Just so you know, this chapter was FUCKING ANNOYING to write. And, since I just joined the 100k club, and am about to embark on a different fanfic, I'll release a little something-something that may or may not be related to aforementioned fanfic. if someone PMs me the 100k word. HAVE FUN COUNTING DOWN FIVE THOUSAND WORDS.
CHAPTER 35: NO ESCAPE FROM REALITY
-...~open your eyes... look up to the skies and seeeeee...~-
Sonic landed back in his apartment closet, flying out of it and landing on his back. Sonic blinked once, and checked his body. He was still wearing the armor, and Caliburn was still sheathed inside the Scabbard. His vambrace still contained the hidden gun and blade. Quickly, he looked toward the book. The rope connected to him was still pouring out of it. Out came Percival, the first one on the rope, and as she flew toward Sonic, the King pushed her aside with his arm, as he required a clear area. Then came Gawain, flying off to the other side. Lamorak came flying out, and went right over Sonic. Then came Galehaut. Sonic rolled back and guided him over him with his foot. Next came Bors, which was dealt with the same way, with his other leg.
Sonic used the momentum to roll onto his feet, and he saw Galahad fly from the book. Knowing just what to do, Sonic took a step forward. Following Galahad was the foot grabbing menace, the demon from his dreams, who identified himself as -Mephalifisis- Mephiles. Sonic took a quick, sharp breath in, pushed Galahad aside with his left hand, and with his right, tore the demon from the rope, sinking the hidden blade into it's neck. As he did so, he slammed Mephiles onto the carpet floor.
Sonic reached for Caliburn, and looked at him for a moment. Although it seemed tempting to kill it with him, Caliburn was long and heavy, and such, slashing Mephiles would cause noise and cut through the walls in the cheap tenements which he lived in.
So quickly he dropped Caliburn onto the ground, and rushed to a recovering Gawain. He stole both the axes from his side, and returned to the demon, at his side. The axes, although essentially meat cleavers, were definitely lighter than Caliburn, not nearly as long, and they could be swung alternatively to increase the attack rate. -Excuse me for one moment, but I would like to set the moment with some fitting music: ~HEY EVERYBODY DID THE NEWS GET AROUND 'BOUT A GUY NAMED BUTCHER PETE? OL' PETE JUST FLEW INTO THIS TOWN, AND HE'S CHOPPIN' UP AAALLL THE WOMEN'S MEAT!~- Sonic, having experimented with how to kill Mephlies before, knew where to aim first: The neck. Sonic began to chop at Mephiles. He hacked, wacked, and chopped his meat.
Sonic's Knights watched from where they were as Sonic sunk in blow after blow quickly and more fierce. A those close enough noticed that his eyes were wide with fear and his breathing was faster than his chopping. Mephiles bled no blood, and seemed to have no organs, which was a major relief on Sonic's part. At the point Sonic realized that, Mephiles was cut like bread about ten times. His knights knew the situation was under control, but they couldn't peel their eyes from the scene. Sonic grew noticeably more tired with each cut after about thirty cuts in, and began to slow down. -Okay, enough of Butcher Pete.- Finally, at forty three or so gashes, Sonic backed away from the mangled corpse and sat against the wall of the closet, his heart pounding and his breath fast and heavy.
After a moment without it fading into the puff of smoke all Sonic's enemies for the past few days have, Sonic groaned. "Oh nooo... What do I DO with this?" Before anyone else could answer, he did. "This thing doesn't have blood or guts, so it shouldn't rot or smell. I'll get a refrigerator box and dump it somewhere..."
Sonic slowly rose to his feet, looking at his not-quite-as-shocked friends. "Well, you're here." Sonic slowly walked out of the closet. "My home."
The early medieval age warriors looked around the modern, shabby apartment. All around the room, there were pictures. Some were art to the kind they've seen, some weren't. Some where images that featured a few people with instruments on them. One piece was a patterned green, brown, and black machine of some sort with cartoon characters in seats inside it on a white backdrop, with the word "Gorillaz" scirbbled in red off to a corner. Bors was sure that the Warlock that had summoned the water spirit was in the seat with a wheel-shaped object in front of it. Another, one piece of art featured a creepy-looking man on a yellow background with moderately long hair that wrapped over his ears, grinning at those who looked at it. Also, a very large, post-apocalyptic piece of art, was taped across the sliding glass doors. Others were images of places the knights have only heard of in stories; the Sphinx, Greek ruins, the St. Basil's Cathedral, to name a few. There were other places, more exotic areas, that they couldn't guess where they were from.
While they curious knights looked at the room's walls, Sonic checked the clock.
7:02 PM.
He had spent a week in the book.
Every day he spent in the book, an hour passes outside of the book. Going by this, he assumed that when every hour passed, only two and a half minutes happened everywhere else.
At realization of this, he grinned, hardly containing the excitement that was contained inside of him as he speculated his future endeavors with this magical novel. -FUCK, YEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!-
"Okay guys, just sit down, relax, no need for the armor, and look at stuff. Don't touch anything!" Sonic ordered. "Just give me... ten minutes or so, I don't know."
"AFFIRMATIVE." Galehaut grunted, while everyone else nodded while in astounded by all the places he's been.
Sonic grabbed a marble notebook, and a pen, and quickly began to jot down words. After further investigation, he discovered every hour in the book translates to two point eight minutes outside. He eventually came up with a system that he could use for all his tests, and when he was finished, he closed the marble notebook, and hugged it briefly before putting it down and turning to his knights.
"Okay, guys, this will be hard to explain, but just bear with me." Sonic began, sighing.
Percival was laying on the bed, looking at the ceiling, also coated with pictures.
Pictures of Sonic and his friends.
"Does it have to do with these people?" She asked, dumbfounded at the fact that in one of the poster-sized pictures taped to the ceiling, she was standing next to the teen she met only days ago. Next to her was a rabbit girl she only met for a moment, along with the two tailed fox she identified as the Blacksmith. And another, a tropical island, with the Blacksmith fox, but with a new Racoon girl she's never encountered. Off to the side, there was a massive water-wheel ship with a sail over the deck, with a giant cannon, a multi-barreled contraption and an odd-looking machine with a flame held out in front of it.
To Sonic's dismay, not only was Percival looking at her real self, but as well as everyone else. Gawain was angered, to an extent, to see another Gawain alongside Sonic and a two-tailed fox, seemingly happy, in multiple images. Bors was looking at an image of Shadow and Sonic locked in a death glare, not sure what to make of it.
"You are never to meet these people."
All heads turned to the blue hedgehog suddenly, whose eyes were looking down at his shoes in slight shame. "I have a lot of explaining to do, but I'll say this first: Those aren't dopplegangers. You are."
Gawain stammered. "But-"
"LET ME FINISH." Sonic cut him off. "Now, I'm making this up as I go along here, but... You may be sentient. You may be real, living, breathing people. But, before... I know this sounds insulting, but again, bear with me, I believe you weren't, and I will explain why. Truth be told, I've been in that world before, similar things happened. I met Merlina, was told to fight Arthur and retrieve the Scabbard, I did so, she betrayed me, and I defeated her. And you all looked just the same. Unless you remember that first event and me, I'm probably right."
Sonic paused to hear any objectors. There weren't any.
"Alright, so I was right on the account of none of you recalling the previous incident, at least. I should say that I'm only going off of one test's worth of information, so I'm making this up as I go along." Sonic quickly got up and went into the closet. "Originally, you were created by a mixture of a cursed book that sucks whoever turns to the first page in and my mind's imagination, or lack of it." Sonic had returned with the book they had came out from only a few minutes ago in hand. "You are based off of the people in the pictures up on the ceiling."
"Sorry to interrupt, but, I don't see myself..." Bors interrupted.
"I haven't seen the real you in years, Bors." Sonic said. "His name was Mighty the Armadillo."
Bors scratched his chin. "... "Mighty"? I like it. A bit overzealous, but why not? I wonder what his parents were thinking..."
"Yeah yeah, whatever, moving o- wait no." Sonic stopped, thinking. "Mighty was strong, but he always preferred to fight as least as possible. A pacifist, maybe. Does that sound like you?"
"Yeah, that's me." Bors answered.
"Okay." Sonic turned to Percival, and thought for a moment. "You fight for your people and for justice, no?"
"I do indeed." Percival responded.
"Yeah, should have figured you and Blaze wouldn't vary much. Gawain, you seemed a bit over-protective about that dragon's treasure..."
In about an hours' worth of explanation, discovery, and loose end tying, the newcomers were fully aware of how they were created, the lives of their counterparts, and their real-life counterparts' interactions with Sonic. It was very hurried, so Sonic was afraid he had skipped over some important details.
"So, what do we do?" Lamorak asked, not too fond of being the counterpart of a loud-mouthed hoverboard-riding rogue. "We leave, and-"
"No, no and no. None of you are not leaving here like THIS." Sonic answered. "I'm going to go to the store, and get get you all PILES of dyes. You cannot be found out you are not them, you wouldn't answer the same, even though you are probably the same living creature. Percival, your counterpart has a severe case of Is-Not-Of-This-World, so if you're found out, BIG TROUBLE."
"WHAT ABOUT MYSELF, SONIC?" Galehaut questioned aloud.
Sonic, obviously not happy with his own answer, sighed. "Galehaut, due to the dangers of being noticed by your counterpart, new paint job or not, you are going to have to stay here until I find a way to smuggle you out without anyone noticing. You understand, right?"
"UNDERSTOOD." The large, burly robot said, his autotoned voice sounding disappointed.
"But, first thing's first." Sonic said. "That THING in my closet. I'm going to go get a refrigerator box and all the supplies you guys need. Again, look, but don't touch."
Sonic paced back and forth. He had boxed Mephiles' boneless remains and stowed them in the closet, -Guess you can say I don't have any skeletons in my closet.- along with the Scabbard. However he did not get any dyes or clothes. What he was currently debating on how he would change the people he brought out, so no one would find too much of a relation to their true counterparts. So far, the only thing that would define the difference between their true selves and them would be color, hair styles, false back-stories and personalities, essentially making them kinds of people he called "recolors." He doesn't like them, as many hedgehogs he has seen recently shared his general appearance other than colors, and most lie about everything they can do, while the rest exaggerate beyond reason. -Amy must be hugging the wrong person every day I don't see her. Poor girl needs contacts.-
"I'm probably on every government watchlist just for being me," Sonic rambled to himself. "So me ordering a bunch of clothes, including ones for females, and dyes to come from the mail would look very suspicious. And going to a store and buying all this would raise plenty of eyebrows."
"Perhaps an unofficial way of purchase?" Gawain suggested.
Sonic paused to think, looking at Gawain. "That's all this situation leaves me, if I ever want priva..."
It was only then when it had occurred to him that Gawain was an echidna.
And that Knuckles was supposed to be the last surviving one.
"... Oh... oh come on, man..." Sonic groaned, resting his face in his hands.
Gawain, worried that he said something wrong, asked what his trouble was. "What is it? Something I said?"
"No, something I forgot to say and you are." Sonic began to explain. "I forgot to mention that Knuckles is the last living echidna on the face of the planet."
Everyone in the room turned to Sonic and Gawain. Gawain felt as if he was left high and dry, hanging on a string over a staggering cliff. Sonic was moaning as if he had a headache.
"What am I going to DO with you people?" He whined, slowly dragging his fingers along his face, pulling open his bottom eyelid in the process. "I need a break. I can't think straight."
As Sonic walked toward the bed, he flicked his hand in a shoo manner. Those sitting on the bed got off before Sonic fell over onto the bed. He hadn't done too much today, but the anger the Scabbard had given him had doomed his day's quality. Then, he had to kill Mephiles inside his own home, and now that he's not connected to the hell of which he belongs, he cannot be whisked back and respawn there like all other underworld dwellers did. After that, he realized he had to disguise all of these people in such a way that they would not be confused for their real counterparts, even though one of them is a species that there was formerly only one member left of in his world. So in the end he was as clueless as a headless chicken in a maze when it came to getting his Knights out in the open without any finger pointing.
Maybe that can wait a couple of days. It's getting dark, his mind was cluttered with problems and if he had to get going, he'd have to do so with six people following. Sonic decided he wanted to know more about the book's magical properties, without going back into it. He wanted a simple, easy plan, other than "throw science at the wall to see what sticks". He wanted to find the person who had this book before Tails got it from him and gave Sonic the books. He shrugged as he guessed the best plan of action for doing that would be to call Tails, ask where he got it, saying that he wanted to read more.
So he grabbed his cell phone and began dialing the number.
"Tails, Tails, Tails..." He mumbled to himself under his breath. He had to get back into saying that name after calling him Smithy or Leon for a week. He stopped as soon as he heard Tails pick up.
"Hey Sonic. What did you call for?" Said the young voice from the other line. The blacksmith from the book was older, for whatever reason.
"Tails, I've been wondering, where did you get those books?" Sonic asked.
"The books?" Tails repeated.
"The ones you got me for my birthday?" Sonic explained.
Tails let out an "oh" as he remembered them. "I had gotten them from a place Amy told me about. It's the same place where she got her tarot cards." ("I bet it was," Sonic said while Tails was talking) "And, if you're looking to get more of them, you're lucky. It's actually a block away from you."
"You're kidding." Sonic said in an unsurprised and almost uncaring tone. -When really this saves me SO much effort.-
"It's called Aerea's Shop, I think. She's an old fashioned shop owner, that haggles and stuff like that. She sells all sorts of stuff, a lot of it being fortune telling and magic tricks. There was also a couple book cases, one of them labeled 'Special Editions'," -SPECIAL EDITIONS, DAMN STRAIGHT. If those were just SPECIAL editions, I want to see a god damn ULTIMATE RARE EDITION. Or maybe FIRST EDITION, or DIRECTOR'S CUT.- "so I thought I'd get you a book from there. You like it, I suppose?"
"Yeah, I can tell why they were special editions. They got me real immersed."
"Alright Sonic, anything else?"
"No, I'm fine. Thanks, Tails."
"No problem, Sonic. Bye!"
"Good night."
Sonic hung up, and put the cellphone by the dresser right next to the bed. He kicked his leg over the other, put his arms behind his back, and began to give orders.
"Bedtime, children," Sonic announced in a joking voice. "Or not. Whatever you want, really. I want to play some video games. I'm going to meet some lady tomorrow, ask a few questions, get some answers. After that, I'll see how I can get you guys out of my small apartment. Find some cozy place on the floor or in my closet, speaking of which I'll go in there, get you guys some extra blankets or a couple of my jackets."
He was tired, but his thoughts raced around his head. This Aerea woman sounds like a crazy old hag, maybe it's just because she owns a novelty magic shop with more that meets the eye. Whatever, she probably wasn't as bad as she sounded. Besides, she probably wants to help Sonic. Sonic's the savior of the world, after all. On several accounts. She has to give something, if not as savior of the world then at least as customer service.
-I'll go in, tell her "Your books are very immersive. It feels like I GOT SUCKED IN RIGHT FROM THE FIRST PAGE."and ask details on pretty much everything about the book. Then explain that I want to make my own little Batcave, with knights from the book as my dozens of little Robins. After that, I'll ask if these were magic stuff passed down from many generations, what's with the repetition of purple haired girls in the books, and what changes the story. I wish she enchanted those books, and it could work on anything. I doubt it'd work on music, though. But books, movies, video games... Man, what I'd pay to relive some of the times I had... People I met, things I've done... And do things differently. But sadly (or perhaps for the better) they won't effect my real life not one bit. While I'm there, ask if the quality of the story does anything. If it doesn't, I could write a terribly written book spanning my whole life in paradise and get her to enchant it. That shit would be CASH. And hell, if she doesn't do it right away, I GOT THE CASH. Living in a small apartment pays off, when compared to chilling in a massive mansion, as I've got all the money to pay her to enchant my stuff if she doesn't want to. I'm... I...-
-What the hell am I trying to go on about? I'm going to sleep now.-