Egg Sector #23
11:22
Eve of the Eggscension
A random garage
"Little red.."
"Little red…"
"LET ME COME IN!" Gibril roared, her claws ripping at the barricade of cars Nori made, piece by piece. "You can't hide forever!"
Nori grimaced, clenching where her arm used to be as she fought through the pain. It was the other parts that were missing from her boy that hurt more, but the arm was her top priority. 'That was my primary hand.' Her trident wielding hand from the old days, to be precise. Thank goodness she was ambidextrous now.
"LET ME IN!"
Bang bang!
"LET ME IN!
The barricade wasn't going to last long. She was trapped in a garage and minutes away from death, either from that beast outside, or the blood loss. She had to get to Mytyl, now! She couldn't die by Eggman's hands, nor by the hands of this mutant!
"Blessed be the Egg!" And especially by the 'people' outside! By the time she got back to the surface, it was as though she never left home for her Demon Academy final exams. The stench of sin permeated the air, the winds of wrath howled and roared with the fury of mother nature resisting these unnatural inhuman changes to the environment, and like many a demonic overlord, Eggman decided to alter a celestial body to his liking. And surprise surprise, he turned the moon into an exact replica of his logo. Anyone she saw on the street might as well have been dead, their eyes dulled as their hair began to fall out of their heads. To her disgust, she could see peach fuzz growing on some of them, and on others said fuzz looked exactly like a certain madman's mustache.
And as she wondered what his end goal was, 'Gibril' came howling out of the sewers. Everywhere she went the wolf followed, and everyone she passed ceased their idleness and began howling just as the former Adept was, Eggman's name in the same way the religious inquisitions of old shouted the name of their God.
Fortunately there were people here. Unfortunately the key words was were. For a time they were just like her, immune to whatever happened to their friends and neighbors, and trying their best to hide. This was the immigrant sector of town, and she would have paid that fact no mind until she saw the true extent of Eggman's horrific ego being inflicted upon these people.
SLAM
SLAM
Hiding inside a car used to barricade a garage door, Nori reached into her pocket -with the hand that wasn't a fresh stump- and tried in vain to contact Mytyl, and just like last time…
{We here at the Eggman Empire have the fortunate job of informing you that your attempt to call for help has been redirected to this sixteen second gif of your supreme leader laughing at your misfortune.} She quickly ended the call, not wanting to hear that again. Suddenly she heard a slam on the roof of the garage.
"COME OUT! COME OUT!" Great, she was above her now. Eggman must not have given her that much strength; her Grimoire Armor form would have destroyed this building and killed her before she had the chance to run. 'I need to leave.' And she needed to make sure these things wouldn't follow. Luckily this garage had everything she needed, and the car had a full tank of gas.
Six minutes later, and Gibril's claws had just pierced the roof. Channeling as much leftover demonic strength that she could, Nori funneled that energy to her legs. Stepping in front of the vehicle, she reared up her leg, aimed at the center of the car-
SLAM
-And kicked it! The sheer force of her kick sent the barricade and the people outside flying all the way into the house across the street! Smoke and dust filled the area, though it did nothing to stop Gibril from breaking in. "There you are!"
'Too little too late.' Nori lit the match and threw it behind her, using the last of her energy to propel herself out of the garage. Seconds after Gibril landed, the entire building went up in flames! A mighty explosion drowned out the howls of pain from the former human. Nori would be satisfied, if the explosion didn't send her into one of the top floors of the building she slammed the car into. She recovered quickly, fighting against the sheer amount of pain that stunt put her in as she looked around the city, sighing in relief that nothing else had changed.
"GRRAAAAAAOOOOOOGH!"
Great…she's still aliv….
"Are you looking for Mytyl Kamizono?" Nori flinched at the familiar voice. Turning to her right, she saw the mouthless creature in the guise of a young girl staring down at her. "Because she needs your help."
Grimacing, the adrenaline coming down and letting her feel the full pain of losing her limb, Nori began walking. "I thought you -GRK!- said that we had five years!"
"I thought so too." Mephiles answered. "But either he was lying, or he pulled a Sonic, and grabbed victory out of the jaws of defeat." The howls of Gibril filled the air again. "While you were getting up, I disguised your scent from that abomination my master created. I will head to Sakurazaki Academy and safeguard your ward as best as I can. Get to the Kamizono Compound, now."
Mytyl stumbled with her Student ID and swiped it in the card slot, allowing the door to open. She quickly ran inside, using the glacial pace her pursuers were walking to her advantage. She ran up the stairs as fast as she could, jumping over the railings to the upper floors to save time, only to fall to the ground exhausted. Sweat poured down her pale skin as her heart pounded in her chest as she looked up to see if they caught up.
And that's when she saw the 2nd floor sign to her right. "DAMN IT!" And she cursed again when the doors below opened. Struggling to her feet, she entered the doorway, went to the nearest water fountain, and drank. "Hate…stupid….body…" She growled out as she slowly got back up to a walking pace.
SCHWIP!
She could see that none of the lights were on, and there was no one on this floor as far as she could see. "Help…..help…" But deep down, she knew that no one would was Eggscension Day, after all. And as she found out, she was far too weak to bask in his glorious presence.
"Oh blessed Egg, so round and perfect.." She began to pray, the words baked into her mind at a young age like every other man, woman, and child. "Blessed be your stache, so fluffy and well kept! I pray to those magnificent follicles of perfection for your guidance!" Her skirt pocket glowed and she didn't even see it, desperate to escape with her life, lest she let down the mighty Roundness. Praying to Eggman and his glorious mustache as per the words of Scratchonimus Maximus had given her purpose in life, just like everyone else who worshipped His Roundness.
And it seemed as though her faith was rewarded. Unknowing of the real reason for her burst of energy lying in her skirt pocket, Mytyl entered into a random room, sat down, and awaited-
SCHWIP!
A painful pulse coursed throughout her body. She caught herself before she fell to the ground, using the wall for support as she clenched her heart in pain. "What the… heck…. am I doing here?" She got out between pants. This was a bathroom, why was she in here?! And why was everything all red?! Good god, it's like someone used photoshop and the colorize tool to turn the entire room Eggman's colors! Not that she minded seeing things in his beautiful colors, it was just an observation.
Something about this felt familiar, but she couldn't place what, as if she had the worse sense of Deja Vu right now. Remembering that her life was still in danger, She backed out of the room, and let out a yelp of pain as the back of her head hit something metal. She quickly turned around, and soon found herself face to barrel with Gunvolt's rail gun.
"Crap." Knowing she was caught, Mytyl closed her eyes and held her hands up, getting down to her knees as the railgun followed her movements. The sheer terror of the fact that she was going to die was bad enough, but not only would she fail in Eggman's glorious mission for her, but she failed mom!
That poor woman, who worked so hard to make a perfect servant out of her that would support His Rotundness, and she even got her to take the grueling exam to be one of his Elite Stache Attendentants! All that work, and this was how she met her end, by her heretic brothers, no less! The railgun didn't move, and Mytyl felt her heart go into her throat. There had to be a way out of this! The railgun looked like typical Eggman tech, which means those unworthy fools that used to be her brothers must have stolen it! Maybe if mom was here, she could hack it with and-
SCHWIP!
CLANG!
"Eh?" -cause it to lose power and fall to the floor, just like what happened here. It glowed green for a second, turning a transparent green and black wireframe before regaining its silver color. "Hello?" Did…did someone hack this thing wirelessly? "Lol, L0zers." Huh, weird. Must've been the fear that made her say that.
She gently tapped it with her finger, now completely and utterly confused, but hey, she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She got up and prepared to run like hell, destination anywhere but here. But upon seeing some familiar landmarks, she realized what floor she was on, and had an idea. She stared at the railgun, a strange confidence in her that this thing wouldn't fire on her. 'Well, everything's already weird right now!' Might as well!
She grabbed the railgun, confused by the green glow encompassing it before fading. 'Must be the security system' she rationalized as she cocked the trigger for the gun, giggling as she aimed at the walls and let it go. It floated in place, a green and black wireframe replacing the weapon for just a second before firing.
THOOM
And suddenly it fired a massive green laser!The sheer force of the impact sent her back a good two feet, and as for the wall she aimed it at, it was gone! A perfect hole that led out of the second floor and to a rooftop that could get her down to ground level!
…Shame about the fact she couldn't do any of that. "GOD DAMN IT!" Railgun, heat, not good for human skin! And she'd have to climb over molten concrete because this damn heat was stinging her eyes so much she couldn't use them to gauge her jumps! 'What the hell was I thinking?!' She calmed down and backed away from the heat. Thankfully her eyes recovered, and on the bright side, she had a weapon to use to defend herself that was floating away from her right this second. 'Maybe the heat won't be that bad…' Yes, yes it would be, and it she was stupid for thinking that.
She heard footsteps to her right. Eyes wide, she slowly looked in that direction to see the bastardization of her savior staring down at her, almost in pity. To her left was her corrupted brother, who had his drones forming eight different energy weapons aimed at her. "C-come on guys…." She said nervously as they slowly approached her. "Don't you remember me?"
"I remember." Said her brother's metallic voice. "You're not the same as you were downstairs."
"Copen, what are you-" And that was all Mytyl got out before being slapped to the ground.
"DON'T YOU EVER SAY MY NAME!" The white robot roared. "You don't ever get to use that name, especially while wearing her face!"
"I…" And that's when he gave her a good five across the eyes. "Why…?"
"Drop the act, creature!"
Firmament, Throne Room
|Mytyl can't use Hack the Planet like you just did!|
|Did you just quote a movi-AAGGHH!| Eggman laughed gleefully as Copen put the squeeze on his sister. Orders were to take her alive if possible, but if she wasn't in control right now, then he'd be fine with a corpse.
"For everyone you ever hurt." The robot that was her brother began. "For every human you killed!" Electricity began filling the hallway, causing Mytyl's skin to prickle. "Sapporo, Tokyo, Hokkaido, us!"
"And Eggman." Copen finished. "You thought you were so clever playing with his technology, and now look at you. Look at us! Look at him!"
GV looked at her, the soulless eyes and blank expression that was at odds with the sheer fear and hurt in her voice. "Drop the act. We only let you go on the pretense that some of your fragments would allow her to escape from us…but then again, that was under the pretense that Mytyl was still in control."
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" Mytyl snapped. "I AM MYTYL!"
"And you have the nerve to use her voice." Said her angry brother. It's amazing that she hadn't tried to put on any crocodile tears given that Mytyl could emote better than her. "And her face! You stole her life, you ruined this world with your arrogance, and watched as he did this to me and that blue, chili dog munching idiot!" He reached into his coat and pulled out a gun, one very familiar to Mytyl as she'd seen it plenty of times before. "Oh…I remember you clearly, Zonda." And now it was going to kill her.
Scratch that.
It did kill her.
She watched it all happen as GV's signature gun shot straight into her stomach, and then an electrical surge from his body fried her alive. Her skin, body, and clothes turned bright pink and shattered like glass from a mirror, and upon seeing that, Mytyl realized she was somehow getting a 1st person view of her own death, and yet she was bearing witness to it at the end of the hall.\
And that's when she realized that this wasn't some illusion. She was alive! 'What did I just do?!' She thought, keeping calm so she wouldn't have a heart murmur. The two former boys stared in confusion, which was just enough time for Mytyl to keep her lips zipped and skedaddle.
She turned right, not seeing herself turn left at the same time, and headed into one of the classrooms as she struggled to figure out what she just did. 'That was a Septima!' And not just any Septima, but one of the former regime's Septima! The Adept Hunter, Zonda to be precises, but why did she have that?! Lord Eggman killed all seven of the original Sumeragi's generals in his glorious rise, how on earth was….. "They called me Zonda." The same name as that sadomasochistic Adept Hunter! "They called me Zonda…." Why did that feel so right?! It wasn't the same familiarity as knowing who they were, but it felt comforting to her, like she was-
"There you are." She didn't have time to think as a white armored hand shot through the wall and sliced it to ribbons. Before she could even scream, the wind was taken out of her as she was dragged by her hair painfully and lifted up. "Did you seriously think you could get away from us?"
"N-no?" Zonda…Zonda…that was making her think clearer for some reason! "D-did you want me to?" Because now that she was getting a clearer head, it sure as heck felt like they wanted her to! "Why are you two doing this?! I never did anything to you!"
"You know using her voice makes me want to kill you even faster, right?" Her fear gave way to confusion. He could crush her so easily, Just rip out her hair hard enough that the skin comes off, just like Eggman's former favorite toy did to Desna. "Do you have any last words? If they're for my 'partner', don't even bother. He doesn't want to see this." But here he was, monologuing!
"N-no…."
"I see." There was almost a full minute of silence, and Mytyl could feel the regret in his next words. "Begin Septimal Extraction Process."
"I think not." The arm holding Mytyl was cut off as her brother was sent flying through the walls out of the school and a mile away! Her savior stared down at her, and though she had no mouth, Mytyl could just see the rage in her eyes. "I should have realized what was happening when he sent those two after you."
"T-thanks?" The mouthless girl helped her up. "And what did you mean by that?!"
"I assumed that they were here to transport you to Eggman, using your nostalgia for the two to get you to comply." Her savior explained. "But it seems the men inside those shells had other plans. If you're looking for the one with the long braid, he's currently six miles away in a crater."
"Oh." She looked down. "I remember so much now…GV..Copen…."
"I'm impressed you're still calling them that." The 'girl' said. "That's a good sign." He held his hand when she was about to speak. "You're still in danger, remember? We need to leave, now."
"But how?!" Mytyl yelled. "I still don't know what's going on, but I've seen bro slice up buildings with stronger material than this! The best thing we had was that railgun and that mirror thing I just-" The girl put a hand on her chest. "-excuse you?! Get your hands off of-"
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
"And familial sentimentality wins out again." Eggman groaned as he watched the two's actions on one screen. One window E-Final001's point of view, and another was E-Final002's as he got out of the hole his traitorous partner put him in. They oughtta be happy, knowing their precious little item still had her wits about her. Given that he well, made them who they were now, Eggman could alter anything they saw, like say, having that snow white hair be an ashy blonde, and pale white skin turn fair to complete the package. But those boys, they resisted, they saw through it! And while that just showed he needed more work done on them, it proved two things: One was that Zonda was barely going to be a problem.
The other was that his traitorous lackey finally made his move, and confirmed that the Time Stones were in this dimension!
But that last bit complicated things, somewhat. With the confirmation that the Time Stone was in this dimension, that meant his alterations could be undone, at least on her. While his memories of his original usage of them were muddled, as were a lot of things from the old days, he remembered his old nemesis having complete immunity to his time alterations thanks to having just one Time Stone, and this girl was far more powerful than some speedy, half naked, wise cracking idiot in sneakers.
E-Final001's caretaker hid his sister well, and unfortunately didn't deem it necessary to separate the Muse and her from the young Kamizono. Then again he didn't see hide nor hair of that maid in Tashkent, and with E-Final001 being indisposed during that time, she probably wouldn't have the technology to detect the two Septimal signatures hiding within the white haired girl. Either that or she was just glad to have the brat back.
Back to his boys, they did good work tonight! While he could push Mytyl further, that could risk waking up Little Miss Genocide in the far reaches of her mind, and that gender obsessed brat could spell trouble if fully awakened with the power of a single Time Stone. No, let Mep-hiles keep her safe. This chapter of his life was halfway finished, and by the end of it, the full power of the Muse will either be his or nonexistent, and Mytyl Kamizono will either be a footnote in history, or a happy slave of the Neo Eggman Empire!
Oh if it didn't feel so hollow, he'd let out a hearty laugh for old time's sake!
When Mytyl opened her eyes, she saw that she was somewhere else, covered in that annoying red tint. "Mytyl Kamizono's residence, I presume?" She asked the demon. "Honestly Mephiles, I expected more bombastic and ridiculous things than playing around with the world's color settings."
Mephiles narrowed his eyes. She knows his name now… "And why is it pathetic, Mytyl?"
Mytyl turned to him, and as Mephiles thought, it was as if he was staring in a mirror, the soulless gaze of the taller girl made all the worse by the crimson glow overpowering the glow of the stone in her pocket. "While his current state is an error on my part, I assumed my wisdom would have given him a better taste in aesthetics than this. If my powers were at their fullest, I could easily kill the traitor right then and there."
"I see." Mephiles said with a nod. 'She doesn't even know where she is.' Nor was she questioning the Asian accent she was speaking in. "But tell me, Mytyl, how did you get here?" Good, some uncertainty was showing. "Why aren't you in the Garden, reviving your precious seven?" 'Mytyl's face turned cold and inquisitive as the stone in her pocket glowed brighter. She didn't recognize this building, and it certainly wasn't the living quarters of any of her Seven. The Garden's aesthetic didn't 'gel' with this place, as some of the Pawns would put it. "You should be mounting a resistance at this very moment! The Kamizono girl's brother is on his way to Tashkent at this very moment! Surely you have better things to do then-" And then the stone lit up so brightly that it temporarily overpowered the crimson tint! Mephiles would be amazed, if he wasn't busy regenerating at this very moment.
SCHWIP
When Mytyl opened her eyes, she saw that she was back home! And it was all red! "What the heck is going on here?!" And why did she have the strangest sense of Deja Vu? Her eyes then looked to the only thing in here that wasn't red, the mass of flesh that quickly formed back into the mouthless girl. A goopy mass of grey skin that slowly formed hair, slimy hands that pulled the head out from the mass, and finally the rest of her body and clothes, all of which was accompanied by a disgusting squelching noise that rang painfully and nastily in her brain.
Mephiles stared at her. 'Petty little…' Of all the times to act like a brat! "If you wish to vomit from what you witnessed, feel free to do so." Mytyl took him up on his offer. A flush later and she came back, still green and disgusted. "I don't believe we've truly met. Do you know my name?"
It took Mytyl a second to answer, still seeing that revolting image whenever she looked at the deep voiced girl. "N-no…I don't think you told me."
Well that's good. The less of her in Kamizono's mind, the better. "My name is Mephiles the Dark. I presume you have some questions for me?"
"..." Mytyl stared at him like he was stupid. "YES! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! The last thing I remember is talking to you on the elevator, a lot of red, and now I'm here!"
"You were attacked by two of Eggman's enforcers." Mephiles explained. Why on earth did the Time Stone reset her that far? How far back had her mind been subsumed by this reality? He needed to see if she was actually herself this time. He held his hands out to his sides. "Do you know what is happening at this very moment?
"Of course!" Mytyl exclaimed as if it was obvious.. "The Eggscension is underway." She sighed happily with a wistful smile. If Mephiles had a heart, it would've dropped right now. "So why did you take me back home? I have no connection to this facility."
"Eggman said that you must connect with your roots one last time before your role is complete."
"Hmmm…" Mytyl pondered, her lucky charm glowing as if in protest. "That's pretty generous of our Lord, but since you're saying it, then it must be true. Is the help here?" The redheaded wast of space should always be at her beck and call!
"Indeed." Oh this was going to be painful. Mephiles grabbed her skirt, and before she could protest, he was once again reduced to a mass of melted flesh.
SCHWIP
This time, Mytyl didn't find a bathroom. Thankfully she swallowed it all; years of experience with horrible medicine. "OH GOD!" What the heck happened to her?! "Are you ok?!" She looked around. "AND WHY IS MY HOUSE ALL RED?!
"I-I'm F-fine!" With a painful groan, Mephiles reformed, pupils shrunken to pinpricks as his body gasped for air. "I….I….." He needed to recover, fast! "I…am…fine…and so…is..your…maid…"
"MOM?!" Panicking, Mytyl grabbed Mephiles by the shoulders. "Mom's here?! What happened to her?!" Mom had an outright inhuman ability to detect whenever she entered the house! If she hadn't come in the two minutes she'd been here, then something had to be wrong! "Is she mad at me because I insulted her?!" Wait, where did that come from?
"At the moment, she is currently maintaining the barrier protecting this building." Mephiles answered. "Tell me, are you still female?"
"What the hell does that have to do- OF COURSE I'M A WOMAN!"
"Good. come along." Mytyl, still as confused as she was since this all started and just having no clue what to do, followed the creepy Adept. Why did she have the strangest sense of Deja Vu again? Not just about the red here, and this creepy girl!
BZZZZZZZZZZZT!
A massive something shook the house, and 'something' was a proper descriptor for what just happened. There were no vibrations, no surges of energy, it was just an intense wave of negativity aimed her! Mytyl almost fall to the ground, but Mephiles caught her, careful not to go anywhere near that blasted rock. "What now?!"
Mephiles narrowed his eyes. "They're here."
"Target found, Lord Eggman." There was a time when he was a great inventor with so much potential. A young boy angry at the world, who could have used his genius and changed the world to his liking, but instead he went on a fruitless, tired crusade of blood and violence. "The house has a Class S+ Demonic Barrier covering the entire house. Attempts to pierce the barrier with my ShellDrones have resulted in total shutdown of our systems, and a disconnect from our equipment."
{Oh, an EMP.} There was a time where he wouldn't dare to raise a hand against his sister. { And a magically enhanced one at that! Hold tight.} There was a time he was in control of his own destiny. {The other blue guy, whatever he's called, he's mopping up in the southern US. He'll be there in 5 minutes.} But that time was nearly a decade ago.
"Acknowledged." In those last moments before Mephiles saved his sister from Eggman's farce, he saw the sister he loved after so many years, tainted by Eden's poison grip. But even the betrayal and guilt he felt tonight wasn't enough to override most of Eggman's protocols."Is there anything else?"
{Nope!} Funny, he almost sounded like the man he once was. {Enjoy your last hour left on earth. Once the clock hits midnight, you three are terminated!}
E-Final001 lowered his head in shame as the connection was cut."E-Final002, how is it on your end?"
{It's not going any better than yours did.} And now here he was, helping end thousands of years of progress, with a walking corpse that was once the Azure Striker.. {Ugh, this thing was made for Eggman robots! I can't get close to it without rebooting.}
"Return topside. We have to wait for Sonic." Hopefully their resistance gave Mytyl time to run, to use Zonda's powers to escape. Maybe if he let Nori come with him to Tashkent instead of having her guard Mytyl, this wouldn't have happened, and he'd have been more prepared for the 'surprise' that monster had waiting for him.
'Oh, did you think that the clone I left with your maid was your sister? LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL, total switcheroo dude!
And if not, then he would free her from what was to happen next.
{Understood.} He kept silent for a second. {Copen-}
"Don't." This was all he was now. "Please." Copen was a boy who loved his family so much that he killed and killed in their name. He loved his sister so much that he abandoned her to keep her safe from the monster he became. Copen Kamizono was no more. Now he was E-Final001,Eggman's top enforcer next to BioMecha Sonic, the strongest Eggborg the doctor had created.
…And the first.
'You oughtta be honored kid. Here I am losing my mind to whatever to those brats did to me, and you still have your wits about you..though not for long!
After all, if it wasn't for him, then Eden wouldn't have…. He shook his head; none of that mattered anymore.
And once the clock struck midnight, if Mytyl didn't escape, nothing would ever matter again.
Six minutes later, and suddenly Mytyl was in a completely new location. When they exited the living room and into the hallway, it was obvious that she and Mephiles were teleported somewhere else. Everything was still red, but it was much smoother than the walls of her home, and the darker shades of red told her that she wasn't in the nearly all white walls of her home. Mephiles opened a door, and that's when another question left her lips. "Why did you put my room door here?"
"Ah, but Mytyl, this is the entrance to your room, and this is your house. It is just phased out of this reality."
"Don't lie to me." Mytyl snapped as Mephi- wait, why was there a numberpad lock on her door?! "L-look, I'm not an Adept, but I've got a decent connection to the Lifewave. If we actually phased out of this reality, I sure as heck would've felt it!" And she would've felt a lot of stuff leave her body, too! Reality or dimensional based Septimas did not agree with her whatsoever. She'd question how she knew that, but right now she just didn't care.
"True, you would have, if this was done by harnessing Lifewave energy." The door beeped and soon faded away, revealing a blue glow that obscured everything beyond it. "Unless you want to deal with those two again, I suggest you hurry. We don't have much time left."
"O-ok." This glow was really bright, but it didn't burn her eyes at all. Or even affect them. In fact, it was as if it wasn't there to begin with! nervously , she walked through the glow, and what she saw on the other end…
"Whoa!" Was the last thing she ever expected.
Before his death, E-Final002 remembered Eggman's rise within the Sumeragi hierarchy, and how popular his Badnik line of drones were. They were cartoonish, straight out of a children's manga. They were made to be as non threatening as possible, and Eggman made them the face of Sumeragi's public persona. Cute anime looking wasps called Buzzbombers delivered the mail en masse and replaced drones for any company that could afford them. Motobugs acted as delivery vehicles, their 300mph speed and perfect control making them perfect for take-out as well as delivering packages across the city, and Crabmeats would grab any bit of litter they could find and crush it, or if you were lucky, you could get a free fill-up on your gas or tires from their pincers. Joule would show her age every time she saw one, begging and pleading for him to get her one, and it didn't help that they reacted as though they were actual animals.
But then he died, as did Joule. A year later, Eden made their move, nearly destroyed Japan, kidnapped Eggman, and did something to him. Nowadays you'd be hard pressed to find a Badnik outside the uber rich or a collector's house. Now he was all about the Egg Pawns.
But even with that very unpopular change, the general public still adored him and his innovations. Everyone knew that his claims of wanting peace and making up for Sumeragi's atrocities was a total lie and that he was a complete and utter egomaniac, but his actions had proved over time that he should have been in charge of Sumeragi from the beginning, and that he was able to use his own overflowing self confidence to better the lives of his subjects. To put in simply, If Sumeragi was old school Scifi, then Eggman was a saturday morning cartoon villain who could make a doomship out of a football field or somthing. Everything he put out during Eden's reign of terror worked like old Sumeragi tech, but open up the hood and you'd find something else entirely.
Which was an apt metaphor for the doctor once Eden's resident hacker, Teseo, kidnapped him. When the man was rescued by Copen…let's just say things changed, and that was the reason that both he and Copen were what they were now.
With an open mouth and wide eyes, Mytyl gawked at the blue room. And once her eyes adjusted to seeing another color other than red, she actually began to take it all in. Throughout the electric blue domed room were holo-displays showing various graphs and charts lined the azure walls like paintings, some of which had her face! Photos and videos detailing every single bit of her life were all here, ready to be accessed by whoever made this place! So seeing this, and after the sheer awfulness that was her day she turned Mephiles, calm as can be, punched her down to the ground, and ran like hell. And once she left the room she found herself running back into it. "OH COME ON!"
"I knew I should have her meet you here." Mephiles groused in annoyance as he got up, rearranging his dislocated jaw. "I assume that this location upset you?" He didn't have time to react when she ran up and kicked him like a football before running off, only to find herself running back into the room again before he even landed. "Please stop that." He said with a bit more irritation, stopping himself midair and turning upright before landing. "If I wanted to do anything to you, I would have done so already."
"Or you could be doing things to me now!" Mytyl argued back. "How the hell did you expect me to react to all this?! God, this is disgusting!"
"Please don't say his name." Mytyl's anger increased upon hearing that voice.
"MOM?!" Mytyl turned angrily to her 'savior'. "Where is she you sick fu-"
"MYTYL!" She paused and stood at attention. She recognized that tone, and no one could replicate that voice! She watched as Nori walked out of one of the doors that melded in with the walls so perfectly that you couldn't see it. "Welcome back Mytyl." Relief poured from Mytyl's body, happy to see she was alright, and then that turned to utter rage towards Mephiles as she saw the state of her body. "MYTYL!" The pale girl paused, sweat dripping from her bow. "Mephiles is a friend. He saved me."
"He?" She mouthed. "But then why-"
"I did not build this facility." Mephiles answered, teleporting to Nori's side. "But I know who did, and they built it for one explicit purpose: to stop Dr. Eggman."
Nori, seeing as Mytyl was too shocked by these events and still staring at her arm, took over. "We don't have much time, so I'll summarize everything as best as I can."
"Thank you." In any other moment, the coldness and rage Mytyl exuded at this moment would have made Nori proud, maybe even given her some slightly moist eyes in her younger days, but pragmatism was needed right now. "I lost my arm to one of Eggman's abominations." If she resembled her brother before, they were indistinguishable now, Nori seeing the same murderous intent in the young Kamizono as she did in her older brother. Hell, given what she saw outside, finally seeing Copen after so many years, Nori wanted to join in on her charge's anger. But anger was the last thing either of them needed right now.
And that's why she closed the distance and held Mytyl to her chest with her remaining arm. It had been years since she was this maternal, or emotional even. The Kamizono method of training their indentured servants made even this hard to do, but right now, it was what Mytyl needed, as the white haired girl, without any prompting, let the tears flow. It wasn't close to the breakdown Nori knew her young charge was holding back, but it was a start.
"Mom, please…what's going on?" It didn't take a genius to know that her Mom/maid had something to do with this Mephiles girl. And if Mom was here, then that meant she -unluckily- had to trust this creeper. And if she wasn't on Mytyl's side, the girl knew she would have been dead the second she entered the room.
"I'll explain everything, but we have to do it fast."
"Faster than you think." Mephiles butted in, his voice grave. "I can hear the tune of 90s rock music and the stench of a lost decade."
Nori's eyes widened. "No…you don't mean…" Gunvolt and Copen were bad enough, but to introduce that endless fountain of good luck to the equation?
Mephiles nodded. "Sonic's here."
E-1000 Final/Final, BioMecha Sonic Mk2.
If there was anything that told E-Final001 that Eggman had gone past insanity to the point of senility, seeing this eyesore was the proof he needed. Seeing as how he was dead around the time Eden fell, he didn't really understand the hatred Eggman programmed into his databanks for this naked cartoon animal called Sonic, and when E-Final002 saw him for the first time, he had no clue what the hell he was looking at. It was some naked, big headed blue thing with tendrils on the back of its head and some black pimple in the center of it's face that he was assured was a nose. It had one giant eye with two pupils and it wore clothes, two sneakers, two gloves, that's it. All he knew was that Eggman hated it, and that Sumeragi had been fighting it and a kitsune named Tails while also fighting against him, Copen, and Q.U.I.L.L
Well, whatever Sonic was, whoever he used to be, he was long gone now, and had been 'upgraded' to be nearly unrecognizable, quite fitting given the man who hated him so.
And given how much Sonic loved the 1990s according to the training videos Eggman made him and E-Final002 watch constantly, and Eggman's obsession with the thing he refused to believe was a hedgehog, it explained a lot about their new bodies.
This thing towered over the two of them at a whopping, unnecessary 12 feet tall, and in addition to the words bastardize and ridiculous, unnecessary was the word that E-Final002 could use to describe everything he was looking at. To start with, Sonic was now human proportioned, and his tendrils -that he was told were quills- had become massive blades covered in blue sheaths, and it reminded him of the hair off of some Dragonball Z character. It was blue like Sonic used to be, the boots were the same red and white color as his sneakers, and it had that weird monoeye thing with two pupils, in this case an LCD display, but those were the only Sonic-like things that were retained in his conversion.
'Please don't open your mouth, please don't open your mouth!' Back to that unnecessary thing from a bit earlier, why did Eggman give him so many guns? Each of his freaking fingers were guns, for god's sake, and not just the same one, but each of his 10 digits were the barrel of a different firearm! His nose was a powerful laser he had seen in action plenty of times, and his eyes produced a powerful paralyzing beam that was the only thing that was the only thing keeping these former people from worshiping the three of them. . It's shoulders were as big as his head, the head on his original body that is, and were in the shape of Eggman's face. They of course had guns, specifically in the eyes. Oh and his stomach was also a gun, so were it's feet, and his tongue! The first Biomecha was an abomination, a twisted Frankenstein of man and machine that at least looked like Sonic the Hedgehog! He couldn't even look at this thing without cringing!
Though then again, once their tasks were complete and Project Yolk or whatever Eggman was calling it in his head was complete, that probably wouldn't be a problem anymore.
The weapons formerly known as Copen and Gunvolt stood out of Biomcha's way. They stalled for long enough, and any attempt to not just bum rush through the EMP like Eggman knew they could was going to result in their deaths. And speaking of death…
"RAGEALICIOUZ MY EGGORINOZ! LET'Z OFF THESE UNBODACIOUZ TRAITORZ!" …Eggman described Sonic as a 'bigger relic than he was'. He loved the 1990s, lived in them, and didn't give a crap about who much of a dork or loser he came off as. He liked what he liked, and he didn't let anyone define his sense of identity or fashion. "LETZ GOOOOO!" ….Yeah that first part was how a senile old man , high on power and his own farts, with a skewed sense of aesthetics brought on by said senility, would think of Sonic the Hedghog. Either that or it was the biggest insult to the hedgehog Eggman could think of.
Either option would explain the music every time he talked.
"And once we secured a flight for your brother and Eggman to exit Tashkent, we returned your body to Japan, fully ready to bury you, and that's when he left, unable to handle his guilt and reconcile it with his hatred."Three hours after that, the servants reported that you were screaming, and we had to dig you out of your own grave." Nori noted Mytyl's expression, or lack thereof. "You're taking this far better than I hoped."
"I just nearly got killed by my brother, Mom." Oh, and the fact she was a petri dish of three people! "My brother's a cyborg, one of the people thats in me used to live with a terrorist, who killed a lot of people, and my brother's a serial killer!" Also something about a naked blue, green-eyed cyclops with Mickey Mouse gloves. Everytime she thought of him, she had that same mindset that she had when she did everyone's homework, and just wouldn't stop focusing on how lovely it was that he emphasized his freedom of expression.
….Also something about a Chinese guy freezing things whenever she brought him up. She blinked and shuddered. 'Ok, I need to nip that in the bud, right now!'' Fighting back the urge to vomit over the imagery that blue thing's nakedness gave her, Mytyl asked a very pertinent question. "This Zonda woman, the terrorist leader…she can't…you know..?"
Mephiles interrupted. "-No, she cannot." Not anymore than she has. "I share your relief"
"Ok then!" Mytyl closed her eyes, bathing in her relief that that thing in human skin couldn't influence her. "Sooooo…" She hissed ."To sum up: I'm some type of three-way chimera of three different little girls, and one of those three is some messed up, sexually curious, sadomasochistic kid? and I have like, all the powers, and I'm super OP?"
"No." Nori answered, causing Mytyl to deflate. "You have her Septima, the copy of the seven Septimas of her followers, and the power of the Muse. you are not this 'OP' as you call it, merely overpowered."
"Oh." She didn't have it in her to correct that. "So why don't we just go get Eggman, kick his butt, and take that creep out of my head?"
"Because Eggman has complete control over the Lifewave." Mephiles said, "All 7 stages. In addition, he has nine powerful gems that bolster his strength, one of which is their master control mechanism. If you go to him, he will use that connection to turn into a pawn. That is why you're here."
"And if we take Zonda out of your soul, you lose your powers." Nori explained. "Including that of the Muse." She ignored the way Mytyl shivered at the word; they had more important things to do. "That's why we're facility was made to not only hide Septimal energy, and suppress it. Once Eggman connected himself with the Lifewave upon his retrieval from Eden, we had this facility built to dampen your powers until you could safely wield them."
"It's separated from your dimension using a method of energy manipulation called Chaos Control." Mephiles added, still not done typing. "And with his machinations blanketing the world with his presence, Eggman barely even noticed the blip of Chaos Energy used to activate this room."
"So then why am I here?" Mytyl asked in confusion. "You just said that Eggman's out there, so obviously they know where this place is."
"Yes, you are right." Mephiles answered as he finished typing. "Also, don't panic."
Mytyl opened her mouth to ask, but before she could even utter a single sound, Her arms were suddenly restrained against a hard light slab."YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
"Pleas don't struggle" Nori said to her charge who was doing everything in her power to free herself. "Originally, the plan was for you to slowly train until your body could handle the 'gifts' left inside of you, but like his nemesis, Eggman has foiled our plans faster than we anticipated."
"We assumed that we would have 5 years remaining until the Yolk Project and subsequently the Eggscension was complete." Mephiles said, uncaring of her struggles. "We were wrong. We actually have 5 hours, and our deadline is almost up."
"You're…" The sadness in her mom's voice caused Mytyl to pause. Mom showing emotion was never a good sign, and only led to bad things. "You're going to go away Mytyl. You're going to have to live under his thumb."
"EXCUSE ME?!" What kind of crap was that?! "No, I don't! I have superpowers! I don't have to fight Eggman and get brainwashed, I just have to practice a bit, and bam! I'm some big buff basketball player, or a bodyguard, or just some loser salaryman!"
Nori groaned; she understood the danger, but not the depths of power she was up against. How to best explain this..?
"He pulled a Kefka." Mephiles helpfully simplified, remembering the last game that green haired idiot played before his death. "Surely you know about that, right?"
"Yeah?" Mytyl said/asked. "But I don't play-" Oh goddamn it. "-Her memories, huh?"
"Yes, and no." Was the vague answer she was given. "To put it simply, once the Eggscension is complete, this will become a World of Ruin, and it will not matter how well you disguise yourself. All beings on this planet are connected to the Lifewave, and therefore all will be known to him." Suddenly a massive pulse of energy shot through the facility, shorting out all the computers and Mytyl's restraints until the power came back on a couple seconds later. "Oh, our third guest is here."
Mytyl kept herself calm, staring at Nori in betrayal as she felt the guests' Septimal energy course throughout the facility. "HIM?!" She recognized that power, she hated that power! Nori didn't say anything. "T-this is a joke, right? I'd take anyone from Eden over him!"
"It is no lie." Was Mephiles' answer to that as the guest walked in from the right. He looked just like Eggman, but Mytyl could see the blue electricity crackling around him. "Have you retrieved the Time Stone?"
"Yes." He handed Mephiles the gem. "And Asroc?"
The man shrugged as his disguise burnt away, revealing white flowing hair, a strong jaw, and a blue visor. Thick, yet mobile armor covered his body form the neck down, and he stared at Mytyl with disinterest. "It's been a while, huh?"
"BODACIOUZ!" The thing that used to be Sonic yelled , his sword spine drones slicing through the bedrock of the community faster than either Gunvolt or Copen could. "We got 16 minutez until we reach the target Brozkis, letz GOOOOOOOOO!"
"..." E-Final001 stared at his partner. "Was he like this when he was-"
"No." God no. Just as Eggman remembered him to be...
"Asimov." The Joule part of her was singing in protest. She had plenty of memories of th son of a bitch. She could accurately remember the warmth GV had when talking about him, the warmth shared when he talked about Q.U.I.L.L and it's goals of human and Adept coexistence, and the betrayal when the bastard shot her and GV dead! Her eyes glowed a bright violet, the pink tips of her hair crackling with energy! Screw whatever help he had! She wanted to murder him right here and now! "I….see.." But what good would that do? She calmed down, her body returning to normal.
"Considering he used former Sumeragi loyalists to fund this facility's construction for your sake, you will not have to worry about a second murder attempt" Mephiles explained. "If not for him, I never would have broken free from Eggman's control. Do not worry, for you will not see him past this night." He opened up a holo-screen and his eyes lit up with glee. "He just gave us our ace in the hole, both in the Time Stone, and from what he just uploaded.
"That power outage was from a data upload?" Nori asked, her body shaking at the thought of what was about to happen. This facility was built to replicate the improved capabilities of Eden's now dead hacker. If a data upload was enough to short out this facility, even for a second, then their preparations were far less substantial than she could have imagined.
"Yes." Mephiles teleported in front of Mytyl, placing a hand on her chest, causing her to squeak in shock. "Oh get over yourself." He said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm only going to say this right now: what's about to happen to you is a lot less painful than what's going to happen to me. Begin Eggsuit V1.0 Integration!" Her Time Stone glowed, Mephiles was goo and splattered everywhere, and as for Mytyl….
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
"AAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" Her future was secured, but at a terrible cost. She blacked out, barely able to keep conscious as for the first time, Nori teared up and hugged her through it all.
And then the ceiling broke open. Through the haze of pain, she heard the most 1990's voice ever screaming "Reaganooooomiiiiics!" followed by 90s rock music.
Can't hold on much longer
(But I will never let go!)
I know it's a one-way track
(Tell me now how long this'll last!)
I'm not gonna think this way
"DAMN IT!" Asimov cursed in English, channeling his immense electrical power. "Even as a cyborg he still pisses me off!" And as Mytyl screamed and screamed, the music overpowering her agony, Mom never stopped holding her hand as large, azure chains formed a barrier around them.
Little did she know that this would be the last time Mytyl Kamizono would see Nori.
11:59
Firmament, Command Room
Oh how he waited for this day.
He could admit he underestimated Zonda, which in of itself was stupid given how many times he'd been bested by annoyingly quirky, super short teenagers again and again.
How many years had he been trapped there? Sometimes he remembered absorbing centuries of knowledge, sometimes a millenia, but he came out of the Lifewave superior, better, even if the vast knowledge he came back with was a puddle compared to the ocean he used to drown in.
{Sir, preparations are complete!}
But a puddlle was good enough for what he needed, and though he lost the Muse, Mephiles, and his traitorous 'vice president' showed his face yet again, things couldn't have gone better even if he was holding back.
{Should we begin satellite synchronization?}
"Yeeeeeesss…"Eggman grinned, feeling like his former self for the first time in years. The satellites were in the perfect positions to connect directly to the Lifewave, and with their signal strength, they more than made up for his lack of efficiency when using this ethereal force. "Goodbye Earth…" He began as the Satellite fired. "...And hello again, Mobius!" With a pale imitation of a laugh, he uttered the words that sealed the fate of planet Earth as the room lit up with glee.
"CHAOS….CONTROL!"
?
12:01
Zone 7 transit
"Ughhh…." Mytyl woke up, oddly refreshed. The sounds of a train car met her ears, and the smell of oil and fuel filled her nose. She nearly retched as she woke up, tears of disgust in her eyes as she fought the urge to vomit.
"Here." Someone handed her a gas mask and she quickly put it on, with the same speed mom taught her how to reload a projectile gun. She suddenly felt relief, but that quickly turned to fear as she felt something wrapping around her body. "Don't fight it." the voice said, and any fear she might have had turned to utter loathing as she recognized who it was. The cold, unfeeling voice, the penchant for unnecessary English in every one of his sentences… "The EG-1000 skinsuit has been modified to allow you to exercise your free will. Tampering with it will make you as much of a slave as the people around you."
"What are you-" A pit formed in Mytyl's stomach as she quickly realized that she wasn't with mom or Mephiles anymore. She was with him. "What did you do to me?" And where was she? She was obviously in a train car if the noise was any indication, but where was this train headed?
"For the record, I'm the one who saved you. And just so you know, you're wearing a form of metal. You know what my Septima is, so I suggest you don't try anything."
Mytyl got up and stared him down. " . ?"
He shrugged. "I had my orders. All I was told was that you had to live. Having to fight my former protege,your brother, and that thing that used to be a certain annoying hedgehog while keeping you out of their clutches was hard enough, and the constant blaring of that rock music made it nearly impossible to hear them as I escaped with you, so rescuing someone who explicity said this was a suicide mission for her is not on my top priority." Mytyl moved to lunge; he simply locked up her armor, causing her to fall flat on her face. "If you want to kill me, kill Mephiles. I'm his familiar. And besides, you kill me, you're screwed. We need each other."
"GRrrrggh!" It's no use; she couldn't move! "What..wouugghgh..I need you for?!"
"Because I'm one part of the puzzle that will help clean up this mess." With his powers, the train doors opened, revealing something quite horrifying to Mytyl.
The white haired girl was aghast utter shock running through her body as the train passed over the massive metropolis. "W-what is this?" What was all this?! She knew she was in Tokyo, because right there was Tokyo Tower, and the former UTU media tower from Sumeragi's old days right next to it! Everything else was completely unrecognizable! That annoying crimson was now accompanied by bright yellows that lit up the roads and many rounded buildings that replaced the tall, square skyscrapers. Each and every one of them were egg-shaped, Eggman's logo etched into each and every one of them. The roads were replaced with…oh my god, were those rollercoasters?! They were!
The train passed over a group of people, all wearing the same suit she assumed she was wearing. They looked to be a family of 5, all hunched over, their posture completely still as though they weren't breathing. The rollercoaster -which had Eggman's face on it, because of course it did- came up to what she was assuming to be a variant of a bus stop, and they all hopped in, saying nothing as they and what had to be hundreds of other people rode off to who knows where. Drones shaped eggs with a singular monoeye hovered across the city, as Egg Pawns watched from the rooftops. But they weren't the goofy, idiotic Egg Pawns Mytyl recognized. They were pure white, having that single monoeye with no other discernible accessories. In the distance were factories, factories so big that they blotted out ! And that's when Mytyl realized those factories were standing where used to be. Thick, red smoke poured from the smokestacks and contributed to the dismal grey skies and the polluted air that she was now protected from.
"This is the Eggscension." He said, getting her attention. "I hate to admit it, but it's impressive how much he could do in just 3 years without that hedgehog in the way."
"How…" She couldn't even find it in her to want to kill him anymore, this was just too much! "How did he do this?!"
"Blame Eden." The man said with a shrug. "You remember their attack on Japan 10 years back, correct?"
"Y-yeah?" Mytyl asked. "GV and my brother stopped me from being kidnapped and that's when Zonda took me and made me into mirror shards to give to her G7."
"..." There wasn't a hint of hesitation in what she just said. She didn't even recognize the contradictions! "So that's what would have happened." He shook his head. "Sorry, but no." He took control of her suit, not taking her free will away, but instead focusing the suit's internal energies into one specific point, the giant lump on her side where her skirt pocket is. Just a bit of energy into it and…..
SCHWIP!
"You remember their attack on Japan 10 years back, correct?" He repeated.
"I just told you!" Mytyl yelled back. "GV…" Her eyes widened under her suit. "GV….GV! Oh god GV, he's dead!" She snarled angrily at him, hatred renewed. "And you killed us!
"I'm afraid hisfate is far worse." The man said. "The Gunvolt and Copen you know have been absorbed into the Eggman network. Any semblance of free will they once exercised had been utterly spent giving us every bit of time possible to get you to safety. The next time either of us see them, if we can even recognize them if Sonic's modifications are any indication as to what Eggman considers an upgrade, we lose."
"I-I…"
"If you are looking for any remorse for my actions, don't bother. I've long since given up my morals for my ideals, and I've given up name and powers for a second chance at life. If I had a second chance, I'd do what I was destined to do, but better." He held open his palm and revealed a lucky charm, similar to the one Mytyl had. "After all, I've seen my future." When she lunged for him again, he locked down her suit. "As I was saying before, blame Eden for what happened, and your brother for bringing the monster that used to be Eggman back to Japan instead of just blowing his brains out..
"Nrrrgghhh…" Ok, fighting's useless, she should have realized that one. "What are you talking about?"
He rolled his eyes under his suit. "Did you seriously not remember Tenjian's execution on Battleship Island?" Mytyl got out a 'yes.' "Tell me, does that sound like Eggman to you?"
"No." She answered, a realization washing over her. "That doesn't sound like Eggman at all!"
"It's no surprise you don't remember; that too was part of the Eggscension." His tone turned derisive. "It's like your brother said; Eggman was never a good person, I can attest to that."
"Yet you made him your 2nd in command." Mytyl said derisively. "You had everything you wanted, so why didn't you fight him when he took over?"
"Who do you think he practiced on?" Asimov chuckled. "To be honest, I should have expected something to have been wrong. Those annoying robots he kept around, the square one and the round one?" Mytyl remembered; they went everywhere with him, but it's been so long; what were their names again? "They were trashed when he came back. I had just finished gaining the support of those Eggman tossed out of Sumeragi to let me take charge once again, and rename the organization: the Sumeragi Institute of Human Evolution."
"That's pretty inclusive coming from you."
"Thanks; they thought so too. I waited in Eggman's former office, just to see the look on his face when I took back my rightful place and killed him on the spot. Only things didn't go as I planned.
XXXXXXX
Friday, February, 12th
3 weeks after Eggman's recovery from Eden
Sumeragi's presidential office, former Diet Building
"...Who are you?" The first sign that things were about to go completely FUBAR was the fact I didn't even recognize the man. He proudly boasted about his body shape on every damn thing he made, so to see him so thin…
"Why Asimov, I'm hurt!" This person looked like a normal, thin man in his 60s wearing his clothes. He lacked none of theelastic, cartoonish flair that he once had, and I could see the wrinkles on his face, of a man who had lived and experienced far more than I ever could have. "You spent so much time sneaking behind my back to make your utopia got off the ground, that you forgot your dear, best friend!"
Faster than even I could react, the glass behind me shattered, and I was hung outside the office window, choking in his grip and gasping for air. "Did you think I didn't know who it was that helped Eden get past my defenses?" The look on his face was not something anyone with a humanphysiology should have been capable of performing. He snarled at me, his wrinkled lips contorting wildly into a massive grin that befitted his old form, as though someone stretched his lips out as far as the proportions of his head would allow.
I could only respond by gasping for air, my connection to the Lifewave suddenly cut off. For that moment, I was completely, utterly human. "The Azure Striker Septima allows you to hack machines, and it didn't take me long while I was in Eden's loving care to realize that you sold me out!" He squeezed harder, and for the life of me, I should have been killed seconds ago. But somehow, he was keeping me alive. "No,I was wrong. I didn't just realize it, THEIR HACKER RUBBED THE EMAIL RECORDS RIGHT IN MY FACE!"
He threw me back in the office, hard enough to break my bones and rupture my organs. And yet, I was alive. Gasping for air, in more pain during that moment than I've been since I was a child, I could only get out one question. "W-what a-are you?!"
"Beats me." Suddenly he was sitting in the office chair, the windows and everything else completely repaired. "Those brats had me build a machine, and they decided to use yours truly as the test subject so they could brainwash me and have unfiltered access to my technology. As you can see…things didn't go as planned, and now that ethereal ,unknowing force you call the Lifewave granted me complete and utter access to your little superpower Cloud Service. In short-" Suddenly he was right above me, grinning. "I have complete access to the Lifewave."
XXXXXX
"Thanks to Eggman's time in Eden, the Septimas of the G7 were vastly enhanced, but at the cost of their bodies rapidly aging." He could sense it, the change in mood. "Careful; she wants to come out. "With your brother gifting Eggman's greatest foe to him thanks to Tenjian's inadvertent help due to him freezing over an entire city, and combined with sheer power given to him by his connection to the Lifewave, there was nothing to divert Eggman's focus from world domination."
"So you could imagine my shock when he made me his second in command again like nothing happened."
XXXXXX
"I have to say, your plan sounds deliciously evil!" He gloated to me, patting me on the back like an old friend. "Your bodies are just one giant router for the Lifewave to transmit data into, so if we make the body bigger, that's a bigger connection!" He let out his laugh, a hollow, empty impression of it. In the three weeks since the incident in my old office, he had become a shell of his former self, and it was here that I realized the full evil he was capable of without his old habits or morals, or the hedgehog's existence, holding him back.
After all, he found a use for Gunvolt's body as his enforcer. There was still the matter of your other half.
XXXXXX
"Joule.." Mytyl's voice interrupted as she had an inkling of what happened. "What happened to her?!"
"How do you know who that is?"
"I DON'T KNOW, TELL ME!"
"Originally, we had no clue as to her whereabouts. My guess is that she teleported away. She was a living Glaive after all, so they probably built that function into her in the case she was too far away for manual retrieval. She did leave plenty of blood behind, and we had her body, but as for her soul, we both know what happened to that. I expected Eggman to simply revive your corpse to use as a Septimal Conduit to use as his iteration of myButterfly Cocoon plan. instead he just stuck her parts in your 'brothers' and called it a day, with the samelaissez faire one would have ordering chicken at a KFC."
Hearing that was enough to allow Mytyl break free somewhat, and slowly make her way towards him. "You can imagine what happened when they realized what they carried. I'd honestly say Gunvolt as he is now is far more useful than when he was alive." He sighed in annoyance and locked her down again. "Again with this?"
"YOU BASTARD!" She roared with tears in her eyes. "HE WAS YOUR SON!"
"I took him in, yes."
"HE TRUSTED YOU! HE LOVED YOU!"
"Yes, he did." He agreed with a nod, barely any sympathy in his voice as he muted her suit's audio functions to drown out her voice. "But love has no place on the battlefield, or in evolution."
"RRRRAAAAGH!" He was impressed; she completely broke his control. And she can choke pretty well too! He took her off of him and he gasped for air, taking as much as the suit allowed before continuing. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
"And doom this world? Not a chance." With just a swipe of his finger, Mytyl was pulled away from him. "I need you, and you need me. With Eden's Adepts dead or useless, and Sumeragi under Eggman's control, we're the only ones left that can help Mephiles fix what Eden had wrought." Suddenly Mytyl's suit went offline and she went limp. "And it starts with getting us integrated into this society."
{Attention passengers.} announced the train engineer, an Egg Pawn with a comically oversized hat. {We are approaching Zone 7, Metallic Madness. Be prepared for Eggsuit hardware scanning and defragmentation}
And with that message, Asimov was going to have to enjoy his next 8 minutes of freedom. "I'm going to lock down our Septimas, both of ours." He began, both of them feeling an intense weight pressed onto their bodies that wasn't going to go away anytime soon. It was a stroke of luck that he sprung Eden's puppeteer out from his trip to prison. Without him, keeping the nanites in these suits steady while he worked on the two of them would have been next to impossible given the time frame they had. "In addition, I'msending you data from Mephiles on what to do. You have 6 minutes to agree or not." He removed his control over her suit. "Well?"
Through her tears and the intense heaviness she felt, Mytyl let out a strangled "yes." The sheer indignity she felt, the hatred she wanted to exercise, the power to kill him where he stood right now, it was all right there, ready! And yet…
"Why?" Mytyl asked. "If you needed my help, why did you goad me on?"
"Because your brother and father aren't around for me to shoot." Was his answer. "Now let me hear it again; yes, or no?"
"...Yes." Her fists balled up so much that they would have bled if not for this suit. "I will help."
"Good." Suddenly Mytyl found her suit's functions taken from her again as she -against her will- and Asimov sat alongside the others she completely forgot about in her rage. Everyone was restrained by safety harnesses with the Eggman logo displaying on an LCD monitor in the center of each harness. As the harnesses latched themselves onto her and her 'partner', she saw that the monitors then showed congratulatory, verbally fellating texts on Eggman's might and how much better he was than everyone else.
{Suit check in progress, do not move or you will be severely punished.}
It wasn't like she could. Right now Asimov had complete control of her body, and that damned weight kept her almost sluggish! All she could do was wait, and see where the wind took her.
Stepping off of the train with the others, Mytyl noticed two things. One was that the train was shaped like a rollercoaster, and two….
{Welcome to Dr. Eggman's new dominion, and the first day of the rest of your lives!}Was that Eggman had a sick sense of humor. She was suddenly missing the aesthetics of the Sumeragi of old. Some edgy, grimdark, cyberpunk dystopia, that sounds like something from a sci-fi novel, that was preferable over this. At least that made sense! {Step on the Egg Conveyor Belt™ and come along with me on this tour of your future accommodations!}
Did she just hear him trademar-nevermind. Everyone complied with his orders -rather the suits did it for them- and got on the massive conveyor belt overlooking the metropolis below. There were hundreds of people like her, and thankfully it seemed that Asimov wasn't around, or he was keeping quiet, both of which were good. Bright neon lights lit up the sky, as did the neon displays all around her. Dozens of neon signs of just Eggman doing random things covered the billboards, the buildings, and the holo-displays in the air. Statues of the man, in his rounded, cartoonish shape and not the form Asimov described, were everywhere she looked as the march continued on, towering over even the buildings that reached up to this height.
{This delightful city was formerly known as Metallic Madness, the 7th Zone of Little Planet!}…What? {Now,I'm sure you people have no idea what I'm talking about.} He said in a patronizingly consoling tone. {Good! Anyhoo, this wondrous city, built in my image of course,which makes it perfect, encompasses all of the little hovel you used to call Tokyo, and then some! You can see my perfect additions all the way from the EggSS Space Station!}
'Wait, did he mean the ISS-' Mytyl's thoughts were interrupted as a holo-screen appeared above them, and everyone looked up at once, an act of military precision brought on by the fact that their suits were all remote controlled. "Oh my god."
{Of course I had to get rid of a few cities here and there, had to get deep in the crust for some of the support pillars, but it was all worth it in the end to have another Eggtropolis in my lovely visiage}He let out a hollow, inhuman laugh that left Mytyl and a few others shivering. Though of course anyone would be shivering when they saw the entirety of your country's center taken up by a city shaped like Eggman's face! Forget Tokyo, most of Honshu was covered in this city!
{Oh, isn't it wonderful?}He said with all the emotion of an amateur actor. You could tell that he really believed it from the sheer joy in his voice, but at the same time however, it was as if he couldn't conjure up any genuine emotion.
{Now I'm sure every single one of you are utterly furious with me, some would say murderous or even vengeful, for integrating myself into your society and then betraying you, uprooting your lives, forcing you into thse suits and just a whole list of human rights violations! And to that I say-} Mytyl couldn't even react to what happened next, forced to stay still as people around her exploded into goreless, bloodless dust. {Too bad, suckers! I'm making the rules here, and if you don't like it, well-} He chuckled. {-You don't have a choice, Adepts.}
The tour continued on into the main facility, whose head was shaped like Eggman's face, as if they were being led straight into the belly of the beast. {Now as for those rules, they're pretty simple!} They passed over a mass of stalls manned by Egg Pawns, if by stalls you meant truck sized restaurants and stores showing gourmet food the likes of which Mytyl knew she'll never see again. Toys and figurines, the skimpy kind, all of which were of Egg -skipping that, it was obvious as to what this was: a taste of things they'll never have. {Pay no mind to the confectionaries and toys, they're not for you.} Of course. { You can look, but you can't touch, or smell, or even hear! Your job is simply to work for me! I've got big plans for this world, and they can't come to fruition without your forced compliance!}
They soon passed by the stalls and into a luxurious hotel room the size of a house that again, wasn't for them. Transparent blue glass made up the floors and ceilings, giving a scenic view to the Eggman shaped buildings to the sides and below. Large, king sized hoverbeds were being prepared by Egg Pawns for their master, with cup holders and foodtrays of various sizes on their sides. {And should you do a good enough job, meet your weekly quota, all that junk, you can not enjoy the pleasantries surrounding you! Instead, you get the glorious honor of seeing me partake in everything from the cozy walls of your containment rooms! Speaking of uncomfortable isolation, let's finish up our little tour and get to it!OOOOOOOooh, I'm so excited!}
The tour continued, and good god there was so much to see. There were mountains of food, as in literal mountains made of food, gelatin rivers, a spaceship dock, an alien jungle, an aquarium that consisted of sixteen buildings linked together, and so on and so forth. The sheer variety of things he was rubbing in their faces was impressive, and if it wasn't for the pants pissing horror she and everyone else was experiencing, Mytyl would be all for it! Even through the fear and the urge to shoot Eggman in the face, she had to know how in the world he did this. And she was going to keep wondering until Mephiles decided to get off his ass and start his plan.
{Aaaaaaaaand that's the end of the tour!}Eggman's voice 'cheerfully' exclaimed as the conveyor belt stopped in front of a large, domed train station. Mustached, black rollercoasters shaped like trains were parked everywhere, their engines audible and raring to go. Dozens, if not hundreds of Egg Pawns -the old versions- surrounded them, eating the most exquisite, delectable food Mytyl had ever seen this side of Mom's cooking whenever she was bribing their neighbors. And they were doing it with the most obnoxiously smug, annoying expressions etched into them as they purposefully got in everyone's faces to lord over what they weren't going to have. {
Thank you for your time. Your appreciation for the finer things in life was completely worth your loss of free will -andsoonyourlossofperonsalselfbutimnotgonnabringthatup.} Wait, what did he just say? {As your ruler and master for the next century or so, I only wished to show you how much better my life is than yours, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that you understand just how miserable your continued existence will be!} Mytyl snarled in anger as she soon realized that this thing on her had a HUD. Because all of a sudden, an information window with an itinerary and a bunch of other stuff was suddenly in her face.
{Please read the schedule when you have a chance, and board your designated trains.} Not like he gave them a choice, as their bodies moved of their own volition to the many different trains, and let the harnesses latch onto them. Those annoying Egg Pawns with the delicious looking food then exploded. Guess Eggman hated looking at them just as much as they did.. {My glorious Mustacho MK V Eggtrains will take you to one of the seven Zones of your new home, where brand new, limited possibilities await you! I hope you all have a wonderful time under my rule, crushed beneath my fist!}
And that announcement, unbeknownst to the young Kamizono, would be the last time Mytyl or anyone else would hear from Dr. Eggman for a long time. As she headed into the train, taking note of the red, metal upholstery as she sat down, she had to wonder how in the world this happened. Her life was over. Her academic prospects were KIA, her family -and she was still getting over the fact she had one when not thinking about that psychotic perverted love freak in her head- was who knows where, and she didn't even know if Mom was still alive! She had the power of a god, and was subsequently Yamcha'd by her new ruler without him even being aware of her! Now she had nothing; all that left was that stupid stone in her poc…ket… 'Wait..' The stone!
She still had the freaking Time Stone! She didn't move to feel it, not like she could with how tight these harnesses were, but she could feel it, the stone in her suit! Why didn't Eggman take it?! 'Could he not have sensed it?' If Mephiles and Mom were right, the damn thing's been keeping her brain from Eggman's freakishly giant hands all night! That had to have released a lot of energy given what she saw him do to Japan, so why didn't he take it?!
She could theorize all she wanted. For now, it was all she had left, and the only thing keeping her safe from being like everyone else. All she could do left is cry for her Mother, and the future they both lost.
…and aside from her hope of seeing her family again and her Mother's cold, impassive expression, she hoped to god that Asimov met a gruesome, horrifying end once this was over.
Ogilvie Maurice de Aleena III (Sonic the Hedgehog)
1991-2005
Miles Tails Prower (Tails)
1994-2005
Knuckles the Echidna(Real name Unknown)
?-2005
A freshly made chili dog with all the fixings,homemade mint candy, and grapes from her vineyard, made just the way all three liked them.
She placed the items on the graves, closing her eyes and praying for their souls to be safe. Taken from the world long before Eggman's complete subjugation to his own power, they were saved from the madman's control of the incorporeal, sparing them from the fate that awaited everyone else they were forced to leave behind.
She let out a wistful sigh, the wrinkles on her face strained from stress. Her graying hair and long, lapine ears flowed in the wind as she could smell what was approaching. She gave the three graves a smile, having long lost the urge to cry years ago, and simply stood there reminiscing. Her poor girl's idols were long dead, and their bodies were being used as puppets by that thing. And with how much stress she was under, this might be the last time she would be able to do this, so she might as well enjoy it while she could. At 33 years old, Vanilla looked 70, and had the health of a 70 year old woman in her prime. Rabbits and stress do not mix, and she didn't envy her daughter and her Chao for what was to happen next.
Putting aside her upcoming mortality, she could only offer one final prayer, for the heroes of this world that inspired both human and Mobian alike.
For Sonic, she hoped he would be able to run as much as he wanted to, free from that monster's reach.
For Tails, she hoped he would get the recognition he deserved outside of the former human realm.
For Knuckles, she hoped he would find his people, to connect with his heritage so that he would never be alone again.
And most of all, and the most confusing should anyone have heard her, She said a prayer for Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the real one, not the corrupted monster that ran their world into the ground. Even Eggman, despite the evil he had committed, the people he killed, both Mobian and human alike, would never condone the madness that was about to befall Mobius today.
Vanilla opened her eyes and walked away, looking to the sky where a familiar blue marble rested. Or rather, it should have been blue. While she had gotten used to Earth's appearance every year, it had not moved from its current spot at all like it should have. Instead it got redder and redder, until it was a deep crimson. But now, something far worse had happened to the planet, and it was an appetizer for what was to come.
For the entire planet was coated in a crimson orb, one in the shape of the Eggman Empire logo.
