Recursion Error
Episode 65- That's not how it works
"You know, maybe this is just the fresh start we need. Island life! Some time to ourselves to sort through our head." Sorun, who stood at the edge of the island's beach, bent down to pick up an imaginary stone and made a show of skipping it across the water in front of him. "In the grand scheme of things this most recent fuckup of yours may not be the worst fuckup yet."
Besides Sorun sat Sorun, who was sitting down on the sand and watching the waves crash against the beach. Over and over, receding and rushing forwards over the sand. Again and again.
"That being said we should probably be thinking of a way to get out of here," the standing Sorun continued as he threw another imaginary rock. "'Cause we're gonna die of thirst in a couple days if we don't. I predict we have roughly fifty hours before sea madness takes over and you attempt to drink the ocean, after which we die." He glanced down at the sitting Sorun. "You'd probably like that, wouldn't you? Us dying so we don't have to deal with this bullshit anymore. The bullshit that is life on Mobius!" A third invisible stone skip.
The sitting Sorun ignored that remark, and then spoke out while continuing to stare at the water. "How'd we even end up here?" he hollowly mumbled.
"Hell if I know. One second we're drinking that purple soda Mina gave us, and the next second we wake up on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Atlantic Ocean?" The standing Sorun took a quick glance around. "Damn, are those names even applicable in this world? Is it just 'the ocean' here?"
He couldn't make sense of how he wound up on this island with Virgil. In Tails' destroyed plane. Did... did he drive it here? Why? Why here of all places? Why was he even in the plane to begin with? Why didn't he remember?
None of it made sense. At least the headache finally faded away.
Sighing, Sorun stood up. "You think the transponder in the plane still works?" he asked Sorun.
"In that slag heap?" Glancing back at the destroyed remains of the plane, Sorun shook his head and faced back to Sorun. "Super doubtful. That thing looks like it took a nosedive right into the island going max speed. I'm still trying to figure out how we didn't end up getting mangled if we're really the ones that drove it here."
"Well, then I don't see what we can do," Sorun said in a plain tone. "We don't have a way to call for help and no way off the island."
Sorun made a sigh. "Can you knock it off for five minutes?" he tiredly asked him. "You're seriously gonna give it up at minute one? Really? You could at least pretend to put effort in!"
"Maybe I don't want to," Sorun snapped back at Sorun. "Maybe I'd rather bury my head in the sand and not bother."
"Well, hey, there's the sand right there." Sorun pointed at the beach. "Get to buryin'."
He couldn't really tell why Sorun was acting like this. Ever since he'd woken up Virgil had just been sitting on the remains of the flying machine, watching him. He'd had a vacant, uncaring look the entire time, just slightly confused, and after looking around a bunch he'd just faced forwards at the ocean for twenty minutes mumbling to himself.
And now he was pacing back and forth, seemingly arguing with himself.
"Why do you have to be like this? It's always poor me, woe is me, but you'd rather just sit there and mope than do anything about it! I did do something about it, what, you weren't there when I was walking around from place to place trying to get a job somewhere!? You gave up on the first day! We got turned down ten times!" He was pacing back and forth in the sand, hands in his hair with his eyes facing down at his feet. "It's your fault we're in this mess in the first place! Oh, oh, it's my fault!? Suddenly everything's all my fault!? It's always your fault! You and the stupid decisions you're always making!"
Humans were pretty weird, he decided.
"Why do you even care!?" Sorun shouted at Sorun. "You said you didn't care anymore! Now suddenly you're over here criticizing me for every mistake I've made-"
"I'm criticizing you because you spent the first week of our new life here staring up at a ceiling, and then you tried to do something about it, and when that didn't work you went back to being an apathetic good-for-nothing wasting away and waiting for somebody to notice so once again somebody can come help us out. You've been like this-"
"What, since we found out everybody, everything, I ever knew died on Earth?!" Sorun shouted at him. "How am I supposed to feel about that!? What, am I supposed to be glad we get to stay here with them!?"
"It's a helluva lot better than anywhere else in this world!" Sorun shouted back. "At least it's in a place where people actually care enough about us not to let us starve! Oh, but what did you do when that stunning revelation was about to be revealed by Mina? You ran! You ran again!"
"I didn't r-" Not even being able to finish the sentence, Sorun turned away from the other Sorun in anger, gasped out a breath, and then rounded back at him while pointing a finger at him. "What is with you!? You really flipped from hating everybody to yelling at me for not accepting them!?"
"I'm yelling at you because we got a second life, a hard-fought life we kicked teeth out for, and you're using it being a depressed vegetable! It sucks! Yeah, I get it, it sucks Earth's gone, but there's nothing we can do about it now! I'm not saying we get over it, hell I don't think we can ever get over it, this shit's with us for life probably, but we still have a chance at making something of our life and you're over here starving yourself and hiding behind flimsy excuses! For god's sake actually do something because what you're doing right now is straight misery!"
"Maybe I don't wanna do anything." Sorun turned his back to Sorun and began walking down the beach. "What are we supposed to do? Go back and live a life? Doing what? Get real. We had a life. It died with Earth. This isn't living a life anymore. It's just living."
"..." He heard a loud scoff from behind him. "Oh, is that how it is? Figures you'd wanna give it up. It's what you're best at doing."
Nothing was said between them as Sorun walked away. From the plane and Virgil and everything else. He just kept walking down the beach, eyes fixed downwards at his feet as he kept walking. His feet softly touching down on the sand and the sound of the waves was the only thing he heard.
"What's even the point? I... what's there to live for here?" Sorun wondered to himself. "I don't have anything going for me. Everybody has their own lives, even past the Freedom Fighter thing, but what do I have? Antoine's got a wife, Sonic's got his whole hero thing, Sally's royalty, Tails has the whole kid genius inventor angle, everybody has their own families, and what do I have? No family, no skills, nothing that gives me meaning, no... no anything. Everything I used to have is in an irradiated city of the dead in an equally dead world now. All I have is an empty house and a group of friends too busy saving the world to give me the time of day. I'm nothing past that. I can't do anything, there's nothing I want to do, so why-?"
His foot caught on something, making Sorun trip forwards and hit the sand.
The only upside to Sorun falling right on his face was that the sand provided some cushioning to his fall. He still laid there in the sand for a good ten seconds before sighing, placing his palms and the sand, and lifting himself up. He shook his head to loose the particles of sand from his hair, and then sat up on his knees to look forwards. This followed him twisting his face in confusion when he saw bootprints ahead of him.
"How out of it was I that I didn't even notice I made a full circle around the island? And what'd I even trip on?" Sorun wondered as he turned back around. There was a small bump in the sand, likely what he tripped on, though what that bump actually was he couldn't figure out due to the sand covering it. He tilted his head as a result, humming and moving backwards in order to examine it further.
"What is this? A coconut or something?" Sorun silently asked himself as his hands begin digging through the sand. His fingers finally grabbed at the object, something that felt extremely smooth, and lifted it up out of the sand to- "Fuck, not again!"
It was a Chaos Emerald he'd tripped over. The blue one. He'd noticed the glow before anything else once his hands lifted it out of the sand. And then he saw the color, the shape, and put two and two together, and then he immediately realized what it was and then threw it away. He'd even shouted out of fright, fell on his back, and then crawled away out of fear of the thing as he watched it land in the sand in front of him.
And then, he froze.
"... Wait, what?" The Emerald was still there in the sand where he tossed it. When he lifted his hands up in front of his face, they were empty. "Huh?" He looked back at the Emerald. It was still there. "What? Isn't... why didn't it stick to me?"
He had enough experience with the things to know that, once he touched one, that was it. He was absorbing it. But that hadn't happened here. He'd managed to pick it up and then throw it away. It hadn't affixed itself to his hand like all the other ones always had.
"That shouldn't be... maybe it's 'cause I don't have any in me," Sorun thought to himself as he stood up. "That first one took a while for me to absorb compared to all the other ones I think. Maybe I didn't hold onto long enough? No, that... that doesn't sound right." He took a few steps forwards, ending with him standing above the blue Emerald. "What's going on here?"
Against his better judgement, he bent down to pick up the Emerald, and then straightened himself up as he turned it around in his hands. It wasn't sticking to him no matter how long he held onto it. He gripped it with both hands, squeezed on it, even tried grabbing it in different areas, but nothing was happening.
There was still something there, though. A strange, tugging sensation he felt in the points his hand made contact with the Emerald. Like a gentle pulse going from the Emerald to his hands. There was a feeling inside of Sorun, too, something trying to reach out for the Emerald, but he squashed that feeling down as he continued examining the glowing gem.
"Maybe it ain't a real one?" Sorun reasoned with himself. "Like a fake or... or something." He began to idly toss the gem back and forth in his hands. "I mean, come on, what are the odds I'd crash-land on an island that just happens to have a Chaos Emerald? But this feeling though... no, there's no way, it's gotta be-"
In a flash of blue light and ethereal, blue particles, the blue Chaos Emerald turned into the Yamato. Once again Sorun yelped out in surprise and dropped the sword.
The sheathed katana fell onto the ground, partially burying itself in sand. In another flash of light and particles, it turned back into the blue Chaos Emerald.
"Okay, what the hell...?" He bent down and picked the Chaos Emerald back up. Once again, it turned into the Yamato. "It's real?" Experimentally, he tried willing the sword to turn back into an Emerald. His confusion only grew when the Yamato turned back into the blue Chaos Emerald in his hands. "What the... that... that's not how... what the fuck, that's not how it works!"
He actually made a frustrated yell and threw the Emerald down in the sand again. Huffing out in anger, he bent down once again and picked the Emerald back up. Once again, it turned into the Yamato.
"That's not how it works!" his mind screamed. "I touch the Emerald, it gets stuck in me forever in exchange for a power, and I lose twelve years! That's what's supposed to happen! I'm not supposed to just be able to touch it and... what is this!?"
He could control it, he realized as he examined the Emerald further. He could freely switch back and forth between the sword and the Emerald. And when he let go of it entirely, it turned back into a Chaos Emerald upon losing contact with Sorun. And he didn't feel any of the pains he associated with absorbing the Emeralds. Nothing but that urge of the Emerald trying to tug into his body he kept resisting, that urge that only appeared when he touched it.
"That isn't... why...?" Sorun made a frustrated growl and gripped the sword hard enough that it began shaking. "Arrgh, this doesn't make any sense!"
"What doesn't make any sense?"
With the sword in his hand, the first reaction Sorun had to hearing the unfamiliar voice besides him was to go rigid, tightly grip the handle of the sword, and then sharply pull it out from the sheath and hold its edge up near to where he heard the voice. His eyes had widened a bit in panic, and even Sorun's breathing had gone a bit heavier just from being startled by the voice. And so, with the edge of the blade still held up to the unknown speaker, Sorun slowly rotated his head just the barest amount to get his eyes on the newcomer.
"A... shark...?" It must have been what it was. He didn't know anything else that possessed that kind of dark, bluish-gray skin. Or the dorsal fins on the head that had iron rings going through them. Or the incredibly sharp teeth it had. It was still a Mobian, though. Still bipedal, and still roughly as tall as Sorun. He couldn't help but be slightly disconcerted looking at its face, though, and the human-like features on the shark's face that looked so out of place with those teeth. The widened, yellow eyes that were looking down at the sword up against their owner's throat and the hands raised up besides its head. Hands with more fins on the forearms.
"H-hey, man, take it easy," the shark stuttered out. Definitely male from the voice and body shape from what Sorun observed. "I was just comin' to say hi."
Sorun blinked, and then looked further down at the shark's waist. He was wearing a piece of green rope around his waist like a belt, with a small pouch tied to it. Worryingly there was also a small knife attached to his hip. Also something that looked handmade like the belt, but it was still secured in its scabbard. He was bare of any other clothes aside from a necklace decorated with random gold bits. Even the gloves and shoes he normally saw on other Mobians were vacant on this one.
"Didn't know aquatic Mobians were a thing," Sorun thought to himself. Despite the knife and the teeth that looked like they could bite Sorun in half, the shark seemed genuine. Had to be if he kept the knife in its scabbard even after sneaking up on Sorun like that, which alone had probably been unintentional from the way the shark was reacting to him. "Tch... he seems alright."
"Sorry. You spooked me," Sorun quietly mumbled as he removed the sword's edge from the shark's throat. The Mobian sighed in relief and lowered his hands back down, while at the same time Sorun slowly slid Yamato back into the scabbard. "Why'd you sneak up on me like that?"
"I... I called out to you, but you didn't hear me, so I got closer," the shark innocently explained as he blinked his yellow eyes at Sorun.
Making a displeased sigh, aimed mainly at himself, Sorun rose his hand up and rubbed at his forehead. "I must have been too distracted to notice you," he said. "I'm a bit out of it right now. Things aren't really going that well for me." He glanced down at Yamato, held in his left hand. "Again, sorry for that."
He couldn't say he was too surprised when the shark offered him a tooth-filled smile in forgiveness. "Eh, it's all cool. Anyways, I'm Razor!"
"Sorun."
"Sorun?" Razor had repeated his name with a hint of confusion in his voice. "Never heard of that name before. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard of a Mobian that looks like you, like, ever."
It was Sorun's turn to look confused. "I-I'm not a... look, don't worry about it," he said. "How'd you get to this middle-of-nowhere island, anyway?"
"... I swam?"
"Right." Sighing and reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose, Sorun shook his head and looked off to the side. "Is there civilization nearby? Somewhere I can go to so I can hitch a ride back to the mainland?"
Razor shook his head. "Not really. This place is pretty removed even from where I live. In fact, nothing really ever comes around here."
"Fantastic," Sorun sighed out. This place really had to be remote if the shark Mobian that probably lived in the ocean barely even knew this place.
Noticing the disparaged look on Sorun's face, Razor asked, "Can I ask how you got here?" The question made Sorun face the shark again. "I just, uh... I'm not really seeing any gills or fins on you or anything, and I'm pretty sure if a Mobian like you lives in the sea I'd know, so can I ask how you wound up here? I don't even see a ship or nothin' parked anywhere."
"I crashed," Sorun deadpanned. "You might have seen the metal heap piled up on the other side of the island?"
Razor's face lit up in realization. "Ohhh! You came in that! Yeah, I saw that, but I didn't know what it was." He looked over his shoulder and began rubbing at his neck. "I saw a weird-looking Chao there and left my own with it and decided to follow the footprints I saw in the sand to you. Was that Chao yours, too?"
Sorun's head perked up. "Oh, you have a pet Chao, too? Yeah, he was mine." A beat. "Oh, you left him with Virgil?"
For some reason, the simple confirmation that Virgil was Sorun's Chao made Razor visibly relax. "Crusher? Yeah." He looked back at Sorun. "Why? Is that a problem?"
"Virgil, uh... he doesn't really play well with other Chao," Sorun said, much to the shark's confusion. "I mean he's only ever interacted with the one I know of post-evolution but he really didn't get along with him. It's this weird superiority complex thing he has, I dunno."
Nodding in sympathy, Razor said, "Yeah, Crusher's kinda like that, too. Always was kinda more violent than a normal Chao since he evolved with me." They both locked onto each others' eyes, both growing concerned. "You, um, you think everything's okay over there?" he hesitantly asked.
He was an odd Chao that came with the weird fish Mobian thing that had suddenly appeared out of the water. This weird black and green Chao. Smiled too much for Virgil's liking, but he had sharp teeth like him, too, which he found a bit interesting. But then there had been that smile- that cocky, overconfident smile, like he was challenging Virgil. And he only started doing it once that Mobian walked out of sight following Sorun's footprints.
So of course Virgil decided to fight him. He seemed interesting. Much more so than the rabbit child's Chao, that pathetic thing that needed to be coddled. This one actually evolved like he had. And that smile... it irked Virgil.
The fight itself hadn't nearly been as interesting as the Chao itself. It liked punching- inelegant compared to the black blades attached to Virgil's arms as far as he was concerned. Inelegant and much, much too slow. It hadn't lasted more than ten seconds, ending with Virgil sitting atop the now-struggling Chao as it tried in vain to free itself from the fate of being Virgil's chair. The smile was all gone now, replaced with angered snarls as it tried and failed to remove itself from Virgil.
As far as Virgil was concerned the fact he wiped that stupid smile off the new Chao's face was victory enough.
"... I'm sure it's fine," Sorun assured Razor, not sounding very convinced himself. "But anyway, yeah, I... flew in on the plane and crashed here on the island. Still trying to figure out how that actually happened."
"You flew?" Razor asked in an incredulous tone. "Like... like a bird? You flew in the air?"
"... Yeah...?"
"In that?"
"Man, have you never seen a plane before?"
"No! But wow!" Razor's expression grew from disbelieving to astonished. "That's really amazing! How do you get something so heavy to fly in the air!?"
The sudden enthusiasm made Sorun take a step back. "Uh, you know, w-with aerodynamics and propellers and... stuff..." Sorun trailed off, unsure of how to describe exactly how a plane flew. In all honestly he wasn't sure of the science himself. Likewise, Razor's amazed look began to fade. "I don't know, dude, I didn't build the thing," Sorun said with a sigh, making Razor grow a bit disappointed. He looked off to the side and saw that the sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon. "You think we can pick this back up over by the plane?" he asked, turning back to Razor. "It's getting late. We can make a camp or something."
"Hm? Oh, sure." Razor gave him a nod, the prior disappointment disappearing in an instant. "Yeah, come on. We'll meet up with our Chao and pick it up from there."
"Alright, so let me see if I got this right." Razor took in a deep breath, flattened his hands together, and pointed the tips of them at Sorun. "There's Overlanders, which aren't Mobians, and then there's humans, which are like Overlanders but aren't, and you're a human, but, like... not a human human."
"If anything I'm the human human and the rest are offshoots, but sure, yeah," Sorun confirmed with a nod.
"And... the thing that separates humans from Overlanders is... the location...?"
Sighing, Sorun shook his head. "Not exactly, Razor, no."
"Gah!" Razor leaned back on the log he was sitting on and grabbed at his face. "This is so confusing! Why does this have to be so complex!?"
"I ask myself that a lot," Sorun mumbled, leaning forwards on the log he sat on opposite to Razor as he stared at the small, smoldering campfire between them. "You really are clueless with what goes on in the world, huh, Razor?"
The shark's hands lowered from his face. He made a huff and turned his head away from Sorun, pouting slightly. "All the going-ons that happens in Meropis City pretty much only involve things under the sea. Nobody involved themselves with the surface communities because there's no point. It's all too far away on land and we already have everything we need in the sea. Why bother?"
It was a narrow-minded view of the situation, but Sorun could see where he was coming from. There was apparently a gigantic underwater Mobian community according to Razor. One he didn't even knew if the others back in New Mobotropolis knew about because, according to the shark, they were a reclusive bunch that didn't bother with anything outside the sea. It showed from how much Razor knew of the surface world's history, which was to say, he didn't know jack. Sorun probably should have been clued into that fact the moment he mistook Sorun for a Mobian.
He didn't even know what an Overlander was, or anything surrounding humans. From the way Razor made it sound, any history was self-contained to the underwater communities, and anything outside of that on land was a mystery to them. A mystery they'd rather keep shelved and never explore since they were all content with what they had under the ocean.
Closeminded, maybe, but with all the insanity that happened on the surface he wasn't too sure he blamed them for the reclusion. Probably more peaceful that way. He wouldn't be one to criticize a community with how it chose to work.
Sorun glanced off to the side when some movement caught his eye. Virgil and Razor's Chao, Crusher, were chasing each other around, sometimes catching one another and wrestling on the ground for a bit. Ten out of ten times Virgil would win, but no matter how many times he was beat down, Crusher wouldn't be deterred. And much to Sorun's shock, he actually caught Virgil smirking a few times as a result. Not a full-on smile; a mean little smirk that was more amused than anything else. But he was fully welcoming the other Chao's defiance of him. And Crusher seemed to be having fun with it, too.
"Those two sure got along quick, huh?" Razor asked, looking towards the two Chao with a smile on his face. "I was kinda worried when you told me about Virgil, but they look fine to me."
"Mf." Sorun made a grunt and poked at the fire with a nearby stick he had on hand.
"Still though," Razor continued, looking back at Sorun, "your Chao looks weird. How come he doesn't have that, um, that thing?" He pointed above his head. "The weird emotion dot thing? Every Chao's supposed to have one."
Sorun glanced to the side at the Chao. Crusher had that floating dot above his head. A green, spiky thing, but a dot was a dot, he supposed. He recalled Virgil formerly having one, too, back when he was an ordinary Chao. "He lost it when he evolved," Sorun answered. "Dunno why. Chao're weird."
"That they are," Razor agreed. "It's nice seein' Crusher have so much fun. None of the other Chao back where I'm from ever like playing rough with him like this."
Leaving Razor to his thoughts, Sorun turned to the object that was sitting at his side. The blue Chaos Emerald, with its glow illuminating the surrounding area darkened by the twilight sky. He took hold of it, rolling it around in his hand while giving it a contemplative look. In a flash of blue light and particles, it'd turned into Yamato. With some concentration, he managed to turn it back into a Chaos Emerald, and while he was holding onto it, he felt something resting on his shoulders. The blue claws of his Bringer Claws. He dispelled them immediately and continued staring at the Emerald.
"I can use any one of my powers while holding onto this thing without having to absorb it. But only when I'm in physical contact with it," he thought. "It keeps defaulting back to Yamato for some reason, though. I have to concentrate to get any of the other powers. But Yamato just comes to me immediately. I don't know why."
He felt that he could absorb it if he really wanted to. He figured that's what that tugging sensation he felt was: the Chaos Emerald wanting to go into his body. But he was... what, resisting it? Controlling it? He didn't know what it was. He did know he didn't want to absorb it. Getting permanently locked to a single power wasn't too appealing, nor the twelve years off his life. Temporary access to any power he wanted at no cost seemed more efficient. Especially since he was planning on using Yamato to go back to New Mobotropolis at some point. Once he'd worked up the nerve to show his face to the others.
"But why now? Why is it doing this to me now? What changed?" Sorun wondered to himself. "Did something happen to me to change the rules on how this works? Am I just that much more experienced with it, or is this a result of something happening? I'm not sure. Maybe the others back hom- back in New Mobotropolis will have answers. I sure don't."
It was curious. Terribly curious. And like many things, Sorun just didn't have an answer for it. At least he had some power back now, albeit temporarily. As much as he'd disliked them, he'd admit he felt... somewhat naked without the powers. Vulnerable. Having just some back helped to put him at ease.
"So what's the story with that?" Razor asked, dragging Sorun out from his silent musings. He looked up to see the shark pointing at the Emerald. "The glowing thing you keep turning into a sword and all that other stuff?"
Turning the Emerald back into Yamato, Sorun looked further up into Razor's yellow eyes. He seemed intensely curious over the sword which, Sorun would grant, made enough sense. Probably wasn't every day he saw someone conjure a magical katana. "It's a really long and sad story I don't wanna get into," Sorun said, making the shark deflate a bit. "To make it a short and mildly depressing story, me being a human human, as you put it, makes me special. And because of that I can make special things with Chaos Emeralds."
"And Chaos Emeralds are...? Ow!"
Sorun had reached forwards and softly bonked the tip of Razor's nose with the tip of the sheathed Yamato's scabbard. Not very hard, but enough that the shark had still recoiled in shock while swatting an amused Sorun's sword away.
"Get out more," Sorun said as he pulled the sword back to his side. "They're special rocks with nigh-unlimited power. And I get to turn them into swords. Ain't life grand?"
"Grand's a word for it. Sure," Razor mumbled as he rubbed at the spot on his nose Sorun had touched. "Could you not touch that? My nose's sensitive."
"Is it, now?" A small, mischievous smile played across Sorun's face as the katana turned back into a Chaos Emerald. Blue electricity momentarily arced around his body. "You should probably tell that to him."
"Huh? Him-?" Razor was cut off when a blue, spectral hand reached up from behind him, grabbed his nose, and squeezed it. Softly, not enough to cause harm, but it'd been startling enough that Razor jumped off the log he'd been sitting on in fright while whirling around to his attacker. He saw Sorun's spectral Doppelganger waving at him right before it disappeared, followed by him hearing Sorun's soft laughter at his expense.
Razor turned towards Sorun, his rows of sharp teeth showing as he grinned savagely at Sorun. The laughter the human was making was slowly cut off when he saw that grin and the eyes locked right onto his body, and before Sorun could get a word out, Razor lunged right at him. No words of warning. Not even a sound. He just jumped at Sorun with his arms outstretched towards him.
He'd tried Tricking away, the Emerald was still in his hand, but Sorun was still locked onto the Doppelganger power. He wasn't able to switch it to Trickster fast enough to avoid getting jumped on by Razor. The Emerald flew out from Sorun's grasp, with the teen making a soft grunt when his back impacted the sand. He felt Razor's hands reaching out to pin Sorun's arms down, after which he opened his eyes to see the other teen leaning over him with a victorious, tooth-filled grin.
"Ha ha! Gotcha," Razor said through that grin.
"It would seem so." He tried to sound annoyed, but the incredibly small smile Sorun held betrayed his amusement. He didn't feel as amused when he couldn't lift his arms up from Razor's hold, though the smile remained.
Razor, however, grinned even wider when he felt Sorun's resistance. "You're not very strong, are ya, Sorun?" he asked.
"It's a fact I lament more and more with each passing day," he responded. "Please let me up."
"I dunno. Technically you got my nose twice and I only paid you back once..."
With an annoyed huff, Sorun rolled his eyes. "Razor..."
"Alright, alright." Laughing a bit, Razor released his hold on Sorun's wrists. The human teen sat up, while Razor had already retreated back to the log he had been sitting on, with Sorun returning to his. They both sat down, with Sorun proceeding to return to poking at the small campfire with his stick.
Overpowered by a shark. Somehow not the weirdest thing that happened to him in the last month.
"So what were you doing all the way out here in the middle of nowhere, anyways?" Sorun idly asked. "You said this place was pretty out there even by aquatic Mobian standards."
"A-ah, yeah. Uh, how do I..." Razor began kicking his feet as an uncomfortable look overcame his face. "Sorun, have you ever... you ever have girl troubles? You know, with girls?"
Sorun shook his head. "No. Never. I'm an expert on women."
Nearby, Virgil ceased wrestling with Crusher and stared over at Sorun with a skeptical look.
"Oh, man, really?" Razor let out a nervous laugh and darted his eyes away from Sorun. "I-I bet you get girlfriends all the time then, huh?"
Sorun shook his head again. "Nope, never had a girlfriend. And nobody's ever been interested in me. Believe me, I'd know if somebody was."
Virgil's eyes narrowed to slits, and his mouth opened a bit in disbelief.
"Oh, alright. Cool." Razor cleared his throat. "I, uh... I only ask 'cause, well... this is all about my sister."
"Your sister," Sorun echoed. "Okay, a bit weird, but I'm not one to judge."
"It ain't like that!" Razor yelled out. "It's... agh, it's hard to explain." Razor held a hand to his face and let out a sigh into his palm. "Where do I even start with this...?"
"The beginning?" Sorun suggested.
Razor sent him a pointed look, but then nodded. "Alright, so, don't laugh but... I used to be a pirate."
"... Ha."
Razor grit his teeth and lowered his hand. "Sorun, I'm serious!"
"Sorry. Couldn't resist," Sorun apologized, though he still had a faint smirk on his face. "A pirate, huh? Didn't you say you were as old as me? How'd you get into the pirate game?" He paused and looked out into the ocean. "How is there even a pirate game?" he asked in confusion. "None of the continents trade with each other. All the settlements and places like the Overlander government and the city I come from are all self-sustaining. If there is trade, it's all done in-continent between smaller settlements. Nobody's sending ships full of anything worth stealing, let alone goods, across the ocean to other continents. There's nothing to pirate out there."
A consequence of the fact that this was a post-post apocalyptic world, far enough along that the actual apocalypse was a thing of legend. The "Days of Fury", or whatever Sally had called it. Civilization came a far way since then to the point governments and kingdoms were back, but there wasn't anything even remotely close to a global economy. Any and all economies were all self-contained. And as he said, most settlements were self-sustaining. He doubted there were even ships period that traveled the ocean, especially considering flight was probably an easier option to those it was available to. He knew Tails had that submarine of his, but that was to be used for specific circumstances.
How the hell could there be pirates in conditions like that? They wouldn't be able to sustain themselves with nothing at all to steal.
"It's 'cause of those metal things," Razor explained to him.
Sorun tilted his head. "The metal things?"
Razor nodded. "It's been a problem for the last decade or so. These... I don't even know what to call them. These things made of metal, machines, except they were moving around on their own and doing stuff."
A lot of bells were ringing in Sorun's head. "They have a logo of a really round, grinning face on them?"
Not surprising him at all, Razor said, "Yeah! You know 'em?"
"It's part of a large-scale problem the entire world has to deal with, though with recent events it should be dealt with soon. I'll give you the details later if you really wanna know since it'd take a while to explain," Sorun offered. "Just call 'em robots if you want."
"Robots. Alright," Razor muttered, whispering the word out and nodding at how it sounded. "Well, almost for as long as I remember these... robot things had been making a mess of the undersea world. Nobody knows where they came from; just that they kept comin'. Harvesting minerals and other things from the sea floor, spreading this awful black stuff around the water that kept making everything sick, it was... it was pretty awful. There's still some areas today that are still polluted with that stuff. One time they stopped for a bit, and then the robots came back looking different and way more dangerous," Razor explained, his expression hardening a bit. "They suddenly stopped coming altogether, though, fairly recently. Nobody really knows why. Not complaining or anything, but... well, it's just weird."
"So Robotnik was doing some undersea operations, and then he died and stuff died down for a bit until Robotnik two-point-oh came to replace him and ramp things back up. Probably upgraded the Badniks in the process. Then during the time when he really had a hold on the whole world with the Emeralds he was really upping the pressure on everyone down there. But then he started losing ground to the Freedom Fighters around the same time I showed up, likely withdrew his forces in the ocean to help with things on land, one thing lead to another and we're at the point we're at now with him down to almost nothing and hiding in the ruins of New Megaopolis." If that was true then the problem of his Badniks accosting the undersea life should already be taken care of if what Razor said was true. The pollution was another issue, but Sorun didn't have a solution for that. They'd have to deal with it on their own.
"They were never able to take over Meropis City since the guards managed to defend it so well, even during this last year where things got especially bad," Razor continued. "And there was this small group of sea animals that were always fighting against the robots, but the whole ocean was a lot of ground to cover for just them. They couldn't be in every place at once so they weren't able to help with every problem."
Sorun's head picked up. "Was one of them a talking whale?"
"I think so, yeah," Razor confirmed.
"Huh. I know a guy that knows that guy." Sorun gestured to Razor. "I assume a lot of places weren't as lucky as the city?"
Razor grew a bit saddened. "No. Some people just didn't... there wasn't a lot they could do. Whole villages would be destroyed and harvested for resources by those things," he said in a soft voice, hints of anger in his words. "It's not that bad anymore since the robots stopped coming, but back then it was real bad. And for a long time me and my sister were with this one group that kept sailing around the ocean. We'd go to scavenge what was left of the destroyed villages, always moving from place to place and never stopping for long. Just surviving, you know?" He made a bitter laugh. "But... just sometimes, there were survivors. But the captain, he... he never batted an eye at them, never helped. Sometimes he'd even tell us to steal what little they had left just so we could live off it."
One of Razor's fists began to clench hard enough that Sorun heard his leathery skin strain from the pressure. The two Chao had long since stopped fighting, both looking towards Razor and listening to the story with somber expressions. Sorun was doing much the same.
"I was the only one ever against it. Even my own sister never questioned it. 'Do what we need to survive,' she'd always tell me. 'It's us against the world, so suck it up.'" He made a loud sigh. "I just couldn't do it, Sorun. I was fine with looting abandoned villages. Those days were... they were fun. But then a couple years ago that thing with survivors started happening and I just couldn't go through with it. I told everybody we should stop, maybe even try to help people. I mean, we'd been doing this for so long that we had more than enough to help people besides ourselves, maybe even do some trading with Meropis City to try and help rebuild some of the outlying settlements."
"And how'd they respond?"
Razor grit his teeth in a mixture of anger and anguish. "They threw me overboard and left me for dead. Just like that. Like I never mattered to them. My own sister didn't even try stopping them."
Sorun hissed through his teeth and lowered his head a bit so he didn't have to see Razor's face. It was upsetting him seeing the shark look so down. "That's rough, buddy," he mumbled out in sympathy. "I'm not so surprised, though. A while ago I ran into this group of jackal Mobians back on land that were harassing this one village. They were these... nomadic bandits, I guess, doing what they could to survive. Just like your pirate pals. Their leader almost cut the head off this one guy that helped me out when I was lost. He was caring for a kid whose parents died."
Razor looked up to Sorun's eyes, horrified by what he heard. He looked almost scared when he asked his next question. "A-and... what happened with them?"
"I broke all his limbs and told them to never return to that village again," Sorun stated in a low, even tone. Razor's eyes had widened dramatically while his body had gone rigid, and his long shark tail made an uncomfortable-looking flinch. Off to the side, Crusher looked towards Sorun in surprise while Virgil made an approving nod. "The old man's alive in case you cared," he added.
"Oh. That's good." Razor exhaled and shook his head while making a nervous chuckle. "Eh-heh, wow. You really don't mess around, huh?"
"... I liked the old man and the kid. That's all," Sorun mumbled. "And I was in a pretty bad place at the time."
"Yeah, I bet," Razor commented. His face lowered a bit as his shoulders drooped. "Why do they do that, Sorun? People like the ones I used to be with and those jackals? How come they keep hurting people?"
"To live, I guess. The world's pretty messed up because of the person behind all the robots. It's as bad up here as it is down there, but it's getting better." Sorun looked up towards the darkening sky. Stars were beginning to become visible. "People that are too scared to die will do desperate things to live. I used to share the sentiment. These days though, I'm... I'm not too sure."
"What is that supposed to mean?" A worried look overtook Razor's features as he looked towards Sorun. The human sighed, and lowered his gaze to meet the shark's eyes.
Sorun didn't know why he was considering telling Razor about his home. A complete stranger. Something about Razor, though... Sorun couldn't quite pin it down. There was just something he liked about him. Maybe it was the fact he was a fellow Chao-owner. His attitude, maybe. He didn't know. He felt at ease around him. And as it was he needed to get this off his chest. Besides, Razor had already shared a lot of personal stuff. It only seemed fair to Sorun's eyes.
"My home is gone, Razor. Everybody I ever knew there is dead." He slumped forwards and looked towards the slowly dying fire, not missing the hurt look Razor had adopted. "I don't know why, and I don't know how, because I can't even go back to the ruins. And now I'm stuck living among Mobians trying to live a lifestyle in which I have no idea what I'm doing. Nobody understands me. I can barely understand anybody. Everyone's... different. In more than just our bodies. And I'm supposed to just figure out how to do all this while I'm coming to grips with the fact my home's gone? I'm just supposed to accept New Mobotropolis as my new home and move on like nothing happened? I can't even get a job to keep myself fed, and most days I'm just staring at a ceiling. What am I supposed to do?"
"... You feel like you're being suffocated. You're aimless, like you're stumbling around, and your mind just keeps replaying the same things over and over and you can't get past it." Razor's words caused Sorun to raise his head, with the human growing surprised at the content of his words as he stared towards the fire with Sorun. "Everybody feels like a stranger, and when you try to figure out what you're supposed to do you don't-"
"- Even know what you want," Sorun finished.
"Yeah..." Razor mumbled with a nod. "Can't say I've had something as tragic as what happened with you happen with me, but getting thrown overboard half-alive by the only family you ever knew is probably a close second."
"Some would argue it's probably worse," Sorun quietly agreed. Which was worse? Everyone dying or everyone betraying you? Sorun didn't know the answer. Didn't even know if it mattered since the end result was the same either way: loneliness.
Maybe that was why Sorun liked Razor so much. He understood in some capacity. They were similar. When Sorun spoke Razor could actually comprehend what he was describing. It was like taking a breath after nearly drowning. That was how relieved Sorun felt listening to the shark speak.
And then he grew sad. Because the only reason Razor understood was because he went through something similar to Sorun. It hurt him knowing somebody else was hurt the same way he was.
Razor made a sad chuckle. "Maybe. I dunno." The corners of his mouth lifted a bit as he looked back at the fire. "I was rescued by a couple of good friends. They look after me. They're all that look after me," he added. "Nobody else in the city really looks at me the same way as they do. Because I'm an outsider, a former pirate. And city life is just so different from what I'm used to that I can't really understand it all, so I just stay with my friends at this little temple they live in. Simpler that way. There's even a Chao Garden there, so that's a nice distraction."
Sorun made a small hum. He really did understand. "I know the feeling. I have friends, too, but they're so busy trying to help everybody that they can't spare much time for me. Beyond that, I can't do anything. I just feel like a deadweight." He made a small scoff and gestured towards the nearby wreckage. "Involuntary or not, it seems I ended up running away. Again. I couldn't handle life so I stole my friend's plane and crashed on an island in the middle of the ocean. Worst part is I don't even remember doing it." Sorun shook his head. "You ever screw up this badly? Trying to cope with all this?"
"Nah, never." Razor flashed Sorun a light tooth-filled grin, causing the teen to scoff and roll his eyes. "I've been in the same place, though. But the people who rescued me, my friends who I practically spend all my time around, make it easier. I didn't know what I wanted until I realized I didn't want to be without them. So I decided I'd stay. For them." He gave Sorun a considering look. "Don't you have people like that?"
Nicole's image briefly flashed through Sorun's mind. "Perhaps," he answered, glancing towards Virgil and then back to Razor. "Does it help?"
Razor had to pause to think on the answer. "I... think it's a way forwards. Forwards to what, I don't know. I'm not really good at this thinking thing. But it's a weird thing. You don't feel yourself getting better, but then after a while you look back and realize how worse off you were back then than you are now. So I think that means it works?"
"Maybe," Sorun admitted. He didn't know, either. "You never answered what your sister has to do with you being here," he suddenly said, wishing to change the subject.
"I don't want my sister to be with those guys anymore, Sorun. They're bad news," Razor said with a sigh. "The robots are gone. Villages aren't being destroyed anymore, and the only way they supported themselves was from raiding those villages that were ransacked by the robots. What happens when they run out of places to loot? I've already seen them stealing from people that need it more than them. I don't want to see my sister end up like those jackals you told me about," he said with a shake of his head. "Even if she disagrees with me, even if I have to drag her away from them kicking and screaming... I don't want my sister to do something she can never take back and will regret for the rest of her life. She's my sister. My only family. I can't bear the thought, Sorun." His eyes narrowed as Razor's face grew more determined as he looked out to the ocean. "This is a travel route they frequent. I know from my time with them. They like to come here for some of the fruits that grow here," he explained. "When they come here, I'm taking her back to where me and my friends live." A chuckle, a nervous one. "She, uh... she's probably gonna really hate me for what I'm about to try. But I have to do it, you know? For her sake. Even if she never talks to me again."
"All for family, huh?" Sorun couldn't say he shared the sentiment. He never had siblings, after all. A mother, but that was it. He could understand it somewhat in that respect. Not so much when she let him be thrown overboard. "Even though she left you for dead?" he asked.
Razor nodded. "Yeah. Even then."
Foolish. Maybe. Probably. Sorun couldn't rightly say. Maybe he was wrong in thinking it foolish and Razor was in the right after all. He couldn't blame the guy wanting to save his sister from crossing lines that couldn't be uncrossed. Not when there was an alternative. "The rest?"
"I'm turning them into the city guard. They're wanted criminals anyways," Razor said. "What they do isn't exactly unknown. Maybe it'd even get the guards off my back. They keep sneering at me whenever I cross one. This one uppity guard even accused me of bein' a thief once when it was a completely different guy. Aaaaand maybe I wanna get a little even for what they did to me," Razor quickly added when Sorun gave him a look. "But it's mostly to save my sister! And to stop anybody else from getting hurt."
"So that's your plan? You're gonna singlehandedly fight a whole band of pirates?" At seeing the shark nod, Sorun made a sigh. "Numbers?" he asked.
"Including my sister? Six."
"Okay. So six pirates versus you and your Chao?" Sorun asked, raising an eyebrow.
Hearing that made a troubled look cross Razor's face, which made Sorun think he hadn't even thought of the odds yet. So desperate to save his sister he'd jumped at the plan without thinking on it. But, instead of looking worried, he just gave Sorun that tooth-filled smile of his. "Eh. It'll work out."
He doubted that. "Will it?" Sorun mumbled. "Your friends even know you're here?"
"Yours know you're out here?"
"... Fair." Sighing through his nose, Sorun looked off to the side. The blue Chaos Emerald was lying in the sand nearby. He regarded it for a few moments, and, after making a resigned sigh, reached forwards to grab it. "I'm supposed to be retired from fighting, you know. I don't like doing this kind of thing." He firmly grasped the Emerald between his hands and turned back to Razor, who was giving him his full attention. "But I guess I can make an exception for you."
"Wait, what?" Razor's features brightened up immensely. "Y-you will!? Seriously!?"
"Against my better judgement," Sorun muttered under his breath. "But," he continued in a louder voice, "I will. We're friends, after all."
"R-really...?" To Sorun's horror, the shark was starting to get misty-eyed. Not only that, but his smile was threatening to split his face. "Sorun, I-"
"If you cry the deal's off and I leave," Sorun snapped, making Razor visibly jolt. He was already struggling with all these emotions. He didn't need more, dammit. It was too much as it was.
"Huh!?" He hadn't even noticed what was going on with his eyes. Razor was quick to lift his wrist and wipe away at them. "I-it's the heat from the fire! I'm not used to it!"
"Ah. Of course." Sorun didn't even care about the state of the shark's eyes. He was more focused on trying to figure out why he just agreed to fight pirates. A thing he was explicitly supposed to be avoiding. He should just take Yamato right now and leave Razor to his fate.
But... he didn't want to. He didn't like the odds the shark was facing. They were abysmal, and frankly, Sorun didn't think he'd win without help. And he was too scared and worried to think about what Razor losing would mean. It shocked even Sorun how quickly he'd grown fond of him, but he didn't want to see anything bad happen to him. And he deserved to have family back, even if it was an ungrateful sister. Didn't deserve to be lonely like Sorun. No one did. So he'd help. He'd help once and leave.
At least he'd get to say he fought pirates. That surely had to be a plus.
"So what's the plan?" Razor questioned him. He still had a big smile on his face.
"I've dealt with way worse than a band of pirates with way less. You deal with your sister. Leave the rest to me. We'll let the Chao do what they will." Sorun paused, and then looked to Virgil. "Hey, no dismemberment."
"Chao." That didn't sound very committal to Sorun's ears. He shrugged, not very much caring if a pirate or two ended up permanently crippled. Less risk of something going bad.
The way Razor fidgeted in his seat didn't make it seem like he shared the sentiment. "Er, uh, that's a joke, right?"
"You know those robots you hate so much?" Razor gave Sorun a nod. "I've seen Virgil cut through them with ease."
He started fidgeting more. "Could we, uh... not go too far with this?" Razor asked him. "I just want them captured so they stop hurting people. I don't want to seriously hurt them over it."
Another Mobian too soft to do what was needed. Sorun repressed a groan at hearing the request, but still gave Razor an agreeing nod. "Can't promise I won't break bones. Neither me or Virgil will do anything permanent, though," he promised. "... Except teeth. Some people might lose some teeth."
"I think I can live that that," Razor said with a grin.
"Good enough for me." Sorun looked to the side, up at one of the palm trees. He formed a Bringer Claw using the Emerald he was holding, and had it extend towards the nearest coconut he saw. "We'll have a devil of a time with them. Don't you worry." He grabbed the coconut and reeled it back to him. Afterwards, he grabbed both ends with the Bringer Claws, and had them pry to coconut in two halves. The water inside sloshed around as Sorun handed one of the halves off to Razor. "To, uh... us, I guess."
The awkward toast didn't seem to bother Razor in the slightest. Even though it seemed impossible, it only went to make him even happier. "Ha ha! Yeah! To us!"
They bumped their coconut halves together. Sorun was the first one to drink the water inside of it... and then immediately regretted it. He'd had coconut-flavored candy and snacks back on Earth. He expected the water inside the coconut to taste at least similarly to what he'd had in the past.
It didn't. It really didn't. It just tasted like off-flavored, sweet water. And that off flavor wasn't a good one.
"I've always wanted to eat a coconut. Suddenly the reward is feeling less fulfilling than the journey here," Sorun mumbled as he poured the water out from the coconut. Razor made an amused noise as a result. When Sorun finally drained the coconut, he tore some of the white meat out from the inside, threw it into his mouth, and began to eat it.
It was even worse.
"W-wow, this is... this is awful..." Sorun mumbled as he continued chewing the coconut piece.
"You're nuts. These things are great," Razor claimed. "What'd you expect out of a coconut?"
"I dunno. Flavor?" There wasn't any flavor as far as Sorun could taste. Just... nothing. "Ugh, and this texture. Feels like I'm chewing on a piece of styrofoam. This is the worst. Why do people eat these things?"
This was nothing like a coconut snowball at home. He'd rather starve than live off these things while stranded on an island.
"Heheh. I dunno what this styrofoam stuff is, but it sure sound funn- uh." Razor looked into the coconut in his hand, and then paused. He blinked a few times. "Hey, Sorun? You didn't eat any of this, did you?"
Sorun looked up and gave the shark a deadpan stare. "No, Razor, I only put it in my mouth while in full view of you."
"Oh." A beat passed. "Sorun, this isn't a coconut. Er, well, it is, but a different species of coconut." He turned his own half of the coconut over for Sorun to see, and then held it out in the light of the campfire. When Sorun leaned closer, he could see that there were small, purple spots in the white part of the coconut. "Yeah, I was warned all the time about these when we came here. You're not supposed to eat these. The purple stuff puts you to sleep."
"... Why is that even a thing?" Sorun mumbled as he looked down at his half of the coconut. Indeed, when he looked closer he saw purple. Purple he hadn't noticed earlier due to the low light. And just when he did notice, he felt his arms go numb, causing him to drop the coconut. "Aw, come on, not agai-"
Sorun was out like a light before he even finished his sentence.
A/N- Yeah, Razor and all the other aquatic Mobians are from the Post-Genesis Wave timeline in the comics. I said like a million years ago that timeline had some stuff in it I liked and wanted to use. I had to heavily modify the characters to make them fit into this setting, but I think it worked out.