Chapter Fifty

The room filled with an intense energy.

Shadow was so coiled up that he was just about ready to spring at Mortuus and take the parasite down himself. The only thing that seemed to stop him was that everyone else remained motionless. Not to mention he was absolutely terrified to the bone of the disturbing creature whose featureless face leered closer and closer to them.

And then Mortuus' grin twisted into something different. Something much, much more playful.

He straightened himself again and laughed heartily. "I'm just yankin' your chains, calm yourselves..." He laughed again and pointed a talon'd finger at Shadow. "Oh, the look on your face! You guys need to have a little more faith in me." He started to push out his inverted legs, rubbing them tenderly. "Man does it feel good to stretch out the ol' walking noodles…"

The rest of the room exchanged glances of confusion. If Mortuus noticed, he didn't care. In fact, he was more preoccupied with the form lying the ground beside him. He clicked his tongue and kneeled to scoop up his former host, peering into the pale face of the young human. He turned to Tails suddenly, making everyone jump. "You. Is he OK?"

Tails swallowed thickly, suddenly terrified. But, admittedly, the young human didn't look well at all. He was compelled to slip past Shadow and pull out his equipment. He brushed off the sharp warnings and shakily stopped in front of Mortuus, who had kneeled so that Tails could inspect the host.

After some basic readings, it became clear the young man was worse off than he even looked.

"H-... his organs are failing…" Tails breathed without looking up to what amounted for Mortuus' face. He was too terrified to look up at the terrifying thing in front of him. Instead, he kept his eyes glued to his scanner. "He's in a coma. I'd wager his organs can't function on their own at this point, not after being able to rely on you for so long."

"Will you be able to keep him alive on the ship?"

"I mean, yes, but..." Tails grimaced. "It might not be worth it. The chances of him pulling out of a coma at this point are extremely slim. And, even them, that could be years from now… And that's not taking into account the permanent damaged his body has already sustained. He could have brain damage that we can't detect yet."

Mortuus contemplated this for a moment before setting the young man back on the hard floor of the cavern. Without a sound and in the blink of an eye, the grotesque creature was gone, and the human on the floor was stirring. Mortuus sat up and looked at his hands, which were still bound with the special restraints, sighing wistfully. "It's not so bad, I suppose. He's presentable, at least. That's an advantage I can't claim without him."

Sonic shook his head in disbelief. "Do my eyes deceive me, or are you committing a selfless act?"

"He's a perfectly good host, I have no reason to just let him die." Mortuus pulled himself to his feet and dusted off the seat of his pants. It was as if he had to justify the selfless act with selfishness. "I've already gotten used to the kid, so what's the point? I much prefer a human over you people any day, even if they are squishier." It was clear Mortuus could sense they weren't buying the excuses as the sole reason for his choice. He was trying to glare them down for it, but he became too self-conscious. He let out an exaggerated breath of exasperation. "OK, people, let's stop staring. You're gonna give me performance anxiety." He bent over to pick up the now-exhausted emerald, stuffing it into his sweater pocket. He then held his hands out. "Mind unlocking these?"

"That's the last semblance of control we have over you," Shadow started sternly, "and if you think we're going to—"

"I wasn't asking you to unlocking them for me." Mortuus cut him off sharply. "I asked because they're going to either get unlocked and nicely taken off, or I'm gonna get impatient and they'll get broken off. I'm asking out of courtesy."

Tails believed him. Mortuus' energy levels were, quite literally, off the charts. He reached for the lock, which he'd been keeping in the sling bag on his shoulder. Shadow placed a hand on Tails' arm to stop him. "Shadow, you don't understand," Tails whispered, trying to show him the readings on his tablet device, "those aren't going to hold him for—"

There was a loud snapping followed by a fizzle of electricity. Shadow's eye snapped to Mortuus, who had simply pulled his wrists away from each other. The special restraints broke like cheap plastic. He pulled the broken cuff links off his wrists and tossed them to Shadow, who caught them reflexively. He then started towards the elevator with a pleased look on his face.


As they were leaving the laboratory, Shadow grabbed Shine's arm and stopped her beside him. She looked at him quizzically, flicking her gaze between the rest of the group and her brother. The rest of the group was slowly moving towards the hidden entrance they came in through, Mortuus explaining to Sonic defensively just what, exactly, happened to Eggman and why. Shadow pointed to the parasite and the rest of the bleary-eyed members of their group. He looked Shine in her eyes seriously. "This," he whispered harshly, "will end more horribly than ever before."

Shine felt it in her bones too. It filled her stomach with lead. She watched the lanky, infected human hold his hands up while Sonic berated him with a lecture about how killing is unnecessary, saying things along the lines of "If you're going to stick around with us, this is something you ought to pick up quick."

"This is going to be a trial of wills on our part," Shine agreed quietly with a small nod, "that much is certain."

"And you were so on board." Shadow reminded her.

"I was on board with using him to stop Virgo, but I'm not happy about him being this overpowered." Shine narrowed her eyes at Shadow. She crossed her arms and watched the parasite try to justify his actions. "But I believe him when he says he wants to stop Virgo."

"I don't," Shadow said firmly, "I think he needs more power and he used us to get it. On top of it all, he'll probably draw Virgo to us. Two birds with one chaos emerald."

"Whatever the case, we at least have the ability keep our eyes on him. With his host unable to function on its own, we'll be able to tell right away if he's jumped into someone else. And we won't suddenly lift our surveillance, I can tell you that much."

"Finally, you're talking some sense…"

"I was never 'Team Morty' to begin with. There's a catch – there's always a catch. I just believe he at least genuinely wants Virgo dealt with and that we can take advantage of that. I've just been hoping that, through this all, he decides to give changing a real chance." If he's really here for those humans, Shine thought, then he's already going down the right path.

"We'll just see then…" Shadow started after the group again. "But I'm not taking my eyes off of him for a second."

Shine had to agree to that.

They left the laboratory, walking back to the ship. Their formation was the same as when they left on foot looking for the laboratory, except Mortuus was unbound and free to roam. He graciously kept to his spot, though. Not that it stopped him from quickening his pace or slowing down to bother everyone around him.

As they neared the ship, Tails let Simon and Willow know they needed to be let back it, that the boarding ramp needed to be let down.

"Sure thing…" Willow responded curtly, the sounds of the computer system being used in the background. "It'll be ready when you get here."

"Which one was that?" Mortuus asked over Tails' shoulder.

"Willow."

"Not the hippy?"

"Right."

"You people are all the same to me, it's so hard to keep track…"

"Put in your best effort…"

"Don't ask for miracles, kid."

They boarded the ship, climbing up the boarding ramp and heading for the cell that they had been keeping Mortuus in. "I doubt it'll hold you anymore," Kat said, keeping her distance just as everyone else did, "but we can check and see. If all else fails, we'll work on amping up the security more. That might work, might not."

"That emerald we just went looking for might come in handy." Tails stuck his hand out, watching Mortuus expectantly.

The parasite hesitantly reached into his pocket and pulled out the exhausted crystal. "My favourite inanimate object in the universe?" He tapped it with a finger. "This thing is useless, now. Who knows how long it could take too recharge? It doesn't work by the conventional rules of other chaos emeralds."

"Give it to me."

"It's a paperweight, now. Garbage, basically."

Tails raised his brows. He was surprised at his own tenacity in the face of this killer. Exhaustion didn't help, but the new host was easier to face, too.

Mortuus sighed irritably. He dropped the emerald in Tails' open hand. "Take good care of it, kid. I may want it back when we're done here."

"We'll see about that…" Tails shoved the emerald away into his satchel. He was pleased. "We can see what can be done with it. It might just be what—" Tails cut off after hearing Willow ask for him over the communicator. He lifted his wrist closer to his mouth. "Go for Tails."

"Could you come down to the bridge before we take off? Something needs fixing and I can't quite get it right."

"Yeah, give me a minute. We've got Mortuus, we're just bringing him to the quarantine cell."

They hurried to the cell, letting Mortuus amble in casually. "Alright," Tails set the cell's security up, "let's see if you can get out of there."

"This is silly." Mortuus crossed his arms in the middle of the cell. He sighed and took a moment. And then he was gone. Tails nearly jumped out of his shoes when he heard Mortuus behind him. "See, I knew this wouldn't work. And I'm trying to be transparent with you people, you see? So, I couldn't just lie about it and pretend that it was stopping me from goin' anywhere."

"That doesn't help our peace of mind much, but…" Sonic rolled a wrist. "At least you're not playing games."

"This," Mortuus stood straight, peering down at Sonic with one quirked eyebrow, "is no game, sir."

"We'll be keeping an eye on you," Shadow reminded coolly, "so keep to that no-game attitude. We're not playing either."

"You'll certainly be keeping an eye on me, Sunshine. Everyone else will be keeping at least two on me."

"OK, ladies…" Shine stepped in ushering them towards the bridge. "Let's just go see what needs fixing on the bridge so we can get out of here." She jabbed a finger at Mortuus. "You are not to go anywhere without at least two other people – and one of them has to be either me, Shadow, or Sonic. You cannot leave our sight. Understand?"

"Yessir." Mortuus winked and grinned.

Shine sighed and followed after Tails, heading to bridge. Under her breath, she muttered "This is going to be about as fun as I figured..."


When they arrived at the bridge, the energy of the group was tense. No one wanted to travel around with Mortuus free to go where he pleased, but they didn't have much of a choice – not if they wanted him to pitch in to stop Virgo. Anyways, their only other choice was knocking him out and chaining him up or something, which they were confident wouldn't work at all.

They acted like a bunch of bodyguards, their eyes stuck on Mortuus and their ears strained. It was Byrch and Shadow who seemed most vigilant in their guarding. They weren't taking any chances with him free and at full power. Together, at least, they had a chance of putting him down before he could do any real damage.

"Alright, Willow, what's the damage?" Tails asked loudly as they entered the bridge. He stopped dead in his tracks, Mortuus, Sonic, and Byrch nearly knocking him over.

"First day using your legs?" Mortuus growled, smoothing himself out. He stopped when he spotted what had stopped Tails. He frowned as everyone else dropped into a defensive stance.

Leaning on the chair Willow had been crudely tied to, tossing a communicator up in the air and catching it laxly, was the familiar face of a cool-faced monkey. Behind Simon, who was tied up in a similar situation, was a familiar rabbit. And waiting for them in the center of the bridge, was the unfortunately familiar deer, standing with her hands on her hips.

"We are here for the parasites."