Oh dear, Mephlies up to no good? Infinite messing with the warp ring perhaps? What could it all mean? Surely this won't be hinted at later on... :3
Sanctum and Steel are wonderful characters and I hope to see more of them in the future ;w;
Please look at their DA and Tumblr!
5courgesbestbuddy
With a sharp kick, Scourge fell onto the hard ground with a grunt. "Ah, so the gravity is 'normal' in this room." Sanctum smirked as he landed on his feet, shuddering from the sight of so many large computers and colder gray walls with lights.
"Spactious."
"Yeah, yeah," Scourge grumbled as he shook off the feeling with a rather doglike shake, something that made the youngest hedgehog tense in fear as the red aura faded.
"So how do we do the...scanner thing?" Steel looked over all the flashing lights, finding them both irritating and curious.
"Well, if it's anything like the computers from Kintober's vet place, there's probably a main switch and a button." Scourge paused as he felt a hard glare from the striped hedgehog," Eh- Sorry Sanc."
"Just find the damn source."
The scarred teen winced from the slightly colder tone as he made his way over to the machine.
"So what are we gonna do when we actually find this guy? Just slap him or something? Or are we gonna wreck his whole world?"
"Well, considering that this person ruined lunch, I say we ruin his whole world." Sanctum huffed a bit as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Wait- lunch, how long was I asleep?"
"Just focus on the task, Scourge."
The crimsons quirked in faint curiosity at the sight of sharp bristling and a grumble as he tapped against the keys.
"Ah-"
"Oh hey would you look at that, the energy has been in the prison." Scourge snapped a bit as he shot a glare over his shoulder.
"Wouldn't that mean the guy is here?" Steel asked, missing the weird tension between the older pair.
"No, it's more like a residual, like someone or something from the origin world was here. Not the actual source but, like a trail."
"Can we track it?" Sanctum asked, not liking the cold ice from those usually cocky and teasing sea blues.
"Well yeah, lemme just tap the ring against the frequency." Scourge rolled his blues as he flicked the ring against the read out. "Wow, rings sure are...convenient."
"Yeah, whoever made them oughta figure out a proper way to handle these things. They seem overpowered as all hell, not that I'm complaining~" Scourge cackled as he twirled the glowing ring on his finger.
"Ready to wreck a joker fellas?"
"I mean...I was going to play something relaxing, but since I'm sort of stuck at this moment, with my switch at home, I don't think I have much of a choice." Scourge gave a snort of a laugh and flicked the ring against the ground," Shut up man, you can fight whatever later."
"Don't you come between me and my rpgs."
"Whatever you say, try hard." Scourge smirked before lunging at the open warp ring. Steel giving a shrug before quietly following after.
"...I swear to whatever high power there is, his comic book stash is going on the high shelf," Sanctum grumbled as he stepped through the ring.
Missing the billowing shadowy mist slipping past his leg and into the ring with them to the odd dimension.
With a soft 'twang' the gate closed behind the unknown quartet, the prison none the wiser to their security breach.
"Oh, this doesn't look good at all…" Steel sucked a breath through his gritted teeth as he winced from the apocalyptic city. "This looks….familiar?" Sanctum glanced around from the orange glow of the city.
"Well, according to that scanner, this is SF2017. It's close to a secondary primeverse in the multiverse," Scourge shrugged, wincing from a biting pain in his side. "What's a secondary...y'know what, nevermind boss I can ask later." Steel gave a grimace, chancing a cautious glance to the emerald hedgehog.
Behind them, the whisper of a misty shadow slipped into the rubble of a downed building. Disappearing to do its own thing before the trio noticed.
"So we just need to find out who manipulated the warp ring yeah?" Crimsons settled on the leather wearing teen, narrowing a bit as he caught sight of a faint tremble.
It was then he realized just how...dark the area seemed even with the glow of the distant city,"...Oh no."
"S-so, how do we track this dude?" Steel said with a bit of nervous energy, trying his best to ignore the snapping and pained grunts behind him. If he didn't see it, it wasn't real, and it wouldn't haunt his nightmares! "Do we use the ring and let it 'ping' like a- a tracer or something?!" The youngest curled in on himself as he felt a ripple of darker energy behind him that was followed by a gruff rumble and shake of thick fur.
"I mean, w-we could- Oh sweet chaos-" Steel scuttled off to the side as a massive forest green werehog settled beside him. The ice blues hard as they stared ahead, purple symbols glowing sharply in the evening darkness.
"...I take it you have a plan, Fido?" Sanctum smirked a bit in a playful jest, though felt a bit perturbed when his tease was met with an even harder glare.
"Ahhhh, okay-" Steel clapped his hands, casually engulfing himself in a red aura before floating up and away from the pair," I'll just be up here for a bit! Don't mind me!~"
The large fluffy beast stared at the armored hedgehog for a long moment before huffing and prowling forward, the pointed nose twitching as he sniffed against the ground in clear embarrassment.
"Oh, so you're literally sniffing out the trail, hmm?" Sanctum genuinely smirked in amusement at the doggish behavior, oddly finding it cute in this moment when he usually found it as a minor inconvenience due to the sass that would follow.
Scourge shot a glare back with a snarl at the striped teen, fur bristling in embarrassment as the crimsons rolled a bit," Oh would you relax, you're being too sensitive about this." Sanctum casually walked forward, ignoring the stressed wheeze from above.
The ice blues narrowed sharply before the werehog turned to continue his sniffing, even if his ears were drawn back slightly.
The ebony hedgehog let a brow raise before he quietly crossed his arms and followed, unable to shake the feeling of something being...wrong.
"H-hey b-boss!" Steel called out from above, trembling a bit when an ice blue orb settled on his floating form," I-I think I see a weird jungle past the city!"
"Who in their right mind would have a jungle so close to a city?" Sanctum rolled his eyes a bit before he paused. "...You know what, weirder things have happened, I won't question it at this point. If I anger the chaotic beings above, so be it." Sanctum pinched the bridge of his nose before sighing.
"Look, do you need to sniff the ring to get a better feel of the energy? Or did you get enough of a feel for it?"
The striped hedgehog wouldn't be lying if he didn't tense from the deep and sharp bark snapped at him," It was a valid question! Don't take that tone with me!"
Scourge made his gaze rest ahead, trying his best to remain as calm as he could be as he leapt over a fallen piece of debris from a large gray building. Grumbling as his grayish green hands landed in soft soil of the jungle.
"Ah, so we're going into the ominous jungle by the city. That's...that's greeeeeat." Steel clicked his teeth in anxiety," I'll just...float a bit higher up here.."
"Oh would you relax, you make it sound like there's a masked murderer lurking around." Sanctum sighed, feeling the beginnings of a migraine forming as he carefully hopped over the rubble as well.
"Well there could be! We don't know anything about this world other than it's where the energy came from, there's a ruined city, and there's a freaking spooky jungle with no animal noises coming from it!" Steel bristled and crossed his arms over his fluffy chest.
"I…" Sanctum paused as he took in the choice words and actually twitched his ears to listen. Steel was right, there were no animal noises coming from the jungle.
"That's...odd."
Casually, the eldest hedgehog reached up and pulled the floating teen down by the foot while pointedly ignoring the whine," Scourge, can you sense anything else in the jungle?"
The werehog paused, deadpanning a bit in a motion to about to sass back, but noticing the cautious frown, the dark forest green ears twitched.
Curiously, Scourge sniffed the air, frowning in the realization that all he could smell was that faint energy trail, the green of the foliage, the wet dirt, and something reptilian.
But nothing that suggested actual animals living here, almost like they were all...missing.
Shaking his head, Scourge grumbled a bit and casually moved closer to the pair. Ignoring the wince from Steel as he squared his shoulders a bit. His fur fluffing a bit as he glared to the surrounding areas," This is a horrible idea-"
"Quiet Steel, it'll be fine."
"Dude the vibe of this place is horrible, it's like the set of that horror movie with the jungle! Something's gonna lunge out and try to stab us or something!"
"Alright, when we're back home, I'm locking up our horror movie stash up for a while."
Steel gasped a bit and stared wide eyed at the armored hedgehog," You can't-"
"I can and will, it's making you too jumpy!"
Giving an angsty groan, Steel floated a bit behind Sanctum yet remained close despite his phobias. "They give me more common sense than some people here! Since I'd rather not go towards the clear markings of 'come here to die by a serial killer', can't we just go around on a path or something instead of crawling through the dank wood?"
Sanctum and Scourge shared a look to the teen, deadpanning before Sanctum sighed," Steel...it's a jungle."
"BY A CITY!" The albino flailed a bit," YOU'D THINK THE PRISSY RICH PEOPLE WOULD PUT IN A PATH TO ENJOY THE NATURE!"
Scourge gave a scoff of a gruff laugh and rolled his shoulders as he went back to sniffing. "...A good point, but still-"
"WAIT A DAMN MINUTE, IS THAT A CASINO?!" Steel pointed off to the horizon, the two older moebians looking off from their spot in the jungle space.
Sure enough, an odd city of flashing lights and oddly looped structures were in the distance, almost like it was placed in the jungle by some madman with too much ego to spare.
"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF WORLD IS THIS?!"
"...Clearly a world where shit happens, Steel." Sanctum deadpanned and quietly pulled the floating hedgehog along, ignoring the gruff laugh from the werehog.
The noise seemed to quell a bit of his worry he felt nagging in the back of his mind, not that he was worried about him.
"I mean, next we're probably going to see some weird factory or a huge hilled area-" With a grunt, Sanctum went face first into the back of the large werehog, Steel yelping and flailing a bit as the eldest hedgehog lost his grip.
"What in the-" The ebony hedgehog let his body settle against the broad back, his hands resting on his still leather clad shoulders and lifting himself up to see what he stopped for.
Sanctum could feel Scourge tense underneath him as he shifted, thinking it was from some hellish thing he was witnessing and not the feeling of him crawling up onto his back for a better look.
The crimsons looked to the ground for a moment, blinking at the sight of a large cylindrical drag mark that looked like a massive scaly tail slithered through,"...Well that's not a pleasant idea…" He muttered, not wanting to meet what ever made that track mark," U-uh, Sanc?" Steel whispered, quietly pointing forward and up.
The rubies narrowed and followed the finger, his eyes going wide and ears going back slightly from the sight of a massive snake in the distance curling and writhing as two figures raced along its back.
"THIS WORLD HAS GIANT SNAKES, WHAT THE HELL-"
"Steel it's in your best interest to not scream in my ear. We can all see the giant snake-" The ebony hedgehog felt the werehog beneath him bristle and snarl when a blast of energy snapped across the snake's back.
Breaking it apart like some twisted illusion and giving it another head while the body curled and flailed in….reddish purple cubes.
"Oh, that's the same energy isn't it?"
Scourge growled and hunched down, his claws digging into the dirt as he scowled. Sanctum frowned a bit as he sighed," Well, looks like we found the...what did you call him? 'The fool we're going to smack', was that it?" he quipped a bit, resting his chin on the green shoulder with a smirk.
He noticed a faint pink rest in the grayish muzzle and a faint smirk on the werehog's features, perhaps his strange mood was improving?
Glancing back to the odd 'fight' is what he assumed it was, Sanctum stared long and hard at the distant form of what he thought was a red wolf shooting some energy gun at a dark figure along the glitching snake body. "So, the plan?"
"We are not going near that matrix glitching hot mess are we?" Steel shared a look of faint disgust at the idea of being near something so...unnatural and twitchy.
Rumbling a deep bark, Scourge hopped over the bits of foliage, tensing when he felt stone beneath him and quickly glancing down at the rapid shift of the environment.
Fading cubes tickling between the brickwork as he whined in faint disdain.
"Oh dear chaos, we're in the glitchy hot mess already aren't we?!"
Sliding off the back with disinterested grace, Sanctum came up to stand in front of the pair, his eyes narrowing as he watched the distant fight.
"Well, at least we have an idea of what the actual purpose of this odd cube energy is." Sanctum knelt down to see if he could find a residual spark.
His fingers tracing the edges of the brick, frowning as he sighed," Seems these cubes or this energy have the ability to manipulate space. Though how it reached us and affected the ring is up to question…"
With a pointed glance, Sanctum let his crimson orbs rest on Scourge," Is there anyway to tell via the ring?"
The werehog gave a shake of his head and shrug as he kept his own cold blue gaze on the odd battle on glitchy snake mountain.
"O-okay, we probably shouldn't be on a glitched part of the space since, how do we know if it's real or not?" Steel quietly raised his hands, almost preparing to catch the pair anxiously as his senses were heightened from being so close to something he thought wasn't possible.
"Unless the jungle is the illusion...Think about it, so many jarring locations crammed together, almost like someone was making difficult spaces to draw attention or distract from a main location.." Sanctum frowned a bit as he glanced to the two beside him.
"This might be a bit bigger than smacking someone for messing with the ring, Scourge." The werehog sighed through his nose as he pointedly stared at the armored hedgehog with a frown.
"We should at least get a feel of the situation before we proceed."
Scourge grumbled and huffed, something that made the genetic creation frown," Well I'm sorry if I want to make sure we can actually handle this. I prefer us all being able to function rather than going headfirst into a stupid slap fight."
And just like that, the twist in his gut returned from the hard glare shot his way," Don't you give me that look, one of us has to be responsible here."
"Um, guys- the- the snake's gone." Steel pointed out weakly, the amber orbs slightly panicked at the disappearing cubes in the distance. Though the oddly humorous flailing of a wolf falling to a tiled spot did make it a bit less horrifying.
"Well, at least we know the snake was a fake too." Sanctum sighed softly as he stood," It doesn't make it better! That implies the fakes can interact and affect the world! How do I know this?! The FREAKING HUGE TRACK OF A SNAKE BODY IN THE SOIL, LITERALLY RIGHT THERE!"
Sanctum sighed in a soft monotone a bit," Then we know they're a form of powerful illusion that can interact with things with dangerous implications. Hence why we need to be careful."
"Wise words….Very wise words…"
The trio tensed at the odd distorted voice, the unfamiliarity making their fur bristle from a chill that couldn't be placed. As a looming figure floated behind them, appearing from seemingly nowhere yet at the same time, everywhere.
Spinning around, Sanctum snapped his fingers; a cold blue energy sparking menacingly in his hold as Steel made his red aura flare defensively.
Floating so casually in the air with his own red and purple aura, was an ebony jackal. A silver mask upon his face as his wild white locks of fur swayed from his energy. A single golden orb peered down on the trio as a single pinkish gem jutted out from his fluffy white chest. The purple stripes made the pink gem twitch and glitch unnaturally as the jackal quietly adjusted his mask.
With a snarl, Scourge bared his teeth, Steel actually scooting a bit closer to him knowing that the monstrous maw was focused on someone else. "Greetings.." the jackal chuckled, the deep baritone reverberating into static from sadistic glee, the single seeable orb flickering as he fell into a deep hum," Lookalikes~"
"What did this skeleton pattern having, mummy sarcophagus face having joker call us?" Steel bristled a bit as Sanctum took a step forward in pure threat," Such a unique rarity to why you're here...so many questions, so little time….Where to begin?" The jackal tilted his head in cold calculation as the trio shared a look of mild concern.
Maybe they should've done a bit of reconnaissance before trying to find who messed with the warp ring...or rather who found them instead.