Chapter Six – Wisdom
Computer program or not, Grid or no Grid, Saffie was now extremely fed up with being knocked out. After what seemed like an age, he opened his eyes, somehow stood up, in the exact same darkened alleyway of which he'd originally hidden from his captors. Saffie growled, utterly frustrated at the Grid. He swore.
"You will not control me!" He hissed under his breath. He could now really feel it desperately trying to make him fall into line, barraging him with yet more false memories. Saffie gritted his teeth. "Oh no, you don't." He growled, and fighting hard again, he pushed against the Grid, and suddenly with a flash of bright white light, he found himself inside in body again.
Opening his eyes, the Sapphire Dragon was still banging and trashing like crazy, whipping his extremely powerful tail everywhere, smashing any and all robots that dared to get close. The sky still above him. Saffie now realised he was on the roof of one of the almighty tall towers. A loud and ugly voice roared in anger.
"Control that monster!" It screamed, in pure frustration, though it's owner was still out of sight. But this time, Saffie desperately tried to stay in his body as long as he could but unfortunately failed. Within seconds, and another flash of light, Saffie was back in the alleyway, in his digital self. He was panting again. He growled.
"Robotnik!" He leered. So the filthy Human was struggling to control him on the outside. He knew he'd break though back into his body again. The Grid grip on him, wasn't as strong as it was on those born into it. He could break through to the real world, but couldn't stay there for more then a few seconds. That needed to improve that if he had any chance of defeating Robotnik. He suspected that his body was the only thing in this entire dimension strong enough to beat the Human. He just had to get past the Grid first.
He was going to be dammed if he was going to allow some 'computer program' control him on the inside. It had been trying to hack him. But Saffie was a Cyborg. Time to return the favour. He moved further down the alleyway and finding a quiet spot, he closed his eyes, and dived for the Grid. Reversing the line. It didn't take Saffie long to find it's Source Code, but he was dumbfounded. The Grid was the most complicated and sophisticated program he'd ever seen. Even the R.I.N. (The Robotnik Intelligence Network) from his own dimension wasn't this good, and even though hacking the code was indeed possible, it would take years, even decades of trial and error to successfully alter the code significantly enough to free anyone from the inside and Saffie suspected that he just didn't have that kind of time.
As a Cyborg, he had successfully hacked the firewall to gain access but as Saffie was wandering around the Source Code, he was spotted and immediately thrown out. The Grid knew he was there. He growled in frustration, this 'computer program' was not going to beat him. He sighed.
Saffie sighed and opened his eyes. So this dimension's Freedom Fighters had tried to free him. It had obviously failed, because he wasn't plugged in via the central mainframe like everyone else, and the Grid had just dumped him back here, the last place he was before they knocked him out. He gritted his teeth. What a mess, he'd gotten himself into. Some King he turned out to be. Not in this dimension, he wasn't. He sent as a saviour, and now he was trapped like everyone else. He could get out, but not for long, plus he had no idea if he could maintain it. With his back to the wall on one side of the darkened alleyway, he saw a broken window opposite and his reflection in the glass.
A black eyed teenage Blue Hedgehog looked back at him. Completely overwhelmed, tears falling, now not convinced at all he could succeed here. He closed his eyes again and sniffed. Suddenly a deep, calm voice spoke to him.
"Chosen One?" It asked, but Saffie completely lost it, loosing his temper. He growled.
"I am not The Chosen One!" He spat, very harshly. But the voice didn't move and remained cool and calm, deep in it's wisdom. It frowned, pausing before answering as if it take a long look at him.
"Apologies. I can see that now. You indeed are not." He replied, and this immediately broke Saffie's temper and left him staring into the darkness. The tone of voice, the choice of words, it screamed something ancient to Saffie. The voice, he didn't fear it. If anything, it was the opposite, he was keen to find it's owner. He noticed someone coming towards him, creating an outline that was now familiar, but not from his own dimension, but of one he'd just recently left. His eyes widened, as the figure revealed himself though the darkness. Saffie gasped.
"Knuckles." He gulped, instantly remembering the Echidna's name. Knuckles immediately stopped and smiled, as if reminiscing past times. Good times. He heaved, grinning.
"I haven't heard that name in centuries." He smirked, and then sighed, now looking somewhat somber. Saffie when white, now heaving himself.
"Centuries?" He questioned, then he dawned on him, remembering what his captors had said. "Hey. Your the Elder!" He panted. The Echidna nodded still extremely calm. Saffie looked at him. He looked identical to the bright red, and extremely powerful teenage Echidna he saw in the previous dimension, but this one had age. Not in his body, but in his eyes. He had indeed witness centuries of time pass here on the Grid. Then Saffie sighed.
"If you been here on the Grid for centuries, then your body had..." He asked, letting the sentence hang, not quite sure how to finish it. But the Elder smiled. He nodded.
"Long since perished in the real world, yes." He heaved. "If the Grid dies, then I do. As to why my mind survived, was still unknown to me, but I believe I was sent to guide those who wish to free this world." He announced. But Saffie heaved in frustration, but then he realised something.
"Centuries?" He repeated. "Is that how old the Grid was?" He asked, stunned. But the Elder sighed, nodding, somewhat impressed by Saffie's deductions, leaning against the wall right next to him. He heaved.
"Yes. I was one of the first to be captured. The Human, Robotnik, experimented on me. Tried different versions of the Grid on my mind, until finally it relented and forcibly accepted it. He used me, because as the last of my kind, the Echidnas, with my powers of Super-Strength, I had the strongest mind of anyone. (Which for this dimension, he was.) If he could break me, then he could break anyone." He sniffed, completely ashamed as to what happened. Saffie looked at him. He growled.
"Hey." He comforted. "That wasn't your fault. You were caught completely off guard and there was no way you would have known that, that would have lead to this." He added indicating the world around them, the Grid. "You survive here, because of the strength of your mind, and you do what you can to help those who need it." He grinned. The Elder nodded, he heaved, looking down.
"After that, the world fell to the Human relatively quickly, as more and more Mobians were captured, and forcibly placed on the Grid. He made the transition so smooth, that many people didn't even know they had been taken, instantly accepting the Grid, living out the rest of lives here, completely unaware as to the truth. But there was a Hero. The Ultimate Hero who fought until his last breath at the Human's hands, along with his sidekick." He sniffed. "You know, I knew them, but I can't remember them, having been on the Grid for so long. Such is the way the Grid drains your memories. I had already been taken at this point so I couldn't help, but I clearly remember his death resinating out across the Grid, him claiming that he'd return and take the Human down. It did give some people a reason to fight back, but the Grid heavily dubbed it down. But that was hundreds of years ago, and once the Ultimate Hero had passed out of living memory, he was all but forgotten." He shrugged.
But Saffie raised an eyebrow. So his counterpart, and his sidekick were in the original fight hundreds of years ago, but lost. Saffie shuddered. To loose. He couldn't bare thinking about it. But again, one Sonic, one Tails and one Robotnik per dimension, but why? What happened to the multiverse to cause this?
It disheartened Saffie that Knuckles couldn't remember. He growled angrily at the Grid's manipulation. He suspected that he stood almost there a carbon copy of that Ultimate Hero, and yet the Echidna didn't even recognise him. He'd seen the Chosen One and that was it, and hadn't made the connection back to the Ultimate Hero. Saffie heaved, and decided not to tell him. The look of age and deep scars in the Echidna's eyes told Saffie he'd suffered greatly at both the hands of the Grid and Robotnik. It didn't want to give him false hope, still having no idea if this dimension could be fixed, if at all. He sighed as he never felt so out of his depth in his life, and he'd been through a lot. Was it even possible he could win here? But then Saffie looked up, having realised something.
"If the Grid had been here for centuries, then so has Robotnik." He hissed, but the Elder raised an eyebrow. He looked back at Saffie. He frowned.
"That is correct, yes. His organic body perished a long time ago, just like mine did. He was nothing more then machine nowadays." He shrugged. But Saffie smirk broadened. That will make eventually destroying the Human much easier, if he was nothing more then a robot. Saffie still kept to his no killing policy, and wondered how he was going to get past it to take out the Human. Now he realised he didn't have to. But the Elder heaved again, staring at Saffie, looking extremely frustrated.
"Being a resident so long here that it had given me the gift of foresight. I can see things before they happen, here on the Grid. The Blue Hedgehog was the Chosen One. I have seen it, and yet here you are, not processing the 'Freedom Code'." He growled. Saffie stared. He vaguely remembered the Freedom Fighters mentioning this. Saffie frowned.
"The Freedom Code?" He asked. But the Elder's frustration grew, but tried to stay calm as best as he could. He hissed.
"The Freedom Code was a code written deep into the digital signature of the Chosen One. A Mobian born inside the Grid. The Blue Hedgehog. When the Chosen One, plugs himself, in the real world, into the server of the Grid's code. Robotnik himself, who was always found on his throne, a top of the highest of the mighty energy towers, then the Freedom Code was released. The Grid was shutdown and everyone was freed." He explained. Then Saffie realised the simplicity of the plan, despite the intense difficulty it was going to be to achieve. He looked at the Elder. He stared, upon a realisation.
"A virus." He breathed. The Elder stared.
"A what?" He asked, but Saffie rounded on him. He grabbed the Echidna.
"The Freedom Code. It's a virus. A computer virus, a powerful one, spawned from bugs in the system, because no computer program was perfect, no matter how big." He stammered, quickly turning over the facts in his head. He was right about this and he knew it. The Elder stared, himself realising the full extent of what he'd just been told.
"Yes." He nodded, but then he deeply frowned. "But how did you know?" He asked, very impressed at this Blue Hedgehog's deep knowledge of the digital realm. Saffie sighed.
"This isn't the first totally submersive virtual world I've been in." He declared, thinking back to the R.I.N. "I know a virus when I see one." He shuddered, remembering back to his time on said Robotnik Intelligence Network, where Robotnik's virus almost killed him. The Elder stared, now somewhat frightened. He gulped.
"There are others! Where are you from?" He panted, but before Saffie could answer, suddenly the whispers were back, louder then ever, multiple voices, dark and foreboding but none of the words of which could be made out. The whispers seemed to move with the breeze and got so loud that Saffie fell to his knees again, his hands over his ears. He screamed. Then the alleyway got much darker as all of the shadows began to move of their own accord and head straight towards him, slivering along the ground. The Elder panicked.
"Demons!" He declared and immediately vanished, back the way he came, but Saffie was left routed to the spot, the noise in his ears deafening. Suddenly, the shadows all around began to attack him. Ebbing and flowing like large patches of jet black liquid on the floor and walls, and soon they went up his legs. It was painful. Saffie panicked, only to find another flowing down the wall above him, and either side of him. He was surrounded.
Suddenly they were all on top of him, covering him in thick blanket of pure black darkness. Saffie screamed, the pain excruciating. He could feel them searching him, sifting though his digital code with a fine tooth comb, desperately looking for something. Saffie fought back as best he could but the pain was just too great, but as suddenly as they attacked, they were leaving, obviously having failed to find what they were looking for.
Saffie sat up, panting heavily, back in alleyway again, as he watched the shadows leave to return from where they came. Suddenly Saffie jumped out of his skin, as someone grabbed him by the arm, forcing him to his feet and up against the wall, a hand on his chest. Someone extremely powerful and strong. The Elder was back. He'd retreated to safety, but witnessed the whole incident, and was not believing his eyes. He was heavily growling in both fright and anger.
"Who are you?" He spat. "No one had ever survived a Demon attack before." He grilled, but Saffie stared.
"Demons?" He questioned. But the Elder heaved, still very confused himself.
"Demons are how the Grid cleanses itself. They are shadow-like creatures that can travel along any surface and at great speed. When a Demon catches someone, they are forcibly deleted from Grid. If you die on the Grid, you die in the real world, as the body can not survive without the mind. The Grid uses the Demons to remove unwanted minds. The Demons surround the poor person, like they just did with yourself, and forcibly separate the mind from the body. This instantly kills them, with the mind vanishing, the Grid then instantly rewrites itself so those close to person, would never remember they even existed. I have seen thousands die via the Demons. I noticed you heard them before they attacked. I suspected that to be the case. Reports of strange whispers." He stammered. "As for the real world, they liquefy the dead, so that they can be fed intravenously to the living." He added, somewhat numb. Saffie gagged and scoffed, feeling extremely sick, a hand over his mouth. He heaved.
"Oh, that's gross." He gasped, not believing. But the Elder shrugged.
"It's the truth. What do you think the red goo was inside those pods?" He sighed. Saffie gulped. The Elder continued. "I've seen it with my own eyes, one time I managed to break though." He thought. "It didn't last long though, before I was thrown back." He added. Saffie nodded. He understood what he meant about being thrown back, it was still impressive that the Echidna had even managed to do that. Saffie suspected that he was one of only a handful of people, including himself, who had forcibly broken though to the real world. The only other way to get out was to be freed by the Freedom Fighters. Saffie didn't know the methods they used, but however they did it, it appeared to be successful. But the Elder rounded on him again, glaring at him hard.
"Who are you?" He asked again, this time in a tone that demanded an answer. Saffie sighed. The Elder had been so generous with his time, knowledge and wisdom, despite the dangers. He wasn't immune against the Demons, unlike Saffie. His body may have perished, but he mind could still be deleted from the Grid, killing him. The Echidna deserved an explanation, though Saffie was uncertain that he would be believed.
"I'm a traveller from another dimension." He smiled, but then threw up his hands to the now somewhat panicked Echidna. "But I mean you no harm. I was sent here to help, not conquer." He nodded. "I swear." He added. But the Elder didn't believe him. He gulped.
"But the Demons?" He stammered, but Saffie knew the answer. He sighed.
"I'm a Cyborg." He finally declared. The Elder's eyes widened. He backed away. Saffie rubbed his face. "If the Demons are what you say they are, then the reason why they didn't kill me was because I don't carry an organic digital signature, like everyone else on the Grid. I could feel them searching for it. My body does have some organic tissue in it but it it's minimal nowadays. But I'm suspecting that even that small amount the Demons would have been able to find. But no. As a Cyborg, I can completely separate my mind from my body, and live to tell the tale. Those organic elements are not in my mind. Hence, to the Demons, I'm invisible." He heaved. The Elder blinked, and moving forwards, he grabbed the Blue Hedgehog by his shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. The Echidna bore straight into him. Saffie was panting, the emotions running high. The Elder sighed.
"You must have endured great suffering to achieve such a gift." He smiled. Saffie closed his eyes and hung his head. He nodded. That was a huge understatement, and not one he wanted to explain now. But the Elder smiled. "But this does mean that all was not lost. If you are from another dimension, as you claim, then the Chosen One..." He frowned but got immediately cut across by Saffie. He bounced.
"Is still on the Grid? Yes. That was what I was trying to say to those people, before they tried to forcibly remove me from the Grid, but it failed and thus it dumped me here, because my body was outside of the central mainframe." He panted. But the Elder frowned.
"Those people?" He wondered, then he realised the it. "You mean the Freedom Fighters?" He asked, to vigorous nodding from Saffie, but then he realised something.
"How come there's only eight of them. I would have thought the Freedom Movement would have been bigger then that." He asked, but the Elder looked extremely somber. He hung his head. He sniffed.
"It was, once. There used to be a vast community living at the foot of those mighty black energy towers. But, as you've seen for yourself, life in the real world, is incredibly harsh. There was little food, or water, and the constant threat of Robotnik was horrendous. The Grid was exceptionally good at doing what it was designed to do. Fooling the mind into completely and utterly accepting it's environment. It makes life very easy for those who live on it. In fact, it was so good, that the Mobians plugged into it largely govern themselves, with their own police and firefighters, completely none the wiser that the Grid was not the real world." He sighed. "For those who were freed, the real world wasn't the reality they wanted and many severely struggled with accepting that the Grid was nothing more then an illusion. The Grid made it easy, the real world was anything but, and many just couldn't cope." He heaved. Saffie gulped.
"Suicide?" He stammered. The Elder nodded, he closed his eyes, and tears fell.
"Thousands took their own lives, and along side those killed by Robotnik's machines, the Freedom Movement was decimated. All that remains of those with the strongest wills against the Human." He heaved. Saffie nodded.
"The Freedom Fighters." He smirked. The Elder nodded again. Saffie grinned. He remembered them. Sally, Antoine, Bunnie, Rotor, Geoffrey, Tails, Elise and Lupe. Almost the exact same people who fought along him back in his own dimension. He knew exactly how strong they all were. But then he realised something.
They fought alongside 'him'. Suddenly, he got rather excited. He grabbed the Elder.
"There's another Blue Hedgehog, a second one, somewhere out there on the Grid. Completely unknowing to all this. Elder, you were correct. He was the Chosen One." He smiled, bowing slightly to the Echidna, but before the Elder could do or say anything, Saffie immediately felt a huge amount of pain, right in the back of his head. He bent double screaming and suddenly a bright flash of white light, finds Saffie opening his eyes, to the blacked out stormy clouds directly above, breathing deeply. He was back in his body, again, the Sapphire Dragon, but this time it was so heavily chained, on his back, to a table, that he physically couldn't move. Saffie gritted his canine teeth and growled, desperate to break free. Suddenly he heard an evil, menacing laugher. Suddenly, he finally saw him. The Human, or at least, that was what Robotnik started as. Now was was an extremely ugly, spherical shaped, humanoid robot with all the features of the Human, but none of his organic traits. The mustache, the glasses, the long nose. It was all there. Saffie's anger flared, but Robotnik wondered right over to him and stroked the side of his head. He hissed, as cold as ice.
"You are one incredible creature. It was taken my machines days to subdue your enormous strength and power." He leered, but Saffie frowned. Days? What was he talking about? He'd only been in the Grid for barely six hours. Frustrated, he roared at the Human.
"Robotnik!" He growled. He tried to activate his wireless but failed. His Direct-Neuro Interface had been forcibly activated which was overridding it. Even digitally, he couldn't be in two places at once. A wire with a twist sprocket on the end of it with a dangerous foot long spike had been forced straight into the back of his head. It had dug itself deep into Saffie's Direct-Neuro Interface and twisted into place. It was painful. The twist sprocket wasn't an exact perfect fit, and it had claws which dug into his scalp to ensure it couldn't easily be removed. He strained with the pain. At least he couldn't feel it on the Grid. He heaved, panting. Whatever the Human was wanting, he was not having it, though Saffie suspected he knew what. The Human laughed again.
"How have you been finding my little program?" He sneered. "The Grid was my greatest masterpiece and with my mind inside your body, I will rule the whole universe." He growled. Saffie leant his head back on the table and hissed.
Oh, not again. He was right. He swore.
He'd had one Robotnik inside his body, and that was grotesque enough, another was pushing the realms of the disgusting just too far. Saffie's stomach turned. He'd always believed that his incarnation of Robotnik, from his own dimension, was the worst imaginable, but this was pure evil on a completely different scale. He now hated him with every ounce of his being. He roared at the Human, and to Saffie's delight, he noticed Robotnik, back off, very slightly. He smirked.
"Your not having it." He declared. But the Human quickly regained his composure. He hissed at the Sapphire Dragon.
"So I noticed. You have exceptional control of your body, despite your mind being completely separated and on the Grid. Which I am unsure how you are achieving. Every time I have tried to dive for your body, with your mind gone, to gain access and control, I have been blocked." He hissed. Saffie smirked, he could hear the frustration in the Human voice. "How?" He ordered. "How have you done this?" He demanded. Saffie lifted his head, and glared at the Human, a smirked on his face.
"Upgrade." He hissed, equally as coldly back to the Human. That was one thing Saffie ensured when he upgraded with the help of the Wisps. To make absolutely certain that his body could never be stolen again. He wrote vastly expansive access codes, put in extremely complex electronic locks and blocks, and a strong defensive mechanism into the body itself, so that it would automatically violently defend itself if attacked. It seemed like all of Saffie's fail-safes had worked. The body of the Sapphire Dragon was still his and his alone, even if he wasn't in it.
The Human roared in further frustration. Robotnik grabbed the Sapphire Dragon by the throat, while he was still tied to the table. Saffie growled, pushing against his chains. But then he noticed that his hands had indeed been chained, but only at the wrists. His hands and more specifically his knuckles were free to move. The chains were too strong to break through by strength alone, but he had other means to get free. It seemed this Robotnik hadn't noticed his little 'secret'. But as the Human came extremely close to him, the thought was pushed right out of his mind. Robotnik's eyes narrowed and hissed right into Saffie's face.
"Tell me the access codes." He spat, but Saffie's lip curled, as he coldly hissed straight back at him.
"Go to hell." He leered, staring straight back at the Human. But Robotnik let go of his throat and paced around slightly, before rounding back on the Sapphire Dragon. He smirked evilly.
"Then I have another propitiation for you. Your the Hero type, I can see it your eyes. I've meet and defeated your kind before. I take it you've learned about the Grid, and the truth behind it. I'd expect nothing less from a Cyborg. Then..." He paused, bearing down on Saffie. "Surrender your body to me, or I pull the plug on the Grid, killing everyone in it." He leered. Saffie's eyes widened. He gulped.
"Your bluffing. He need the power the Grid provides for your survival." He reasoned. Robotnik was a machine. He relied on that power as much as his technology did. But the Human spat back.
"I have found other means of producing power, rather the that bioelectric crud those filthy Mobians produce. I can manage without, the question was, can you?" He hissed. Saffie went white. The Human laughed evilly. "You have three days." He smirked, he snapped his finger and Saffie found himself, with yet another flash of bright white light in front of his eyes and stumbling as he landed back on the Grid again. Darkness all around him, as he was still in the alleyway. But someone grabbed him before he hit the floor. He had a strong but gentle grip. He panted.
"Gotcha!" He smiled, and pulled Saffie to his feet. "You vanished from me. You completely disappeared from the Grid. I searched for you, and then fearing the worse, you returned here, just as mysteriously as you left." He frowned. The Echidna was still with him. He smiled, but Saffie, to badly traumatised to say anything, just pulled Knuckles in for an enormous hug. It was just to overwhelming. The Elder frowned, pulling back and looking Saffie in the eyes.
"What happened?" He asked, but Saffie was still extremely shaken. He gulped.
"Robotnik summoned me to the real world." He stammered. The Elder's eyes widened in fear. "He wishes to take full control of my Cyborg body, which he has captured. It was much more powerful then his own. But he was currently locked out, so he threatening to completely pull the plug on the Grid, if I don't give him what he wants. My surrender." He stammered. The Elder's jaw dropped, his hand over his mouth. He went absolutely white.
"Pulling the plug on the Grid." He repeated, unable to quite believe it. "That will kill everyone." He gasped. Saffie nodded, in total shame. What had he done? He was now of the firm believe that he shouldn't have come here. He was going to have the deaths of an entire planet's worth of people on his head. But the Elder shock him. Saffie looked up at him. The Echidna growled.
"How long do we have?" He demanded, to the still shaken Blue Hedgehog. Saffie was in tears.
"Three days." He recalled, but the Elder swore very loudly, now himself in a panic.
"One day, you mean. The timelines of the real world and the Grid don't line up. It's one of the ways in which it had successfully gained acceptance by everyone. Forcing the mind to slower timescale, compared to the body, makes more malleable to manipulation. Three days in the real world, was only one day here. You have just twenty-four hours." He declared. Saffie stared. Now he understood what the Human meant earlier. But then Saffie stared at the Echidna. He was panting.
"Me?" He asked. "That's a big ask. How am I going to do it with Robotnik watching?" He stammered, but Elder laughed, right in his face. He grinned.
"Because the Human isn't watching. He, and some would say extremely arrogantly, had complete and utter faith in the Grid. In his creation. I suspect now he's trying to hack your body in the real world while you've been trapped here, and I don't think he's going to get in, is he. Your a Cyborg. Why else would be make such a threat." He smirked. Saffie nodded. But the Elder giggled. "Robotnik doesn't care what happens on the Grid, so long as it does it's job. He had no idea I still exist, that I did not perish with my body, or that the Chosen One had been born. He was aware of the existence of the Freedom Fighters, as his machines are constantly hunting them down in the real world, and that they hack the Grid. Seven to dive in and one to stay behind and monitor. But he believes, that the Grid's own defense mechanism, the Demons, will take care of them. The Grid knows when it's being hacked into, almost like it's self-aware." He wondered, and then shuddered at the thought, but then quickly moved on. He growled. "Plus Robotnik doesn't really perceive eight Mobians, as much of a threat nowadays, after all, what can they do, against his might." He shrugged. But Saffie smirked.
"I was up against such odds, back home, in my own dimension, and I won." He declared. But the Elder smiled and nodded, he'd suspected that to be the case.
"Precisely. Now you need to go and do it again." He ordered, and then began to back away from the Blue Hedgehog. Suddenly, Saffie panicked, grabbing for the Echidna.
"Wait! Your not coming." He heaved, but the Elder shook his head. He sighed.
"No. This was not my fight. All I can do was guide you towards the right path. My time had been and gone." He smiled but then he grabbed the Blue Hedgehog. "Find the Chosen One. He was your only chance. Get him out of the Grid, and his virus into the Source Code. Shut down the Grid, before Robotnik had a chance to pull it." He advised. Saffie nodded. Not a small task then, and with only twenty-four hours, time was not on his side. But the Echidna began to turn and leave, he nodded to Saffie. He smiled, almost proud of him. "If anyone can do this, you can. Sapphire Dragon." He grinned. Saffie's jaw dropped. He ran after the Elder. He was dumbfounded. He guped.
"Wait. How did you know?" He gasped, desperate to find out. But the Elder just smiled as he quietly slipped into the shadows, never to be seen again.
"I have the gift of foresight, remember. I saw you coming. Good luck." He nodded and with that, he vanished, into the deep depths of the Grid. Saffie was left panting, almost outright panicking, he paced up and down the darken alleyway. He heaved.
So the Elder saw him coming. That meant one thing. Despite the mess he caused by being here, he was indeed destined to save, or at least the very minimum help, these people free themselves from the almighty grip of Robotnik and the Grid, and there was only one person, in the whole of this dimension, who could do it. One that he had now been tasked to find and quickly. He sighed.
"Right. The Chosen One." He mumbled to himself. But Saffie panicked. One Blue Hedgehog. No superpowers. An absolutely enormously big city. He could anywhere. But he had to be somewhere, as Saffie found himself looking at his reflection in the broken glass of the window again. He wasn't looking for any Blue Hedgehog. He was looking for 'the' Blue Hedgehog. Himself. Which, he suspected, as he counterpart, he had absolutely no idea what was going on, and the Freedom Code he carried not giving him any special abilities whatsoever. It was just a virus buried deep in his digital code. He was just a normal person on the Grid. It just perceiving him like anyone else, not aware of the threat he could cause, and completely unable to see the Freedom Code he carried. Saffie smiled. This was almost a complete role reversal of the previous dimension. Now he was the one in the know, and his counterpart, not at all. So as the black eyed Blue Hedgehog that was Saffie's avatar looked straight back at him, he realised that he knew. He smirked.
Yes, he knew exactly where to find the Chosen One.