MEET THE NEW ARRIVALS!
Cubot and Orbot are one of Eggman's oldest creations (that he hasn't bothered to get rid of), and for a while, it was just him and them (Metal Sonic doesn't count, he is not a good partner for conversations.)
They are curious about these new people throwing their lot with the good doctor. Wonder if they will be as mean as him with them?
Write an Omake of Orbot and Cubot interacting with one of Eggman's new hero units (Stone, Starline, Belle)
Reward: +5 LOYALTY WITH THE RESPECTIVE HERO UNIT.
BREAKFAST
Change was not something Orbot was used to. Obviously things did change, he and Cubot had been around for long enough to see many schemes the boss put into action and the subsequent relocations to different places, but there was a formula to them.
Doctor Eggman would build up his armies of mechanised minions and construct a labyrinthine sprawl of fortified bases. Doctor Eggman would enact his master plan, usually involving gathering some form of macguffins to power a superweapon or controlling an eldritch entity of unfathomable power. Sonic would intervene and then two possible outcomes could occur;
1) They almost won before something Sonic did foiled the plan in the most dramatic fashion.
2) The plan blew up in their faces half-way through, Eggman pretended as he wasn't sucking a lemon to beg for help and assisted his nemesis to stop the problem the Doctor had accidentally created.
In either case victory was a dream and no matter how certain a win seemed, they would soon find themselves chasing after a retreating Eggman to another secret base to repair, recoup and repeat the cycle all over again.
But then
THE WAR happened, no fancy title was needed for how else does one describe six months of unrestricted conflict by the Eggman Empire across the planet against every nation, every opposing army and the ragtag Resistance movement that arose to oppose their conquest. It ended the same way the previous plans had, the boss defeated by Sonic in a final battle at his fortress while piloting an oversized, heavily armed and heavily armoured mecha.
Except when the dust settled Doctor Eggman had vanished and without his leadership command and control broke down as the Badnik Armies went rogue. For once there was no plan of what do next.
The decision to join up with Metal Sonic or Neo-Metal Sonic as he went from silent speedster to the megalomaniacal heir of the Empire was made partially out of pre-programmed loyalty that couldn't be erased and partially because Neo-Metal Sonic scared them almost as as much as the boss did. For a moment it looked as though events might be setting up for a repeat with only some minor differences.
Then
THE SHATTERING happened and things got very weird.
The world was suddenly much meaner as threats both old and new challenged them. They'd lost control over Badnik armies to the Zeti, the Black Arms had blown what was left of the Egg Fleet out of the sky and this new Empire had beaten Neo-Metal Sonic at his full power. Orbot wasn't sure what happened, there was lots of light and too much interference for the sensors to get a proper reading. Fortunately the Black Arms had collided into the battle, distracting the Empire as the two of them had managed to scavenge Metal Sonic's body off the battlefield amidst the (small c) chaos.
They had been lost for a while before Doctor Starline had found them. It was strange to meet a living person who openly announced himself as loyal to Eggman without him having to resort to trickery, bribery, blackmail or mind control. However, the highly enthusiastic admirer had proved himself by finding Doctor Eggman and bring their boss back (even as Cubot lamented the loss of Mister Tinker).
After all the weirdness and uncertainty, it was almost pleasantly nostalgic to hear the boss berating and threatening them like he used to.
In some ways things were the same. No Eggman Empire, few supplies, a workspace without any proper tools for manufacturing and enemies all around them. The average person would have given up in the face of an impossible task, but Doctor Eggman simply remarked with utmost certainty that they'd be back at full functionality by Christmas.
But in other ways things had changed and it was mostly to do that the base was more crowded. Oh they weren't stepping on each other's toes (thankfully that would never be a problem for him and Cubot), but the fact that Eggman was willing to bring in so many new faces despite his ego, spoke to a level of desperation that Orbot had only seen when the Doctor rolled out the big mechas to deal with his spiky nemesis (not that Eggman would ever admit to being desperate).
Now some where simple enough to understand. Doctor Starline was the fanboy, who styled himself as a mini-Eggman or at least aspired to the image he had formed in his mind (the platypus was still getting there on the insults). While once you looked past the familiar face, Rusty Rose was like a slightly more talkative and slightly less murderous version of Metal Sonic.
Belle was out of place in the base. She was just… too nice a person to be hanging around with the rest of them. The last little remnant of Mister Tinker remaining, surprising that the boss hadn't had left the wooden Badnik in the village, disassembled it in a rage as he had so many other creations or run tests to see what made it tick. Cubot loved her though and if he was being honest it was pleasant to have a cheerful face amongst the seriousness of the situation.
Still none of them posed a threat to his position as Eggman's chief assistant for the things beneath the boss' attention, that 'honour' fell to Agent Stone. Where Starline was a manifestation of celebrity worship, Stone was almost cultish in his devotion to 'the good Doctor' to a disturbing degree. There was something deeply broken in the human's programming to endure standing near the Doctor for hours on end just… anticipating the call before words were spoken.
The undeclared Cold War over the Doctor's needs had spilled over into the most sacred of times, specifically breakfast. As Orbot fried eggs and bacon in a steel pan, Stone attended to a bizarre contraption of pipes and nobs to magic forth a coffee that looked more art than drink… oh and Cubot was there glaring at the toaster to make sure it didn't get any funny ideas about the bread slices inside.
Enjoying the perks of an evil mastermind Eggman liked to have breakfast in bed, that is when he didn't fall asleep in his lab. Of course one had to avoid commenting on the bright pink onesie he slept in and definitely not look at the moustache before it was worked over by specially designed robots to make it look presentable.
As the items were finished and Cubot was prevented from putting butter on the toast himself after last time, Orbot and Stone got into a polite passive-aggressive argument over who got the honour of carrying the breakfast tray.
"As the most senior figure here I must insist on carrying the tray."
"As the good Doctor's personal assistant for many years I believe I know how he wants his tray delivered."
This went on for a good five minutes and was only stopped when Cubot, concerned that the breakfast was getting cold, took the tray before anyone noticed and was out the door heading for Eggman's most personal dominion. The two eventually noticed and charged after yellow robot.
After all there was a non-zero chance that Cubot could screw this up and while Orbot might not like Agent Stone there were worse possibilities of not having someone watching the boss' back. One of which was heading to Eggman with hot coffee with no one supervising him.