Some Talking
Oh, who I was kidding, anyone in Mobius would to that.
On the other hand, I had been clearly been treated by doctors, what with the stitched bullet wounds and the casted arm. Which was still chained despite being broken, but then, they probably wanted to be sure I would not escape when/if I woke up.
But as I found out, whoever chained me only took in account how strong I was before 'I' took Eggman's place, not after, which I discovered when I snapped one of the chains holding me up without exerting myself. Yeah, toon world physics and Eggman was strong even without muscles, but still.
And then Sonic showed up.
"Eggman!" Sonic said with a smile when he saw me standing and finishing taking the chains off me, apparently not caring I was technically a prisoner escaping confinement or something like that. "You're finally awake!"
"Yeah, and for some reason someone saw it fit to chain a man that nearly died." I replied before looking around. "Where the heck am I? This can't be a hospital."
"We're in the Restoration's HQ."
Restoration, what was left of the Resistance. I knew of them, the Rabbits and the Chaotix told me about the group (and in fact the former were honorary members and the latter members-turned-associates because Vector and money) that charged itself with the rebuilding of Mobius' society after what happened during Forces. I had specifically asked Floral Forest to not reveal my presence to them, but as for the Chaotix, they genuinely forgot of informing them, preferring to simply watch me from afar.
Still, I doubted they had an hospital wing, or kept one after my defeat.
"Why am I not in a hospital? Not that I don't trust your friends, but if I remember well, none of them know anything about medicine."
"Look I thought that no hospital woult accept you, at least not without lying a bit. "Sonic replied before looking down, ashamed. "Of course, they freaked out when they saw you. I managed to convince them you would be harmless, but even then I had to be very thorough. I can't blame them for that, though. I mean, see it from their perspective, you're-"
"Eggman." I interrupted. "The most evil, despicable scientist ever born on Mobius."
"Yeah, and their attitude got worse when we made clear you didn't have amnesia -well, the kind that makes you an entirely different person- and the one they were helping was another person, that you really were Eggman trying to be good."
"You know, if I were one of your friends, I would be happy if the most dangerous villain ever to live not only decided to abandon his past behind, but also try to make amends by making good things, not angry of scared of what he'll do, even if it seems fake." I lampshaded. "Especially when said villain has somehow gotten muscular enough to survive both a fight with Shadow and being shot point-blank by a robot."
"Just 'survive'?" He parroted in an incredulous tone. "You weren't just a match for him, you made him bleed! Even he admits that, although in private. You also broke his right hand! Not many-scratch that, no one can boast of doing something like that to the Ultimate Lifeform, not even me, and I'm Sonic."
"And got my entire arm broken for my troubles." I said, gesturing to said arm and wincing a bit. "Which for the record still hurts."
"Well, so is his hand. You know, it was funny seeing him trying to grab a stick from the ground only to realize at the last minute that all the bones of his right hand were shattered until he screamed."
Uh. For being the 'Ultimate Lifeform', his healing is rather crappy. Unless...
"Sonic, how long have I been in a coma?"
Sonic used his fingers to count the time (typical). Never had noticed mobians had four fingers, at least those that had actual hands instead of wings or tentacles.
"A week, I think. Didn't have time to , I still had to help people you know."
"And Shadow's hand?"
"Still as broken as your arm. And for the record, he's absolutely livid."
A week? Mmmm, maybe it had something to do with me being here... Or I was overthinking it and Shadow couldn't heal any faster than humans. I mean, maybe health pickups were a real thing? I put it aside for the moment, deciding to focus on Shadow being angry at me. Sonic used 'livid' instead of angry or furious, so he really must have been pissed off, and not just because I had not been 'destroyed'.
"Of what, me beating him at something, or me being alive at all?" I wasn't stupid, Shadow made his intentions pretty damn clear when he said he would destroy me.
"Both, and he still wants to destroy you." I was tempted to say that he could try, but that wouldn't help my current situation. "Anyway, how are you feeling big guy!" He asked, this time with a happier tone.
"Chest hurts, and the arm ain't fully healed, but otherwise I'm as fit as a fiddle." I said. "Say, shouldn't I be, dunno, being watched over by guards or something?"
"Nah, it's five in the morning, all of them are asleep, and besides, they really thought you wouldn't be able to escape those chains. Why don't we talk a bit before facing the crowd?"
"Sure, why not, I've been asleep for a week myself." I replied.
"Say, why do you speak like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like that, with that accent and farm slang and, well, overall simplicity instead of intermingling technobabble with flowery insults." I was pretty sure I didn't use technobabble, and wondered why did he know it (maybe years of fighting against me and alongside Tails rubbed off him?), but I got what he meant.
"I told you, I want to leave that life behind, way of speaking included. 'sides, I've seen videos of me screaming at you, and let me tell ya, I sound ridiculous!" I said before chuckling, Sonic laughing alongside me.
"Yeah, with you always saying 'I hate that hedgehog' and all that!" He said, making me laugh harder. It wasn't just to assure him I had changed and didn't care if he insulted me, it was genuine. For those who wonder why, Robotnik's dub actor (both for Adventures and SatAM) was also Homer's (and Scrooge McDuck, and Gargoyle's Macbeth, and K.I.T.T, and a lot others, being basically our Jim Cummings, but Homer was his most famous role), and sometimes Robotnik spoke exactly like Homer, stupid screams included. For the record, Grounder's was also Moe's and Peter Griffin, so imagine a stupid robot talking with the voice of possibly the worst father and husband in cartoon history.
That's not counting the many Youtube Poops Robotik has starred in, both in english and spanish. And Pingas, can't forget the Pingas. Haven't said it yet, but I will.
We both talked a little more about my most silly moment and laughed about them for a good while. Until I asked the question, the one that had plagued my mind since I woke up in this world and decided to turn Eggman into a better person. I knew I had the potential and a good reason, a lack of motivation for world domination, but...
"You'll think they'll forgive me?"
Sonic stopped laughing, and looked at me.
"Forgive you? For what?" Oh, right, I had forgot, he was still Sonic.
"For everything. Look, I still don't remember everything evil I did, but what I DO remember is wanting to kick your ass to the point of obsession, dominate the world and make a corny theme park to satisfy my ego and, what has to be most important of all, having conquered the entire planet and terrorized it and its inhabitants for nearly half a year."
Sonic's eyes widened in realization, before sighing.
"Yeah, those were bad times, for everyone. Many people will not believe that you've changed." He then looked up at me. "But to be fair, many didn't believe it when Shadow decided to become a hero either."
"Shadow never accomplished any of his goals."
"Yeah, but what he wanted to do was worse than anything you did: wanting to destroy Mobius outright, allying himself with the Black Arms because their leader tempted him and said that since he had their blood he had to side with them, and technically being a living weapon of mass destruction with rather ambiguous morals. Aaand that's ignoring the fact that he's still a grade-A jerk whose first response to anything dangerous is to try and destroy it. If people can forgive and accept him, they will do the same with you."
"Mmm..."
"Besides you've already done some good things, like those wind turbines, or the hovercars! And that's not counting the defense of Floral Forest Village from those Badniks." He said before thinking a bit "Ok, the hovercars are kinda redundant given Floral Forest simplicity, and some might think of the attack as a ruse to make you look good. at least until they see those gaping holes on your chest. There's also that railgun."
"Railgun?"
"Tails told me it was called that. Well, not really, but something about mass drivers and railguns sharing a principle of something like that."
"Eh, Tails." I said with a smile. Always liked to play as him when I was literally his age, before CJ and friends came to the picture.
"Do you remember anything from him?"
"Only that he's a twin-tailed fox kid that can use them like helicopter blades to propel himself through the air just like Cream with her ears, and who's nearly as smart as me, but also can be a mean brat." Forces didn't paint him as the nicest guy. I mean,
"Oh, you bet he can be a brat!"
We both laughed at that before a voice coming from the door screamed:
"No I'm not!"
You know, it wouldn't have been crazy to believe that it had been the door itself who said that, given what world I was in. But nope, five seconds later, Amy Rose, Tails, Knuckles, Vanilla, Cream, Cheese and the Chaotix came down as the door collapsed due to it simply not having been designed for people snooPING AS usual.
I SAID IT!!! PIIINGAAAAS!!!
... Okay, I thought it, and grammatically didn't make make much sense since they weren't technically snooping on me, but still, Pingas!
"MR. EGGMAN!" "Eggman!" "Chao!" The Floral Forest family came to me and hugged me. "You had us all worried!"
I only had one thing to say.
"You know, these kind of things work better when there's a one-way mirror in the room."