Felt inspired since Starline is probably really questioning how good of an idea it was for Eggman to go out and fight.
Understanding Genius
"Doctor, your vital signs appear to be stable." Starline says, standing over the doctor, bandaged and hooked up to various machines with monitors that give readouts of his health. "There should be no long term damage and you should be at your best again soon enough.
"Good," Eggman sneers. "Whatever fool decided to attack me will regret their actions. They underestimated me, thinking that they could get rid of me so easily."
Eggman looks to Starline, expecting some kind of agreement. An "of course!" or "We will ensure they regret their actions," but no. All he sees is the platypus, his face rather sour, and his fists are clenched and shaking. Finally he responds.
"Why!? Why did you go out there!?" he shouts, raising his hands and throwing his clipboard against a wall "You could have died, doctor. Now you are laying in bed hurt, because you didn't list-"
"Don't take that tone with me!" Eggman shouts, shutting the platypus up and freezing him in place. "Are you saying that I made a mistake?"
"I'm sorry. I have overstepped my bounds sir," Starline replies, taking up a more reserved posture at the outburst. However, his feelings will not let him back off completely. "But you still got shot, doctor. Planned or not, this is an objective truth."
"Hmm," Eggman grumbles. "You are still doubting me."
"N-no, I just want to know, why?"
"You are. I thought that you were smart enough to know why," before Starline can retort, Eggman raises his voice, "So I will explain to you. For me the reasons are obvious, but clearly your inexperience is greater than I expected. Now, I want to ask you, why do you think that I went in to fight?"
Swallowing his spit, Starline takes a moment to answer in a way that will not result in earning the doctor's ire. "For your pride, I think. Surely the zeti's insults were something that could not be forgiven."
"You are right, but you are also wrong. I knew that Zavok had something planned. The zeti may have been fools, but they are not weak, as you have seen with Zavok's form. If I did not go out there he would have focused on my minions, and they could have gotten seriously hurt."
For a moment, Starline looks at Eggman as if he had grown a second head. "Are you saying you… care about what happens to them?"
"No, you fool! What do you take me for, a charity case!?" he yells once more, causing Starline to take a step back.
"T-then why sir?"
"They are resources. Tools. I don't care about what they feel, but what they can do! And I won't lie, you did a great job finding me worthy minions. I could have waited inside my walls and let them deal with Zavok. I am sure they could have handled it on their own as well, but not without causalities. Bots can be rebuilt, but my minions are irritatingly difficult to replace. As the source of his ire, I was the perfect distraction."
"Sir, I am proud I could help you with my abilities, but you are still worth more than any of them. Than all of them!"
"That is true, Starline. But I have been at this for a long time. I know how to handle failure. How many times have I failed against that hedgehog?"
Starline hesitates for a moment, expecting some form of trap. Still, lying would not go well for him either. "I cannot recall, but you have failed a few times."
"And with each failure I had to escape. Rebuild, come up with a new plan. I have learned from my failures. I never go into a battle that I cannot leave, and I work to minimize my losses. I've escaped the so called fastest thing alive many times! If I can escape him, I can escape Zavok! Now, that explanation alone will not satisfy you I'm sure, so let's say I went with your plan. You want me to be safe, correct?"
"Of course! It would be a waste to lose your genius in a fight."
"Let's say that I did not go in and I lost only one minion. That would not be too bad, right?"
"It would be unfortunate, but an acceptable risk, yes."
"But what if this happened repeatedly? Each time I stayed inside the base, avoiding my enemies, letting them crush my forces one by one? I would be bled dry, until all that would be left is me. Even with the Darc-Egg, my chances of surviving would be low."
"I… suppose that does make some sense," he says, looking down somewhat embarrassed, seeing some of his foolishness from his prior outburst. "But you still got shot because of this risky move."
"Yes, it is quite frustrating that someone would attack me. But I ask you to consider, what if this person was in my base while all my strongest minions were busy? No one to help me, outside of my robot's protective shielding." he asks. Starline can feel the man's gaze burning into him from behind the goggle. The tone is dead serious. Not even a hint of his earlier egotistic joviality remains.
Starline's jaw clenches. "T-that would be… disastrous."
"There on the battlefield was the safest place I could have been. With my weapons and my minions to rush me to the medical wing."
"I-I'm sorry, sir. I did not take into account that there might be unforseen dangers."
"Good. But there is still another thing I must disabuse you of. Metal, show Starline your new trick."
Suddenly, the robotic hedgehog who has been quietly standing guard by the door steps out of the shadows. As he approaches Starline, he starts taking steps back from the machine. "D-doctor, I'm sorry, I understand your genius now! No need to call on him!"
He starts looking in his pocket for his warp topaz. With a laugh he pulls it out, but instead what he sees is an active egg bomb. In a panic he throws it across the room in the hopes that the explosion will not be enough to harm him, maybe to get Metal to run and grab it to save his master.
His master who is just laughing.
"Good one Metal! I'm really impressed with that trick!"
"W-what's so funny!" Starline shouts. Then it hits him. The bomb has not gone off. It should have gone off by now!
"Remember when you thought me sending Metal was a poor decision? Well, he has come up with a few new tricks thanks to that fight. Not as good as Conquering Storm, sure, but it's nothing to sneeze at."
"Doctor, you scared me! I-I thought we were going to blow up!"
"Think of it as a punishment for questioning me. Thanks to my genius, I not only have all of my best resources, but Metal is stronger than ever! It is a shame that I could not get that Zeti power, but I knew that even if Metal were grabbed he would take advantage of this. Perhaps I will make a few changes here and there, but in his next fight he will be much harder to handle. Understand now? Whether I succeed or fail, I will be one step closer to my master plan. I expect you to thank me for taking the time to explain this, as you should have come to this realization yourself."
Starline breathes, letting his heart calm down. Now standing straight, his confidence restored, he lets a grin return to his face. "Thank you for explaining Doctor. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."
"And you better not doubt me again. I am not interested in explaining every move I have to you."
With a nod Starline leaves, a bit more knowledgeable of the doctor.