The Underground Game – a 50 Phrases collection

"Call no man happy before he dies."

DISCLAIMER: I realise now that we've actually neared the part in my list of phrases where I started to go "umm". It resulted in me not necessary liking what I wrote, but not disliking them horribly either. This one I blame on Silver's very existence. I just… can't… write the poor guy.

It wasn't that Knuckles didn't like the kid.

Silver was a good guy. Maybe a little too earnest, and way too powerful to make the kind of mistakes he always seemed to be making, but it wasn't as if Knuckles and his passionate gullibility had a leg to stand on there.

For a while, he'd creeped Knuckles out. When he'd looked at Silver, he'd gotten the insane urge to go see Sonic. Not for any good reason – just to make sure he could. Thankfully it wore off after the first few times, but…

Still.

After all, the kid was supposed to be from the future. Knuckles had been to the past, but never the future – it had to be interesting, right? So why the heck did Silver keep rocking up here: two hundred years into his past? History was boring, even if it was someone else's present – there was no reason for the kid to keep showing up to hang out!

When Knuckles finally got the opportunity to ask, he did so by shoving Silver against a wall and folding his arms to look as threatening as possible. He'd always found the direct approach the most effective.

"What, is your time in danger?" he demanded. "Do you think that by saving the day from Eggman your world will be all fluffy bunnies and kittens?"

"Don't be stupid," he said, trying for defiance. Unlike Knuckles' intimidation, it didn't work.

"You wanna explain what you are doing here, then?" he asked. "Maybe you didn't notice, psycho-boy, but we've been doing just fine without you here. So unless you're here to tell us the world's gonna erupt in flames, I don't get what you're doing here."

A look flashed through Silver's eyes that made Knuckles' spine straighten, but he didn't say anything, rubbing his arm nervously.

"I… no. No, the world's not going to…" He shifted his feet. "My time is alright. We've – we've got a villain, but…"

"Are you escaping him?" he asked, well prepared to give up his anger if he had to. He wasn't the type to run away from a fight, but he could understand it when other people did.

Still, though, Silver wouldn't meet his eyes. "No."

The anger ramped up again. "Then what are you doing here?"

Silver didn't answer, his eyes flicking everywhere and nowhere at once, but when he finally got the courage to look Knuckles in the eye again, they suddenly became hard, and he straightened up. This time, the defiance worked. "I have to make sure he's okay. He has to live."

"What?" he asked. "Who?"

"Sonic."

Knuckles' arms loosened a little, falling to his stomach instead of his chest. Why didn't this surprise him? "What about him?"

"My time is alright," he said again. "There are people all over the world who live with no idea it could be better. People who go about their lives, every day, just working and eating and sleeping like everything's fine. But it's not. It's not like here."

"Like what?" he demanded. "We've got our own psycho to deal with – several of them, actually. Our world isn't perfect."

"But the people are alive," he said, and Knuckles flinched, visions of a world full of zombies in his mind, until Silver continued. "They're so vibrant, they have – they have hopes and dreams and – and – and faith. We're told stories about when the great Chaos came, and how it was the people's faith that saved them, and for the longest time, I thought that was all they were: stories." He smiled, pushing past Knuckles to gaze out over the horizon, as if he could see more than palm trees and the volcano. "But then I came here. And I believe it. Everything's so lush and green and alive… because people have faith they can save things. This world… this time… it's a fantasy but it's real. And I know Sonic's the reason why."

Knuckles had turned to the side when Silver pushed him, and he continued standing that way, just staring at the hedgehog's back.

He'd never really thought about how people would remember the whole Chaos thing. All he remembered was days spent looking for shards. But when he thought about it… yes. The people's faith had saved them that day – their faith in Sonic.

He grimaced, realising what that meant. It shouldn't have surprised him, given the tapestry he had hanging on a wall underground, or the dozen prophecies he no longer read because it annoyed him to see a figure of legend grinding on railroad tracks (even if it was the easiest way to get around sometimes and fun besides). But… still.

"Aren't you from two hundred years in the future?" he asked bluntly, and Silver flinched, turning back to him.

"Yes…"

"You know Sonic is mobian, right?" he asked. "That means that even if he survives all the stupid stuff he does, eventually he's gonna get old and die."

Silver blinked at him rapidly. Apparently that hadn't occurred to him.

"I get the time-travelling thing," he said, turning his eyes away to focus on the nothing in front of him, "but I don't think you can stop it moving."

"Sonic won't – he can't die of –"

"Even if he didn't, there's more to faith than Sonic the Hedgehog. He's definitely not the reason I get up in the morning, I tell you that," he said dryly, and turned away, flicking Silver and his concerns off his shoulders. "Whether you keep him alive or not, your world's gonna end up exactly the same. You're the only one who can change it."

"You don't understand," Silver said quietly, and Knuckles stopped, his brow furrowing in annoyance. Silver didn't notice, closing his eyes. "You could never understand."

"Oh, for the love of… what is so wrong with your time?" he demanded without turning around. "Do the people not get up in the morning? Don't they talk to each other? Have fun, work, whatever?"

"Of course they do, it's just the people here are… they're happy. They're –"

"Call no man happy before he dies, kid," he said coldly. He sensed Silver's gaze on his back again, but didn't acknowledge it, setting his hands on his hips. "The people in this time are scared, angry, but above all, they're lucky, and they're complacent. And if you call that 'happy', then power to you, kid, but you're not gonna take it through to your time by keeping that idiot alive."

"Complacent?" he asked quietly, and Knuckles snorted.

"Or, I guess, you could say they just believe someone will carry them through the hard times," he said, and turned his head so Silver could see his profile. "You want to give your people that, give them something to believe in. Be something for them to believe in. That's how you'll make them 'happy'."

That all said, he strode into the forest, leaving Silver behind to ponder his wisdom. He was quite proud of that little speech. It had been dramatic. And Sonic hadn't been around to belittle it.

Not that he thought it would actually make the creepy kid go home, of course… he wasn't that good. But maybe it just might give the kid something to believe in.

This is a challenge to myself, inspired by my friend Jkateel, who told me to stop complaining about how I can't write anything and just do it.

And so, at least once a week, I will write a fic based around one of the 50 phrases. I will post it, whether I like it or not (so sorry for the spam). And to further force myself, I'm going to say it will be in my head canon of Sonic Underground merged with the Sonic games, because that's a canon that's stayed with me for years, so it's not like I'll lose interest.

I'm not actually doing it on LiveJournal because for one, I can't find the community again, and for another, I don't think I'm actually matching the rules. I just copied down the challenges once and still have it.

No restrictions on length. It does not need to have a point. Just a story or a thought. And the phrase, of course.

Because fanfic should be about fun, not whether it's fabulous or not.