"How…how did you know?" Sonic asked quietly, taken aback by the ease with which Blaze had recognised him.
"How could I forget one of my first friends?" Blaze said as she released the hug. "I'm very happy to see you, I thought I might have been trapped in there forever." She turned towards Marine, "How long was I in there?"
Marine didn't immediately respond, she was staring at Sonic.
"Oh, erm… I reckon it was like a year or so," Marine said distractedly. Sonic noticed Blaze winced as she spoke.
"It felt like so much longer," Blaze stated, leaning back against the terminal.
"Blaze it's okay. You don't have to pretend to be healthy. Have a rest. Sleep. I know you need it; those things keep people awake the whole time."
"Have you…?" Blaze began.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU BLOODY TELL ME!" Marine suddenly yelled. Blaze covered her ears with her hands, sinking to her knees with her eyes clenched shut in pain.
"Marine I'm…"
"DON'T APOLOGIZE YOU DICK! WHAT THE BLOODY 'ELL WERE YOU PLAYING AT!?" Marine continued. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA…?"
Marine suddenly found herself unable to speak, Sonic had covered her mouth.
"Marine you're hurting Blaze." He said quietly, staring straight into her livid blue eyes. She struggled momentarily until she glanced over at her friend. She threw off Sonic's hand and went over to hug her friend.
"Blaze? What's…?" she whispered.
"She hasn't heard anything for a year, she hasn't used her muscles either. She's weak Marine and needs to rest."
"Not…not here" Blaze said weakly, forcing herself back to her full stature. "Nega will know I've left, he was using my Sol power for something."
"Actually the other Eggman was the one who took you, but point taken." Sonic said quietly. "We should leave quickly."
"No cities," Blaze instructed, "we get to camp outside again Mariney" Blaze smiled at her raccoon friend.
"Used to hate it when you called me that," Marine said with a smile, "Can you walk?"
"Yes I can although I may need a cane as I seem to be unable to hold myself up." Blaze stated.
"I'll give you a hand" Sonic stated, walking over and lifting Blaze bridal style as they began to move back towards the cave's entrance.
"Ooh, thank you Sonic," Blaze said, "Normally I'm the one who does the carrying".
"You 'aven't carried me in forever," Marine said, "You should try an' sleep, me an' Sulphur will, I mean Sonic, we'll get you somewhere safe to rest."
"Sulphur?" Blaze asked.
"We'll talk about it later," Sonic said.
"Yeah we will," Marine said, looking annoyed at Sonic, "Blaze you should…"
She didn't need to finish, Blaze had already fallen asleep, snuggling into Sonic's fur.
"Congratulations Sonic, thanks to you now I have to call you a lying scumbag quietly instead of yelling at you." Marine started the instant she saw Blaze fall asleep.
"I've been where Blaze is, trust me she needs to sleep," Sonic said, as they emerged from Pirate's Cave.
"Don't put this on her, what did you think was going to happen?" Marine whispered harshly, "Were you planning on lying to us forever?"
"Do you honestly think I'm the type of person who makes plans? I just made up the Sulphur name and I stuck with it."
"Why? What was the point?"
"We haven't seen each other in years. You wouldn't have believed me anyway, I'm totally different now."
"I don't care Sonic, I was completely alone and desperate, so desperate that I took a wannabe murderer wi' me. I expected you to kill me. You came across as a stalkerish freak. I was terrified of you, I expected you to kill me in my sleep and the 'ole time it was you. You knew me and said some bullshit about Sol energy. Why didn't you just say it was you?"
"Because I'm a freak okay? I had terrified my other friends, I almost killed one of them. I did murder someone. I had just lost control and attacked someone. Everywhere I went I was hurting people. I…I needed an escape, I needed to be able to run away without you following me. I just…didn't trust myself."
Marine thought about that for a moment. Looking at this monster, with fur that kept changing colour, red eyes and a bracelet that stops him turning purple and killing everything around him.
"You wanted me to distrust you?"
"In a way…yeah I did. Better that you run from me then try to save me because you know me."
"Well I didn't run anyway, you should've trusted me, I had to trust Sulphur, even though you've nearly killed me."
"Nearly…?"
"Whatever, look we'd better just run south for a bit, rest where the ocean would've bin." Marine said as she ripped the tarpaulin from the glider and grabbed a couple of the poles, "We can use this lot to make a tent."
She jumped on Sonic's back and he did as instructed.
Tails sat silently, making mental notes of his surroundings as Amy continued to push his wheelchair towards the Avalanche. Tails had convinced Kenny to go speak to the rest of the villagers whilst the Queen's loyal servants reconvene in the Avalanche.
'We could place turrets over there, but the risk of hacking or physical tampering is too great. EMP weaponry would provide some strong defences from robots but it wouldn't protect the villagers from living foes, though it doesn't seem likely that Eggman would resort to anything other than robots given the amount of coverage he seems to possess…'
"So what do you think Tails?" Amy asked, sounding a little tired from stopping Tails' wheelchair from rolling down the chair, "These guys need a lot of help."
"Agreed, they don't have the ability to defend themselves from attack, I don't think they're capable of fighting even if we…"
"I was thinking more about the way they behave. They are opposing Eggman sure but this Queen person doesn't seem much good either."
"Oh, well yes but the people do seem to like her. She must have done something to earn that. Plus Blaze is presumably next in line right? I can't see her letting people travel across the world for some tea." Tails stated.
"True." Amy thought for a moment before sighing again, "Still can't believe Knuckles left the tank again. He sits alone on an island all day so why is it that he can't sit still here?"
"I don't know, I'm surprised he went with Shadow of all people. Maybe Shadow tricked him?" Tails suggested with a shrug, "Wouldn't be the first time Knuckles fell for something like that. I'll talk to him soon."
"No way. Knuckles will have forced Shadow to take him along." Amy countered, "Shadow's still upset that you and Knuckles got hurt, he won't want to risk that happening again."
"We'll find out soon enough." Tails said with a shrug.
It wasn't long before they reached the Avalanche, Shadow lowered the metallic ramp down for them. Tails had already flown back onto his command chair before hearing the soft 'phumf' sound of the ramp hitting the sand.
"Shadow, settle a bet, did you trick Knuckles or did the guy with a hole in his chest overpower you?" Tails asked.
"Well I…" Shadow started.
"I never said Knuckles overpowered him, I said that he insisted on coming along!" Amy replied.
"Actually I…" Knuckles began.
"Come on Shadow admit it, you totally tricked Knuckles into…" Tails interrupted.
"It was his idea." Shadow interjected.
"HAH! Told you!" Amy cheered, "Wait. Why am I happy? Knuckles you shouldn't have…"
"WE HAD TO!" Shadow and Knuckles said in unison.
It took some time for the bickering to die down, the Tails team (minus Rouge) gradually settled into their various self-allocated spots, Knuckles slouching on the couch, Shadow leaning against a wall with folded arms, Tails sat in the large command chair with out-spread legs and Amy sat upon the large semi-circular desk in the centre. They shared their mini adventures in Marine's former home.
"Well at least you managed to get enough books" Tails said with a small smile, looking at the pile of books that almost reached the ceiling.
"We can ask Rouge about that tonight, the medi-bot should be cool enough by now." Shadow stated.
"Knuckles and Amy can talk to her, we're helping the villagers tonight." Tails stated, "I promised them that you and I would help them set up some defences."
"Defences? You mean you want me to train them to use firearms or…?"
"Nah, I want you to carry stuff back and forth and search for scrap metal while I build some automated systems."
"Oh. Okay then, but the security cameras…"
"You'll have to warp back and forth. There's loads of scrap in the far north, where the Coconut Crew used to work. I can't imagine there are many security cameras there but you might have to scout it first. On your own. Without Knuckles."
"…very well." Shadow complied before warping away in a flash of light.
"A 'please' wouldn't have gone amiss Tails," Amy admonished, "he's a friend, not a soldier."
Tails avoided Amy's glare; instead flying over to the fridge to check on the medi-bot. He opened the panel to double check the internal components.
"Seems okay." He typed in a few commands and watched it hover into Rouge's room. "Can you two watch over Rouge? I'd rather her not awaken alone."
"Err, yeah sure." Knuckles answered, watching Tails fly back out the tank.
"I guess he's not taking the wheelchair?" Knuckles said with a shrug.
The gentle breeze was the only natural thing that Sonic could savour in this place. Even the sand had flecks of rusty metal ruining the horizon. Rolling sand dunes always had a beauty to them, the way the winds moved them would create circular sculptures that appeared like a slow-motion sea, undulating in waves over the course of hours. You could never see them change but every day the canvas would have new swirls. Deserts contained almost nothing. But within that nothing was everything. It was a reminder that even a place that was once a thriving ocean full of colours and creatures that Sonic could never even glimpse had a limited existence. A reminder that ultimately there is no purpose to existence and everything worth having requires earnest effort to maintain. Freedom comes with responsibility, and Sonic used to love playing his part.
Looking at this filthy, gritty, rust-coloured sand gathering in great ugly piles before tumbling down into spiky mounds made Sonic feel sick. The red mounds looked to Sonic like writhing bodies, screaming in pain as they sank into magma. It looked as though the planet itself was bleeding into the sand.
The blue plastic tarpaulin could have been camouflaged into a beautiful, bejewelled sky were it not for the permanent, artificially produced grey cloud censoring the sight. Censored from innocent eyes for whom the reminder of the possibilities held within the infinitely sparkling tapestry could potential breed hope in a hopeless world.
Beneath the tarpaulin were two creatures who somehow managed to ignore the impossibility of their quest. They sat and strategized, working on uncovering the sky and re-fertilising the ground. The raccoon's huge, tired eyes did nothing to hide the relief and happiness at having found her feline friend. The friend in question quietly listened, occasionally smiling at the raccoon's enthusiasm, her weak breathing the only indication of the trauma she must have suffered. Sonic couldn't help but notice that, far from the weak discolouration his fur had suffered, the purple cat's coat seemed to be a more vivid violet than he recalled, her tired amber eyes occasionally glanced his way as if trying to seek his thoughts. Based on the brightness of the gem within her head, he wouldn't be surprised if such a feat were possible for her even without communication.
Her quiet, contemplative mind had always juxtaposed his reactive instincts. But her intensity in battle had never wavered, being more reminiscent to Sonic's stoic partner than his own fun, flamboyant style. He frustrated, irritated and mocked his opposition, she had always focused on victory. Of course, it had been a good four years or so since they truly had time to communicate, she had always fascinated him, but his attention was always taken by his louder friends and enemies. Deciding that ignoring her obvious hints for him to join the conversation couldn't last a second longer without being rude, Sonic conceded to social conventions and went over to speak to his old friend.
"Did you enjoy your rest?" Sonic asked awkwardly as he sat on the gritty sand, holding one of his legs on his arms.
"Yes, very much so." Blaze replied with a polite smile, "It's a good thing you were there, I fear Marine may have talked my ears off, perhaps literally had you not stopped her."
"I didn't know…" Marine started,
"I know Marine, how could you have? I didn't know myself until I fell out of that awful tube." Blaze glanced over at Sonic. "I'm curious how it is that you knew Sonic. Were you captured too?"
"Yeah. You reacted to it far better than I did. I went completed nuts until I collapsed." Sonic admitted. "How are you feeling now?"
"A great deal better, thanks to you." Blaze cheerfully complimented, "I'm not at a hundred percent yet, but I think I will get there quickly. The Sol energy seems extremely vibrant here, I can feel my muscles reawakening with great haste."
"It's not just 'ere" Marine explained, "Look at these."
Marine removed three emeralds from her boiler suit.
"These are… two Sol Emeralds…and one of your Chaos Emeralds," she said, again indicating towards Sonic, "why is there a Chaos Emerald here?"
"The Eggman from my dimension brought them. He somehow collected all seven of them without us realising it." Sonic stated.
"That's 'ow 'e was able to capture you. He wrecked our defences on South Island so easily because he had the power of the Chaos Emeralds."
"That and there were two of them." Sonic reminded them, "it didn't take Eggman long to betray Nega though."
"Do you know of their whereabouts?" Blaze asked curiously, "I suppose fighting them will be easier if they're too distracted fighting each other."
"Nah Blaze, Sonic straight up murdered the poor sod" Marine said, "We've only got his Eggman left, but he seems to have found a way to…"
"Wait…Nega is dead?" Blaze asked, "Why would you…?"
Sonic looked down at the red sand, reminding him of the blood that had fallen from him in that searing-hot shower.
"Yeah…he is. I killed him myself. I couldn't not do it. It…I needed the silence, needed his voice to stop… I…I…"
Before he could articulate his thoughts properly he felt himself held by something soft and warm.
"Sonic…that's not like you. I don't know what made you do that, but I'm here for you okay?" Blaze soothed as she hugged Sonic. "It can't have been easy for you to go through that."
Once again, he was reminded of just how tall Blaze was.
"Erm…actually it was really easy, it would have been harder not to kill him." Sonic stated coldly.
"What…what happened to you?" Blaze asked, releasing Sonic and looking at him straight in the eyes.
"Got captured, went crazy, started turning into a monster, scared off most of my friends and bumped into Marine while trying to figure out what's wrong with me. We destroyed lots of robots and found you."
"More or less right." Marine said with a shrug, before counting on her fingers, "although you also almost-maybe-probably killed a guy, pretended to be a porcupine, which I'm sure is some kind of cultural appropriation by the way…"
"You didn't even know I was a hedgehog, not all spiky mammals are the same you racist," Sonic snarked back.
Marine smirked but continued, "you then went faster than light, blinding me,"
"You weren't blind." Sonic said with an exasperated shake of his head.
"Then you got me to jump over a massive gap, miles up in the air because you wanted to show me a pretty sunset,"
Blaze gave Sonic a sceptical look.
"It was very pretty, and look, she's fine" Sonic justified to a baffled Blaze.
"then we had a fight with Blazebot and Metal Sonic" Marine continued
"actually, it was Silver Sonic, very different,"
"Then Sonic turned into a purple rage monster that nearly killed me."
Sonic blinked. Then turned towards Marine.
"You mentioned something about that earlier…what happened?" Sonic asked cautiously.
"What're you on about? You went all purple, then went all Sol bomb on me and blasted me into a wall. I'd 'ave ended up buried in that wall if the Emeralds hadn't protected me. That's how I got the magic bomb-defusal bracelet on you."
Sonic could have sworn he felt his heart fall into his stomach.
"I almost…?" Sonic grabbed his knees and held his head between them, feeling himself shake.
"Too much Sol energy I reckon, prolly couldn't control it." Marine said with a shrug, "Anyway that's when we found you Blaze."
"Sonic?" Blaze asked as she cautiously reached out to touch his shoulder, "are you okay?"
He flinched back away from her.
"NO! I…I'm gonna hurt someone, I…I" he glanced back and forth between Blaze and Marine, before sprinting away, wiping his eyes.
After a few seconds of sprinting he allowed his legs to collapse and felt himself fall into a clumsy roll. He lay on his back and panted heavily. Why? He wasn't tired. But he felt his throat constricting and and his fur itching horribly. He twitched and scratched, the sharp pains somehow relaxing him. He started clawing across his forearms, the pains weirdly keeping him grounded. He then felt an oddly warm gust of wind so strong it almost blew him over. He covered his eyes to avoid the sand, when he looked up Blaze was standing over him, panting.
"Please don't run, I'm not sure I can chase you like that again." Blaze said sternly. After a few deep breaths she sat down next to Sonic. "You saved me Sonic. Please let me help you."
Sonic was still shaking but he felt calmed as he looked into the intelligent, amber eyes of his concerned friend. He swallowed and gave small, rapid nods, feeling too shook up to speak.
"Good, thank you." She said as she sidled up closer to him. "Let's start at the beginning, when did you start feeling your alignment change?"
Sonic has looked completely nonplussed at her.
"Your use of Dark Sol?" Blaze asked, "When did it start?"
"Dark Sol?"
Tails glanced around nervously as he flew over the island. One benefit of Eggman's cloud cover was that it gave people no reason to look up; after all it's not like they could see the stars. Once he felt that he was out of sight of any villagers he landed gingerly on the rusty sand. To ensure his stealth he wore a hoody and jeans, although he typically disregarded clothes as impractical he was thankful that Amy had managed to barter some supplies from the villagers. He had intended to work for free. Tails pulled up the right sleeve of his dark grey hoodie, revealing the modified arm cannon he had been tinkering with.
'Hope this works' he thought as he clicked open a panel, revealing a small keypad. He quickly typed in a code causing the keypad to slide away revealing a glowing green fragment.
He began to imagine what would be required. First there would need to be some form of detection system. This could be achieved using something similar to the Emerald Tracking Software he had back at his lab.
He so missed his lab.
He opened his eyes to find he had already built a replica of his Emerald Tracking hardware installed within a cylindrical structure. He also seemed to have accidently built his old toolbox.
'Oh, guess I need to concentrate more' he thought wearily.
Having used all the scrap in his immediate surroundings he flew into the cylinder and switched on the software, the digital readout indicated that Shadow was quite close by and the rest of the group were in the Avalanche. It also reminded Tails that he needed to ensure that the system was more user friendly for the inhabitants of the island.
He took off again in pursuit of the black hedgehog. His legs were irritating him, logically he knew that this was a good sign of healing, but logic doesn't have much impact on pain. Just as his radar had indicated he found Shadow slightly north-east of his previous location.
He watched Shadow for a moment. He was dutifully collecting scrap metal into large piles. He appeared to have split them up into several parts, nuts in one pile, bolts in another, unidentifiable shrapnel in another, larger pieces in yet another.
'That's thoughtful of him,' Tails thought, 'I mean it's completely pointless but…'
Tails flew down to him. Shadow looked up upon hearing the propeller-esque sound produced by the eponymous tails.
"Hey Shadow," Tails started awkwardly, "erm… good work, finding all this."
"Thanks Tails, this place isn't lacking in scrap. There's a huge factory further north of here. They seem to have being building battleships or something."
"Cool, where exactly?" Tails said, looking in that direction.
"You don't want to go there, it's…grim." Shadow stated, "Don't worry about resources, we'll have plenty. This won't be as big of a job as the Avalanche, at least not for me. Means you might finally get some proper sleep, it's been a long day."
"Yeah it has," Tails agreed, "I started over there," Tails pointed back south-west, "could you warp this scrap back there?"
"No problem, scrap and excess chaos, nothing much else to put in the brochure for this place." Shadow said with a small smile.
There was a flash of green light and suddenly they were back at the cylinder from before.
"Thanks," Tails said before turning to look at the incomplete radar system and starting to concentrate.
"Are we going to do this again?" Shadow asked.
Tails just looked at him curiously.
"When you built the Avalanche we barely spoke to each other. You just sat there being the telekinetic meditative engineer while I just stood around getting scrap, wondering if you'd fallen asleep." Shadow stated.
"We don't have anything to talk about," Tails said simply.
"I barely know anything about you. Sonic talked about you all the time, but I haven't seen anything that he described. At least not since we found him in White Space." Shadow complained.
"What did Sonic tell you?" Tails asked, genuinely curious.
"I'd be here all night if I told you everything he's said. He said you saved Station Square all by yourself. He told me how you met, when he discovered you'd fixed the plane he'd crashed. He talked about how you were afraid of lightning. How you were becoming more confident independent. He seemed very proud of you."
Tails absorbed that for a moment, fidgeting a little, trying not to smile too much. He felt some weight behind his eyes as Shadow spoke.
"He told me about how, when you were little, he learned to smile and act super confident all the time, so he didn't worry you. He talked about how you were the one who built shelters to keep you both dry when you were travelling around, freeing animals from Eggman's robots. He said he probably couldn't have kept going without you."
"Wait…hold on." Tails turned away, wiping his eyes a little without Shadow seeing it, "What do you mean act confident? He didn't need me, he totally could have kept going without me."
"Well, he said that he was always scared of Dr. Robotnik when he was young. He only fought him because he couldn't see what else he could do. Eggman seemed to give him purpose. But after his first…"
"Sonic said he was scared of Eggman?" Tails asked incredulously, "Are you sure that's what he said?"
"Well yes, he did. He said that after Eggman came back for a second time he felt like just leaving it to someone else, until you came along." Shadow replied.
"Me? What that doesn't sound…" Tails started before stopping, "Why did he tell you all that?"
"Well I…"
"He's never said any of that to me." Tails interrupted, talking more to himself than Shadow. "He enjoys fighting. He enjoys saving the world. He gets bored when he isn't fighting Robotnik."
"That's true, that's why he'd always hang out with you and fight with Knuckles and race with me. He didn't really know what to do with himself when he wasn't fighting Eggman." Shadow said, "He always hated doing nothing. He always wanted to help you but said you didn't need him anymore, he wanted to help Knuckles train, but he'd become too strong."
"It's not that I didn't… why didn't he tell me this?" Tails said, "I didn't even know he was visiting you! He never told me any of that!"
"Tails…?"
"Then he just disappears for an entire year and next time I see him he's all white and monstrous!"
"Tails that wasn't his fault…"
"I KNOW!" Tails yelled, "THAT'S…that's not the point. All this stuff was going on with him and he didn't tell me any of it. Didn't he trust me?"
"Tails I know that…"
"Oh yeah because you know everything don't you!" Tails was flying around now. "He was suffering and I couldn't see it! The hell is wrong with me!"
"Tails that isn't your…"
"IT'S MY FAULT HE'S GONE!" Tails yelled again, "THE ONE TIME I SEE HIM STRUGGLE AND I JUST…just leave him behind. He could be dead."
Tails allowed his namesakes to stop in mid-air, causing him to fall down hard on the floor. He banged his head hard against some scrap.
He took some deep breaths, looking at a shocked looking Shadow through teary eyes before letting his head sink into his arms. He wished he could lift his knees too. He felt Shadow sit closely beside him. He then felt an arm go around his shoulder.
He reacted without thinking, striking Shadow across the face with one tail while pulling away with the other.
"DON'T… don't baby me I'm not…" Tails started before seeing a trickle of blood come from Shadow's forehead.
"Oh… I…I'm sorry Shadow I didn't mean to…"
"It's okay, I'm used to it. First time I tried that with Sonic he nearly punched me" He said with a small laugh.
"With…Sonic?"
"Oh, I just mean that…" Shadow started quickly.
"He cried in front of you?" Tails asked, "do you release emo pheromones or something?"
Shadow laughed again, that deep laugh that still seemed as alien to Tails as… well as alien as Shadow was.
"I hope not, it would explain a lot though." Shadow said with a smile.
He sat down again, a bit further from Tails this time.
"Sonic is much stronger than me, he might be stronger than all of us combined. He isn't dead, I know that much." Shadow said confidently, "I'm sorry I upset you, maybe I should go back to being the miserable one who never talks instead of forcing conversation."
"Maybe. Being friends with Sonic seems good for you though. I just wish he was friends with me still." Tails replied sadly.
"Sonic loves you. I think you should ask Amy about this. She's very intelligent when it comes to the way people think and feel." Shadow suggested.
"Is she?" Tails asked, "Ugh, I still don't know my own team. I'm a bad friend and a worse leader."
"How long have you felt like this?" Shadow asked, "Seems to me like we've made a lot of progress. You've taken every opportunity to help people you could, and you put yourself in danger to protect others. You're as good a leader as Sonic was."
"Sonic didn't get people hurt. Or kick people out."
"I spoke to Sonic after that. He wanted to get kicked out. He told me he needed to fix himself, figure out his problem before he hurts anyone."
"Again. He told you, not me. Why? What do you have that I don't?" Tails said, still looking morose.
"I don't know why Sonic hasn't spoken to you about this." Shadow said, "I think he just…struggles to be vulnerable. In a way, I think you're making the same mistake"
"What do you mean?" Tails asked.
"Well, I'm the first person you've said any of this too. You didn't tell Knuckles and Amy this. You told me. The only person here you don't trust or like." Shadow stated, folding his arms. "There's a reason for that."
"What is it?"
"No idea. I'm just here to shoot stuff and steal books." Shadow replied glibly, "Talk to Amy, trust me if she can help me she'll have no problem with you."
"I will." Tails decided, "Come on, let's get this island secure."
Shadow nodded standing up and getting ready to warp.
"I don't dislike you Shadow," Tails said, "I just don't understand you."
With that Tails got back to work, closing his eyes as his arms axiomatically hovered in front of him, encased in green light.
"Why do you think Rouge wanted all those books?" Knuckles asked.
"No idea, I never really know what Rouge wants. She will tell later I'm sure, what do you think of this one?"
Amy came out of her room wearing a white t-shirt with some rose petals flowing down from one shoulder and a pair of light blue jean shorts. She also had a white belt set at a slightly diagonal angle.
"Wow. Okay that I like." Knuckles said with a smile.
"Well I appreciate the 'wow'" Amy said with a giggle. "Why do you like this one Knuckles?"
"Oh well. I mean…it fits and…it's better in a fight, like it's easier to grab your skirt than jeans." Knuckles justified.
Amy gave him a flat look,
"What? I said I liked it." Knuckles said, nonplussed.
"In terms of how it looks Knuckles. Not fighting, looks." Amy insisted.
"Oh erm…well I think you're pretty in anything you wear." Knuckles answered sincerely.
"Ugh, I mean thanks and everything but come on, tell me something specific you like about it." Amy responded, becoming annoyed.
"Erm…I like the rose petals, it's like…your name." Knuckles tried, "I like the shorts, because they, erm, like…"
"Yes?" Amy asked.
"They kinda…show your legs more, I suppose they're…y'know…" Knuckles was getting embarrassed.
"Go on" Amy encouraged.
"…exy" Knuckles mumbled.
"What was that?"
"They are…sexy. They are tight and I erm…like that?" Knuckles responded, barely able to look at her.
Amy giggled.
"That's the first time you've ever flirted with anyone isn't it?" Amy asked.
"Is that what flirting is? It's kinda, embarrassing, was it bad?"
Amy couldn't help but laugh coquettishly.
"No, I'm no good at that this kind of thing either." Amy said, turning red, "So you're a leg guy then?"
"Err no I have arms and hands too." Knuckles answered, baffled.
Amy once again gave a flat look.
"You are bad at this," Amy gave a sympathetic smile however, "maybe you should read a book about it. Make sure it's appropriate though, some self-help books are silly or misogynistic."
"Miss-Oji-miss-stick?" Knuckles asked, "What does that mean?"
"It means someone or something that hate women and girls," Amy answered patiently. "Maybe that's something else you should read about."
Knuckles sat up on the sofa.
"That's erm…something I wanted to ask you about…"
"Oh do you want to borrow some of my books? I have loads, most of them are dumb romance novels but I still have lots of old school textbooks at home." Amy said quickly.
"No I mean…"
"You must get super bored up there, if you get into reading it would fill up so much of your spare time. Ooh! We could start a book club!" Amy said excitedly.
"Amy I was talking to Shadow and…"
"Oh but how would my friends get to your island?"
"Amy I can't read!"
"Oh… don't you have time?" Amy asked.
"No I just…never learned how. I…don't…I grew up on an island and I couldn't talk for a long time. Learning to talk took long enough, I never learned to read."
"Wow…okay Knuckles." Amy took a seat next to him. "I didn't know that but I suppose that explains a lot."
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked, "It just means I'm dumb."
"You're not dumb, you're just not very well read," Amy consoled, "or read at all really."
"I can't be read, can I? I'm not a book" Knuckles asked, "…that was one of those 'Knuckles is dumb' things wasn't it. Does well-read mean something else."
"It means you've read a lot, which you haven't." Amy answered, "look you taught me to read chaos, it seems fair that I teach you to read written language, right? I mean…if you want me to."
"That's what Shadow suggested, he told me to bring these with me." Knuckles said happily, handing the children's books to Amy.
"Okay I think this will make a great start Knuckles." Amy said, picking up the book, before letting it fall on her lap again, "Shadow's a good guy, isn't he?"
"He is yeah, I like him, he's…wise." Knuckles observed.
"Yeah, I'm glad we've got him on our side now, it's a shame it took so long to get to know him properly."
"That reminds me, shouldn't we get Rouge under the medi-bot now?"
"Ooh, yeah you're right! Let's do that first, we can practice reading as she recovers. Come on"
Amy retrieved the medi-bot from the fridge, no longer the least bit exothermic. They knocked the door before remembering that she couldn't hear. Knuckles shrugged and pushed the 'open door' button.
Rouge was exercising again, she was performing tricep dips on the edge of her bed.
"Does she ever stop? I like exercise too, but I'd give myself the day off if I was deaf and blind." Knuckles commented.
"I think I'd just go crazy, she is ridiculously tenacious." Amy agreed, sitting on the bed. Rouge dropped down an inch, slightly losing her balance, before pulling herself back onto the bed. She sniffed the air.
"Perfume, Amy, dried blood, Knuckles. Am I right?"
Amy laughed as Knuckles tried to smell his chest. She then tapped Rouge's shoulder once.
"Okay. Hey, are you two a thing yet?"
Amy and Knuckles looked at each other.
"Come on you can tell me. I was right, wasn't I?"
Amy looked at Knuckles, with his purple eyes, chest scar and nervous but affectionate face. She did like hanging out with him; a lot. She had felt genuine butterflies when he shakily admitted that he though she looked sexy. He was adorable.
Amy smiled at Knuckles and tapped Rouge's shoulder once.
Knuckles nervously smiled back, sitting next to Amy and holding her hand. She nuzzled into his chest.
"Ha! Knew it!" Rouge celebrated, before adding, "Now could one of you please heal me. I'm bored of dark silence."
"Oops!" Amy said, before pressing the green button, causing the medi-bot to finally get to work on the broken bat.
Sonic chose to slowly walk back to the camp. Blaze was still tired from her time in the pod.
"Blaze…I'm sorry I made you run after me like that, I just…I" Sonic started.
"You are not at fault Sonic. That was a panic attack, it's not something one chooses to do." Blaze replied.
"A panic attack?"
"Yes, a suffered from them myself when I was young, and for similar reasons. My power is emotion based. Thee were times when I hurt people when I was young. It still bothers me at times." Blaze confessed.
Sonic thought about this. He had never asked Blaze about her childhood, he knew of her royal status but little else. He looked up into the tall cat's amber eyes, she still looked a little weary, but her eyes seemed to be glowing.
"You seem brighter than before, like you're glowing. Is that because of the pod?" He asked.
"Indeed. I believe that I instinctively altered my alignment after some time in the pod. I moved from the middle ground to using Light Sol, likely because that machine was extremely painful. I think those pods can only be calibrated to neutral alignment, perhaps Eggman is, or was, unaware of the phenomenon."
"He isn't the only one. I still don't fully understand it." Sonic replied.
"The use of Dark Sol sucks colour from things, reducing their pigment, even in your eyes. This is mostly theoretical you understand. I have spent a long time trying to read up on these phenomena to little avail." Blaze explained. "I believe it has something to do with fate or purpose."
"Fate? So you believe in a god of some kind? Pulling the strings." Sonic asked.
"Not as such, without getting too philosophical I believe we have as much free will as is reasonably possible given the natural limitations caused by genetics, upbringing and the world in which we inhabit." She clarified, "However I think those of us with access to Sol have some kind of purpose to possessing it. Deviation from that purpose leads us to utilise Dark Sol rather than the usual light or neutral."
"I…sorry this is a lot to take in but… there's dark and light, we go dark when we deviate from a purpose…how do you find your purpose?"
"Again, this is theoretical, you're the only person I have ever told this to. There are few users of Sol, or Chaos as you would say, in our world. I have little to work on outside of history books. As such, I must admit, I have no clue how to learn of one's purpose, outside of trial and error experiments." She stated formally.
"Did you always talk so…formally?" Sonic couldn't help but ask.
Blaze smiled at him.
"No, I didn't. I used to try to talk like everyone else. Marine got tired of me trying to imitate her dialect and told me to be myself. She was right of course, it is always preferable to accept who you are. Acting is a job, it's demanding work. It should not be a lifestyle."
"That's…profound" Sonic said, slightly in awe of Blaze now.
"Oh well, thank you Sonic, but it was Marine's advice really. I just say it more eloquently. Marine has a good head on her shoulders, as they say."
"Yeah she's brighter than she realises." Sonic agreed. "How did you learn all this?"
"Oh well I grew up in the Castle library. I was…discouraged from leaving. As such I read a very great deal. When it comes to history, philosophy, science et cetera, I'm an autodidact. "
Sonic just looked at her.
"Sorry I mean I taught myself everything with the books."
"I see, okay. So…what do you think your purpose is?"
"I think it is to ensure that the Sol Emeralds are not misused. I find that when I work towards that goal I have to work harder to keep myself neutral."
"Why stay neutral? You're a good person Blaze, why not let your alignment move to Light?"
"I find that emotional neutrality is easier to maintain if my alignment is similarly neutral. With Light I become too cheerful and impulsive whereas if I go too Dark I become depressed, angry and reckless. I think it's safer that I remain centred."
"Okay, so should I be doing the same or…?" Sonic asked.
"When I first met you I didn't know it was possible to have so much Light," Blaze answered, "you had some Dark in you at the time but it was overwhelmed with Light"
"Wow, okay, and now?"
"It's really odd. The Light is still present, but the Dark has become overbearing. It's like you've overcome your natural boundaries. I recognised you from your Sol energy before you saved me from the pod. It's how I recognised you." Blaze explained.
"I did wonder, I look nothing like I used to" Sonic replied sadly.
"No, you smile a lot less. Your eyes aren't as bright."
Sonic actually laughed at that.
"That's so weird, my friend Shadow said the same thing. Are you just avoiding talking about the white fur, vicious spikes and creepy red eyes?"
"I did notice that, but I never saw you without a smirk. Honestly I didn't like you at first. I thought you were arrogant and took nothing seriously."
"That's fair, I always…"
"I disagree, I think it was just jealousy. You had friends and a real sense of purpose, you seemed to know exactly what you were doing." Blaze said, "Honestly you have no idea how much you changed my life. Everything I have now, started with you."
"But I was only here for a week. I don't think…"
Blaze stopped and placed her hands on his shoulders.
"You are why I'm glad I'm free Sonic. Before you, I was considering going back in that tower. You gave me purpose. I am going to help you. Understood?" Blaze instructed.
Sonic could see that she was serious, her amber eyes were staring deep into his.
"Thank you Blaze…I…erm…" Sonic mumbled.
He hugged her again, he couldn't prevent the tears from flowing out of him. He felt her rapid heartbeat beneath her soft fur. Her sweet scent had a touch of smoke to it, almost like a vanilla candle. He felt her head rest on his.
"We will make you blue again my friend. I promise you."
Sonic nodded into her chest.
They held each other until Sonic felt like he could speak again, he slowly relinquished his grip.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"Don't apologise for having emotions Sonic. These things are supposed to come out."
Sonic nodded. They continued to walk back to the camp together. Sonic noticed Blaze glancing at him repeatedly.
'Is she scared of me? Or maybe just worried about me. Probably thinks I might run off again or?"
"You keep playing with that bracelet," Blaze commented, "I don't remember you wearing that before."
He realised that he had been twirling the bracelet since he ran off.
"My buddy Shadow gave it to me. He's Chaotic too, I mean he has lots of Sol energy. These bracelets prevent us using too much."
"Marine said something similar. When you lost control she forced the bracelet back on you right?"
"Apparently; I don't remember it much. I thought the robots guarding you were going to kill her. So I removed the bracelet and started to transform. Next thing I knew I was on the floor and had apparently won."
"So you became Super Sonic?"
"No, I became DarkSpine Sonic for some reason."
"DarkSpine? When did you first become DarkSpine Sonic?"
"It's a long story," Sonic dismissed, "and no one believes it anyway."
She continued to look at him expectantly as they walked.
"Oookay," Sonic said with a sigh and a deep breath, "I was sucked into a book I was reading, got cursed, I would die if a didn't collect the secret rings, I collected them, a big dumb bad guy, his name was like... Razer or something. He used the power of the rings to get stronger, so he could take over the world. I used 3 of the rings, the rings of rage, hatred and sadness, to turn Darkspine and defeat him. The end."
Blaze took a moment to absorb that.
"That's… a lot to data to analyse." Blaze finally stated.
"That's a better answer than Tails gave, he just dismissed it as a dream." Sonic replied.
"Yes, speaking of dreams," Blaze pointed nodded ahead, Marine was asleep on the sand.
"She's had a very long day," Sonic said with a small smile, she looked more like a child when she slept.
Blaze lifted Marine end placed her gently under the tarpaulin tent, in the far corner to give her some room.
"I'm going to have to join her Sonic, I still feel weak." Blaze admitted.
"Okay no worries, I'll stay out here."
"No don't be silly Sonic, it's cold you'll get ill. Come and sleep next to me." Blaze said, as she laid down, tapping the space next to her."
"Well…if you're sure" Sonic said, going into the far-right corner.
"I don't mind you sleeping closer Sonic. It's not an issue" Blaze said.
Sonic just mumbled a little. He didn't want to sleep too close to people. He has woken up screaming in the past. He felt warm purple arms wrap around his chest.
"Blaze, I…I'm not…" Sonic started to mumble.
"You need to open up more Sonic. Dark Sol feeds on isolation and loneliness. First step is to accept other people wanting to be close to you."
Sonic thought about it for a moment.
"I can't have my back to you, my spines sharpen if I have nightmares." Sonic said, shifting to face Blaze.
She placed her arm around him, and he cuddled into her shoulder, she rested her head on his.
"You've changed Blaze," he whispered, "I remember when you could barely look people in the eye."
"It's because of you Sonic. I'm going to bring that smile back, I promise.
At that moment, for the first time in a long time, he truly believed he could get better.
Rouge opened her eyes to a watercolour world. She could distinguish between colours, but the outlines were blurry. She felt a huge sense of relief when she heard her nail bump against her the medi-bot. Moving slightly slower than she usually would she moved out of her room. She walked into the main room of the Avalanche, the medi-bot hovering slightly above her. She stepped over the little robo-vacuum with its yellow ears. She had to double take at the red and pink blob on the sofa. She had to squint but Amy and Knuckles seemed to have fallen asleep on the sofa together. She felt herself smile a little. To the side there was a brown and white pile, likely the books she had requested.
Being inactive was not good for her. Being indoors with nothing to do had left her feeling antsy. She left the Avalanche, being careful to ensure that the medi-bot followed her as she flew. As she didn't trust her stealth in her current state she stayed high. She didn't have to look around for long. The silver behemoth to the North of the village was difficult to miss. She immediately headed straight towards it in pursuit of a yellow or black blob in this undulating red sea.
She smelt oil before anything else. The sight-impaired spy gently landed in the gritty sand by an amorphous black blob.
"Either you're a big block of coal or you're Shadow, which is it?" Rouge asked.
"As much as I'd like to just stand here silently confusing you, that would be a bit mean, even for me," the blob responded, "Nice to see you seeing Rouge."
"Nice to be seeing, even if it's just blobs at the moment." Rouge replied, "I assume these huge things are out of sight of the security cameras?"
"Tails hacked them actually. They play a few weeks of looped footage. The villagers won't have to worry about working for a while now."
"That's a good move on his part" Rouge commended. "It will take a long time for anyone to notice. I suppose they could create dud bombs too. Or maybe they could be rigged to explode once they reach Eggman's base."
"Wow, I think Tails listens to you too much." Shadow said.
"You mean he's already sorted that out?" Rouge said, giving a sinister smile, "I'm such a bad influence."
"Sorry it took so long to start healing you," Shadow said, "It can't have been much fun being blind and deaf."
"Meh, it just means I got some time without seeing your ugly mug" Rouge said dismissively.
She suddenly felt herself being pulled to the side.
"Hey, what? It was only a joke!" she said, pushing away.
"I'm hugging you," Shadow replied, a little baffled.
"Er…why?" Rouge asked, relaxing.
"Just…I wasn't sure you'd get better," Shadow admitted, "then you're back and all business like nothing happened. If… if you want to talk about it…"
"Shads, sweetheart there's nothing to talk about, literally, it was black and quiet and boring. I'm used to that. There's a black and quiet and boring thing cuddling me right now."
Shadow sniggered a little at that. He held her for a little longer. Rouge wasn't used to this sort of affection, but she did indulge for just a moment. She was the one to break off the hug.
"I'm good Shadow, thanks" she said quickly, "I thought you saved that sort of thing for Blue. Is Tails nearby?"
"Yeah I'll take you to him," he took Rouge's hand and guided her to Tails.
She wanted to protest the hand-holding but chose to tolerate the discomfort. She could feel the frigid air on her exposed face and arms which distracted her from the itch behind her eyes. The feeling of retinas re-growing was a unique pain even for Rouge. Shadow let go of her hand, indicating that they must have arrived. There was a weird green glow obscuring most of her vision.
"Tails?" Rouge asked.
"He's in Master Emerald Meditation Mode. I think he's almost done though." Shadow stated.
"Right. So what's our next target after this?" Rouge asked, professionally, "Are we still moving east, or do we have a clearer direction?"
"No idea, I just go wherever Tails says," Shadow admitted, "Amy spoke to some locals though. They say that we are on the outskirts of the Empire. Further east will likely be Eggmanland proper."
"What else did you learn about this place?" Rouge asked.
"Well the weapons made in the factory are for…"
"No, I meant culturally," Rouge interrupted, "Have they developed a democracy? Do they have a leader?"
"Oh erm…not really. They just want Eggman gone so they can work with the Queen again. They seem to love her." Shadow replied.
Rouge fell silent at this. The green light suddenly dissipated. A small yellow blob appeared from the centre of the light.
"Okay I'm done. The radar is fully installed and the EMP is… Rouge?" Tails noticed her and hovered next to her. She could hear his propeller tails move closer. "Can you see? Can you hear?"
"Your medi-bot has done excellent work," Rouge said, "I can hear again, and my vision is gradually returning."
"Your voice is back to normal too, it's good to have you back Rouge." Tails awkwardly hugged her whilst flying
"I've never been this popular. I should go blind more often." Rouge joked, "Did anyone notice you flying around or using the Emerald?
"One person did, but I told him it was Royal Magic, they seem to believe the Queen can do anything." Shadow answered.
"Yeah I was surprised you got away with it," Tails said with a tired smile, "It was the same guy who thought we worked for Eggman at first."
"That's an odd conclusion to come to," Rouge said.
"Well we did come in a big, hi-tech tank," Tails justified, "we should head back there, using the Emerald really drains me."
In a green flash they were back in the tank. Shadow landed with a thud.
Tails watched as the noise caused Amy to move a little in her sleep. She nuzzled into Knuckles, holding him very closely.
"Em…Tails whispered, pointing at the lovebirds on the sofa, "How long has that been a thing?"
"Oh, being blind and deaf was boring so I did that," Rouge replied proudly, "it killed some time."
Marine sat up, head heading scraping against the smooth plastic above her. She stretched, feeling a few small pains from yesterday's exertion. She felt a few bruises along her thigh and stomach, but nothing too worrisome. She turned to her right and immediately wondered if she was still having a weird dream.
Blaze was back. Yes…yes that part made sense. Marine and Sulphur, no, Marine and Sonic had rescued her yesterday. The memories of yesterday were flooding back. The glider. The battle. Blaze returning. Walking back from the cave. Then Sul-Sonic went weird and ran off, Blaze chased after him. Then Marine, realising she couldn't catch them, had sat down to rest from the journey. Then she woke up.
So what happened in the meantime to cause this?
Blaze had a huge smile on her face. She was cuddling Sonic. Blaze looked brighter and happier than Marine had ever seen her, her lavender fur was almost glowing. Sonic looked less cheerful, occasionally kicking out a leg or shuffling away. His fur was still white, and his spines looked ragged and dangerous, reminding her more of razor-wire than anything else. His bracelet was dim however, unlike when he'd had nightmares earlier in their journey.
There was no way this could go unanswered. As much as she wanted to let Blaze have more well-deserved rest she had to talk to her privately; and now could be her only opportunity today. She gently shuffled on her knees towards Blaze and tried to gently remove her hand from around Sonic's shoulder. Her grip was quite strong however and the one around his stomach was no weaker. Marine eventually settled on rubbing Blaze's wrist.
Half opening an eye she started to awaken first shuffling closer to Sonic before glancing around and spotting Mariney.
"Good morning Mariney" she mumbled as she gently detached herself from Sonic and slowly sat up. After wiping her eyes, she smiled warmly at Marine. "Did you sleep well?"
"Not as good as you I reckon," Marine replied, "you still feeling weak?"
Blaze cautiously got to her feet. She gently bounced on the tips of her toes and stretched, leaning backwards and forwards in a gentle display of her flexibility.
"Yes. I feel far better than yesterday." Blaze stated, still wearing a warm smile, "thanks again for getting me out of there. I imagine it was quite difficult."
"Normally I'd say 'no problem' but honestly it was a bloody hassle," Marine replied, smiling back, "Can we chat in private somewhere?
Blaze looked a little confused. Looking to her left and right.
"It's unlikely we could be more isolated Marine," Blaze said, "you and Sonic really listened when I said to avoid cities."
"Sonic could still overhear. Come here a sec'" Marine requested, moving slightly away from camp.
Blaze quietly followed, taking the time to stretch her arms and produce a little fire from her fingertips, which see analysed closely.
"So what the 'eck's up with you an' Sonic?" Marine asked.
"What do you mean?" Blaze asked, waving away the flame as she did so.
"You were cuddling him. All night I assume." Marine said accusingly.
"Yes, I was." Blaze stated unapologetically, "Sonic isn't himself. He's full of doubt and self-hatred at the moment. He had deep, self-inflicted scratch marks on his arms. That's not a trivial matter Marine, he is hurting a great deal."
"Yeah I reckon you're right about that; e's been pretty weird when I was travellin' with 'im. Never guessed e was Sonic," Marine said, folding her arms, "don't see why you got all touchy feely with 'im."
"I went through something similar when I was young Marine." Blaze stated, "I went that way because I was lonely and scared of people. I couldn't let anyone get close to me. Remember how I kept trying to get you to leave me alone?"
"Well yeah o' course. But I reckon Sonic's problems aren't the same thing," Marine stated, "he was with me the whole time. He weren't lonely or anythin'. Seemed to me like he just needed a distraction. When he gets lost in 'is mind, that's when he's dangerous."
"You may be right Marine. I suppose you have had more experience with this Sonic than I have." Blaze stated diplomatically, "Both yourself and Sonic gave me a summary but I'd like to know exactly what happened whilst I have been trapped."
"Yeah alright, best take a seat then, I'd recommend popcorn but you're not gonna find much around here." Marine took a deep breath, "It started with me rowin' away while home was being knackered by Nega…"
"So wait…this alphabet thing is about sounds?" Knuckles asked.
"Yes, you put the sounds together to make a word," Amy said slowly with a smile.
"I always thought they were symbols, I only understood some of them, like how the symbol 'bed' looks a bit like a bed," Knuckles explained.
"Does it?" Amy asked, "Well our language doesn't really work like that."
Knuckles and Amy were sat together at the large, semi-circular table, only using a small corner of space, Amy had written out the alphabet in front of them.
"Okay so this one sounds like 'ah' or 'ay…"
"Are you teaching Knuckles to read?" Tails asked as he flew into the room.
"Good morning Tails," Amy said cheerfully, "yes we're just going through the alphabet."
"Knuckles do you know what this letter sounds like?" Tails asked.
"I haven't taught him that one yet…"
"Yeah it sounds like 'buh' right? As in bed?"
"That's right Knuckles, do you think that letter can be pronounced any other way?"
"Erm…well…can it be like…'bee', like Charmy Bee? Or the word 'being'?"
"Yes exactly, well done Knuckles." Tails stated before turning to Amy, "eliciting a response by asking questions usually works better than just telling people stuff."
"Looks like Doctor Tails is teaching teachers now". Rouge said as she flew into the room and landed in a seated position on the corner of the desk. "You can have your medi-bot back Tails, I can see better than ever now."
"Oh fantastic," Tails said cheerfully, flying above Rouge to direct his drone over Knuckles to Knuckles instead. "That should sort out the last of your chest Knux."
"Sweet thanks," he replied, "Do you think my moon will grow back?"
"My scars all healed, I'm sure yours will too Red," Rouge replied, "What's today's plan Tails?"
"I'm going to talk to the villagers, teach them how all their new defence technology works. It's largely automated so it shouldn't take me very long."
"Can I come too sugah? I'd like to see what these people are like." Rouge requested.
"Yeah sure, don't forget, we're the Queen's royal knights or something." Tails said.
"Don't you forget you're meant to be in a wheelchair" Amy said, pointedly, "Rouge can push you around this time."
"Oh, yeah well it was her idea to be fair" Tails said, looking at Rouge.
"I needed you to look sweet and non-threatening, so they'd show you around. Amy did you get some clothes yesterday?"
"Erm…how did you know that?" Amy asked.
"One: you are super organised and you care about your appearance so I knew I wouldn't even have to tell you to do it and two: you're wearing a new low cut top right now."
"It's not that low cut," Amy said defensively.
"Oh I know, just low enough to keep a smitten red blockhead quiet."
Everyone stared at Knuckles for a moment. It took him a good 5 seconds before he looked up at everyone.
"Oh, was someone talking to me?" he asked innocently.
Rouge smirked to herself before pulling out the wheelchair.
"We should go boss," Rouge suggested, "let's not let these guys blow themselves up with your toys."
The ramp opened, and Rouge held Tails' wheelchair as they descended the sleek metal ramp onto the rusty sand and occasional chunk of scorched earth. They were quickly greeted by several of the islands native koalas including Kenny, the tour guide from the previous day.
"Bonza mate, that metal tower looks wicked," Kenny began, "what does it do exactly?"
"It is a chaos radar, if any aggressive robots appear the island will be warned, giving you time to get into defensive positions," Tails explained, "it will then release an EMP pulse which should disable any electronic device, including those powered by Sol energy."
"Does…does that mean we're free from Eggman?" asked the koala who, yesterday, had identified herself as Marine's adoptive mother.
"Effectively yes, I have hacked into the cameras' software, installing a video of you all working on a three-week loop. It's highly unlikely that they will notice." Tails answered.
The older koala who questioned them as they arrived yesterday stepped up.
"Eggman is expecting weapons from us," he stated, "we cannot simply cease production."
"Agreed," Tails said with a nod, "it would be too obvious. You should have your healthiest citizens create the exterior shell of the weapons but leave some of them hollow. I have also programmed some of the factory's machines to arm the bombs, disrupting Eggman's supply chain. It would disguise your freedom whilst weakening him."
"It's a good move," Rouge commented, "you should all be safe for the foreseeable future."
"Okay, but…what do we do now?" Kenny asked.
"What do you mean?" Tails asked, "you're safe now."
"But…all we did all day was build weapons, what can we do instead?" Kenny expanded.
"Try to set up communications between yourself and other settlements. Machine Labyrinth to the west could use some support." Rouge answered easily.
The group looked sceptical.
"The Queen would expect her citizens to take care of each other, she will need as many of you alive as possible to help her rebuild when she defeats Eggman." Rouge decreed.
"Sounds good, cheers guys. Please let the Queen know that we continue to be her humble servants." Kenny stated, as he quickly gathered a crowd and started issuing orders to build an easterly minecart track.
"I suppose this means us older koalas can finally rest a little," Marine's mother stated.
"Yeah, great." The other koala said with a sigh.
"Okay, I think we're ready to go Rouge."
"Mm…oh right, yeah okay…Tails…I'm going to stay behind for a while." Rouge decided.
"What? Why?" Tails asked.
"Not for long, I just want to ensure things get done as you instructed sugah. Everything you've set up here is good. It needs to be overseen a little. Do you have a way for me to stay in contact with you? I can have Shadow warp me back to the Avalanche once I know everything is good here."
"Well, I suppose that's okay, I mean you're fully healed now right?" Tails asked hesitantly.
"Completely. My eyes are so good I was able to read almost all the books Shadow found for me."
"Already?" Tails asked, looking back around at her. He then realised that she had been focusing on the Koalas instead, rather than looking ahead, her face held a serious expression. "Are you sure you're okay Rouge?"
"You know me Tails, it takes a lot to bring me down," Rouge gloated, smiling back at him, "Prepare your team for travel. I suspect I won't be here long, not with all the brilliant defensive work you've done here."
Tails smiled at her, as he wheeled himself up the ramp. Once he checked that he was out of site of any koalas he flew himself into the Avalanche, returning to Rouge with the headset he'd created for himself and Shadow.
"Here you go Rouge, stay safe," Tails said, as he attached the earpiece to Rouge.
"Always do darlin'" Rouge replied, taking the opportunity to give Tails a quick peck on the cheek, "thanks for looking after me when I was incapacitated."
"You're our friend Rouge, how could we not look after you," Tails said, going a little red from the kiss, "let us know when you're done, I'll send Shadow to you straight away."
She nodded and turned away, walking back towards the village.
'He's a sweet kid, hopelessly naïve but still…' Rouge thought fondly, taking off into the sky.
Sonic opened his eyes. He itched at his ragged fur and stretched hard, causing several bones to crack. Blaze and Marine appeared to have awoken before him. He was sweating slightly, likely from a combination of the morning sun and the panic caused by his night-terrors. He glanced around the area in which he had slept, thankful that it was bereft of any sign of injuries he could have caused to his companions. Only a few claw-marks in the sand betrayed the fact of his nightmares. He remembered some of them, losing control whilst fighting with Shadow on the Ark, his madness causing him to use lava pits to torture a defeated Zavok and, most importantly, a narrative in which he joined Perfect Chaos in destroying Station Square.
He thought back to a time just before his fight with Perfect Chaos. He had been looking out at the immense blue water-dragon. Bouncing on his toes looking forward to the inevitable fight, more than a little anxious about all that water.
"Sonic," Tails had began, back when his voice was still that of a child's "Chaos only used the negative power of the Emeralds, you should be able to use its real power."
"I hate to admit it, but I think Tails is right about this one." Knuckles had agreed, providing two more of the greyed Emeralds.
"Negative forces aren't the only way to power the Chaos Emeralds, our positive feelings towards each other can make them work."
'So that's it Blaze's theory is right,' Sonic thought to himself, 'at least that part, positive and negative chaos, dark and light Sol. They are the same thing. But what about purpose? How do I figure out what determines which form of chaos forms through me?'
Sonic's concern was mitigated by his sense of relief. He finally had some direction of travel. He had a diagnosis. He wasn't just a freak, this was something that had occurred before. For the first time in a while, hope was back. He felt his white arms in front of him. Each individual hair felt dry and spiky, far removed from his trademark sleek blue fur. He had barely thought about his appearance before but since he had started going white he felt like his identity had seeped away. Now he can work on clawing it back. Sulphur the Porcupine could die soon, and the world would not miss him. Sonic certainly wouldn't.
Sonic took a deep breath, shook his fingers a little, twirled Shadow's bracelet and took off in search of his outer-dimensional buddies. It wasn't much of a search, they were chatting quite close by.
"So, you are saying that he was only really his old self when he was above the clouds?" Blaze asked.
Sonic paused, wondering if it was okay to eavesdrop. Blaze looked thoughtful, she had her eyes closed in a manner similar to Tails when he was trying to figure out a problem. Just a smart-people quirk he supposed.
"I reckon his powers are more important; he ran faster than light," Marine stated with a sigh.
"His powers are interesting, but I suspect he had many of these abilities already. We were already aware of his speed." Blaze recalled.
"You're not wrong" Sonic said, revealing himself, "I've been able to reach light speed for a few years now. It's just dangerous to move that fast so I tend to avoid it."
"Did you sleep well Sonic?" Blaze asked politely.
"Well, not too bad, I'm almost used to the nightmares by now," Sonic stated, "I usually avoid sleep if possible. Anyway, what's our next move?"
"Next move?" Blaze asked, "I had intended on remaining here and focusing on bringing you back to your old self again?"
"What?" Marine asked, looking surprised, "But what about all this?"
"Marine, you are gesturing at everything" Blaze said.
"Exactly, this world is a mess, me and Sonic did what we could but I dunno if we've had any impact at all," Marine admitted.
Blaze looked over her ruined world. She seemed almost detached from it all.
"You are correct Marine," Blaze stated, looking at her feet, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, logically I can see that. However, having a healthy Sonic present will catalyse any attempt we make to ameliorate the problems our world faces."
"C'mon Blaze, have you seen the state of this place? Weren't you listening when I talked about my town? I had to build an entire town for refugees Blaze."
"Just do both?" Sonic suggested.
They both stared at him.
"I'm not much good at sitting around, it might be better to fix me on the go Blaze. Marine's right, the oceans need to be blue again as much as I do."
"And the land needs to be green and full of life again, just as your eyes were." Blaze smiled, "Okay Sonic, we can fix you and my world simultaneously. Saving the world is what you do, maybe it can help bring you back."
"Right, now that we've got that sorted…where to first?"
"We have three emeralds out of forteen. That isn't sufficient to defeat Eggman." Blaze stated, "However Marine has suggested that Eggman may be able to access their power regardless of their location, hence the enlarged mass production robots. We need more information. We should begin where we always begin. Home."
Rouge watched silently from the roof of the factory. A few people had entered, doing exactly as Tails had instructed. But there was one koala, one elderly koala, who had been acting shifty for some time. Tails had missed it, but after so much experience, to Rouge some darting eyes, a nervous twitch or an awkward pause were as much of a sign of danger as an air-raid siren. Her more-than-healed eyes had locked in on this individual and they were not letting go. She watched as he slipped out of conversations and avoided people's eyelines. He was no professional. Eventually he made it beyond the village outskirts, out to the red sand.
Rouge followed overhead, silently watching. The nervous koala walked slowly but with purpose. His age evident as he ambled across the red sand. He looked at the technological monolith Tails had arduously worked on all night. He walked around it, before sighing dejectedly and moving away from the great silver spire. Likely he was frustrated by his incompetence with the system Tails had put in place. He continued his journey north; stopping only to rest at a nearby sand dune, removing some cloth and dabbing it against his forehead, before painfully forcing himself back to his feet and carrying on. He walked through what must have been a battlefield. Corpses were strewn across the rusty earth, many of them were partially buried under the sand, however dark stains were still present against many rocks.
He made his way to an abandoned factory on the northern coast. A scorched wooden sign lay upon the ground, in jaunty orange letters it read; 'The Coconut Crew', with an image of two cheerful blue koalas holding tools on either side. Rouge swooped down, landing atop the damaged roof, hanging upside down through a hole. She kept her keen eyes on the elderly koala as he turned on the still functional lights and walked towards a desk with a large computer. The koala sat at the computer, opening a drawer to his left as he removed thick reading glasses from the inside of his brown jacket.
Rouge had seen enough, it was clear to her what was going on, and how she had to stop it. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall, landing with a loudly echoed clang on the tiled, metal floor.
The koala, startled, stood up and turned around in a panic.
"Who…who's there?"
Rouge stepped out of the darkness, looking down at the feeble creature in front of her.
"Hand over the paper, now" Rouge instructed.
"What? N…no you can't…"
Rouge stared straight into his eyes with such severity he balked. Slowly he relinquished the paper to her. She looked down at the folded sheet. It had been written in black ink.
Turn on machine – (Blue button on big desktop)
Use Login – EggmanIntranetData (all one word)
Use Password – BlazeBase0 (all one word)
Access EggingMeOn - (Speech bubble icon on homepage)
Write message
Await further instructions.
Rouge looked up from the paper. "Planning on tricking him? Telling him the area is secure?"
To his credit the elderly koala gained his voice, now knowing there was no way out.
"No, I was going to tell him the truth, explain what had happened so that he could send robots to retake this island." He stated clearly.
Rouge nodded, "why betray your people this way? What do you gain?"
"Purpose, "he answered simply, "The Queen left me with nothing, said I was too old to keep working, forced me to retire. I was married to my job, no wife, no children. She took away everything I had. Eggman gave me a reason to keep living."
"Is that really more important than the happiness and safety of your people?" Rouge asked.
"Happiness is fleeting, safety is a myth. Those young people don't know what they want. They think they are tired of work. It is nothing to the exhaustion they will feel when they have no tasks to complete. Work is life."
"Why not simply enjoy your freedom?"
"Freedom is slavery. Without work, without purpose. You cease to live, merely existing. That isn't freedom, that's being enslaved by continued existence."
Rouge took a deep breath, before stating, "you are too far gone."
She took a few steps towards him.
"What…what are you doing?"
"Existence is slavery. I'm freeing you."
One strike to the chest, so rapid the old koala never saw it coming. Rouge closed her eyes but she could still hear him coughing and spluttering. She felt his weight fall on her arm as he spasmed, clutching at his chest. The slow gurgling sound indicated to her that it was over. She removed her arm, allowing him to fall, then stepped over his body and took his seat. She logged into the system and created a program which would automatically send generic updates to Eggman. She then hacked into the system to discover the IP address and location of the service provider. It was just a series of numbers and letters, likely the model and series number of a ship on the Egg Fleet.
She stepped back over the new corpse and walked back out into the blood-stained desert. She flew back towards Tails' defensive spire and removed the small headset from one of her many pockets.
Attaching it to her ear, she spoke "Tails I'm done. Nothing to report, all has gone as planned."
"Brilliant, thanks for double checking Rouge, Shadow will be there in a second."
It was a literal truth, the familiar green light of Shadow's power flashed just behind her.
"You okay Rouge?" Shadow asked.
He always was the hardest person to lie too.
"I'm still a little dizzy from the medi-bot, nothing a long sleep won't fix", she answered with a smile, as she leant against him, "let's go Shads."
In a flash, they were gone.
Been a while hasn't it? Thanks to LoveCatsKindly and TailztheThorcat who left reviews encouraging me to keep going, and to everyone who has been following the story so far.
Since I last released a chapter, both Sonic Mania and Forces were released. When I started Forces, I must admit I felt a little odd that that they had used the 'Sonic gets captured for a year' beginning, just like me. Although Sonic seemed to barely react to having apparently been tortured for a year. Sonic Team seems to struggle with getting their tone right a lot. Mania was just awesome though. The drop-dash is such a good addition to 2D Sonic. I got all the trophies in both games, I'm that much of a nerd (as if the 100,000 word fanfic wasn't enough of a clue lol.)
Next chapter, the Tails Team will be heading East and Sonic and Blaze will be figuring things out. I will also produce a small segment of home-grown freedom fighters. They won't take up much focus but they are vital to the plot.
Next time should come along much sooner I'm sure. I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far and don't forget to follow and review, you've no idea how much those emails telling me about story follows and reviews motivate me. Take care - BefuddledPenguin.