CHAPTER 39: END OF THE BEGINNING

-BUUUT not yet. Everything is a lot to do, but I've still got my youth. Oh, and I'm gonna be taking this thing over.-

In reality, it's been a month since I've started working on this, but to me, it's been nine. Nine months of experimentation, finding flaws in people, finding how to fix them, or just plain old fooling around in the worlds that I chose. And, chronologically and physically, I haven't aged a bit faster than I should have outside of the book. Somehow. I asked Aerea, she said it was something to do with me being a real world object, but honestly she never really figured it out completely. "The details had been lost in time," she said. I got Aerea to "enchant" a couple things, had fun with them, did what I needed, and now business is booming.

The secret lair is really picking up. Enough rooms for a hundred people, although I don't plan on having a hundred people to look after and support. The lobby and throne are finished, and they're working on making their rooms comfortable until the guys with the wood come along and brighten up the place. Speaking of brighten, it's all lit up by lights, as thankfully the squad I chose to handle circuitry and plumbing read up on the books I gave them and understood them, even Gawain. If Gawain didn't get it, there would be a lot more trouble in hiding the wires. Speaking of electricity, the way we get our power is just so absurd, that if I told you you wouldn't believe me. So I'll give you how it started: I had these solar panels, and I wasn't sure where to put them that would look discreet, and to top it all off I was bored, so I took a hang glider, a solar panel, a bungee cord, and a computer running Minecraft off an enchanted external hard drive. Results were glorious. So glorious, that I eventually issued a couple more computers running off the same harddrive, and got a group of clones dedicated to extracting things from the game world into reality. I'm able to do this as the hole in the book doesn't close when the bungee cord is running through it. Because of time moving much faster in the book than in reality, this ended up with a lot of supplies being sent back up fast. You can see coal just lying around the base, and everyone has a gold bar. We're like dwarves down here, except instead of mines, we scrounge on other planes of existence.

As far as the whole "don't get found out" thing is going, it's going great. Some of them even managed to land jobs. I don't know how this happened. I'm pretty sure they didn't get around to getting new legal identities legally, but whoever seems to be breaking the law seems to be doing it for the better of the rest of the base, slipping them into society. I'm not sure what we're using to bargain with the guy that slips the identities in, or if he's doing it for free, why he's doing it, so I should probably find out more about this. I'm not one to stay on the off-side of the law, even though the law has screwed me over once or twice. They're decent morals. Because of the whole fake identity thing, one nice Galahad is right now reading up on stuff needed to set up an internet connection here. Maybe we can get some sort of redirecting IP or something like that. Others have been bringing in office supplies for me, like paper, pencils, that jazz. It's appropriate to say that I feel like a boss. Like a boss. Like a baws.

Let me go on about my throne room. On both side are things I've picked up along the way; the armor, instruments I bought, items I've found in chests, I even found and tamed a mimic. You know. It's like a chest, except when you open it, it tries to eat you. It's in a cage, in case anyone is tempted. At the other end of the room, there is my throne; it's pretty bad, though. Just a chair and a desk. I will improve it later on.

Behind the desk is a mannequin with a navy blue commissar cap and a coat to go with it. They're both very plain, not a lot of details, I'm supposed to be Sonic the Hedgehog, after all. Not a character for the next Final Fantasy game. That rules me out of belts and zippers all over the place. The only details is gold lining, and two white viper stripes on the back. I love them viper stripes. I cannot help but feel something's missing from the mannequin's outfit, though...

Anyway, behind that, is a waist-high wall-mounted shelf with three things on it, sitting upright: To the left, is "THE TOME OF ARTHUR", as I've written across the front. It's the book I wrote the experiments in, the results, who I brought out, who they're called, what they look like, what they do here, things like that. To the right, is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The book that spawned all of my knights. And, in the center, is Caliburn and the Scabbard. Along the way, Caliburn somehow managed to overcome the agitation the Scabbard can cause. But only him. I think I know how, but that's a story for later. Anyway, no one can touch any of the items behind the desk.

Well, that's my piece of it all. Allow me to delve deeper into the people I've taken from fictional stories and how I changed them.

First of all, I know the stories don't have to involve people I've met. Proof of this is Murdoc being that warlock guy. This means if I look hard enough I'll be pulling out people like Dante out. Or, I could come in with different things, or more people. I can't just think "oh, the next guy I see is an alien" and suddenly I see an alien walking by. I have to bring certain items or persons in with me in order to make a certain event happen. Allow me to provide some examples: Bringing in duplicates will cause every character to become paranoid result in spy-game shenanigans. Bringing in Tarot cards will create a Deck of Many Things somewhere in the world. Bringing in and armor and shield will result in everything having increased defense. This allows me to specifically pick out the kinds of people I want. Other times, it can help me challenge, or entertain myself; like I went in the King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table holding Demon's Souls, and in return the whole world had a lot of elements that came from Demon's Souls. And this other time, I went in while holding a copy of Sonic and the Black Knight, and all I got was fucking Xibit grinning at me for five seconds. It didn't even start the story, my mind rejected me going in there. There was nothing but "YO DAWG WE HEARD YOU LIKE STORYBOOKS..."

Anyway, with that said, onto the main kind of populace in the base. I swear, with the knights, it's like a twenty-four seven sitcom. The normal, large group with Galahad, Lamorak, and the others alone cause socializing down here to be pretty crazy, now add in clones of them all with slight differences between each other. The duplicates are more different than I expected them to be, although they are all still the same person. Because of the effects of bringing things in, I have more knights with specific attributes, such as defense and willpower. I have some knights who have an over-developed sense of vengeance, some with magical abilities, and one with the constant need to be at the top of their game. They will all have their uses, in due time. Also, as I go on, the process of creating a new knight's "new you" takes much longer, as their designs can't mix up with anyone else's. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, however they are all the same fucking person. Sooner or later, I'm going to have to be designing recolors.

But, as I've watched the base develop, I can't help but feel that I've changed. Maybe. Maybe I've grown used to this, being called "king". Maybe I'm becoming used to calling the faces of a two-tailed fox "Smithy" than "Tails". Maybe I'm spending too much time here, and I need to, well, get out more. Live my life again, put this aside for a while. I don't know how I would ever feel if I called Amy "Nimue", but if I had to guess, I'd say a little more bad than she would. I don't want that to happen.

That about sums up the brief history of the base. As I write how simply amazing it feels to be managing this community of fighters as if it were a well oiled machine in the Tome of Arthur, my cell phone began to ring. I was surprised it got reception down here, before dropping the pencil and picking up the phone. It was Tails. Good, I have a feeling this might be the beginning of my vacation.

And I proved myself from two paragraphs prior that I was right. "Hey Sm-" -FFFFFFFFUUUUUCK.-

"Huh?" Tails asked confused. "What was that?"

"What?" I questioned. With experience in the book, my lying became better. I could make false stories and make them meet ends pretty easily. I would have been a little bit more worried than I am now.

"That noise at the end." Tails

"Uh... something my mouth did, I guess? I'm drinking orange soda right now, so... yeah." I lied. "What'd you call for?"

Thankfully, he bought it. Tails trusts me. No reason to overreact over a little stutter like a grammar Nazi. "Yeah, I called because there is something very strange happening here at Emerald Coast. I'm getting some weird power reading from a storm. I'd like you to drop on by, in case things get out of hand."

I felt the tone in his voice. He probably wasn't kidding when he said strange things happening. Although it is average for strange things to happen when you're in my friend circle, this one seemed to stand out from the bunch. It could be something sinister.

"I'll be over there. How bad is it?"

"It's passively growing stronger. It'll be really bad in an hour, though."

"I'll be there in fifty minutes, then."

"Really, Sonic? That late?"

"Heroes always arrive late, Tails." -If you get this reference, you are cool.-

"Fine, fine. Just get here before you can't get here, it's pretty bad. Bye."

"See you Tails."

I hung up.

I couldn't believe I almost called him Smithy.

"That's it, I'm done here." I proclaimed to no one in particular, as no one else was in the room, sitting up from my desk. I grabbed The Tome of Arthur, and brought it over to my printer. I began to photocopy some pages. Specifically the rules I want my knights, but also basic information on the experiments on I've brought out, and where they are now. While printing, I thought about pulling a joke, making it seem as I was going insane while writing it. And then blow it off and say I'm fine and I did it all to mess with them on the next page. The ideas that came to mind seemed to overdo it, though. As the final page came out, I decided against it. That's also not too me, though. I've done some pranks, some almost scary, but that idea seemed a bit too much.

I skimmed through what I read extremely quickly, flipping through the pages. "Vanilla group... defining look... flipped and flopped between success and failure... final battle anthem... huge ass iron column-on-a-stick...БЕИ , pronounced BEI... Ragin' Johnny Fuklaw... passphrases... yup it's all there." I mumbled with satisfaction as I noted that none of the pages were hard to read.

I got up from my chair with the packet in hand, and headed out to the lobby, hoping to find some of the knights lounging. I did, there was a Lancelot, Galahad, Leon, and a Galehaut. I was about to walk up and ask the Galahads to deliver the packet to Percival, when I saw her walking out of the hallway. I turned to talk to her.

"Hey, Percival." I greeted.

"Yes?" She responded.

"I have stuff to do away from here." I answered. "Tell everyone else I'm leaving."

The fox was the first to question. "You're leaving? Really?"

Percival didn't have many questions. "So sudden?"

I sighed, somewhat questioning why the others in the room only watched. "Yeah, I know, but I've got more important things to, involving a friend of mine. On top of that, I believe I should be taking a vacation from all this stuff. It's wearing myself away from reality."

"Oh." Leon said. "I hope to see you soon."

"Yeah, more like a couple months." I admitted with a guilty voice. "It's only been a month for you, but for me? Half a year. Sorry, but this is really taking its toll on me, and I don't want it for a good amount of time."

They watched me as I head for the door. Percival followed me.

"And the packet?" She asked. I forgot I was holding it.

"Oh, yeah, this is for you." I said, holding it out to her. "Take it."

She did, looking at the front page.

"I'll update that packet when I feel like it." I said, opening the door.

"Bye." Leon the Blacksmith said.

"Be seeing you." An untouched Lancelot stated, almost uninterested.

"MAY YOU BE WELL OFF, SIR." Galehaut boomed. I can't NOT hear this guy in a crowd of people.

"Farewell, Sir Sonic." Percival said.

I was a bit underwhelmed. Starting up, I expected a big assembly for my leaving. But no, just everyone that was in the lobby at the time. I began to walk through the door. "See ya later, guys, and remember..." I was one step on the dirt stairway when I looked back to them, and said, "Stay gold."

With that, the door slammed shut, with a loud BANG.

I walked up the stairs, moving to the side of the plumbing pipe, and lifting the trap door. I opened the outhouse door, and securely shut the trap door, stomping it once or twice. I closed the outhouse door, and faced away from it. No one was outside working; it was all done underground now. Not a sign that there was people living a couple feet underneath their feet. Not a sign that I was involved with it all. All without a trace.

I suddenly recalled what was missing from my mannequin's outfit: the yellow scarf. I hadn't seen it since ballroom brawl on the way to Merlina's courtroom during my first experiment. For a brief moment, I wondered where it was.

As she read on, Percival lazily played with Sonic's yellow silk scarf with a finger. He didn't seem to notice he had it.

But only for a moment. It was just a scarf, a thin, yellow strip of cloth. But it was a cool yellow strip of cloth that I nearly broke someone's face for.

While I was there, thinking, I looked at my hands. I had control of an army of cloned people in my hands. Clones, whose original selves have fought against a man who is able to take up world domination schemes monthly, who were loyal to me, as their lives would have been reset if I hadn't brought them from the book. A loyal clone army, easily capable of taking over the world. And I had control over that.

I shook it off. I'm sounding like Eggman, here. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog now. I always was, I always will be, from now on. No experiments. No swords. No killing. Just me, being me, the true blue.

I looked around, admiring the colorful landscape. It was lush, green, slightly windy, and high noon. I loved this time of day. I wanted to admire it all for a moment. Maybe not a moment, I decided as I jumped my way out of the side of the crevice in the landscape.

With that, I walked through the Green Hill Zone, gazing around the luscious, beautiful landscape that brought fond memories, whistling the Green Hill theme.

Alright, that's about it for this one. I'm working on my next story, this time with less "Sonic slammed the Dragon Bone Smasher against Shadow's face, shattering it to pieces", less reference jokes, and more original gags and a plot not essentially stolen from a game. As you know, this entire thing is a piece of work weaved together from things in Sonic's imagination. Which is mostly cut and paste from other things. Anyway, it'll be a month or two before another fanfic comes out. Be seeing you.