Sage entered the kitchen, where several Egg Pawns were preparing breakfast for the base's only resident that needed to eat. To their side, Bokkun was raiding the refrigerator for a carton of milk. He took it, along with a box of cereal, to the table in the centre of the room, where he had a laptop and a webcam setup. "Good morning, Bokku-nii," she greeted.

"Morning!" Bokkun returned, not turning his attention from his computer.

"Why do you have that? You do not require sustenance, unlike our Father."

"Heh heh! I got something way better planned than just eating!" Bokkun sat on his high-chair and waved to the camera. "Hey, everyone! I got a surprise for ya! Look, it's a box of Wisp-Os! Yummy cereal to start the day! I think I'll have a bowl…" Bokkun placed a bowl in view of the camera, but rather than reaching for the cereal, he instead grabbed the milk. "I'll pour the milk in, first! Ah-hahahahah! How d'you like that?!"

Sage watched as his chat was flooded with comments, some of them angry, some insulting, and some begging him to stop. "I do not believe they are enjoying it."

"And while we're at it, let's add some ketchup! 'Cause when you think about it, cereal's technically a soup!"

The angry and pleading comments kept flooding as Bokkun laughed harder. Sage did not understand, but her big brother seemed to be enjoying himself, so she decided not to question it further. Eggman and Metal Sonic entered the room, the former yawning and scratching his side. "Good morning Father, Metal-nii."

Eggman simply grunted in acknowledgement, walking to the table Bokkun was sat at and slamming his laptop shut. "Hey!" Bokkun protested.

"You're too loud in the morning. Besides, didn't I give you a job to do?"

"Hmph! You're no fun!" Bokkun stuck out his tongue, and then quickly leapt into the air as Metal Sonic swiped at him. "Sheesh! Okay, okay, I'm going already!" With a huff, Bokkun collected his laptop and flew out of the room, passing Orbot and Cubot on the way.

"Good morning, Orbot and Cubot," Sage greeted.

Cubot narrowed his eyes as the two of them approached Sage. "Heeeeey, I was wonderin'… Why d'ya treat Metal and Bokkun as brothers, but not us?"

"Father said that I should treat you more as freeloaders than as brothers."

"Whaaaaaat? That's-"

"Completely fair and reasonable," Orbot said, slamming his hand over Cubot's face. He motioned to Eggman, who was gulping down his morning coffee while his robots brought him his breakfast. He then whispered, "Just roll with it, Cubot. We're lucky we even get that much. We don't want to wind up like Scratch and Grounder, or Decoe and Bocoe."

"Oh yeah, good point." Cubot turned to Eggman, smiling. "Wonderful day for evil, innit Boss? And have you done something to your moustache? 'Cause it is lookin' good!"

"Stop brown-nosing," Eggman said, now fully awake and scarfing down his bacon and eggs. "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Well, Boss, if you'll recall, you wanted to interrogate the prisoners we captured in Mazuri the other day, see if they're ready to talk," Orbot said.

"Yeah, and a Chaos Emerald was found in Aquatic Ruins last night," Cubot added. "Also, Thunderbolt broke the mech you gave her… again."

"Send Infinite to retrieve the Chaos Emerald, and…" Eggman sighed, waving his hand dismissively. "Fine, send another mech. One I don't care about losing."

"Oh, and you also scheduled a diagnostic on Sage for this morning," Orbot said.

"Oh yes, so I did." Eggman finished his breakfast, letting out a hearty belch, and then as his robots took away the dishes, he climbed to his feet and turned to Sage. "Well then, let's get that out of the way first, shall we?"

"Father, my systems all read normal. I do not see any need for a diagnostic," Sage said.

"Well I want to be sure! You can never be too careful, and if anything happened to you, I'd-" Eggman stopped himself, clearing his throat and turning away. "I mean, I've invested a lot of time and resources into you. It'd be a pity to lose all that due to a lack of care."

Sage nodded. "Very well." She followed Eggman to a terminal in the room, and closed her eyes as he accessed her files. "Will this take long?"

"Nah, just a quick check to make sure everything's running as it should be." Eggman clicked through the files, scanning them quickly, when he suddenly stopped. "What's this locked folder? I don't remember creating it."

Sage opened her eyes. She didn't answer right away, but when she did, she simply said, "It is of no concern, Father. It is simply a project I am working on."

"You've protected it well, I see. Give me access."

"I… Really, Father, it is nothing to concern yourself over."

Eggman turned to Sage, raising an eyebrow. She seemed to be blushing. "Sage, I am your father. You shouldn't hide anything from me."

"Please, Father. Even I desire some level of privacy."

"Sage!" Sage closed her eyes, turning her head away completely. Her image flickered, highlighting her distress. "… Fine. I'll leave it at that, then."

Sage opened her eyes, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Father."

"Though I am curious what you're trying to hide… I'll let you have your 'privacy'." Eggman finished the diagnostic, and after declaring that all was well, Sage left to carry out her tasks. After the door closed, Orbot and Cubot approached the Doctor's side.

"You're not really going respect her privacy at all, are you?" Orbot asked.

"Of course not!" Eggman yelled, startling the two robots. "What's going on with that girl?! What could she possibly be up to that she can't share with me, her own father?!"

"Yes, well, I do wonder," Orbot replied, backing away nervously. "Maybe it's a rebellious phase?"

"Maybe it's porn," Cubot suggested. Orbot slapped his own face while Eggman turned to him with a dark look. "What? It's a locked folder she doesn't want ya ta see! It's kinda obvious, ain't it?"

"Cubot, Sage is just a little girl," Orbot said. "She's not going to be interested in… that."

"Technically, she just projects herself in that form, but since she's an AI, she can take on whatever form she wants. She also has full connectivity ta the internet, so it's not like it'd be hard to find-"

"My daughter is not looking at pornography!" Eggman yelled, slamming his fist on Cubot's head. "But she is hiding something from me, and I'm going to find out what it is!"

Eggman accessed the terminal and returned to Sage's files, making his way back to the locked folder. "Boss, perhaps you shouldn't. What if Sage finds out? She would be devastated."

"I'm the one who's devastated, that my own daughter would feel she has something she can't share with me!" Eggman bypassed the first few barriers, grinning. She had protected it well, but everything she knew, she had learned from him.

"Are you sure that's what this is about?" Orbot asked.

"What do you mean?" Eggman replied.

"Well, I was just thinking that maybe, you're worried Sage might be scheming against you."

Eggman stopped. "Nonsense. She's as loyal to me as-"

"-As Metal Sonic? Need I remind you what happened the first time you upgraded him to Neo Metal Sonic?"

"This is different! I…" Eggman sighed. "No, you're right. The first time I tinkered with giving my badniks free will, my prized soldier Gamma defected. Then the time after that, Omega and Neo Metal Sonic! The two of you aren't much to worry about, but Sage…"

"Has direct access to all of your systems, all of your data, and all of your badniks?"

"No. Well, yes, but that's not what I'm worried about. If Sage was planning to betray me… I don't think I could terminate her, the way I could my other creations."

Orbot and Cubot exchanged looks, and nodded. "Well, you needn't worry about that," Orbot said. "Sage is loyally devoted to you, there's no doubt about it."

"Yeah, she even gave her life to protect you once, remember?" Cubot followed, earning a nudge from Orbot. "What? She got better!"

"At any rate, you really don't need to do this," Orbot continued. "Please have more faith in Sage. She is your daughter, after all."

"… Maybe you're right," Eggman conceded. "Heh, of course you are. Sage would never turn against me. She's… a good kid." The three of them stood in silence for the next few seconds, Orbot and Cubot giving each other thumbs ups in recognition of their success. "But I'm still curious what she's hiding! Just one more barrier, and then I'll know!"

Orbot and Cubot sighed, shaking their heads. As the final barrier fell, Eggman opened the folder and studied the contents. "Well?" Orbot asked.

Eggman was confused. Inside of the folder was nothing but Mobisoft Werd documents, each only titled with numbers that went up sequentially from one. As he opened the first file, he saw that it was some kind of story. Was this it? She was writing stories and was too shy to tell him? As he read, he found that it was about him, and Sonic also appeared after a few pages.

"Time to put a stop to you, Eggman!" Sonic said, standing defiantly against his opponent.

"Why do we have to fight like this?" Eggman wondered aloud. "Why can't we come together, Sonic?"

"If you think I'm gonna join you and do evil-"

"No, not together as in partners-in-crime." Eggman approached Sonic, cupping the hedgehog's cheek with one hand and kneeling down to meet him face-to-face. "Together… like this." Eggman leaned closer. Sonic was too stunned to move. Their hearts pounded and Sonic closed his eyes as Eggman drew closer, and-

Eggman closed the document. "… What." He opened the next document and scanned it. In this one, he and Sonic seemed to already be in some pre-established relationship, and were enjoying a day at the beach when Shadow arrived to kill him. Sonic came to Eggman's defence, declaring his love for the Doctor.

In the next document, Eggman had given up his evil ways to marry Sonic. In the one after that, Sonic had turned to evil, and he and Eggman ruled the world together. They were also married here, too. In the next, Sonic and Eggman were pulled to an alternate world, where they were forced to work together to save it, and along the way, discovered their feelings for one another. Somehow, they wound up having biological children together, though it wasn't clear who birthed them or how.

Every single document was the same. Well, different in many ways, but they shared the same common thread of Sonic and Eggman winding up in some sort of relationship. Thankfully, all of them were PG-13 at most. At least, the ones that he actually read were. Eventually, he had seen enough, and exited out of the folder, reapplying the security to it as if nothing had ever happened.

"What did you see?" Cubot asked.

"… I'm gonna go… be alone for a bit. I need to process this." As Eggman made to leave, he saw Metal Sonic starting to follow. "GAH! I mean, no! You stay here!" Eggman couldn't even look the Sonic look-a-like in the eyes right now. "Just… stay here and wait for orders."

As Eggman left the room, Metal Sonic bowed his head. "There, there," Cubot said, patting the robot's back. "I'm sure he's not mad at you. Humans are just fragile, that's all." Cubot turned to Orbot. "Definitely found porn."

Orbot shrugged. "Given his reaction, I'm inclined to agree with you. Who would have guessed that Sage hold such… mature interests? But let's not treat her any differently, okay? She's still our little sister, and whatever her interests may be, they're of no concern to us."

"Got it!" Cubot agreed, and then turned to Metal. "You too, buddy! Take a vow of silence with us!" Metal turned to Cubot, glaring into his eyes. "… Oh, right. You already are silent. Ahahah… Please don't hurt me."

Later that evening, Eggman finally left his room and returned to the kitchen for dinner. "Father, you're late," Sage said as Eggman entered the room.

"Lost track of time," Eggman said, sitting at the table as his meal was brought to him. Sage sat opposite him. Even though she didn't eat, she enjoyed spending dinner time with her Father, as she had discovered it was how 'normal' families acted. Eggman noticed Cubot to the side, missing a chunk of his face and twitching. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, y'know-know-know," Cubot replied.

"He angered Metal Sonic," Orbot reported.

"Um, Father?" Sage began, shifting in her seat. "About earlier? Please do not be mad at me. I have a lot of free time and I have picked up some hobbies, but I believe I'm experiencing the emotion of 'embarrassment', and so I-"

"It's okay, Sage," Eggman said, holding up his hand to stop her. "You don't have to explain. You're right, every girl should be entitled to her privacy. I'm the one who's sorry. I was snooping as usual."

Sage smiled. "Then… it's okay?"

"Yes. I'll respect your privacy from now."

Sage smiled, that angelic smile that Eggman could never be mad at. "Thank you, Father!"

"Well, I'm glad that the two of you were able to make up," Orbot said, clapping his hands together.

"Yeah," Cubot agreed, still twitching. "So uh, any chance-chance-chance you could fix me-e-e-e?"

Sage giggled, jumping out of her seat. "Father, may I?"

"Go ahead," Eggman said, smiling as he watched Sage lead Cubot away. Though she couldn't interact with anything physically, she could control the badniks to make the repairs. It wasn't really any more efficient than Eggman just repairing Cubot himself, but it made her happy, and that was all that mattered. "Right, so long as she's happy," Eggman said, but even as he told himself that, he recalled Sage's works he had read earlier, causing him to shudder. "… I hope this is just a phase."