Notes: Sup guys! As promised, this week's chapter is all about Scourge. I've tried to keep him as in-character as possible, though you can probably guess from reading the summary of this story that he won't stay totally true to how he is in the comics. Anyway, let's get to it!
Zone Jail. The most infamous high-security prison in the whole multiverse. Floating several hundred feet above the ground, it was virtually impossible to break in or out. The place where the worst of the worst were sent to reform. Only, one particular hedgehog's schedule didn't involve a whole lot of reforming at the moment. It mainly just involved getting beaten up in the rec yard before lunch.
"What do you want, Smalls?" the spiny mammal moaned through sharp teeth. "I'm not in the mood to get pummeled today, so if you wouldn't mind-"
"No can do, Snot," laughed Smalls, the blubbery, purple cat. He pounded his fist into his open palm. "Don't tell me you've forgotten what today is!"
"Wha...?"
"It's your birthday, ain't it? Well, I gotta let you have your birthday punches!" the cat grinned. The green hedgehog grimaced. Of course. Birthday punches. And birthday kicks. And birthday slaps. And birthday knees to his no-no zone. And maybe even a birthday concussion, at this rate.
"Oh, come on "King" Scourge, cheer up! It's not every day you turn twenty years old!" Smalls chuckled. He advanced towards the nervous hedgehog, who in turn, took several steps back. Smalls backed Scourge into a corner of the rec yard. No escape now. Several more inmates saw this and smiled. They all gathered around, some wanting to get a whack at Scourge themselves, some just wanting to watch the show. Scourge groaned. 'Happy birthday, me,' he thought.
"C'mon Smalls, can't we just talk this over? I mean- hey, I still haven't healed from yesterday! You really wanna beat down on someone already broken? I'm sure I could find you some fresh meat to soften your knuckles on. How's that sound?" He asked hopefully.
"Tempting..." Smalls said, thinking the proposal through. Scourge's face slowly lit up. Smalls grinned darkly. "I'm gonna hafta pass on it, though, Birthday Boy." Scourge gulped. So much for Plan A. And since he was cornered with no escape, there was only one Plan B. And, as is the nature of the Plan B, this plan was way more risky.
Scourge was going to have to fight his way out of here.
Normally, fighting these bozos wouldn't have been a problem for the former king of the anti-zone, Moebius. He had been fast, strong, and ruthless. He had beaten Sonic, Shadow, and everyone else to a stand still. He had been unstoppable. The multiverse was his for the taking! He had only been beaten by a mere technicality: he had become weak and vulnerable after he was tricked into powering down from his Super form.
And now, the former king was stuck in the Zone Jail, powerless. Just another worm in the mud, getting his face beaten in day after day. After more or less a year of being trapped in this hellhole, Scourge was starting to really get sick of it.
Suddenly, a punch flew towards his head. Normally, thanks to his lightning-fast reflexes, Scourge would have been able to dodge the flying fist, no problem. But in the Zone Jail, with his abilities suppressed by the inhibitor collar around his neck, that was no longer the case. He took the punch square in the jaw, which sent him stumbling backwards into the concrete wall surrounding the yard. Luckily, the next punch that came at him from Smalls was visible a mile away, so he was able to duck out of the way in time. Smalls' fist smashed into the wall, cracking the cement. 'Jeez, he means business this time!' Scourge thought, sidestepping around the large cat. Someone behind the hedgehog had stuck their leg out, catching his foot and causing him to trip backwards. He landed in the mud with an oomph, but quickly leapt back to his feet. He wasn't going to go down that easily.
He was quickly surrounded by three of the goons in the crowd. His quills bristled with anticipation. If only his sharp spines hadn't been cut short and kept pruned. Then maybe Scourge would have an advantage. One of the baddies surrounding him, a wolf, raised her fist up to clock him in the face. Scourge got ready to dodge the punch and counterattack, but was caught off guard by a sudden kick to the back, thanks to the skunk behind him. He stumbled forward, walked right into the awaiting punch, and tumbled backward. The other inmates started shoving him around like he was a plaything, all the while adding to his collection of bruises. He rammed his head into the skull of a weasel who was closing in on him with a punch, and then swung his leg around to kick the wolf in the stomach. Unfortunately, this only seemed to make them mad. Scourge felt a hand grip the back of his shirt, tipping him off balance. Smalls, having removed his fist from the wall by this point, ran up and punched him again, this time landing a hit straight in his gut. The hedgehog collapsed to his knees and coughed. He wiped a little bit of blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Hey! Break it up!" yelled a voice from above. One of the guards of the prison, walking above them on a suspended walkway, had his rifle pointed towards the group of inmates. Realizing their fun was over, the crowd began to disperse, some grumbling that they didn't get a turn, some laughing at the fact that the former king of Moebius had become nothing more than their punching bag.
"Happy birthday, Snot," Smalls laughed, giving the hedgehog one final kick in the side before walking off. Scourge slowly got back to his feet. 'That didn't go as well as I'd hoped,' he thought, spitting out a little more blood. He must have accidentally bit his tongue when he got punched in the mouth before. Fantastic. His mutation just had to have given him razor-sharp teeth. He exhaled. This wasn't one of the best birthdays he's had, that was for sure. He sat down on a bench in the corner of the yard.
'Man... I remember the birthday I had a few years ago. A permanent transformation thanks to the Master Emerald on Mobius was a helluva birthday present. Enhanced speed, more power… Not to mention a makeover. The day I finally became more than a cheap knock-off of Sonic.' He frowned. Sonic. His dimensional duplicate. His goody two-shoes, true blue twin. The one who had put him in the Zone Jail in the first place. Scourge couldn't stand the thought of him. The guy that everybody loved, the guy who always won, the guy who just had to be the hero at everything he did. The one who, somehow, had always managed to one-up him.
Of course, being alternate-dimension versions of one another, they were more similar than they would care to admit. Scourge cringed as the words Sonic once told him snaked back into his head.
"All it would take is a little bit of selflessness, a little decency... And you'd be just like me."
Scourge clenched his fists tight at the haunting memory. He detested admitting it, but Sonic wasn't far off from the truth. He could feel it inside of him. With his current lack of power, he just didn't have it in him to try anything evil or malicious. He was determined to not become a goody-goody, but he had a hard time identifying himself as a criminal, like the other inmates in the prison. Maybe it was the time spent powerless behind the bars, or the daily beatings, but he just didn't feel like he was one of them anymore. He was starting to see a tiny bit of Sonic in him- and THAT was scaring him.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He had caught himself thinking about the differences- or, lack of- between him and Sonic more and more recently. At least when he was getting pummeled, that was all physical. He could deal with that. When he was left alone with his thoughts? That could get just downright haunting at times.
'But why? Why am I so determined to be the biggest baddie, anyway? Just 'cause I'm the 'anti-Sonic,' I have to be evil by default? There's got to be some other reason!' he thought. He looked around the rec yard and frowned. 'Well, duh, it's because people respect me when I'm evil. No one cares about me unless they feel threatened by me. That's why I'm nothing but trash in this place. I can't do much to anyone without my speed, so they see that as a green light to beat me senseless.'
'Yeah, but Sonic doesn't need to intimidate to get respect,' said the little voice in his head. 'People respect him, power or not.' Scourge tried to squash the voice out, but that idea was implanted in his head now. Sonic had friends who stuck by him, not just temporary allies that turned on him when it suited them. Even when Sonic made a mistake, he always had someone there to back him up. On the other hand, one mistake for Scourge landed him in prison, with no sign of help coming. How big of a threat had he really been then, if none of his so-called "allies" even thought about busting him out of this joint? Was he really so negligible? Just another petty criminal who got too big for his boots, some egomaniac who crashed and burned? A washed-up has-been, even?
He tried to push the thoughts away, shove them into some distant corner of his mind, when the lunch bell rang. 'Perfect. Maybe some food will get my mind out of this rut,' he thought, standing up. He flinched. His midsection was pretty sore, and it was likely going to be black-and-blue in the morning. He wasn't even feeling particularly hungry at the moment. Still, he would do just about anything to escape from his little pity-party. He followed the crowd of people heading back inside, keeping his head low so as to not draw attention to himself. He wasn't in the mood for any more birthday punches today.
Soon, the green hedgehog was sitting down at an empty table near the back of the cafeteria, poking at his food with his plastic fork. Oh boy, generic slop- his favorite. Oh well, at least it was better than mud; Scourge had had his face shoved into the dirt more times than he could count, and he still hated the taste. He took a bite of his food, the lukewarm mush slithering down his throat. He shuddered and pushed the plate away from him with his fork. His stomach couldn't handle this garbage at the moment. Oh, what he would give for a chili dog right about then.
"Oh, there you are!" said a high-pitched voice coming from behind Scourge.
"We found you!" another one said. The former king cringed. He knew those voices all too well. He turned his head to see two short, cartoony-looking humanoids approaching him, looking all too happy to see him. He groaned as they sat down on either side of him, plopping their trays of food down simultaneously.
'Cal and Al. Fantastic.' Scourge was less than fond of the two strange beings. Granted, they were the only two people in the whole jail who didn't beat on him, but that was mainly because they were two of the only people weaker than he was. They meant well, but their over-the-top cheeriness and friendliness was just too much for the hedgehog to handle at any given moment, and they usually just made him feel worse about his current situation.
"What's the matter, ol' chum? Something got you down?" Cal asked in his annoying little voice.
"I was a freaking KING, for pity's sake. I shouldn't be getting smacked around like this," the hedgehog grumbled in response, looking straight ahead.
"Well, look on the bright side!" Al said, "Cal and I were gods back in our home Zone! And since you were only a king, that kind of puts it... in perspective?" He finished his statement nervously as Scourge glared daggers at him.
"And besides, it's your birthday, isn't it? The big 2-0! You should be celebrating!" said Cal, backing up his companion.
"Pfft. With trash like this?" Scourge scoffed, poking his "food" with his fork. "If I eat any more of this crud, I'm gonna blow chunks. How much you wanna bet that all my other dimensional twins are eatin' birthday cake and lounging around and having a grand old time while I'm stuck in here? Yeah, some birthday." He stood up and tossed his food in the garbage.
"H-hey, buddy, where're you going?" Al asked.
"None of your business," Scourge said, turning and walking out of the mess hall. He was really not in the mood to put up with Cal and Al at the moment. He would do just about anything to escape his self-pity party, but hanging around those two was not one of them.
'Buddy? Yeah, right. It's obvious that those two only hang around me because I'm more fun for everyone else to beat up. They're using me as a meat shield, for crying out loud.' Scourge exhaled and dragged his hand down one side of his face. 'Man, at this point, I think I'd rather be alone with my thoughts than get stuck with anyone else in this joint,' he thought. He turned left down the hallway, and headed in the direction of the prison showers. If he couldn't eat, he might as well clean the dirt and blood off of himself. Not to mention, the chances of someone bothering him in there while food was being served were minimal.
Approaching the shower room for the male inmates, Scourge poked his head in the door cautiously. Luckily, the room was empty, and he heaved a sigh of relief. He closed the door behind him as he entered. The room was more like a multi-sectioned hallway than anything else. The walls and floor were all tiled, and there were drains placed in the ground at equal increments. Seeing how privacy in the prison was close to non-existent, everyone pretty much showered in the open. He removed his boots and orange jumpsuit and placed them aside. Turning on the water, he stood under the spray and let himself get soaked. He didn't care that the water wasn't warm. It was still refreshing enough. He started to scrub the mud and dried up blood out of his fur. The cool water puddled around his feet, providing Scourge with a reflection of himself.
His reflection. His, and at the same time, not his at all. Even after his mutation triggered by the Master Emerald, he still looked almost exactly like his sworn enemy. Every time he looked at his own face, it felt as if Sonic were staring down at him triumphantly, declaring something stupid like, "Good always wins in the long run!"
Scourge chuckled to himself. "Huh, wonder if the good guy side is hiring. I could do with a nice victory or two," he mused. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the tiled wall, letting the water cascade down his spines, which had been cut short as soon as he arrived in the prison. 'Actually... In all seriousness, having people who actually gave a crap about me would probably be a pretty good deal. Even with all that responsibility that comes with the whole hero job, at least I wouldn't be alone.' He pondered the idea for about two seconds before rejecting the notion outright. 'Gah, what am I thinking! Changing sides? Pull yourself together, Scourge. You're supposed to be the fearless King of Moebius, not some pansy who needs backup and group hugs to make himself feel good.'
He shook his head. It felt like he was at war with himself; his common sense vs. his ego. Common sense dictated that life as a villain hadn't been exactly paying off, and that he did possess the potential to change. His ego, on the other hand, kept saying that being evil was just who he was, and that being imprisoned was just a minor setback on his path to power and glory.
Common sense asked why he needed power and glory in the first place.
Ego responded saying that he needed to be respected and honored.
Common sense retorted, stating that there was more than one way to earn people's respect.
Scourge clenched his eyes shut and stuck his fingers in his ears to try and block out the arguing voices in his head. "Shut up shut up shut up!" he yelled, bringing himself back to reality. He couldn't keep going like this. As if paranoia and weakness hadn't been enough, he could now add 'mental instability' to his list of side effects of being in Zone Jail. He sighed. He knew that if he thought on it long enough, he could decide once and for all whether being a bad guy was really still in his best interests or not. The problem was, he was afraid of willingly identifying himself as a good guy. It went against everything he knew, and he felt way out of his comfort zone even considering the idea. Even so… there were certainly perks to the good guy lifestyle. For one, he wouldn't be in jail if he were a hero. That was pretty much a given. But he could have friends, allies that would stick by him and not use him as a meat shield. People would respect him, even if he was powerless and weak. And maybe, just maybe, he would be able to win at something for once in his life.
The green hedgehog glanced back down at his reflection in the puddle at his feet. Maybe he was only the way he was today because of the cards he had been dealt. After all, he and Sonic were essentially the same in every aspect except their pasts and their attitudes. Heck, Scourge could have easily grown up like Sonic did, and he would have turned out to be a hero. If he hadn't been born on the Anti-Mobius, his life would have been completely different. It was kind of weird to think about. There were hundreds- no, thousands of Sonics in the multiverse. And he could have ended up as any one of them. The only reason they were all different was because they all grew up in different places. They all had the potential to be like one another.
Scourge had the potential to be like Sonic.
He shuddered at the thought. He wasn't ready for anything like that. Not yet. Maybe he would give the whole good guy gig a shot, though. After seeing how well being a villain had worked out, Scourge figured it couldn't hurt to try something new.
He shut off the shower, the water having turned from refreshing to just plain cold. Grabbing a fresh towel from the corner, he began to dry himself off. "Now..." he wondered aloud, slipping his clothes back on, "What does a guy have to do around here to get a shot at being the hero?"
Notes: Yes, if it wasn't clear, Scourge is going to be a good guy in this story. He sure won't have an easy time with it though, that's for sure. I've seen far too many fics where he suddenly switches sides with almost no thought. So hopefully my interpretation of him is true to his character!
We won't see Scourge or Zonic for another little while, though- the story's going to be switching back to Sonic and Co. for a few chapters. They have some Emeralds to find, and problems of their own to face! But once these two come back, they'll be back for the rest of the story, so don't worry. We'll see plenty of our favorite cop and murderer later on.
Thanks for reading! Reviews are very much appreciated, and I'll love you forever 3