted Tails.
Tails told him that he was going to pick him up later in the day. Sonic would eat lunch alone this time and he will have to wait in the SEGA building until the evening. It wasn't the first time Sonic had to wait so long, so he promptly sat down at the SEGA lounge and started mindlessly going through his phone.
“Excuse me may I join you?” Kiryu approached Sonic’s table, Sonic blinked up from his phone in surprise, he hadn’t noticed him at all.
“Oh, of course, sit down. I am alone today.” Sonic said.
During these past few months, Kiryu and Sonic had started talking every so often in the company lounge. Kiryu, while not a game director anymore, still had a lot of things he was called for at SEGA. Many promotions, mobile games, merchandise, etc. The Yakuza games franchise is one of SEGA’s most profitable properties at the moment. Because of this, there is always something new to sell.
Kiryu had hoped that after ‘Yakuza 6(2016)’ he would be done with video games but his contract compels him otherwise. He doesn’t have any major roles anymore in the production of new Yakuza games but he is still kept busy.
“How is your game coming along?” Kiryu said and sat down.
“We’re almost done. The company finally decided on a title too.”
“What’s it going to be called?”
“ ’Sonic: Revelations’ ” Sonic said and Kiryu didn’t say anything. After a pause, Sonic continued, “I know it is a horrible title. I tried to explain it to the higher-ups but they wouldn’t budge. There was this trend in the early 2010s for every franchise to have a Revelations-named entry. It’s a little too late to do it now but they are very insistent on having this name.”
“I do agree it is a very generic and outdated title but what can you do. However, the title isn’t that important anyway. People will still want to play it because it’s a new Sonic game. Are you happy with the project?”
“I feel really proud of myself this time. I poured my heart into it. I loved designing the levels and writing the story. I think I’m finally going to prove to everyone that I still have what it takes. I will finally be a star again and I will finally get the 10/10s”
Kiryu raised an eyebrow, “I notice you always talk about proving yourself and scores, why are you so obsessed with it?”
“You wouldn’t get it.” Sonic became a little frustrated. “You always had success, nobody ever mocked your entire career. I don’t want my legacy to be that of an internet laughing stock. I need to fix my reputation then I will be able to walk away from video games.”
“You are only making games to prove that you can get good scores?”
“No.”
“Then what is it then?”
Before Sonic was able to answer Kiryu’s phone started ringing. Kiryu looked at the caller ID and said:
“Sorry I have to leave right away, we can continue this some other time if that’s okay.”
Kiryu stood up and started fast walking towards the elevator leaving Sonic with his thoughts. Is he trying to tell me that if the only thing I want is good scores and I have been so inconsistent throughout my career that it’s time to walk away? He walked away before he made a bad game.
Maybe the point he wanted to make was that I should stop with this before I stack my list of works with more bad games. I will show him too soon. This time, this game is getting the 10/10s. I will not walk away until I make an amazing game for every bad one.
***
The next few weeks passed in typical crunch fever. The game was releasing soon and all of Sonic's focus went into making sure every detail of the level design was perfect. The days blurred together and now Sonic was waking up with just one day left before the release of 'Sonic: Revelations".
He had to go to SEGA to fill in some paperwork. The entire game was finished and Sonic went to a couple of interviews during this period. Shadow and Sonic even appeared on ‘Good Morning Tokyo’ to talk about the upcoming game. Although he didn’t get a high-profile interview as he could in the past with Rick Ravette.
Sonic, Tails, and Shadow gathered in the living room with breakfast and watched ‘Good Morning Tokyo’ together. A well-established ritual by this point.
“Joining us in the studio today,” said the reporter on TV, “A famous person that fell from grace that hit rock bottom and ended up in prison, has managed to turn his life around and is now a successful inventor and entrepreneur. The one, the only Dr. Robotnik.”
“You gotta be fucking kidding me,” Tails cursed at the TV and flailed his arms in anger, “Why the fuck is this maniac on TV? Are they turning him into a celebrity now?”
The reporter turned his gaze from the camera and onto Robotnik who was sitting across from him in the studio. Robotnik wore a standard suit most Japanese salary men would wear. He looked very old with a lot of wrinkles on his face and his hair and mustache gray.
“Thank you for inviting me to the show,” Robotnik said.
“You have been in prison for over 40 years, how does it feel to be out?”
“It feels strange. You get used to a kind of regimented life and now that I have my freedom again at first I didn’t know what to do with it.”
The interview first started with casual chit-chat before they moved on to the topic.
“The reason We’ve invited you on to the show Dr. Robotnik was to discuss your latest invention. Many technophiles have written extensive articles about it and I hear you are already in talks with many corporations who would like to purchase it from you. I suspect many in the audience are already familiar with what I am talking about but in case there are those who don’t know would you care to explain?”
“Certainly.” Robotnik grabbed a silver box and placed it on the table in the studio. “I call this invention Dr. Robotnik’s mean bean machine.”
“That’s just a silver box” Tails shouted at the TV.
“What does the machine do?” The reporter said.
“I assume you and the audience are familiar with the ‘Rights and privileges intellectual property defense act’. The law has allowed companies to fine people if they say a copyrighted, be that a character’s name or anything. Up until now, they have been using microphones on phones with algorithms to detect if a copyrighted word is being spoken and would automatically fine the person that has said it.”
The reporter nodded and waited for Robotnik to continue.
“One provision of the law which isn’t that familiar to many people is that you are also not allowed to dream about copyrighted material. In theory, if a well-known Italian plumber who jumps a lot were to show up in your dreams, his rights holder would be in their right to fine you for it. This provision didn’t make any sense because how would they enforce it?”
“Well until now it was impossible. However, this is about to change with Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine. This invention will be able to track the dreams of all the people in the world and the machine with its sophisticated flagging system would be able to detect the presence of any and all copyrighted material.”
The reporter excitedly clapped. “What a wonderful creation. This will truly be a game changer.”
“What dystopian garbage is this?” Tails said.
“Okay, this is pretty bad.” Sonic reluctantly admitted. “This is a big problem.”
“There is nothing we can do about this though. Everything he is doing is legal. He is selling a product in line with this law even though the law is absurd. I somehow miss the old days when you were a psychopathic maniac you would try to conquer the world, in our times you just work in the corporate world.”
“At least SEGA is safe from this hell machine. There is no way that machine would end up being used there. On the topic of SEGA, isn’t ‘Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine’ the name of the Western version of the Puyo Puyo game?”
“Oh yeah,” Tails nodded. “That is true. Doesn’t SEGA own the rights to that name? Is he allowed to call his invention by that name?”
“SEGA probably doesn’t care and he knows that they don’t care. Anyways, there must be something we can do about Robotnik.”
“I have an idea.” Shadow jumped into the conversation. He had been silent up until now. “The problem isn’t Robotik, it’s capitalism. What we need is a revolution. Overthrow capitalism and you solve the problem”
Sonic and Tails sighed. “Bravo Shadow, excellent idea.” Tails said. Tails and Sonic both reacted in a way when a child says something dumb and wants approval from their parents.
“What? It’s a legit idea.” Shadow was surprised by the reaction he got.
“And how are you going to do this revolution?” Tails said.
“We just have to overthrow global capitalism and seize the means of production.”
“That sounds super easy. Also, we worked out great for the Soviet Union.”
“First of all the Holodomor is a Western capitalist lie, secondly real communism hasn’t been tried yet.”
“You know Shadow I don’t think you will get far in your revolution by denying genocides and history.”
“Guys,” Sonic cut their conversation, he didn’t want to sit there listening to them argue. “I thought about how would a Rick Ravette interview of Robotnik look like? Now that he is out of prison and will be on a media tour it would be interesting to see that if Rick was still alive.”
“I hate Rick Ravette,” Shadow said firmly.
“Why?” Sonic asked in frustrated confusion.
“Ravette said that he voted for Nixon in 1972. that basically makes him a fascist. That’s why I hate him.”
“You were literally a Nazi a few months ago Shadow. Also, how was Rick even able to vote in 1972. if he was born in 1964?” Tails said
Shadow shook his head. “My situation is different. I don’t count. Ravette is-“
“You know Shadow” Sonic cut Shadow off and slightly raised his voice and spoke in a mocking tone, “How about you just shut up for a bit huh. I think we had enough of your intellectual insights.”
Silence overcame the room and the Robotnik question loomed in the air unanswered. Sonic and Tails didn’t know what to do about Robotnik, what they could even do, or if they even should do anything about it. Tails drove Sonic to work and Robotnik quickly evaporated from Sonic’s head once again. He remembered that tomorrow was the release day of his new game, ‘Sonic: Revelations’.
Tails studied the rest of the day, although unsuccessfully. He couldn’t get Robotnik out of his head or his dystopian invention. Shadow stayed in his room poisoning himself with vacuous political videos and posts on social media.
That evening all Sonic would be able to think about was the reception of his new game. Tomorrow it would be the moment of truth.