In an egg base out in the middle of nowhere

"I'm officially out of ideas."

Dr. Eggman said, as he looked over at several screens, keen to not make eye contact with any of his creations, including his robot assistants Orbot and Cubot, Metal Sonic, and his A.I. daughter Sage.

"Boss, did you just say-?" Orbot started, in obvious shock.

"Yes!" Eggman stated angrily, cutting off his incompetent lackey. "Yes, you heard me right. I don't have any plans on how to defeat that rodent, or take over the world! Sending Badniks over and over obviously doesn't work, and after the Starfall Incident, I think I'm done with harnessing power from ancient beasts or myths." For now.

Eggman finished in his head. After all, one of these days it was bound to work for the mad genius, just not sometime soon. He really did need a break from those kinds of plans for at least a while.

"So… What now?" Cubot asked, confused as usual.

"Well, and I can't believe I'm going to say this, I was wondering if you had any ideas… My dear daughter." Eggman said, staring at Sage, with while not a fond expression, as close as the doctor could get.

If possible, Sage actually looked a little stunned, before almost immediately reverting back to her usual neutral face.

"After cycling through numerous data of your past defeats, I've come to the conclusion that your defeats have mostly been related to you working alone against more numerous enemies." Sage said, a contemplative look just barely breaking through her normally neutral expression.

Eggman actually looked surprised at the conclusion, though he had to admit that it actually made a form of sense. Nonetheless, he had to confirm with Sage as to the reasoning, and the reason why she brought up that fact now specifically.

"And what evidence do you have to support this? While yes, The rat's friends are almost as much of an annoyance as he is, it is mainly Sonic that hinders my progress." Eggman said, trying to parse Sage's reasoning.

"As evidenced by your more effective schemes, Sonic usually could not defeat you on his own. In fact, there have been very few instances where Sonic has faced you without help after your first defeat by him. The second time he faced you was with his partner, Miles Prower, as well as the third. Your more successful attempts have been foiled by Sonic with others. For example, when you attempted to use Chaos, or the ARK, Sonic had help with destroying your plans. The time you attempted to use Dark Gaia, Sonic, even if albeit unknowingly, had the assistance of Light Gaia. When you attempted to use the wisps, Sonic and Miles Prower were both there to stop you." Sage said, before pausing.

"And of course those annoying wisps also helped him out." Eggman cut in, before turning to look at Metal Sonic, "and when you rebelled, Sonic had to use several of his friends just to beat you." Eggman finished, with a slight grin showing that he would never forget that betrayal, no matter how long ago it was or what programs were installed.

Eggman then turns to his trusted daughter. "So, what is it you're suggesting I do? If your idea is for me to separate Sonic from his friends, the Starfall Islands should have shown you that it wouldn't work, at least not forever. Despite how much I detest him, I must give credit where it is due and say that he can work on his own well enough." Eggman stated, a dark look passing over his features briefly.

"And before you say it, no, separating Sonic from his friends obviously wouldn't work either, as shown when that Resistance soldier broke him out of my Death Egg Prison." Eggman stated, although he became noticeably angry at the thought of that soldier.

Eggman spared a moment to think to himself about that specific Resistance member. Despite his many attempts after the war, he never could find out who they were or where they went. They never had seemed to join the Restoration, nor did they ever seem to interact with Sonic and his ilk after the war had finished. He remembered Infinite confiding to him that the rookie soldier had a strange energy to them, despite being scared and obviously no match for Infinite. Strangely enough, whenever Eggman looked back on his memories of the soldier, they always seemed to look different to him, and no recordings of them had survived past the destruction of his Phantom Ruby Death Egg Robot.

Eggman briefly shook his head to clear his thoughts before tuning back into what Sage was saying.

"...You need help." Sage stated, seemingly just finished an explanation.

Eggman looked at Sage stunned for a moment, before slowly asking Sage to repeat herself.

Sage looked a slight surprised, but repeated herself anyways. "As I stated, it is not the fact that Sonic's allies are the reason you fail, but because you had no assistance of your own. You need help." Sage finished, looking slightly apprehensive.

Eggman's anger started boiling up fast at the insinuation, before looking at his daughter's apprehensive face. Eggman sighed, before calming himself. After a bit of thought, he realized that his daughter may have a point in her calculations. What was he to do though? Hire outside assistance? Find another Starline?

Eggman sighed again, "While that might have some truth to it, who or what could I possibly look for aid? As I'm sure you have gleaned through my data banks, alliances never truly work out for me. Infinite was an arrogant fool, Starline was an overzealous failure, and working with myself again always brings the risk of that smaller sonic coming to help the rodent, again." Eggman said, with not a small amount of distaste.

"Besides-" Eggman started, looking more than a little melancholy, "-it's not like an abundance of evil islanders exists, and the few I know wouldn't hesitate to stab me in the back. nor would I trust any other humans to help. The greed of my kind can easily succeed mine, and I'm in no mood for betrayals."

Eggman goes silent looking at his screens once again, wondering if perhaps he should throw in the towel for a couple more months.

Suddenly Cubot piped up, saying one of his idiotic comments as usual. "Man, this is hard! If only there were enough evil people to counteract Sonic's friends! That'd really show em!"

Eggman was about to berate the robot for talking nonsense, before suddenly latching onto something Cubot said.
"His friends, you say?" Eggman started, while starting to twirl his impressive mustache. "Now there's an idea… What if we turned the Rodent's friends against him?" Eggman said, while a dark smile started to grace his lips.

"Oh… I like that idea. I like that idea a lot!" Eggman said, standing suddenly, before laughing maniacally.

"Metal Sonic, I have a task for you! Go find a Chaos Emerald, I've just been struck with a brilliant idea!" Eggman stated boldly.

Metal Sonic made a gesture of understanding, before blasting down the hallway.

Eggman proceeds to pull up some screens, one to watch metal sonic, and the rest to workshop this new idea.
"Oh, this will be fun." Eggman said, his face completely transformed by dark glee.