Spirit of the Phantom Ruby

Part 28 - Crocodile Tears

The old doctor sat in the back of his small holding room, sulking with his arms crossed. His gaze dully rested towards the floor, until he looked up, his interest slightly peaked, when the blue hedgehog came sliding to a halt before the outside of his cell.

"Hey Egghead!" Wearing an annoying grin, the hedgehog noisily banged the outside of his glorified cage with both fists, purposely trying to aggravate him.

The evil genius simply grunted and looked down again. Sonic ceased the banging and scoffed at the doctor's defeated composure.

"I have a message for you today, Egg-face! It's from your old pal, Infinite! Yeah, he's up and kicking, despite all that's happened to him...!" Sonic offered the doctor a pestiferous grin. "Don't you want to know what he said...?"

Eggman tilted his head up somewhat. "...Sure."

"He said he wasn't your friend anymore." The blue blur blatantly stated, staring at him vexingly.

The doctor raised his head higher, glaring at Sonic. "He said this?"

"Mhmm!"

"I don't believe you. He was never a friendly guy."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "You seemed to really like him before all the fuser-diffuser stuff happened..."

"Did I?" Eggman's glasses glinted forebodingly.

"Yeah... Asking him about his feelings, telling him he needed to go outside more... You even repeatedly stated how great he was during our interview with the fans!"

"Ha! Ha, ha!" The doctor suddenly belted out, his voice tyrannical. "Ha! Ha, ha, ha! Ha...!" His forced laughter gradually gave way to a miserable weeping, and Sonic stared, dumbfounded, as the doctor slowly curled up on the floor and began crying.

"Jeez, I know he was your only friend, but..." The hedgehog sat down on the floor outside his cell across from the miserable old croon, disheartened by the exhibit of utter melancholy before him. "Sorry you couldn't keep him, I mean, even though you did betray him..." The hedgehog lurched as the doctor's sniveling grew louder.

"Uh, um... well at least you still have me?"

Eggman bawled about something to do with enemies and friends not falling under the same category. Sonic sighed, standing up.

"Maybe I'll just go now... Smell ya later, Egg-breath," he remarked, sounding rather slightly demoralized, and zipped away.

Eggman's vision blurred as he watched the blue blur disappear. He got up, sniffling loudly, wiped the fake tears away, and moseyed over to the poster of an advertisement for the Foundation of Villain Redemption on his wall, the only decoration in his entire drab cell. He peeled back the corner beneath the bright pink squirrel-lady and peeked at the decent-sized hole concealed behind it. It was not a very large hole, and Eggman was not a very small man, but he knew if he continued losing weight this quickly from being in prison, he would surely be able to escape before the end of the year.

The doctor sat back down and resumed his moping, for he did feel some pain in losing one of his most valuable assets. However, as he glanced at the poster and examined its characters, a brilliant plan began to form within his mind, and he felt the confidence one does when they're on the verge of greatness. Greatness, but also terrible evil.