Recursion Error Chapter 95, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

Recursion Error

Episode 95- Stranded. Again.

At this point in his life Sorun had seriously considered that'd he'd already fallen as low as he could ever fall and it would only be up from there, but no, somehow he always managed to find a brand new low. The bedrock just didn't exist. He didn't believe in it anymore.

He felt sick. Not in the emotional sense - though there was plenty of that seeing as he fainted on the spot and got captured as a result, feeling that brand of sickening shame was all but a forgone conclusion - but in that, he actually felt sick ever since he woke up from that. Genuinely nauseous. Weak. The feeling hadn't really been going away in the few hours he'd been awake after that.

The fact his arms were bound to his sides by rope probably wasn't helping the matter. Certainly wasn't helping his mood, and the only silver lining Sorun could see was that all they'd done was kidnap him and tie him up. Or that they'd decided to leave him in some kind of poorly-lit backroom somewhere with stone walls of all things. The kind of dark stones they used to build old timey castles. And as far has he knew structures like that weren't really around anywhere, so... he was operating under the assumption that after he went to sleep they dumped him off in their own zone. The Moebius Zone. And he didn't know what ended up happening to his blue Chaos Emerald, too, so that was great.

Stuck in a whole different zone in some dingy room with a bunch of evil doubles of his friends while tied up. Fuck everything.

Could have been worse, if barely. They could have just stuck him in a broom closet somewhere. Or a cell, which made Sorun a bit surprised they hadn't, though the room he was currently sitting in wasn't all that much bigger than a cell would be, so he supposed it wouldn't do to be that optimistic. Wasn't even a bed in here. Just a few wooden crates lying around, a swinging lightbulb for light, and a table. Sorun elected to just sit on the ground while leaning his back against a crate. The person he assumed was only here to watch him was sitting on the table while looking down at him.

He chose not to speak to her.

There was a clicking sound, made by the Mobian's mouth out of boredom. She had one leg swung over the other, arms crossed as she looked down at him with equally bored, blue eyes. Sorun didn't know who she was, but at this point he was reasonably good at identifying Mobian species and concluded she was probably a fox. He thought. The red fur and hair was throwing him off but the ears and the one tail were extremely similar to Tails', so he thought it was a good guess.

What did draw his attention was the outfit. Black leather bodysuit and black boots. It was so out there he couldn't help but do a double-take on it, but even so he had to concede it was, somehow, more modest than the outfit that... that one echidna from the bad future that didn't exist anymore wore. The one whose jaw he broke. He forgot her name.

It was probably real leather, too. Moebius was supposed to be some wacko mirror world to Mobius so Sorun wouldn't at all be surprised to learn they actually stripped skin off Mobians to process them into clothing here.

Evidently, while Sorun was perfectly content to just sit there in silence, stewing in extreme displeasure over this whole situation, and no small amount of anxiety, she wasn't. Because she made an annoyed sound and snapped out, "What, you're not gonna say anything?"

"Yeah." Honestly, Sorun was surprised at himself for giving such a measured response. He still felt sick, he still felt, plainly, bad about what was happening, embarrassment and humiliation notwithstanding to being kidnapped, but with how many times something like this had happened now he was starting to fear he was getting used to it. Or, more likely, because Scourge wasn't here. Because he didn't have some instinctual feeling screaming at Sorun that he was standing in front of someone who was probably going to kill him faster than he could blink and he couldn't do a thing about it. That overbearing presence that green hedgehog alone carried.

"You're real boring for a hostage, you know that?" the probably-fox noted.

Baleful eyes looked up from the wall they'd been staring at to meet the Mobian's eyes. A clever witticism didn't jump out in Sorun's mind to immediately use to counter her words, and he just wasn't in the mood to expend brain power on thinking one up. The more common ones, the "go to hell" snapbacks and the such, had always been too grossly overused and predicable in Sorun's eyes. He didn't have the pride to spend on petty insults people saw coming from a mile away so he tried his best to stray away from ever saying them.

The bad part about that philosophy was that now he was just staring silently at his watcher and Sorun'd realized all too late that it was probably coming off as creepy and maybe was even worse than just telling her off.

"You're a creepy one, huh?" she remarked. "But you seriously don't have anything to say? Nobody back in... what was it, New Mobotropolis now? Nobody there had anything to say about me? Nothing?"

It took a few more moments of Sorun scrutinizing the Mobian for some things to finally click in his mind. "Oh, wait, you're Fiona?" he realized. "Yeah, Tails talked about you for a bit." It also meant his guess on her being a fox was spot-on, so he congratulated himself a bit for that.

She smirked a bit at hearing the recognition. "Yep, that's right." She stopped, looking at Sorun to gauge him for a reaction. The problem was he had absolutely no reaction and just continued to stare blankly at her. It caused Fiona's smirk to drop off somewhat and made her continue with, "And...?"

"And what?"

"And... do you have anything to say about that?"

"No?" He was more confused than anything else at the question. "Why would I care about who you are? I don't." He certainly cared about the kidnapping thing, but he felt that went without saying. But everything else about Fiona were details he couldn't care less about.

The red fox's smirk was all but gone now, her face making it look like she'd been caught off her guard. "Well, um. No reason," she said. "I kinda just thought you'd have something to say 'cause of the whole... Tails told you everything that happened, right? The whole thing that happened between us?"

"That?" It made Sorun blanch a bit. He felt awkward just thinking about that conversation. "I mean, listen, real talk, I was kinda on his side 'til he mentioned you were about as old as Sonic and I am, at which point I did a whole one-eighty and thought to myself, 'ah, this poor idiot didn't have a chance.'" Something Sorun had said caused an amused look to grow on Fiona's face, so he continued. "Like, I get it, kinda. Kids are stupid, I saw kids do stupid things all the time where I come from, and genius or not Tails is a kid, so I get him thinking there was something between you two when there wasn't a chance in hell there was ever gonna be anything there. I can't even be mad about the slap part. Sometimes kids just need a reality check."

There was the whole "leading him on" thing Tails had mentioned that Fiona did to him, which, to Sorun's ears, did sound like textbook manipulation which he did have an opinion of, but he kept those thoughts silent. Because it was looking like Fiona was liking some of the things she was hearing, and he needed whatever he could get at this juncture. Probably wouldn't do him good to make her upset and lose interest. So he'd speak from the heart, but only the parts she probably wanted to hear. Maybe he'd see an opportunity out of this yet that way.

"Ha! Yeah... nice kid, but you're right, he needed one." After making that laugh she'd leaned forwards on the table she'd been sitting on, the smallest of smiles forming on her lips. She looked the slightest bit interested in him now. "You know, I gotta say. You weren't what I was expecting when I heard Scourge kidnapped a former Freedom Fighter."

"The 'former' bit in there didn't tip you off to anything?" Sorun asked her.

Fiona shrugged. "Should probably have, yeah, but I hung around with them to know what their whole deal was, you know?" She made a shaky gesture with her hand. "Like... just how they ticked? The whole hero thing they had goin' for them, how they were likeminded on a bunch of stuff. You, though," she shook her head, "all the vibes I always felt off of them? I'm not getting any of them off you."

"Yeah, probably 'cause I quit," Sorun said to her. "I got out of that gig as soon as I could. You think I even wanted to be a Freedom Fighter in the first place with those guys? That job was a nightmare. I got out just so I wouldn't have to deal with shit like this anymore." The ropes binding Sorun's arms to his sides rustled in response.

For some reason his words just made Fiona make an even odder expression as she looked at him. "You don't even talk like them," she noted. It made Sorun wonder if swear words really did have such a profane effect on Mobian culture, because he never heard them come out of anyone's mouth. And he did his best not to add them to the world with marginal success. "What were you even doing with them in the first place?"

"That's a really long story I don't have the patience to get into. Feel like it'd take a million words to get it all out," Sorun grumbled.

Fiona's response was to gesture around to the room they were in. "Not like you're going anywhere," she pointed out. "And besides, I wanna hear it."

A scowl formed on Sorun's face. "Okay, lemme rephrase it: you kidnapped me, so no."

"Pfft, fine. Prude." If there was any interest in Fiona's expression, it died away right there. Sorun didn't see it as being favorable to his position so he tried shifting gears.

"Why'd you all even bother kidnapping me?" Sorun asked her. "I lied about the language thing, yeah, but I honestly am just a delivery guy. I don't exactly have what'd you call intrinsic value." What he really wanted to ask was what happened with his Chaos Emerald, but given the situation he'd pretty much given up hope on getting that thing back. Which sucked - he needed that.

Fortunately, and likely due to boredom on her part, Fiona seemed to be in a talkative mood. "It's mostly because Scourge figured you were well-off with all the Freedom Fighters. Literally the first thing he did after we caught you was go and brag to them that he had you as a hostage. He must have found what he was looking for because he came back laughing his head off. Said it really set them off."

Well, that was great. Now everyone knew he got himself got by a bunch of evil doubles. Bad enough it was going to cause trouble for a lot of people, but now he had that level of embarrassment to stack on top of everything else. "What are you guys even doing stealing their HQ in the first place? Don't you have a whole zone of your own to fuck around in? Why'd you bother coming to Mobius?"

That question, for whatever reason, caught Fiona a bit off guard. No, more than that - she looked outright uncomfortable, enough that she glanced away from Sorun. "That was all Scourge's idea," she admitted.

Scourge's idea. Meaning his and not anyone else's. And seeing how he was comparable to Sonic, probably even stronger if he heard the stories right, he could see why saying "no" to him wasn't a good idea in practice. Sorun rolled with the questioning, finding traction in the topic. "You don't sound like you approve," he noted.

"Of course I approve of anything he says!" she snapped at him rather quickly, looking back at Sorun. "It's just that we have a good thing going here on Moebius-" Ah, so he was in their zone after all, "-and have the whole planet eating out of our palm after Scourge conquered it." He conquered the whole planet. That was sobering. "He just... it's this thing with him. He doesn't want to be seen as just 'evil Sonic', and most of this is just proving to everyone that we're all our own people. Mostly to himself," she muttered off to the side. "I'm not sure how far he's gonna take this. Maybe he'll try conquering Mobius, too. Try and cement him as being the best version of Sonic around. That everyone here is the superior versions. Wouldn't shock me."

So obsessed, was the conclusion Sorun came to. He was obsessed at solidifying his own identity separate from just being a Sonic. Sorun wasn't even sure he could blame him - with how many Sonics he saw during the multiverse road trip he counted it fortunate he never saw an alternate Sorun in any of those worlds. Doubted he or anyone else from Earth even had alternate versions anywhere since it wasn't even connected to this multiverse. But if he had... Sorun didn't know. It was a weird thought that made him a bit uncomfortable. The mere thought would make him question his own validity as a person if there were naturally doubles of himself out there just walking around.

For all the things he hated about this world in general, Sorun could give it one compliment. All the evil people, for all their wrong, were shockingly easy to "get" in a sense. Eggman did everything he did because he was an egomaniac that liked hurting people. That was it, cut and dry. Oddly refreshing in a sense. And Scourge was doing this for... what, validity? Self-esteem? Some inferiority complex? Because he was just naturally an asshole due to being from the evil world, whose existence alone brought up all sorts of questions he didn't wanna think about? He didn't know. It's what he got from just listening to Fiona, but he wasn't sure how reliable that was.

He let out a sigh. Didn't really matter in the end. He didn't need to get in the guy's headspace to know he'd kidnapped Sorun and, as a result, Sorun would likely hate him forever now. Hate him about as much as he was scared of him, at any rate, because unless he had his full suite of powers, or at least a handful of the more useful ones, that was a force he was just flat-out not winning against. And without even that one Chaos Emerald all he had going for him was dry wit.

That and the... other thing. That let him punch through a whole nightstand, among everything else that'd been going on. But that was unreliable at best and Sorun didn't even know what the deal with it was.

"Well, that's good for him," Sorun noted in a dry voice. "But outside of annoying the Freedom Fighters," Sorun continued, and he knew that was a lie. He'd like for them to be annoyed but they were probably way beyond that hearing what happened with him, which in itself was as endearing as it was irritating, "not really seeing what kind of strategic value holding me has. You kidnapped a package courier, not the king or someone like that. And you stole their HQ - they already had plenty of motivation to fight you all, more even if Scourge is gonna commit to this invasion idea," Sorun pointed out. "Seriously, you don't really get anything holding me here."

Wasn't true at all; a hostage people cared about was a hell of a bargaining chip and knowing the Freedom Fighters they'd fight tooth and nail to get a hostage back even if it was some random joe schmoe that got grabbed off the streets of New Mobotropolis. And he actually knew them so there was an emotional connection to consider. Quite honestly they lucked out nabbing him, a fact Sorun loathed to admit. But he was hoping Fiona didn't realize any of these facts. That'd he'd be more trouble keeping than he was worth and that it'd maybe be best to let him go.

"Nah. I don't think so." Sorun bit back a curse hearing that - she wasn't biting. "Never know when a hostage could come in handy. Maybe they'll catch one of our guys and we'll need to do a prisoner swap. Maybe Scourge'll feel like cutting some of your fingers off and showing the Freedom Fighters just to see the looks on their faces." Fiona shrugged while Sorun stared with a blank expression. "But hey, them's the breaks. Sorry." She didn't sound sorry at all.

"... You all suck." Sorun wished he had the energy to say something more than that, but he didn't. Between the sick feeling and the dread this situation was putting him in there just wasn't anything in the tank for anything else to be said on his part. The situation as a whole sucked, but between them kidnapping him and everything Fiona said these people just sounded plain awful.

"Yeah, and you're the one sitting there all tied up. Must suck to suck." With that, Fiona slid herself off the table. She stepped towards Sorun and bent down so they were eye level, a mocking smile on her face. "I gotta go swap out with the next person set to look after ya, so try not to get too uncomfortable, okay?"

The look Sorun gave her couldn't have been more dry if he tried. "I don't think it'll be that hard. You didn't even tie me to a chair. You just left me on the floor."

"Good boy." She patted him on the cheek. If she wasn't so much stronger than him by virtue of being a Mobian he would have bit the hand. "And you really shouldn't be complaining that much," she continued, stopping at the doorway to the room. She looked spiteful now. "The digs you're getting here are better than most prisons."

And with those rather scathing-sounding words she left, locking the door behind her and leaving Sorun to stew in his own maelstrom of brewing emotions. Feelings and thoughts all of which culminated into Sorun sighing and thunking his head on the crate he was sitting against. He did nothing otherwise.

It occurred to Sorun that maybe he should try escaping at some point. He could liken the will to escape his bonds and leave this place like a flame, and like a flame it was snuffed to oblivion when he thought further ahead and wondered what he was supposed to do about the fact he was stuck in another zone with no Yamato.

He didn't know the lay of the land. The general disposition of people, locations, hell, he didn't even know the layout of the... what he assumed was a castle but he only saw this room so he didn't really know. Escaping this place didn't necessitate escape from the situation as a whole - whereas if he stayed his greatest chance of escaping would be to wait to be rescued by the others. Stay in a place they knew to look in instead of making them look all over for him. He was stranded otherwise.

That's what really rubbed Sorun the wrong way. Being in a situation where he had to be rescued due to his own inefficiencies. It was demeaning. Humiliating. He'd say humbling, but Sorun had already reached lows so low he wasn't even certain he could be humbled any further by life. And he hated that. Almost more than what was happening to him. And knowing them it'd be fucking Sonic to the rescue.

Getting rescued by him of all people. As far as Sorun saw it was worse than being kidnapped. Having to rely on him.

If there was a saving grace, it was that the evil knockoffs hadn't actually done anything to him other than tie him up and leave him in a room. Yet. He was hoping some of the things Fiona said were just to scare him, but he'd seen too much evidence to point to the contrary. Scourge had conquered a planet. Was the opposite of Sonic, who Sorun doubted would kill to save his own life. Scourge and Miles had talked of poisonings, at least on the part of one of their members. But they were aware and didn't seem to mind.

There'd been killings. Had to have been if he really conquered a planet. So if they were really willing to go that far he didn't see how torture wouldn't be on the table. And that was the last thing he needed, more sympathy and worry from others because he'd been hurt. It'd probably hit Nicole worst of all, and to Sorun that was infinitely worse than whatever they'd do to him. Especially since he could just fix whatever damage was inflicted if he got his hands on a Chaos Emerald. And mental scars could be cut out.

But... there was nothing to do but sit here and hope for the best. Because Sorun lacked the strength, ability, and technique to get out of this.

He looked towards his current watcher. They were rotating them out, every six hours it seemed since that was how long Fiona stayed before leaving. He didn't know if this one had stayed as long, there was no clock, but it felt around six hours. He didn't know why exactly they were having someone guard him constantly instead of just throwing him in a cell somewhere and leaving him. He doubted they didn't have a facility like that, or couldn't make one on the fly. More likely it was because he'd popped up in the Freedom HQ without using any entrances and they were worried he had some ability they didn't know about, not knowing anything he could do was linked to the Emeralds. So a guard seemed to be a precaution more than anything.

It made Sorun scoff. At least that detail hadn't been in that damn database. He couldn't understand why Tails hadn't scrubbed his fucking profile after he left.

Unlike his last guard, this one wasn't as talkative. It was Antoine's evil double. Who, for whatever reason, was dressed like a biker of all things, leather jacket and all. And an eyepatch over his left eye. Still carried around a saber, even if he wasn't dressed for the part for that weapon like the real Antoine, but outside the clothes and eyepatch this was was a deadringer for his Antoine.

Kind of had the air of a jackass around him, too, but Sorun wouldn't be surprised to learn if everyone on this miserable planet did.

The coyote shifted where he was standing, leaning against the table across from Sorun with an irritated expression on his face. He looked towards the one door leading into the room, looking like he was about ready to bite it in half. "Where iz zat woman?" not-Antoine grumbled out.

Ah. So it had been six hours and he was waiting for the next person to switch out with him. Sorun'd be a bit upset, too.

"You can't speak very well either, huh?" Sorun observed. Not-Antoine's single eye snapped in his direction.

"What was zat?" he demanded.

"Your language. It's fucking butchered," Sorun clarified. "The real Antoine's the same way 'cause his parents tried teaching him two languages at once and now he just speaks both badly, but I kinda figured that circumstance was so specific there was no way it could be repeated on a double from another universe. But you have the same speech impediment he does. I just think it's weird."

"... Ze 'real' Antoine." Not-Antoine's face wrinkled in disgust saying the words out loud. "What makes him real et not moi?"

"Well... the Antoine I know's from the Prime Zone. I was lead to believe that was the first, original zone. And every other universe in the multiverse is an offshoot of that one. This is the information that was provided to me," Sorun said. "And what I've been lead to believe is that this zone only serves to be a 'mirror' of sorts to that world. Everyone here is supposed to be an opposite of the original." He leaned forwards a bit, torso tilted towards the ground so that he was forced to look up at not-Antoine. "By that logic, doesn't that mean that your entire personality is based off the opposite of his? The 'real' one? How much of you is you and not just the opposite of the real Antoine?"

He didn't respond immediately. His one eye was narrowed at Sorun, and his fingers were tapping away irritably on the surface of the table he was leaning on. He didn't look pleased at Sorun's words, but there was something else in his gaze Sorun couldn't place. "You zound like Scourge," not-Antoine said, and Sorun realized what that gaze was. He was perturbed at being reminded of something.

"Him? From what Fiona told me he's obsessed about carving out his own identity and not being stuck as just an evil Sonic. Wants the same for all of you, in fact. Said so herself," Sorun continued. Not-Antoine made a "tsk" noise and turned his head away. "He wondered the same thing, didn't he? Brought the question up with all of you? Is that why you follow him?"

"We 'follow' him because zat hedgehog iz a seekopath who mutilates anyone who doez not go hiz way!" not-Antoine hissed out, turning his head back to Sorun. His teeth were bared as he continued to growl out, "You zink we care? Zat any of us cared zere was a different world with different us's? Non, nevair, but him, he iz ze one obsessed weeth hiz image! We were all fine here!"

The coyote exhaled, and then took a breath while shaking his head. Sorun watched on silently, straightening his torso out as he watched the Mobian compose himself before saying his next words. "Besides zat point," not-Antoine said, "I would wonder how 'real' zat Antoine iz when hiz friends had not even notice-ed I had been replacing him for half a year."

Hearing that, Sorun's eyes narrowed. With those words he'd suddenly been reminded of what this Antoine had done to his at one point. "Right... you abducted him. Stuck him in this zone and pretended to be him for six months," he bitterly mumbled out. "You almost destroyed his whole life doing that. Why?"

"Because I was zick of playing ze underling to Scourge. Because I thoughted zose imbeciles in le Freedom Fighter would not be ze noticing ones, and I was right. Eet was not even zat hard replacing him. Eet was pazetic. I am surprise-ed he even managed to survive living here for zo long." Not-Antoine made a scoff at the mere memory of the event. But then he smirked a bit at some other memory. "Ahh, and I had put zo much of ze planning and ze scheming into ze new life I was to make zere. Such a pity zey caught me when zey did, but at least I got to see my poor, pazetic double's face as hiz fathair laid zere dying right in front of him."

The sentence reached Sorun's ears. He'd heard it, and processed the words he heard. It was a piece of information so disturbing and shocking he'd actually jolted a bit where he sat, and after Sorun felt his entire body go completely still as he looked up at not-Antoine. "What?" he asked, voice toneless. A tiny electrical spark of green bolted over his blue eyes.

"Oh, zat. He did not tell you? I am not finding myself so surprise-ed." He waved a hand casually. Casually. Like the death of someone's father deserved such a casual gesture. It was a sight that felt violently wrong to Sorun's eyes. "He had zuch a high position in ze Acorn Kingdom's military. A position I wanted and deserved. Whatever life zat position would have given me would be infinitely better zan whatever life I could have here; it's why I swapped weeth him in ze first place! And why would zat cretin's fathair evair suspect hiz own flesh et blood would be poisoning him? Everyone would 'ave thought ze old feool would die of natural causes and I would have been promoted if I had not been caught."

That was wrong. That was so wrong. Him. He was wrong. Everything about him was wrong.

"You..." Sorun twitched, as if he'd been violently struck. "You stole six months of his life and killed his dad... for status...?"

"Of course I did! What, did you zink-?"

The rest of the words were lost on Sorun. Not-Antoine was still talking, he could see his mouth moving and could vaguely hear something in the background that sounded like sounds, maybe words, but it was all being drowned out. It was the first time Sorun had ever heard Antoine's dad had died. That he'd been been assassinated from some poser trying to replace him for a comfier life than what he had in this zone.

His heart was beating hard in his chest. His blood - it was flowing much faster than it should, but Sorun didn't care. Couldn't even register it or the sounds coming out of not-Antoine as he stared at him. He felt... when was it? When was the last time he'd felt so angry? When the Neo-Walkers tried to deprive him of life? When he'd seen the husks of all his friends strung up on a wall behind Enerjak? What Sorun felt now, sitting there completely still while staring at not-Antoine, all those feelings seemed tame in comparison. This was something new he'd never felt before in his life that exceeded all of that anger. This wasn't even close to anger, or wrath, or fury, this... this was...

Rage.

It was the oddest thing. Never before in Sorun's life had his thoughts become so clear than when this feeling of absolute rage began to flood his very being. A state of focus so sharp and clear it felt almost surreal. Almost peaceful, of all things. It was a jarring juxtaposition to the absolute rage and hatred coursing through him, a feeling that should have harshly clashed with the fact that, sitting there, Sorun felt calmer and had a more clear head than he ever had in his entire life. He couldn't understand the phenomenon, and wasn't even sure he wanted to. It was serene. And sitting there, in what may as well have been a state of rageful zen, a single thought coursed through Sorun's entire being so thoroughly and completely it was almost as if he were that thought.

He wanted to hurt the person standing there in front of him bragging about the fact he'd poisoned the father of one of his best friends. Laughing about it to Sorun's face. It wasn't just a passing thought, or a random whim. It was an absolute fact. Sorun was going to hurt this person.

Drip.

"Huh?" Whatever not-Antoine was saying, he'd stopped mid-sentence. He looked confused when he looked over at Sorun, still sitting there on the ground and tied up, and noted, with even greater confusion, there were two changes. One was the stream of blood steadily flowing out of Sorun's nose and dripping onto the stone ground below them. The second was that his eyes had turned from a dark blue to a glowing green.

"Hhhh..." A rattling breath left Sorun when he stood up straighter. Green trails of light followed his eyes as he stared at not-Antoine with oddly calm eyes. "You did all that, huh?"

Creeeak...

Not-Antoine's single eye darted downwards. He grew the slightest bit alarmed when he saw Sorun's right hand. The fingernails had turned completely black and were extending. Lengthening into sharp claws jutting out of the tips of his fingers.

And then Sorun shrugged and the ropes binding him snapped completely off.

The one-eyed coyote that had been watching Sorun tried to move and do something the second the ropes came off. There hadn't been a chance. Sorun had sprung right up off the ground and leaped at not-Antoine with speeds and unnatural movements that couldn't be classified as human. The saber attached to his side and been torn off by Sorun and tossed to the back of the room. And then his left arm grabbed not-Antoine by the throat, shoving him forwards and against the table he'd been leaning on, trapping him between it and Sorun.

Gagging out, expression twisted in pain and anger, not-Antoine tried lashing out at Sorun. He didn't like that. So he'd plunged that sharpened, black nails on his right hand down and through not-Antoine's left shoulder. The leather of his jacket and the Mobian's flesh parted almost too easily, allowed Sorun to sink his whole fingers into the shoulder.

The anger in not-Antoine's face faded. Now it was just pain and anguish, and he'd made a high-pitched whining sound as his struggles against Sorun weakened greatly.

"Settle down there, coyote," Sorun demanded in a soft voice. Surprisingly, the struggling did almost cease entirely, though Sorun wasn't sure if it was because of the pain or fear. There was both on not-Antoine's face.

In response to the struggling stopping, Sorun tore his clawed fingers out of not-Antoine's shoulder. Two things happened: not-Antoine jolted and shouted out in pain, and some of the blood had flown out from his shoulder due to the force he'd pulled it out. More than that, some of it had spattered onto Sorun's face. Just a few drops had accidentally wound up in his mouth.

Sorun almost gagged from feeling the blood hit his mouth and almost spit it out, but then stopped. The blood, what little there was, didn't taste how he'd expect. He'd tasted his own blood and had known what to expect, but this wasn't it. Not this tingly... almost tangy taste. Nor this sensation. Like the blood was charged with something.

It was... good?

In his confusion a few locks of his hair fell in front of Sorun's face. What immediately caught his attention was a few hairs in particular. The blood that wound up in his mouth, he'd accidentally swallowed it on reflex. And he saw, right before his eyes, the moment he'd did that a few, just about three or four, of his black hairs had turned white. A miniscule, negligible change. But a change nonetheless. And he felt just the slightest bit stronger.

"Huh. Ain't that interesting?" He filed the information away for later. He was more focused on the coyote squirming in his grasp, and so looked back down at not-Antoine. The shoulder wound he'd inflicted was bleeding profusely, already beginning to pool on the floor. One of his claws had probably nicked the subclavian artery, if Mobians even had those. He assumed the anatomy was close enough to humans that it was the case. Wouldn't be bleeding that heavily otherwise.

Didn't matter. His gaze shifted to not-Antoine's face. He was wide-eyed, panicked. Breathing heavily to the point he was wheezing. It felt satisfying.

"Hhhh..." Sorun's clawed hand began moving, the tips dragging along the surface of not-Antoine's jacket as they approached his face. The coyote began squirming a bit more harshly, but stopped cold when the claws began dragging themselves along his face, gentle-like. They stopped at the eyepatch. "Dear, oh dear. What happened here?" Sorun asked as he tore the eyepatch off, casting it off to the side.

It was about as bad as one would expect. The eye was completely gone, and there was a large, jagged scar going through the eye, starting above the brow and ending just above his cheek. And the scar itself... the certain way the edges were frayed. Sorun felt like he'd seen such a wound before.

Oh. Wait. He had. On Eggman's robots.

"I recognize this kind of wound. Did Scourge do this to you? Spin Dash you right in the face?" Sorun asked. Not-Antoine remained silent. "That sucks, man. Though..."

The tip of his index finger, and the black claw jutting out of its tip, drifted over to the empty eye socket. Not-Antoine began squirming again, more fiercely this time, when the tip slowly pushed into the eye socket. "Antoine's a sweet guy, you know? One of my best friends here. And you almost ruined his life. Killed his dad." He could feel warm flesh pulse around his finger as he slowly lowered it into the empty socket. Heard not-Antoine softly whimper below him. "Ya think I could reach all the way to the hole in the back of your eye socket where the ocular nerves of your eye are supposed to feed through to your brain? Think I could scrape away at your cerebellum from here? Or maybe..."

Suddenly, he stopped. His finger exited the eye hole - in addition to the blood clear, viscous fluid had coated the finger, though he could see from here no damage had been done to the empty eye socket. The finger hovered to the other side of the coyote's face, who went dead still when he saw the single claw hovering over his one good eye.

"You don't really need to see, do you?" Sorun asked. The finger began lowering. "Father-murdering bastard like you doesn't seem to be putting your eyesight to good use anyways, so why should you get to keep it? Antoine's father isn't seeing anything anymore because of what you did."

"Non, n-non, don't, don't do it, please, no-" Sorun's left hand tightened around not-Antoine's throat, causing him to let out a strangles gasp. He was shaking now, his eye quivering as the claw lowered and lowered. Airy gasps continued to leave him when Sorun felt the slightest pressure in his finger from the tip of his claw making contact with the eye. The slightest push and-

"Drop him. Now."

Sorun's head picked up. He hadn't heard the door to the side of the room open. Nor had he even heard the footsteps. Curiosity got the better of him and he lifted his claw off the eye before he'd managed to pierce it, making not-Antoine sag in relief in his grasp. Sorun looked towards the speaker standing in the doorway.

Hmph. The blue jumpsuit was new but the person looked exactly like Sally, just with a slightly different haircut. And the dangerous look in her eyes he wasn't used to seeing. He'd recognized the voice but he should have guessed it was her alone from the fact she managed to make it there without Sorun hearing her. From what he'd heard her name was Alicia for some reason he didn't care for.

She was in the way, though. He didn't like that.

"Hhhhh..." Another rattling breath left Sorun, glowing green eyes blinking, as he considered the request. "Sure."

He decided to test something risky to see just how much this form and a few drops of blood got him. So he'd released not-Antoine's throat with his left hand, only to then grab his face with his clawed right hand. He twisted around and attempted to throw the coyote - to Sorun's mild surprise he actually succeeded, managed to toss not-Antoine at Alicia. It'd worked. In fact it almost worked too well, because when he hit her they both tumbled right through the door and sprawled out into the corridor beyond, going as far as to hit the wall.

Not-Antoine ended up laying against the wall. Alicia was flat on the ground, groaning and shaking her head in an attempt to recover. Sorun had rapidly stepped out of the room to approach the two, but stopped when he noticed an object laying next to Alicia: a leather whip. She'd probably dropped it after he'd thrown not-Antoine at her.

Not wasting a moment he'd scooped the whip up, stepped over Alicia's body, and then rapidly wrapped the whip around her throat. With that done he pulled it taut, constricting the Mobian's throat and lifting her head off the ground. She gagged out as a result, making wheezing gasps as she, in a panic, scratched and reached out towards the whip around her neck. She wasn't able to get up to do something about it. Sorun kept her pinned by pressing his foot on her back.

Another groan had caught Sorun's attention. Not-Antoine was starting to get up, and though his one eye was bleary and slightly unfocused, he was still looking at Sorun. Another rattling breath left him as he clenched both ends of the whip choking Alicia with his left hand. His right, clawed hand flicked forwards, grabbing not-Antoine by the throat and slamming his head into the wall. He pulled him back and slammed him again, and this time it'd been hard enough that some of the dark stones comprising the wall were dislodged and fell to the ground. In that same instant he was limp, falling unconscious, at which point Sorun let him go. He fell limply onto the ground.

Below him the gasping struggles performed by Alicia were growing weaker. Her arms were quickly losing steam and beginning to sag, and the wheezing was growing quieter. When he leaned forwards to look at her face he could see her eyes were half-lidded, like she was on the verge of growing unconscious. A few seconds after that observation she did go unconscious, eyes closing and arms going completely limp. He waited a few seconds to ensure she wasn't faking it, and then released the whip, ceasing the strangulation and letting Alicia's face flop against the stone ground.

He waited a few more seconds, just in case. She wasn't getting up.

"I just wanted to give a fucking pizza to my friends." Hissing out hatefully, he kicked out at Alicia's side hard enough that her unconscious body rolled over onto her back. "Fuck... fucking... alright playing prisoner ain't an option anymore, so, so what, what do I do, the hell do I go-?"

Footsteps. Approaching from behind Sorun, around a corner. He whirled towards it, cursing and glancing around at the same time. He internally cursed again when he realized there wasn't a hiding spot: it was just a narrow, stone corridor. It was either hide in the room or...

Humming, he glanced up at the ceiling. And then Sorun looked down at his right hand, tipped with black claws. He flexed the fingers in consideration. This wasn't a normal thing he could do, but as he was right now, with these few white hairs, he might be able to with the strength he had at the moment.

He decided in a split second to commit to the idea and just hide in the room if it didn't work out. So with that thought he jumped. High enough that he managed to reach the ceiling to the corridor, after which he dug his claws in through the stone ceiling. To his surprise it worked - he'd anchored himself and managed to stay suspended. He couldn't hold in the bemused huff that left him as he pulled himself higher to get as far off the ground as possible. Just in time, too, because the one making those footstep noises had finally rounded the corner.

Sorun couldn't help the surprised smile that slowly spread over his face. It was Miles.

The initial expression that had been on the little fox's face when he rounded that corner was alarm, maybe a bit of concern. Alerted from all the sounds of struggling, most likely, just happened to be around and had come to investigate the noise. But then he saw the two bodies lying in the corridor, and that alarmed look fell away to panic when he rushed over to the two of them. From his perch Sorun had noted, oddly, that after Miles stopped to look at the two bodies he looked towards the empty room with the door broken off, and saw it was empty.

And now he looked concern. Not at his two "friends", though Sorun didn't even think that term was applicable because he wasn't even looking at not-Antoine and Alicia anymore. No, his sole focus was on that empty room that Sorun wasn't in right now. Because he was hanging off the ceiling right above Miles. It somehow set Sorun opinion of him even lower, but at the moment something like that wasn't much of a concern to him.

He let go of the ceiling, dropping right behind Miles. He'd heard, obviously, from the way he went stiff and his ears went straight up. A chilling breath left him as he reached out towards the fox shoulder with his right hand. He grabbed it, gently, squeezing down with just the barest amount of pressure, enough to let him know he was there. Miles didn't so much as move.

"Hello... friend."

Roughly, he spun Miles around so they could look at each other face-to-face. He became startled at the sight of Sorun: from the glowing green eyes and the wide smile to the front teeth stained red from the blood dripping down his nose and onto his face. It must have been quite the sight, Sorun imagined, but for him the face Miles was making was an even better one. Wide eyes, the concerned, almost squeamish look. There was absolutely no aggressiveness in that look; he could almost feel it, weirdly enough. No fight whatsoever in that face. Maybe it was because he was focusing on the two bodies behind Sorun, or maybe he was a coward at heart, but there wasn't a single inkling of violence in the young Mobian in front of him. He was just scared.

For some reason Sorun found it funny.

"Y-you... you escaped," Miles stuttered out, stating the very obvious. He didn't even so much as take a step back, just remained rooted in the spot.

"Hhhhh..." Slightly, Sorun tilted his head as he looked at him. He couldn't very well leave, not now that he'd seen him. He'd alert others and they'd start looking. If he alerted Scourge... well, then that was the end. But oh, after what he'd did, Sorun wondered just how far he could take this...

"Well, it seems... it seems we underestimated you, somewhat. Ahem." Now Miles had taken a single step back, eyes darting around nervously while Sorun stared on. "See-seeing the, er, state, as it were, of my compatriots it would seem engaging you is unwise, so I would like to negotiate-"

Before he could take another step back Sorun reached out with his left hand to softly grab Miles' shoulder again. He made a small "Eep!" sound of surprise and froze completely, breathing coming out heavily as he gazed at Sorun with dread-filled eyes.

"Negotiation? That's a lotta syllables, Miles. The situation at hand doesn't need a fancy word like that," Sorun said to him, making the fox gulp. "It's a simpler than you think."

"I-if this is about the kidnapping then I can assure you-"

"Sh-sh-sh, Miles, hey." Sorun leaned in closer, making Miles tilt his head back. "Listen. You're a smart cookie. Ya know how this goes."

There was a change in Miles' expression. Some of the fear ebbed away, and his gaze against Sorun hardened. It was a radical enough shift that Sorun's own smile had dimmed down from the unexpected sight.

"You can cease the bluster, Sorun. We both know a threat like that is meaningless."

And now the smile was wiped completely off Sorun's face, replaced by a perplexed look. "That so?" he asked, wondering just where the hell he was going with this.

"Please. Look at those two." Miles' eyes darted beyond Sorun, to the two fallen bodies behind him. "Rendered unconscious with the barest injuries. I only needed a second's glance at them to confirm you employed only mild force to incapacitate them." The eyes rounded back at Sorun. He was actually starting to look smug now. "And come now, we both know you were a Freedom Fighter. And we both know their type. They're not the type to employ any more force than required. I should know. My inferior other operates with that lot." He actually had the audacity to take a step forwards, expression growing more confidence as the shakiness left his voice. Sorun continued to stare, stunned. "If you were with them you must meet the same standards. You're from that zone, after all, so I shouldn't even be that surprised. So we both know threats of violence are just that: threats with no foundation to stand upon. Especially on one as young as me.

"So, in lieu of all that, I surrender." He even went as far as to raise his hands up, confidence practically oozing off of him at this point. In fact, Miles' face was almost smug-like, and he'd continued in a dry voice, "After all it would seem you have me completely cornered. It's only right I give up so we may discuss terms."

He thought that since Sorun was a Freedom Fighter in the past he wouldn't hurt a defenseless person. It took a second for it to register with Sorun, and when it did he couldn't believe it. He didn't even seem to realize Sorun wasn't even from the Prime Zone, as if that actually mattered. The evil double from the evil mirror world was assuming Sorun was from the world where he perceived everyone being a good double and that Sorun was among them. That he wasn't the kind of person that would hurt a helpless child. Because that was probably something they did here.

That was laughable. Sorun had seen Mobians just as bad as the ones here in Mobius Prime. The kindness he'd grown accustomed to wasn't ubiquitous across the whole species over there. It made him wonder if things were the same here and if there were good seeds spread along the planet. Maybe they weren't, and that's why the not-Tails standing in front of him seemed so sure, so confident, in his assertions. That Sorun had been a Freedom Fighter. The Freedom Fighters were their opposites and therefore naïve, merciful fools. He'd been one so he must also be the same. The logic was there.

"... That's a wild theory you got there, Miles," Sorun admitted to him. "You must really hate your prime variant, huh? To have that low an opinion of him? Of everyone there?"

The confident grin Miles held turned downwards. "Of course I do. You can't understand the depths of humility I suffer sharing a name and face with that dimwitted hack," he almost snarled out. "Intelligence near-equal to mine, and what does he do with it? Fiddle with planes and gadgets all day long instead of doing something meaningful with his gifts. He's a disgrace that squanders everything people like us deserve."

"People that are smarter than everyone else in the room?"

"Of course, Sorun." Miles rolled his eyes. "I didn't aid in conquering this world on a whim. It was a feat worthy of someone of my stature, of my intelligence! Because unlike my cretinous double I actually know what what my value is!"

Maybe Sorun had been overthinking all of this. Maybe he really didn't need to look past the concept of "cartoonishly evil double from another world". Because after talking with not-Antoine and not-Tails and seeing Scourge that's what it looked like it amounted to. Just a world of bad people with twisted logic Sorun could barely follow. Barely. The sad part was he almost understood these people more than their doubles he was friends with because, after all this time, he still found difficulty in comprehending how people could be so kind. What these people were displaying, the greed and megalomania, that Sorun could follow easy enough.

Too bad for Miles, though, because he was wrong about one thing.

"I wanna pose a question to you, Miles, and I want you to think really hard on this one," Sorun began. Miles' expression was slowly slipping into a cautious one after he began speaking. "Do you think it's weird there isn't a Sorun in this world? What do you think that means?" He leaned closer to Miles, who flinched back. "I'll tell you. I'm not from the Prime Zone."

Before anything else could be said, before Miles' face could even shift back into a panicked one, Sorun's balled fist flew out and nailed him right in the stomach. Miles wheezed out as all the breath left him, his body folding over Sorun's fist as he leaned forwards.

"You shouldn't make such assumptions," Sorun whispered into his ear as the fox struggled to breath. "Now, fact of the matter is you kidnapped me. I've some grievances to air."

His fist pulled away from the winded fox's stomach, only to then punch him square in the face so hard he flew into the room. He landed on the ground flat on his stomach with a pained cry, facing away from the doorway Sorun had just punched him threw. Panicked, wheezing sounds were leaving him as he tried breathing again, and at the same time he tried crawling away.

He didn't get far. Sorun's foot impacted the small of his back, halting him in place and making Miles scream out just as he managed to get a new breath in.

"From where I'm from there were people that got off on the idea of torturing kids. I'm not one of them, but you really pissed me off with what you pulled." He removed his foot from Miles' back and knelt down on a single knee. His clawed hand burst forwards, each finger digging into Miles' right shoulder all the way up to the second knuckle. Miles screamed again, a high-pitched, frightened shriek as he clawed desperately at the floor in a vain attempt at getting away. "I would have been home free if you hadn't opened your fucking mouth in front of Scourge and gave me away."

There was a sudden pressure Sorun felt at his waist. He looked down, giving an unimpressed look at the pair of tails that had wrapped around him in an attempt to throw him off. His left hand roughly gripped the tails' bases and squeezed down, hard enough that Miles made an anguished noise. "I'll tear these off if you try that shit again, Miles." Predictably, the tails went slack and unwrapped themselves.

Through it all, Sorun found that the smile from earlier wasn't returning. In fact, he was wholly frowning. This, what he was doing. Almost no satisfaction from any of it. Not like with not-Antoine, against that table. Not when he was choking Alicia out. Oh, there was some down there that Sorun recognized, but just barely. And it wasn't just due to the fact it was being muted from the sheer rage he felt just being in Miles' presence. The thing squirming beneath him and crying out in pain from the fingers digging into the shoulder, he was young. Weak. Not in brainpower, certainly not, but in physical ability he just wasn't mature. To say nothing of how easy he'd given up without even a fight. Something Sorun, begrudgingly, could respect having been in similar situations, but even so...

Still. The anger was still there and wasn't being erased, and what he was doing right now was relieving that somewhat. And he had questions that needed answering besides. The questions alone were the only reason it was even still carrying on at this point, because otherwise Sorun would have just ended it already.

"Okay, Miles, let's talk a bit." He pulled back on the shoulder he was digging into. More strangled gasps of pain from Miles as his torso was bent upwards, hands clawing desperately at the air for something. Sorun used his left hand to firmly hold Miles' left shoulder to keep him in place while his right hand tore the fingers out from his right shoulder, eliciting another cry. Crimson fluid began dripping down and staining his red jacket from the wounds as Sorun continued. "I just need to know- I can't take you seriously with this."

It was that damn hairpiece on top of his head. That gray toupee that clashed with the yellow and white fur. Sorun didn't know why, but it annoyed him, so he reached forwards with the clawed hand to tear it off.

... It wasn't coming off, Sorun discovered with a slightly startled expression. It was actually his hair, rooted to his scalp. He'd actually styled his hair and dyed it this way.

"Fuck off, I can't believe it." A disbelieving scoff left him as he shook his head. "Alright, whatever, forget about that. Now..." Ignoring the whimpering sounds coming out of Miles Sorun gently wrapped his clawed fingers around his throat. "Just tell me what I need to know and this doesn't have to get any worse."

"I-I'll, I'll tell you anything, anything you want, just, just stop, it hurts please stop I'll tell you anything-!"

"Sh-sh-sh-sh, hey, none of that. C'mon." The black claws gently scraped along the surface of his throat. Some kind of noise, an alarmed, frightened-sounding thing, left Miles as he made a jerky nod. "Okay, see? Need answers, not whining. So... I already figured out I'm in your world. Moebius. This place, what, it's your base of operations?"

Another jerky nod from Miles. "It's our, ye-yes, it's, it's where we live and conduct our business. The-the castle, it's-"

"Castle, got it, moving on." Miles' mouth had shut so fast when Sorun spoke again he heard his teeth clack together. "How'd you get to Mobius? I've got experience with zone travel, and it ain't easy, I'll tell you that for free. And I figure the why of it is Scourge trying to feed whatever mania is driving him, but I need a how here, Miles."

"The devices, we'd... it hurts, please..." Sorun squeezed on his throat slightly. "A-a pair of devices, the Globe Posts, we stole and repurposed them to cross the dimensional barriers! It's how we infiltrated their HQ!" The hand grabbing his throat fell away some, though still hovered near. Miles seemed to take Sorun's silence as a sign to continue, but then he said, "But if y-you're thinking of using them to go back then that's irrelevant!"

"Irrelevant, hrm?"

"Yes, yes I mean it!" Miles screamed out when the clawed fingers went back to his throat. "The Freedom Fighters, they used a pair of their own posts to come here! I... Alicia and I helped them get here!"

The claws around Miles' throat pressed down every so slightly, the tips making pinpricks in his neck. The yellow fur around the points was slowly turning red. "I don't believe you," Sorun said. Helped the Freedom Fighters breach their own castle? Sounded as far-fetched as it got for him.

"It's true, it's true!" Miles shouted out - about as well as he could with the hand on his neck. "You don't know what it's like being an underling to that deranged psychopath Scourge, and he has so much power we could never do anything! We took a chance! The Freedom Fighters agreed to leave us all alone as long as they get Scourge and we stay in Moebius! It was his idea to invade in the first place, not ours!"

It being Scourge's call to invade Mobius tracked with what Fiona said. None of the rest of Miles' words did, because it honestly did sound made-up to Sorun. Convenient. Even if the timing worked out, between the invasion and Sorun being captured to Miles here finding a chance to reach out to the Freedom Fighters. He didn't buy it, and besides that he just didn't trust an evil version of Tails.

"Liar."

"I'm not!" It felt like Miles wanted to shake his head, but it seemed the claws in his neck impeded him. "I only brought your attention to Scourge so we'd have collateral to get the Freedom Fighters to be more amenable to a deal! That's all this was, Sorun! I'm telling the truth! We were going to give you back unharmed once Scourge was defeated!"

"Fiona never mentioned this."

"She wasn't part of the deal, she isn't one of us- OW, PLEASE!" he squealed out when the claws deepened.

"You're missing that all-important vital ingredient called proof, Miles," Sorun whispered, hissing directly into his ear. "That or trust. And if you think I'm gonna trust a literal evil genius then you're acting your age for being so naïve."

"It's... it's the truth, Sorun, I-I swear it is." By now Miles' voice was little more than quiet whines. Tears were streaming down the side of his face, staining his fur. "Ple- I wouldn't lie, not on this, there's no reason, please..."

"Liar, liar."

The room shook. By that, Sorun realized it was the entire castle that shook. There was sound, too, muffled thuds from what sounded like above him, a few floors up, maybe. A few more thuds after, though no castle shaking this time. Rapid in succession, a familiar cadence that Sorun recognized... the sound of somebody rolled into a ball and smashing their body into something rapidly. Even from all the way down here he recognized that sound, even the extremely faint vibrations that reached all the way down here.

Either Sonic was here or Scourge was fighting something. Both situations, possibly. Worst case was even if it wasn't the Freedom Fighters there was someone attacking, and maybe Sorun could slip out in the confusion. It was an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss.

But that meant he had to leave now. And regardless to the veracity of his claims, he was done with Miles.

"Okay." The pressure behind his claws slowly began to increase as Sorun pressed his fingers down on Miles' neck. "Bye."

"W-wait! Wait wait wait, no!" The fox was grabbed at Sorun's wrist now, trying to pull him away, but it wasn't any use. The whining sounds he'd been making became weak and feverish, his eyes screwed shut from the pain. The tears were still flowing out of him. "Don't, don't please I'm begging you, don't kill me please I told you everything don't..."

Sorun ignored him. The pressure increased more and the claws dug slightly deeper into his neck, ever closer to the major veins and arteries. Miles was making full-on crying noises now, weakly beating at the arm while continuing to blubber incoherent pleas. They were continually ignored.

"Hey, maybe dial it the fuck back and chill out?"

Sorun looked away from Miles. He saw himself, crouching a bit away. Blue eyes and normal hand, all black hair. He looked about as mad as Sorun himself felt.

"Why? After everything he did?" Sorun thought back to Sorun, clawed hand refusing to leave Miles' throat. "You can't seriously think I'm gonna let everything he's done slide."

"You really think Nicole'll ever look at us the same way if she finds out you killed a kid? Or anyone else for that matter?"

"..." His mirror image had a really solid point. He didn't want to admit it but he did. And more than that Sorun doubted he would even get any satisfaction out of it, because what he was currently doing sure wasn't giving him any.

"Just incapacitate him, man. It ain't worth it."

It certainly wasn't. He didn't want consequences like this following him back to his day life. So, with that in mind, Sorun made a small smile at the back of Miles' head. "Just kidding...~" he said in a playful voice, releasing Miles' neck and causing him to sniffle out a small sigh of relief. Which was immediately followed by Sorun grabbing the back of his head and slamming his face down so hard into the ground the stone flooring cracked.

The other Sorun stared. He stared down at Miles' now-prone form, and then stared at Sorun, expression blank and stony. When he spoke, he sounded more annoyed than anything. "Okay, when I said incapacitate him, I didn't mean give him a concussion."

"I didn't give him a concussion," Sorun argued at himself, sounding offended. "Look, see," he continued, reaching down to peel one of Miles' eyelids open, "Mobians are freakishly tough, there's no way that- ooh."

Ah. No, yep. He could already see the fox's eye was dilated and unfocused. He made a low, pained moaning sound, twitching on the ground but otherwise not reacting all that much to Sorun holding his eye open. He was very likely concussed.

"'Ooh, I didn't give him a concussion', what did you actually think would happen?" Sorun said to himself as he released the eyelid and stood up. "Look, it's fine, kids have a crazy high amount of neuroplasticity, they walk off concussions all the time. Plus he has brains to spare anyway. You're being serious right now? What do you want me to do, un-concuss him? Agh, fine, just... let's just go, I wanna leave this place."

Of course he was sick of this place. Who wouldn't? Even another second in this dungeon would be too long, so he turned to leave. One step out Sorun paused, looking behind him and sending, while not a look of concern, at least one that was the slightest bit thoughtful when he looked down at Miles. "Um... try not to fall asleep. Might not wake up, Miles," he said, though with how he was squirming on the ground and muttering quietly like that he wasn't even sure he heard him.

Sorun decided that the warning was sufficient and finally did leave the room... only to find himself standing right across from not-Antoine's unconscious body. The earlier anger flared up in Sorun again, and he found his eyes being drawn to not-Antoine's right hand, currently laying on the ground.

"I don't know if you're like this because of the circumstances you grew up in or if this world really is so fucked that people here are just born evil. Don't really care." He crouched down and grabbed the hand's wrist with his left hand while grabbing not-Antoine's index finger with the right clawed hand. "You killed my friend's dad so you never get to hold a sword with this hand again."

With a sharp jerk the finger was torn off. There was a wet pop! sound, followed by the sound of some blood splashing on the stone floor. Apparently not-Antoine was so out of it he didn't even react, though Sorun didn't care regardless as he let the wrist he was holding slip out of his grip so the hand flopped back down on the ground. Then he looked down at what he was holding.

It was a furry finger resting in the palm of his hand. Wasn't much to say about it. There was still a bit of blood dribbling out of the end and dripping off the side of Sorun's hand. His first reaction was to just throw it away in disgust, but then... but then he noticed the few hairs on his head that had turned white, though by now they were rapidly darkening to the point they'd go back to black in a second or two. And then he looked back down at the finger with a contemplative look.

"... I really shouldn't, but..." Blood was power, apparently. Mobian blood, at least. They were probably so chock-full of Chaos energy he could actually get something out of them. And if just a few drops got him this much, let him manhandle Mobians like they were nothing... "I mean on the one hand it's super fucked up to eat something that used to be part of a person. On the other hand I really don't care about that guy. Plus... well, it's not technically cannibalism since I'm not a Mobian..."

Looking a bit squeamish, Sorun glanced back at not-Antoine. And then he looked back at the finger.

"I might need it is the thing," he rationalized to himself. "Ah, but... if the others see me carrying around a severed finger they'd freak out. This is super gross though... but if I have to fight someone again..."

...

With a disgusted grimace on his face, Sorun tossed the finger away. "I'm not fucking eating people," he mumbled to himself, shaking his head. He would cross a lot of lines for a lot of things. Had crossed some lines. This particular one was... one that didn't set well with him. The mental image of somebody eating a piece of him, or even worse one of his friends, nearly sent him recoiling and suddenly Sorun was glad for having tossed the finger away. Wasn't worth the risk of his friends finding out and thinking differently of him anyways.

"You're absolutely sure?" Sorun mumbled to himself, staring after the finger while resting a hand on his head. "Yeah, yeah, we'll... we'll figure something out if anything goes wrong. Alright. Alright, yeah. Let's go. Yeah."

The castle was a big place. That one fact was very evident as Sorun found himself wandering the place, searching for the source of the fighting he'd heard earlier. He'd found some steps that carried him up and kept traversing floors until he'd found windows indicating he was on the ground floor, and from there he'd kept going. Once he'd gotten to that main floor the evidence of distant fighting became much more apparent. Far-off, barely-perceptible rumbles and the occasional shouting. The words themselves were indistinct due to distance, but to Sorun's ears the voices were familiar.

"Alright, so... so maybe Miles was telling more truth that I thought 'cause, 'cause it sounds like the others are... they're somewhere there..." Somewhere ahead, past this dark corridor of stone that looked like all the rest in this damn castle. All the Freedom Fighters' voices, somewhere ahead. He was pretty sure he even made out Silver's voice somewhere in that mess. It was uplifting to Sorun, hearing all that, knowing they'd come for him.

But the appreciation was falling short because, at the moment, Sorun was barely moving on his feet. The green glow had long ceased, returning his eyes and hand to normal. With it had gone that unnatural strength from before, that vigor, the dulling of that nausea from earlier. It was back in full force now; worse, actually. A constant throb of weakness and sickness that continued to assault his senses. It wasn't enough to debilitate him but it was hard not focusing on it all the same and was doing its best to slow him down.

His nose hadn't stopped bleeding, either, so that probably wasn't a good sign.

"I-I just, I... I gotta... it's just a bit further..." He stumbled forwards a few more steps, lightly panting while staring ahead at the source of the noises. Past this hallway, around a few more bends. They were all there. "You, you don't have to fight, okay? It's fine, they're here. Just go a bit further and-"

Nope, it wasn't happening. He'd gasped out loudly and collapsed on the nearest wall, breathing out loudly in exhaustion as he stared forwards. An awful sensation hit him, forcing Sorun to cover his mouth as he coughed out violently enough to make his vision swim and ears ring. After the attack ended he took out a shaky breath and settled back against the wall, looking down at his hand. It was drenched in more blood than it had been before. "Goddamn it..."

The hand flopped uselessly to his side as Sorun's head rolled back in the direction of the hallway. There were still sounds of fighting down there. Fighting Scourge, probably, if he was in this castle. Which was likely seeing as this was his home. And in his state Sorun would be less than useless in that kind of fight. "Ah, screw it, I'm sitting the fight out. They can sort it all out and get me later," he decided.

That was fine. It worked out. They always pulled wins out, and if Silver was there helping it was basically a guaranteed victory. It was what the hopeful part of Sorun's mind was reassuring him. So as far as he was concerned he was good as rescued. They'd beat him and then come to save him. Come to save him and see him in this week and bloodied state despite not having actually been hurt.

He made a lamentable sigh as he stared down at his bloodied hand. "They're gonna be so pissed I hid this from them... oh man. Nicole will probably go ballistic. Might even kick me off onto the couch. Can she even do that, it's my bed."

Bzzt

An exhausted sigh left him. "What is it now?" He internally groaned out as he looked to the side, down to where he heard that buzzing sound. On the floor, there. There were a few green electrical sparks crackling along the ground. Sorun found it considerably strange considering it was a stone ground and he doubted there was electrical wiring there.

Actually, that one specific spot on the floor was starting to glow green, and the amount of electrical sparks was starting to increase, much to Sorun's tired chagrin. And a spot in the middle of the phenomenon that had something really concerning to Sorun, and almost familiar. A small section of the stone, a pinprick of space, where, instead of stone, it was a green, bottomless, ever-flowing surface. A portal. It looked like an incredibly small portal that was forming on the floor right next to him.

And then, just as Sorun had noticed it, the pinprick near-instantaneously expanded into a large circular portal that was about the size of a portal he would make. He hadn't expected that. Nor the two bodies that tumbled out of it so hard they crashed against the ceiling.

"What even...?" Momentarily stunned from this new and wholly unexpected development, Sorun found his eyes trained up towards the ceiling, almost against his will he'd been so drawn to it. The crash from earlier had kicked up a fair amount of dust from the impact point, but enough of it had cleared that Sorun was able to recognize one of the figures up there. It was pretty much just Sonic but without a mouth and made of metal. He'd seen it once before. "What the- I don't- wh- how-?"

As Sorun's mind feverishly raced to try and understand what was happening in front of him, and doing a fairly poor job of doing it, the robot tossed down the second person that'd flown through the portal with it, said person slamming their back onto the ground right in front of Sorun. He also recognized this person at a single glance of the black fur and red stripes.

Red eyes opened up on Shadow's face and glared up at the robot floating up near the ceiling, a snarl permeating his face. And then he looked slightly to the left and saw Sorun staring down at him with a wide-eyed, confused expression. The snarl disappeared entirely, replaced by a shocked, equally confused look he was now sharing with Sorun as they stared at each other. Seconds of time passed, Sorun standing there and Shadow lying there, both completely motionless and both desperately trying to process the sight their eyes beheld.

Of course they were so distracted by the sight of the other that neither of them noticed it when Metal Sonic smashed into the wall right besides Sorun. The human himself hadn't been harmed, though he'd still been surprised enough that he'd reflexively jumped away from the wall, hitting the ground in front of him and rolling a bit. He managed to stop and prop himself up on his knees just before he'd accidentally rolled into the still-opened green portal, making Sorun breath a sigh of relief when he saw the open green hole just inches away from him.

He then fell in when Shadow's body was thrown against him, causing the both of them to tumble through the portal.

Lots of colors as Sorun fell through the portal. Mostly green at first, and a bunch of formless shapes that were all indiscernible because he was falling head over heels and couldn't get his bearing on a single thing. Then a lot of blue. Still incomprehensible from the falling, as well as thoughts such as, "What is- wait- what is this-!" and "Oh god oh god oh god what the hell what the hell what the hell" going through his mind. There simply wasn't room to think beyond recognizing he was falling, and everything was green, and now everything was blue.

His body finally hit something - he was no longer falling. There'd been a brief moment of panic before Sorun realized it'd been a soft landing. Familiar sensations hit him: the lack of being able to breath for one, the sensation of a cool substance covering his body another. The slight sting in his eyes, the taste of salt in his mouth, the heavy sensation he felt when trying to move his limbs. Opening his eyes revealed a blurred, blue sight. Upwards was brightness. Downwards was as infinite black he immediately looked away from.

Underwater. He'd fallen through the portal into landed in water. The ocean, it tasted like.

A muffled sound managed to reach Sorun through the water, and at the same time he saw the surface of the water be disturbed as something fell through it. Even with his vision blurred he could immediately tell it was Shadow's body. Motionless and unmoving. Some worry flared through Sorun, though he managed to push it to the side as he stared back up at the surface.

The robot was there, image wavy and blurred from the ocean water, but Sorun could make him out. Floating above the surface of the water via the jet engine that comprised its torso. It quickly jittered - its left arm spasmed as a small explosion blasted out its shoulder, and even from below the water Sorun saw a fair amount of sparks fly out from the explosion. He could also make out the robot's piercing, red gaze, seemingly staring at Sorun from its own position. Whether it actually did manage to see Sorun or not, he couldn't tell. When its shoulder sparked again Metal looked towards it, and then seemed to come to some conclusion as it turned around and flew off... somewhere. It moved so fast Sorun wasn't even sure what direction it'd moved in. Didn't matter. It was gone.

Usually the sight of the killer super robot leaving should have been an anxiety-relieving sight to Sorun. It wasn't in this case, oddly enough, as the most immediate problem of the ocean and trying to figure out what the hell just happened was still there for him. And his lungs were starting to burn besides the fact, though before Sorun endeavored to swim up to the surface he noticed Shadow's body drift past him, falling downwards. He still wasn't moving.

A green light illuminated the water around Sorun's face as he dived down with surprising ease to grab at the hedgehog's wrist. In this endeavor he succeeded, after which he swam up to the surface. No sooner had he breached the surface of the water than he was, once more, heaving large gasps of air to rapidly relieve the burning sensation of suffocating. He tried pulling Shadow up, holding his head above the water in the hopes he'd gained some lucidity, but it seemed he was completely out cold because his head kept lolling to the side and he wouldn't open his eyes. Worse than that was Sorun found himself momentarily sinking back below the water before forcing himself to swim back up, making him continuously gasp out and breath heavily as he looked around.

There was nothing. In broad daylight with barely any clouds in the sky Sorun didn't see anything from his position but endless, blue ocean. The only plus side was that the surface was calm and there were barely any waves, but that barely helped with- "Wait, there!"

He'd seen it when he swiveled around in the water. A small island yonder way. He wasn't able to see any details beyond that - it was land, and as soon as the concept of island land registered with Sorun he immediately began swimming towards it. About as well as he could while dragging Shadow in tow.

It was swift progress, at least, swimming to the island. Much more swift than Sorun reasoned he could move, though at this point it didn't surprise him. The aching exhaustion that was rapidly beginning to assault him was equally unsurprising, but he pressed on regardless. The weight he was carrying along with him was a good reminder of why he needed to get to that land. The water continually splashing him in the face and threatening to drown him was an equally well reminder. So he ignored the aches his entire body felt as he pushed on towards the island. He took a bit of solace in that the blood had been washed off and it felt like his nose had at least stopped bleeding.

Eventually, after however many of those torturous minutes he spent swimming, he made it. Washing up on the shore of the island, gasping and panting while on all fours, slowly crawling forwards while dragging Shadow besides him. The green glow was starting to fade from his eyes, and along with it the added strength, though once he'd managed to reach a dry patch of sand that the tide didn't reach he'd uttered one last, pained, exhausted shout as he threw Shadow on the sand in front of him. He'd managed to throw him a grand total of two inches away.

Good enough, Sorun had thought to himself as he rolled over on his back to face up at the sky. Once another wave of ringing ears and blurred vision came and went the only sounds left that reached his ears were the waves slowly rolling over the nearby shore and his own labored breathing, and while he was struggling to get it under control, with minimal success, it wasn't fixing the exhaustion wracking his body. Or his desire to throw up. Or the aches in his muscles.

Goddamn, but was he tired.

"Hey. Hey, me." Sorun rolled his head a bit. He saw himself standing over in his peripheral vision. "Come over here and look at Shadow. You have our actual, physical eyes and I can't see him."

Sorun's response to himself was to groan outwards. He didn't want to, but the desire to just lay there and fall asleep was override by his worry for Shadow. So with great difficult he ignored his body's protests and tried to stand up. This failed, resulting in Sorun falling onto his knees, making him growl in frustration before resigning to just shuffle over to Shadow's side while digging a twin pair of trenches in the sand with his knees.

He arrived at the body after a few short moments, noting, rather enviously, that the hedgehog was flat on his back and sleeping. He glanced towards his face - there was a moment where Sorun's vision flashed, and suddenly Sorun's breathing seized when Shadow's face became enraged and a crown that hadn't been there previously was suddenly there. He rapidly blinked his eyes and shook his head. When he opened his eyes they were back on the beach and Shadow was still laying there, still and asleep. There was no crown.

Actually, he was very still. Much too still, much to Sorun's growing worry. His mouth wasn't moving at all. Worse, he realized when he looked down at his chest, was that it wasn't rising or falling.

"I think this might be one of those medical emergencies mom warned us about," the other Sorun noted, crouching down on the other side of Shadow's body. He looked up at Sorun. "Man, sucks that we forgot all those CPR lessons she gave us, huh?"

"God, I didn't think I'd ever need it!" Sorun shouted out in horror, going as far as to grab at his hair in panic. "What do I do!?"

"W-well, fuck, man, is he even still alive!?"

Immediately Sorun's hands when to Shadow's nearest arm. He ran his fingers along his wrist, grumbling in frustration when the golden bangle got in his way. He froze when he felt it. A pulse. "Yeah," Sorun gasped out as he let the arm drop back in the sand, "he's still alive."

"He's not breathing, though," Sorun noted when he looked back down at Shadow's chest. He poked at the white tuft of fur on his chest. Still no movement.

"Yeah-yeah-yeah, yeah he's, uh, he's drowned, I think. Yeah."

Sorun's head bobbed up and down in understanding. "That makes sense, yeah. I think we need to give him mouth-to-mouth if he has a pulse but isn't breathing."

"... I don't want to do that."

At hearing that, Sorun's head snapped up to Sorun, who gave Sorun an unbelieving look when Sorun saw Sorun giving Shadow a hesitant look. "What, why!?" he shouted.

"Nicole might get upset."

Sorun sputtered. "It's a medical emergency! I think she'll understand!" he screamed out, gesticulating wildly with his arms.

"No no no, wait, hold on." Sorun held an arm up to calm Sorun. A contemplative look crossed his features. "What if... what if I just punch the water out of him?"

"What?"

"Yeah, just, you know..." Sorun mimicked a punch for Sorun to see. "Just punch him hard enough that the pressure forces the water out of his lungs."

The look Sorun gave himself was one of profound disbelief and disappointment. "You can't do that, man."

"You don't know you can't punch water out of a drowned person."

"You're right, we don't know! We used to know but then you decided memorizing 'Warhammer 40K' lore was more important than retaining mom's CPR lessons!"

Ignoring Sorun, Sorun committed to his plan, wholly confident that it would work and prove himself wrong. A fist formed as he rose it directly above Shadow's chest.

"He's gonna fucking die because of us."

"Shut up, he's got alien bullshit, watch, it's gonna work."

It didn't work. His fist weakly slapped against the wet hedgehog's chest, after which he doubled over from the weakness permeating his body. Sorun stared on at the display, expression unchanging.

"Told you. You can't punch drown water out of people."

Sorun picked his head up, teeth bared and snarling in defiance as green light flared in his eyes. "Fucking... watch me!" he shouted out, raising his fist up once again before hammering it down on Shadow's chest.

The difference was immediately noticeable. The strength behind that one, solid strike was so intense that Shadow's chest had caved in, and his limbs had sprung out. The sand around them also jumped up from the sudden force that was carried into the ground, momentarily forming a crater around Sorun and Shadow before the sand fell back down to fill it. It seemed to do the trick, though, as immediately after Shadow's eyes shot wide open, after which he sat up and vomited out lungfulls of water out on the sand.

After voiding all of the stray water from his airways, he began breathing heavily to regain the oxygen he lost. His eyes drifted to the side, widening in surprise when he saw Sorun on his knees right besides him, watching him with wide blue eyes. Sorun then proceeded to raise both arms in victory, face unchanging from looking exhausted and half-dead, before promptly falling over on his back to lay besides Shadow.

No words were passed between the two. For entire minutes they remained where they were, Shadow sitting besides a sprawled out Sorun, both breathing heavily from exhaustion. Weakness present in both of their faces, more noticeably in Sorun's. In Sorun's case a good chunk of that exhaustion was cooling down from all the worry and panic from the whole drowning thing in addition to the fact his body felt like he'd just ran a thousand marathons at once. Shadow's breathing eventually slowed down to a somewhat normal pace, though he remained silent while patiently staring down at Sorun, seemingly waiting for his own breathing to normalize. It did, after about maybe five minutes. It was only after that that Sorun decided to speak first.

"You... you good?" Sorun mumbled out, head turning away from Shadow to look up at the sky. He winced at the sun shining at his face.

"... Fine. Thank you," came his reply. He sounded faraway, as if not believing the fact Sorun was there besides him. He couldn't imagine why; he was right there, after all. "How... how are you here?" he asked, almost in a hesitant manner.

"No, no no, that's not the question that needs to be asked." Sorun tried raising his arms up, but failed halfway and let them flop back to his sides. "What needs be asked is WHAT just happened!" he attempted to shout out. It came out more winded than he intended.

Shadow made a bitter sort of frown. "I got distracted seeing you and got blindsided as a result. It was a stupid mistake I won't be repeating-"

"Not that!"

The hedgehog stilled. "I don't understand-"

"You, the-the robot, portals, beach, ex-explai-!" Sorun cut himself off with a series of exhausted coughs, while Shadow silently watched. Once the coughing finished, Sorun continued in a weak voice, "I-I can't, just, just talk, please."

At first, nothing. When Sorun wondered why and tilted his head a bit, he saw Shadow still looking down at him. Glancing at his entire body up and down, some undiscernible expression on his face. He blinked, somehow looking equally as satisfied as he was unsatisfied, before a deep sigh left him and he looked forwards at the ocean.

"Dr. Eggman has been experimenting with technology that can be used to breach dimensional boundaries. For whatever reason he built the prototype into Metal Sonic. I'd only discovered all this after G.U.N. sent me to investigate the strange energy readings that device was outputting," he explained. "That machine wouldn't stop activating the device. I lost count of how many zones we fought in until we ended up here. What happened with Metal, by the way?"

"Dunno. You damaged it or something, I guess," Sorun said. "It didn't portal out or anything, it just flew off somewhere."

"Hm." With that short sound of affirmation, Shadow glanced down at Sorun. He didn't make a remark on it until a long amount of time passed, at which point Sorun realized he was still being stared at by him. He grew uncomfortable enough that he made the complaint vocal.

"There something the matter?"

"... You were gone." Sorun blinked in confusion at the remark. "And now you're not. What happened?"

"Ugh, man, it was this whole thing," Sorun replied in an exhausted voice, head rolling back forwards to look at the sky. "Went to an alternate future, then went to the real future, then took a multidimensional road trip, it was real fun, you would have loved it." A beat passed, after which Sorun rolled his head back to Shadow. "I'm joking when I say that it was fun; it was a genuinely awful experience."

"When did you return?"

"Like... a month and some change ago. My life was actually going real great until this happened."

A moment of silence passed before Shadow spoke again. "Nobody told me."

"I mean, I don't exactly advertise my life to other people. Kinda just keep to myself, y'know?" By now enough of Sorun's energy had returned that, with some difficulty, he managed to sit upwards so the two of them could sit side by side.

"Not that." Shadow shook his head. "Nobody told me what happened. Why you never left for home. I was under the assumption you had left until I saw you fighting Enerjak. Before I saw you disintegrating at the bottom of a cave and they had to seal you inside of that giant Emerald. And then you'd disappeared before all our eyes while inside it. I'd assumed you were gone forever until I saw you in that hallway. It's why I was so surprised."

That was fair enough, Sorun supposed. Suddenly it made complete sense to him why Shadow looked so bewildered seeing Sorun just sitting there next to him. Though he didn't see why he was bringing it up. "And...?"

"I'm just..." He made a short sigh, seemingly appearing unsure of what to say. "I would have appreciated it if somebody had kept me appraised of what was happening. I feel kept out of the loop."

"Well you're never really in a position to be in the loop to begin with." When Shadow sent him a sharp glare he elaborated with, "I'm just saying. You never visit the town."

"I have absolutely no desire to visit unless it's mission-imperative." When he saw Sorun giving him a flat look, all Shadow did was stare back towards the ocean. "I see your point."

"'I see your point,' sh'yeah," Sorun mumbled out, staring out towards the ocean with him.

Once more silence settled between the two, with the quietness only disturbed by the sound of the waves slowly and repeatedly rolling over the shore. There wasn't even the sound of gulls in the air aside, nor even the whistling sound of wind rushing past them. For a deserted island beach in the middle of nowhere it was decidedly peaceful, at least until Shadow spoke again.

"What were you doing there?" he asked. "In that place? It didn't look like anywhere on Mobius I've seen."

"Nah, it wasn't. That was Moebiussss... that sounds the same, doesn't it, it was the evil mirror world with an E in the name. The one Scourge is from. I got kidnapped."

Shadow's eyes flickered back in Sorun's direction. Aside from his stiffening the slightest amount he didn't show any outwards reaction to the answer. "Kidnapped?" The tone he used sounded like it demanded explanation.

"Yeah, that idiot kidnapped me because he thought it'd be funny to make the Freedom Fighters upset," Sorun elaborated. "I think all the others were in the process of rescuing me, but then by some miracle you and the robot ended up dragging me into your fight and now we're here. So thanks for that. I guess."

"Hmph." The answer seemed to satisfy Shadow, though not much as he still shot a disapproving look at the beach. "I wouldn't call this much of a rescue," he said.

"No chance this is some remote island on Mobius?" Sorun asked.

"Not likely," Shadow answered with a shake of his head. "For all intents and purposes we seem to be marooned in the middle of nowhere in an unknown zone somewhere in the multiverse. And without Metal Sonic anywhere in sight we're stranded. Indefinitely."

And that just happened to be the one thing Sorun feared the most. He couldn't even bother wondering how the fight with everyone between Scourge went, because it seemed he was lost somewhere in the multiverse. Once again. And without so much as a single Chaos Emerald to help him on his way home. And with how many times the world seemed to go out of its way to bury Sorun's head in the sand, all that accrued experience from the abuse dolled out on Sorun merely caused him to sigh loudly as he leaned back onto his elbows from where he was sitting.

"Man, I hate that this keeps happening to me..."

A/N- So in the original comic the reason Shadow was around at this juncture was because he was looking for the Special Zone since the Chaos Emeralds were there. As of chapter one of this story, though, that place doesn't exist after it completely collapsed due to Rubrum killing Feist, so some details had to be fudged to make this work. In broad strokes it doesn't change all that much.

And yeah, I know technically Shadow and Metal Sonic fall into comic Sonic X world before going to the Sol Zone, but I just didn't wanna deal with what was essentially filler that didn't have any bearing on the main story.