The next few days pass without much change. Amy and Shadow take turns taking care of Sonic, with Knuckles helping out where he can. The team quickly figures out Sonic's transformations are not random but happen every 24 hrs and precisely at the hour he first turned into a baby.
Tails comes over and visits when he needs to take a break and chats with his brother checking to see what he's up to and how he's holding up with the transformations. Sometimes they have to use sign language if Sonic's lost his ability to talk again. During one of these visits, he spends a few hours having a private and semi-embarrassing (at least to Sonic) discussion about this whole second childhood thing. Sonic asks if there's a possibility it will continue after he's back to normal, and Tails explains to him about ABDL.
"I've read some studies that say some people engage in the lifestyle to help deal with stress and traumatic life events."
"Traumatic life events?" Sonic asks, scratching his head, not understanding how the two are in any way related. "Yeah, like...parts of your life that we're exceptionally distressing. Like someone you love dying, a serious illness, prolonged isolation like you've experienced, even our battles with Eggman could be considered traumatizing." Tails explains it as simply as he can. Sonic shook his head, "Really? That stuff is traumatic?"
"Well, it depends on the individual. What may be traumatic for one person may not be for another."
"So you think because I was...alone for such a long time and because of my constant fights with Eggman, I'm now seeking comfort from all this...Little Adult Baby stuff?"
"That would be my best guess." Tails shugs. Sonic tugs on the ends of his gloves, unsure what to think. This ABDL thing was peculiar despite him already engaging in some of the mentioned behaviors such as age play, going into a little space, playing with baby toys, and wearing and using the diapers. All of the evidence pointed to him being a Little, but could he really call himself that? Maybe I should open myself up more to the idea. Sonic smirked nervously, rubbing his nose. "H-How did you find out about this kind of stuff? I'm older than you and have never heard about it before?"
"You wouldn't believe what you can find out about on the internet. I've come across lots of weird stuff on some of the things I research about. Believe me, this is nothing compared to some of the things I've stumbled upon." a light chill runs through Tails. He wouldn't be surprised if he were on a government's watch list with all of his web searches on weapons and next-level high tech, not to mention the stuff he makes on his own.
After their discussion, Sonic decides to accept his second childhood fully and tries to take advantage of it. He was still hesitant about calling himself an ABDL or a Little as he felt like he needed to explore his feelings about the matter more and figure out his age range when he goes into his little space for age play.
To make things less embarrassing in the meantime, he asks Tails to explain to Shadow, Amy, and Knuckles that Sonic's increasing baby-like behavior is a side effect of the transformations, which isn't a total lie. He really can't control himself much as a baby; he has more control as an adult but pretends he doesn't. Much to Sonic's relief, they don't question it further and even decide to refrain from taking him anywhere near the village to save his dignity and reputation.
Free of embarrassment, Sonic lets himself dive deep into his little space allowing his imagination to run free for the first time. Knuckles even joins him during playtime, making it all the more fun, riding on the echidna like a horse or motorcycle, coloring, hide and seek, and playing 'catch the little coconut' (Sonic is the coconut) when Amy isn't around or looking. He doesn't even attempt to use the potty when he turns back to an adult for the brief 24 hrs.
He was thoroughly enjoying his newfound babyhood. It was so therapeutic just to play.
Sonic was sitting on the carpet in the nursery, making vrooming noises while pushing his toy car, pretending to race through a perilous obstacle course he'd rigged up around the nursery; he pauses when he hears someone calling his name. "Sonic, you've been inside the house quite a bit these last few days. Why don't you help me out with my garden? Get outside for a little bit." Amy asks, lifting a small basket of garden tools. He rubs his chin in thought. "I guess it would be nice to go out for a bit. Sure!" Sonic holds his arms up, ready for her to carry him since he's still struggling with walking. Adjusting the basket, Amy picks him up under the arms, one hand under his diaper, the other secure on his back. He wraps his arms around her neck to help make it easier for her to carry him.
The two head out a few yards behind the pink hedgehog's home to her decently sized garden, filled with various fruits and vegetables, a few flowers planted here and there to help keep certain pests away.
Picking a spot, she sets him down with the basket. "So, is this place the secret to all of your tasty cooking?" Sonic asks, poking one of the berry bushes; Amy smiles at the compliment, "Yup! Most everything I make comes from right here."
"It's a good thing Shadow doesn't have one; otherwise, he'd steal your trophy for best chef."
"No way! He's good but not that good."
"I don't know that chocolate cake last night almost beat your recipe." he poked his tongue out at her teasing. "Well, guess I'll just have to up my baking game..." Amy pulled on her gardening gloves with a meditative expression, "Perhaps, I should make some Banana's Foster tonight with homemade vanilla ice cream." Sonic's eyes widened, mouth-watering up, "Yes, yes, yes! You should totally make that!" he bounced. "Ooooor maaaaaybe, I should make a Baked Alaska. Lots of fire and flare with that dish." she tapped her chin, pretending she might change her mind. Looking in the corner of her eyes, she could see Sonic slumped over at the mention of a different dish. She held in her laughter; it was funny to watch her blue friend get so childishly excited over just the mention of food, let alone his favorite foods. "Nonono!" he whined, "Do the Foster that will really blow Shads out of the water!"
"Hmm, if you say so...ok~."
"Yes!" Sonic fist pumped in victory and looked into the distance with dreamy eyes, thinking about the desert; she giggled at his silliness. "Ok, ok. Now let's get back to working on the garden." He jerked back to reality. "Oh, right! So uh, what do we need to do?"
"I'm going to harvest these tomatoes and blackberries right here, and you can pull out these weeds." she pointed to a few wire looking green leaves poking out of the soil. Sonic winked and gave her a thumbs-up starting on his chore, removing the intruders hiding under the berry bushes. Amy picked the ripe blackberries, gently laying them in a cloth in the basket protected from her pointy garden tools. A few minutes later, her communicator's alarm went off; she checked the time to see it was exactly the hour that Sonic would start his transformation. She peeked around the bush just in time to see Sonic beginning to curl over, shaking and breathing heavily; one second later, a pink light flashed. Amy blinked and saw a baby hedgehog in place of the fully grown one.
The transformations never looked pleasant, yet thankfully they were brief, and Sonic recovered quickly, "Are you ok?" she asked to make sure he was alright. Sonic shook away his slight nausea. Looking up, he gave her another thumbs up with a small smile. "Ok. You can have a few blackberries if you want when you're done, sweetie."
He squeaked in acknowledgment and returned to his weeding. The work was a little tricky and took longer in his now tiny and uncoordinated body, but his determination remained the same to finish the job; a few minutes later, he picked the last weed clapping the dirt from off his hands. A job well done, now time for a reward. He thought, crawling over to the basket half full of freshly picked berries. As he leaned into the basket, his ears perk up. Hearing a snap, he twisted around to locate the sound and saw something in the row next to him.
Curiosity taking over, Sonic abandoned the basket of berries to identify the object. Upon closer inspection, he saw it was a yellow metal toy duck quaking and shuffling around. "Ah!" he smiled, crawling towards the fun looking toy. It waddled away as he got closer; hey, where are you going? He crawled after the toy duck, shuffling away, leaving the garden, and heading to the beach.
"Come back, I just wanna play with you!" he babbled, switching from a crawl to a toddle. Entering the beach, the mechanical duck stopped. Waddling in place, it continued to quack, spinning around and flapping its wings. Sonic hurried to catch it while it turned in place. "Gottcha!" he yelled in triumph, grabbing its neck.
Suddenly the duck's eyes lit up green; What the? The little hedgehog was abruptly pushed and tumbled onto his back. The duck flew up above, sounding a single loud "QUACK!" Sonic saw its undercarriage open, dropping something over his head. He instinctively rolled into a ball, expecting to be squished, but nothing happened. Unrolling a bit, he saw he was inside a clear egg-shaped capsule. Eggman! He thought, angrily pounding his little fists on the capsule.
"Sonic!" Amy runs to him in panic. He smiles, seeing her come to his rescue, but his smile fades when she abruptly stops in her tracks with a look of horror on her face. Puzzled, Sonic looks behind him to see a familiar gleaming silhouette towering over the capsule. Metal!
"Tails, Knuckles, Shadow! Emergency! Eggman is capturing Sonic!" Amy yells into her communicator, keeping her eyes on Sonic's metal duplicate. "So what? Can't you take care of the runt?" Shadow gripes, on the other end, "Metal Sonic's got him!" she replies angrily, "Shit! Where are you?"
"At the beach just outside my house." Amy barely finishes her sentence before Shadow appears next to her just in time to see Metal picking up the transparent egg holding Sonic inside and lifting off.
"Oh no, you don't." the ebony hog says under breath and teleports behind Metal, swift kicking him in the back of the head. Metal lurches forward but keeps his grip on the egg capsule, Sonic rolling onto his stomach inside. Red optic lenses glaring Metal turns and blocks a punch. "Careful now. We don't want to hurt the baby." he beeps. Growling, Shadow throws another punch to his metallic head, hitting the target. Metal kicks a leg up as he's head is thrown back, hitting Shadow in the gut; as he spins upside down, he lands another kick in the organic hog's face. Shadow flips in the air and shoots himself back at the robot. Metal lifts the egg capsule in front of him as a shield. Sonic shrieks and covers himself for impact. With his lightning-fast reflexes, Shadow turns just before hitting the egg. "Agh! Coward!" He yells, Metal tsks condescendingly, "Now now, you almost hit the baby."
Sonic and Amy watch helplessly as Shadow repeatedly tries to strike Metal without hitting the capsule, dive-bombing, and punching at every opening he can find. He doesn't use any chaos spears in fear of accidentally hitting the container, holding the blue blur. Metal uses the capsule to his advantage, using it as a shield and making his moves while Shadow is open, all the while pushing them further out over the water. Finally, Knuckles and Tails show up alongside Amy, "What's going on?!"
"Metal's got Sonic and is using him as a shield, so Shadow can't get to him! Amy cries in sorrow. "Tails, what do we do?"
"You guys stay here; I'll help Shadow!" Just as the fox launches into the air, Metal, bored of the organic's useless attempts to capture his charge, lifts one arm changing it into a laser cannon, and shots Shadow in the split second he is distracted, hitting the ebony hog square in the chest. "Dada!" Sonic screams as Shadow's eyes roll back, floating in the air for a second before he falls into the dark waters below.
Tails quickly dives in without a second thought for the unconscious hog. "Dada? Dada!" Sonic cries slamming his hands on the capsule; he watches for any sign of Tails and Shadow reemerging below the deep blue liquid. Several seconds pass by, with neither resurfaced. Sonic curls in himself, whimpering, eyes watering, fearing the worst for his two friends.
Satisfied, his attacker is down for the count. Metal beeps a message to his master that he's finished with the mission, then turns on his boosters and flies back to the doctor's island home with the sobbing baby hedgehog.