Scourge's 4-year-old daughter stumbled on his zone-link generator after his favorite leather jacket had been taken out of the washer and dryer near it, and Fiona was fortunately able to prevent her from using it in time, running in a red and black blur and stopping near her to grab her, scooping her up in her arms. " Got'cha! Nice try. What were you doing with that? " she said with a sly smile, relieved at catching her. Phoebe, who had a short brown ponytail with a small purple bow and a black shirt with a purple skirt, said sadly, " I just wanted to play with it. I see Daddy using it to see other worlds before warping away, so I wanted to look at them from here, too. I'm curious. "
Fiona explained nervously as she took it away from her, " There's some things out there you just wouldn't wanna see, " not wanting her daughter to catch a glimpse of a terrible crime happening in another world and be upset, especially if she might panic and try to stop it by herself after that. Then she realized that the screen was set to Anti-Mobius, and she questioned, " Honey, do you know what dimension this is set to? " knowing she had made enough progress learning how to read from her that she would know the screen said that.
" Daddy's world. I was just pushing the arrow-shaped buttons, and I recognized the name of it from your stories, so then I wanted to take a look at the place, " she explained, disappointed at being caught. Fiona knew she was under very strict orders from Scourge to not let her daughter find out how much people hated Scourge on his own planet, and the sheer negative impact of his conquering it. Neither of them wanted her to be horrified at the revelation and become afraid of him at best.
She scolded with her listening unhappily understanding her reasoning, " Phoebe, we want you to stay away from this thing for your own good, okay? We don't want you thinking it's fine to go warp to another world without us. For all we know, it could end up getting broken or lost and you'd never get back home, or you'd go some place dangerous and get hurt! And Anti-Mobius is the most dangerous place of all, Phoebe. Promise us you won't go there, or even look at it! We've already told you enough about it. The good Robotnik, Scourge's old gang, the underwater echidna island- "
" Yeah, that place sounds cool! I wanna see! " Phoebe interrupted excitedly. Fiona looked really nervous, and said the half-truth, " I'm sorry, it's, it kind of got devastated a while ago. I honestly don't know if it's back to the way it was before that point. You wouldn't wanna see it. E-Earthquake. "
Phoebe sighed unhappily and said, " Okay, Mommy, I'll humor you. You don't want me getting hurt or nothin'. Maybe if you tell me more stories about your times in other worlds, it'll satisfy my curiosity, " and left the room, as Fiona held back a smile proud of how she was surprisingly articulate for her age, despite picking up on Scourge's speech patterns.
She then jumped looking surprised at leaving the room just to see Scourge hiding around the corner nervously, and when she handed him the teleporter, Scourge created a portal to Anti-Mobius, and said looking really worried, " She almost found out. One press of a button, and she would've seen this. " The portal showed them an effigy of Scourge being burned by a cheering crowd of echidnas in a city, with Anti-Knuckles among them with his arms crossed resentfully. Fiona commented awkwardly, " If she had seen this, we would've had a lot of explaining to do. " There was a brief silence, and finally Scourge said, " I'll be back, " and took off with the teleporter, making her worried and say, " Please don't do anything impulsive… "
Scourge started pressing the arrow buttons looking through the dimensions with the teleporter, with panic overwhelming him as he desperately searched for the final solution to his problem. He felt like he was on a time limit, that any minute now, his daughter would find it again and discover him for the villain he was back home. He had managed to convince her that he was worthy of being admired and gotten the respect he thought he deserved, but he couldn't imagine he could convince her that he wasn't the jerk when his people were hating him enough to burn straw sculptures of him in festivals.
He didn't want to hide the zone-link teleporter in some tedious-to-find place every time he had to wash his jacket, so he was too stubborn to consider just putting it in a locked shelf, and he was too panicked to consider any other options, like giving it to Fiona to keep when his jacket was being washed. He would've gotten another leather jacket to put it in, but as he had put it, " Jackets with cool designs like THESE at the back are hard to find. "
With all of his stress and worry overwhelming him, his instincts took over and he fell back on old ways as the first and only thing on his mind was destruction, and eventually, he found a way. His portal showed him Eggman boasting to Snively about a doomsday device he had made from syphoning what was left of the Special Zone for power. It had a glass dome around it so that the buttons wouldn't be pressed by accident easily. Eggman boasted, " It's powerful enough to level an entire zone in the press of a button! " " But sire, nobody would believe you'd actually use it on your own zone, you're living in it! It'd just get you killed, and even if you survived, there'd be nothing left to rule! " Snively reasoned.
" I could threaten OTHER zones, though. This is the perfect bargaining chip to get the heroes to do whatever I want! Those softies will bend over backwards to stop me, even if I'm threatening a zone that's not even theirs. Worst case scenario, it'll be the perfect device to lure them to wherever I want, " Eggman bragged.
Suddenly, Scourge jumped on top of him shouting, " Nice try doofus! " after creating a portal to Mobius Prime, and while standing on top of his back with him collapsed to the floor, he stomped his wrist making Eggman scream in pain and took away the device, all as Snively watched in fear and confusion. He looked completely serious at first, only to smirk at holding the device, and kicked Snively into the wall at the speed of sound, injuring him, and boasted, " Thanks for the gift, moron! I won't snap your necks yet. I've got plenty of Robotniks left to go and I'm saving the best for last. "
Before anything else could happen, he gasped at seeing Sonic and Miles barge into the room through the air duct above him. In a knee-jerk reaction, he gasped and ran out of the room, and sped out of the base and city in general, being too panicked at the prospect of being returned to the No Zone to warp away as Sonic and Miles were running after him at around the same speed, taking him very seriously as a threat. Miles, with his dark-lensed glasses, would've looked especially intimidating because of them, if it weren't for his harmless-looking blue version of his old red shirt with an Acorn badge on it reminding him what had changed, and more importantly, the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog was angrily running just in front of him.
Sonic yelled out, " What are you doing with that thing, Scourge?! " disappointed in him for seeming to go back to his old plan of destroying any universe that didn't respect him. He wondered if he got fed up with the fact that some people were still afraid of and intimidated by and hated him, and gave up on taking down Robotniks because of that alone. Scourge wasn't the giving up type, though, which confused Sonic. Scourge replied angrily trying to hide that he was intimidated, " You should be thanking me, getting this thing outta his hands! Not to mention sparing him. I see ya still haven't killed him yet. Don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm not using it on this world! "
After they ran into the Great Forest where there was the stress-inducing risk of them running into a tree getting injured, Sonic questioned, " THIS world? What world, then?! " and Miles exclaimed, " Damn it, just stop and let me talk to you! " getting Scourge's attention as he remembered Miles was with him. Miles then twitched his wrist and took control of the electricity in Scourge's nerves, forcing him to trip. He gasped in abject horror at Sonic catching up to him, while not intimidated by Miles at all since the worst he did to him was give him harmless shocks and send wind at him last time.
Reacting fast, he used his zone-link teleporter to create a portal to the FN Castle Acorn's courtyard and threw the doomsday device into it. Miles cursed, " Damn it! Should've thought of that! " ashamed at being considerate enough of him to not keep his body under his control after he hit the ground. Sonic resisted the urge to scold him for cursing since he knew it hurt his feelings not being accepted for who he was, and simply questioned Scourge, " What HAPPENED to you?! Why are you doing this?! "
Sonic thought furiously, " I THOUGHT you CHANGED! " with his fists clenched and teeth gritted, and didn't let himself say it, because as Miles warned him, they were better off not letting Scourge know he was unintentionally making progress becoming less of a villain, when it would only encourage him to backpedal to be less like his rival.
Scourge got up from the ground, with Miles instinctively helping him up making him smile briefly, but he quickly returned to being on edge at seeing Sonic glaring at him like an enemy. He immediately remembered how menacing Sonic looked after he grabbed him by the collar, calling him a bully, when he always promised Miles he wasn't like that. He had felt helpless, like he was about to die, and there was nothing he could've done against him, as he was exhausted from powering down from his super form. For all he knew, Sonic would not go so easy on him next time.
He exclaimed to justify himself while looking serious with panic slipping out in his tone, " There's two zones out there that I'm better off without, Sonic! The No Zone and my Moebius! I don't want me and my family to be threatened by those zone cops on a whim! What if they try to arrest us in the middle of the night? What else am I supposed to do?! " The two of them looked stunned and Sonic asked, " Family? " in a quiet voice.
Scourge paused for a moment, regaining his composure, before saying nonchalantly calming down, " Oh, yeah, I never told you, did I? I'm a father now! My babe Fiona's at home with my kid. She's like 4 now. That's why she's not here, it's not a babysitting day. She's usually with me though, so Fi and I's lives haven't changed, our days are just as thrilling as ever! We just make sure to spend time with her when we have it free, even if that just means watching a movie on TV when she's there. "
There was a stunned silence as Sonic and Miles tried to process the idea that Scourge the Hedgehog and Fiona Fox were parents now, and they wondered if they should be worried for the kid. They would no doubt be a bad influence, Sonic could imagine Scourge would be harsh with the discipline, and Miles didn't know if they could be trusted to spend enough time with the kid when Scourge neglected him in favour of a girlfriend for most of their friendship.
Scourge replied resentfully with his arms crossed and his teleporter put away, " I figured you wouldn't be happy for me. That's why I didn't bother to tell ya. For your information, she's happy with us! We promised each other we wouldn't make the same mistakes our parents did. At least she gets to have parents who give a damn. "
Miles, wishing he could meet her and wondering if he should think of the little girl as a little sister or niece or something since Scourge was his first parental figure, asked in confusion, " B-But why'd you, be a father NOW? You, you didn't cut and run? "
Scourge replied nonchalantly, " It was an accident. Fi made sure we'd only have one kid ever after that. Besides, she's the chick I've enjoyed the most, the only one who hasn't been a real pain. I know when I struck gold! And while I could try again with another Fiona, I-I'm, too, used to the one I have, by now. I'd be stupid to give her up at this point. Only reason I'm not tying the knot is 'cause marriage is for old people. Though I consider it. " He muttered the last sentence under his breath with a curious expression. They could've sworn they saw a hint of him blushing at the end as he admitted how fond he had grown of Fiona, and even they found it a little bit sweet.
Sonic said, " Huh. Well, congrats! You beat me to it. " Scourge smiled, pleasantly surprised at what he said, and then smiled more proudly at realizing that he had actually beaten the Prime Sonic at a " competition " in some sense, even if unintentionally. Sonic asked nervously, " H-How is she, I mean, what's she like? " He never expected that his evil twin would become a father long before him, although he supposed with his Casanova reputation, he shouldn't have been so surprised.
" Pretty happy, carefree, loves her parents a lot and does what she's told. She kept the crying to a minimum as a baby, I was very lucky on that one. She's an artist, y'know that? Very creative! Like, she'll draw things in her coloring book just to add to the pictures! Like say, a butterfly on a tree. A PURPLE tree, she doesn't let society tell her what color the trees should be! She'll use whatever the hell colors she wants! She's a free spirit, just like her daddy! " Scourge answered nonchalant at first and with a great big smile by the third sentence. The two of them found it heartwarming, uplifting even, that Scourge the Hedgehog was so proud of his little girl for even the most minor of reasons.
Miles found it especially encouraging that he wasn't calling her cute, since that would've implied he only liked her for being a cute little kid and wouldn't like her nearly as much later on, something that he'd always been worried about with the way Scourge was endeared to him almost entirely for his young age. It was a relief to him that he respected his daughter as a person, and not just as an adorable little girl to ruffle the hair of. Still, the idea that she might be being raised by him to have the wrong kind of morals was very concerning to Sonic. Miles couldn't care less, though.
Miles asked him, " Don't change the subject, why do you wanna destroy the No Zone? Are the zone cops bothering you? " Scourge admitted, " No. I haven't seen head or tail of 'em since Fiona busted me out. " He then exclaimed angrily in a panicked tone, " But I don't want them trying to go after my family and I when we least suspect it! You never know when they'll find an excuse! And I'm NOT going back to prison again! I'm never going back to prison! You don't know what it was LIKE in there! You think the bozos in those cells welcomed me with open arms?! They, I, those… th-they treated me like Miles!… "
Miles looked scared, and Scourge clarified looking into the distance with shrunken horrified eyes and a bitter expression, " They made my life miserable. Only difference was they weren't allowed killin' tools, and didn't constantly call me stuff like ' mutant. ' No offense, kid. They treated me like a common punk, ganging up on me every hour of the day, and I didn't have the powers to do anything about it. It was like TORTURE over there! " He said quietly as Sonic looked horrified, " I still have nightmares of that place. " He then snapped at the concerned Sonic, " THAT'S what you did to me! " in a furious shout, and he punched him in the face.
Scourge quickly felt stress overwhelm him at the idea that he just got himself in serious trouble and risked himself getting sent back to prison from a fight with him, and Sonic noticed his shrunken pupils and unwillingness to do anything but stand there, his arms at his side, and took pity on him again. He was clearly terrified of him sending him back. Sonic thought, " What did they DO to you, Scourge? " looking sad and uncomfortable.
He wasn't comfortable with the idea that his own twin had been bullied that viciously and vindictively for months on end because of him, to the point where it was emotionally scarring for him. He remembered how he felt when that control collar was put on Scourge's neck, how even back then, he felt uncomfortable, even if mostly just from the disturbing thought that it was a collar to shock Scourge and torture him. He knew Scourge had it coming for threatening to destroy universes out of spite, but he still didn't like what the prison did to him, and how the normally proud evil twin of his was genuinely afraid just at remembering any of it, despite returning to being just as powerful as before.
So instead of attacking him, Sonic admitted sadly after a tense silence, " Okay, I'll give you that one, I'll let it slide. I brought you there, after all. I didn't want you to cause trouble, and threaten Mobius again. You can't honestly blame me for wanting to protect my planet from you! But it sucks that, it stinks that, you were ganged up on like that. I can't make myself like it. " Scourge looked sad and uncomfortably avoided eye contact, his head down looking at the ground left and right, as he tried to let it sink in that Sonic was truly sorry. He was a nice enough guy that he actually felt bad for him, even though he had to admit he had a good point in what he did.
" Thanks, " he mumbled in response feeling awkward about hitting him earlier, and Sonic cocked an eyebrow and smiled a little bit. As Shadow, in the Great Forest on a mission, started to overhear, he hid behind some bushes and trees suspiciously listening in.
Miles then reassured him, " If the zone cops haven't bothered you or Fiona and your kid by this point, it's obvious they're too scared of you to try. Remember, it's not THEM who brought you to that zone last time. Maybe you don't have to worry about them anymore. " Then he shouted in a panicked tone, " But if you pull a stunt like THIS, OF COURSE they'll consider going after you! Trying to destroy their zone is like painting a giant target on your back! It's amazing nothing's come out of it already! "
Scourge couldn't ignore the fact that his reasoning made sense, and he remembered Fiona's reasoning that they were turning a blind eye to him thanks to him taking down all those Robotniks and improving the situation of the multiverse in the process. That still left the other zone, though, and his motivation for that would require more explanation.
Scourge said to Sonic, " Well, what about Moebius? You yourself think it's a twisted insane world! " and then snapped, " And it's the world that hates me the most! The world that respects me the least! " Miles felt bad for him at what him being unhappy about that instead of relishing in it was implying, while Sonic was directly reminded of when Scourge in his super form was threatening to keep stomping on planets until he'd find one that gave him respect. It frustrated Sonic even more here since he finally did earn respect, and was still threatening one of the three planets of people that didn't like him. He was acting selfish and entitled, to say the least.
Sonic retorted, " That's no excuse to take it out on innocent people! Not everyone there deserves to be destroyed! " Miles then reminded him looking sad, " Dr. Kintobor's there! That's one of the only good Robotniks! Don't you think he should be preserved for that alone? That's not fair to him, and to a LOT of people. Past experiences aside, I know there has to be some decent people over there. I just didn't get to see them because of my, extra appendage. Even if you do destroy it, then what? What if SHE FINDS OUT?! " Scourge gasped at the final sentence, and Miles said sadly, " This isn't you, Scourge, you're not like this! At least not the you I remember. " Scourge looked worried at seeing his sad expression, and sighed before explaining slowly,
" My daughter found my zone-link generator today. And while she said she wasn't gonna GO anywhere, she wanted to look at some other worlds, and if Fiona hadn't stopped her, she would've seen my home planet. And realized just how much ' respect ' her daddy has there. I don't want my own little girl to turn on me or be afraid of me all the time, for the stuff I did over there years ago. " The last sentence was spoken with such a melancholic and serious tone that it was almost a whisper. He then continued acting irritated, " I-It'd be ANNOYING! And depressing. I can't risk that. I can't risk all my work being undone and put to waste on her 'cause she sees a bunch of people hating on me! " Sonic and Miles looked sympathetic to him, finding it tearjerking, and could finally understand his desperation.
After a brief stunned silence, Sonic said sadly, " I get it, but, destroying a whole zone?! Aren't there other ways?! Couldn't you hide your teleporter better, put a child's lock like a password system on it, get it reprogrammed so that it can't select that zone as an option? " The final suggestion made Scourge look all wide-eyed and alert from it, and he said quietly, " That might work. Rotor could do that. " He realized him talking about the Rotor from the Film Noir dimension would confuse them, and then realized as he took out his teleporter that if he used that particular Rotor, it might pose a problem; his daughter might find out what he did from him slipping up and get even more curious and worried about what her parents were trying to hide. If he used the Prime Rotor, she'd never be able to find out.
As a result, he handed it to Sonic saying, " Do that, " and then glared at him saying suspiciously, " And don't let ANYTHING happen to it, okay? I need that to get back to Fiona! " Some fear slipped out in his final sentence that they noticed, as he thought, " She'd think I abandoned her! "
He continued, " And to do everything else I wanna do. You don't wanna be stuck with me on your planet! " and said with a confident smirk, " And I doubt your Robotnik wants that, either, " reminding the two of them that Eggman's life was on the line. Miles reassured Scourge, " He's not gonna double-cross you, I promise. He's not like that. Right, Sonic? " and Sonic admitted reluctantly, " Right. Good points, Green. "
With that, he and Miles ran away with his teleporter, which made Scourge jump and tense up at just the sight as he would hate the idea of Sonic breaking it on him, or getting it lost forever, robbing him of the life he made for himself. He wondered if Sonic would do that just to spite him, and then remembered the pity Sonic showed him and couldn't ignore the fact that he was too nice of a person to do that. He smiled in relief at that, thankful for that for once, and then he realized that he wouldn't be able to go back home until after the changes would be made to his teleporter. He dreaded coming back to Fiona after making her worry that he left her, felt stupid for not warping back home briefly to warn Fiona before realizing they wouldn't let him come home to the doomsday device anyways, and decided that the next time he'd come back, it'd be with a box of chocolates and jewelry to immediately reassure her.
He muttered, " What am I gonna do now? I'm stuck here, " with his hand on his head looking worried, and feeling like he had made a mistake. Wondering where he was going to sleep and have his meals and not looking forward to the heroes glaring at and insulting him annoyingly, he found himself hoping Eggman would try to threaten him with robots just so that he'd have something exciting to do. For all he knew, beating up criminals for stress relief like normal would only run the risk of getting Sonic outraged at him.
After those few seconds of thought where Shadow slowly approached him, he ran through the woods to catch up with Sonic, not noticing that Shadow had started running after him, through the woods and grassy field and into Freedom HQ's lab, where Rotor, Sonic and Tails' girlfriend Phoebe were looking over his teleporter on a bench near the globeposts, with Rotor right in the middle of working on it. Scourge said in a panic, " Wait, lemme pop by home first! I need to tell Fiona why I'm gone! " with his hand outstretched and a sympathetic scared expression getting their attention.
Rotor replied, " Sorry, but it's being worked on right now, so it can't really take you anywhere until we're done, " pointing to the hole in the zone-link generator showing wires through it. Scourge asked impatiently looking worried, " Well, how long's it gonna take? " Rotor answered, " Just the rest of the day, it's just one thing we're changing. " Scourge was unaware of it, but Sally had already made plans to briefly visit the zone he threw the doomsday device into to retrieve and dismantle it if it wasn't already, not trusting him not to use it when he came home.
Scourge sighed in exasperation with his arms crossed, and asked, " What am I gonna do to pass the time, then? " and thought, " The blue spoilsport over here will try to stop me if I try anything he doesn't want, and while fighting him's fun, it might provoke him into doing the worst. What if he ends up getting a lucky break on me and then sends me to the No Zone with my own teleporter? Damn it, this is so uncool… "
Just then, Nicole sent a message to the lab appearing on a screen in front of them, and warned them, " Two of Eggman's Swatbot armies are coming! " Not knowing what else to do, Scourge said with a smirk, " Finally something exciting! I'll spindash them into nothin', and better than Sonic ever could! " and took off in a blur, causing Sonic to say, " We'll see! " and give chase with an amused smirk at having a rival. It wasn't long into the fight where Shadow showed up, taking down the army Sonic was fighting.
Several minutes later, the fight was over, with the three hedgehogs having only minor bruises to show from it, and Shadow was full of questions. Sonic complimented with a grin, " Great job, Scourge! " without thinking, all caught up in the aftermath of his satisfying victory. Scourge's satisfaction faded as a result, as he complained with his arms crossed, " On what? I did the exact same thing as you! Without even meaning to! "
Sonic asked, " What's wrong with that? You had fun! Isn't that all you care about in the end? " hoping he could convince him to relax. Scourge found he had a good point at the end, and it was nice to get a compliment, but still complained, " I guess, but it's boring to act too much like you. I'm a rebel! A free spirit! You wouldn't understand. You always do what people tell ya to. You've got no independence. "
Sonic told him, " I don't ALWAYS do that. There were a few times when I stood up for what I believed in and did what I wanted anyways! First off, when Eggman replaced my own zone's Robotnik, the king didn't want me going up to those satellites to confront him, even though a whole village of people had been kidnapped, but I did anyways, and saved my mom and dad in the process! " smiling in pride at the end. " So you rebelled? Cool! I didn't think you had it in ya, " Scourge replied with a grin, genuinely impressed.
Shadow stared at the sight in confusion, a little disturbed at the sight of it. He didn't like the idea that Sonic's evil twin was impressed with him, acting like a mentor proud of his student. If only he didn't have a sore throat from getting punched by a robot, he would've said something to interject, instead of only speaking when it seemed necessary.
Sonic then said, " Not to mention the Council of Acorns told me I wasn't allowed to go try to oust you and your gang from my base, but I went there anyways. " Scourge responded happily, " Really? Wow! Look at you! You might have a little backbone after all! " Sonic rolled his eyes at the backhanded compliment, appreciated that he was at least taking back his insult on him from when he took Fiona away from him, and said with an encouraging smile,
" See, being a hero doesn't mean you can't be independent! I do what my friends say 'cause they have smart ideas, like Sally. She's a good leader, so I listen to her. Sometimes I'm reluctant, but it all turns out great in the end. Come on, you can't tell me you never did the same thing with your own dudes. You worked for Robo-Robotnik once, didn't you? "
Scourge said defensively as Shadow looked at him in shock and anger, " That was a long time ago! I didn't know he'd betray me. I didn't even know roboticization existed yet when he approached me! He promised me a ton, after my old gang walked out on me and I was left with nothing. So I humoured him. I probably wouldn't have let him stick around for long after I got what I wanted. Same thing goes with some other various Robotniks, they all tried to betray me in the end! But that was the past, when I was inexperienced with the kind of asshats like him! Now I don't trust any Robotnik as far as I can throw him. "
He then admitted with downcast eyes, " You are right, though, I've done what other people told me to before. Alicia, mostly, " and smirked saying, " I just prefer to make my own decisions, and do things MY way! " Tails then ran up to them in a yellow blur and stopped, looking apprehensive. Fortunately, everything had been explained to him by Nicole along with Sally, so he didn't immediately have a million questions.
Scourge then looked annoyed and asked with his arms crossed, " Now is he gonna send any more of these robots, or am I gonna be stuck with nothin' to do? " Shadow and Sonic both looked at each other in response to that. Shadow didn't trust him in New Mobotropolis or the base, especially when he was so bored and would be itching to cause trouble because of it, but it might be better to keep him close by to keep an eye on him. Sonic asked with an awkward smile, " Wanna watch a movie with me? " " Is it an action movie? " Scourge questioned reluctantly, getting a nod in response.
" Well, if it isn't Mr. I Don't Need You! " Sleuth suddenly shouted from the bushes nearby, alerting everyone's attention to the fact that the Destructix had shown up. Scourge said dismissively, " Well I don't! You'd just be excess baggage, I can kill every Robotnik faster myself. You'd just complain about me making out and want stuff to do. Besides, you're all jerks anyways, I know none of you liked me. " None of them looked too pleased.
Predator Hawk yelled, " We busted you outta prison and that was the thanks we got! " Scourge winced for a split-second before saying resentfully shouting the first sentence, " Well maybe if you were all so quick to lose respect for me, you shoulda considered being separated from me as its own reward! Since you hate me so damn much. Now you got a whole dimension separating us normally. You're welcome! But I guess that's not enough for ya, is it? "
A few of the Destructix agreed with his reasoning, seeing not having to be around the narcissistic hedgehog as a blessing, but the rest of them continued to look annoyed at once again being ditched like nothing. He glared at Lightning Lynx, and said in annoyance, " I even took out Commanding Storm for you last year! But I bet you're still against me, aren't ya? " Lynx looked shocked.
Indeed, Scourge had; he had gone to the Prime Dragon Kingdom to find her for a fight, and when he realized who she was, his response was to say in tranquil fury, " Wait, you're Commanding Storm? " and punch her starting a fight, shouting, " This is for Lightning Lynx! " While he never cared that much about him, he still hated her for what she did, and didn't need much of an excuse to pick a fight.
However, this wasn't enough to get Lightning Lynx to side with him, as he ended up just looking depressed and feeling empty inside, and admitted to him, " I didn't really want her dead. I wanted her to be with me... " finally admitting it to himself when Scourge had gotten the revenge he thought he wanted.
Drago asked, " Where's your girlfriend? You ditch her too? " Scourge snapped at him, " NO! For your information, she's waiting for me in a castle with my daughter! That's right! I got a family already, and that's already more success in life than any of you! " The Destructix all looked surprised at learning that, and then a few of them stopped looking that way.
Sergeant Simian said, " I guess we shouldn't have been so surprised. You were always all over her, you'd never want to give THAT up. And as for the daughter thing? It was an accident, wasn't it? " He smirked mockingly at the end to demean his success, and Scourge furiously punched him in the face, exclaiming, " She's STILL worth a lot more than you! " addressing every one of the Destructix.
Then Lightning Lynx kicked Tails from behind getting their attention, and almost knocked out Tails from a hit in the head with a rock when he was lying on the ground. Sonic called out in fear, " Tails! " and the sight of a two-tailed fox kid being hurt like that again set Scourge off like nothing else. He punched L. Lynx shouting protectively, " Not this time! NEVER again! " sending him flying.
As Shadow, Sonic and Tails all wondered what exactly he meant by that, with Shadow being able to relate, a fight broke out, with Sonic, Scourge and Shadow all creating tornadoes with their super speed running around in a circle, and Tails moving his arms around to send gale force winds out like Miles had taught him. Predictably, this sent the Destructix flying and led to their defeat, as they all fell from a considerable height and fell unconscious with some broken bones in the process, getting the loss that would be expected from them all challenging a bunch of superpowered Mobians. However, Scourge soon tried to move ahead with a smirk of revenge, and Tails quickly called out, " NO, don't! "
After Scourge bounce-attacked Sleuth in the back a few times before Tails said that, he asked in annoyance, " What's it to you? They all deserve it! And didn't Sleuth betray the Freedom Fighters?! Putting 'em in prison'll just let 'em break out and keep at it, angrier than before! " cringing at mentioning prison. As Shadow remembered when he tried to kill Eggman at a pier and realized he could relate to his attitude, Sonic spindashed at him to get him to stop attacking somehow not hurting him with his spines, possibly since Scourge was safe in ball form at the time.
After the two tumbled onto the ground, Shadow, finally deciding to speak, reasoned with him, " If you want them to suffer, isn't prison the perfect way? It's humiliation! You of all people should know what a punishment that is. Killing them would be a mercy in comparison! And I don't expect mercy out of you. Right? " hoping he could manipulate him by appealing to his sadism.
Scourge stood up growling a little before admitting reluctantly, " True, " surprising everyone. After a brief stunned silence, Sonic quickly made sure to say something else to reason with him, saying sadly, " You want our help with your teleporter, you gotta behave! At least a LITTLE, okay? No wasting time bothering my city or, worst of all, killin' people. " Scourge glared at him resentfully with his fists clenched at being told what to do, thinking, " How DARE you! " and Sonic added nervously and awkwardly,
" You'll do it anyways after we're done, maybe you'll return here to finish off the Destructix years from now. You can do it anytime, AND anywhere. Doesn't need to be here and now. Can't you relax for a few hours and take a break? "
Sonic smiled with a grin and said, " I've got a great action movie at home! The Fast and the Furious! And my parents aren't home, they're busy. " Scourge relaxed at learning that and said, " So empty house? Good, less annoying judging for me. Fine. " He then thought about how with Detective Sonic, he would end up watching action movies with him in the evenings all the time no big deal, although he always had Fiona and Phoebe at his side. He missed them already.
Shadow questioned, " Wait! What did you mean by ' Never again? ' When you saved Tails! " He would've asked what kind of business the heroes had with Scourge's teleporter, but he figured he could get the answers from them later. Scourge looked awkward, as Tails looked at him in a mixture of sadness and scared curiosity, while Sonic was more interested. He sighed, not wanting to talk about it and hoping he wouldn't make it too obvious how it made him feel, and tried to put on an annoyed and irritated expression and tone to cover it up, explaining,
" It's just that some alternate versions of Miles got hurt a couple times 'cause I wasn't lookin' at 'em. A few of them got worse than hurt. Like, well, ' zapped by lightning from a female Robotnik ' worse. All 'cause I went into the damn portal a split-second too early! Fi and I do a countdown now to stop that. " His voice cracked a little from stress at the first word of his second to last sentence, his tone being more upset and trying to hide it through his angry and bitter act clenching his fists all the while. Tails looked horrified with his hands over his mouth, while Sonic, similarly upset, remembered that he saw that female Robotnik before, and she was obviously long gone because of Scourge, though since he knew that she killed an alternate version of his little buddy, he couldn't muster up much sympathy.
Then Scourge continued with difficulty acting bitter with a far-away look in his eyes, " Sonia and Manic got a Tails of their own, and he got hit in the head by a Swatbot when I wasn't lookin'! I destroyed it in a rage, along with every other robot, but the kid had to go to the hospital. He's fine now, though, but I'll never forget that. Most of the time when I see another Tails, he's fine, but every so often there's a problem, and it's frustrating as all hell when I of all people can't keep it from happening. The last time I saw one near a Robotnik, some alternate members of the Destructix grabbed him while I was busy and threw him through a goddamn window, so you can't BLAME me for getting enraged with these damn idiots! "
He looked sad briefly as he continued, " I-It's just 'cause they remind me of Miles! He's the first person who ever cared about me at all, you can't blame me when I see other kids lookin' like the same one I swore to protect. Well, I said I'd be his bodyguard, I mean. ' Swore to protect, ' sounds so cheesy, " embarrassed at the end from coming off as more honorable and heroic than he was known as. There was clear stress and fear in his tone when he mentioned the last time an alternate Tails had been killed around him, all because he wasn't fast enough.
Scourge could tell by Sonic and Tails smiling warmly at him that they found it sweet, him wanting to protect someone weaker for once to the point of feeling terrible from failing at it, and after recognizing that Sonic was clearly proud of him, he was torn between being incredibly happy and uncomfortable since it was incompatible with his bad boy image. As a result, his eyes showed awkward self-conscious worry and embarrassment, while he couldn't help but smile.
Shadow responded awkwardly looking sympathetic to him, " Actually, I can relate! A girl named Hope reminds of my old friend Maria, and seeing her life being threatened like hers was is unbearable, and makes me defend her with all of my power until she's safe. I know what it's like to want to protect someone because they remind you of someone else, who I personally failed to protect. " He looked ashamed at the end. Scourge asked after a confused silence, " Who? " not knowing who either of those people were. Then he said casually and informally, " Not to dismiss anythin' you said, at least someone knows what's it's like. "
Tails explained on Shadow's behalf who Maria and Hope were and Shadow's history with the former, and Scourge's response, after looking at him stunned from hearing about Maria's death, was, " Well, uh, THAT sucks. If she's nice, like he said. " However, he then went on to comment, " You didn't know her for as long as I knew Miles, though. I raised the kid, I spent an entire year with him with just the two of us! He spent half of his childhood with me. How can that compare to a girl ya only knew for like a minute? "
Shadow looked annoyed and Tails quickly said, " He still knew her for his entire life up to that point! It would still feel the same. " Shadow angrily pointed out, " It wasn't the real Miles that suffered those fates. He's happier than ever! Maria isn't! "
Scourge replied seriously with a lighthearted first sentence, " If she's in heaven she is! Besides, it wasn't your fault you were trapped in a pod and couldn't do anything. I could've DONE something DIFFERENT, and things would've been fine! You have no reason to blame yourself, you don't know what it's really like! I could've been faster, or paid more attention to my surroundings! You were just trapped in a pod. " Shadow was quiet looking unhappy, realizing he had a good point and appreciating that he was actually reassuring him about his own past.
Scourge continued, " All I'm sayin' is, one bad memory isn't enough to make an ' angsty past. ' Just seeing something bad happen to someone else once doesn't compare to years of bullying or six months in prison. One bad day isn't traumatizing like YEARS of abuse. Miles had it a lot worse than you did, and it shows. Don't tell anyone I told ya that. "
Shadow growled with his arms crossed, irritated at his problem being downplayed and dismissed, although he knew he was right that others had suffered worse than he had. Sonic then said quietly in annoyance walking away, " Come on, Scourge, let's go before ya really tick him off. " Scourge asked with a shrug, " What? I'm just sayin', " and followed him as they ran off together, with Tails quickly deciding to follow behind them.
When they got to Sonic's house, Miles, wanting to spend time with them, sat on the couch with them as Sonic popped the movie in and Tails got some popcorn ready. Miles stared at him looking sad as Scourge sat on the other end of the couch with his arms crossed, and felt bad for him. He knew what it was like to be disliked and not accepted by the other people around him, to be looked at by people and only remind them of the evil things he did in the past, forced or not.
Wanting to make him feel more welcome, Miles asked Sonic timidly in a whisper, " Is it okay if I, uh, sit beside him and, y'know, like with Alicia? He's all alone and not really wanted here. Just once for old time's sake? " Sonic reluctantly agreed after some hesitation, " Alright, " understanding, and Miles proceeded to put his head on Scourge's chest and lap nestling up to him ready to take a nap, with Sonic putting the blankets over him. Scourge smiled in contentment at that, putting his left arm on Miles' back, and finally began to relax, no longer caring that much that he wasn't messing with Sonic.
The blue hedgehog himself on the other hand, smiled in amusement with his arms behind his head thinking, " If I told my younger self I'd be sittin' here watchin' a movie with Scourge the Hedgehog and the Anti-Tails as a Freedom Fighter today, he'd have never believed it. "
Phoebe then walked into the house, wanting to go see Tails, and after looking surprised at seeing Scourge with Miles sleeping with his head on his chest, she sat down beside Tails and let him put his arm around her holding her close. Scourge looked over at her, the red fox barely a teenager with a purple and pink short dress and rose-tinted glasses, and smiled. Tails asked him with jealousy in his tone, " What are you looking at? " Scourge then explained a little bashfully, " Just wondering if that's what my daughter will look like in 10 years. Pheebs always loved dresses. "
Everyone looked wide-eyed and surprised at hearing the final sentence, and Phoebe said looking stunned, " Pheebs? That's short for my name! You… you named your daughter after me? " After a brief silence where she slowly started to smile, Scourge said nonchalantly, " Well, duh! Actually it was Fiona's idea. She saw a younger version of her, looking at you, so when she saw her kid for the first time, looking like a younger version of her, ' no other name came to mind! ' " Phoebe had the biggest smile on her face after that, and said feeling honoured, " Wow! That makes me SO, happy! It's like you've got a little baby me or something! That's so sweet of her! Thank you! C-Can ya thank her for me? "
Scourge replied nonchalantly with a smile, " I'll pass the message along. She thought about askin' for permission, but it would've been too awkward if some other Freedom Fighter happened to see her here, especially Sally. 'Sides, she and I are free spirits, we don't ask for permission to do what's fun. "
Everyone found it a little heartwarming, with Sonic wondering if this means he should consider Scourge's daughter to be like the Moebian equivalent to Tails' girlfriend then, born on Moebius or not, and Tails smiled nervously hoping his girlfriend wouldn't admire Scourge's entitled attitude too much. He didn't want to discourage her from it right in front of him and ruin the jovial, friendly mood between Scourge and them for once.