One Month Later...
He didn't expect the chameleon to simply tell him to follow him to the Floral Forest Village. He actually said 'Just... just follow me and see', but the way he said it, and the tone (not scared, not angry, just... what was the word, flabbergasted, flaggerbasted? Yeah, flaggerbasted) unnerved Sonic, at least before he shook that feeling off to swap it for trepidation and a fighting will. If Eggman was alive, he HAD to be trying to enslave the poor villagers, maybe even turn them into robots, or worse! That would not stand!
Of course, that was until the pair arrived at the place.
Last time he had been on Floral Forest Village, a few days after the fall of the Eggman Empire, it was the archetypical quaint little village in the middle of a forest, made up of several single-story wooden houses and with a population that didn't surpass the hundred. He only knew that it even existed because Cream, her mother Vanilla, and their robotic guardian Gemerl lived there. It wasn't that it was so far away from the outer world that no one knew it existed, it was simply boring and nothing exciting ever happened since Eggman disappeared. Heck, he was pretty sure that even during his imprisonment the Empire had left it alone.
Now? Well, it was still quite small, though it had more houses, and didn't have the skyscrapers of Seaside City and Sunset City, much less the looming bastions of the now-abandoned Imperial City... but the people of Seaside didn't possess hovercars either, or weird rotating things on their roofs, or high-tech homes that had weird rotating things on their roofs, or-you know what? You probably got the point by now.
"What the!?" Sonic cried when the impossible image, a technologically advanced settlement in the middle of a forest, finally made its way to his brain.
"Yeah, Vector reacted exactly like that when he saw, well, this." Espio said as he gestured to the village. "Charmy on the other hand tried to mess with the wind turbines and, well, let's just say that he ended up losing breakfast." He said in an embarrased tone. "Even though we've been watching after them for a week, it still amazes me. Last month it was a simple village, but today Floral Forest is probably the most advanced settlement in all of Mobius. And before you get any ideas, that thing over there," He pointed towards something standing next to the small town, some kind of metallic structure the size of a tower. ", it's not a weapon, just some kind of trash disposal device that according to him will be operational soon."
"Who made all of this!? When was it made!? What happened!?" Sonic screamed his questions.
"Eggman, of course." Espio stated without even looking at him. Sonic stared at his friend with wide eyes, shocked by the nonchalant tone he spoke with.
What the heck did happen in that month!? And how did the Restoration miss this!?
The blue hedgehog breathed deeply to calm himself. "Okay, I can believe, at least a bit, that the good ol' doctor could do this... but why? This is not his usual MO." His tone then turned accusatory. "And why haven't you told us anything if you knew of him since a week ago?"
"You can ask him yourself, and before you ask, you might not recognize him when you see him, but he's still Eggman. Yeah, he has changed. As for why didn't we tell you, we had to make sure that Eggman wouldn't suddenly become a maniac again; that, and he asked us to not reveal him when he discovered us. C'mon, the rest of the team is at the town." Espio said before moving forward, a dumbfounded Sonic following him and taking on the place as they came in.
The villagers were happy, working, walking or driving around on their hovercars, and of course, excited by being visited by their hero. Well, for now everything was, but also not completely comforting for the hedgehog, despite what Espio said. What if they were being mind controlled, or simply forced to act like they were happy? What if they were robot duplicates that-
"Mr. Sonic!" A young voice coming from in front of him interrupted his thoughts. It was Cream, who was running towards him with a wide smile on her face, Cheese hovering above her and Charmy flying behind.
"Sonic!" The bunny exclaimed with glee before jumping at him, Charmy doing the same.
"Cream! Charmy!" Sonic laughed.
"Hello Sonic." Said Vanilla as he approached them with Gemerl behind her and hugging Sonic alongside her daughter and Charmy. "I'm so happy to see you after a month."
"Glad to see you too, Miss Vanilla." Sonic said as he returned her hug before frowning. "I've been told that Doctor Eggmand has been in here for an entire month. I'm not accusing anyone here or anything, but could I know why is he here, or why haven't you told us about him?"
Before Vanilla could respond, his daughter. "Oh, you're here for Mr. Eggman? He's right here! Mr. Eggman!" She called. "Mr. Eggman, Sonic wants to see you!"
"Coming, coming!" Exclaimed a familiar voice coming from behind Sonic. Familiar, sans deeper than he remembered. "But first, I have an announcement to... oh. Howdy Sonic."
The hedgehog, fearing of what would he see if he turned (for all he knew this 'Eggman' was a literal walking egg, not Ivo Robotnik), steeled himself and turned around to face 'Eggman', and Vector, who was standing behind. Surprisingly Eggman was still Eggman... but at the same time, saying that Eggman might not be Eggman at all would fall short of the truth.
Instead of wearing his iconic crazy scientist attire, he now wore red overalls, yellow plastic gloves with gray markings, one of which held a red toolbox, and a yellow hardhat he was wearing backwards. That was just his clothing though, not his new body frame.
He still had a gut, but it was noticeably smaller than he remembered, and overshadowed by the muscular... everything else he had! Arms, chest, neck and all that. He looked big before (after all, Sonic was just a little more half his height), but with those muscles he looked even bigger than Vector, and he was a crocodile for heaven's sake! A crocodile that actually didn't seem that muscular, but was still bigger than anyone else (and still strong enough to lift a van if he saw a penny below it). He had also his ridiculous moustache for a much more normal beard that covered his entire face, making him look even more intimidating, yet also, somehow, nicer-looking despite his schnoz.
And then there were his eyes, his real ones. He had expected the mad doctor to replace his eyes with red optics or something, to make himself intimidating or some other stupid reason given that he always, ALWAYS wore those googles of his. Instead, he was surprised to see that his irises were a nice shade of blue.
Eyes that were looking down at him with a risen eyebrow.
"Good day?" Eggman asked. "You've been staring at me like an idiot staring at another idiot."
Ignoring the possible insult, Sonic shook his head. "Alright Eggman, what's the deal? Why are you acting like this?"
Instead of acting surprised, or asking what he was talking about, as Sonic thought/hoped, Eggman shrugged. "'Cause I want too."
"I'll take it from here." Vector said to Eggman, who nodded. "Apparently Eggman has decided to start over with a clean state by helping people. I know, I know, hard to believe, but look around."
"Did he hit his head on a rock or something?" Asked Sonic, believing that the doctor had amnesia even though Eggman had called him by his name.
"Nope. Well, maybe?" Vector admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. "He said he still remembers who he is and a bit of you, and is aware of his wrongdoing past, but doesn't remember what he did."
Sonic couldn't believe what he just heard. Eggman, not only wanting to be good (and apparently not a ruse), but also having forgotten his past (not just the many atrocities he commited, but also the adventures he had alongside the blue speedster)?
"That'll have to be seen." Sonic then turned to Eggman. "Don't you remember fighting over the Chaos Emeralds?"
"I've been told what they are. Why risk my life for some rocks? Heck, I'd stay away from something that has 'Chaos' on its name, I'm not stupid. It could be related to reality-warping weirdos, or demon gods from outer space. Don't ask why I said that."
Sonic decided to humour him in that regard and continued. "Lost Hex?"
"Someone lost their Demons and Dungeons map?" He was, of course, referring to the first and most famous tabletop roleplaying game in all of Mobius, and a favourite of Tails, Vector, and if the rumours were right, even Shadow himself.
"The Death Egg?"
"Know about a Death Star, but Death Egg? Nope, haven't even been told about it."
"The Ark?"
At this Eggman actually seemed to remember, gasping in realization, but then he frowned. "Hold on. Is this 'Ark' a space habitat where prehistoric beasts, mutants and gun-toting survivors live?"
"Uh?" Uh? "No. Well, it was a space station, and itself a weapon, but there were no prehistoric beasts or anything there, only scientists. Why did you ask that?"
"Idea for a game." Eggman said nonchalantly before looking down at him with a frown. "Look Sonic, as Vector here said I remember me, you, my obsession with controlling the world, my even greater obsession with you, your friends, and my love of being evil, but as I told the lovely Ms. Vanilla and her daughter" He gestured towards Cream's mom, who blushed, blushed!, and waved her hand; Vanilla was too busy playing with Charmy to see. ", nothing else."
"What is that thing that looks suspiciously like a-" Sonic managed to say before said thing unexpectedly moved and fired at the sky, making a thunderous noise that sounded like a combination of a giant cannon and something metallic and very heavy hitting another metallic object.
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?"
"Mass driver cannon. Don't let the 'cannon' fool ya though, it's basically a dumpster truck to space except without the truck. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that it also fires the trash faster than you can run."
"You said you would warn us when you'd fire it today!" Vanilla said, although not in an angry tone, as she covered hers and her daughter's ears.
"Blame blue boy here for mounting a ruckus and making me move." He then turned towards Espio. "I thought you promised that you'd tell him."
"Sonic is... special. Plus, you said you'd be firing it at full power 'soon', not today." Espio replied.
"What about it shooting faster than I can run?" Sonic interrupted, his confusion (and feelings of offense towards the horned ninja) briefly shoved aside by jealousy, insulted (and a bit scared) that a machine could fire something at a speed that surpassed his, and not seeing Espio's exhasperated expression. "¿How fast are we talking about?"
"15 kilometers per second, at full power. Only ten are needed to break Mobius gravity hold, though. Wonder why hasn't anyone noticed the shots." Eggman pondered.
"Those weren't as loud." Vector pointed out.
Okay, that was pretty fast. No near as fast as he could be when he ran at full speed, but still, hypersonic trash!
"And where does this trash-" Sonic started again before Eggman raised a hand.
"Sonic, I know what are you getting at, and my answer is no. I left that live behind."
"Uh, why?" Sonic asked, too confused to form more complex sentences.
"Because as far as I care I'm winning."
"Uh?" Sonic didn't expect that response. Winning? Wasn't Eggman's idea of winning conquer all of Mobius, enslave its inhabitants, get rid of him permanently, and built a theme park centered on him? "What do you mean with 'winning'?"
"Look around you: these people are happy, they like and respect me despite my past sins, this place will be the envy of the entire world when they finally realize it exists, I build a gun whose use is completely utilitarian..."
"I still don't follow, Eggman." Sonic said as he folded his arms in front of him, an accusatory look on his eyes as he stared up at Eggman.
The former mad scientist sighed before putting his toolbox on the ground and sitting on it. "Alright, seeing that just telling you my motivations won't work... You better sit fellas, this will take some time to explain." The group did as he asked. "Okay, here I go. It all started a month ago after I woke up..."