A/N: These chapter features strong tortures so if you're sensitive about this, please skip ahead to the next chapter…. And in this chapter N3rm Ak37's OC Carmine will appear.
The robots marched Theo towards a large metal door, Eggman a few steps ahead of them, hands clasped behind his back, humming an archaic tune to himself as if this was just any ordinary day. They stopped short of the towering door; Eggman typed a code into a large keypad that nestled in the gap between the door and a pillar. Seizing his chance, Theo tensed both his arms and sent bolts of electricity through them and into the robots, however their steel grip only tightened, bruising the flesh, making him wince.
"I wouldn't struggle if I were you" Eggman said, without looking at him "My robots are fitted with strong insulation which prevents any stray sources of electricity getting into them" Theo growled, Eggman finished pressing in the code into the keypad and the metal door slid open, revealing a deep dark room. The robots marched in with Theo being dragged behind, in their arms. The room was poorly lit and the one bright source of light flickered behind a rotating fan that cast its shadow across the room, chains hung from the wall and on the far wall was two chairs, similar to what you would find in a typical dentists surgery, on one of these was strapped a figure but the light was so poor, Theo couldn't make out any features. Eggman walked over to a large, rusting switch,
"Rise and shine, hedgehog!" He yelled and he threw the switch, the room lit up with the harsh artificial glow of filament lighting, which made Theo's eyes sting from the contrast between the room and the previous corridor. In the few milliseconds, of light induced blindness, Theo made out one feature of his fellow captor.
Blue
His stomach dropped, when his brain latched on to the immediate assumption and sure enough his suspicions were confirmed when his eyes adjusted to the light and he could see the details of the fellow prisoner. Strapped down on one of the infernal chairs, his fur stiff with blood, and resent, cauterised wounds littering his chest was Sonic the Hedgehog. However not the one that Theo had barely known, he had known him as quick-witted, clean and cocky, always willing to show off his tremendous speed, but the figure that was in front of him was different, he was beaten, humiliated, unkempt, bruises covering every available inch of skin, in places, like Theo, his fur was missing but as he was dragged forward to the second chair, he could see that it had been shaved and that deep wounds lay on the naked skin. His trademark shoes and gloves were bloody, torn and caked in dirt. He squinted at Theo as he approached, a look of shock and dread in his dull emerald eyes, Theo didn't blame him, to all the Freedom Fighters, he was dead, killed taking down his father and a whole demon army and here he was, one of the last demons left, in Eggmans clutches. The robots threw him down, hard onto the chair, and before he could respond, the robots fastened the straps on his arms and legs, pinning him to the chair.
Theo turned to look at Sonic,
"You look like shit"
The blue hedgehog seemed taken aback by this statement
"Wha- how- ?"
Theo sighed,
"Don't waste your breath".
"Leave us" Eggman ordered, the two robots obeyed and marched out of the room, the door slamming shut behind them, Humming to himself, he then strolled over to the corner of the room and wheeled over a decaying, old trolley that squeaked as he wheeled it over, on it lay a plethora of surgical equipment, complete with hypodermic needles, scalpels and even what looked like a buzz saw, all of which were encrusted with blood, most likely; Sonics. However on the lower shelf lay some other stranger items like, a steaming soldering iron, a hammer and a large bag of salt.
"So" Eggman muttered, picking up one of the scalpels and walking calmly over to where Theo was strapped down, "Lets start from the beginning. What is your name?"
"Kinky McDildo" Theo answered, smiling. Trying to show the scientist that he wasn't afraid, Eggman smirked slightly, then slashed one of Theos arm with the scalpel, thick, warm blood oozed out the gap in the flesh, but Theo only breathed in sharply through his teeth. Eggman looked into his eyes as if studying some interesting results then turned his back on Theo and replaced the scalpel, instead choosing to pick up a large razor and the soldering iron. He turned back to him; by this time, blood was starting to drip slowly down his arm, staining the arm of the chair.
"I will ask you again" Eggman repeated calmly "What is your name?"
"Piss off, baldy" Theo spat back in his face, it was a big mistake. Eggman grabbed Theos head, to prevent him from moving, he placed the razor on his cheek and began to apply some pressure, Theo winced as it broke the skin, and instinctively tried to move away, but Eggmans grip was strong. He moved the razor down his cheek, slicing through the flesh like the bow of a boat through the water, Theo yelled as the mad scientist slowly carved a deep gash in his face, Blood began to run down his cheek and into his mouth, staining his teeth a dark crimson.
Eggman put the razor in his pocket and, still holding onto Theos head, lowered the soldering iron closer to the wound, Theo could feel the heat ebbing off it, he began to struggle more, but Eggman held firm. The soldering iron made contact with his face, Theo screamed in agony as the soldering iron melted the flesh either side of the wound, slowly sealing it; he thrashed about wildly, trying to throw the scientist away from him, he tried charging up his body but nothing happened, as the soldering iron made contact with the blood, it dried it then blackened it into a thicker solid, he felt as if his face was on fire, so he wildly screamed out the answer Eggman wanted.
"Theo A-Arcreus!"
Eggman smiled then relinquished his grip on Theo's head and whipped away the soldering iron, Theos head lolled forward, free of its grip, he could feel the burnt flesh still drying on his skin. Eggman lifted Theos head to look at him.
"Arcreus? As in Captain Arcreus? Who died two years ago?"
"Y-yes" Theo breathed, shivering from the pain.
"Then tell me, Theo" Eggman said replacing the instruments on the trolley and picking up the large hammer "How did you come back?"
Theo braced himself for the pain, however Eggman noticed this and chuckled,
"Oh no. This isn't for you" he looked over at Sonic, who seemed to cower under his gaze, he casually strode over to where Sonic lay, swinging the hammer as he did so.
"Back to my question. How did you come back?"
"I don't know" Theo breathed. Eggman smirked,
"Really" He slammed the head of the hammer into Sonics ankle, there was a sickening crunching sound, and sonic yelled in agony again and again, every so often pausing for breath, "Do you remember now?"
"Stop it" Theo growled calmly, his eyes locked with the scientists
"Of course, just tell me the answer I desire"
"I've told you. I don't know" Eggman frowned,
"Hopefully this will jog your memory" He struck Sonic in the chest with the hammer, Theo winced as he heard, the central support for the ribs snap and when Sonic let out another, blood-curdling scream, a stream of blood flowing from his mouth, his head fell forward,, tears mixing with blood then falling on his chest.
"I'm telling the truth!" Theo yelled "I just don't know", he strained his mind for any hint of how he got back, but whenever he did, pain jolted his mind, preventing him from delving any deeper into his memories. It was like the memories of Hell were too painful for him to remember and his mind was trying to put up a barrier between the sanity and the madness that must have occurred in the afterlife. Eggman and Theo looked at each other, Theo could almost feel the madman scrutinising him, like a bug under a microscope, trying to search out any flaw in his statement.
He frowned then turned away, tossing the hammer to the side with a loud clang.
"Computer" Eggman barked at an unseen intelligence "Bring up file on Theo Arcreus". There was a loud blipping sound and a green holographic screen, materialized in front of them, casting an eerie, artificial glow all around the torture chamber. An old profile picture of Theo appeared on screen and text began to surround it, which Eggman carefully studied. He looked at Theo and then looked back at the picture then back at him,
"Well, you've certainly been through the mill" Eggman said, he turned back to the screen "So, Mother: Unknown… Father: Mephiles the Dark…Joined GUN at 14 years old became Captain at 18. Died from an energy overload in 3164. Hmm… Your story seems to check out". Eggamn clicked his fingers and the screen dematerialized. The scientist picked up another scalpel from the trolley and approached Theo, he smiled psychotically, like a crazed surgeon,
"I saw you down there" He muttered, leaning towards Theo, he tried not to gag as Eggman's foul breath crept up his nose and began to overload his sensory neurones,
"Such power, such…destructive grace"
"Well I was terrified at the time" Theo spat out, his cheek burning from the recent cauterised wound.
"So I saw" Eggman said, his face so close to Theos, that the hedgehog could see the specks of grey in his moustache. Eggman backed away to study him like a botanist would study some newly discovered plant.
"You were under the influence of an hallucinogenic, which made you imagine something that wasn't actually-
"Yeah doc, I know what hallucinogenic do" Theo interrupted, Eggman growled and punched him across the face, snapping his head to the side, Theo began taste the coppery flavour of his blood on his tongue. He spat out a mouthful of blood on to the floor, and looked up at Eggman,
"And here I was thinking you could throw a decent punch"
"SHUT UP!" Eggman yelled, lashing out with a vicious right hook, which was so forceful that it cricked Theo neck at it lurched upwards.
"Ok" Theo breathed, blood flowing out his mouth "I'll give you that one". Eggman snarled and raised his bloody fist again, but then seemed to reject the idea, and lowered it. Instead he brought the scalpel out of his pocket and with one fluid downward movement, he stabbed it through Theos right hand, impaling it to the arm of the chair, dark red blood began to spurt violently out of the wound. Theo shrieked and thrashed around wildly, trying to get the scalpel out of his hand, but he only succeeded in cutting the flesh even more. Eggman grabbed him violently by the shoulders and yelled over his screams of pain,
"What did you see? There must have been some kind of trigger or symbol that was in your vision in order to give you that much power!"
"Eggman!" Sonic yelled, half in pain, half in anger "Leave the kid alone"
"SILENCE HEDGEHOG!" Eggman yelled spit flying out his mouth, his face getting slowly redder, he turned his attention back to Theo, "What was it? TELL ME!" Theo could see the desperation in the madman's face, although he acted like he had carte blanche, in reality Theo deduced that the conflict between the Mobians and the Humans that have ravaged and raped the world, must have driven the psychopath closer to the brink of reason, the current world offered a chance for him to build his empire, but the conflict also presented a double-edged sword which held him back, being so close to his dream, and yet so far, must have driven the scientist insane. And now here Theo was, a tantalising glimpse at absolute power, that Eggman could use to build a new world, but his obsession was starting to take hold of his sanity. Theo could almost imagine the great mechanism of a mind, breaking down, all the gears and cogs falling away like dust upon the wind.
When Theo failed to answer, Eggman grabbed the scapel and twisted it, carving away more of the flesh and sinew in his hand, and sending a fresh wave of blood pouring out of him. Theos yells intensified, he screamed until his throat burned from the over usage of his vocal chords. When no other answer came, Eggman snarled and turned to the trolley, knocking some items over in his haste, his hands fatened around the steel handle of the buzzsaw.
"If I can't get an answer" Eggman yelled, pulling the chord of the buzz saw, making it roar into life "I'll fish it out your brain and take the answer from your memories!" He raised the spinning blade to Theos head, the whirring of the buzz saw grew louder and louder as inch, by inch the blade grew nearer to his skull, Theo could see his terrified eyes reflected in the blades cruel metal surface, he closed his eyes and waited for a fresh wave of pain, followed quickly by eternal bliss. But then suddenly, Theo heard the unmistakable sound of the cough of a silencer, he opened his eyes; Eggman still with the manic smile on his face, crumpled to the floor, dead, a pool of blood beginning to form beneath him, as the buzz saw hit the floor, it cut through its own power chord and fell silent. Theo looked up from Eggmans body at their saviour.
In the open doorway was a black fox, dressed in a black t-shirt and cargo trousers, around his waist was the hilts of two swords, each with the blade missing, Theo noticed that the fox must have suffered an injury in the past as his right eye was a cloudy white with no pupil and the undeniable scars of a bullet graze surrounding it, however his left burned a fantastic violet. Currently he was still holding the silenced pistol on his hand, he looked from them to the dead body of the manic scientist then back to them.
"I think that's what they call, 'the nick of time'" He said, smiling. He tossed the gun aside then jogged over to Theo, he winced when he saw his injuries "Oh Jesus, you've been through hell" He softly grabbed the handle of the scalpel "Right, ok, on three". Theo nodded, teeth gritted
"Ok then, one" he pulled the scalpel out of Theos hand and tossed it at the body, which impaled in the dead mans back, new blood poured out of his hand, like a never-ending fountain. The fox quickly untied Theo then pulled out a antiseptic dressing out of his pocket and began to wrap up Theos hand tightly, making Theo yell in pain, he tried to stop the fox but he simply batted his hand away.
"For heaven shake stop being a big girl's blouses. It may hurt like a bitch but it was nothing compared to what happened to my eye" He finished the wrapping and then pulled Theo to his feet. Before Theo could thank him however, the fox went over to Sonic, the blue hedgehog looked at him with a look of astonishment on his face,
"Carmine? Is-is that you?"
Carmine quickly untied Sonic like he had done with Theo and then stopped,
"You alright walking on your own?" Carmine asked, holding out a helping hand,
"Not a chance in hell" Sonic breathed and gingerly, Carmine supported the hedgehog to his feet, his Sonics arm around his shoulder. Theo walked over to them,
"Hey Carmine? Thanks" Carmine turned
"I wasn't here for you" he snapped, Theo shrugged
"Well, yeah. Still, thanks" Carmine grunted in comprehension. The three of them exited the room and into the corridor, which was now littered with broken and smashed pieces of metal from the destroyed robots, Theo examined the carnage and whistled,
"Bloody hell, you really beat the fuck out of them"
Carmine smirked and continued to walk slowly forward, supporting Sonic around his waist with the hedgehogs arm around his shoulders.
"How did you find us?" Sonic asked Carmine, Carmine smiled,
"Never doubt Tails' intellect. It was the tracking devise that he put in your blood that led us to you". They turned a corner into a more cavernous room, again littered with the remains of mechanical soldiers.
"Hang on" Theo said, folding his arms and stopping to a halt "If you knew where he was, why does it still look like Sonic was in that torture chamber for days?"
"Well, we only had a faint signal, and it Nicole a while to triangulate it"
"How longs 'a while?'" Carmines eyes fell and became crestfallen
"About 10 days". Theo smirked and walked on, quietly saying under his breath,
"No wonder he looks like shit". The three of them walked onwards through more desolate and quiet corridors and rooms, all on them staying quiet in case there was some form of mechanism that would activate and kill them. Finally Sonic asked a question,
"Were you telling the truth to Eggman back there?" Theo turned and nodded,
"I honestly have no idea how I came back. But, I think I know who might be involved".
"Who?" Carmine asked, but Theo had his attention drawn to something else, a door on the opposite side on the gargantuan armoury where they were stood, was slightly ajar, and through the small crack, Theo could see a shaft of green light and what looked like the outlines of machinery.
"Dimitri" Theo whispered quietly and without warning began to run towards it, his mind now polluted with a new determination, He slammed his shoulder into the door, making it bang open, inside, as he has suspected was a bank of computers with a large screen at its heart, which cast green light from the coding on the screen around the room. Theo ran towards the nearest keypad and began to type furiously like the madman it had once served. Carmine and Sonic appeared in the doorway, the black fox breathing hard from supporting Sonics weight, Carmine lowly helped him to a sitting position on the floor and joined Theo at the gargantuan computer.
"What are you looking for?" Carmine asked, trying to read the text that flashed on screen,
"If Dimitri worked for Eggman, he must have put a tracker on him; he does to all his soldiers and robots so it seems logical to have done it to him too" Theo said quickly
"Hang on! Why Dimitri?"
Theo slammed his finger on the ENTER key and a map of the globe appeared on screen, a red circle appeared on screen and began to move around the continents, as the computer triangulated the echidnas position.
"I think Dimitri may have used some of his technology to resurrect me. And since this is one of the biggest memory hard drives I know about"
"It may give you his position" Carmine finished, Theo nodded. The map zoomed in on the northern continent and the circle continued to move.
"Where are we? By the way"
Carmine groaned in exasperation,
"Is there no end to your ignorance?" He stood on tiptoes and pointed at the south east part of the continent "We're here, in the ruins of Casino City" (A/N. Casino Night Zone BTW).
Then suddenly, the map began to fuzz and move with static, Theo slammed his fist onto the keyboard,
"Fuck! The signals too weak, I need to download the information then run it on a more powerful system. This things useless" he gave one of the memory banks a sharp kick.
"To you, maybe. But to me, It may prove useful" Carmine pushed passed him and began to type on the keyboard, occasionally looking up to look at the screen, a look of concern on his face. After around 30 seconds of typing, Carmine looked up at the screen once again, and read the text on screen. Then without talking took out an SD card and inserted it into one of the memory banks, Theo couldn't see his face but he guessed by his body language that he was crying. Just then, Carmine tossed the SD card to Theo,
"Here's the information on Dimitri, I think you'll be able to use Nicole to track him down, once we get back of course" he looked at Sonic as if for confirmation and the hedgehog nodded, then began to cough violently, blood dripping from his mouth. Carmine rushed overand scopped him up into his arms, presumably to move around faster,
"We need to get him out of here, and fast!" Theo nodded and the three began to jog out of the room and back into the giant armoury, Carmine nodded towards a door on the right and Theo kicked it open, revealing a set of spiral stairs and let Carmine through with Sonic in his arms,
"What were you looking for back there?" Theo asked Carmine, the fox simply grunted and continued to climb up the metal steps,
"I'll tell you once we get to an escape pod"
"Are you crying?"
Carmine growled,
"Shut up"
Theo raced on ahead to the very top of the stairs were a large metal door stood, solid and imposing,
"Guys" Theo called down "I think we've hit a dead end", Carmine emerged from the lower levels of the staircase, breathing fast and deep from the rapid ascension of the staircase, Carmine looked at the door and narrowed his eyes, examining around its frame for any switch or button that would unlock it, he cursed, and turned back
"Come on, we've got to go" Theo turned to follow, but then paused when he saw the two enormous hinges that were attached to its study frame.
"Wait" Theo said, charging up his uninjured hand "Stand back" He raised his hand and he let loose two continuous arcs of electricity onto the hinges, the metal began to heat up and glowed red, he focused even more on the flow of raw electricity from his hand, causing the metal to melt as the heat tore apart its molecular structure. Theo then clenched his fist, charging up his hand, to the point where the electromagnetic field from the electricity, was drawing in small magnetic objects, causing them to float in the air surreally. At that moment and with a yell, Theo thrust his arm forward, letting loose a shockwave that tore the door of its molten hinges and crashing into the room beyond.
Carmine examined the handy work, and smirked,
"Nice trick"
"Thanks" Theo replied, and without waiting, pushed past Carmine and Sonic and into the room that had just been accessed. The room was lit with dim, low level lighting, pieces of machinery lay around the place, either rusting or in various states of disrepair, the room looked like it had been abandoned long ago and left to die by its creator. The far wall was dominated by a gigantic, round, steel blast door with a huge red wheel in the centre. Cautiously, Theo edged forward and grabbed the wheel and began to try and turn it, there was a loud squeal of metal scratching against metal, and the wheel began to turn; deactivating the locks that were holding the blast door closed. With one mighty effort, Theo pulled on the wheel, forcing the steel goliath to swing forth; behind the great door was a small pod, with two cushioned benches set on either wall and a large monitor complete with a key board set into the back wall, judging by its texture and it's thickness, Theo judged that the roof of the vessel appeared to be made of bullet proof glass.
"Bingo" Carmine said and rushed forward into the pod, Theo hot on his heels, the fox laid Sonic down on one of the benches and preceded to examine his injuries in more detail, he turned to Theo,
"His injuries are bad, we need to get back to base as quickly as we can" He left the blue hedgehog's side and began to type what looked like coordinates into the screen, "Close the hatch". Theo obeyed and pulled the door shut, causing the locks to slide shut with a bang.
"Where are we going?" Theo asked,
"New Knothole" Carmine said
"What?"
"You heard me" Carmine said, clicking enter on the keypad, with a roar of a hidden engine and a sudden jerk; the pod detached itself from the ship and began to fly through the storm towards its destination. Theo sat down on the free bench and looked at Carmine, still typing at the computer.
"What were you looking for back there?"
Carmine sighed; he stopped typing and sat down next to Theo,
"I'm Lieutenant Carmine Masters of the mobian sector of GUN. But, I wasn't always that. Before the war, I ran a small market store in a town on the coast, it was nice, everyone was helpful and friendly. I had a wife who eventually gave me my most precious thing in the entire world, my son. He was beautiful, he never cried and he always seemed to know if something was wrong with you." Carmine sighed yet again, and Theo could tell that it pained him to remember his family "Our town escaped the initial bombardment from the humans, we heard of other towns and cities that had been reduced to nothing more than piles of flaming rubble. But somehow I knew that we couldn't escape for long. Early one morning, some large battleships appeared over the horizon, people thought that they belonged to Mobians but, they were wrong. Smaller, armoured barges landed on the beach, each carrying about 40 soldiers. They marched into the town, I was dragged out of my home with my wife and son, they split us up and." Carmine gulped, tears running down his face "They raped my wife first, then when she could take no more, they shot her. Then they broke all the bones in my son's body, along with all the other children, and shot them once their mangled bodies couldn't do anything. I was put in a line with the other men, against a wall, facing a firing squad, but just then, the Mobian sector of GUN appeared, armed to the teeth. Whilst the humans were preoccupied, I was grabbed and thrown inside one of their armoured vehicles, and well here I am two years on. I used that computer to try and find whether any other members of my family were still alive but." He shook his head.
"I'm so sorry" Theo said
"Don't be. I don't need your pity…Demons don't need pity"
"What?" Theo asked confused
"I'm a demon. OK? During one of my first missions, this demon knocked me down and…it bled in my mouth. I became one of them, in an instant.".
"Well, I'm one too, but I was born one"
Carmine snorted "Bullshit"
"I'm telling the truth"
"Well you can keep on telling the truth until we reach New Knothole" Carmine closed his eyes, a final tear dripping down his cheek "I could use some entertainment".
A/N: Well that's the end of that chapter, hope you guys enjoyed it and I hope I got Carmines character and back-story right. Remember to spread word of this story to other FanFiction writers, as I would love to have a verity of people giving feedback. To those who have added me to their favourite authors list, thank you and I hope you will review and give positive feedback.
