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Screaming, muffled yelling. He can feel a presence looming over him but can’t feel the hands violently shaking him.
“Starline—!” The voice booms again. It’s clearer this time, jolting his nerves. He flinches and tries opening his eyes, but his eyelids are glued shut. “If you don’t— I’ll send so many bolts of electric— And individually remove each of your teeth from— Wake up, now!” The voice spits.
Finally, he manages to force his dry eyes open and is immediately met with… More darkness? No, it’s something backlit by the light overhead. Before he could meager a guess on what’s happening or which plane of purgatory this is (a personal hell?), snapping fingers filled his vision.
“Up, up! That’s it…” Eggman barks. His hand sinks away from Starline’s face only so he can reach over & snatch a flashlight to shine directly into his eyes. Starline’s pupils dilate and he recoils, writhing in the doctor’s steel grip.
“Doctor…?” Starline croaks. His throat feels like it’s crammed with sand and his lungs heave, savoring every breath he takes. His body aches & wanes. “Where—”
”Stuff it. No questions, no time.” Eggman waves.
The doctor releases his grip and Starline immediately ragdolls against the (dentist?) chair as Eggman walks off, arms folded behind his back. The doctor holds his wrist, thumbing his palm as he paces back & forth in thought.
“I’ve flushed your systems as much as possible to get you lucid without completely nullifying the painkillers— which, you’re still teeming with— I’ve pumped into you. I’d love to ravish in your shrill screams and watch you squirm, but I need you attentive more than ever, doctor.” He rattles.
Starline… Half-listens, mostly. His head’s still swimming and focusing on anything is nigh impossible. It’s hard enough to keep his tongue from lulling out of his bill, let alone follow whatever the doctor is… Ranting about.
“Your little pet projects.” Eggman hisses, turning on his heels; his steel-toed boots click. He stomps over, growling with each word. “Share every speck of information, from their finale to their genesis! I want all of it, Starline.”
Starline’s last memories resurface, mid-lecture, and he realizes that’s why, then. That’s why he’s alive, haha.
Surge & Kit, in all their faults, were still a success. They’ve shaken up the formula as planned and even have the great Dr. Eggman scrambling for ways to eliminate them.
He can’t help it, a smugness rises into his chest.
”Asking deadmen for answers?” With what little spite he can muster, Starline wheezes that out. The doctor might’ve outsmarted him, but look at him now! Crawling back for help! Pride wafts from Starline and Eggman takes notice.
”You little—!” The doctor lunges at him, grabbing onto something attached to his head & yanking him up by it.
Whatever it is (Starline can’t see) causes a spike of pain to burst through his skull when pulled on. He grits his jaw.
”Take that tone with me again and you’ll go right back to being a discombobulated, buried carcass.” The doctor releases him and immediately Starline’s webbed hand flies up to investigate what— What’s plugged in his head?
“Nifty, eh?” Eggman grins. “Piecing you back together wasn’t easy— major fractures everywhere, had to cut some corners— but you’re one of my finest hodgepodges yet!”
“Here, look.” The doctor, ever vain, can’t help but get distracted by boasting and hands a nearby reflective tray to Starline as a makeshift mirror. “Congratulations, you’re statistically more inanimate than you are organic!”
All ego vanishes as Starline’s taken aback by the sight.
His bill’s agape in shock as he examines his eyes— now sporting robotic, black sclera interfaces mirroring Metal Sonic’s optics and the doctor’s own— and a… Tube jutting out of his head, wrapping around into the back of it.
”Unfortunately, the rest of your new installations aren’t anything past a surface level. If it weren’t such a time sensitive operation, I would’ve slipped into my sawbones apron and started amputating everything, but there really wasn’t room for theatrics; you were well past flatlining.”
“Maybe at a future date, though. You are the Empire’s property now.” The doctor says, nonchalantly, while fiddling with his huge ‘stache. “I’ve even drafted a few ideas…”
Starline flickers back to the egg cave and the little, robot doll of him… Guess the doctor got his way, in the end.
“Nevertheless, there’ll be time to daydream after we’ve terminated the remnants of your… ‘Expulsion.’”
There’s a pause.
“Is this— Are you rehiring me?” Starline quickly perks up, embarrassed by his eagerness at the opportunity dangling before him. He really hasn’t changed, has he? Still fawning over the doctor and hanging off every word. His heart lurches against his ribs. “After everything, have I finally been redeemed? Is this my second chance, doctor?”
Eggman’s grin widens, knowingly. “Yes, if you assist me in destroying ‘Surge’ and her cowering sidekick, I’ll consider writing off all transgressions before now as a ‘rough start’ and officially reinstate your employment under me.”
He snakes closer to Starline, towering over him.
”Prove your loyalty to me, your dedication to my dream by stomping out yours, and let’s reset everything to the status quo, together, with you happily serving my purposes.”
“Deal?” Eggman offers his hand and Starline’s convinced he’s dreaming. After all those exhausting weeks, those lonely nights… No, Zavok’s voice weasels into his brain and festers, echoing how he shouldn’t be so dependent.
He knows he’ll wind up stiffed, forever condemned to the doctor’s shadow as a menial lackey— to be constantly held under the knife, but… But he doesn’t care, because this is everything he’s been oh-so coveting and more.
Eggman needs him. Eggman wants him.
Maybe it’s the painkillers, but he’s on the verge of tears when he snatches Eggman’s hand with both of his. It’s enough to make even Eggman falter for a second as his smile slips into… An unsure, but surprised frown.
”Yes,” Starline hangs his head, holding on for dear life, and rests his forehead against the doctor’s fist. “Yes, please.”
Eggman keeps absolutely still, frozen up. His mustache’s ends bristle, almost as if ‘fluffing’ out, and suddenly he can’t find his words. An alien notion incubates inside him.
Normally he relishes in people groveling and throwing themselves at his feet in defeat, but… Their ‘compliance’ is never won so willingly. Here he was, resigned that he’d have to beat Starline around the bush to make him squeal, but even after everything, after killing him, he still…
“You’re hopeless…” Eggman mutters.
Before he realizes it, his free hand moves to caress one of Starline’s bangs and suddenly the thought of ever hurting this Mobian again… Sickens him. The raw, sharp pleasure of inflicting misery all but fades and gives way to a sudden warmth that swells in his chest. It mortifies Eggman and he quickly jerks back, stumbling away from Starline.
“Uh,” He turns his back to Starline, shutting out the loud intrusive thoughts telling him to just scoop up the platypus and go snug— No, no, quit it. “Riiight, back to business.”
”Surge stole one of my latest inventions: the ‘Dynamo Cage’, an ingenious energy-extracting device I intended to use against you, until you spoiled everything.” Thankfully, focusing on how furious he is over that girl squashes all his sudden… Augh, gross mushiness. He re-centers himself.
”She already put Metal Sonic out of commission once and is giving Sonic the run-around.” He huffs. “Sonic’ll never finish the job and I’d rather not have one of your liabilities messing up my weekly schedule! It was hard enough readjusting after the Metal Virus disaster; having another set of Sonic & his flunky fox is pushing my patience.”
Starline is silent. Eggman glances over his shoulder to make sure the platypus isn’t catatonic, waiting for a snide remark that never comes. Instead, Starline sits there, half-lidded and clearly straining to stay awake, but obediently listens. The doctor rolls his eyes and waves it off.
”Exploiting their flaws shouldn’t be difficult,” Starline dutifully answers. “They were already troubled individuals to begin with.” He shifts around, trying (and failing) to get comfortable in his own skin. “My treatment only worsened their existing symptoms; it can’t invent new problems.”
“Correct, I recall your base explanations, regarding the hypnosis itself.” Eggman returns to pacing and ducks into the surrounding shadows. Besides the overhead light beaming on Starline, the entire room is near pitch-black and the doctor seamlessly bleeds into that darkness.
“It’ll be like breaking tempered glass, then. If you strike at a certain spot: it’ll instantly shatter.” He hums. “We won’t win this by following Sonic’s suit. Rather, we need to utilize our wits and exploit their insecurities. Once we sow those seeds in these ‘knock-offs’, we can sit back & watch them self-destruct while Sonic solidifies their downfall, hehe.”
“If the Warp Topaz wasn’t destroyed I’d offer using it in conjunction with your plan, doctor.” Starline sighs.
“That’s my favorite part! Tell me, doctor,” Eggman edges towards the light. The darkness wicks at him. “How familiar are you with the creation of artificial Chaos Emeralds?”