Curate, connect, and discover
While I know that the Sonic Boom cartoon show hype is probably super dead, the way Sonic and Eggman interact has me convinced Eggman did SOME parenting when Sonic was tiny, so here's my headcanon for that. Enjoy!
While Eggman could conquer the island he lived at, Bygone Island, the one he found nearby would be much easier, hypothetically anyway.
While Seaside Island was redundantly named, it was much more his style. The villages on it were smaller and meeker. They had no real way to fight back against his takeover! Which made it the perfect starting point for his upcoming break in his villainy career! If he took that island, surely that would've made his father proud!
Unfortunately, 'if' is the key word in that sentence.
The little blue hedgehog was no older than five years old, but despite his youth, he sucessfully stood between Eggman and complete control of the island.
And the little ragamuffin didn't even talk.
He never said a word, just showed up with his super speed and sharp quills and would put a stop to whatever genius plan he was making by breaking all his robots.
Eggman wished he knew the little nuisance's name, but seeing as he wasn't interested in talking, it left Eggman to hypothesize on appearance alone.
His back quills had ripped right through a shabby brown jacket that he wore, to the point where it wouldn't work as a jacket much longer. His gloves were constantly dirty, and no one on the forsaken island admitted who his parents were. It was like he suddenly existed one day! With no explanation!
The blue hedgehog was often running at ludicrous speeds. Speeds that, depending on the day, neared the sound barrier!
Eggman feared the day that the little blueberry would create a sonic boom.
The 'impending-sonic-boom' as he began to call the hedgehog was rather unpredictible. It all fell on a scale. Going extremely fast one day, sticking his tounge out at him and humming mocking songs, to going at what must've been like a meer jog to him, with no aknowledgement of Eggman at all the next day.
But one day, things were far more unpredictable than Eggman had bargined for.
He was racing the impending-sonic-boom in the Eggmobile. There was no hope of winning, just like there was no hope for his receeding hairline, but he needed a test. He couldn't create a robotic duplicate without anything to base it on! So it didn't matter that there was no hope of winning!
Eggman didn't need to be fancy with it, he just told the five year old koolaid stain that if he reached the end of the course before the rodent did, that he would offically own the island. And being five years old, he took it seriously.
There was no hope of winning. Not with the determination on the little guy's face.
So one can imagine the confusion that Eggman was met with when he won.
It didn't make any sense! He wasn't even- It was just the Eggmobile! It was nothing fancy! That sound-barrier-threatening-lifeform was much faster than that!
Eggman got off of his Eggmobile and stared at the folliage in front of him. Waiting to see blue quills poking out from the tall grass.
"Oh, Blueberry! I'm waaaaiting!"
It took another three seconds for the kid to show up. And when he did, he looked tired.
"Kid, you gotta be faster than that! You're not doing this on purpose are you? If this is just to spite me..."
The rodent shook his head. Eggman wouldn't have believed him if he didn't look so tired.
"Then what gives!? You can't just suddenly be slow! It's narratively inconsistent!"
The blue menace looked up at Eggman with an angry look.
"No... foo." Eggman flinched. He just spoke. He just... SPOKE.
"What? What did you say?"
"No foo...d! No food... No... fast!"
"Your speed depends on your diet?" Eggman tapped his chin, before grinning smugly. "What, did you miss your peanut butter sandwich for lunch?"
He was promptly glared at. "Okay! Geez!" Eggman tapped his gauntlet, and used it to scan the incoming-sonic-boom.
"Let's see, you're about five years old, according to your inteligence and fine motor skills... and you're one foot tall so you should weigh roughly..."
Eggman's stomach sank. He knew for a fact that the arriving-sonic-boom wasn't hitting that number. Not by a lot... Eggman could pick him up like he was a beach ball.
"When did you last eat..?"
Nothing. Nothing but staring.
"Yesterday? ...No? How about the day before? Th-the day before that? Five days ago? How about a week ago?!"
It wasn't until they hit a week and a half that the sonic-boom-in-progress pointed at Eggman. Signifying the correct timeframe
Eggman stared at the incoming-sonic-boom. For anyone, that would be damaging. For a five year old, that was almost a death sentence.
Eggman crouched down to the sonic-boom-creator and put a thumb under his chin. He squirmed violently and pushed Eggman's hand away as he stepped back.
But Eggman saw what he needed to see. There was almost no fat on his face. He was horribly underweight.
Eggman was a villain. Not a monster.
The hedgehog wiped his face, as if Eggman had gotten something on it by touching him.
"Hmm. Well, you're clearly malnourished. I can't declare victory under those circumstances! That would be cheating! Looks like you win this time, hedgehog! Now, come along! We have work to do."
The hedgehog looked up at him in–adorable–confusion. Eggman stood back up on his Eggmobile.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Hop on!"
The inevitable-sonic-boom inched towards it slowly. He gently tapped the base of the Eggmobile. When nothing happened, he looked back up to Eggman. Who groaned.
"Fine, I promise I won't hurt you, got it?"
The sonic-boom stared even more, before inevitably going for it and climbing onto the Eggmobile like a toddler.
It wasn't tipped in the slightest by the extra weight, which reminded Eggman why he was doing this at all.
His Eggmobile floated upwards and flew off. It quickly left Seaside island and then there was nothing but water below them.
He didn't expect the oncoming-sonic-boom to whimper at the sight of the ocean.
Eggman glanced down in time to see him curl up, hiding between his legs and the lower wall of the Eggmobile.
When the sonic-boom leaned against him for support, he winced and stepped back.
"Watch the quills, you blue nuisance!" He yelled.
It didn't stop the incoming-sonic-boom from grabbing him, but at least he was more careful.
Eggman had to remind himself, that the sonic-boom was a little malnourished kid, because he almost made too much food. Twice. The rodent's stomach would be small, too small for him to give the blue guy a full child-sized meal. Unless he wanted the sonic-boom throwing up on Eggman's floor.
Once Eggman had handed him a plate of food, his skittish attitude towards being on an island nowhere near his old one vanished completely. Eggman's place was a chunk of earth and lava broken off of the bygone island, yet it felt safer than the previous island, when it came to that Sonic-Boom of a hedgehog's wellbeing, at least.
The blue stain in his life stood on a chair, his tail wagging excitedly as he immediately started eating what was on his plate. Apple slices, a hot dog cut into little pieces, crackers, and even a juicebox. It might've still been too much.
Eggman watched as sonic-boom ate. Making sure that he was properly eating. It would be a waste if all his cooking didn't help out the blue rat at all.
When he was mostly done with his food, Eggman decided that enough was enough.
"Alright you menacing blue fiend," he said. "I'm going to watch television on my floating screen. Don't break anything."
He walked over to the TV, grabbed the remote, and sat down.
"Maybe I'll watch that new comedy show with the monkey-ape-thing, that should be interesting."
No more than a few minutes had passed before The Sonic-boom came into the room and jumped onto the couch.
"What do you want now? I already fed you!"
The Sonic-boom yawned and crawled onto his lap, before half-tucking into a ball and closing his eyes.
"Ohh, no you don't!" Eggman said, he picked Sonic-boom up by the back quills and pulled him off of his lap. He set him down on the couch next to him. He whined annoyingly. Before racing back on. Great. Looks like that speed is kicking in...
"No, off!"
He raced back on.
"No, off!"
He raced back on.
"No, OFF!"
He raced back on, again. Eggman grit his teeth. "NO, OFF, SONIC!"
Eggman was so caught up in the stupid game that he forgot the rest of the blue hedgehog's title. He didn't care much however, because he had raced back on and clung to him for all he was worth. Eggman sighed and decided that he didn't care enough. He wasn't willing to do this all day, after all.
The Sonic sighed happily, and purred for a moment before he fell asleep.
And if Eggman freaked out? Well, at least it stayed on the inside.