On the sixth day after being invited into the Film-Noir-Zone Freedom Fighters, Scourge and Fiona found a surprising zone near the Prime one after assassinating Robotniks and Snivelys. " That's weird, nothin' but echidnas, " Scourge commented, looking around it from the other side of the Warp Ring zone-link generator. When they saw Lien-Da standing on a grassy hill under a golden sky commanding some people in black cloaks, Scourge, remembering how Finitevus used to make use of those people, said with a smirk and a shrug, " Let's cause some chaos! "
He jumped into the portal kicking Lien-Da in the chest, and as Fiona went into it after him out of curiosity for what excitement came next, Scourge spindashed so that all of the Legionnaires around her were thrown down the hills and into the river below. He said standing over the scared and confused Lien-Da, " Hey, there, amateur! "
She exclaimed, " Scourge? " He was immediately confused and said, " You know my name? You're the Prime one, then! " As she got up, she said, " Of course! Have you met any other Lien-Da's out there? " When he shook his head, she asked him, " What's going on? Finitevus couldn't have sent you here, he wouldn't care enough to get all the echidnas back. " Scourge and Fiona looked surprised, and Scourge said,
" Whoa, whoa, whoa, back? Wow, Knuckles is the worst guardian EVER. You mean to say this whole pocket zone has nothing but the Prime Zone echidnas? And Knux still hasn't gotten them all back! " He joked, " Man, if I could rub it in his face that I found them all before he did… " Then he put his hand on his chin saying, " Maybe I COULD… Fi, could you imagine the look on his face if I brought these dudes back and not him?! That'd be the most hilarious thing ever! " coming up with some excuses to rationalize returning the echidnas to him as still being a villainous action.
Fiona commented in confusion, " He'd be furious, you'd probably wanna avoid his fists after that. " Then she relaxed and said, " But yeah, I guess it would be good for a laugh. " Lien-Da, who liked the idea of being brought out of the Twilight Cage to Angel Island with her army, told him, " Speaking of worst guardian ever, did you know what he did as Enerjak? " " A what? That sounds like a sports drink. " Scourge said in confusion, and Lien-Da explained, " Remember when Finitevus told you to kidnap Knuckles and then someone with a golden mask showed up with unbelievable power? "
Minutes later, Knuckles was sitting in front of the Master Emerald, bored out of his skull with his hand on his chin, when he looked apprehensive and stood up at seeing a Warp Ring appear in front of him and Scourge and Fiona go through it with amused smirks. As he stood up, he was secretly thrilled that finally something interesting was happening to him. As they had planned, they made sure the first words out of their mouths would be stuff that would make him stop in his tracks. Scourge said with a proud smile and his arms crossed, " Hey, Knux, guess who I found? " and pressed a button on his teleporter to show him his mother, stepfather and brother, standing in a crowd of echidnas looking confused and impatient that were all corralled there by a fast and intimidating Scourge. " My FAMILY! How did you, when! " Knuckles exclaimed, realizing as he was saying it that he should've expected a dimensional traveler to come across the echidnas eventually.
Then he saw Julie-Su push through the crowd, and wave at the Warp Ring with a smile. He called out her name, and said angrily, " I swear, Scourge, if you're threatening them- " " As if I'd bother with that. I mean, you're not Sonic, " Scourge replied looking disinterested. " Then why? " Knuckles questioned, as he went into the portal with Scourge and Fiona following him holding hands with each other.
Standing in front of the crowd, Scourge said excitedly as Julie-Su hugged Knuckles, " I thought it over, and not only is this a HUGE blow to your pride as a guardian since I had to do this FOR you, but bringing them back home'll do more harm than good! The Prime Zone's got Egghead and his seven sub-bosses and Ixis the ice-controlling wizard! Way more dangerous than their safe little bubble. So I'm not just being a goody-two-shoes for no reason, I'm STILL the baddest hedgehog around! And I'm not just freeing your favorite people, either. " Just as he was completing his last sentence, they saw the Dark Legionnaires that were all making up the north side of the crowd running into the Warp Ring.
Knuckles gasped and exclaimed, " The Master Emerald! " As Fiona smiled enjoying the show being held to his side with one arm, Scourge said with a laugh, " Is GIGANTIC, it'll be fine. It's not like they've got chisels. All those legionnaires? They don't got bombs in them that only Eggman can blow up no more. And they're still under Lien-Da's control. Looks like Robotnik got a new competitor! And about time, too, especially with the way bigger army. With any luck, the new Dark Legion'll take down Eggface before I will! So don't tell Sonic I'm a hero or anything! I just released the Dark Echidna Legion on the world! Though I don't really see what the problem with them is. Better than being roboticized! "
The last of the Dark Legion had ran into the Warp Ring, and the police echidnas started running into it after them in a hurry, cocking their ray guns. Scourge had instructed the crowd not to try to all go into the portal at once since it could technically only fit a few people in it at one time, which was why most of the crowd was waiting for their turn to get back home. But hearing Scourge's rant made them worry, with one of them saying, " Is this even worth it? " and another saying, " At least this place only had one threat, and that threat's leaving now! " A third one snarked, " Sure is ironic it's not the guardian who found us. We've been here HOW long? "
Julie-Su explained, " Lien-Da legionized everyone she could get her hands on – which INCLUDES brainwashing like you're being roboticized, Scourge - so her army's pretty big. By this point, half of the echidnas here, she got a hold of. That's half of our entire species. " Scourge contradicted, " For the PRIME Zone. " She put her arm around Saffron, Charmy's girlfriend, and said with a smile, " Lucky for them, we were here to prevent things from getting even worse. We even saved your mom a couple times. And the Brotherhood! " gesturing to the Brotherhood as they pushed to the front of the crowd. Sabre said with a jovial smile, " It's good to see you again, boy. Now that your family's safe, you can finally relax. Don't worry too much, the police are taking care of it, " gesturing to the Warp Ring that showed the echidna police fighting off the Legionnaires trying to take the Master Emerald.
Knuckles growled at the smirking Scourge and said angrily, " I don't know whether to thank you or punch ya! " completely confused at his actions. " Try to do both! " Scourge trolled him with a smirk, and he effortlessly Quick-Stepped out of the way of his punch as Knuckles said, " Thanks! Huh?! " and accidentally hit Constable Remington. " Oof! " he said, falling to the ground, and Fiona burst out laughing at the comical sight.
Knuckles apologized, " I'm sorry! " and helped him up feeling like even more of a failure of a guardian, and then noticed Scourge looking at Fiona with a lovestruck expression of appreciation at hearing her giggle, his eyes slightly half-closed and a harmless-looking smile. Eventually, he put his arm around her and kissed her. " Hey, lovebirds, I'm STILL here! " he said in annoyance, and Julie gave him a hug and teased cheerfully as Scourge kissed Fiona, " Aw, you're just jealous, " kissing him.
Of course, Scourge was quick to ruin the mood, as he teased, " So, my work is done. Bye, ' Enerjak! ' " and Knuckles cringed flinching at the cat being let out of the bag as Scourge ran through the Warp Ring with Fiona at his side, joining in on the chaos by attacking anyone in front of them, mainly aiming for Legionnaires since they were the ones trying to attack them unprovoked. Scourge reasoned, " This'll give us somethin' excitin' to do while we're waitin' for those slowpokes to all get here, " while echidnas were continuing to run through his Warp Ring.
Knuckles, on the other hand, was left in a very awkward situation, as his mother asked, " Enerjak? What's going on, why'd he say that? " The only thing keeping her from being panicked or mad at him was denial that it couldn't have been what it sounded like. Not enjoying the crowd murmuring about him, Knuckles explained looking depressed and ashamed, " Finitevus tricked me with a hex on the Master Emerald. He said I could use it with his help controlling its power to stop Eggman once and for all! But I put my faith in the wrong person and he ended up controlling ME. Although I wasn't ENTIRELY under his control. He wanted me to destroy the world, but I tried to do what I thought deep down was right… like banishing the dingoes to the desert, and getting rid of the dingo city and Kage along with it. " He looked especially ashamed at admitting that he had taken someone's life, even though it was someone who had proudly stomped dozens of echidnas under his boot.
Wyn reassured him while holding his baby, " At least you got the dingoes away from the city! I-It's a shame about the city itself, though… " Confused, Lara-Le asked, " But why? Why didn't you just get all of us back to Echidnapolis? That's where we all wanted to be! " Knuckles admitted, " Because it had technology in it, remember? I preferred the way you were living without your crazy future tech. " Constable Remignton deadpanned, " Like medical technology? A lot of people need medicine, you know. And Albion was a real fixer-up. "
" I'm SORRY, okay?! I don't know what came over me. Something about Finitevus' hex brought out the worst in me. Why did you think I never wanted to face you in Albion to begin with?! " Knuckles blurted out in frustration, as half of the crowd seemed to be turning on him, and muttering things like, " That Scourge guy's right, maybe it'd be safer to just stay here. " Not wanting to repeat the same mistake of forcibly transporting echidnas away from their homes again, Knuckles said with his arms crossed, " Fine, anyone who wants to stay can stay. But the Brotherhood can rebuild Echidnapolis. You know, magic and all? Let's go, Julie. "
His mother quickly hugged him, and said, " Don't take it the wrong way, honey, I still love you, " giving him an immense amount of relief that slightly offset the embarrassment as Saffron and Julie stared on with smiles on their faces, saying, " Aw! " Unfortunately, while half of the echidnas were going through the portal, a quarter of them didn't look too happy with the guardian. He looked ashamed, and Julie briefly rubbed his back to comfort him making him look over at her unhappily. She reassured him, " Well, it wasn't all sunshines and roses, but at least you got us back. " Knuckles complained bitterly, " Scourge did… And I guess I ought to thank him better. "
Of course, he was long gone the minute they all went into the portal. He didn't want to get a thank you from him like a hero, he wanted to have an excuse to mess with him, even if it meant being a hero in the process.
Later, Knuckles told Sonic about what had happened. " So you saved them all?! " Sonic said happily, being shown around the rebuilt Echidnapolis. " No. Scourge did. And he did it just to rub it in my face. " Sonic looked stunned, and then said with a chuckle, " Sounds like he was just making excuses to do the right thing. "
Knuckles said angrily, " He didn't just do it to be nice! He did it to release the Dark Echidna Legion on the world! Said that now Eggman would have a new competitor. And that he didn't see anything EVIL about them! They don't have bombs in them anymore, so only Lien-Da controls them now, and Scourge just let them through the portal! I had to chase them off my island! And he said that with Eggman and Ixis around, letting the echidnas come here would do more harm to them than good. Thanks to him and Fiona, some of them even stayed behind in the Twilight Cage, because they think it'd be safer! Granted, it is, but… "
After taking in all the information, slightly thankful that Eggman would be so inconvenienced by a rival villain group, Sonic said, " Huh. Fiona, too? Guess I shouldn't be too surprised that she's still following him wherever he goes. " Thinking he was missing the point, Knuckles replied in exasperation, " Yeah. And I saw the smitten way he looked at her when she laughed. The two are tighter than ever now. Don't tell that to Tails. " Sonic said with a shrug and a smile, " He's got Phoebe now, remember? She's the Fiona he really wanted! I don't think he'd care. "
The alternate dimension " Queen Sally " was a good person in practice, but she was surprisingly manipulating, being able to get people to do what she wanted and make them act how she wanted just by saying the right things, and with the way she kept Scourge's loyalty, it showed. She made sure that whenever she was giving some orders to Scourge, she would only say, " I need you to, " rather than just telling him to do something, because she knew that he enjoyed feeling needed, like he had a strong purpose and was appreciated, and he loathed being told what to do. She instructed everyone else in her group to do the same. Being outright told to do things without any hint that it was just a request would only fester resentment in him after a while, making his fun smashing robots feel more like a job, but being told, " I need you, " by someone, especially Tails, seemed to bring out a side of him they didn't usually see.
There was one time when Frost Prower had a head injury and was dizzy, where he asked him in his blue bed, " Wait! I need you! " Scourge quickly softened up, and when the kid said, " I guess Sonic should do it instead, " Scourge quickly replied, " I can do anything Sonic can do and better! Tell me what you want. " " Well, um, I need a McDonalds chocolate milkshake to make me feel better with all the pain. And it would be great if you could, you know, pay for it? " he timidly said, and handed him some money from his bedroom drawer.
" Alright, alright. For you, " Scourge responded with a smile, ruffled his hair taking the money, and ran out of the castle at the speed of sound. He proceeded to cut to the front of the line of the restaurant in a green blur, saying with a grin, " One chocolate milkshake for Tails! And lucky for you, he wants me to pay for it, so here's the dough! " Fortunately, nobody dared to complain. Some of the people there found themselves smiling at the heartwarming sight of him bothering to pay at all. He already had a reputation for stealing jewelry. Occasionally Fiona would pay for it with mugging money afterwards on a whim because she was in a great mood, chuckling all the while.
Not only did Queen Sally remind him that he was needed, but she made sure to always thank him, even to the point of thanking him separately from the rest of her friends rather than just saying, " Thanks everyone. " That way, he knew for sure that he was appreciated and his efforts were being noticed, not just taken for granted, something that would've been a huge factor in making him get disillusioned and bored of helping them. Instead, he was consistently told by at least most of the Freedom Fighters that he was considered an asset to their team, despite being called in public situations by her, " an outside agent, I assure you. He just decides to tag along and destroy some robots. Who am I to say no? And since he's a wild card who does what he wants, I'm not really to blame for his various whims. "
She also made a habit of getting Scourge not to kill their enemies by convincing him to torture, or " mess with " them, instead, which usually just involved him using his super speed to do things like spin them around in circles and humiliate them. With his attention span and impatience, he would always get bored with it in minutes and move on to the next thing after being distracted. And Sally told the rest of her friends to do the same thing.
On the twentieth night that Scourge and Fiona were allowed to stay in the guest room of Queen Sally's castle, Scourge had a horrible nightmare. Normally, his occasional bad dreams related to either prison, his issues with Sonic and his inferiority complex over him, or a combination of the two. Here, it would be about the former, but not in the way that it usually was. In his dream, some zone cops, including Zonic and Zector, ambushed him when he had just finished assassinating a Robotnik with a blue cape. Zonic sent a taser at him that was shot out of a bow, sending him falling to the floor of the lab screaming in pain from an electrocution. As he was writhing in pain, Zonic ran over and took it out of him, only to put a control collar on his neck.
He gasped as his pupils shrunk in fear, panic overwhelming him as another zone cop handcuffed his immobilized hands, unable to move. Zonic helped him to his feet and told him in a serious voice that was oddly calm and reassuring, " Don't worry, it'll only be for a week. Zobotnik's recognizing your service to the multiverse, after all, " gesturing to the Robotnik and Snively he just defeated.
As Scourge stared at him confused, with the reassurance not getting rid of his panic, Zonic continued, " We're putting you in solitary away from the other prisoners, since you've suffered enough from them, but you're gonna spend the rest of that week learning exactly what kind of a king you were! " Scourge still felt panic overwhelming him from the sheer idea of going back to prison after all the misery he went through there, but since he was being showed a surprising amount of mercy, he showed mostly just bitter resentment in his expression.
" So I get to watch a documentary about me? Sweet! " he replied with a nervous smile and happy tone, looking on the bright side and smirking afterwards. The zone cops rolled their eyes, and Zonic created a Warp Ring in front of him and said, " We'll see if you keep thinking that's sweet by the end. I don't think you know just how bad an impact you had on the world you ' woke up. ' " Scourge felt a pit in his throat startled and exclaimed, " How'd you know about that talk with him?! " recognizing his last two words from his talk with Jules. Zonic simply pushed him into the Warp Ring not answering him, and before he knew it, he was being tied to a toilet by rope in front of a large TV screen in a white padded cell.
Zonic put duct tape over his mouth saying, " And this is so you don't talk and drown out the lesson, " and Zonic put the DVD into the DVD player saying, " This is one of MANY, Sonic, " as Zector got ready with the remote control. Scourge glared at him for calling him Sonic, something that happened almost constantly in his dreams, but he was immediately distracted by the volume of the documentary starting. The volume wasn't high enough to cause permanent hearing damage after a long time, but it was high enough that he couldn't hear himself think, and before he could think to close his eyes, Zonic made absolutely sure he wouldn't be able to.
The third zone cop, an echidna, said with a smirk holding some eye drops " We'll make sure to keep your eyes hydrated with an automated eye-dropper machine, not that you really deserve it. You'll be back with your favorite squeeze soon enough. "
The rest of the dream had him do nothing but have to watch documentary footage about just how bad of an impact his rule had on Moebius. At times he wondered if it even was a dream, because he remembered it so vividly afterwards. The whole time, he was trying to smirk and enjoy the results of his rule, and believe that the people he inconvenienced – mainly criminals – deserved everything they got. But as he saw in-depth footage about how exactly he had affected Anti-Knuckles and his people, he started to have negative feelings, about more than just the annoyance of him being preached and lectured to just by being forced to watch something trying to change him. Scourge saw people cry at worst as they talked about their perspective on that time in detail. The most major problem with his rule - aside from the little tidbit that he had the island Miles was tormented on destroyed - was that he ordered for all of the prisons on Anti-Mobius to be destroyed, since he hated them his entire life, and this not only killed everyone in them, " deserving " criminals and wardens both, but also forced the legal systems to switch to putting the criminals who would be sent to prisons in either insane asylums, or when they ran out of room in those, they had to switch to community service for them instead. Even quite some time after Scourge had left his planet, the effects of that worldwide prison bombing still lingered to that day and most of the world hadn't rebuilt their prisons yet. Scourge had been proud of that accomplishment for a long time, but the documentary wouldn't let him ignore the fact that he had people killed in the process, including people who were very much innocent, as he saw how devastated the families of those victims had been by what happened, some to the point of having the same disorder Miles had suffered from his whole life.
The footage went over even the most minor of problems he caused, like job loss, or orphaning some kids who had lost their parents when he destroyed some buildings of rebels against him, and it made sure to remind him what he did to his parents, and how that affected other people when they heard the news. That got to him, but he tried to rationalize it away as him remembering what neglectful parents they used to be and wishing that they had been better to him just from being reminded of them at all. He tried to think of his reaction as just him finding it all annoying, and couldn't wait to be home. Every so often, he worried about how Fiona and the others were reacting to his absence. They wouldn't bother breaking him out if he was only going to be there for a week, especially since he was captured with his zone-link generator.
It was the longest " dream " he ever had, and oddly detailed as well, more than an actual dream would. Finally, he was let out, with Zonic saying, " Okay, you're free to go. And remember, don't threaten the No Zone or anything, or you'll be right back. Hopefully this experience taught you some decency, " and untying him. Scourge resisted the powerful urge to punch all of the zone cops around for the tedium he went through that week, because he was terrified that if he did, he'd have to stay here for the rest of his days.
Zonic used Scourge's zone-link generator to create a portal back to Fiona, leading to their bedroom in the castle. Zonic gave him it and pushed him through the warp ring in a second, and it closed behind him. Scourge fell out of it to the bed in front of Fiona, and shouted at it out of spite, " Like hell it did! Jerks, " alerting her to his attention immediately.
Fiona embraced him immediately, saying while overjoyed, " Scourge! You're okay! " He sighed in relief thankful at seeing her again, and returned the hug saying, " Of course I am. Zone cops just got me for a while to teach me a lesson. But don't worry, babe, they won't be changin' me any time soon! " The hug ended and Scourge laid down on the bed stretching to be able to move again, saying with a relieved smile, " The whole thing already feels like it was just a bad dream. "
Then Fiona revealed looking worried, " Well, it wasn't! You were gone for a week! We were worried that you had gotten kidnapped, or roboticized, or worse! You don't have any idea what I… " She stammered trying to avoid looking too weak in front of him, although his concerned expression proved it was too late for that, and she sighed, tried to calm down and smile again. She said to reassure him, " Rotor's been working on making his own zone-link generator to try to go looking for you. It's a good thing you came back, since apparently, we would've never been able to find you. So something good came of this, at least. What matters is, I've finally got you back! "
Scourge smiled in response and nodded at the end, before yawning and saying, " If you don't mind, babe, I need to get some sleep. They only let me have the bare minimum. " He closed his eyes as Fiona noticed the bags under them, and put blankets over him ignoring how she was disappointed that he had to do that right when she got him back, and he fell asleep for a nap in seconds.
The minute Fiona left him alone, Zonic shot a Super-Emerald-powered energy beam at him through the interdimensional portal above his bed, which had only been closed from Scourge's side. The energy beam was made of special new Zobotnik technology that was designed to erase only specific parts of his memories.
From that moment on, while he would remember watching those documentaries, he wouldn't remember the circumstances that he saw them in. The beam made him conclude that he had spent the last week in a coma instead, and forced him to continue believing that even in the face of being contradicted. To finish it all off, the zone cops made sure that the people in Scourge's new " gang " wouldn't contradict that belief. He was better off not remembering what exactly had happened. It would only cause him to harbor even more resentment for the No Zone, which would overshadow the lesson Zobotnik wanted him to learn.
When it was all said and done, Zector asked his boss, " So your plan worked, but, if we can make devices that selectively erase memories and stuff, why couldn't we just make devices to rewire criminals' brains to make them good? " Zobotnik replied, " Because that would be brainwashing, and I refuse to do something like that. Besides, it's too complicated. It's a miracle we even got THAT device working. "
In the Mobian England of Mercia, Detective Sonic's parents had finally been deroboticized, because his Uncle Chuck had lured them into a roboticizer, that was reprogrammed to deroboticize any Robian who went in it. His own version of Jules looked a bit different from the Prime one before he was roboticized, with spectacles and a brown coat, but was otherwise very familiar-looking to Scourge, being an adult blue hedgehog with a blond dyed streak of hair in the center of his head, and while Scourge knew better than to even threaten him and his wife since it would get him kicked out of the FN Freedom Fighters, he clearly wasn't comfortable with seeing someone who reminded him so much of his own father. Confused, Jules asked, " Where am I? What's going on? " not remembering his life as a robot slave.
Detective Sonic hugged him with a relieved smile saying, " Dad! You're back! You and Mom were Eggman's robot slaves my whole life, and I thought you had been killed! Just an hour ago, Rotor found out where you've been all this time, so we came here with a Warp Ring to get you! We lured you two into something reprogrammed to bring you back to normal. " " We? " Bernie said in confusion, and asked, " Who's this? " looking at Scourge, who was looking away uncomfortable the entire time at seeing Sonic's parents.
Trying to avoid looking too awkward, but still not feeling in a good enough mood to have his usual confident act, he just looked annoyed as he said, " I'm Scourge. At least that's what I call myself nowadays. I'm, well, HIM from another universe. But I'm still my own person, and I made damn sure to be the most unique Sonic of them all! Even changed my appearance powering up with a Master Emerald! " He smiled at the final sentence. They looked worried at him swearing, and he looked awkward again. Realizing this was an uncomfortable and confusing situation, Detective Sonic did the talking for him and explained with a nervous smile,
" I know what you're thinking, he's my evil twin, but he helped me out a lot! He's part of the reason you got freed in the first place! He smashed the badniks making a distraction while I got you into the deroboticizer. He breaks robots all the time, and that's why he helps us out! In fact, you'll be happy to know that he and his girlfriend are the ones who freed the world from Robotnik! I wish I could've been the one to do it, and that he was nicer about it, but it got results, at least, the Acorn Kingdom's been peaceful ever since. "
Intrigued, his mother said with her hand on her chin, " So he's a hero? " Scourge groaned with his arms crossed and rolled his eyes, and Detective Sonic said with a playful smirk in a quieter voice, " Technically, but don't tell him that. " Then he said more loudly, " He's just havin' fun. "
Scourge said, " So if you're done makin' chit chat, we gotta get goin', " and impatiently used his Warp Ring to create a portal, ushering them all into it. Trying to break the ice with him and start a conversation of some sort, Bernie asked him as they went through the portal, " What's your girlfriend's name? " " Fiona. You'd be hard-pressed to find a name that's hotter! Or a girl! She's pretty awesome, especially since I used a Chaos Emerald to make her just as fast as me. You'll see, " Scourge said, cheered up by talking about her with a tone full of respect. Now in a better mood, he asked, " So, uh, what do ya two do all day, for a livin'? What's different about you? "
Jules admitted, " Well, ever since my knee injury, I couldn't be a soldier anymore, so I settled down and became just a humble librarian. I still miss those days, though. " Scourge replied casually, " Well, even if I fixed that little problem with a magic gem or somethin', you'd probably just get injured again, so maybe it's better that you stick to the safe jobs, ' pops. ' " FN Jules added, " I wanted to go into politics, but the Great War conscripted me, and you know the rest. Next thing I knew, I wasn't a robot anymore. " Scourge looked uncomfortable and avoided eye contact at hearing that.
Bernie then said, " And I just stay at home. I was going to get a business degree from college, but I changed my mind on that when I got pregnant, I figured that kind of career would take up too much of my time. " Scourge looked serious and said, " Good choice, " which worried and surprised them as they walked down the hallway of the Castle, and they wondered why he said that. " That's ALL she ever cared about, " he added bitterly under his breath, and they immediately understood what he might have meant, their eyes widening in worry at what kind of a mother he used to have.
Soon, he saw his four-year-old daughter Phoebe and Fiona waiting for him in the castle with excited smiles. Unfortunately, after happily greeting FN Sonic's parents hugging them, she said, " I've never had grandparents before! My mom's parents ditched her, and my daddy had to take down his own father since he was an evil neglectful dictator. " Her letting it slip what he did to his father caused an immediate awkward moment, as FN Jules and Bernie looked nervous right away, and Detective Sonic merely looked annoyed since he was already told about that.
Fiona told her gently, " Pheebs? Go to your room, " and she reluctantly did so, realizing as she ran off that she had made a mistake. " So you ' took down ' your own father? " Jules responded with his hands on his hips, and then added with his arms crossed, " I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, you're the evil twin of my son. "
Scourge was immediately irritated at being treated like he was that predictable, labelled as an evil twin again, and with that combining with him wanting to explain why his father deserved his fate, he found himself revealing bitterly while looking away from him, " He used to beat me. " Bernie gasped, and Detective Sonic cringed as Scourge showed them what was beneath the fur to the left of his chest while saying, " I still have some scars. "
He snapped defensively with a hint of sadness in his tone, " He got what he deserved! I gave him a taste of his own medicine! Showed him exactly what it was like to get a punishment like that! And I, I… " He looked sad, and admitted resentfully, " It was an accident, okay? I didn't know my own strength. "
This at least caused them all to soften their gazes, but when he noticed Detective Sonic start to smile thinking he wasn't all bad, he defensively continued, " I was PLANNING to put him in a prison to be tortured the rest of his life for child abuse, but the selfish jerk couldn't take it for more than a few minutes. He could dish it out, but he couldn't take it. If anything, I would've been HAPPIER if he survived so he could get punished for longer than that, instead of taking just one thrashing to my dozens… "
Scourge then looked melancholic again, and admitted, " What I really wanted was for him to be a dad that was worth a damn, who actually cared about someone other than himself, but maybe it was too late for that, even if he did change. I doubt I'd ever forgive him anyways, just be uncomfortable if he tried. I'll never know now! "
His face felt like it was heating up and he faced away from them with his arms crossed, as his eyes started to water, and he said, " Leave me alone! I have no regrets! " trying to look tough. Understanding what was going on, Bernie told her son, " Sonic, why don't you go make some chili dogs? " and the minute he ran off in a blue blur, she went in front of Scourge and hugged him. Evil twin or not, he still felt like her son. He still triggered the same parental instincts in both of them; he had the same voice, body shape, scent, and generally the same personality, only he was more destructive, cynical, and selfish.
Scourge gasped, stunned and completely confused, and exclaimed, " W-What are you doing? Why are you squeezin' me with your body?! " in denial that he could get that kind of affection from them so easily, especially since they weren't even his parents.
Jules reassured him calmly, " You did NOT deserve to be treated like that, no matter how you behaved as a kid. He went too far. And instead of realizing his mistakes and fixing them, he… You deserved better. Perhaps you could've been happier then. " " Well he made me who I am today. I wouldn't spit on that, " Scourge replied, trying to look on the bright side as he returned the hug and relished in the affection. He was slightly frustrated with himself for that, and told himself he was just using them for the affection and compassion.
To end it all off, Scourge gasped again when the alternate Jules gently but quickly stroked his hair to comfort him, while saying, " We may not be your actual parents, but we still care about you, and I don't care how long it takes, we're going to prove it. If you'll let us. " It took a second for him to recognize it as the loving caress that it was, and not just as him touching his hair for no reason, but when he did, his shoulders slackened and his spines relaxed as he breathed a sigh of contentment closing his eyes, enjoying the hug from Bernie more than ever.
When she let go, he was sad that it had to end so soon, and resisted the urge to hug her again and embarrass himself. Instead, he said in astonishment with a nervous smile at one final ruffling of his hair, " Wow. You sure you're Sonic's parents? " Bernie said with a giggle, " We'd know if we weren't! " He chuckled, and admitted, " Thanks… " He stopped smiling self-conscious, and said defensively in a quiet voice and his arms crossed,
" But I won't march in lockstep with everything you tell me to do, capiche? If I think it's smart, I'll go along with your advice, but I got my own mind and you can't control me one bit. " He let himself smile a little as they did in response, as he said, " You can feel free to treat me well like that, though. As long as NOBODY'S watching. " He took off just like that as they smiled, with Jules saying, " There might be hope for him yet. "
After Detective Sonic had gotten his parents back, they moved in with him, living in the large lavish Castle Acorn where there were plenty of bedrooms to spare; they were there temporarily while a house for Sonic and his parents was being built in Knothole. This meant that they started having most of their meals with Scourge as well as him, since he happened to be in the living room with the other Freedom Fighters as they were watching TV. Seeing people who reminded him so much of his parents took some getting used to, as he felt uncomfortable around them rather than being his usual self, and had to force himself to act natural for the first week, which was enough to fool the alternate Antoine and Rotor, but no one else.
The rest of them could see that he was awkward around them, and Queen Sally insisted on something being done about it. She decided to arrange that he would spend some time alone with them, to hopefully resolve that issue and get him more comfortable. She told him in the living room, " Scourge, I need you to go to Uncle Chuck's restaurant with Sonic's parents for lunch today. It's imperative that you do so. They're waiting for you there. "
Scourge naturally asked, " Why? " She replied calmly while removing some dollars from her purple purse at one point, " Do you really care? You wouldn't say no to chili dogs, would you? I'll pay for them in advance. Also, I'll know if you just went there for a second and took off. " Scourge cursed, " Damn, " looking mildly annoyed turned slightly away from her.
He asked with suspicion, " But why, though? " " Well, we want to reward you for everything you've done for us so far! And we figured that maybe if we did this, you'd be less likely to stop helping on a whim, " she answered with a confident smile, making up an excuse. " But with Sonic's parents? C-C-Can't I just get some later? " he questioned.
Queen Sally fought back the urge to just threaten him with the loss of that chili dog offer and not explain anything further, because she realized how a rebel would react to a threat and a " because I said so, " justification, and instead teased him,
" What, are you scared? They're not bad people! They're not gonna hurt you or anything. " Scourge said defensively, " No! That's not what, it's just weird, that's all. " Queen Sally said with a sly smile, " Offer going once, going twice, " holding the dollars up, and Scourge impulsively took them saying, " Fine, " and justified as he stormed out of the castle, " but only because Uncle Chuck's chili dogs are the best in the city. I'm hungry right now, anyways! "
She giggled and thought with a smirk, " I can play him like a fiddle! I'm such a genius. " She briefly felt guilty, looking sad, before rationalizing in her head, " I still care about his well-being. He's not a terrible friend. I'm just trying to make his relationship with his parents better! Well, ' his. ' It's all for the greater good, just like always. "
Detective Sonic's parents were at a table in Uncle Chuck's restaurant waiting nervously, and Bernie asked her husband, " I don't know, honey, what if he's not showing up? " Jules reassured her, " Then we'll have a quiet lunch of delicious chili dogs in peace. Either way, we win! " Bernie smiled and said, " It's times like this where I remember why I married you in the first place, " and just then, a green and black blur sped into the restaurant and almost instantly revealed itself to be Scourge when he stopped in front of the counter, put some dollars on it saying, " The usual, " to the worker familiar with him, and sighed before reluctantly walking over to them. Bernie was smiling sweetly to reassure him the best she could, while Jules had a blank emotionless expression of anticipation, wondering who was going to talk first and what was going to happen next.
Of course, Scourge, the chatty hedgehog he was, was the first to talk, saying in annoyance with his hand on his face and chin and elbow on the table, " I'm guessin' ya already know why I'm here, right? Queen Sal sent ya here? " They both nodded, and he continued while moving the napkin in front of him around with the other hand to try to look disinterested,
" Yeah I figured. I'm here for the easy chili dogs, then. And she said she'd know if I just took off. So, uh, ya better have stuff to talk about 'cause we'll be here a while. " He continued to stare listlessly at the table with his eyes melancholic more than annoyed for a few seconds, until Jules, being the braver parent, was the one to break the silence with asking him, " What's wrong? "
Scourge's eyes squeezed shut briefly before opening and he grumbled, " What do ya think is wrong? You're my parents! I mean NOT my parents. It's weird! Especially after I didn't exactly have a fun time growin' up with my own mom and pop! All they ever cared about was their jobs! And now you guys suddenly plop into my life and it's suddenly supposed to be all hunky-dorey, give me a break. There's no way it's as good as it sounds. " Understanding why he was so cynical about it when he had been turned off of the mere concept of having parents, Bernie wondered what to say, before settling on, " It's okay. "
To the surprise of the nearby customers, Scourge's hands hit the table briefly in a meaningless expression of frustration to emphasize his point as he ranted looking at them, " It's not okay! W-What is this supposed to mean? I mean, could it even be that easy? Do you know me at all? Just because I'm a Sonic, like, okay, I've got some things in common with him, I KNOW. I'll never hear the end of that. But you don't know me. If you knew about half the things I've done in my life, you'd never want anything to do with me, just like THEM. " His eyes briefly felt watery and he willed himself to bring things back to normal, taking subtle deep breaths in and out to calm down.
After a brief silence from the nervous parents in front of him, Jules said, " You could always try. Try to prove us wrong, " as Scourge stared down at the table looking depressed with his hands on his chin. Bernie reassured him, " We know you're his evil twin, we're not delusional on that front. But that's not gonna stop us from caring about you. And wanting what's best for you, no matter what. "
After a few seconds passed, she made herself add, " We do love you, you know, even if you don't believe us. " The sentence hit him like a wind of hot air and he took a pause, and a subtle deep breath, still looking unsure all the while. He briefly felt moisture in his eyes again just from hearing those words. Scourge muttered unhappily, " It's fake, " moving the napkin and bending it to look disinterested.
" No it's not, we promise! " Bernie responded impulsively, feeling sorry for him. Jules said to him feeling like things were getting desperate, " It'll be alright. You'll see. Just tell us something, tell us about you. Y-You usually love talking about yourself! But you've been so quiet recently. " There was a silence as Scourge dwelled on the option he was being given, and finally said bitterly,
" You want me to tell you something? Fine, just to prove my point. I took over a whole planet once! Brought it to its knees. " They actively prevented themselves from visibly reacting to that, keeping their curious expressions from before, but it was quite a sentence. Wanting to make him not as annoyed out of intimidation, Bernie reassured him, " T-There you go! That wasn't so hard! Keep going, talk about that! " Both of them were curious about everything he'd have to say, having learned almost nothing about him since they met him as everyone in the team were respecting his privacy, and they tried to focus on their curiosity as the big motivator to just listen to everything he'd have to say, no matter how bad it would be.
Scourge, not being happy because of the mood he was in and the fact that it was only in the past, explained, " Not much to say, really. Me and my girl warped to my home world, beat my old gang in a fight and got Alicia to make us the leaders. " " Alicia? Sally's mother? " Bernie commented as a follow-up question. " No, Anti-Sally. I made sure everyone on my planet changed names and looks so they wouldn't be living in their Prime counterpart's shadow anymore. I hope that policy of mine wasn't undone the minute I left the place. I know that the evil King Maxx kept it up for his prison gang. The point is, I took her throne, gave the boring country running to Fiona, and, you know, removed the other competitor for power, " avoiding looking at the nervous Jules as he said that last sentence clause.
He admitted as they looked nervous, " I thought it'd be great! I was king of the world! But I got bored. Turns out sitting on a throne with nothing to do but stare at the wall, isn't fun! Yeah, no shit. I-I guess I was more a fan of the concept of becoming king than actually being one. I was giving all the running-stuff-work to Fiona, and I never bothered checking, but I assumed she did okay. But she wasn't having fun, either. The conquering was great, the most exciting part of our lives up to that point, but afterwards, when I got what I wanted, it was humdrum. Business as usual, before I ditched my gang for probably the same reason in the first place, that every day was the same. Find bozos like criminals who deserve an ass-kicking and mug 'em. " He sighed in boredom, feeling like he did minutes before his gang had walked out on him.
Detective Sonic's parents tried to avoid looking disapproving of him for what a villain he was, but couldn't help looking worried, at the very least. Fortunately for them, Scourge was so caught up in talking about himself, or rather his past, that he didn't notice. And fortunately for the sake of the conversation, Queen Sally had ordered the restaurant worker ahead of time to not serve them until he had talked with them for long enough. Bernie asked for the sake of a follow-up question, " What kind of criminals? What did they do? " " Ya know, rapists, drug dealers, those kinds of jerks. Street trash, basically. Problem is, street crime was becoming a lot and a lot more rarer because people knew they couldn't get away with it as much anymore, and other crimes are harder to find. What was I supposed to do, mug people for embezzlement? Good thing Boomer could hack into the police radios! " Scourge answered bluntly, saying the final word of the second to last sentence with a sarcastic laugh.
" I thought you just terrorized the innocent, " Jules said in confusion, hoping it wouldn't annoy him from being guilted in any way. Scourge explained, " Ally's gang was officially a sort of harsher police, or a vigilante group as we preferred to be called. So those were our main victims whenever we wanted some stress relief. Whenever we were starved of activity and excitement and got really, really bored. What else was there to do? Sit on our asses watchin' TV? Without any madman roboticizing and pollutin' and shit, well, yeah, it was a better place for the common peeps, but things were so cushy around there! It felt empty! For an adrenaline junkie like me, it was so BORING! Where's the challenge in that?! "
He continued looking impatient and bored, " Dr. Kintobor had that force field always up around Knothole, so I couldn't go there, and it's not like HE was sending killer robots to challenge me. Just hid like a wuss. He was the lamest ' enemy ' I ever had. Months and years of no progress with the guy, and it started to feel so pointless. Damn it, I'm sounding like Miles here, but it really did, it felt like a waste of time. Especially now. " His " parents " at least knew about Miles already, since Frost had at least told them that Scourge used to be friends with a counterpart of his named Miles. They figured that they would wait until later to ask them more about his time with him, since it seemed like a " soft side " thing for him.
" Who was Dr. Kintobor? Didn't you, wait, the Kintobor clan! Was that Robotnik? " Bernie asked. Scourge said, " Uh-huh. But he and him are night and day. Though I didn't get to know much about him personally since he just hid in his tower of healing most of the time. " She looked surprised repeating, " Tower of healing? " and he said looking bored,
" Yeah, he was a vet. Taking care of sick and hurt animals. You'd think it'd get repetitive after a while. This dude would never roboticize nobody, he wouldn't hurt a fly! And pollution for him's a no-go, when I couldn't care less. Well, at least back then. A few years ago I realized how much it smells, Robotnik's wastelands. But he even fussed about litter, he sent his Sweepbots after them all the time! Even though it wasn't his problem, he still dealt with it! It bothered him like he was obsessive-compulsive and didn't have the furniture in a room exactly right. "
They looked mildly annoyed with him at the end and he snarked with his hand resting on his chin and elbow on the table still, " What, am I not being ' PC ? ' " already starting to feel like his point was being proven and the silence was from judgement, rather than just them letting him talk.
Bernie said, " No, you're right, OCD people can do that, but I doubt that was his problem. He just liked seeing the city clean… Which, granted, those people like clean places too, but, he was just being helpful. " Scourge sighed and admitted reluctantly, " Yeah, yeah. I get it, okay? It sucks! He was the good Robotnik! I know that now. He was SO helpful to everyone but ME, " and remembered briefly how resentful he was as a kid that no matter how badly his father treated him, the kindly Kintobor never came to save him. Of course, he didn't know about any of that, but it didn't matter to him.
He continued, " It was just frustrating that he wasn't giving me a challenge. A dude that can make robots on a dime and he couldn't make any to challenge me! His Sweepbots were a joke! " " You could've just asked, " Jules commented without thinking, and Scourge looked at him in annoyance before answering, " Ask him to build a killer death robot? Somehow I don't think he'd agree to that. Even when he armed the Anti-Bunnie with a mecha suit, it was just full of crowd-control-foam instead of missiles. You think he'd humor- " " Wait a minute, hold on, a mecha suit?! " Jules said in surprise.
" Oh yeah, that sounds weird out of context, doesn't it? " he said with a laugh. They couldn't help but smile at him lightening up a little around them. He continued, " Yeah, she had NIDS all of a sudden, I think it was from the Prime Sonic throwing her in a poisoned river. But he did that to Ally too and she was fine. Guess her immune system was weaker. Anyways, the mecha suit kept her fine somehow. Weird thing is, after she got what she wanted from him, she didn't ditch him and go back to her roughhousing. She was still a bitch, like she always was to Miles, but now her complaining even goes to the people who used to be her friends! Well, it went anyways. A landslide kind of took their lives a few years ago. Only Miles survived it. I-I guess she was lucky she wasn't with them, then. She should be thankin' me, I saved her life! I mean, Boomer could never make a mecha suit that did that, he wasn't THAT nice. Kintobor was the doctor who knew how to save her. She was lucky he was nice enough to do it, and that he found her at all after I kicked her out. "
" Why'd you do that? " Jules asked in curiosity, making Scourge get worried finally as Bernie asked, " Was she being really rude to you? " There was an awkward silence and Scourge said, " Well, yeah, actually, but that was nothing new for her. " " To your girlfriend? " Jules asked him.
" Yeah, definitely! She even said she was just ' the slut ' I replaced her with as a ' consolation prize. ' But that's not the only reason I did it. Really, it was just because of the NIDS. I-It was DEPRESSING, okay?! She was just sitting there, the clock ticking away, constantly complaining. I was sick of it! She was never exactly nice to any of us anyways, she was the least favorite of the gang! And again, Boomer couldn't do nothin' to help, and either I could've brought her to Kintobor myself – SOMEHOW, despite the force field keeping my gang out of his city, and NO way to contact him – or she could've gone to look for him herself anyways. Yeah, I get it, okay, the first would've been the nicer option. But I'm NOT ' nice, ' and I had no idea where to take her or what to do in the first place. Anythin' you wanna say?! "
There was a brief silence before Bernie said looking stunned, " We haven't said anything! " Scourge said bitterly while staring at the table below him, " Yeah, but you were thinking it, I bet. " Jules replied trying to be as tactful as he could with him, " Okay, granted, but that doesn't mean we've, you have nothing to worry about. You obviously aren't proud of how you handled her because if you were, you'd be bragging about it. " Scourge looked stunned at hearing that. Was he right? He thought, " I never thought of it that way before. "
Then he stammered defensively, " N-No, no, it was just that, I was just annoyed that you'd be nagging me later for it. She's a bitch, I know she had it coming. " He felt the need to make an excuse for himself again at feeling the pressure of oncoming judgment from the annoyed-looking parents, and said, " Whether I did something to help or not, the end result would've been the same. He still found her, didn't he? And you know, that wouldn't have ever happened if I just kept things going the way they were, she'd have just stayed put in the castle not even thinking that he'd ever help her. Why WOULD she expect that? And why would I? The thought never even occurred to me. We all thought she was screwed! I'm, I… What, she WAS a jerk! What do you want me to do, apologize to her? With her big hunking suit of armor? She'd just immobilize me in foam the instant she saw me! "
Bernie said with a shrug, " You could at least write her a letter. " Scourge replied nonchalantly, " Ah, it wouldn't be possible anyway, I got Moebius removed from my teleporter as an option months ago… " and since he figured they'd ask, he reluctantly explained, " Can't let my little girl go there out of curiosity and see people burning me in effigy. It'd just create a whole can of worms. " " Wait, which, oh, right, " Bernie replied to the word Moebius, and he complained,
" I meant Moebius with an ' e. ' Like, after the ' o? ' That happens all the time. Sometimes I wish I named it somethin' else. I thought it up on the spot. Better than living in the shadow of the Prime Mobius. It's better than that! No matter what those Prime Zoners think. They call MY zone twisted, but it's the safest zone of them all with the kind of ' Robotnik ' it's got instead… So are we done? "
Jules asked calmly, " Are you? I mean, is there anything else to tell us? " Scourge sighed, not because he was regretful, but because he wasn't looking forward to them being annoyingly disapproving or nervous afterwards, or even gasping because of what he'd admit. " Where do I begin? Well, I switched the Prime Antoine with Patch for a year, " he said, wanting to put off telling them that he destroyed a few islands.
" Patch? " Jules commented in confusion wondering if that was his Antoine, and Bernie questioned him, " Why, though? Aside from ' for the fun of it, ' I mean. " At first, Scourge commented with a sense of humor, " Aw, you took my excuse! " and then explained, " Really, though, Patch tried to kill me. A LOT. He even threw a knife at me once! And by that point, I was used to that kind of thing and wasn't even intimidated! " " Are you sure? I'd be a nervous wreck! One of my own friends trying to kill me! " Bernie exclaimed, looking genuinely worried about him.
" N-Nah, I was fine. Most of the time. It just got frustrating after a while, so I got rid of him so he wouldn't finally get a clue and try to kill me in my sleep. By the way, his patch USED to be just for show. The reason it's not anymore is that he tried to kill me and I finally stood up for myself. Every time he tried, I was either too fast for him or his aim sucked so hard it's like he wasn't even trying to hit, " Scourge said casually with a smile. Then he thought with his hand on his chin looking away, " Or Miles was messing with his aim with his electricity-controlling powers subconsciously, " remembering that the kid could control the electricity in people's bodies, as he had demonstrated with him as a Freedom Fighter. " Were you ever hurt? "
That sentence briefly stunned him, taking him right out of his thoughts, because he had never heard that kind of expression of concern in his mother's voice before. Neither of them looked happy at hearing that he had taken Patch's eye out, they winced at hearing it in fact, but it wasn't enough to stop them from being concerned about Scourge's well-being. " Did he ever seriously injure you? Send you to the hospital? " Now Jules was worried about him.
Looking at them like they had two heads, he wasn't sure how to even respond to that. Instead of them immediately interrogating him about how what he did affected Antoine and the consequences of his little prank, they were concerned for his well-being. He blinked a few times trying to keep his eyes from watering again. " N-No, it's fine. I got lucky… " he said in astonishment, before admitting just to see how they'd react, " Well, he did punch me down the stairs once, but all I got from it were bruises. Miles helped me up, but I didn't really need it. The sweet kid, he insisted on checking me all over after that to see if I needed any help. He couldn't be any less like him. "
Eventually, the anticipation was something he couldn't take anymore and he cut straight to admitting, being as casual as he could moving his fingers along the table staring at it, " Well, Antoine was a better substitute than I thought, as depressing as he was sometimes. He seemed like a wuss, but he did what he was told and fought pretty hard. I guess he had a lot of stress to work out, but he still held back from ' dirty ' tricks like the nut shot. Then Sonic must have gotten him home after figuring Patch out, and I found out what Patch had been doin' over there all that time. Last I checked on him, he was sucking up to the king, scheming and worming his way into his good graces. The next thing I knew, he was tellin' me he put him in a coma! "
Bernie gasped, and he continued, " He poisoned him and Antoine's old man, using way more on him so he probably didn't make it. And he tried to marry Sally to get to the throne, and was gonna off her brother when he showed up to take it. See, I'm not the only one who does evil things! And I never did anything like that! 'Sides, poisoning sounds boring and lame, I'd rather win a beatdown instead. At least then I'm doing something thrilling and enjoying the impact of my fist with a face! He was just being a coward!... " Realizing he was digging himself deeper and not exactly proving to them that he wouldn't have done the same thing, he continued,
" I didn't know he'd do any of those things! I thought for sure when I sent him there, he'd just be ruining Antoine's reputation, breaking the law and stuff like he always did, and my plan was that he'd send himself to jail with his own stupidity. But he didn't even beat up criminals. I guess it was better for me that he kept his cover up instead of making them suspicious and getting sent home early – especially with that scar on his face, I CAN'T believe everyone bought it was him with that! Antoine leaves, he shows up with a scar looking like it's been there for years, and those idiots didn't get suspicious of it? Really? I mean, they already met Patch! Ridiculous. So are you gonna yell at me now? "
Jules reluctantly said, " No. While you are responsible for a lot, while you have a lot to answer for, all you were trying to do there was protect yourself from him. He might have killed you by now, if you hadn't done that! " while his wife looked concerned and nervous. Scourge continued, " Yeah, but I didn't have to send him to Mobius. The opportunity just presented itself when he tried to send ME there, 'cause I guess he finally realized he was too incompetent to ice me. I had to switch Antoines so the zone cops wouldn't realize anything had changed – somehow THEY didn't notice the scar thing, either. I was making Antoine wear a fake scar with make-up to hide it, but Patch never did anything to try to hide his real one. Sending him there was just a prank on a whim, I could've sent him to a prison by dragging him there with my super speed, or a dungeon to mess with him for as long as I wanted, but the opportunity was too good to pass up, and you know me, I'm impulsive. " He thought looking annoyed, " Or you know Sonic. "
Bernie reasoned, " So you could've put him in a dungeon and, tortured, him, or even killed him outright, but after all that time, you just sent him to another zone instead? Did you ever, do that to him? Did you ever try to, try to kill him back? " Scourge replied, " If I did, he wouldn't have lived for long. Super speed, remember? I-I just held back for Miles, that's all. The kid would've been traumatized if he saw me kill someone in front of him. I kept telling Patch that he can't be trying to do that to me in front of him, but he never listened. " Jules said without thinking, " So that ' prank ' was more of a mercy. "
Scourge heard what he said, saw them smiling at him, and looked upset before getting annoyed again, and told them to prove himself right, " I destroyed a few islands, ya hate me now? " They gasped, but had to remind themselves to stay calm and keep their disapproval of him subtle, as it would only make things worse. Suddenly they were very grateful that they were the only customers left in the restaurant; the others had quietly fled the minute they heard his fists bang on a table, and they had only noticed their absence by now. Jules took a deep breath in and out before asking in annoyance, " Okay, why'd you do that? "
Scourge replied, " You're asking why? Not tryin' to h… " confused that he wasn't just yelling at him, or worse. He interrupted himself clearing his throat awkwardly, and explained, " Well, with Coconut Island, that's the place Miles was bullied on until he met me. To put it LIGHTLY. I could go on for days about all the sick ways he was treated, but I'll just leave it at this… they did NOT like his extra tail. And they made him the way he is today. Just thinking about all those bullies makes me angry, it always did, and I promised that I'd make them all pay, because for years, they just got away with it! So when I became king, I made an example out of 'em. I told the world what they did, exposed their crimes, and blew 'em up. I thought Miles would be happy! I was doing him a favour! But instead he just looked depressed. He was smirking right up until the button was pressed. I guess he was trying to enjoy it, but for some reason, he couldn't. I just don't get it, though, if anyone deserved it, it was monsters like them! A few of them even trapped him in their houses for months and tortured him! So what'd I do wrong? "
FN Bernie and Jules looked worried and serious the entire time he was telling him all of that, both horrified at the careless act of destruction and at the way that ' sweet kid ' was bullied. Eventually, they realized that he was genuinely confused about why what he did was wrong, and needed someone to explain it to him. Jules explained in a matter-of-fact tone,
" Well, first off, it's possible that some people who had nothing to do with Miles' mistreatment had moved to that island in the time that he was gone. So those would've been innocent people. There's also the likely possibility that babies were born in that time. " Scourge's pupils shrank at hearing that as his expression went from bored at the nagging to serious. " It can never be that simple! " he complained bitterly hitting the table and looking away with his hand on his chin, and muttered with frustration, " Why'd you have to go and tell me that? N-Not like I care, of course! " He couldn't help it, as hearing about babies reminded him of Phoebe when she was one, though he would've reacted the same way regardless, as even he had standards.
They saw right through it, as he lied no better than Sonic did. Then Jules explained, " It's also possible that some of Miles' bullies moved out of the island while he was gone. You never know. So chances are, not only did some innocent people lose their lives for nothing, but you didn't even punish everyone involved, and it would be really complicated to try and track down everyone who moved away and find them one by one. And of course, any immigration data on the island would've been destroyed. "
Scourge sighed in exasperation with his ears slightly drooping, unable to argue against it. Even if the data was put on the internet, he couldn't go back there now. He replied reluctantly, leaning his head on his hand, " Okay, okay, I get it… It was pointless either way. Miles was miserable afterwards. Maybe he knew! He is a genius after all! Besides, pressing a button is unsatisfying! It wasn't like I was spindashing through the whole village destroying it myself! " They caught him smiling in excitement by the final sentence, and after an awkward silence, Jules deadpanned, " I guess this is where the other island comes in. "
Scourge admitted, " Same thing, same reasons, just a different zone. And I bet that Tails wouldn't be happy if I told him, either. I'm not gonna lie and pretend I didn't have fun with that, but compared to smashing robots that give me a challenge, or destroying whole oil rigs and refuelling stations and communication towers, a village is a joke. It got repetitive after a while, and they all screamed and ran instead of telling me how great I am. Of course, it was fun, giving those bullies what they deserve, but what did destroying that place GET me? Nothing. If anything, it tired me out. "
There was a silence as the parents of Detective Sonic let it all sink in, trying to look on the bright side once again by seeing the good in him; he at least admitted that it felt hollow and unsatisfying afterwards, even if he never once admitted guilt or regret. They were reading between the lines, mainly with his unusually nervous behaviour as he was trying to justify his actions to people he shouldn't have been intimidated of at all. Unless… Jules looked sad again and asked him, " Did you think we were going to hurt you for admitting any of this? Is that why you were nervous? "
Scourge looked stunned again, before stammering, " N-N-No, you wouldn't get away with that and you know it! I just wasn't looking forward to being, nagged or glared at. Not like I should care. " He then called out, " Am I gonna get any service here?! " hitting the table, realizing at last that he hadn't gotten his chili dogs yet. He muttered while staring at the windows, " What are they doin', takin' their smoke break? "
Trying to change the subject, Jules asked, " We don't hate you, if that's what you're thinking. So what did you do after you got bored of being a king? Did you go straight to exploring the multiverse, defeating Robotniks, or was there something in between? " Scourge appeared unhappy, and reluctantly admitted, " Some fights with Sonic. Then prison. " " With Sonic? " Bernie asked.
" Oh, yeah. Prime Sonic and his buddies. I roped my old gang into it, and THEY ended up being roped into turning traitor, no thanks to Miles conspiring with the Prime Zoners. I fought as hard as I could, I even turned super at one point, but eventually Sonic tricked me, and sent me to the interdimensional clink. For six months on end… And to say the prisoners weren't kind to me would be an understatement. I almost knew how Miles felt. I-I guess that's why I ended up forgiving him. Hard not to feel sorry for someone when you know their pain. They even called me a mutant too, sometimes, since I turned green through a mutation from a giant Chaos Emerald. When they weren't calling me Snot. " His voice cracked at the end, and he felt his face heating up. He was about to whisper threatening them if they ever called him Snot themselves, but Bernie hugged him before he could get the words out of his mouth.
As he tried to adjust himself to the fact that he was being hugged by her again, she reassured him, " It's okay, honey, it's okay. We'll forgive you. It's all in the past. " He returned the hug to enjoy it more as Jules agreed, " Exactly. You're never going to do most of those things again. I suppose you might destroy some more islands for the same reason, but hopefully that won't happen now that there's better things to destroy. No matter what, you're still our son. And, if you'll let us… " he put his hand on his shoulder as Bernie let him go, and he said, " We'll try to be the parents yours never were. We promise… Aren't you curious at least? "
After a brief silence, Scourge dried his face as quickly and subtly as he could, looking away, and said with a nervous smile, " Yeah, I'm always curious about stuff… Okay, just to prove you wrong. Let's see how it goes, and I can enjoy it while it lasts. " He said with a grin, " And if it'll go belly-up, that's FUTURE Me's problem! " Jules put his arm around him saying, " That's the spirit, champ! " and that was the cue to the restaurant to bring him some fresh chili dogs at last, at which point he was too caught up in the moment to really question why they were so late. " Now, why don't you tell us about your time with Miles? " Bernie asked with a smile as they were given their chili dogs at last. " Alright, alright. But it's a long story. "