Crisis of Conscience
The bed in this cabin felt so much softer than the one back in the castle, even if it was missing a warm body next to him. Scourge looked himself over in the mirror, muttering to himself.
"Can't believe they didn't pick up on it...almost screwed myself…" Scourge snickered after a pause. "Too bad, though, probably could'a sucker-punched a couple of'em...Bah, can't get ahead of myself. Gotta find a way to get the others through now. Yeah, that's when the party can get started..."
To bring him out of his preoccupation, there was a sudden knock on his door, which he opened up after pausing for a second. When he opened it up, Amy was on the other side, and he nearly had a heart attack.
"Morning, Sonic!"
He gritted his teeth, mostly out of fear. "Oh my fucking God, no."
"Thought I'd come check up on you, 'cause Tails said you were a little…" She stopped and rubbed her head for a moment before deciding on, "'Out of it' yesterday."
Scourge wasn't listening. All he knew is that if this chick was anything like the one he remembered, he'd have to book it. No time for distractions. And that's what he did, as he jumped over the railing of the front porch of "his" cabin and fell a few feet before sprinting down the trunk of the great redwood tree the cabin had been built into like a bat out of hell. He ran twenty feet down the tree and got himself lost in the morning crowds, with Amy left standing at his door wondering just what had happened.
She shifted her weight to one side and crossed her arms. "Sonic's never this jumpy...what was that for?"
Scourge, on the other hand, had crossed Knothole in a few seconds, all the way to the laboratory, trying to avoid eye contact with the civilians that passed by, and went back to muttering to himself. "Should really ask about the whole dealio with the Rings and all that. Don't wanna ask Miles' double, he's just as sharp as the normal one…Might sniff me out."
He had walked a few feet, thinking about these things when he realized too little too late that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going and slammed right into Sally. They both cried out and stumbled backward, though Scourge caught himself. After Sally picked herself back up, she said, "I swear, some of the worst bruises I've had come from me running into you head-on," brushing her shoulders off.
"Hey, at least it was me ya ran into!" Scourge responded.
Sally scoffed. "I guess." She crossed her arms, shrugged, and continued, "Anyway, there's something I need to tell you about, preferably in the command center. Come on."
"Why ya gotta be so secretive, honey? You can tell me," he replied.
Sally looked back at him, and Scourge noticed a small grin appear on her face. She didn't say anything else, only motioned for him to follow while shaking her head slightly.
Well, here we are, Scourge thought. He had followed Sally all the way to Knothole's command center, and was now sitting down at the round table for mission briefing. Tails, Amy, and Rotor were there, too, and he stayed well enough away from Amy. Scourge still didn't trust her as far as he could throw her.
Scourge had his arm slung over the back of his chair, and his left leg resting on the table. Sally had been puzzling over a map for the past two minutes, and he was getting impatient. He snapped his fingers to get her attention.
She looked up at him briefly before going back to drawing some sort of path across the map. Scourge grumbled. "Hello…? What's the big deal we got goin' here?"
"One second, Sonic," she said, holding up her hand. She finished drawing across the map, then stood up, looked it over, and nodded, satisfied with her work. Then, she turned to Scourge, with a big smile.
He cocked his eyebrow. "What are ya not tellin' me here, hun?" he asked with a sly grin.
Amy's eyes widened. Then, she pouted and crossed her arms, although nobody except Tails noticed. Sally's smile got wider as she exclaimed, "We're gonna get your Uncle Chuck back here, and we're gonna fix him!"
Scourge's eyebrow raised, and he tried to think of any significance this had. All he knew for sure was that this "Chuck" guy was probably the counterpart to his Uncle Shay. He squinted. He remembered nothing about Uncle Shay; he died early in Scourge's life, maybe around age five. When he noticed everything had become a bit too quiet, he snapped back to attention and tried to play off being ecstatic by cracking the widest, fakest grin he could.
"Wow, guys! That's...that's great!" He tried to look dumbfounded, too, combing his hand through his quills. "I...I dunno what to say…"
"Don't worry about it," Rotor said, waving his hand. "We need his help building a better deroboticizer, and this should be just the ticket we need."
Sally leaned over the table and flattened out the map again. "Nicole and I were able to track Uncle Chuck's movements with the upkeep crew he's been assigned to for the past few months. They're moving him to an outer sector of Robotropolis, which means," she explained, tracing her finger over the line she just made, "there's going to be less security around him, so we can drag him out easier."
They must have at least bought it. "Rad," Scourge replied, standing up quickly. "Let's get this show on the road, huh?"
Sally chuckled. "I get that you're impatient, Sonic. As always," she added under her breath, "but we've still got time before we launch this mission."
No sooner had she mentioned this Scourge's stomach twisted and growled a little. He looked down and commented, "Y'know what, sweetie? That's a good excuse to grab some grub. Be right back!" He raced out of mission control, leaving everyone else looking at the trail of dust he left behind.
"...I don't think he's been so...forthcoming with the pet names before," Rotor mused.
Sally brushed her hair to one side and scoffed. "But I've heard him use them. Sonic will be Sonic."
"Christ, I'm hungry."
Trystan had been in his cabin all morning. Bunnie told him he should take a break from training so early in the day, and even though it made him disappointed, and threw a wrench in his daily plans, he appreciated her concern for his body. And in the back of his mind, he knew he should rest up more. The constant action wasn't doing much for his muscles.
He'd been ruminating on what to eat for the past thirty minutes, simply because he hadn't felt necessarily hungry for any reason, but eventually came to the realization that no one was stopping him from just going to the kitchens and making himself a milkshake. He sat up on his bed, and snapped his fingers with this epiphany. "And I swear I saw some cocoa being stored away somewhere last time I checked, too! Fuck yes!" He hopped up off his bed, hastily put on an undershirt and his sweats, and power walked out the door. "This must be what being an adult feels like," he said to himself as he passed other civilians of Knothole.
When he got to the kitchen, he wasted no time searching out some cocoa. It was more like "powdered cocoa extract" but he figured he couldn't knock it until he tried it. Then, he got some ice, some chocolate syrup, a little milk, and ran them through the blender. After a few minutes, he poured it all into a glass (a tall glass), and went back outside to enjoy the fresh air. And maybe talk with a friend if they happened to pass by.
The main plaza was starting to fill up as mobians came in to grab an early lunch. Trystan sat down at a table on the perimeter and took a small swig of his shake. It was smooth, held the perfect amount of chocolate ratio, and was nice and cold, but not completely solid and hard to drink. He sighed. "Like ambrosia express-delivered from heaven itself," he said, throwing his head back.
He kept drinking, eventually turning around and placing his shake on the table when his hand got tired and started to freeze. He surveyed the plaza. Nobody he knew or cared to talk to, except Sonic, over there on the far right…
"Oh, waitaminnit...Hey, Sonic! Yeah, over here!" Trystan called out to him. Sonic to jumped as if someone had just tapped him on the shoulder without warning and stared at him for a moment.
Of course, Scourge wondered who the hell was talking to him. And why in God's name he was an overlander. "This...looks interesting," he mumbled as he strode over.
When he saw Scourge coming closer, Trystan flashed him a sly grin and asked, "There he is. So, uh, how'd that mission actually go yesterday?" He leaned both his elbows on the table. "Heard ya got jumped by a motherfucker."
This ugly bastard lives here? Scourge's fake smile twisted slightly, but he stopped himself from sneering and racked his brains for a good answer. Thankfully, it didn't take long. "Yeah, yeah...almost got me good, too, but…" He trailed of into a snarky chuckle and continued, "You know me. I'm too good at what I do to get nabbed by some poser."
"Too good at being a snarky jackass, that's for sure," Trystan countered with a laugh. "What'd'ya do, brag the guy's ears off?"
Scourge glared daggers at him, but just as quickly dropped it and crossed his arms. "I didn't see you riskin' your ass out there, buddy-boy. Can't say I blame ya though, it takes more skill than whatever you got in that scrawny little body of yours to come out on top like I always do."
"Jesus, man, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm glad you're at least safe," Trystan said with a twinge of hurt in his voice.
Scourge raised an eyebrow. An overlander who cares? Fuck, now I've seen everything.
"...You okay, Sonic?"
Trystan noticed his flat gaze and his confused expression, which prompted Scourge to clear his throat and reply, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, dude." Even with a disgusting hairless monkey sitting across from me. I should fix that…
Scourge pursed his lips and thought for a moment, then shrugged and stood up to leave. Of course, when he did so, he made sure to subtly adjust his body to hit the table, and to do it hard enough to shake it decently. This caused Trystan's milkshake to wobble, and quickly spill backward, met with an outcry of surprise and frustration.
"What the fuck!?" Scourge stopped mid-movement, feigning surprise. If he could have gotten away with it, he would have grinned ear to ear. Trystan shot up and off his seat with his sweatshirt and jeans taking the most damage. He quickly tried to set the glass back upright again, and looked up at Scourge. "You dick! Do you know how long I spent making this thing...?"
"Sorry, bro," Scourge replied with a shrug. "Didn't think I'd hit the table from that angle."
Trystan sighed, looking down at his clothes. "Great. Gonna spend half the day tryin' to wash this out," he muttered bitterly.
"Hey, I said I was sorry," Scourge lied.
"You did, you did," Trystan said. He looked at Scourge with an expression mixed between a smile and a frustrated frown. "I'm just amazed how someone so agile can be such a klutz sometimes." He took his sweatshirt off and left before Scourge could retort with anything, leaving him alone to get his own lunch.
The SWATbots in the open street were busy patrolling around in circles. Sally poked her head out from inside an alley, and quickly retracted as another automaton strode by. Behind her was Scourge, Tails, and Bunnie, in that marching order. She looked back at them, nodded, and Scourge gave her a thumbs-up before running out of cover and wiping out two SWATbots before the others nearby could react. They opened fire, and Scourge ran circles around them before he swept them up in a whirlwind, sending them careening into the sides of buildings.
He stopped on a dime and motioned for everyone else to come out of hiding. As the others ran by and he caught up with Sally, she said, "Good work on sending the bots flying, but I thought I told you to lead them the wrong way and double back on yourself?"
"Whoops." Scourge scratched his chin. "Must'a slipped my mind. Sorry, babe," he replied with another one of his casual shrugs. He then picked Sally up and carried her forward, meeting up with and then quickly surpassing the other two Freedom Fighters. "So...where do we gotta go, exactly?"
Sally pulled Nicole out of a pocket on her vest and punched some keys before responding, "Just a few blocks ahead, there's a building with about...fifteen floors to it. Chuck is somewhere near the top, probably being forced to work on more of Robotnik's machines."
Scourge sorted through his options. He'd made sure to grab the Warp Ring from Sally's cabin while she wasn't home, so his only worry was getting out cleanly. From what he'd heard, this dimension's Robotnik was a slimy, cheating, all-around terrible person.
And he really couldn't wait to chat with the guy. "Gotcha. Ya got an infiltration plan, sweetheart?"
She lightly tapped his cheek, imitating a slap. "Stoppit, Sonic."
Scourge grinned. "I see ya blushin'," he teased back.
"Well," she said, rolling her eyes, "we really don't know which floor Chuck is on, so…"
"So we're playin' in a crapshoot," Scourge finished. "Perfect."
When they made it to the specified building, and waited for Tails and Bunnie to arrive, they all entered through an unguarded air vent, and managed to crawl into the second floor, which Sally had informed them was their best place to find Chuck.
"I thought you said he was on the top floor," Scourge interjected, crossing his arms.
"One of the upper floors, Sonic," Sally corrected him. "Like I said, we don't know which one, but we're gonna find out. Nicole?"
Nicole's screen flashed to life as she explained, "I've located a databank on this floor of the building. Getting into it should allow us to see which security teams of SWATbots and robians are in this station, or if they have left, we'll know where they're headed."
This got an acknowledging nod from Scourge. He couldn't deny his doppelganger team was resourceful. Pretty much what he and his Supression Squad lacked. However, his silence must have been unwarranted, as everyone was looking at him with confused expressions. He only looked around and shrugged. "Well? We're wastin' daylight. Let's move," he exclaimed before jogging down the hallway they were in.
Everyone looked after him for a moment, but followed soon. Tails muttered, "I...thought he'd be happier. Since we can track Uncle Chuck and everything…"
Bunnie sighed. "Ah, he's prolly expectin' somethin' to go wrong. Not like it ain't happened before, sugah," she told him.
They met up with Sally and Scourge, and followed them as they snuck through the facility. The building itself was nothing more than one of the many storage locations for munitions and raw steel that Robotnik used to build his weapons, but Sally eventually led them to a door and commented, "Through here."
"'Through here,' what?" Scourge asked, crossing his arms.
Sally looked back at him with furrowed brows. "...The database we need to access," she repeated.
Scourge snapped his fingers and "Ahh"'d in understanding. "So, why're we not goin' in?"
Sally placed her ear up against the door while explaining, "Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'm willing to bet there's at least twenty SWATbots in there," with an undertone of sarcasm.
Scourge grinned. He had his opportunity, now to seize it. "That all? No biggie. Just watch this!" He curled into a ball and sped forward, first denting the door, then breaking it clean open. Just as Sally had predicted, there were several dozen SWATbots standing around inside, some working on computers. Of course, Scourge's entrance got everyone's attention. And of course, Sally was so utterly astounded by "Sonic's" arrogance, they couldn't even find the words. Tails called after him, but it was drowned out by Scourge declaring, "Hey, dumbasses! Look at me!"
Every SWATbot's visor lit up red. "Come an' get me, you tin-plate trash cans! I'll rip out your guts and use your chassis as a urinal!" Every SWATbot in the room immediately rushed Scourge, who laughed and barreled past them all before spin-dashing out a window.
And that's when he took the Ring out of his pocket and ran several blocks away to find a relatively deserted area to use it.
Once the portal was opened and everyone was out, Scourge immediately approached Alicia and opened his mouth to ask a question.
She tossed his original leather jacket and black jeans into his face and commanded him to "go change somewhere else" without skipping a beat.
Boomer looked around, mainly up, at the blackened steel highrises that were poking out of the ground like crabgrass. "The place is in much worse shape than back home," he remarked.
"All thanks to Professor Julian," Miles added. "...At least, that's the most likely case."
Buns, who remained on guard for either SWATbots or the Freedom Fighters' return on a stack of metal pipes, started coughing violently. "Man alive, this place's fahve steps away fr'm hell. Ah can't wait to leave," she said afterward.
"Well, ya gotta be patient, sugar," Scourge said as he came walking back to the group with his old outfit on. "I wanna talk with the man upstairs." He then waved, telling everyone to follow him and sped off.
Keeping up with Scourge was difficult, but Miles managed to get close enough to call out, "Where do you think you're going, Scourge!?"
He looked back and smirked. "To the man in the high castle," he replied as he pointed to Robotnik's citadel towering over the skyline despite being a good distance away. They made their way through the claustrophobic streets of Robotropolis, sometimes taking rooftops to avoid larger crowds of workers. They made it to the center of the city all the same, close enough to Robotnik's citadel to garner the attention of an eye drone, hovering a couple dozen feet above them. It blinked, the camera clicked, and it was off.
"God, are we anywhere close to this guy yet?" Boomer complained.
Scourge put a finger to his lips. "I got no idea, but if I was runnin' this show, I'd set up shop in the royal castle, or whatever's been built over it. I ain't gonna look like some homeless bum."
"Scourge, I get that you're trying to get us some help to bolster our hold on Mobotropolis," Alicia interrupted, "but we've been wandering around for almost two hours and no progress made. And besides, if there is anyone in there…" She pointed to the citadel. "How the hell are we gonna get in?"
"Surrender, mobian scum."
All of a sudden, descending from specially made dropships came dozens of SWATbots. "You are trespassing on Doctor Robotnik's fortress. Get down on the ground, or you will be forced into the ground."
Scourge looked at the rest of his group and cracked a grin. "You wanna get noticed? Then help me trash every last one of these suckers."
Robotnik remained staring at the red dot on the map being projected on the monitors. He was puzzling over it. It was definitely the Freedom Fighters, after all, there were no other resistance cells for miles around. But why in the world would they simply walk up to his citadel? It wasn't like them at all. "Snively, give me an update. What does it look like outside?"
"...Sir, it's the hedgehog, and he brought his friends," Snively uttered in confusion. "But...they're all dressed differently."
"...What?" Robotnik got up off his throne and stomped over to Snively, unceremoniously shoving him out of the way to get a better look at the monitor.
Sure enough, Sonic was standing at his doorstep, surrounded by SWATbot parts. His little forest-friends were with him too, but for some reason, they had all shifted their wardrobes around. Sonic checked a nonexistent watch and tapped his foot impatiently. "Goddammit, isn't anybody home?"
Robotnik, for once, was at a loss for words, but in his mind, he was swiftly putting pieces of a metaphysical puzzle together. Quantum theory wasn't his focus of study, but he knew enough to build a portable gateway to the Special Zone; he could figure things out.
"Sir…?" Snively's comment broke Robotnik from his thoughts, and he looked back at his nephew, then back to the screen.
"Snively, what I am about to say may sound crazy...but you should let them in."
Snively's jaw went slack and he stumbled backward a couple steps. "S-s-s-sir…? Wha...what are you-"
"Do as I say, Snively!" Robotnik demanded, pointing to the control panel. Snively, although confused, feared what would happen to him if he didn't follow orders more, and hesitantly approached the control panel. He flicked a switch, and the door in front of the "Freedom Fighters" slid open, catching a couple of them off-guard (namely Patch), but they entered, single file.
Robotnik tapped Snively on the shoulder. "Snively, does my cape look well-pressed enough? It is very rare to entertain visitors, after all."
"You, erm, look quite dashing, sir," Snively said. He turned back to his work at the controls and muttered, "Dashing as meat left in the sun for two weeks," under his breath.
After he had invited these "strangers" in and they had the chance to explain themselves, Robotnik seemed...unnaturally pleased. "Ah, so my theory was right. As per usual," he commented as he sat back in his chair. The Supression Squad shifted, looking at each other.
"He's like the professor," Alicia whispered to Miles through grated teeth, "But fatter."
"Of course he is…" Miles stopped as Robotnik kept laughing, just to make sure he wasn't listening to their private conversation. "He's this universe's version of Professor Robotnik. Weren't you paying attention to me when I was explaining that?"
Alicia shrugged. "Mm, kinda sorta."
"...You're like a petulant child…" Miles muttered under his breath.
Robotnik stopped laughing and leaned forward slightly. "But I have to ask...Supression Squad, why would you come to me, if you already have a stranglehold on your own version of Robo-" He stopped himself and spat. "Mobotropolis. My apologies. I haven't had to use that name in so long...it's practically rusted in my memory now."
Scourge scoffed and craned his neck hard to one side, cracking it. "For some 'R an' R,' doc. Seriously, keepin' your ass glued to a throne might sound fun, but man...it's more tiring than ya think. Especially if you don't wanna be there in the first place."
"Oh, I relate, hedgehog, believe me."
Snively, all the while, was standing at his control console, staring at the doppelgangers conversing with his uncle. He scowled. Robotnik's fake sincerity must have been so terrible it was convincing; how he hadn't gotten an acting career struck him as odd, since he was already the perfect boisterous antagonist.
"In that case, my friends," Robotnik said in his usual condescending tone, "if it really is a...change of pace you're after, may I make a suggestion…?" The whole group looked at him, though Miles and Boomer were the only two who retained a veil of mild disinterest. Robotnik started drumming his fingers together. "If you could hassle your normal counterparts for me, it would be...greatly appreciated."
There was silence for a second, before Scourge broke it with his uproarious laughter. "You kiddin', fat man!?" Robotnik's lip twitched as he tried to hold himself back from strangling Scourge; God only knew it would help relieve some of the frustration of not being able to kill off the real deal. "I've practically been doin' that all day! You just tell us what we need to do."
Robotnik sighed, releasing the rest of his pent-up rage and stated, as calmly as he could, "It's simple, really. Lure them into a wide, yet enclosed space with no visible exits, and, erm...rough them up a little." He closed his thumb and index finger together, but his voice denoted that, in this case, "a little" meant he wanted to see some skulls broken.
"I certainly have more than enough places you can tactically engage them...Come back, perhaps, and we can discuss these matters further?"
"That would be preferable." Miles nodded his head toward the door, noting that everyone should follow him. "We will return in...two days."
Robotnik put on his fake welcoming smile. "I will always be available." The Supression Squad left, in single file, with Scourge as the last one to leave. He stopped at the door, looked back and flashed a cheeky smile at Robotnik before following his comrades, and a SWATbot escort.
Robotnik nodded, and got up off his throne, and started pacing back and forth in front of it. He was sporting his usual maniacal grin, which Snively noticed. "Something tells me this 'alliance' is going to be shattered in record time, sir. You're wearing that look again," he commented.
"What did you expect from me, Snively?" he retorted. "Where's the fun in playing nice...?"
Robotnik stopped, and looked out the massive, semicircular window, down on the smog and ash-coated buildings below him. "Besides," he added, "I've got a new prototype mech in the works, and I need it field-tested."
The heavy metal footfalls came close to a rusted door of some old apartment. Everyone held their breath, but the SWATbots outside passed without hesitation, running forward in a straight line. Sally forced the door ajar and peered out the slim break that let the dull light of the outside in.
"I think we're clear," she whispered after a minute and led Bunnie and Tails outside. The three of them glanced around cautiously, and crossed the road into another alleyway. Once Scourge had intruded on the database being looked over by SWATbots, Sally had to rework her plan on the fly. Originally, she had decided to double back and try to mislead the forces chasing them and then return to the database. By the time they had, Robotnik must have caught on. Checking the list of recently moved robians revealed Chuck had been moved from the building, and the slave crew he was with was kept under heavy surveillance, which made tracking him a bad idea.
Everyone was still trying to wrap their heads around what had gotten into Sonic, Tails most of all. No matter what scenario he made, nothing added up.
Sally sighed and pressed her fingers to her head. "This was an absolute disaster," she muttered.
Bunnie took a look around, and up at the smog-darkened sky. "D'y'all think Sonic's been captured by Robotnik by now? He ain't been answerin' the calls Ah sent to his comms. An' he sure ain't callin' us."
She sighed and crossed her arms. Tracking Sonic down in Robotropolis would be a monumental task that only assured people would die.
"Yo."
Luckily, he was more prone to seeking them out.
Scourge swung his way down from the rooftops using broken old flagpoles and his speed. He had made sure to change back into his disguise garb, and had been tracking the other three Freedom Fighters a little over an hour after getting his Supression Squad back to Anti-Mobius and was, for lack of a better term, glad to be back with his "team." He'd been wondering how they'd handle his little jinx on their plans. "Sorry for splittin' like that," he said. "Might've gotten a little carried away. Maybe."
Everyone was in too much shock to speak. The only thing that even Sally could muster was, "You…" She trailed off, there was silence, and then she went off again. "Sonic, you idiot!"
Bunnie tried interrupting with "Now, Sally-girl…" to at least quiet her down, but she kept going.
"What in God's name is wrong with you!? This was a simple plan. Simple! All we had to do was get in, check the computers, and get your uncle by giving him one of the Power Rings, at the very least tag him so we could track him down later if he put up too much of a fight!" she yelled. "Thanks to you," she continued, "we've just about gone two steps backward!" She took a very shallow breath in before yelling, "You've never been this arrogant!"
Scourge did recoil from her tirade, but his expression remained more or less neutral. On the inside, he was smiling like a little imp. Shit, that was pretty intense, he thought. I bet if poor ol' Sonic heard that, he'd eat a heapin' helpin' of system shock!
Still, he had appearances to keep up, so he let his brow sink and his mouth frown. "Jeez, I'm sorry, babe. I just kinda got goin' and couldn't stop." He leaned against a wall, crossing his arms. "You know how it is, right?"
She covered her forehead with her hand. "God's sake...No I don't know how it is." Sally started walking away, motioning for everyone else to follow. "The mission's scrubbed. Let's get back home."
Late afternoon had settled in by the time Bunnie, Tails, Sally, and Scourge had returned. Tails elected to retire to his workshop and help Rotor put some finishing touches on the plane he was building while Sally and Bunnie went back to the command center to try and formulate a plan around their recent failure. Scourge, of course, wandered over to the plaza and grab dinner. This time, he hoped he could at least eat in peace without any nosy overlanders butting in to annoy him.
After going around the plaza once, he eventually had two chili dogs hot of the grill and sitting on a plate. And he had just sat down to properly enjoy them when a familiar voice called out to him.
"Sonic!"
Scourge froze. "Oh, God, not again." He got up to leave immediately, not even bothering with taking his food with him, but before he could start running, someone had put him into an inescapable bear-hug. His heart stopped, and even though he knew this Amy was non-hostile, it was hard to kick an old habit.
He turned his head to see her clutching his back, arms wrapped tightly around him. She looked up with those glassy (and to Scourge, terrifying) green eyes. "...Gotcha, Sonic!" Scourge squirmed, and even tried to suppress a whimper. Of course, Amy remained unaware of it. "So...I just heard you got back from a mission. How about a celebratory date?"
Amy waited on his answer, and what she got was her "hero" forcibly wrenching her off and shoving her aside. The shock that came immediately after didn't allow her to keep her self upright, and she fell to the ground, looking up in mixed hurt and confusion at Scourge.
"Mission failed," he muttered. He ran off without another word.
Trystan walked back outside his cabin and took a right, going to the side to check up on his sweatshirt, which was taking, by far, the longest time to dry out. It was flapping on the clothesline and looked okay, so he took it down and threw it on to test it.
It was still a little damp. He shrugged, took it off, and hung it back up. A few more minutes wouldn't hurt it; besides, he was going to go spar with Bunnie and Antoine, and getting that thing all sweaty again would just defeat the purpose. As he walked down the stairs and walkways strung up between the trees, he noted the sun in the sky. It was setting fast. He'd have to grab dinner soon.
He got to the training field to find Bunnie and Antoine already set up, no surprise there, and they started almost immediately.
Bunnie was practically dancing around him as usual, but Trystan had become somewhat wise to her tactics. She only did it to confuse him, and put more force into her attacks depending on what angle she came at him from. Trystan knew that this time, he'd have to make the first move. He ran forward after she had gone around him twice, taking a purposefully wide swing to get her to stop and back up.
"Yer learnin' fast, Trystan!" she called. She ran right back in, keeping her metal arm in front of her as a shield. Trystan dove out of the way, leading her like a matador.
"Exiled or no, overlanders do love a good fight!" he called back.
"Eet certainly explains why most of zem are so narrow-minded," Antoine commented.
Bunnie and Trystan clashed, exchanged a couple kicks, then backed up. He turned to Antoine with a half-smug, half-annoyed grin. "Oh, shut up."
Trystan and Bunnie kept up for a few more minutes before Antoine came in and threw a wooden sword to Trystan. He looked at the dummy weapon that landed at his feet, and back to Antoine. "Oh, what, this already?"
The beginnings of a smug grin appeared on Antoine's face, but he quickly wiped it off. "Hah! You must still be quite afraid of me and my skills, no?"
"I thought I'd at least get a break for some water," he retorted, then wiped his forehead and looked at his palm. "...Fuck it, I guess I can drink my sweat."
This, as Trystan predicted, made Antoine cringe, and he snatched the sword off the ground and rushed forward, and swung horizontally. Antoine yelped and ducked, with Trystan going right by him.
He stopped and pivoted after basking in some of the glory that his distraction tactic had worked. "Show some spine, frenchy, come on!" Trystan ran back and took a few more wild swings. Not as crazy as the first couple sessions, but still...
"Y-y-you are leaving yourzelf too out in zee open! T-t-try to keep y-your arms-" Antoine flinched as he blocked a hard overhead strike from Trystan. "...Undair control!" he cried.
They kept at it for a minute more before Antoine called for a quick break to make sure Trystan wouldn't give him a nasty welt on his head. And as luck would have it, that's when Amy wandered in. She didn't say a word, in fact Trystan and Antoine didn't even notice she was there until Bunnie called, "Howdy, sugah!" and waved. That prompted the two boys to say hello as well, but in an unconventional gesture, she sat down on the lowest line of bleachers and didn't say a word. She didn't even wave back.
Trystan was the only one who seemed to take notice of Amy's uncharacteristically silent nature, or at least seemed to care. He remained as he was, sitting on a sideline bench opposite the bleachers on the far end of the field, staring at her as he took infrequent sips of water. "Huh. Ah don' think Ah ever seen Miss Amy so…" Bunnie paused. "Down before," she muttered.
Trystan took one last drink of ater before chucking the empty cup into the nearby wastebasket. "I'll go talk to her. Not like I'm doin' anything better right now anyway," he said. Trystan walked all the way over to Amy, who still didn't even seem to regard his presence. Even he knew that meant something was wrong.
When he was a few feet away, he cleared his throat. Amy looked up at him, erasing the glum look she had before. "Somethin' wrong, kid?"
Amy sighed and held her head in her hands. She was silent for another minute, making Trystan slightly awkward before she answered, "Sonic…"
"What about Sonic?"
"Something's wrong with him," Amy said as she looked up.
Trystan cocked an eyebrow. "Huh. Last time I saw him, he looked okay to me," he mused.
"Not wrong as in 'sick,' he's just…" Amy looked up at the burning orange sky before looking back at Trystan. "He's not himself."
Trystan furrowed his brow and sat down next to her. "Why ya sayin' that, kid?"
Amy's eyes narrowed, and she looked down. "When he came back from today's mission…" she began, "I went to see him. I...I thought he'd be happy."
Trystan noticed her eyes were getting slightly misty, but she kept talking. "I...I hugged him, and he...he…" She sniffled and continued, "He pushed me off and told me the mission failed."
"...Shoving you off is kinda rude, but telling you the mission he was on failed doesn't seem-"
"It was the way he said it, Trystan," Amy interrupted. "Normally, he would just shrug, grin and say 'We'll get'em next time,' but this time, he sounded so...so…" She wiped the formation of tears off. "So mean."
Trystan looked back out, his hand absentmindedly scratching his chin. "'Mean,' huh?" he asked, turning back to Amy, who nodded in response. "Alright, alright. Sonic's definitely cocky, but not to the point of being straight-up mean-spirited." He paused a moment before adding, "So, whaddaya think's wrong with him, then?"
Amy actually had to think about that question, but all of Sonic's current quirks and the ones she knew only added up to one possible explanation. "Whoever that is, it's not Sonic."
Trystan's eyes went a bit wide, but he quickly took on a thoughtful expression. "So what you're saying is," he articulated, "that you think Sonic's been replaced."
"Yeah!" Amy exclaimed.
Trystan hushed her after looking over at Bunnie and Antoine to make sure they weren't listening on their conversation. They seemed to be talking to each other instead, which relaxed him more. "Wll, to be honest, any other time, I would say that line of thinking's a bit...crazy," Trystan said. This earned a rather mild scowl from Amy, but he quickly added, "But considering what I've heard from Bunnie when she and a few others escaped from Robotnik using their new 'Warp Ring-amajig,' that...actually makes a lot more sense than it should."
"So then that means Sonic's been replaced?" Amy exclaimed again, her eyes flashing with the hope that the real Sonic was still out there.
Trystan shushed her again. "I don't know for sure, kid, but it does look like a good bet. I tell ya what…" He looked back, looked around to make sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop. "I think we can try making a second Warp Ring thingy and jumping to this parallel world ourselves. If Sonic really was replaced by an exact lookalike, that anti-world is definitely where we should start looking."
Amy inhaled sharply and then stood up, holding her fists close to her chest and beaming. "We're gonna rescue Sonic…!?"
Trystan nodded and looked back at Bunnie and Antoine. "We're gonna need more manpower than just you an' me though, kid. I think I should be able to drag Antoine into it pretty easily." He decided that once he had convinced Antoine to join them, he'd go directly to Amy's cabin and tell her it was time to go.
"Just one note," Trystan said. "I think we're the only two people who can agree on the fact that Sonic might not be Sonic. You can't," he stressed, "tell anyone else about what we're going to do. The only reason I'm confident about letting Antoine in on it is that he'll want to hold being the one who saved Sonic over that hedgehog's head. Once I get him goin', he'll follow." Trystan paused, then chortled. "Maybe not through hell, but he'll follow pretty damn close."
They both agreed on a general time frame to slip away, sometime tomorrow evening. It was about then that Antoine called him back to spar. Or at least, Bunnie called him back and got Antoine out to fight him with fake swords first.
A woman in crimson armor brought up her left arm across her chest horizontally. "Ave!"
"Verifex Calico," the Praetorius said, his hands folded as he leaned on his table, "what have you got to report?"
"Something crazy, sir," she answered, stepping forward, "our potential allies have found a way to puncture the very walls of reality."
The Praetorius chuckled quietly to himself. "Good God. Every time I think I've seen it all, those mobians just love to prove me wrong."
Emex didn't seem to share his good humor, however. "General, we have to intervene directly. If they have found a way to punch through space, as the Verifex claims, they could end up destroying us. And suppose this technology fell into the wrong hands?" he cried.
"Verifex...how did they manage this?" Blesse questioned before either the General or Emex could continue.
Calico bowed to her quickly before speaking and explained, "From what I could hear on the spider drone's sensors, they managed to sneak into their capital city and use something called a 'Ring' to break through spacetime. Based on my prior knowledge, the Rings are generated inside Knothole and kept there to keep it running with clean, renewable power. Doctor Robotnik has virtually no access to these artifacts."
"So these Rings are locally contained?" The Praetorius asked.
"Affirmative."
"I see no need to intervene if the technology is localized and cannot be accessed by outside forces. We have no right nor need to investigate any further, Cincius Emex," The Praetorius stated with finality. "Where have you hidden the spider drone, Verifex?"
The Verifex brought up her right arm, and a small holographic control panel came up. "It's currently planted in their command center. Should I move it?"
"Yes. Move it back to...Sonic's hut. The hedgehog's practically oblivious to small details; hide it in his closet," he commanded.
The Verifex touched a couple hard-light buttons and stated, "Done."
"Excellent. You're dismissed, Verifex Calico." The Verifex saluted again, hailed the Praetorius, pivoted, and left the grand hall. There was but a moment of silence before the doors opened and another person in armor walked in, accompanied by several more foot-soldiers. They halted in front of the semicircular table and saluted the three reigning commanders. "Ave!"
"Yes, next on my list...more reconnaissance," the Praetorius droned, looking at a checklist in front of him. "Anything new to report, Verifex...Lycus?"
The Verifex of this squadron stepped forward, producing a small, circular base stand that had been strapped to his arm. He placed it on the table, and pressed a button on it, producing a holo-image of the inside of one of the factories of Robotropolis. There were SWATbots and robians crawling all over the place, mostly working on the giant assembly lines spaced apart in the picture. Everyone was silent until the Praetorius nodded at the Verifex, as if to say, You may explain.
"While we were stationed in the Kappa District, we took a quick look into the main factory to see if anything big was being built," Lycus explained.
"You'll have to point it out to us," Emex deadpanned.
"Of course." Lycus touched the back of the holo-image and it zoomed in on one of the assembly lines in the mid ground. "It took us awhile to see, but there was one of these robotic machines that looked completely unlike the others. You'll see here, on this conveyor belt, what looks like an endoskeleton." He traced a shape out on the image, and it quickly became apparent to the counselors that, yes, there was a bipedal endoskeleton going down the line.
The Praetorius drummed his fingers together. "You have my attention…"
"We jammed up some radio signals and hacked into the factory's mainframe," Lycus continued, "and we found this schematic." The holo-image shifted to a strange hedgehog robot, half of it cut off to reveal its inner parts. The other half that still had its shell was mostly colored blue, and it looked extremely slim. "It's not a brainwashed citizen, obviously," the Verifex stated, "it's custom-made."
"Another tool of war," the Praetorius said under his breath. "I'm not going to take any chances. If this...whatever it is, is used against us in another attack, we might not make it out alive. Station Jupiter's Hammer in the district. You have my permission to use excessive and decisive force." The soldiers of the Filii Rubrum glanced around at each other. "Is this agreed on, Cincius Emex?"
"Jupiter's Hammer authorized," Emex stated flatly.
He looked over at Blesse. "Decision authorized?"
She was quiet before sighing and saying, "Jupiter's Hammer authorized."
The soldiers in the room, save for the Verifex, shifted and some began whispering in excitement. The Praetorius took out his gavel and smashed it on the table, which quieted some of the rowdy soldiers. "It's unanimous. Get the strike force together and wait on my signal." The Verifex and his soldiers quickly exited the grand hall to make for the barracks, grab their weapons, and pray to whatever god was out there that luck would be on their side for once.
A/N: Fuck me this chapter was hard to pick up and finish. Fuck. Me.
Unrelated, I'm hella late to the party, but that SONIC FORCES TRAILER, HOL T, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HYPED I AM
