The blue baby awoke the following day bright and early with a determined smile jumping out of his crib filled with excitement; he was finally going to see Eggy! Sonic gathered everything he could think of that would help him carry out his big plan. "Ok, let's see...crayons, paper, Ivo, my parrot, Rover, bouncy light-up balls, race car, paci...That should do it!" he purred, placing everything in his diaper bag, then rubbed his gloved hands together in anticipation, "Now, for some brekky!" hurrying to the dining room Sonic went to fill his belly. He would need the energy today.
After breakfast and getting a diaper courtesy of Metal, the blue blur took his bag and went to the elevator pressing the last button on the panel labeled basement. Slowly it descended with a low moan as it took the hedgehog down to the below-ground laboratory; the travel felt longer than usual, almost at a snail's pace. Sonic's excited smile fell as each second passed, allowing his excitement to turn into anxiety which grew into dread; he gulped when the elevator finally stopped and the doors opened with a mechanical hiss. The long, dark, eerie hallway kept going on for forever in his view; he shuffled in his socks, having second thoughts about this idea. Breakfast, all of a sudden, felt heavy in the hedgehog's stomach, keeping him from stepping into the long corridor.
Maybe this is a bad idea, he's busy, and I hate to interrupt and make him mess up something important. Sonic shook his head to get rid of the negative thoughts. No way! That's the whole point I'm doing this! Eggman's so caught up in his project he's forgotten us. It's up to me to remind him that we're here and we need him too, Metal, Scratch, Bokkun, Orbot, and everyone else! Besides, he needs a break anyway. Being stuck down here working all the time is no good! I'll be careful.
Taking in a deep breath to calm his churning stomach, puffing his chest, and pulling out his most confidant smirk, Sonic steels himself for his mission. Funny how a little courage could make a hallway not look so scary anymore. Gripping the bag, the blue devil strides forward to Eggman's laboratory.
Sonic's steps increased in frequency with his courage returned, drawing him quickly to the main laboratory doors. His ears twitched in reflex when the doors opened with a swish, and the hedgehog entered the facility; his eyes widened at his surroundings taking in the room he had been too scared to explore before.
It was a genius's ideal lab. Gadgets, tools, and all sorts of doohickeys were available to use with plenty of workspace. Pressure tanks, chemicals, temperature, and light-sensitive materials were all neatly arranged at various stations. There were also computers, control panels, and other high-tech instruments, some probably made by the doctor himself, ready for his disposal. Some things bubbling, boiling, or beeping as they worked.
As the blue devil scanned the room, Sonic's gaze landed on one station where the person he had been looking for sat bent over, scribbling on a tablet while a small capsule was quietly bubbling and sitting in front of the human.
Driven by curiosity Sonic slowly approached, tilting his head up to the side to get a better look at what was inside the capsule. It looked like a lung, a very small one probably no bigger than his hand, "Whoa, cool!" the hedgehog exclaimed. Eggman jolted in shock at the noise and franticly searched for the disembodied voice; he found a small blue hedgehog slack-jawed looking up at the capsule he had been studying. "Sonic! What are you doing here?" he asked in bewilderment. What on Mobius is he doing down here? He should be upstairs with Metal.
"I wanted to see what you were doing!" Sonic chirps, standing on his tiptoes to reach over the table and extending his finger to touch the lung. Eggman calmly brushes the curious hand away from his experiment, "I'm very busy working, that's what. Please don't touch anything." undeterred by the gentle yet firm command, the blue blur brightly smiles at him, saying, "OK!" and walks away.
Eggman blinked, pushing away the odd encounter out of his memory, and got back to work; not giving the hedgehog's sudden appearance a second thought, he scribbled more numbers and sequences onto his tablet. Dragging out a calculator, the doctor quietly mumbled to himself as he punched in his calculations to check if they were correct, "X times z followed by the square root of 27. Then divide that by 6.5..."
"A plus M followed by Y spells Amy. Then add the square root of red is her favorite color, pink!"
"Yes, pink...What the-?!" the doctor turned to see Sonic happily drawing on a piece of paper, having pulled himself up a chair to sit beside the doctor with his crayons scattered on the table. "Sonic!"
"Hmm?"
"Be quiet, please." Eggman firmly requests the blue devil's ears go up in attention, "Oh! Sorry, Eggy. I'll be super de duper quiet!" he whispers before going back to his coloring. Eggman sighs and starts the calculations over since he had been thrown off; as he typed in the numbers, he hears Sonic quietly talk to himself. "And this color goes here. Let's add some pretty swirls to make it less boring. Oh! And this color would be perfect here, and then the sun needs to be bright yellow cause that's a happy color..."
"Soooniic." Eggman growls, the hedgie gasps, and lowers his ears, mumbling, "Sorry."
"Move. I need more space. Go color on the floor or something." the doctor grunts, "...ok." Sonic obediently gathers his crayons and papers, hopping out of the chair giving the doctor the space he needs. Eggman takes an alcohol wipe and swiftly wipes the surface where the hedgehog had been clean; he then pulls out a laptop and plugs a cord connecting the capsule to the computer, loading in the real-time data.
While the doctor typed furiously, Sonic laid on his stomach and continued to draw and color, silently peeking up from time to time to see if Eggman was checking on him or not. After a while, with no indication that the doctor was paying any attention, he got bored of coloring and sat up to dig into his bag for something else that could help him. He pulled out his racecar and began playing with it, pushing the car around the tiled laboratory floor. The blue blur crawls, pushing the toy, pretending that it was making loud car noises. He weaves in and out of chair legs and under tables, quickly scaling the entirety of the lab.
Racing on the flat grey floor quickly gets boring. The doctor still hadn't detected him, so Sonic pretends the car can fly for brief distances and stands to have the car race around, on, over, and under all the sensitive equipment like an elaborate obstacle course.
Eggman paid Sonic no mind as he wandered around with the toy; he was focused on his computer and the simulation playing on the screen. That is until a small tap on the capsule disrupted the simulation. "What?" Checking to see what had caused the problem, the doctor found a blue hedgehog with a sheepish grin standing right next to the small lung holding a toy car, "Oops." Sonic weakly chuckled, having been caught.
Frowning, Eggman silently points back to the floor; the dejected hedgehog mutters another sorry before sluggishly walking away taking his toy. Grumbling Eggman fixed the error and restarted the simulation. Sitting down with a huff next to his bag Sonic pouts, looking at the doctor, who went back to ignoring him. Ok, subtly isn't working—time to try something more disruptive. Roughly taking his bag, he dumped the contents with a spark of mischief in his emerald eyes as he scanned over his selection.
For the next few hours, Sonic did everything in his power to distract and break Eggman's concentration. Playing with his loud talking parrot, rolling his balls all over the lab, spreading paper and crayons all over the floor, asking Eggman various questions, and speeds around in circles racing with his toys. The blue blur ignores Eggman's complaints and hints of irritation at his antics; as the day went on, he noticed a vein on Eggman's head begin popping out, throbbing, and becoming more pronounced as his anger and irritation grew.
The doctor was losing his patience with the blue devil. Couldn't that prickly pain in the ass see how much trouble he was causing the doctor, this work was critical, and Sonic continued to get in the way no matter how much the human hinted that he wished to be left alone to work! Delicate and dangerous experiments were being conducted, and the hedgehog's constant interruptions were bound to lead to something being broken!
Little did they realize how soon that would happen.
Eggman was working on adding a few drops of a chemical into a solution that needed to be measured precisely, or all his progress would go up in smoke. Sonic was bouncing one of his light-up balls obnoxiously right next to the doctor, trying to get it to touch the ceiling.
A bead of sweat rolls down the side of Eggman's face as he carefully tips the flask, the ball bouncing annoyingly right beside him, tapping loudly against the floor with a tap...Tap...TAp...TAP!
"Steady now, steady," Eggman mumbles, watching two drops fall into the cup, tap...TAP...tap the ball goes higher into the air. Sonic sticks his tongue out in effort, so engrossed in his game with his eyes focused on the ball he doesn't notice how close the toy is to hitting the table.
Eggman quickly tilts the flask back as the last two drops fall in, the chemical starting to bubble lightly and change color. "Yes, yes! That's it-!"
His cheers are cut off when the flask and cup explode into a million pieces of glass flying everywhere, the mixture spreading all over the table and dripping to the floor as a rogue ball wildly bounces around the lab, hitting and breaking everything delicate in its path. "NOOOOOOOOO!" Eggman howls, hands flying up to his bald head in turmoil at the loss; he quickly ducks as the ball flys his way, missing him and hitting the computer instead before rebounding in another direction.
Standing back up, the large human growls in anger and reaches out to stop the wild object; the ball passes by a few times before he finally catches it. Fumbling to keep it in a tight grip, Eggman promptly slammed the toy into the garbage and flings the lid shut with all his might to keep it in there so nothing more could be damaged. He slowly turns his head, teeth bared, staring coldly at the hedgehog who had caused the destruction.
Sonic coward under the doctor's shadow with his ears all the way back, tail tucked under and legs shaking in fright at how Eggman was looking at him. Like the blue blur was nothing but an annoying bug that needed to be squished under his large boot. The human towered over him, making it seem like the hedgehog was much smaller than he really was, adding to the effect.
"Sonic...the Hedgehog." Eggman hisses, "Do you have any idea what you just did?" the blue devil hesitantly opened his mouth to respond, but the doctor cut him off. "ANY IDEA?!" Sonic's throat tightens, and he looks down at his feet guiltily.
He hadn't meant for this to happen. He was just trying to get the doctor's attention, and everything had gotten out of hand. Sonic warily picked up in his peripheral the state of the lab, noticing where Eggman's experiment had been now there was nothing but broken glass, he felt very guilty about what he had done. Sonic flinches when Eggman yells at him, "YOU'VE RUINED MY EXPERIMENT! Months of research, RUINED!"
"I'm sorry, it was an accident." the blue blur whispered. "And I told you to stay out of the way! If you had just stayed upstairs AWAY from here, then none of this would have happened!" Anger stirred in Sonic's gut. His fault?! If the doctor had paid more attention to him, he wouldn't have had to come down here in the first place. "Well, if you would have at least come out of here every once in a while, I wouldn't have had to go looking for you!" he boldly voiced, "You knew where I was the whole time. Don't start getting smart with me!"
"Just because you have a 300 IQ doesn't mean you're smarter than me! This thing is so stupid! How do I know this isn't just a cover-up for you to plan another world domination scheme?!"
"How dare you question my authority and motives! I know what's best an-"
"If you know what's best, then why are you hiding down here all the time, huh? You never come out! I may not be smart, but at least I know when to take breaks and spend time with my friends so they won't worry about or miss me! You've been stuck down here with your big stupid project for so long you've forgotten all about us! About me! I thought you wanted me here, but it turns out I was wrong since you don't care enough to check on me. You just wanted me here to get G.U.N. off your back!"
Eggman didn't hear anything the pissed-off blue blur said; all he heard coming from the hedgehog's mouth was bold accusations about his motives which he considered a threat to his authority. The human was too riled about the accident to consider the real problem that had caused this mess.
"That's enough! Get out right now! I don't want to see you in my lab again!"
"FINE!" the blur devil yells, tears blurring his vision, heart beating loudly in his ears, and throat hurting from yelling so much. "I hate this creepy place anyway, and I hate YOU!" with that, Sonic runs as fast as he can back to the elevator; not looking back, he hits the up button like a jackhammer until the doors open, and he dashes in as the doors seal him away before he ascended. Once he was back on the main floor, he hurried to the nursery, not seeing Orbit passing by, and nearly knocked the robot over in his rush.
Safe in his room, Sonic falls to the floor sobbing loudly, unable to move another inch. His head was hot, fuzzy, and throbbing like crazy, leaving the hedgehog too weak to attempt to dispel his confusion as he cries his eyes out, his head and chest hurt. It felt like someone was tearing his heart out and stomping on it mercilessly; Sonic curls into a fetal position gasping for air as his chest tightens. His vision tunnels and he realizes he is having another panic attack.
He couldn't calm himself down. The blurry world was spinning, it was a good thing he was already on the floor, or he would have tripped over his own feet by now. Everything felt like it was too much.
What happened over the last few hours played back through his mind. Through all his effort, not once did Eggman act the least bit interested in the blue blur, not when he had asked the doctor to play with him if he could sit in his lap if he could help. Nothing. Eggman didn't even notice when Sonic needed a diaper change; he just pushed the hedgehog away and paged for Metal to take care of it.
He didn't understand. Eggman had kept saying how much he wanted to have the blue blur be with him, yet now the doctor acted like he was nothing but a pest. Sonic's lips trembled as he cried, hugging himself as the feeling of abandonment returned. Something he had hoped to never feel again after leaving the orphanage all those years ago, the hedgehog couldn't take the rejection. He felt like he was 5 years old again, having been turned down by another family for 'having too much energy,' 'for being too impatient,' 'for being too much.'
I'm an idiot. What did I expect? Just because Egghead wants to reform doesn't mean he wants me...I'm so stupid and useless!
After a few minutes, the worst of the panic attack passes; still crying, he manages to crawl under the crib, instinctively going somewhere where the hedgie feels somewhat safe from harm. Hiding in the small dark space, he cries himself to sleep.
*Back at the lab*
The moment after Sonic disappeared, Eggman let out a roar in frustration and anger, "That miserable darned, ungrateful pincushion! I swear, as soon as I get my hands on him, his bottom will be so sore, he won't be able to sit on it for a week!" red-faced with smoke streaming from his ears, the doctor swiped his hands over a table and sent papers flying.
Quietly Metal Sonic enters the scene, gazing at the mess while Eggman continued his rant, throwing his hands in the air gesturing angrily to himself. Slowly turning his head, Metal scans over the room, finding quite a large mess.
Broken glass and equipment, chemicals, papers, and toys were scattered all over the lab, yet nothing dangerous seemed to have been disturbed. Most of the tools were miraculously unscathed or were only slightly damaged; several monitors were cracked and needed to be replaced, but that seemed to be the worst of it. The most dangerous hazard was the broken pieces of glass.
Metal sent out a message for some cleaning bots to come, and he slowly stepped further into the crime scene, ready to examine the extent of the damage at a closer range. He made a record as he looked everything over. The badnick also peeked over at Eggman from time to time, checking to ensure he was ok. Metal wanted to keep an eye on the doctor to make sure the man didn't accidentally hurt himself in his tirade.
"Ruined everything! After all, I've done for him, and this is how he repays me, barging in and causing a ruckus! Look at this Metal. Have you ever seen such an atrocity?!" Eggman complained as he paced the floor; the badnick replied calmly as he worked. "The lab is a mess, yes, but nothing important was damaged."
"Nothing important?! Have you looked at this?!" The doctor then pointed to the remains of the lung he had been working on; it laid out lifelessly on the floor, looking like a greyish pink wet soggy pancake with tiny shards of glass sticking out here and there. Metal respectfully acknowledged the failed experiment, "That is mildly distressing, but the project has not been negatively impacted as a whole correct? You can still carry on your assignments without much delay?"
Eggman stuttered at Metal's cool reply, "Ur...um...well...yes. Still! It took a long time for me to get that organ to develop this far, and now it's ruined." he said, trying to make his point known, emphasizing his agitation. Metal nodded, letting his master know the issue and his anger had been acknowledged; the badnick spoke again with more sympathy. "This is unfortunate but fixable. You have pulled through and overcome much worse. The ability for you to properly amend the future condition of your relationship with Sonic, however, has less of a favorable outcome."
"What are you talking about?" Eggman groans, stepping out of the way of a cleaning bot as it vacuumed up glass; another bot followed, picking up toys. Metal calmly expounded on his answer. "I mean, the relationship you have been cultivating with Sonic has been severely damaged. He was quite upset when he left here." The doctor moved closer to the badnick, crab walking around the mess to get out of the way of the little bots as they scurried around his feet, cleaning. "Well, if he's upset now, just wait until I get through with him."
If Metal were organic, he would have sighed in annoyance at his creator. Honestly, sometimes the robot wondered how someone with the smarts his master had to create marvelous machines such as Metal could be so dense? "Master, I say this to you with the utmost respect, but you are not focusing on the right problem."
Eggman sighs, growing irritated at the badnick, not understanding what he was saying. Closing his eyes and taking a calming breath, the doctor counted in his head, allowing his anger to dissipate. When he opens his eyes and sees the lab slowly come back to order, his mind does the same. The fog lifting enough for him to start thinking more clearly; crossing his arms, he looks down at his most loyal badnick.
Though he didn't understand or care that much about whatever Metal was talking about, he valued his creation's input as it had come in handy more times than he could recall. Respectfully he asked with some hints of sarcasm. "What problem should I be focusing on then?" Metal didn't pay any mind to the sarcasm, "Sonic." the robot beeped. The doctor looked at Metal in a way that said he was totally lost. He felt like they were going around in circles, "What about him?!"
"You have been neglecting him." the large human scratched his head in confusion, "What are you talking about?" Metal struggled to restrain himself from rolling his eyes; he tries again, enunciating each word. "Master...when was the last time you saw Sonic?"
"Today."
"And before?"
"Umm...well...I, um..."
"When did you last talk with him for more than a few seconds?"
"Uuuhhh."
"When was the last time you interacted with him before today? Do you know what he's been doing? How his visits with his friends have gone? If he's had any issues with his PTSD of late? Or what's been on his mind?" Eggman went quiet and deflated a bit, starting to get the message, "Hmm...I see."
"He has been missing your presence lately; we all have..." the badnick paused. He hadn't intended to include himself or the other robots; rubbing his wrists; Metal looked away, a bit embarrassed at the slip. "But especially Sonic. Organic children have a far greater need for love and attention from their caregivers than machines. He has been waiting for you to finish and be present in his life again. A feat that is not easy for him, but since you have been away for so long, he decided to go to you instead. He was determined to spend time with you today."
"And I pushed him away." The doctor finishes with a tired sigh; he takes his glasses off and rubs his eyes in frustration with himself for being so slow and not picking up the blaring messages right in front of him. "Chaos, Metal, I really messed up."
The badnick and human stand there for a few minutes with only the sound of the cleaning bots finishing up. Eggman shakily pulls a chair to sit down, feeling a massive weight of guilt overtake his body; it made him feel old. The silence deafening as he realizes what he had just done.
Putting his glasses back on, the doctor looks at the floor and sees a piece of paper with a drawing on it. Snatching it up before a bot can take it, his eyes water seeing the picture, and his heart aches being filled with regret.
The crude drawing was of himself and Sonic holding hands and smiling in a flower field on a sunny day with a few tiny hearts floating around. It was a physical representation of Eggman's vision of the future, and so it seemed was Sonic's as well. The doctor had worked so hard to get to where they had been, building trust, a connection, love. A beautiful parental relationship was as delicate as the paper drawing in his hand, and he had carelessly ripped it in half.
He puts a hand over his mouth to hide his quivering lips, feeling overwhelmed with emotion recalling how Sonic tried to get his attention—asking to be in his lap. If he would take a break so they could play together just for a few minutes and tugging on his sleeve with those big sparkly emerald eyes.
Oh, my little Sonic. What have I done? You were only trying to spend time with me, and I pushed you away like a pest. I've been working so hard on this...this project of mine to prove I could be good and give you a better life...when all you needed me to prove was that I could be there for you.
The doctor gasps realizing he was about to lose his baby, "M-Metal, can you finish up here? I have to go find Sonic right now!" Eggman stutters, getting out of the chair mindlessly handing the badnick the drawing, "Of course, Master." the badnick obliged, watching Eggman quickly hurry to the elevators.
The doctor prayed that he could fix his mistake.
Within a few short minutes, Eggman was at the nursery door; he enters, calling for the blue devil, "Sonic...are you in here? We need to talk." swiftly looking around, he didn't see any speck of blue; the room was empty. "Perhaps he's in the lounge?" he quickly walks down to the hall and finds it empty as well. Ok, Eggman, don't panic. There's still one more place he could be. Thinking of one last place Sonic could possibly be, he goes to the garden.
The obese human combed through the vegetation, searching for cobalt blue-colored fur or a quill, but he couldn't find any indication that Sonic had been there today. There wasn't any sign that the blue devil had been at any of his favorite hang-out spots! The doctor started to get worried. He checked all other areas he could think of; the kitchen, dining room, outside perimeter, and bathrooms. Still, he couldn't find the hedgehog or any trace of Sonic being in the building at all!
"Where could he have gone?! He has to be here still; he can't get out without anyone noticing!" mustache frazzled and pacing the floor, he pulled up his wrist computer, Eggman punched for the radio frequency, "Metal, do you know where Sonic is?" he asked, fear making his voice shake. "I do not." the badnick replied, "Has anyone seen Sonic in the last hour?" Eggman asked all the robots connected to the frequency, "I saw him." Orbot spoke up; the doctor asked him excitedly, "Where?!"
"I saw Sonic enter his room, the nursery, over an hour ago." Eggman moans in disappointment, "I just checked, and he wasn't there...has anyone else seen him?" a chorus of 'no's and negative's echo from the watch, pulling down the doctor's spirits further. What else could he do? Suddenly he recalls something, "Metal, try using your connection." he asks, referring to Metal and Sonic's ability to feel for one another.
"Please wait one minute." Eggman waited anxiously as Metal tried to tap into his ability; if this didn't work, the doctor would lose it.
"I'm sorry, Master." Metal flatly replies after a few moments, "He must be asleep or out of range. I cannot sense where he is." the doctor's jaw drops, the strength in his legs begins to fail, and he slams a hand onto the wall to keep himself from falling to the floor in shock.
It was the snowstorm situation all over again. Only this time, Metal hadn't a clue where Sonic was. No one did! This was the worst news Eggman had heard in weeks. His precious little baby was gone, alone somewhere out there, probably still upset about their argument with no one to comfort him.
But Eggman could feel in his gut that Sonic had to be still around. He just had to be; if something happened to that blue fuzzball, the doctor would never forgive himself!
He blankly stared at the little wrist computer, silently scouring his mind for several minutes, trying to come up with an idea on what to do next. The radio static crackled while all the robots on the other end listened earnestly for the doctor to speak, worried for both Sonic and Eggman.
"Mast-?" Metal eventually spoke, trying to get a glimpse of what was going on with the doctor but said person cut him off, "Metal! Send a message out to ALL badnicks on base to stop what they're doing and look for Sonic. I want this base searched from the inside out, check the vents, any place small enough for a hedgehog to hide, cut into walls if you have to to find him!" Eggman yelled, urgency and fear in his tone, "At once, Master." Metal said firmly and hung up with a click.
A few minutes later, badnicks ran around the base like a swarm of angry bees searching for the little blue hedgehog. Eggman among them calling out the blue blur's name as he checks his tracker for Sonic's collar periodically to see if it could give him a clue as to where the little hedgehog was, but it only showed that the blue blur was somewhere on the property, nothing more.
Hours passed with no sign of where Sonic had disappeared off to; Eggman was hysterical. It was almost dusk, and he was considering calling G.U.N. for reinforcements (which would have been a bad idea, but he was getting desperate). Or sending a troop of his robots out to search beyond the base in case the hedgehog had figured out some way to get around the alarm system built into his collar and ran away, leaving it behind to throw the doctor off.
Needing a break from the search to organize his thoughts, Eggman sat in the rocker in the nursery with his head in his hands. He was tired; he felt lost, useless, and angry with himself for letting this happen. Before, he only wanted to apologize and ask for forgiveness; now, he just wanted to make sure his little one was safe.
"Sonic, wherever you are, please come back. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen; I was just trying to prove to you that I could be the good guy you always wanted me to be. But I took it too far and ended up becoming even worse than I was before, and I hurt you...I'm so sorry, Sonic." his voice quivered, tears hanging around the corner of his eyes, "Please, my precious baby, come back. You don't have to forgive me. I just want to make sure you're ok...please come back."
Some moments after Eggman's heartfelt plea in the quiet room, he heard a muffled noise that sounded like...someone was sniffing?
Or wait...was that a whimper he just heard?
Wiping his eyes, Eggman rose from the chair and listens intently. He hears it again and finds it to be coming from the crib. He looks at the baby bed and bends to the floor, squinting his eyes under the darkness to see a shaking ball of fluff. "Sonic? Is that you?" he lowly asks, the ball unrolled a bit to unveil two big shiny green eyes looking at him in fear; Eggman silently praises Chaos. He'd recognize those sparkly gems anywhere!
"Sonic! Baby, what are you doing under there? I've been looking all over for you." he receives no response from the fuzzball except for some more sniffles and whimpers, "Hey, hey, now it's ok. I'm not going to yell at you, I promise." he cooes gently, trying not to scare the blue blur anymore than he already had. "You-y-you're m-m-mad at me." Sonic slowly cries with a small voice. "No! No! I'm not mad. Why would I be upset with you?"
"Y-y-your-sniff-lab."
"Oh, that...that's not important." Eggman shook his head, the ball unrolled a little further, and he could make out a nose and mouth now. "B-but it was...you-your experiment-"
"It's fine. Nothing to worry about." the doctor cut him off, seeing how frightened the hedgehog was of his for his outburst earlier. Metal was right. He needed to fix this. "I promise, um...swear on my heart to die the most painful death ever that I'm not mad at you and won't yell at you or kick you out." he got a tiny laugh out of the blue blur at that, but Eggman meant it more than Sonic probably realized.
Extending his hands out, he gently coaxed, "Please, Sonic, come here." the blue devil looks at the large hands, unsure whether it was truly safe or not; hesitantly, Sonic unrolls enough to crawl to them and lets them grab hold of his waist to pull him out fully.
Once he was back in the light, Eggman pulled him right in his arms, hugging him tightly. The embrace instantly made him burst into tears; as he sobs, Sonic held onto the doctor's jacket with the intent never to let him go.