Recursion Error

by Writer's Domino

"I mean, my life was pretty great until I got shanghaied into the global furry resistance from another universe."

66. Chapter 66

Recursion Error

Episode 66- See that pirate? See his face? Punch it.

---

Waking up after getting knocked out by a goddamn coconut of all things was much like waking up at the doctor's office after being put under by anesthetic. You went under and snapped back awake seemingly in the exact same second, like no time passed at all. That's what being put under from the coconut felt like to Sorun.

No dreams, not even a brief memory of black, nothing. It was like blinking, except that he felt way more groggy all of a sudden when he opened his eyes. His mental faculties seemed to be in working order, though. And Sorun used this opportunity to curse the coconut.

"Exactly what environmental factors makes a separate genus of coconut evolve the ability to put things to sleep? That's just messed up." A tired sigh left him as he attempted to raise his arms up to rub at his eyes. "... Okay, why can't I move my arms?"

He opened his eyes. Shockingly, it seemed to be the middle of the day. Even more shocking, Sorun wasn't on the ground. He saw why when he looked down further and saw his arms were bound to his sides with rope tied around his entire torso. The same rope was tied to the top of a palm tree, suspending him in the air.

"I am extremely displeased with this."

"O-oh, uh... hey, Sorun. You finally awake?"

That was Razor's voice. Sorun couldn't rotate his head very far, but he was able to look back far enough over his shoulder to see one of the fins on the side of the shark's head. So he was up here with him, the both of them tied back-to-back and suspended up off the ground. Went to explain the weight Sorun felt pressing against him. Not so much the why of it.

"Razor. Why are we tied up?" Sorun asked, trying to maintain a calm voice. On the inside he was growing worried. Significantly less panicked knowing Razor was tied with him, but the situation as a whole was still disconcerting to him. He wanted answers.

"Eh-heh, yeah, about that... it's a hilarious story, actually."

"A real side-splitter, I'm sure," Sorun deadpanned. "Of all the scenarios I wake up tied and bound by rope, this is the least favorable one."

"... How is there a favorable scenario to this kind of thing?" Razor asked, clearly sounding confused.

"You'd be surprised. Now what exactly happened while I was under?"

"The pirates showed up while you were sleeping."

"... Ah." As far as explanations go that was probably the only one that made sense. "So how'd that go?"

"They... snuck up on me and held you hostage. While you were sleeping. There wasn't really a fight."

Oh. Well now Sorun was the one feeling bad. The shame of being used as a hostage combined with the embarrassment of being in this position. It was a very heated emotion that Sorun didn't like at all. Emotions that were giving way to anger. Pure indignation at this entire thing. And to make it even worse Razor was forced to share the same fate as him. Somehow that was making him even more angrier.

"Okay, remember what Bunnie said. Just breath." Using the trick that'd probably saved him a thousand times by now, Sorun deeply inhaled and exhaled. He felt himself calm down, an insignificant amount as far as he was concerned but it was something, after which a heavy scowl settled over his features. Focus on the now. Attain bloody retribution later. None of this would matter as long as it ended with them saving... well, getting Razor's sister and capturing the pirates.

Maybe he'd string them up on a tree. See how they liked it.

"I'm sorry, Sorun," Razor apologized in a saddened tone. "I dragged you into my mess and now look at us. I shouldn't have talked you into-"

"I talked myself into it, now shut up." Razor did so, letting Sorun focus on their surroundings. "Where're the Chao? Didn't they help?"

"So don't get mad, but, uh... they got into the purple coconuts."

"..." If he wasn't restrained Sorun probably would have bashed his head against something. It took a lot of willpower not to beat the back of his head against Razor's. "Hey, Razor?" he asked when he suddenly realized something was missing. "Where'd the Chaos Emerald go?"

"It was a big, glowing jewel and we were attacked by pirates," Razor said in a mimic of Sorun's deadpan. "What do you think happened?"

Sorun idly began wondering if the concept of keelhauling existed in this world and if he should introduce it.

"But hey, it'll be fine!" Razor assured him. "I'm sure we'll find a way to get out of this. Somehow. Hey, do you know how to undo knots?"

Sorun made a hum. "Razor, my friends are all guerilla fighters who spent a majority of their lives fighting a maniac overlord with an army of robot henchmen. I learned a lot of stuff when I got inducted with them. I can arm bombs, pick locks, sneak into highly-secure facilities and commit various acts of subterfuge with... well, not with the best of them but I'm halfway decent."

"Oh, cool! So you can undo the ropes?"

Sorun hung his head. "No, surprisingly ropes never came up alongside all that other stuff."

He could almost feel the flat, disappointed face Razor was surely making at Sorun. "Wow, Sorun..."

"What do you want from me, Razor!? I can't even move my hands anyways!"

"Alright, sheesh. I hear ya." A sigh escaped Razor. "So any ideas?"

"I'm working on it." In other words, Sorun had none. But he wouldn't admit that to Razor.

The shark sighed. "Alright, well, tell me how that works out."

In fairness to Sorun, he did try thinking of a way to free them from their binds. He never came up with any decent ideas that could be put to practical use, but he'd tried. If he still had his powers he'd be able to just use his Bringer Claws to rip through the rope. Or use his Summoned Swords. The Doppelganger. He could have just shrugged the ropes off if he still had Devil's Body.

But he didn't have any of that. Without that Emerald he was as good and weak as any ordinary human. And because of that they were stuck. It was a frustrating feeling Sorun didn't like. The helplessness.

"Maybe I should have just absorbed it for Yamato. Nicole woulda killed me for taking twelve years off my life, but jeez, at least I wouldn't be stuck here. Sheesh..."

Why couldn't life ever be simple with him here?

"You know, Razor, I figured you being a shark would mean you'd have really rough skin, but now that we're tied together l gotta say. You're skin is unusually smooth and soft." It was downright comfortable, actually, which was a welcome distraction from the chaffing rope keeping the both of them aloft. Sorun was just glad he had the shirt and vest on to keep it from digging into his torso, but his arms weren't spared. He imagined it probably wasn't going as well for Razor.

Caught unaware from the compliment, Razor made an abashed chuckle. "W-well, um, uh, th-thanks, Sorun. You, er..." Razor trailed off, and Sorun felt his head move as he looked down. "Hey, look!"

Sorun looked down towards the ground. Coming out from the shrubbery in the center of the island and wadding through the sand towards them in a position they both could see was a black and green Chao. Razor's Chao. He looked a bit bleary-eyed, likely from recently waking up, but he still seemed to have enough lucidity to look up at the two hanging teens.

"Crusher! Help!" Razor called down.

The Chao blinked up at them. Curiously, its gaze shifted over from them to a palm tree that was right next to him. Crusher waddled over to the tree, reared back one of his hands, and then punched forwards and struck the tree's trunk.

The tree and its giant palm leaves shook. A coconut had dropped down from the top and right in front of Crusher, who then proceeded to punch the coconut once. It split in half, after which the Chao proceeded to begin eating it in full view of Sorun and Razor, who the Chao seemed to be outright ignoring.

"... Your Chao's an idiot," Sorun said in a flat tone as he stared down at the Chao.

"H-hey, he's not... a little, yeah," Razor admitted with a sigh.

More grass rustled as a second small form came out of the same spot in the brush as Crusher had. A black and blue Chao. Virgil.

"Virgil! Help!" Sorun called down.

The Chao had only briefly regarded the two of them before he looked up, and then flew to the top of the nearest palm tree. He slashed his bladed arm out once, causing a coconut to fall down to the ground. He landed right besides it, after which he used the blades on his arm to cut the coconut in half and then began to eat it.

Sorun could have scoffed. What was two teenagers tied up against their will to a coconut? Betrayal had never hurt as much before.

"Why do we keep these things as pets?" Sorun asked, staring down at his own Chao with narrowed eyes.

"I don't know." Sorun felt Razor shift a bit behind him. "So what now?"

"Aren't you a shark?" Sorun asked as he craned his head as far as it could go over his shoulder. "Can't you just bite through the rope?"

"Does it honestly seem like I can get my mouth in a good position to bite at ropes pressing against my chest?" Razor asked, tone a bit tired and irate.

"I meant the one above us."

"Oh." Making an apologetic wince, Razor looked up at the rope holding them up. "No, it's a bit too far. I could probably get my head far back enough to saw through it with a single tooth."

Sighing, Sorun shook his head. "Nah, it'd take too long to cut through with... wait, cut, don't you have a knife?" He distinctly remembered Razor having a knife. His hands were tied to his sides, but he had just the barest amount of movement and could feel Razor's hips. He could probably... "Wait, there's no way they would have actually left him with the-"

His thoughts cut off when, during his fumbling, he managed to feel the hilt of the knife. Sorun blinked in surprise, and even made a confused noise when he located it.

Razor, for his part, seemed much more enthusiastic. "Oh, right! You think you can get it out and cut through the ropes?"

"... Probably?" He'd already managed to pull the knife out from its sheath. Awkwardly, due to how little space his hand had between the ropes, he'd managed to flip the knife around and press forwards. He saw the knife's blade peek through the ropes tying Sorun to Razor, after which he began sawing through the nearest cord. "Why did they leave you with this? You'd think they would have stripped you of something you could have used to get through the ropes."

"Eh. I guess they're not very good at this." Razor did his best to shrug. "I mean, it's not like we've ever done something like this before. At least they didn't when I was with them."

"Ah. So they're not just pirates. They're mediocre pirates." The first cord of the rope was sawed through. The knife was sharper than it looked, apparently. "I guess I shouldn't have expected much from a small group of people who made a living looting and stealing from helpless folk that can't defend themselves. They probably don't have a lot of experience dealing with people. This'll be easier than I thought if that's the case. They won't be as prepared to deal with us."

Cutting through the second cord of rope seemed to be what did the trick. The second the knife cut all the way through, Sorun felt the ropes binding both him and Razor slack completely. And then gravity took over, resulting in both teens yelling out in surprise when they began falling.

There was a small burst of sand when Sorun and Razor impacted the beach, followed by the loose rope coiling on top of the both of them. Sorun was the first one to move, making a sigh as he pushed up off the sand and looked up to see Virgil and Crusher right in front of him, with both of their coconuts right in front of them.

"I'm glad we keep such dependable company," he grunted out as he stood up to his feet. Razor rose up alongside him, and then paused in surprise when Sorun handed him his knife back. He was stuck staring down at the knife while Sorun had walked completely past him, making his way towards the end of the beach.

"Now I gotta hunt down a band of fucking pirates just to get the damn rock back," Sorun thought to himself. He couldn't tell what was worse- his frustration over this whole situation or the anger at him and Razor having been tied up. Both made him feel miserable. And beyond that he felt rushed to find them as quickly as possible since they held his only means of returning to New Mobotropolis. He didn't want to lose them. "Maybe Razor'll have an idea of where... seriously?"

He saw it once he made his way to the edge of the beach where the waves were rolling over the sand. A classic-ass pirate ship. Anchored a good eighty-ish, maybe a hundred meters away from them.

"Oh, hey, they're still here." Razor had caught up with Sorun and stopped right besides him. Sorun, meanwhile, was still dumbstruck and staring out at the ship in silence. "Pretty lucky of us, huh, Sorun?"

Sorun finally found his voice and asked, "Why are they still here?" in a defeated, confused voice. He would have thought the whole reason they tied them up in the first place was so they couldn't follow them. That should have constituted them moving far away from the island. He couldn't fathom why they would stop so close.

"Eh, they actually do this sometimes," Razor said in response to Sorun's question. "You were asleep when they took it but they were pretty excited when they got that big, glowing gem of yours. Said it'd make 'em a fortune and last them years. I guess they couldn't wait to drop anchor and celebrate. They'd do it all the time whenever we got a big score."

"Didn't even bother to put a decent amount of distance between us," Sorun muttered. "They really are amateurs."

"What do you mean 'didn't put distance between us'?" Razor asked as he gestured out to the ship. "That looks pretty far to me."

Sorun shook his head. "That's not distance. It's not distance if we can still see and track them."

"Sure, but how are we supposed to get over there? Our only option is to swim and it's broad daylight. They'd see us coming a mile away and they'd haul anchor and take off before we got close. I can swim fast, Sorun, but I can't swim faster than a ship." He glanced at Sorun. "And you don't look like you can swim fast at all."

"Can't you just go deep enough they can't see you approach?"

"Well, yeah, I can. But you can't."

He had a point there. Distance really didn't matter all that much if they'd see them coming. Even further was that Sorun himself didn't have a chance of swimming out that far. The distance alone was daunting. Running a hundred meters was something Sorun could pull off reasonably well, but swimming? He doubted he could even do that, and if he could, he'd wind up exhausted in the process. Razor could make it easily, he was built for that kind of thing, and the Chao could just fly, but he didn't have a good shot. He didn't count on him being able to hold his breath for that long, either.

"That's... a potential problem, yeah," Sorun admitted. "Well, we still need to get over there, Razor. I need the Chaos Emerald they stole to get back to New Mobotropolis, and you need to deal with your sister."

"And stop the pirates," Razor reminded.

"Ohhh, don't you worry about that, Razor. I'll deal with them alright." By the time he was done with them they were gonna wish they never became pirates to begin with. "Just gotta figure out how we can get over there..."

During Sorun's and Razor's silent contemplations, Virgil had flown over to the pair and started looking between the both of them. He looked back and forth a couple of times, and then looked forwards towards the ship in the distance. He nodded to himself, and then flew up to Sorun's face.

"Chao." Virgil pointed out towards the ship when Sorun began looking at him. "Chao."

"Yeah, we gotta get over there," Sorun said. "You got an idea of how we can get there?"

"Chao."

Sorun's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Really? How?"

Instead of making another sound, Virgil pointed over towards the plane, at the front where the mangled propeller was. Sorun looked over towards it, and then back at Virgil, who had lowered himself into the water. His V-shaped wings were folded as far as they could go, and his bladed arms were extended out to his sides.

And then, he began spinning. Like a small, blue and black propeller. Virgil's body became little more than a round, blurred object as he began spinning, causing water to fly and splash out in all directions. But most importantly, he was moving. Extremely fast. Almost too fast for Sorun's eyes to keep up with. He'd even gone out far enough that Virgil was so deep under the water he wasn't disturbing the surface, though Sorun could still see his dark form zipping around underwater.

Eventually, the Chao made his way back to Sorun's and Razor's position. He quit spinning and rose up out of the water. He was dripping wet, but otherwise he seemed completely fine.

"Chao." Once again, Virgil pointed towards the broken propeller, seemingly ignoring the wide-eyed looks Sorun and Razor were giving him. "Chao." He pointed back to the ship.

"You... learned how to spin really fast from watching a propeller work...?" Sorun mumbled in disbelief. "What is it with things in this world and spinning? Kinda reminds me of the Vortex technique from the first 'DMC' game." He made a hum and looked towards the ship. "Virgil ain't really that physically strong... he is fast, though. Fast enough spin like that, at least. Could that work...?"

"Sorun, please don't tell me you want Virgil to spin us all the way over there." Razor seemed to have already caught on to the idea, and had taken a step back away from them. He seemed queasy from the thought alone. "I don't really handle spinning that well..."

"I mean, it should work." Razor let out a groan as Sorun began rubbing at his chin. "We can make a chain or something. You hold onto Virgil's foot with one hand, hold onto my hand with the other, your Chao can grab onto me, and then Virgil the living propeller-"

"Chao."

Sorun winced at the harsh-sounding chao Virgil gave him. "Then Virgil uses Vortex to propel us over there."

Razor's eyes squinted a bit in confusion. "Vortex...?"

"Don't worry about it." Waving off the shark's confusion, Sorun turned to Razor and said, "I can hold my breath for a minute. Ish. Give or take ten seconds. Should be enough time for him to get us over there while hiding us underwater."

"Okay, but can you hold on while doing that and being spun around?"

"Well, no. That's why I need you to hold on for me." If he tried doing it he'd just lose his grip and get flung away. But Razor was a Mobian with freakish Mobian strength. He could hold on fine. All Sorun needed to do was endure what was hopefully a very short ride.

Razor, however, did not seem very onboard with the plan. In fact he was shaking his head and hands while backing up further. "Nuh-uh, no way. I don't do spinning. Sorun, come on, think of something else-"

"You want to save your sister or not? If you got a better idea then I'm all ears."

That managed to stop Razor in his tracks. He looked towards the ship, and then took in a deep breath while gripping his hands. "Grrr... fine, fine." He pointed up at Sorun. "You better be sure this works, 'cause if it doesn't-"

"I have the utmost fate in Virgil, Razor." Sorun glanced to the side at the Chao, who gave him a nod. "See? He's got it. It'll be completely fine. Now hurry up and grab onto him. I wanna get this over with quick."

"You and my both..." Razor grumbled as he began dragging his feet towards Virgil. Literally. His feet were leaving trenches in the sand. "This is gonna be a mess."

"Razor, it'll be fine. Trust me."

---

In Sorun's defense, it had worked.

That was the only good thing he could think to say about the plan.

Oh, they'd gotten there. For sure they'd arrived. Sorun hadn't been able to see it because his entire world turned into a blur when Virgil started spinning. He was glad he had Razor hold onto both him and Virgil, because there was no world where Sorun would have been able to hold on during all that chaos. He was pretty sure halfway he'd failed at holding his breath and accidentally swallowed more seawater than he was comfortable with.

The only upside was that the duration of the trip was just under twenty seconds. Eighteen, maybe. Sorun hadn't counted. Probably couldn't have if he tried.

He was so dizzy afterwards that he hadn't recalled what happened next. Razor, with the help of the two Chao, had hauled him somewhere. Now all he knew was that he was lying down on something flat, everything was dark, and he smelled a lot of wood. That's all his senses could perceive past the intense vertigo and nausea he felt.

"Sorun... you're not allowed to make plans anymore..." Past all the blurriness in his vision Sorun managed to turn his head and catch Razor sitting next to a square hole in what he assumed was the ship's hull. "Never... never again-"

"Shut up. Just shut up." Sorun groaned and lifted both his hands up to rub at his face. He heard a faint ringing in his head and his shoulders felt like they were about to fall off. They still worked, at least. "Where're we?"

"Virgil cut a hole in the ship. We dragged you in," Razor mumbled back in response. He didn't sound much better than Sorun. "We're, uh..." He took a second to look around. "I think this's... storage? Yeah. Looks right..."

"Sure. We'll go with that." The dizziness and nausea was slowly fading, thankfully. Moving slowly, Sorun had rolled onto his stomach and pushed up onto all of his fours. "Would the Emerald be around here somewhere?"

"Probably. Our luck's still holding." Groggily, Razor rose a hand up and pointed to the side. "Look over there."

Sorun followed towards where Razor was pointing. There was... definitely stuff over there, that much was certain. A blurry pile of items he couldn't make out. That was as far as Sorun got because the vertigo returned, and when he tried standing up it only resulted in him falling onto his back.

His legs weren't working. Or gravity. Something. He couldn't stand. Was barely resisting the urge to throw up as it was.

"Virgil, can you... do me a favor a go see if the Emerald's over there somewhere..." Sorun mumbled out, lifting up his hand and waving in the general direction Razor had pointed to.

Wordlessly, the Chao flew over Sorun's form towards where he pointed to earlier. There was the sound of things being shifted and tossed around, some cutting and bashing sounds as boxes were cut into. Clinking sounds as metal objects fell down to the ground. Sorun didn't know what any of it meant. And with how he felt, he just couldn't find it in himself it care.

"Chao." Something glowing was placed next to Sorun's head. He turned to the side, seeing Virgil float next to him and a blue, glowing gem having been set down besides his head. With a single, drawn-out groan, he lifted his closest hand up and placed it on the Emerald.

A couple seconds after making contact with the Chaos Emerald, Sorun's hair began to shift from the color black to a pure white color. He made a sigh of relief as a pleasant, cooling sensation began to race through his body. The pain in his shoulders vanished seemingly instantly. The nausea and dizziness left. From the moment his hair turned white, Sorun had went from the mess he'd been seconds prior to feeling fine. Better than fine. Like he could take on the entire world and win.

"Forgot how good this feels," Sorun thought as he sat up straight. Completely fine. So light he felt like he could float on air. The power, the strength he felt... it truly was intoxicating. Alas, he only wanted Devil's Body to heal the vertigo, and thus cut the power off. His hair darkened back to black, and the inhuman vitality Sorun had felt faded with it. He actually found himself frowning when he got brought back down to... to this. Back to normal human physical limits.

"Alright. Back at a hundred percent," Sorun said as he stood up. He didn't feel at a hundred percent despite the fact he was. Being deprived of that supernatural vitality was responsible, he supposed. It wasn't pleasant snapping back from having so much power to having an ordinary human body again. He didn't like the sensation. "Um... apparently you aren't," Sorun observed when he saw Virgil laying at his feet. Sleeping seemingly. When he turned to Razor, he saw that Crusher was in a similar state.

"I don't think they can handle all that spinning," Razor groggily explained.

"Unfortunate. You doing okay?" Sorun asked Razor.

"Gettin' there," he mumbled as he shakily got up to his feet. "How are you already okay?"

"Wacky magic nonsense." Turning away from the shark, Sorun turned back to where he presumed Virgil had obtained the Emerald. They'd ended up in what he assumed was the cargo hold. If Razor hadn't already told him they'd come in from the bottom through a hole Virgil cut he could guess as much based on how the contours of the walls curved in a way that suggested they were at the bottom of the ship. It was mostly boxes and random items strewn around in random piles in the spacious room, some bound to the walls with nets, other seemingly haphazardly thrown about in the aforementioned piles.

Coins he didn't recognize here, jewels, silverware, and other valuable-looking items there, barrels of something he was sure was stolen, crates of likely equally-stolen goods, even some nice-looking furniture. Food, too, that Sorun managed to spot in some of the crates that happened to be open. A lot of food. Way more than six people could ever go through even if they rationed for a whole month. There were some classic-looking pirate chests as well, some of which looked like they'd been cut into. Virgil must have broke into them looking for the Chaos Emerald. Probably the one that had other jewels spilling out of it.

"So this is is where they store the swag, huh? The swag storage." He heard some footsteps as Razor stopped right next to him. "They actually do anything with this stuff or are they just hoarders by trade?" Sorun asked.

"Eh. Depends," Razor answered with a shrug. "The captain has all these ties to all these fences and shady people in the not-so-white market they hawk this stuff off to most of the time."

"Even the food?"

"What they can't get through before it spoils, yeah. There's a market for everything down in the undersea. Only stuff we never got rid of was stuff we could use. Or wanted to keep just because."

"I see." Sorun glanced to the side at Razor. He was staring down at the stolen goods with a saddened expression. "It took everyone betraying you to realize maybe this wasn't such a good thing to be doing?"

He only grew sadder. "Wasn't always like this. Used to be we just did it to survive. And we never hurt anybody raiding abandoned ruins. Now I... I just don't know when it changed."

Sighing, Sorun turned back to looking at the stolen things. "Sometimes there isn't something as definitive as a changing point. Sometimes it's just gradual, little things you don't even notice adding up over time. You don't see the change happening because you get used to all the little changes. Then something like what happens with you happens and I guess it becomes really obvious when you look back and remember how different it used to be."

"Yeah." Razor hung his shoulders. "I guess you know the feeling, huh?"

"A bit." A moment passed. "What are you planning on doing about your sister? You even have an idea of what you're gonna say?"

"I was thinking of appealing to her better side to try and convince her to stop."

"Alright, and when that doesn't work?"

"Tie her up, bring her home, and kinda just leave her alone until she calms down?"

"..." Sorun huffed out a breath and shook his head. "It's honestly a horrible plan, but I don't really have a better idea."

A nearby rattle caused Sorun and Razor to perk their heads straight up. The rattle soon ceased, after which came the soft, squeaking sound of a door opening. Both teens turned their heads towards the source of the noise, at which point Sorun noticed a door that was at the end of the cargo hold. A door that was currently open. An open doorway with a short, purple-furred Mobian standing in it and giving them a wide-eyed look.

Before the Mobian could do anything a blue, spectral hand shot past the space separating them and gripped his face. The Mobian made a muffled scream into the spectral palm holding him and frantically scratched at it as the hand pulled him into the cargo hold, closer to where Sorun and Razor were, the former having formed his Bringer Claws. The panicked, muffled screaming was abruptly stopped when Sorun willed the arm holding him to lift him in the air and slam the back of his head down on the wood floor they stood on. The Mobian went limp, prompting Sorun to let him go as he calmly stared down at the fallen Mobian.

Razor didn't look nearly as calm. "Geez, Sorun, did you have to be so rough with him!?" he whisper-yelled at the human. "You probably concussed him doing that!"

"We're gonna have a very difficult time going about this if you criticize me for every wound I'm gonna inflict on these guys," Sorun said back. "Gimme a break. He's fine. Just knocked out."

"I..." Razor took in a deep breath, and then released it as he looked back at the purple Mobian. "I know, you're right. I'm sorry. But out of everybody here Dive's the best one. He was always in it more for the adventure than anything else."

"Well, too late to do anything about it now." There was, admittedly, some twinge of guilt Sorun felt upon Razor telling him that. He managed to convince himself it didn't matter; a pirate was a pirate and they all had to be captured by the end anyways. He was complicit by staying with them. Razor wanted to capture them all and take his sister away from this life for a reason.

He was only unconscious anyways.

"I promised you I wouldn't leave any permanent damage on any of them, Razor, but that doesn't mean I'm not playing it safe. They're pirates." One Bringer Claw stretched out to lift up the purple Mobian's body. The other one shot out to punch the lock off a nearby chest and open it. "I do things quick a brutal. It's efficient. And less risk for either of us."

Ironically it was a lesson he'd had to learn for himself as opposed to it being taught to him by the Freedom Fighters. The fictional media he'd consumed during his life on Earth helped in that respect, but back when he'd had very few powers and was fighting things much more strong than he was it was a quickly-reinforced lesson. Others like Sonic, who liked to crack those never-ending jokes of his mid-battle, never seemed to learn that lesson. Maybe because people like him never needed to because they were so strong. Shadow was an exception, likely due to a case of over-professionalism Sorun suspected, and other Freedom Fighters weren't completely ignorant to the method. Couldn't afford to since some didn't have powers and had to rely on other means.

Then there was Sonic who always had to fool around in fights...

None of them had ever been as weak as Sorun, though. Nobody on this planet was. Not until he'd gotten the powers, and even then a number of those missions he'd been on so many times back then had been dicey. So he'd learned quick to end it fast. Perhaps it was one of the reason his subconscious took such a taking to Yamato. It and its in-universe owner were the epitome of dispatching enemies with utmost precision and efficiency. It certainly served him well enough.

Probably wouldn't in this case when he wasn't allowed to sever body parts. He'd promised Razor.

"Can we please not put him in the box?" Sorun paused halfway to placing Dive in the open chest when Razor's voice reached him. He turned towards the shark to see an uneasy look on his face. "He doesn't like the dark. He'll freak out if he wakes up in there."

Sorun could barely repress the sigh that almost left him. "Razor..." he half-groaned, half-whined out.

Razor bent down and picked up a nearby bundle of discarded rope. "Here, just give him to me. I'll tie him up."

A pirate afraid of the dark. Sorun would have laughed if he wasn't so busy handing the Mobian off to Razor so he could tie him up, prompting the Bringer Claws to disappear off Sorun's back. He crossed his arms, one hand still holding onto the Emerald, and leaned back on a nearby pillar as he watched Razor work. Virgil, meanwhile, had floated up and landed on Sorun's shoulder to watch alongside him. He'd woken up finally. Still looked half-asleep, but hanging in there thankfully enough

"So is there a plan on dealing with the rest of them?" Sorun asked. "Besides just leaving them all to me and Virgil while you deal with your sister."

"Yeah, about that." With a final pull of the rope to tighten the knots Razor used to bind Dive, he got up from his kneeling position to look at Sorun. "You think we can try talking to them first?"

"No."

"Chao-chao."

"Guys, come on!" Razor half-shouted in a pleading voice. "I at least wanna give them a chance first!"

This time, Sorun did sigh while reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Razor, our goal is to incapacitate these people so the guards in the city you live in can incarcerate them. They're not just gonna give up their freedom 'cause it's the right and proper thing to do. They're gonna fight for it." He glanced to the side. "'Sides. They're pirates. You don't honestly think there's a chance they'll see reason?"

Hesitantly, Razor looked down to his feet. "My sister might," he said.

Sorun doubted it. Extremely doubted it. He looked back at Razor and opened his mouth to say so, but when he saw that miserable expression on the shark's face, he paused. He wanted to tell Razor it was a futile effort and they should just go in swinging for the surprise advantage, that it'd be less risky that way and that talking would just make it that much harder for them. But then there was that look on Razor's face, and Sorun didn't want to make it worse.

Thus, Sorun groaned loudly and looked up at the ceiling. "Fiiiine, we'll... we'll talk first. For whatever good that'll do," he grumbled.

He wasn't so sure if adding extra danger onto all this was worth the smile Razor gave him. Felt nice, at least. "Thanks Sorun. It'll be fine, you'll see."

"'It'll be fine, you'll see,'" Sorun mockingly repeated in his mind. Holding in the scoff that threatened to come out, Sorun pushed off the beam as Virgil floated off his shoulder. "If you say so. Alright. Let's get this show on the road."

Before he could even get a single step in, Virgil's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell back into unconsciousness. He dropped back onto the floor.

"... Guess he ain't over it yet..."

---

It'd taken some creeping around the ship by the two of them to confirm that the five remaining pirates they were looking for weren't even in the ship. Razor had pointed out that they were probably all celebrating up on the top deck of the ship, which, after approaching it from the inside of the ship, they managed to confirm through the myriad voices they heard above them.

This lead to Sorun and Razor, the two unconscious Chao cradled in Razor's arms, crouching behind a nearby gathering of barrels on the edge of the deck of the ship after having snuck up a small flight of stairs. Sorun himself never got a single look at the five pirates. He imagined the one that was Razor's sister would be a shark like him, but he didn't know about the rest. He was a bit tense, but otherwise calm.

Razor wasn't so calm. He was breathing a bit heavier than what should have been normal, and his hands were clenching and unclenching under the Chao. From whether it was nervousness over what was about to happen, or him feeling some emotion due to him having to confront what basically amounted to a family that abandoned him, Sorun didn't know.

"When oh when was the last time I fought Mobians? Just that one time with Infinite? I only had two powers then." Sorun looked down at the Emerald in his hand. "Now it's whichever of the seven I need. So which one do I use?"

One of the ranged ones, maybe. Tricking was nice for defense, but dodging wasn't going to get him anywhere, and he wasn't good enough to switch them too fast to make it viable. Yamato would be nice, but that was too easy to hurt with... Bringer Claws? Worked last time.

He would have thought on it further if Razor's current state wasn't distracting him so much. He looked up to see the shark gripping the handle of his knife, not having yet committed to pulling it from its sheath. The two Chao were laid down at his feet. "You gonna be alright, Razor?" he whispered to Razor over the nearby talking.

Razor gave Sorun a staggering nod. "M-mhm. Yeah. Just... gettin' psyched, y'know?"

Sorun didn't find himself believing Razor. He sighed, and then looked ahead. There was nobody in the raised section of the ship where the steering wheel was, with a guardrail being at the front edge of that section and a small set of stairs on either side. Sorun tossed the Emerald up and down in his hand once in thought, and then glanced back at Razor.

"I'll start it off. Just follow my lead," he said.

Razor's eyes widened. "Wait, wait, I'm not ready!"

"No time like the present."

And with that, Sorun Tricked away and reappeared sitting on the guardrail above the main section of the deck. He saw four of the five Mobians that were supposed to be there down below him, conversing with each other with calm expressions on their faces. It looked like a completely normal gathering.

"What a crock." Sorun looked closer at the group. "Kinda a tall-looking Mobian with a pirate coat and eyepatch an' everything. Teal-furred... fuck is that, a mouse? Eh." He looked at the others. "Red-skinned shark girl, gotta be Razor's sister. Yellow... Jesus, that a jelly fish?" By and large she was a normal looking Mobian, save for the fact she had a circular, gelatinous... thing on her head with wavy tentacles hanging around her like extremely-deadly hair. "Then there's the fourth guy..."

Sorun didn't even know what he was. The biggest one by far, at least twice the size of a normal Mobian. A white-furred thing with, oddly enough, claws for hands. A big shell on its back and a yellowish, round head with antennae. Some kind of sea creature, but for the life of Sorun he couldn't figure out what it was.

"What the hell in the ocean has white fur and claws? A..." Sorun's thoughts stalled. "No, I got nothing."

While he was thinking one of the pirates must have noticed him. He noticed all the conversation had ceased, and when he looked back down at them, they were all looking up at him with surprised, confused faces. There was complete silence between them that lasted for a whole twenty seconds before Sorun pointed at the big guy.

"Before we begin somebody tell me what that is," Sorun requested. "I can't figure it out."

He saw the blue probably-mouse blink his left eye, the right covered with a patch, and look to the side at the large Mobian. He looked back at Sorun, visibly confused and bewildered at the request and Sorun's presence. "He's, uh... he's a yeti crab," he answered. Sorun had twitched slightly when he heard that pirate-like accent leave his mouth.

"The abominable snowman?" Sorun mumbled, more to himself than the group. "Huh. All the continental drift must have made his species relocate from the north pole. So I guess that means they're real? Huh. Weird."

The captain's mouth opened a bit in confusion as he tilted his head to the side. "I haven't the slightest wha' I just heard. Who are ye?"

"Who I am is nobody. The reason I'm here is twofold." Sorun held the Chaos Emerald up, and watched as the captain's eye widened in recognition. "Half that reason is 'cause of this. You stole it from me."

"Ahhh, now I remember ye," the captain said with some realization. The other three around him began frowning up at Sorun as the confused looks faded. "You were the sleepin' beauty we found alongside with that traitor on the island. 'Fraid that gem there was rightfully taken, lad. We didn't steal nothin'."

"It's mine by right of finders keepers," Sorun argued, making the captain grin a bit in amusement. "I found it, so I get to keep it. But then you took it while I was sleeping. I'm here to take it back."

"Aye, by that logic we get to keep it by findin' it. 'Tis yer fault fer keepin' yer eyes offa it," the captain argued back.

"Is that so? Because I just happened to find this in your cargo hold," Sorun said. "So I guess that means I get to keep it."

"Ha!" The captain barked out in amusement, even going as far as to slap his knee. "Ya got spirit, lad. I can't letcha go wit' that, though. Ya even know what that little item is worth?"

"Do you?" Sorun challenged. To embolden his point, he had the gem shift back into Yamato, making the four flinch back in surprise. "You idiots don't even know what this is or what can be done with it. Just let me have it." He slung the sheathed katana over his shoulders. "The purple guy down below didn't like finding me."

At that, the four of them stiffened. The deep frowns had turned a bit worried at seeing the katana, but now they were all throwing hostile glares at him when he mentioned Dive. "An' jus' what exactly," the captain ground out, "did ye do to Dive?"

"He's breathing. Scarred for life. But breathing," Sorun said. "Mentally scarred, but eh, they don't gotta know that. The intimidation factor might work with me here."

"Sorun, cut it out!"

"And then he comes in and ruins my fun," Sorun mentally sighed out as he watched Razor pop up from behind the barrels. Surprisingly the demeanor of the pirates didn't change all that much even with Razor's reveal. They looked a bit more shocked as he marched towards the front of the grounp to down directly under Sorun, but they were still mainly angry. And at Sorun, of all people. It made the human grow a bit confused himself at all the ire he'd earned.

"An' there he is. The traitor hisself," the captain said in a scathing tone, single eye narrowed at Razor.

"He's the other half of the reason I'm here," Sorun helpfully supplied in a light tone, his feet playfully kicking off the edge of the guardrail.

"You shut up!" This had come from Razor's sister. The shark pirate. Red-skinned with bits of black on the tips of her fins and other parts. Same eyes as Razor. She stomped forwards towards the head of the group and angrily pointed at Razor. "And you!" she yelled out. "What are you doing back here!?"

"What am I doing here!? I'm here to get you out of here!" Razor yelled back. "I need to get you away from these people before you do something you can't take back, Blade!"

"What- that doesn't- just who do you think you are, you-!?"

"Now, now, lass. Let's all calm down." The tall, teal-furred Mobian placed a calming hand on the red shark's shoulder. She was still practically snarling at her brother, who was shying back a bit in shock, but her eyes were up and focused on Sorun as well. But she'd still allowed the captain to gently push her back into the crowd as he stepped back ahead of them again and cleared his throat before speaking. "I shan't be speakin' with the one that abandoned us, but I think you an' I be needin' introductions. Sorun, was it?"

Sorun blinked, but otherwise said nothing. They were all staring up at him again. And they still looked beyond angry. Rage, pure and simple. Razor's sister, Blade, especially. Her sharpened teeth were practically gnawing. The captain seemed more guarded than anything else, but there was no mistaking the anger in his eye as well.

What had he done to make them so mad at him?

"... Yeah, I'm Sorun," he confirmed. "You the captain?"

The Mobian nodded. "Aye, that be me. Captain Shellbreaker of this here band of merry misfits."

Sorun snorted. "Shellbreaker the mouse?"

The frown on Shellbreaker's face deepened. "Otter, lad. Otter."

"Ah. I'm a human, in case you cared. It's not important if you don't know what that is." Probably should have figured out he was an otter in hindsight, but oh well. "Listen, Shelly, my good friend Razor here's worried about his sister. And the fact you guys are kinda terrorizing the deep sea. So that's gotta stop."

"Alright, I think I'm seein' how it is." The frown disappeared off from the captain' face. In its place was a small smirk that formed as he began pacing in small amounts back and forth in front of the group of pirates, making a random gesture with his arms at some points. His eye would sometimes flicker down to Razor, but for the most part his focus was maintained on Sorun. "We're naught but outcasts tryin' to get by, lad. Despite what this traitor may 'ave said to ye-" He drew the cutlass at his side and pointed its tip at Razor, "- we didn't choose to be dishonest folk makin' a dishonest livin'."

Sorun tapped his shoulder a few times with Yamato. "Maybe," he admitted. "I don't know anything about what happens in the ocean. I'm really just here to get my rock back and help a friend out. I couldn't care less what the circumstances that lead to all this are." His fingers began drumming along the handle. "And I don't care what happened to you. He said you're going around robbing folks in need."

"Whatever Razor told ye was a gross overexaggeration of what we did."

"I don't care about frequency. You still did it." Sorun's eyes flicked down to Razor. "And it ain't my choice. It's Razor's choice. And he wants his sister back and for you all to stop." He glanced back up at the one-eyed Mobian. "So you stop. Or I make you stop."

He noticed Razor look up Sorun. Surprise and gratefulness was written on his face, which made Sorun shift a bit in his seat out of the emotional uncomfort of the attention given to him. The captain had seen the reaction, too. He was actively looking between Sorun and Razor as a dawning look settled on his face. And then he resumed pacing and tried talking again.

"Oh, Razor. Ye couldn't fight yer own battles, so ye tried bringin' in new talent to do it for ye," Shellbreaker said in a admonishing tone.

By now, Razor had pulled his knife out. He was gripping it roughly as an angered expression grew on his face. "It isn't like that!" he growled out. "Sorun chose to help me with this! It was all his decision!"

"An' I can respect that. Loyalty. It be a precious commodity these days. Wouldn't ya agree, Sorun?" The one-eyed Mobian looked back up at Sorun. "I've been havin' a stroke o' bad luck when it comes t' loyalty, Sorun. The traitor firs', then another of our crew up and left us."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that," Razor spoke, eyes narrowed and both hands still firmly gripped around his knife's handle. "Why're you acting captain, Shellbreaker? What happened to Abyss?"

"She left," Shellbreaker informed him in a clipped tone. For reasons Sorun didn't know due to a lack of context, that caused Razor to drop his guard slightly. "The piratin' life weren't good enough for her. Said she was leavin' to go pursue bigger ventures. Feh. Whatever that be meanin'," the teal Mobian grumbled. "I've been havin' crew betray me left and right, Sorun. I know very few 'sides Mr. Bristles right here-" he nodded his head at the weird shelled yeti, "- who I'd trust with me own life. Lads like you who'd lay it all down for a friend I'm presumin' they jus' met is a rare thing. Rare thing indeed." He flipped his sword around in a reverse grip, and then stabbed its point into the deck to lean on it like a cane. "How's life treatin' ya, Sorun? It must be grand if you're able t' be lookin' down yer nose at us lowly pirates like yer doin' right now."

A scoff left Sorun. "Charismatic fucker. This his recruitment pitch?" Knowing one's way around words was a must for being a pirate captain, he supposed. Even Sorun would admit there was something to that captain's words that were drawing him. The charm, the accent, the content of his words. It was alluring, to an extent. Not the man himself, but the words. If he didn't know any better from seeing how many of the same example in movies in games, he'd probably be completely captivated.

Well, he'd seen 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. He knew what the score was, and he wasn't gonna be fooled by this. Even if he didn't see the way Shellbreaker kept sneaking those scornful glances at Razor. Sorun couldn't say if the otter was faking it or being genuine with Sorun, but there was no denying that he had an intense dislike of Razor. Which meant Sorun didn't like Shellbreaker.

It was sad in a way, Sorun realized. Razor going against them really did seem like a genuine betrayal in their eyes. And it was here he realized why they were so upset when he implied he hurt Dive badly. The concern over him, and the resentment of Razor. They really were a small little family out here.

"You've dragged me into something really complicated, Razor," Sorun silently lamented with a sigh. "It's too bad it'll end the same regardless. I could have gone on not knowing these details. I'll play along to what Mr. Pirate Man has to say, though. For clarity's sake."

"I can't hold down a job and I'm slowly starving to death 'cause nobody'll give me a chance. Life ain't too grand at all," Sorun said to him in response to his previous question.

The grin on Shellbreaker's face grew. All it did was make Sorun sigh again when it confirmed his suspicions. "See, we're not so different after all, now, are we? We're vagrants. Vagabonds. The world we live in wouldn't accept us, so we take what we want from the world to go on. Outcasts drawn together by a common need, all of us."

The other pirates behind him were nodding to the captain's words in agreement. Blade especially, much to Razor's visible sorrow.

"We took the twins in when they had nothin' jus' like us, and how did Razor repay us? By questionin' everythin' we stand for," Shellbreaker continued. "But Sorun, you and us? Cut from the same cloth, we are. Can see it even with one eye. I'll tell ye what. I can't letcha keep the gem, but if ye were to stay with us, well then that ain't givin' it away, now, is it?" His smile widened at Sorun. "Come on. Said so yourself. Why keep goin' on when ye can join yer fellow misfits?"

"And there it is," Sorun whispered, just loudly enough that everyone managed to hear him. "I ain't that desperate, pirate-man. Gonna be a hard pass for me." He slung one leg over the other, with one hand resting in his lap while the hand holding Yamato continually bounced it off his shoulders. "You're raggin' on about loyalty this an' that, but you're leaving the part out where I'd have to betray Razor's trust by doing that." He made a "tch" sound and turned his head. "Besides. I wouldn't be caught dead lowering myself down to your lot."

After that, the smile on Shellbreaker's face was all gone in an instant. The kindness and welcoming look left his eye. Now he was deeply frowning again and holding his sword in a normal grip. "What's that supposed to be meanin'?" he asked Sorun. "You steal from us and claim you aren't on our level?"

"I was born with a higher moral standing than some filthy pirate like you," Sorun said, once more drawing the ire of the four pirates. "And regardless of right or wrong, I'm taking this back. If you want it, then you'll have to take it." He stopped bouncing the sword on his shoulder. "You don't have a problem with me taking the gem just because I can, right? You people do it all the time after all."

He sent a cold glare down towards Shellbreaker, who met his gaze and matched it with a cold gaze of his own. They continued to stare at each other, unflinching and holding their own respective swords with rigid postures. The other pirates, likewise, were sending their own glares at Sorun. It was Razor who broke the silence of the stare-off after he began looking back and forth between them with an uncomfortable look.

"H-hey, Sorun, you can tone it down a bit, man," Razor said. "I'm not out to-"

"Just who do you think you are?" That fiery, tomboyish voice. Razor's sister. She stepped up to the head of the group, looking up at Sorun with sharp teeth practically gnashing. "I don't care what my brother said to you! You don't know a thing about us! Not a single thing!" she screamed up at him. "I don't care what life for you is like. You just got here, so don't you dare sit up there and look down on all of us like you know everything and you're better than us!"

"I'll do what I want." Ignoring the red shark completely, Sorun looked back to the captain. "I'm done with words. You giving up or not?"

"I shan't be thinkin' we'll be doing such a thing, Sorun." Shellbreaker rose his cutlass up in a more defensive posture. The tentacles around the yellow jellyfish Mobian began waving threateningly, the strange aquatic abominable snowman began snapping his claws, and Blade had drawn a knife of her own. "I'll give ye a counterproposal. Drop the gem and I'll let the both of ya walk away. Or fight and we'll throw you overboard to wash up and be stranded on that island."

"Bet."

With a small groan, Sorun slid off the guardrail and dropped right next to Razor, who was looking at the four pirates with a worried expression. He was switching on which person to aim his knife at, looking unsure as he glanced at Sorun.

"Hey, uh, Sorun? It's great Abyss is gone, but this is still four on two. Are you sure we got this?"

"Just deal with your sister," Sorun said. His voice was free of all worry, though that and his expression seemed a bit tight as he looked at the four pirates. "I'll help out if you don't finish by the time I'm done."

"You sure? Sorun!" Razor's yell went ignored by Sorun, who continued to slowly walk towards the pirates. He saw Blade walk past him in his peripheral, who'd given Sorun a hateful sneer as she approached her brother. He let her pass and focused on the last three pirates.

Three on one. Better odds than he'd come in thinking he'd have. Support from the Chao would have been nice, but he'd make do. It wasn't like they had any special powers. Just normal Mobians. Though the jellyfish one was making him nervous with those tentacles, and the size of the big, white-furred one was making him a bit nervous. Best not to get grabbed by either of those.

"You're makin' a mistake, lad," Shellbreaker said to him. "By the time the day's ended we'll be sailin' for the sunset-"

Sorun tore Yamato out from its sheath and made a high slash in a single movement, causing the three to duck their heads. A single, blue slash appeared in the middle of the mast of the ship, which quickly disappeared to reveal a neat gash cutting clean through the pole. A snapping noise and the sound of groaning wood was heard, making the three turn around to see that the mast was tilting off to the side. Quicker than Sorun would have thought it'd have gone the mast, and the sails connected to it, fell over the side of the ship and right into the water, with the three pirates watching with widened eyes.

"Gonna be pretty hard to do that without any sails," Sorun pointed out in a calm tone.

Tightening the grip around his cutlass, Shellbreaker snarled and turned around to Sorun. "Now you've done it, you-!"

Sorun swung the Yamato out again. There was a small, metal ting! sound as the katana's blade effortlessly cut through the cutlass blade being held out to Sorun, leaving the sword cut down to the hilt. The actual blade was sent spinning end-over-end through the air, with four sets of eyes following it as it fell down and impaled itself in the ship's deck.

"You were saying?" There was a flurry of movement in the corner of Sorun's vision, though he was too slow to react as a pair of flat, yellow tentacles wrapped around his sword arm. "Hey, now."

The tentacles were coming from the head of the yellow Mobian. The one wearing the black dress with skulls on it. There was just the faintest hint of fear in her eyes, but the confidence in that smirk of hers overshadowed it massively. Sorun wondered why until he felt it- the sharp feeling of something puncturing his skin in the same areas the tentacles were grabbing him. Multiple puncture sensations going off simultaneously.

"Tch!" It'd felt like feeling a shock race up his whole arm up to his spine. Sorun'd nearly lost his grip on his sword as a result. What did happen was that he began to feel dizzy. Intensely dizzy. That and a burning sensation beginning to grow in his arm. Mild for now, but it was exponentially growing worse and worse with every second.

It got bad quickly enough that Sorun was forced onto a single knee, with the human hissing out as he grabbed at his arm, which wasn't listening to him anymore. The sword slipped through his fingers, turning back into the blue Chaos Emerald which he caught with his left hand. That alone took a lot of effort for him: the dizziness and burning was increasing more and more, and the jellyfish wouldn't let go of his arm.

"Hah... you... you got 'im, Opal?" Shellbreaker panted out, looking towards Sorun as the concern in his eye began to fade.

"Oh, don't you worry." The cockiness, the sheer smug that came out of the Mobian woman's mouth, was enough to get through the pain Sorun was feeling in his arm. He'd frozen and felt strong indignation begin to course through him at that tone. "There's enough venom in him to put Mr. Bristles down. Even if the pain doesn't knock him out, he isn't going to be getting up." A small laugh left her. "Guess he was all talk after all."

Panic and worry began to set inside of Sorun. Panic and worry that was being massively overshadowed by the anger swelling in him. Anger over being inflicted to this pain. The humiliation and that tone the jellyfish had. That superior, cocky tone. So much like his. Sonic's. Sorun hated it so much.

His hair turned white.

"Huh?" The jellyfish stepped back in shock when Sorun stood back up to his feet, lips peeled back in an angry grimace as he felt the burning sensation in his arm immediately begin cooling as feeling returned to it. He even felt the yellow Mobian, looking more worried by the second, try to inject him with the venom again and again. He wasn't feeling its effects, though she still wouldn't let go of him. "Wh-why isn't it working!?"

Growling, Sorun made the arm being grabbed by the tentacles reach up and grab at them. Ignoring the small, stabbing sensations in his hand and arms, he yanked back and forced the jellyfish to stumble towards him. Once she was close enough Sorun shot his bound hand forwards and gripped her shoulder roughly, trapping her in place.

And then, he reared his head back, only to then bring it forwards and smash his pale forehead right into the Mobian woman's mouth. She screamed out in shock and pain and tried to wrench herself away from Sorun's grip, and he felt the stabbing sensations increase even more as she tried injecting more venom into him, but no matter what she tried Sorun didn't let go. He just continued to smash his forehead into her mouth, over and over. He'd noted drops of blood fly past his peripheral, and just barely managed to notice the scared Mobian was missing a number of teeth in her mouth after a few headbutts, but he didn't relent and reared back for another one.

He was interrupted at a flash of steel, after which Sorun felt the Emerald get knocked out of his hand. His hair darkened back to black as a result. At the same time the sound of it rolling away reached his ears Sorun saw that Shellbreaker was standing next to the jellyfish, a new cutlass in the otter's hand with a panicked look on his face. After that was the stabbing sensations Sorun felt in his hand and arm, along with the new sound of bones creaking and cracking as the tentacles tightened around him. Sorun hissed out in pain, but before he could do anything the tentacles flexed, and then flung Sorun away from the pirates.

Flying through the air for a brief second, Sorun felt his back impact the edge of the ship before he collapsed on the ground. The shock of the impact made it hard to move, and the burning sensation was returning to his arm. He'd cracked his eyes open and noticed a blue glow in his peripheral, and turned his head to see that the Emerald was sitting right next to him.

By some stroke of luck, he'd been tossed right next to the Emerald. Sorun didn't think too hard about it and instead reached out with his left hand to grab the Emerald. Yamato without its scabbard appeared in his hand automatically upon touching it, and in that moment, in an instinctual act of wanting to get rid of the intense burning sensation in his right arm that was becoming unbearable, he stabbed the blade into his arm as one desire raced through his mind: to separate his body from the sensation of pain.

It was like a switch had been flipped in almost the same moment the blade's tip dug into his flesh. Just like before in the past, all sensations disappeared from Sorun. Pain, sensation, even the ambient temperature. He breathed out a sigh of relief as a result, though much to his worry he still couldn't move his right arm. The venom, he wagered. That or the fact it was probably broken. When he looked down at his arm he saw it was bent in odd, unnatural angles at multiple points.

With a groan, Sorun collapsed right onto his back. The three pirates maintained their distance and kept away from him, too wary to approach. Opal, as she'd been called, coughed out and rose a shaking hand up to her face as Shellbreaker came to her side.

"Lass? Lass, you doin' alright?" He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as he looked to her in concern. "Opal?"

"M-muh teeth, he..." Tears of pain mixed in with the blood spilling from her mouth as the shaking jellyfish rose a quivering hand to her mouth. "H-he..."

"It's alright, lass, it's alright..." Stroking the Mobian's back, the one-eyed otter looked out to Sorun's still form. He was still on his back and clenching the katana in his left hand. "Bristles, don't go anywhere near 'im," he instructed.

The large Mobian looked down to Shellbreaker with an unsure expression. "Are you sure-?"

"He's got tricks. Too risky," the captain said with a shake of his head. "Jus' let the venom deal with 'im. Won't be too long. Poor lad's likely to die with how much Opal pumped in him."

Their words all reached Sorun's ears. He cared for none of them, more focused on trying to stay awake as he stared up at the sky. The pain was gone, but the numbing sensation was quickly spreading up his arm and up to the rest of his body. His vision was blurring, and the edges of his sight were darkening. He didn't think his right arm was even functioning anymore.

"So fighting when the source of all your power is a rock that barely fits in your hand isn't that great an idea. Good to know," Sorun sarcastically thought. "Let them get the drop on me. Didn't go for the bigger threats first. Rookie mistakes. How'd I let it come it this? Shouldn't I be better than this?"

He couldn't tell which was worse. The venom that was likely destroying his body from the inside, or the frustration that he was feeling. So much confidence he'd had now that he'd had that bit of power back, only for it to be taken away with a single hit. It made him fearful, strangely moreso than the fact he was dying. That his power could be taken away so easily like that. It was making Sorun's confidence quickly crumble. And in the wake of all that was the anger. Anger at himself for letting some two-bit band of pirates overcome him. Render him to this state. Him. After everything he'd done and accomplished. He was supposed to be better than this.

This kind of thing wasn't suppose to happen anymore.

What would the others think if they saw him in this state? Sorun blanched at the mere thought. He was glad enough knowing the Chao were unconscious and Razor was likely too busy to notice. But it wasn't a pleasant thought to even consider, what any of his friends back home would think seeing him in this state. Broken and dying due to venom. Brought down to heel in moments. The expressions they'd grow. What they'd think and say to him.

The horrified look Nicole would likely have flashed through his mind.

"Not again." Gritting his teeth and fighting past the dizziness and fading vision, Sorun sat upwards. The three pirates stilled and cast him wary looks as he began to shakily stand up. "Relying on an item for power isn't good enough. Not when it can be taken away so easily." Flipping his grip on the Yamato, Sorun rose the sword up. "I promised Razor. I need to help him. I need to go back to the others." He roughly gripped the sword's handle. "I need more power...!"

It was only inexperience on the pirates' part that saved Sorun. He knew this. Anybody that knew better would have done their damnedest to keep the Emerald away from Sorun. That would have made him helpless. Probably would have even led to him being killed. His friends captured. The thought horrified and scared him to no end. Paranoia that made it hard to focus on much else.

Holding an Emerald that could be so easily taken from him just wasn't good enough. Power that could be stripped away so easily wasn't reliable.

So he stabbed down right into his own stomach.

The act came as an unexpected one and caused the three pirates to step back in shock, with all three becoming petrified in fright when Sorun dragged the blade across his stomach, just under his vest and through his shirt. Blood spilled out from the slit in his stomach that, thankfully, Sorun couldn't feel at the moment. And at the sight of it, Sorun laughed. A single, high laugh that made the three looking at him that much more uneasy.

"Kid's insane..." Shellbreaker mumbled to himself. He watched as the sword turned back into the blue gem, which, much to his an the others' disgust, Sorun proceeded to shove into the slit he'd cut into his abdomen and into his torso. "You sick... jus' what are you doing to yourself!?"

Sorun didn't answer him. He pushed hard enough until the Emerald was settled deep inside of his guts, with more blood gushing past his hand and onto the deck of the ship. With the Emerald safely nestled within him, he pulled his hand out, his fingers dragging themselves along intestines as Sorun finally removed his hand from the slit in his stomach. And then, he took a deep breath.

Rapidly, Sorun's hair faded back to a white color. There was a brief, momentary flash of pain that assaulted Sorun as his sensations returned, but it had been just that: a single millisecond of pain. After that came the cooling relief that washed over his entire body. The hole in his stomach healed, the Emerald safely tucked inside his innards. The venom assaulting his body was neutralized by his demonic metabolism, and any wounds they caused were healed in an instant. The dizziness disappeared, as did the blurriness and darkening of his vision. Aside from the heavy sensation he felt in his gut, Sorun felt better than ever.

Taking a deep breath, Sorun lifted his head up to the three pirates. His irises were constricted to pinpricks, and he had a small smile on his face. A relieved, manic smile.

"I guess I should thank you guys for that," Sorun breathed out as he brushed a lock of white hair out from his eyes with his newly-healed hand. "I should have known holding onto that thing wouldn't be too reliable. This is why I never liked using consumables in games..."

Before another word could be said, Sorun shot forwards in a burst of rapid speed. Black speed lines trailed behind his body as he stopped right in front of the jellyfish Mobian, who stared at him with wide, fearful eyes past her bloodied mouth. A single backhand from a white-haired Sorun was enough to send her sprawling towards the deck of the ship. She'd rolled into a still position and wouldn't rise back up.

The last two Mobians were quick to act. Shellbreaker had sprung backwards, shouting out, "Get 'im, Bristles!" as he backpedaled away from Sorun. The large, white Mobian did the exact opposite and charged towards Sorun with a furious yell, his right claw raised up and poised to strike right down at Sorun.

Sorun watched the Mobian thrust the claw down towards him with a curious, half-interested expression. The claw coming straight towards him was, in a word, slow. So painfully slow due to the supernatural reflexes afforded to him by the white-haired body that Sorun was able to blink his eyes and tilt his head at the claw mid-strike. It was enough that he was even able to casually sidestep it, cup an elbow with one hand, and use the other to rub at his chin with an amused expression as the claw slowly pierced down towards the position he'd been standing at prior.

"Ah, this just ain't fair for 'em," Sorun thought as he, at least from his perspective, slowly stepped in front of the claw as it punched a hole into the deck of the ship. "Despite Bunnie's best efforts, I never picked up hand-to-hand all that well. On the other hand I'm so absurdly stronger and faster than them right now that I don't think it really matters. Although..." He rose his right hand up to his face and clenched it. "I never did make the Beowulf Devil Arm, but I still know the moveset. I wouldn't dream of trying it with a normal body. With Devil's Body, though?"

It was when the white-furred Mobian's clawed hand fully sunk into the ship that Sorun bolted forwards. A left hook with his fist sunk into the Mobian's torso, with Sorun feeling bone crunch under his fist. This was followed by a low right uppercut, him spinning and releasing a flurry of kicks with his left leg, and finally him dodging backwards and rushing back forwards with a straight right punch. A sequence of attacks that proved sufficient in forcing the large Mobian to stumble backwards after his claw was forced out from the ship.

"Combo B, followed by a Dragon Breaker and a Lunar Phase... this body really makes pulling these moves off way too easy," Sorun internally marveled. "Probably not carrying nearly as much oomph or speed compared to if I actually made the things, but... well, he's big, but the guy's still just a normal Mobian. Those things might've killed him if I tried making them. Or blown my own arms off from the force since I'm limited to using these powers one at a time."

It was strange, though, how naturally performing the movements came to him. He was familiar with them through the games, of course, but something about the way Devil's Body changed Sorun made the movements flow so easily to him. Instinctually. And he liked it. He felt a strange sense of freedom doing it, in flawlessly pulling these moves off and staggering this giant foe in front of him. Every successful hit sparked some small amount of glee in him.

This is what he missed. This power. Not being helpless. The freedom.

As the large Mobian stumbled back, Sorun dodged right below him and crouched down a bit with his right fist cocked downwards and at the ready. He made a short hop, his right fist extended upwards in an uppercut and his entire body spinning around as his fist struck the Mobian's body. He touched down afterwards, and then sprung right back up with enough force that the wooden planks under his feet had cracked. Body spinning with his right fist extended upwards, he'd jumped up far enough that his fist cracked against the Mobian's head, snapping it backwards.

It was only then that, with his right leg extended, Sorun leaned forwards and span. Span hard enough that for a brief moment Sorun's body was a circular blur until he'd ceased his momentum, with his right leg extended over the Mobian's snapped-back face. The momentum of that spinning was carried right into the back of Sorun's leg and heel as he smashed it into Mr. Bristle's face, making blood splash out from his surely-broken nose and his eyes roll back into his head. Sorun then softly touched back down onto his feet while the Mobian tilted backwards and fell right onto his back, unconscious.

All in all, from the moment Mr. Bristles took that first swing to when Sorun had knocked him out with that final kick, the entire exchange had only lasted roughly five seconds.

Blinking in surprise, Sorun looked down at his leg. "Didn't think Lunar Phase would be that easy to pull off. Must be the body," he thought. "All that spinning, though... ugh. Don't even think I can get nauseous in this state, but my vision... how the hell does Sonic handle-?"

Sorun's thoughts were cut off when he noticed something stabbing towards him from the corner of his vision. Something shiny with sunlight glinting off of it. He rose his right hand up just in time for a cutlass to cut straight through his palm. Standing his ground and allowing his nostrils to flare out in anger, and with half a sword's length poking through his hand, Sorun turned to his aggressor.

It was the otter captain. Shellbreaker, and his newly-acquired cutlass. If he'd been trying to maintain a calm façade, it'd all but faded away at this point. Despite the fact he'd just ran Sorun's hand through, the man looked like he was panicking. The widened eye and heavy breathing. Sorun even noticed the sweat past his fur.

He liked that look. It meant Sorun was winning.

"You're running out of moves." Sorun slid his impaled hand through the sword's edge, towards his fingers. The gash cut into his flesh and bones instantly healed behind the wake of the blade, until finally Sorun pulled the sword free of his hand and grabbed the blade. Shellbreaker looked like he was going to vomit from the sight. "And I'm running out of patience."

"Yer a demon," Shellbreaker hissed out as Sorun casually bent the blade of the sword sideways. "Jus' what are ye?"

"A very concerned friend. You really should have just given up."

With his free left hand, Sorun snapped his fist upwards and punched Shellbreaker right in the face. He crumpled like a sack of potatoes afterwards and collapsed to the deck of the ship just like that. Sorun let out a disappointed scoff at the sight and tossed the ruined sword away.

"Weak. Hm." He looked to his left towards the raised section of the deck, where the ship's steering wheel was. He heard the sounds of a struggle up there. Where Razor and Blade were facing off, he reckoned. "Alright, let's bring it to a close," Sorun mumbled to himself as he made his way towards one of the short set of steps that lead to the raised deck.

Making his way up the stairs and past the steering wheel, likely useless now seeing as Sorun cut the mast away, the white-haired human saw the twins facing off at the very back of the raised deck. Knife fighting of all things. Poorly, too. It was mostly just wild, infrequent stabs and jabs towards one another. Slow, telegraphed strikes both were easily jumping out of the way of. Probably for the best, as Sorun saw, with some relief, that Razor had no wounds on him. Neither did Blade.

"Why did you have to come back and ruin everything!?" Blade screamed as she stabbed at her brother.

Razor jumped out of the way of the knife. "I came back for you!" he screamed back. "You're my sister! Why can't you understand I'm trying to help you!?"

"Why can't you understand I don't need your help!?"

When Blade had reared her knife-wielding hand back in order to commit to another stab, she wasn't able to bring it back forwards. A vice-like grip clamped down on her hand, causing her to wince and look behind her. Her fury only grew when she saw Sorun standing behind her, holding her wrist with a single hand and with an apathetic look on his face as he gazed at her.

"..." He wasn't even able to find the words. With a short sigh, Sorun turned his arm to the side and released Blade. The red shark had been thrown back as a result, with her back impacting the railing of the ship hard enough that the wood cracked and broke away.

She slid down to the deck just as Sorun and Razor stepped in front of her. The knife Blade wielded had been dropped, and both hands were used to support her upper body as she looked up at the pair. Sorun still held that apathetic expression as he looked down at her. Razor was much more emotional in his expression. He practically looked grief-stricken, enough that his own knife had slipped from his grip. All that did was make Blade appear more and more furious as her head turned towards Sorun.

"What... what did you do to them...!?" The golden eyes she shared with her brother were practically burning as she looked up at Sorun. So much hate that covered the visible worry she wore past that snarling mouth full of teeth.

"... What do you think?" Came Sorun's quiet response. "I said I'd come help Razor out if I finished before he did, didn't I?"

Disbelief. Hopelessness and sorrow. Shock. All of that played over Blade's face, and for just a moment all the anger faded away as Sorun's words registered with her and she realized there was nobody else around them. Then the anger began to return to her face. Seething and burning. And in addition to that were the tears. Hot, angry tears that streamed down her angered face as she looked up at Razor's face, whose shoulders had fallen at seeing his sister's expression.

"Why...?" she asked him. "They took us in when nobody else would... when we tried to steal from them to survive, just like they did! The world threw us away and they were the only ones that accepted us! We were a family!" she screamed at him. "So why!? Why did you throw us away!?"

"Blade..." Razor's voice came out as soft and broken. "It's gotta stop. This isn't what it used to be. You're hurting people, and the machines that kept ransacking those villages are gone. This can't go on." He sent her a pleading look, his voice practically begging. "Just come back with me, please. We'll go to Meropis, you can just live with me instead of getting imprisoned like the rest-"

"Back to a city full of people that never bothered to help us!?"

"Big words from the person that just stood by and watched as his brother was thrown overboard," Sorun mumbled.

Blade's gaze snapped to Sorun. "You don't know anything. You weren't there. You..." Her teeth began to bare as her muscles tensed. "You're just... just a monster that came and destroyed my family..."

She lunged forwards. Sorun had seen it easily, but the pity he found in looking at the shark Mobian found him rooted to the spot. He still held his right arm in front of himself to defend him, only for Blade to bite down right on his forearm. He didn't make a sound as the numerous, sharp teeth pierced his skin and muscles with enough force he felt his bones creak and crack. Razor, off to the side, was too shocked by the sight to do anything.

Sighing, Sorun's free hand shot forwards and gripped around Blade's throat. Even as he squeezed down and began choking her, she wouldn't release her bite on his arm. She kept clamping down harder and harder, like she was trying to saw through his entire arm with her maw. If it weren't for Devil's Body she very well might have been able to sever his arm with that single bite. But the regeneration kept her from biting clean through the arm, but even as her eyes began to dim, and her movements began to slow, she held on. Biting him, clawing at his face and kicking at his midsection in outright defiance and rage for everything he'd done.

It was only after her eyes closed and her limbs went completely limp did Sorun release Blade's throat. Her mouth was still clamped to his arm despite the fact she was unconscious, forcing Sorun to carefully pry her off and set her down on the deck. The wound on his arm had already healed by the time he'd laid the red Mobian down.

When he stood back up, Sorun looked to the side at Razor. A single tear was running down his face as he looked at his sister. Varying emotions from pity to sorrow marred his face, and when he looked up at Sorun, it took everything the human had to not look away at seeing the pitiful look in his eyes. It made his heart hurt seeing Razor like this.

"... Your arm fine?" Razor asked, voice hollow and quiet.

"Regeneration. Emerald." It was the minimal amount of words Sorun could say to explain the situation and assuage Razor's fears. It seemed to be enough, as he nodded at Sorun and looked back at his sister.

"... We were orphans fighting to survive," he said in a remorseful tone. "No parents, no... nothing. People in Meropis wouldn't even give us the time of day, so we left. When we tried stealing from these pirates, they... took us in." He made a low sigh and shook his head. "I wasn't lying when I said the days when we just raided abandoned places were fun. It was...nice, you know? Having a family that understood where we came from. What we had to do. I just wish she could see what I see."

"I know." How could he not? It felt like he was in the same situation back in New Mobotropolis. "Hell. I even thought about stealing from the food storage site. Didn't because of Nicole, but..." He pursed his lips and looked at the other end of the ship. Towards the unconscious pirates. "I never wanted to hurt anybody. Not like them. Did they, even? Is that how it starts? Does it even matter?"

Surely at some point it was for the sake of survival; something that could be understood, even if it was at the cost of others. Unforgiveable, maybe, but understandable. Sorun saw the cargo they had, though. That much went beyond mere survival. Or maybe it didn't, seeing as their source of abandoned villages would be cut off due to a lack of attacks. Where did that leave them? The whole reason why Razor chose now of all times, Sorun supposed.

"You think she'll ever forgive me?" Razor's voice drew Sorun's attention back to him. "Blade?"

"... I really don't know," Sorun honestly answered. "In time, maybe. If not... well. I guess all that really matters is if you can live with what we just did."

Razor made a small grimace. "I don't know if I'm okay with that. None of this feels okay." He looked up and past Sorun's shoulders. "They're...?"

"Alive," Sorun confirmed. "Don't worry. I didn't break my promise."

"..." Nodding, Razor looked back down at his sister. "Thank you, Sorun," he muttered.

"I'm going to get some rope." Sorun hadn't waited for a response from Razor. He simply turned around and left, leaving Razor to have some time with his sister. He felt it was the least he was owed.

---

It was some time later. Sorun was lying on his back, staring up at the bright, clear sky. Razor had gone about rounding up the pirates and tying them all up while he had simply been thinking on his own.

Sighing, Sorun rose his right hand up in the sky. There was a flash of blue light, and Yamato found itself in Sorun's hand. At the same time his hair turned black, and he felt the heavy weight in his gut vanish. "Hmph. Convenient," he thought. "Come to think of it... I promised Aurora I wouldn't pursue this power again, didn't I?"

Turning the sword back into the blue Emerald, Sorun lowered his hand and looked back up into the clear sky. He wondered if she was watching him right now and what she was thinking of him.

He rose his middle finger to the sky.

"Who cares what she thinks?" He bitterly thought as he sat upwards. "I wonder," he continued as he clutched the Emerald with both hands. "I can make the seven powers. Can I... make anything else?"

It was something he only now considered. The seven powers he was familiar with, of course. Yamato came naturally for some reason. Other things, though? If he could actively control it to some extent now, he didn't see why. At the very least it wouldn't hurt to experiment.

"Beowulf."

The blue Chaos Emerald dissolved in a flash of light and particles that swarmed to Sorun's limbs. In flashes of white light gauntlets and greaves appeared over his hands and feet. Gray, bestial-looking implements. Gloveless gauntlets with open hands shaped like a screaming maw. Greaves with three metal claws for toes. Lines of white-purple light softly pulsed around the gauntlets and greaves, like veins of pure power.

"Vergil's secondary melee weapon. Neat." Beowulf transformed back into the blue Emerald. "... Death Note."

Nothing happened. Sorun frowned, and concentrated harder on the mental image. The black notebook and the white words written on its cover. Despite this, nothing happened. The Emerald remained an Emerald.

"Figures it wouldn't be that easy. You live another day, Eggman." A huff left Sorun. "Is it seriously still only things from the 'DMC' games? Power shaped by the heart, sheesh... if that's the case I'll just stick to what I had."

Standing up to his feet, Sorun turned around. The deck below him had five pirates completely bound in rope and all laid next to each other, the yeti crab significantly moreso. All still unconscious. In front of them was Razor, who'd just finished with them.

Moving down the stairs towards the deck Razor stood on, Sorun noticed some movement out from the corner of his eyes. Their two Chao seemed to finally be awake and were groggily making their way out from behind the barrels Razor had left them at. Crusher was stumbling around in a stupor, while Virgil was shaking his head and looking out towards the bound pirates.

"Chao?" he mumbled out, sounding confused.

"We took care of it," Sorun said as he stopped next to him. "It seems all that spinning didn't do you much good. Sorry for that, Virgil. We still managed, though, so it's fine."

"Chao..." He actually almost sounded upset, for whatever reason. Sorun tilted his head a bit in surprise at the sound, but then shrugged it off and made his way back towards Razor.

The shark noticed his approach and waved at him. "Hey, Sorun," he called out. His mood seemed significantly better than it had the half-hour prior, which Sorun saw as a plus. He didn't look happy by any means, but he wasn't bad enough that Sorun felt bad seeing him. "The Chao are back up?" he asked at seeing the two Chao float around.

"Yeah. They seem fine. Bit dizzy, maybe," Sorun answered as he stopped in front of the shark. He took a momentary glance at the pirates, and then looked back at Razor asking, "What now?"

"Now I go back to Meropis, inform the guards, and bring them here so they can transport the pirates back to the city for trial. Dunno what they're gonna do with the ship," he said to Sorun. "Why'd you go and cut their mast?"

"I felt like it? I dunno. I was in the moment," he answered with a shrug. "I didn't want to say it earlier, but... you sure you can make it so your sister doesn't go along with the rest of them?" Seemed like a stretch; Razor didn't exactly strike Sorun as someone with a lot of political pull. Or any, really. And his circumstances were different than Blade's.

Razor seemed to share Sorun's concerns, as evidenced by the slight grimace he made. "It doesn't look good, I know," he said, voicing Sorun's thoughts. "One of my friends is really important, though. She's this, uh, priestess, you see, and... well, she promised to help me out with this if I managed to pull this off. Said she'd talk with some people, give my sister a chance. Make the rest's punishments not so bad."

"After all they did?" Sorun asked. "Really?"

"More suffering's not gonna fix anything. I just want them to change and stop hurting people. That's it," Razor confessed to him, sighing as he looked down at the pirates. "They're still important to me, after all."

Even after all they did to him, he still cared. "Mobians..." Sorun thought. He couldn't help but admire it- admire Razor himself. A part of Sorun longed to help him.

"... You know, you... if you wanted, you... you could maybe just come back with me..." When Razor looked up at him in surprise, Sorun made a breathy noise and turned away from him. "You and that frenzied terror of yours."

Razor made a small laugh. "Crusher isn't that bad, Sorun."

"Meant your sister. But sure, the Chao, too," Sorun said. "You said not a lot of people in that city look at you right. It wouldn't be like that in the place I live in. You could just leave it all behind and come live with me. I have the room for it."

He technically did since his house had a guest bedroom. Small one, but it was there. He noticed Razor giving Sorun a surprised look, however, and at seeing it Sorun found himself being surprised at his own words. He admittedly hadn't put much thought into the offer- he'd just said it. It was more a passing thought, really, but even so he really did mean it. He just wanted to help Razor. Even his sister, if only because she was related to him. And... perhaps having them around wouldn't make the house feel as lonely.

"Wow. Sorun, that's, uh... thanks." An unsure chuckle left Razor, with the shark reaching up to rub the back of his head as he glanced to the side. "I appreciate it, I really do, but... I-I can't. Leave my friends behind, I mean. I have too much in Meropis. And I think it'd be a bit too dry for me over there anyway," he added with another chuckle. "And I don't think it'd do my sister too much good."

"Yes, right, of course," Sorun quickly said. "I understand. Forgive me for offering, I just..."

"No, it's fine. Thanks. Really." They both looked back at each other. Awkward looks were present on both of their faces. "I have a home, is all. I can't leave that."

"I... perhaps have one as well," Sorun quietly admitted as he looked down at the gem in his hands.

"You do." Razor's words made surprise appear on Sorun's face as he looked up at the shark. He was grinning at him. "Home's less a place and more the people, y'know? At least that's what I think."

Home. It still hurt to call New Mobotropolis his home. It felt like he was abandoning what his old home was by doing so. His home on Earth. Earth itself. Accepting that place as his home, and so soon, felt like he was throwing all that away. What it used to be. But people... maybe that was a different matter. The same? Sorun didn't know. He didn't think he was even close to adjusting to life there yet. All things considered, though, Razor acted like he did. Sorun was somewhat envious of him for that fact.

"People, huh? Well, if it worked for Razor..." The blue Emerald shifted back into the Yamato. "Maybe you're right," Sorun said as he looked to Razor's eyes. "I'm still figuring all this out. How to move on, how to... settle, I guess. But I'm glad I managed to help you with this. I think it showed me a lot. You showed me a lot," he said to Razor. "So... thanks for that, Razor."

A third, more nervous chuckle left Razor. He looked abashed at Sorun's words. "I think I should be thanking you," he said. "I don't think I would have managed this without you."

"You're right. You wouldn't have."

"H-hey!" The smile on the shark's face became a bit more strained, especially when he saw the small, wry grin Sorun held. "Ugh, for the... you don't gotta rub it in like that."

"I couldn't resist. Hey, by any chance do you have a map that says where Meropis City is?" Sorun suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Razor blinked, but still reached down to look inside the small, green pouch he had attached to the rope he wore as a belt. "Err, yeah? Why?" he asked, pulling something out and tossing it to Sorun.

The human caught the object and examined it. It was... wasn't paper, exactly, but something akin to it. Some waterproof variation of it. Felt thicker and rougher, and was slightly darken than normal paper. Sorun hummed a bit, and then opened it up to peer at the contents of the map. Much of it was illegible to him, drawings and paths he couldn't make heads or tails of, but there was really only one thing he needed, and that was the coordinates listed near a landmark he assumed to be the city seeing as "Meropis City" was written above it.

"I just wanted to help you with one last thing," Sorun said as he tossed the map back to Razor. Yamato was unsheathed afterwards, and following that a blue cross was cut into the air. The cross folded inwards to create a portal, making Razor jump back with widened eyes at the sight of it. "That's a portal that's directly above the city. I, uh... didn't feel safe opening a portal underwater," Sorun explained. "It should take you directly there. You and the guards will have to take the long way to get here and back with the pirates. I'm not sticking around long enough to ferry you all back and forth."

"Oh." Razor's face fell a bit. "Does that mean you're going back?"

Sorun nodded. "I kinda have to return the plane. Or what's left of it," Sorun explained. "And I suppose, like you, I have those back there I... deeply care for, and they're probably worried sick about me."

"So you're going home?"

"... Home's a strong word," Sorun admitted. "It's all I have anymore, though. So I want to try and work towards it. Like you did."

A hand found itself resting on Sorun's shoulder. He looked towards it, and then trailed up the hand's arm and up to its owner's face, who was giving him a warm smile. "You'll do fine," Razor said. "I really think that."

Sorun reached up and placed a hand over the one on his shoulder. A light blush settled on his face. "Thanks, Razor." He removed the hand from his shoulder, and then gestured to the group of unconscious pirates near them. "Good luck with... all of this," he added, making circular gestures with the hand.

"Yeah. I'll try," Razor sighed out. He made to move towards the portal, with his green and black Chao floating up to grasp onto his shoulder. "So... I just jump through, right?" he asked, stopping in front of the portal and turning back to Sorun.

"Mhm, yeah," Sorun confirmed. "I'm trusting you'll be able to find your way back from there."

"Should," Razor agreed. "Well, um... bye, Sorun. Hope we'll see each other again." He turned back to the portal. "C'mon, Crusher. Let's go home."

"Chao." The Chao on Razor's shoulder turned around and waved towards Virgil, who'd settled on Sorun's shoulder. Virgil only reacted by giving the Chao a small, curt nod and nothing more. Razor had seen the sight and made a small laugh at it, and after casting one last glance at Sorun, hopped through the portal. Sorun swiped his sword and closed it the second Razor and Crusher left through it.

Right as the portal closed, Sorun made a small sigh and lowered his sword. Afterwards, a small laugh left him as a grin grew. "He's gonna be mad when he figures out I opened that portal twenty meters over the surface of the ocean," he said, making Virgil roll his eyes. "Alright. Our work here's done. Let's get back to the plane."

Another couple of swipes with his sword was all Sorun needed to form a portal back to the beach this whole mess started on. He'd made sure to close it behind him as his feet went from walking on hard wood to sand, with the crashed plane sitting there right before him. Sorun had risen a hand to his chin, and began to stroke it contemplatively as he looked at the mechanical wreckage.

"... Alright, how am I actually gonna do this?"

---

The answer in the end had been "just open a portal under the wreckage and let it fall through back to the hangar". It worked for the most part; Sorun was ninety-percent sure all of the parts had made it through. The important bits, at least. That and a lot of sand. But in the end he'd managed to get the wrecked plane through, and then stepped through with Virgil still clinging to him. He'd swiped the portal closed, and then sheathed Yamato as a small sigh escaped him.

He'd managed to successfully create a portal that lead back into the hangar in the New Mobotropolis airfield. Currently vacant, thankfully, as he wasn't really prepared to face anybody yet. Also... startlingly dark, he realized. When Sorun looked towards the open end of the hangar he was shocked to discover it was nighttime outside.

"The hell- how far did I go? It was daylight over on that island," He thought to himself. "Eh, whatever. Doesn't really matter."

He turned back towards the plane wreckage. For all intents and purposes, it was still a wrecked, inoperable plane. He didn't have a clue if Tails would even be able to salvage this or not. Or how mad he'd be at Sorun that he destroyed the pride and joy that was his plane after stealing it. He flipped out at Sorun for merely scratching it once way back when he piloted it. And this seemed like a bit more than a scratch.

"... Eh, it's probably fine," Sorun mumbled to himself as he walked towards the wreck. He sighed, and then lowered himself to sit on the ground with his back pressing against what was once upon a time the cockpit. Virgil floated off his shoulder and hovered besides Sorun. "Any idea what I'm supposed to say?" Sorun asked his Chao.

Virgil shook his head. "Chao-chao."

"Cool." Clicking his tongue, Sorun turned to the side. A glint of something poking out of the crumpled cockpit he was sitting against caught his eye. He made a small, confused noise, and then reached forwards to grasp at it. He felt his fingers grasp something smooth and cool, and then pulled it back to examine it. "How in the world did these make it...?"

It was the purple sodas Mina had given him. The remaining two, still in their carton holder. He'd figured they'd been lost in the crash, but it seemed they were completely fine, hidden in the cockpit. He made a surprised noise, and then, after a moment's contemplation, removed one of the bottles, set the carton with the remaining bottle down, and then popped the cap off the bottle he had in his hand.

Virgil grew visibly concerned for some reason.

"It was one heck of an adventure we had there, Virgil," Sorun said after taking a drink of the soda. "Now to figure out how I'm supposed to explain myself. And this," he mumbled, shaking the sword held in his other hand. "Yeah, this'll be a doozy and a half to figure out..."