Recursion Error

Episode 3- Sonic the Hustler


Sorun was almost blinded once again when sunlight finally hit his eyes. He just couldn't place his finger on what the problem was; it was almost like this world itself had more vibrant colors than the one he was from. Like every image he saw was sharper with colors that contrasted each other more heavily than things in real life ought to have. And while his eyes were still adjusting, it wasn't until he and Sonic had walked a long distance did he finally stop squinting.

"Maybe colors are just different in alternate universes," Sorun reasoned to himself. "I sure as hell don't know how this shit works. I didn't even know multiverse was a thing until today. How do colors work, anyways? Wavelengths or something like that? Shoulda paid more attention in science class."

The underground room they had left had, indeed, been an underground room, and upon exiting it Sorun had glanced behind him to see that, on the outside, it was little more than a small hill with a metal door on its side. He chose not to question it, and then decided to walk alongside Sonic in what proved to be minutes upon minutes of awkward silence.

Awkward silence that continued on as they seemingly walked whole miles until they finally reached civilization.

"Well, here we are," Sonic announced as they neared civilization's edge, stopping on a hill that overlooked the city below. "Knothole City. Our own little slice of heaven."

"It's... very wooden," Sorun commented.

"We live in a forest. What else are we supposed to use?"

It was a point that Sorun had wordlessly conceded to.

The place was certainly large enough to be a small city, or at the very least a large village. Wooden houses and buildings lined everywhere, with a giant castle right in the middle of it all. And on the outside of the village, and almost all sides, were trees upon trees that marked the dense forest the city was in. The only exception was the side near the back, in which dense forests gave way to large, rolling plains of grass that ran all the way out to the horizon where Sorun could see the sun beginning to set.

And down below Sorun could see that the place was packed with more Mobians. Mobians of so many colors and species that he gave up on trying to classify them all at a first glance. All of them milling about, playing around, and getting on with their lives with happy grins and smiles.

It looked so happy that, to Sorun, it was downright unsettling.

"Isn't there supposed to be a global war going on right now against that egg guy?" Sorun wondered as the two walked towards the city. "Everybody here seems... really happy, given the current state of the world."

"Eh. Fighting Eggman's a Tuesday around here," Sonic answered with a shrug. "'Sides, the Freedom Fighters keep most of that war away from here, and we do what we can for any other villages or settlements around that are under threat by him." The light grin on his face became slightly downcast. "But that's still a lot of people for us to help, and there's only so many of us. That's why we need help."

"I still don't think a random sixteen-year-old will be any help," Sorun said, but this only caused Sonic to look at him with a confused look in his eyes.

"What does age have to do with it?" he asked. "I'm sixteen, too, and me and my friends have been fighting Eggbreath since I was five. You get used to it."

It took a few seconds for Sonic's words to finally register in Sorun's mind, but when they did he actually stumbled in his footsteps. Sonic looked to him in concern, but stopped when Sorun held a hand up, straightened his composure, and then looked to Sonic with shocked eyes.

"Are you... you're serious?" Sorun gasped out in disbelief. "W-wait, so you're, like, some kind of child soldier? And this Eggman guy has seriously been a problem for over a decade?"

"Ehh... I wouldn't go as far as child soldier," Sonic corrected. "Me and my friends just fight for the people. That's all there is to it." His face grew serious. "And, yeah, we've been fighting him for that long. Technically. At some point down the line our old Eggman got swapped out for a new Eggman, but the threat's been there all the same. He's... really crafty. And while he sure doesn't sound like it, he really is an evil genius."

Sorun quirked an eyebrow in confusion. "Swapped out? What does- eh, don't answer, I don't care." By now the pair had finally crossed the edge of the city, and began walking past wooden houses and Mobians that, to Sorun's discomfort, began to stare at them as they walked through the city. "Don't you people have a government or an army or something to take care of the problem?" he asked the hedgehog. "Why in the world do a bunch of teenagers have to go and save the world?"

"Yeah, well, we used to have something like that, but Egghead's first act of ultimate evil was overthrowing the kingdom and dismantling it entirely over a decade ago," Sonic answered him. "And the thing is, the Kingdom of Acorn is pretty much the only real, official Mobian kingdom on the whole planet. Anywhere else is self-contained Mobian villages and cities with their own rules and pockets of Freedom Fighters."

"Oh, so you guys're pretty much all there is," Sorun said in a dejected tone. "This is making me even less confident, and I was already starting out at zero here."

Sonic just chuckled and elbowed Sorun's side softly. "Hey, no negativity here. Won't get anywhere with that attitude."

The human teen brushed the hedgehog off of him, but otherwise said nothing as the two of them continued to walk through the city.

"... Could be worse. At least everybody in this world is short like I am," Sorun thought as he looked around at the Mobians they passed. He went as far as to look at Sonic, and was pleasantly surprised to see that even the hedgehog was a few inches shorter than he was. "So this is what it's like being tall. Wonder what David would say if he saw me now. Probably something-"

Crack!

Naturally, a rock being thrown at Sorun's face interrupted his thoughts and caused him to crumple to the ground.

Groaning, Sorun held a hand to his forehead as pain spike through his whole head. He felt something warm and wet in the palm of his hand, and when he pulled his hand backed he saw a patch of blood right on his palm. Outraged, he looked up at the direction the rock had come from, and almost sputtered out in outrage when he saw what was- what he assumed due to their height- a group of Mobian children.

"Get out of here!" one of the children shouted.

"Yeah, get out you stupid human!"

"We don't want you here!"

"What the- Sorun! You ok-!?" Sonic had crouched down to Sorun's side to see if he was alright, but when the human teen looked up at him with wide, angered eyes, the hedgehog flinched back and nervously glanced between him and the children. "I'll go and deal with them," he said, "just stay here."

Sorun didn't even bother to see Sonic off before he looked down to nurse the throbbing head wound he had. "Hasn't even been a full day and people are already throwing rocks at me." He dabbed at the wound on his head again, and he felt more anger spike in him when he saw even more blood than last time. "Goddamn fucking kids, what the hell..."

The vast frustration he'd been feeling ever since he'd been thrown in this terrible situation had just begun to dull, too. He still felt it to an uncomfortable degree, but it was manageable at least, and he was able to keep it under control. But now there were people throwing rocks at him, screaming at him to leave, and he wanted to but nobody would let him leave-

"Sorun? You okay?" He felt a hand try and help him up, but Sorun, in his anger, growled out and shook the arm off him. "Hey, Sorun, come on, let me help."

"I've only been here an hour and I already hate this world and everything it stands for," Sorun angrily hissed as he rose to his feet. "I do absolutely nothing and the first thing that happens when I walk in your city is I get stoned? Are you for real?"

"They were just a bunch of kids," Sonic said, reaching out to help Sorun steady himself when his feet wobbled under him. "They're... Eggman doesn't really do your kind's image any good, you know? They're just frustrated."

"Yeah, you know who else is frustrated!?" Sorun yelled at him, but stopped himself from going further when he saw Sonic's eyes widen in concern. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and then faced his head forwards. "Whatever. Let's just go."

"Do you-"

"Let's go, Sonic."

He didn't bother to even turn around and look at whatever expression Sonic was making, and he made it a point not to look at him the entire rest of the walk to his house.


"Aaaand, there it is. Home sweet-"

"Don't finish that sentence."

The words died out on Sonic's tongue, while Sorun examined the domicile right in front of them. It was made of wood, like everything else, but what really intrigued him was the architecture of the structure. It resembled more of a wooden hut than a house, but was still house-sized and had modern implements like windows, a door, and even a chimney up on the roof.

It wasn't like anything he'd ever seen, and yet, he almost liked the niche aesthetic.

"It's not the worst-looking place in the world," Sorun admitted after a few seconds of silence.

His statement must have surprised Sonic, as he saw the hedgehog give him a surprised look from the corner of his eyes. This was followed by him forming a wide grin as a sauntered up to the front door, opened it, and then did a little wave with his arm before gesturing for him to go in. "Then by all means, come on in."

"So courteous," Sorun remarked while walking past Sonic and going into the home.

"Wow, it's... yeah, it's a house," Sorun thought as he heard the door shut behind him. "I mean, I don't know what I was expecting, but yeah. House."

The interior looked even more homier than his real home in his own universe, which admittedly wasn't saying much as his mother was never one for decoration, but this was genuinely impressive to Sorun.

He'd heard Sonic call out to his parents and heard the sound of his feet disappear deeper inside the house, but this was mainly ignored by Sorun as he wandered to the other side of the house and ended up in what he was fairly certain was a living room, as it was loaded with the works: rugs, chairs and sofas, bookcases, a fireplace, wallpaper of all things. It was such a different world on the inside compared to how humble the outside looked that it almost took Sorun's breath away.

"Okay, so maybe mom was crazy for being this weird minimalist-furniture person. I feel like I've been missing out now that I've seen all this." He lightly bumped into a table after doing some more walking, and he looked down to see a small drawer with a framed photo on top of it. "Family photo, huh?" he thought. "Let's see what we got here."

He brought the photo up to his face and flipped it around, wincing slightly when a bit of sunlight glinted off the frame and into his eyes. There were a total of four individuals in the photo, all blue hedgehogs that were smiling directly at the camera. And a dog, too. A completely normal-looking tan dog.

"Wait, so normal animals are a thing here? Huh." Strange, but good knowledge to have. "So we got Sonic, Sonic but he's old and has a mustache, Sonic but with hair and breasts, and Sonic but he's- what the fuck?"

Now, he wasn't an expert on Mobians. It was a word he'd learned about an hour ago, and a term that related to a species he had just now learned about. And based on his observation, "Mobian" seemed to be a large umbrella term that referred to any of the talking animal people here, because he was fairly certain most of the Mobians he saw outside weren't hedgehogs.

He was also pretty damn certain there weren't any animals in nature made of metal, which was why Sorun was struggling to understand why the fourth blue hedgehog in the photo he was looking at looked like a robot shaped like a hedgehog.

"... Yeah, no, I don't get it," Sorun decided. At the same time he thought this, he heard multiple pairs of footsteps begin to approach, so he decided to set the family photo down and turn towards the sound of footsteps.

"Sorun?" he heard as a blue, spiked head appeared around the corner. "Sorun, where'd you- oh, there you are. So how are you finding the place?"

"It's fine," Sorun answered, and he could help his eyes momentarily flicking down to the family photo before going back up to Sonic. "So why did we come all the way to your house?" Sorun asked him. "I get you wanna pick the 'join the Freedom Fighters' thing back up after I calmed down, but you seriously brought me all the way to your house for that?"

Sonic nodded, and then pursed his lips as he clasped his hands together. "So here's the thing," he said as he extended both of his index fingers at Sorun. "Like I said, you need somewhere to stay for the time being, and we don't really have a lot of space lying around."

"You were serious about that? The 'sleeping at your place' thing you said?"

"Yeah, space isn't really a thing we have right now," Sonic explained. "But I just so happen to have a spare bed in my room."

"Oh, don't tell me-"

"So I thought you could get to stay with me!" Sonic finished while spreading his arms out to gesture to the whole house. "You know. Until we get you home. So I brought you here so you could get to know the place and meet my parents so they'd be okay with it, too."

Sorun sighed in response, and then rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "... Fair argument," he admitted. "Yeah, I don't really have anywhere else to go, so sure. Guess I'll stay. Your parents?"

"Oh!" Sonic snapped his fingers as realization hit him, and he ducked back around the corner before coming back a few seconds later. "Yeah, he's in the living room," he called out. "Come meet him!"

There were some shuffling sounds as three figures stepped into view, and Sorun recognized them as the same people as the ones he'd seen in the photo. The female hedgehog, the old hedgehog, and the robot.

It was the robot that Sorun focused on in particular, half because he didn't know what it was, and half from being genuinely curious at seeing a robot for the first time in his life, though his staring must have been noticeable as the others began to grow uncomfortable. It was the same size and proportion as the other hedgehogs, and even the same blue color, but metal. He had a spherical head, and his eyes were replaced with black sensors with red lights and a mouth that was more of a movable grill than a mouth.

But then Sorun's eyes wandered to the top of his head, and just barely managed to contain the chuckle that threatened to leave him when he saw metallic toupee bolted to his scalp. He masked his slip-up by clearing his throat, however, and then pointed to the robotic hedgehog with a questioning look in his eyes.

"I feel like I'm missing something here," he said. "Sonic, uh, what's... what's up with the robot?"

"Huh? Oh." Sonic turned to the metallic hedgehog, with continued to give Sorun a gormless stare, and then turned back to the human. "That's my dad."

"Ah." Sorun nodded, and then looked to Sonic. "So... you're half-robot, then? Wild."

A beat of silence went through the whole group, with the hedgehogs all looking nervous while Sorun continued to look between them all with increasingly-mounting confusion. He eventually opened his mouth to say something, but was beat to the punch when sound left the robot's mouth.

"He isn't half-robot." The smooth, metallic voice coming from he robot's mouth nearly made Sorun jump up in surprise, but other than his eyes widening, he managed to stay calm. "I was a full flesh-and-blood hedgehog when I conceived my son. I was turned into a robot afterwards." His metallic legs carried him forwards in front of Sorun, and he extended a hand tipped with sharpened, metal fingers to him. "I am Sonic's father, Jules."

Sorun was still lost, but managed to raise his hand to the offered one. "So you're, like, a cyborg? Or something or other?"

A long, distorted sigh rang out of Jules' speakers as his arm jerked up, down, and then lowered back to his side. "No. I'm not a cyborg. I was fully turned into robot when I was subjected to a robotocizer," he explained.

"... Mh-hm." Sorun blinked, slowly nodded his head, and then looked to Sonic for help. "Sonic, what's a roboti... whatever?"

"Oh, yeah, I probably should have warned you beforehand. Sorry about that," the hedgehog apologized as he stepped between the human and the robot. "So my dad," he began while gesturing to his father, "got put in one of these things called a roboticizer. It turns people into robots."

Sorun clicked his tongue in mild understanding. "You're skipping a few steps here. S-so it put his brain into a robot body?" he guessed. "Nah, man, that's still technically a cyborg."

"No, Sorun, it..." Sonic sighed, and then rubbed at his forehead as he took in a breath to try again. "The roboticizer turns you into a robot. Completely. You go from being a normal person to a robot person in a second." He snapped. "Like that."

"... I need to sit down for that one."

The teen found himself collapsing into the nearest couch before holding a hand to his head to steady himself. He mentally took note of the unsure looks the others in the house were giving him, but they were largely ignored as Sorun mentally processed Sonic's explanation in his head.

"So the whole body? So just, the brain and all the neurons and blood and organs and... all that, into robot stuff? Man, that's just... man." Insanely impressive was what it was. He wasn't an expert on biology. Boy was he not an expert in biology. But he knew enough to know that an organic body was a host to a nightmarish amount of chemical releases and bio-mechanics and neurological functions to know that successfully converting all of that to an artificial state and having it still work was mind-boggling.

And that was even considering the chemical aspect of it! Turning the organic elements of the body to whatever elements Jules was made of right now seemed almost miraculous. Or the computing power needed to compute what was sure to be an absurd amount of data, or the energy required for that kind of conversion. It all seemed magical.

Just how technologically advanced was this world, anyways? There had to be some, considering they made the inter-dimensional portal that brought him here and he was staring at a real-life robot, but if there actually was amazing technology like that the literal wooden city he found himself in sure wasn't showing it.

"I'm sorry if I'm freaking out, it's just, I, I don't think my world's technology curve ever made it the same distance this one did," Sorun explained as he continued to rub at his head. "I mean, this is all just... I've been getting hit by stuff all day, so I'm kind of slow at thinking right now, but I... it seriously turns you into a robot?" he muttered to himself. "That's crazy. This world is nuts."

"If my appearance is making you uncomfortable..." Jules started, but then paused when Sorun looked up at him. "I can step out for a bit," he offered, "at least until you-"

"No, no it's not- geez, I'm looking super insensitive now, aren't I?" Sorun asked himself to his growing embarrassment. "I've never seen a real robot, you know? My place didn't really have anything like that, so it's this on top of everything else I mean it really- ow!"

In his vigorous rubbing of his forehead, he'd accidentally aggravated the head wound he'd received when a rock had been thrown at his head. Now blood was beginning to flow down his forehead again, and the throbbing pain from having a wound on his forehead was beginning to return.

"Oh, my goodness!" The next thing he knew the female hedgehog of the bunch, the one he assumed to be Sonic's mother, was right in front of him and turning his head with her hands as she examined the wound on his head. "What happened to you!?" she asked in a shrill voice.

Sorun, who was too bewildered by the sudden action to even attempt to pry her off, only managed to respond in a dulled voice, "Some kid threw a rock at me."

"And you've been walking around with an open wound ever since!?" she screeched at him. "Ahh, we can't have that! What if it gets infected!?" She began to turn his head with more fervor. "Ugh, boys, I swear you're all the same. We're taking care of this right now."

"H-hey, wait a sec-" Sorun protested.

"I have a medical kit in the bathroom, so just stay here and we'll get this sorted in a jiffy."

"Hey-!"


While Sorun was being medically attended to in the other room, the other three hedgehogs had decided to migrate towards the kitchen in the next room to talk among themselves about the human guest in the house. Sonic had seated himself in a chair at the dining table, while the older hedgehog chose to sit down in the seat across from him. Jules chose to lean on the nearby counter while occasionally sneaking glances into the next room at the human sitting on his couch and his wife who was fussing over his head wound.

"So what do you guys think?" Sonic asked, which drew back Jules' focus. "About Sorun?"

There was a heavy sigh from the mustached hedgehog across from him. "Sonny, I'll admit that when you and the Freedom Fighters pitched this 'pull a mystery hero from another zone using the Chaos Emeralds' when you all needed my help with the portal, I was a bit... wary of the idea. And I'll admit that I certainly didn't think a young man like that would come through."

"What my brother is trying to say," Jules voiced, "is that he's a bit underwhelming. And a human to boot."

"Okay, yeah, fine, so he wasn't at all what we were all expecting," Sonic agreed. "I'll admit that much." He turned to the older hedgehog. "But come on, Chuck. I know he's looks really rough around the edges, and he hasn't been, well, the nicest guy ever, but I'm telling you it's just all the culture shock! We pulled him into a completely new world and he's just freaking out over everything, so it's making him all weird!" He pointed to his metallic father. "I mean, you heard him! He's never even seen a robot before! He's trying really hard to adjust to all this, and you two aren't giving him enough credit!"

A sound much like a contemplative hum came from Jules' speakers. "I'm trying to be objective here and not let personal bias get in the way," he told his son. "That being said, we haven't had the best luck when it comes to trusting humans. Or Overlanders for that matter."

"We just don't want to see the same thing happen to you," Chuck supplied.

But Sonic just shook his head and held a hand to both of them. "I can understand why you'd have a hard time trusting anybody after everything Robotnik did, but Sorun's not like that!" he argued. "Plus I've met tons of cool humans and Overlanders in my time! Station Square was full of friendly humans. Hope made friends with everybody during the time she was staying in Knothole. Nate, you forget Nate?"

"We're not saying completely honest and nice humans and Overlanders don't exist," Jules said, "we're asking if you think Sorun is one of them."

Sonic made the motion to respond, but stopped himself halfway as an unsettled feeling overtook him. He made an unsure hum, and then leaned over on the table as his father and uncle patiently awaiting his response.

"He's... really not taking his situation well," he began. "He wants nothing to do with any of this and just wants to go home. And he's... he's angry, you guys, and this is coming from a guy who's friends with Knuckles." He let out a chuckle at the little joke, but it quickly tapered off into a sigh before he continued. "He screamed at me and Tails and wouldn't even look at anybody else. Those kids threw that rock at him and he had this look in his eyes that made me really worried."

"Did he do something to aggravate the children?" Jules asked. "If he starts attacking children-"

"He didn't do anything, dad. We were just walking when the rock hit him," Sonic answered. "But, he calmed himself down before he did anything bad. And he hasn't gotten physical with anybody yet, even though I'm pretty sure he wants to. I know it doesn't look like it, but so far he's been really patient. He's been really temperamental and short with everybody, sure, but I think he's really trying. And at the very least he's not calling us all 'filthy animals' like most Overlanders would, so he's already got that going for him, especially since this is his first time meeting Mobians." He crossed his arms with a huff and turned his nose up. "That's good enough for me," he declared. "You'll see. I'm sure he's a really great guy. He's just a bit lost right now." He opened his eyes, and his head tilted down slightly. "And I want to help him," he added, "because it's our fault he's in this mess in the first place."

A beat passed between the three of them, and the two older males looked at one another before a collective sigh rang out from the both of them. "Do you think he would at least make a good Freedom Fighter?" Chuck questioned.

"Huh? Oh. Uh... eh-heh, 'bout that..." Nervously, Sonic began to tap the ends of his index finger together while looking back and forth between his father and uncle. "Sorun says he can't really fight. At all."

Chuck's limbs went limb and his head lolled back in disbelief. "Oh, Sonic...!"

"But-but-but! But! We don't know what he's capable of yet!" Sonic defended. "Maybe he's super smart like you or Tails or Rotor, or he's really good at doing... something, but just doesn't know it! And even if he isn't, we can, I dunno, train him up!"

"'Train him up'," Jules repeated. "Are you going to have time to do that in between all your missions battling Dr. Robotnik?"

Sonic's smile fell. "Well, not really," he said, "But he can... we'll... we'll think of something," he claimed. "Just give him a chance. It's the least he deserves."

The other two hedgehogs didn't look nearly as convinced as Sonic was, and it showed when Chuck sent a withered looks towards his mechanical brother. Jules' response was to give a shrug, which made Chuck roll his eyes and focus back on Sonic. "You've always tried so hard to see the good in people, Sonic, and it hasn't steered you wrong yet. So I suppose we can trust your judgement on this," he told him. The teenage hedgehog looked excited enough to jump up out of his seat, but Chuck held a hand out to stop him. "Just keep an eye on him for us?" he asked. "I don't want something bad to happen just because he lost his temper."

"Aw, Sorun isn't like that. It'll be fine!" This time Sonic did jump out of his eat, and his feet began to carry him toward the living room as he looked behind him and flashed his uncle a grin. "I'm gonna go see how he's doing. Guy's probably losing his mind hanging around mom for so long."


This wasn't how he pictured his day going.

Admittedly, none of what had happened in the last hour or so was what he pictured happening to him today, or ever in his life. He would have laughed off the very idea if he ever thought of it. But it happened, and while he thought he was coping well enough with it, it was also taking all the mental fortitude he could muster to not fall apart at the seams.

Even then he wasn't entirely confident he'd be able to avoid that.

But having a blue woman dote on Sorun while he fidgeted nervously on said woman's couch was a new one for him. Mostly because nobody had ever been this... attentive to him before. Not even his own mother. He loved the woman, but that didn't help the fact that she was as emotionally stinted as her own son. The most she'd ever done when he got hurt was throw band-aids at his face or drive him to the hospital.

Maybe there was something to genetics after all.

"I hope my son has been treating you well so far," Sonic mother asked as she continued to tend to his forehead. "He means well, really, but sometimes his enthusiasm can prove to be a bit much."

Treating him well. Was one of the people directly responsible for bringing him to this world treating him well? Sorun would have laughed if he didn't feel so flustered right now. On the other hand, even Sorun could see that he was trying really hard to make things easier for the human, so he couldn't blame him entirely. It didn't change the fact that Sorun blamed him a lot, though.

"That's a hard question to answer," he settled on.

"I see." She reached up to stick a bandage above his left eye where the cut was, and then stepped back with a satisfied sigh. "Well, you should be fine now. And Sorun?"

"Mm?"

"I know that you may be a bit frustrated at your current circumstances. I can't begin to imagine what you're going through, but try to give Sonic and his friends a chance? They mean well and are just trying to do the right thing. I just don't want what they did and what the children who threw that rock at you did to paint a bad light on us all."

"Don't worry, lady, it already has." Sorun's response caused her to grow a worried look in her eyes. Sorun, seeing the change in her expression, averted his gaze and sunk further into the couch while crossing his arms. "But you're not so bad," he added. "Thanks. For the... y'know, forehead," he mumbled under his breath.

He had looked away so much that he wasn't able to see how she reacted to what he said, but by the time he chose to look the female hedgehog had already walked away to a different section of the house. Sorun took it as a sign that he could finally be alone with his thoughts, but not even five seconds passed after receiving this idea before he felt something touch his angle.

Sorun breathed out a sound of surprise, and then looked down at his feet. His shoulders relaxed immediately when he saw that it was a small dog, the one he'd seen in the family photo, nudging his leg with its nose before looking up and panting happily at him. The teen leaned back into the sofa, and the dog took that as a sign to leap up onto his lap and bark lightly at him.

"You're the most normal thing I've seen since coming here," Sorun muttered to the dog as he scratched it behind the ears with one hand. "You're not gonna throw any rocks at me, are ya, buddy?"

The dog barked at him again.

"Good dog." He gave it one final pat on the head, and the dog yipped at him happily before turning around and leaping off the couch. At the same time Sorun felt the space on the couch next to him decompress as a blue hedgehog hopped next to him while giving Sorun another grin.

"I see you met Muttski," he commented, and Sorun scoffed out a single laugh at the name. "He says he likes you. Also says you smell kind of weird, too, but eh," he shrugged, "you're from another zone, so what are you gonna do?"

Sorun nodded in agreement, but paused halfway and slowly turned to Sonic. "Wait, he actually said that? You understood him?"

Sonic rose a blue eye ridge. "Yeah?" A beat passed, and he opened his mouth in an "oh" of understanding. "Yeah, no, talking to animals isn't something normal Mobians can do," he explained. "It's, heh, it's kind of a long story, actually." He pointed at one of his triangular ears. "You see, there was this one time I got lost in space, and these nice aliens I met installed this universal translator in me so I could talk to other aliens into helping me get back to Mobius. It doesn't really come out."

The black-haired teen's response was to give Sonic a deadpan stare as his mind tried and failed to catch up with the explanation. "I'm just gonna pretend that made sense," he muttered. "There's aliens too, now? Seriously? I mean, I guess this is all technically alien, but still... space aliens? Goddamn."

It seemed like every five minutes now this universe was trying to break him mentally. And it was working.

"Sorun?" Sonic waved a hand in front of his face, and the sudden motion startled him out of his frozen stupor. "You okay?"

"... Not really," he mumbled. "Still coping with this all."

"Ah, right, right. Cool." Some moments of silence passed between the two of them. "Hey, Sorun?"

"Mh?"

"Could you, uh..." Sonic's hand went to the spines at the back of his head, and he began to nervously run his hand through them as he looked to Sorun's direction. "Could you at some point talk with Tails? And maybe, you know, apologize to him?"

Sorun's eyes met Sonic's gaze with a questioning look. "Tails? Which one was-" His expression soured. "Oh, you mean the guy that pulled me in?"

Sonic nodded. "I know out of everybody you're the most upset at him, and I can totally get that, but Tails was really hopeful in that tablet, you know?" He looked down as his pet dog hopped on the couch between them, and then began to absentmindedly rub at its back. "I think it's 'cause I was the one hyping everybody up about it," he elaborated, "and Tails really looks up to me, so he was really hopeful, too. He feels terrible about what happened with you, and as strong as he is, he's just eleven, so... could you just talk to him? Say sorry for yelling at him and forgive him over the whole dragging thing?"

"So you want me to lie to him?"

Sonic's face fell. "You're really that upset at him over it?"

"A little bit, yeah," Sorun replied in a sarcastic tone, though he sighed when Sonic's mouth downturned even lower. "... He's seriously only eleven?" he asked.

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. Eleven."

And suddenly, Sonic looking so mad when he went off on Tails made sense to Sorun. He screeched at a child. The knowledge alone made Sorun cringe on the inside. "Okay, I admit that screaming at an eleven-year-old wasn't my... smoothest move." By far probably one of the worst moves in his life now that he really thought on it. "I guess I should go talk to the guy. Eventually. When I feel like it."

He'd would never feel like it, but Sonic didn't know that.

That caused the hedgehog's face to brighten up considerably. "Aw, that's great! Thanks!"

"Don't mention it. Seriously, don't." With a slight groan, Sorun rose up off the couch and stretched his arms above his head. "Could you, uh... show me that bed? I'm super tired from the everything."

"Oh! Oh, yeah, of course." Sonic jumped off the couch and waved for Sorun to follow him. "Yeah, it's just down the way over here. Come on."


He didn't really know what to expect after going into Sonic's room. Half of him expected for tentacles or something to come out of the door and grab Sorun, because really, that would just be par for the course with how today was going.

But no, Sonic's room was, by all means, a normal room. So normal that it looked even more normal than his own room on Earth, which to Sorun felt like the first breath of fresh air since he got pulled into a new universe.

It was certainly messy like his own room, that was for sure. Random comics, sports balls, and other odds and ends were randomly scattered all around the floor, and there was a study desk int the corner with so much dust on it that Sorun had to wonder if it was ever even used. And a closet that was full of disorganized clothes, even if those clothes were just pairs of gloves and socks.

"I really gotta ask about the whole 'they only wear shoes and gloves' thing eventually," Sorun thought to himself as he looked around the room. "I get they have fur that covers everything, but damn, it feels super awkward hanging around with a bunch of naked people. And I swear I saw a couple people out there with a shirt or something. I KNOW clothes exist here."

But those were questions for later. Because right now he was too tired to deal with anything else.

"Yeah, it ain't much, but it's mine," Sonic said as he flopped onto- Sorun barked out a laugh- a blue race car-shaped bed, and then pointed to a normal bed on the other side of the room. "That one's yours," he said.

"Race car bed, huh?" Sorun asked as he trudged towards the bed. "You didn't strike me as the type."

"I like anything fast," Sonic answered. "And race cars are cool."

Sorun hummed, and then flopped down on the spare bed. He laid still for a moment as his body sunk into the mattress below him, and then he turned his head to Sonic's direction.

"It's great all the furniture is my size," he commented. "I was kind of worried about that."

The hedgehog looked at him, and then made a sound of understanding. "Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that. You're kind of short for a human, huh?" he asked. "I've seen a ton of humans, and they're usually way taller than Mobians."

"... Oh, they aren't short here, huh?" Sorun mumbled, a disappointed lilt to his voice. "The short thing's, uh, just locked in for Mobians. Great."

"Yeah, they're-" Sonic stopped, and a wry grin began to grow on his face. "Wait. I thought all humans from your zone were our size. Are they not?"

"Shouldn't have opened my mouth..." Sorun groaned, but it was too late as Sonic had already sat up in his bed.

"Are you just a short human?" he teased.

An indignant groan left Sorun, and he turned his back to Sonic while placing his pillow over his head. "You can't talk. I still have a few inches over you. I'm going to sleep."

He could close his eyes, but he could close his ears to the teasing laughter that resounded off the walls of the room.


Sleep never came to Sorun that night.

It wasn't like he didn't make an effort of it. He'd been as still as possible, he'd kept his eyes closed, and he tried to clear his mind to calm himself down so he could go to sleep.

But he couldn't become calm. He couldn't go to sleep when he was already living in this nightmarish situation he found himself in. So when hours had passed and he couldn't find himself being able to sleep, he'd turned to staring up at the ceiling he could barely see because it was so dark.

Thoughts of home and Earth hit him. Those were followed by him replaying the events that had brought him to this bed over and over again, and his mind kept going to the Freedom Fighters who decided to drag him to this world. To Tails, who had been the one who actually physically dragged him to this world against his will. To Sonic, who kept trying to convince him to join the Freedom Fighters when he didn't want to.

He really, really didn't want to. He didn't want to fight. He didn't want to risk his life. He didn't even like these people. In fact, it may have been more accurate to say he disliked them, and that said a lot considering he only knew a few of their names.

"'Ah, it's fine, Sorun. Fight the robot army. It'll be fun!' Pfft. Right." His head rolled in Sonic's direction. He'd fallen asleep shortly after Sorun attempted to fall asleep, and was resting motionless in his race car bed. "Hah... yeah, I'm not doing this," he decided. "I'm getting out of crazy town."

Sorun's feet swung out from the bed and slowly pressed against the floor. He tensed up in preparation for the floorboards underneath him squeaking, but let out a silent sigh when no squeak ever came. He tiptoed his way towards the door of Sonic's room, looking back at the sleeping hedgehog every five seconds to make sure the hedgehog was still sleeping before making it to the door. The door knob was turned, the door was opened just far enough for Sorun to slip through the crack, and once he was on the other side the door was left as it was for fear of making too much noise.

The rest of the house, just like Sonic's room, was completely dark. Across the hall he exited into, Sorun could see another door that was completely closed, and automatically assumed it was the room Sonic's parents were sleeping in. He didn't see where the other, older hedgehog was, but seeing as the entire house was dark he figured it was safe to assume the entire household was asleep.

Perfect for him. Nobody being awake meant that there was nobody to stop him from leaving. He just had to get out of here.

Fortunately, he had a solid memory of the house's layout, and, being a small, one-story house without a attic or basement, it was fairly easy to navigate past the small halls in order to sneak his way towards the house's main entrance, all while making slow, methodical steps and keeping his stance wide and crouched to make as little noise as possible.

The problem came when he passed a corner that lead into the living room, when the exit he sought was right in front of him. The problem was he caught Sonic's dog, Muttski, sitting on the dog bed in the living room. And the dog was staring right at him.

"Aw, that ain't good," Sorun thought as concern began to well up in him. "If he barks, it's over. Is he gonna bark? I don't know! Maybe he'll just ignore me if I leave and- hold up. Is that...?"

There was a small shelf nailed to the wall near the ceiling above him that Sorun's eyes just so happened to wander to. There were a few photos and other knick knacks on the shelf, but what drew his eyes was a small, purple cardboard box with an illustration of a happy dog and and a small, artificial bone.

"Jackpot..." he whispered, and then reached towards the box. His suspicions were confirmed when Muttski's ears rose up and he tilted his head to the side. Sorun grabbed the box, rattled it to the satisfying sound of hearing objects bounce around inside, opened he box, and reached in to grab the first thing he felt before pulling it out.

Upon closer examination once he put the box back where he found it, he concluded that, yes, it was a dog treat. A small, bone-shaped treat made out of something he couldn't care less about as long as it would distract the dog long enough for him to get out of this mad house. Just what he needed.

"Tactical treat toss," Sorun hissed silently as he lightly tossed the dog biscuit. It hit the ground right in front of Muttski, who began to wag his tail as he got up off of his bed to assault the treat that had been offered to him. The dog let out a little yip as it began to eat the treat, and while this happened Sorun sneakily walked his way to the door, opened it as quietly as humanly possible, and then closed it behind him while making sure to keep the knob turned to make sure it didn't click upon the door closing.

After releasing the doorknob so it silently closed the door, Sorun took a shaky step backwards from the house's front porch and into the lawn, looking at the windows to make sure no lights would come on to signify somebody knew he left. When the house remained dark, he looked to his left to make sure there was nobody there to see him, and then to his right. Nothing but silent houses all around where he looked and empty streets.

"Huh. I'm home free," he thought to himself. "Neat." A small laugh left him, and his head tilted up to the sky. "Now I just gotta get out of- wait wHAT HAPPENED TO THE MOON!?"

He hadn't seen it before, as the sole window in Sonic's room hadn't had an adequate angle, but now that he was outside and looking up Sorun got a full view of the moon hovering up in the sky. He also got a great view of the fact that a large chunk was missing out of its side, like something had punched a piece right off of it.

"... Yeah, I'm making the right choice here. This world's insane. I'm getting out."

It was without any fanfare or celebration whatsoever did he turn around and stark to speed-walk out of the neighborhood of houses that Sonic and his family lived in while absolutely refusing to look back up at the sky. He walked in a straight line past homes, market stalls, and other wooden structures. He kept his eyes straight and forwards as he made his way out from Knothole and to the edge of the city.

And to the edge of the city he made it, with all the wooden structures behind him and grassy fields and trees ahead of him. Freedom away from all the craziness behind him, and a threshold that Sorun was more than happy to cross.

"Nice night for a stroll, huh?"

Unfortunately he only got two steps in before that voice stopped him cold.

The human teen had froze mid-step when he heard that voice, and then hissed through his teeth as he turned his head towards the sound of the voice. His fears were confirmed when he saw the familiar blue form of Sonic a few feet away from him, leaning on a tree with his arms crossed. The hedgehog was smiling, but something about the way he large, green eyes were slightly narrowed told Sorun that he wasn't exactly happy at the moment.

"... Yeah man, totally," Sorun said as he fully turned to the hedgehog. "I couldn't get any sleep, so I just stepped out for a bit and..." He trailed off when Sonic's eyes narrowed further, causing him to sigh and slump his shoulders. "Okay, I was running away," he finally admitted.

"Sorun..." Sonic sighed as he pushed off the tree. "I heard you leave the house. You're not as sneaky as you think."

The human teen felt his eyes twitch on the insult. "How'd you even get ahead of me?"

"Don't sweat it. What I want to know is what your plan was. What were you gonna do once you left Knothole City?"

The teen shrugged. "I don't know. You... you said that those gems that brought me here, the Chaos Emeralds, got scattered all over the world, right?" He limply gestured to the field in front of them. "I figured, I dunno, I'd go and find them. So I can go back." He sighed and looked down at his feet. "Sonic I really wanna leave. I can't- I can't deal with this. It's too much."

"You're still...? After all this time, you still don't want to help us out?" Disappointment- actual disappointment to Sorun's growing frustration- flashed in his eyes, and Sonic took a step closer to Sorun. "Why don't you want to help the Freedom Fighters?" he questioned.

"I don't know, Sonic!" Sorun shouted as he spread his arms out. "What would you do if a bunch of furry aliens kidnapped you and told you that you can't go home until you help out with the robot war, huh!?"

"I would help them," Sonic began as he continued to stomp towards Sorun, "because I'm not one to sit around and let good people get pushed around when there's something I can do to help!"

"Well greeaat for you, Sonic! I'm not you, though! I'm not that good a person!"

"You're not even trying!" The hedgehog stopped right in front of the human, and a slight amount of anger began to mar his features as he pointed a whole hand at Sorun. "You haven't once stopped and even thought about helping ever since you came here!"

He couldn't even find the words the retort. He grew so upset by Sonic's word that he scoffed harshly and turned his back to the hedgehog. This only served to make the blue Mobian more frustrated.

"You know, almost nobody in the Freedom Fighters, in any group of Freedom Fighters anywhere on Mobius, actually wants to fight," he said. "Nobody wants to go to war with Dr. Robotnik. But nobody wants to see their friends and family hurt by him, either. So they fight anyways." He stepped to Sorun's side and tugged roughly on his arm. "And you know what, Sorun? I know people just like you who can't do much but still chose to become a Freedom Fighter just so they could protect the people they love. Why can't you do the same?"

"Because this isn't my home, Sonic," Sorun shot back as he pulled his arm back. "I don't have anything I want to protect here because I don't love anything here! Everything I do love is a whole universe away! Or, what, you want me to go and risk my life to defend a bunch of animal people that would rather glare at me and throw rocks at me than say 'hi'?"

There was something in Sorun's words that caused Sonic to violently flinch, and he had to take a look down and take a deep breath before looking back up at Sorun. "Okay, fine. So you leave to go find the Emeralds. Let's humor your plan," Sonic offered. "We're talking about you walking around and searching the planet. The whole planet, Sorun. That's just not reasonable, and chances are Eggman is looking for the Emeralds and would find them before you ever could." Sorun remained silent, and Sonic took that as a sign to continue talking. "And even if you somehow managed to gather up all seven Emeralds, Tails is the only one that knows how to use them to bring you back to your zone."

"Well, that's just super, now, ain't it?" Wasn't that painfully ironic? The only person that could send him back home was the same person that brought him here in the first place. This world really was trying to kill him through sheer stress alone. "But why do I have to fight?" he asked Sonic. "I can't just hang around until you all manage to find the Emeralds and send me back?"

"I told you, we need help," Sonic answered. "We traded all seven Chaos Emeralds for that help. You're the help."

"It's not my fault you made a god-awful trade," Sorun retorted.

"Hrng..." The blue hedgehog held both the sides of his head in exasperation at Sorun's words, but then suddenly stood straight up and opened his eyes wide. He froze for two seconds, and then a grin game to his face as he walked to the side a bit. "You know what your problem is, Sorun?" he asked as he dug the tip of his left shoe into the ground. "You don't have any self-confidence."

Instead of responding, Sorun chose to watch as Sonic began to drag a line in the dirt with his foot as he continued talking to the human. "How about we have a little bet?" he offered. "A race."

"... A race?" Sorun repeated as he warily eyed the hedgehog. "Like... a foot race?"

"Yeah, that." He finished drawing the line and stood at one end while pointing to a tree in the distance. "How far would you say that tree is? Twenty, twenty-five meters? We'll race to it. If you win, I'll let you crash at my family's house until me and the Freedom Fighters happen upon all seven Emeralds while fighting Eggman, and once we get them I'll have Tails send ya back home." He winked and Sorun and pointed a finger at him. "But if I win, you gotta join the Freedom Fighters and at least try to put in an effort to help. How about it?"

Certainly an intriguing offer, that one, and one that actually made Sorun think. It was tempting- and also dangerous, but that was considering the possibility he would lose. He did like the idea of being free of any obligations to helping the Freedom Fighters. On the other hand, being forced in because he made a bad bet would practically be a death sentence. And who knows what Sonic would do if he kept dodging the Freedom Fighters, or anybody else? But if he won, he could pin all the blame on him not doing anything on Sonic.

But could he win in a foot race against Sonic the Hedgehog?

"Based on what I've seen, all Mobians have these really noodle-y limbs. I mean, look at those things." Those limbs were thin. Really thin. But unfortunately so were his, because he wasn't exactly in great shape and was underweight. But that aside, he was fairly decent at running. At the very least he got leg training in from riding a bike. That was something. "I mean, there's gotta be some strength in those deceptively-skinny limbs. Tails is apparently only eleven but he managed to drag my whole body. But are Mobians fast?" Sorun's blue eyes squinted as he continued to look at Sonic's legs. "... Nah, no way he's that fast. I got this."

He'd win the race and earn the right to do absolutely nothing until they sent him home. That'd solve all his problems, and he was just fine with it.

"Alright, Sonic. I'm game." Sorun stepped up to the other side of the line, and Sonic sent him a competitive smirk as he got into a running position behind the line. "If it'll get you to drop the idea of me joining the Freedom Fighters, I'll beat you in a foot race."

"Ooh, someone's confident." Hopping from one foot to the other, Sonic backed up and took a similar running position to Sorun as he glanced at the human from the corner of his eye. "I'll tell you what. I'll even let you do the countdown."

"Okay..." Sorun took a deep breath, and then tensed his muscles up and he intensely focused on the target tree. "Three... two... one... GO-!"

Sonic was already at the tree.

He didn't even know what happened. Sorun had said "go", and he'd blinked. In that blink his vision had cut out for a single millisecond, and when the eyes opened back up Sonic was standing next to the target tree with a victorious smirk on his mouth. It was such a shocking display that Sorun had frozen one step in, and hung still like a statue as he stared dumbstruck at the Mobian who was cheekily waving at him.

And after he was done waving, Sonic went back to the starting line Sorun was frozen at, and this time he did see what happened due to his eyes being open. Sonic simply moved. He ran at a speed that was so high that he went from standing at the tree to standing next to him in less than a tenth of a second, having turned into a blurry, blue shape as he moved.

"Ah, well, you know how it is, Sorun. Rules are rules." Sonic gave the human a hapless shrug, and the smug smirk he was sending him had Sorun's cheeks burning in embarrassment. "Welcome to the Freedom Fighters! You're gonna have a great time, trust me."

"... Guy's literally the friggin' Flash," Sorun mumbled to himself as he straightened his body out and turned to Sonic. "Super speed. You seriously have super speed?"

"They don't call me the fastest thing alive for nothing," Sonic said.

"Of course." The human teen face-palmed his own face. "So is that a Mobian thing, or a hedgehog thing, or- or what am I missing here?"

The hedgehog shook his head. "No, that's a me thing. I've always been that fast. Don't know why, never bothered to ask." He shrugged again. "How else do you think I've been fighting Egghead this long? My plucky attitude sure didn't carry me this far."

"Yeah, guess not," Sorun numbly replied. "So, uh, does everybody in the Freedom Fighters have super powers?"

"Eh. Some," Sonic answered, and Sorun visibly withered. "But everybody is special in their own way, super powers or not. They just need to find out what they're good at to help out. Like you."

"... You know, you try to come off as this ultimate pillar of altruism, but you're really coming off as a huge hypocrite to me, man," Sorun told him. "You hustled me. You literally hustled me to join the resistance."

"Hey, don't make a risky bet you know you can't win."

The oh-so-innocent grin supplied with that statement was equally as infuriating as it was mocking. He was so right, too, and it frustrated Sorun to no end. Even worse was that he lost the bet and had to join the Freedom Fighters.

"But do I have to join them?" he thought. "No, I do. Integrity aside, they'll probably do something like drag their feet getting the Emeralds or something if I go back on my word. My hands're tied here. Dammit."

He didn't want to. But now he didn't have a choice because of that stupid bet.

"You know I still don't have anything going for me," Sorun weakly told the hedgehog. "And I think this is a big mistake you're making here, but... ugh, bet's a bet. I'll..." He had to swallow a lump in his throat. "I'll go back to the HQ tomorrow and tell them I'm in."

The wide smile that was beamed at him from the blue hedgehog was so intense that Sorun actually was forced to look away from him. He didn't think he'd ever seen Sonic so happy since he'd met him, and the raw happiness radiating off of him was almost stifling to the teen. "You don't know how relieved I am to hear that, Sorun. Now come on!" He waved him forwards and then turned around to walk back into Knothole. "It's really late and we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow!"

Sorun stared after the blue Mobian with wide eyes, but eventually he hung his head and began dragging his feet across the ground as he slowly trailed behind Sonic. "Man, I just wanted orange juice..."