Disclaimer: I do not own anything
Narcissism
Chapter One
"wha—what happened?"
Zone Jail had been completely destroyed. Bodies of prisoners and guards alike littered the courtyard. Black smoke billowed from broken windows and cracked walls. Discarded control collars glittered dully on the blood-soaked ground. And there, on the far wall-
Zonic could feel his stomach begin to rebel against him and pressed his lips together firmly, taking deep breaths through his nose. He immediately regretted this decision as the coppery smell of blood, the cloying scent of death, and the acrid smell of smoke invaded his nostrils and locked his throat shut. For a moment he struggled to breath, throat clenching spastically and stomach heaving, before he turned and vomited, barely missing his regulation boots.
A group of people had been crucified on the far wall, held in place by crystalline powder blue spears. The bodies were badly mutilated but still recognizable; the skunk Jeffrey St. Croix, the former ruler Maxx Acorn, Smalls the Cat, the Warden Zobotnik and his assistant Znively. Foot high letters (written in drying blood) adorned the wall above the corpses.
'COME GET ME BLUE'
Zonic dry heaved once and wiped the back of his hand across his lips. Only one prisoner had ever had the nerve to call him Blue. Only one prisoner had a grudge against all five of those people on the wall. Only one prisoner would have been ballsy or stupid enough to leave a message that literally begged to be chased.
Scourge the Hedgehog.
But how had he orchestrated all of this? The green hedgehog wasn't stupid but he didn't have enough sway in the prison to instigate a riot, he must have had someone help him with the planning.
Who? That was the question.
Zonic skirted around the edge of the courtyard, avoiding the bodies as best he could and closing the eyelids of the guards he came across in a sign of respect. The door to the administrative building hung from one battered hinge and the blue hedgehog slipped inside, winding his way through the deserted building and into the security room.
The monitor flickered to life and Zonic rewound the security footage to the time of the riot, which was approximately five hours and three minutes ago. Without warning Scourge pounced on one of the guards, snapping his neck in one surprisingly fluid movement. His control collar fell away a moment later and Scourge tossed the electronic key card to…Mephiles. A curse slipped through Zonic's lips unnoticed. Mephiles, for love of Chaos, why did it have to be Mephiles? Every guard in the prison had been given a lecture on the danger the dark hedgehog posed to the prison and a specific set of instructions when it came to dealing with him. He was a menace, a danger to every Zone, and now he was free…this was worse than Zonic could have thought. The guards fell quickly on screen, overwhelmed by the prisoner's numbers and ferocity despite their superior training. Mephiles moved leisurely through the chaos, sending crystalline spears at guards and prisoners alike. As Zonic watched the dark hedgehog calmly stuck Maxx Acorn to the wall like a bug and he felt his stomach heave again. He swiveled in the chair as another set of cramps wracked his body; however his empty stomach failed to produce anything. After a minute of painful dry heaves he regained control of himself.
'Chaos dammit! I'm a zone cop, I shouldn't be heaving every time I see violence! It's beneath me, an insult to my pride! Get a grip Zonic!'
He gave himself a fortifying slap on the face (this was a habit he had continued for years, despite the strange looks his fellow cops often gave him) and turned back to the monitors. A small group of prisoners, being led by Scourge and Mephiles, appeared to have turned on the remaining prisoners. The hedgehog was treated to the unappealing sight of an un-named inmate (an arctic fox if the fur color was anything to go by) begging for his life before Scourge stomped down onto his head, displaying an amount of viciousness that Zonic had never seen the other hedgehog exhibit. The fox's body twitched twice before lying still.
"So…Mobius Prime then?" The dark-grey Echidna who had spoken sounded highly amused by the whole ordeal.
Zonic waited just long enough to see Mephiles nod in conformation before he flipped off the monitor.
He stood, stretched slightly to loosen up his back and then headed towards the court yard. If they were going to Mobius Prime that meant it probably had something to do with Sonic Prime, and Zonic had to get there first to warn him.
"…damn…" Scourge whistled appreciatively and pushed his shades up onto his forehead to get a good look at the veritable armory Mephiles had uncovered. Automatic weapons, hand grenades, mines, knives, almost every weapon imaginable; he even thought he saw a warhead or two tucked into a back corner.
The green hedgehog picked up a nearby pistol, cocked it, and raised it to eye level to look down the barrel.
"You could win a war with all this" he said, pantomiming taking shots at the other hedgehog.
Mephiles hummed neutrally and began to pack explosives into a duffel bag.
"Say…" Scourge shoved the pistol into his jacket's inner pocket and began to examine a banana clipped machine gun, "if you had all this lying around why the hell didn't you use it on Blue the first time?"
"My plans for this Zone are significantly different than my plans for the other."
"Oh Yeah? What's the plan?" Ice blue eyes strayed from the machine gun and landed on the shining black handle of a switchblade knife.
Mephiles zippered one duffle bag shut, set it gently on the ground and began to pack another, carefully stacking bricks of plastic explosive.
"I am going to distribute the arms and then wait for the inevitable to happen."
"The inevitable?"
"Violence is hardwired into our DNA, it's a part of our nature. Give people a gun, a bomb, a knife, and they will inevitably use it against their fellow man. We are all afflicted by a genetic pre-disposition for violence, a propensity towards murder. I am going to bring it to the surface."
"So basically," the green hedgehog scratched an ear and screwed up his face in thought (if his facial expression was anything to go by Scourge found the activity of thinking relatively painful). After a moment his face cleared and a sharp-toothed smile stretched across his face, "You're gonna hand out guns like candy and wait for everyone to kill each other?"
Mephiles muzzle twitched in annoyance and his eyes narrowed, "ineloquently put, but yes."
Suddenly the smile melted off of Scourge's face and a scowl replaced it, "Hey wait a minute! Who the hell am I gonna be the king of if you have everyone kill each other?" he spat angrily, one hand already reaching into his jacket for 'his' pistol.
Whatever murderous intentions that the green hedgehog had were cut off with surgical precision as Mephiles shot the younger hedgehog a deathly poisonous look and his muzzle twitched violently. His voice came out low, fast, contemptuous and slightly sibilant, "You can rule over the corpses for all I care"
For a moment Scourge held Mephiles' gaze and then dropped his eyes, muttering sulkily.
The dark hedgehog scoffed slightly, zippered the final duffel bag, hefted the other off the floor and walked towards the exit.
"Come," he called imperiously over his shoulder, "We're going to pay a visit to Bean the Dynamite"
"Bean the Dynamite? What the hell do you want with that pipsqueak?" Scourge asked sulkily. He slowly followed Mephiles, looking more like a petulant child than a 17 year old.
"I am carrying two bags of extremely potent explosives. Please use whatever minuscule mental capacity you posses and try to figure it out."
A/N: and that, ladies and gents is the first chapter! Now I'm not one hundred percent on whether or not there are guns in Sonic's Universe but, for the sake of the plot, there are going to be guns in this story. If it's going to bother you to the point where you can't read or enjoy the story please feel free to think that Mephiles brought the guns in from another Zone. Also, while it had been confirmed (by Ian Flinn who is one of the comic's writers) that the events of Sonic 06 happened in the comics for the sake of this story it happened in a different Zone.
Anyhow, please review (your reviews make me feel all fuzzy inside and inspire quicker updates!) and I shall see you next time.
Fare thee well,
Trancepanda