Recursion Error
Episode 10- Ace Combat didn't prepare me for this
So he decided to go ahead with the piloting in the end.
There were many reservations Sorun had with the idea, sure. The chance of great bodily harm and dying chiefly among them. But the benefit- namely, getting home as soon as possible- outweighed that in his opinion. So yeah. He'd be a pilot. What's was the worst that could happen?
He'd die. The worst that could happen is that he would die. But it was a relatively low risk, so he'd take it.
Unfortunately, learning how to fly a plane under Tails' tutelage, in addition to bruising his ego from learning from an eleven-year-old, was a bit more involved than he expected. Actually, everything about learning to fly a plane was a bit more than he expected. His main hope had been it would be just like it was in video games and he'd get the hang of it immediately, but it was nothing like the flying simulators he played.
"Okay, so the yoke stick controls the pitch and the, uh, the..."
"Yaw," Tails helpfully supplied.
"Yaw, yeah, that." With a hum, Sorun tapped at one of the gauges on the plane's dashboard. "This is the fuel gauge, right?"
Tails shook his head. "No, that's the altimeter."
"... Where's the on button, again?"
Two hours of this. Two hours of the both of them sitting in the blue airplane's cockpit with Tails trying his best to teach him the controls and basics of flying. But none of it was sticking to Sorun. The basics of basics, sure, but everything beyond that? Practically in one ear and out the other. He'd mix one control instrument up for another or forget something important entirely, and then it would only turn into a confusing mess from there.
Worse yet, he could see it was getting to Tails. He wasn't exactly irritated with Sorun's ineptitude, but the human teen could tell that the fox was beginning to grow exhausted over this. His fault for being a terrible student, he supposed. So he decided to be merciful and just end it here.
"Tails, let's be real. I'm not getting any of this." Sorun moved over to the edge of the cockpit and sat down on the edge, with his legs hanging over the side of the plane.
He heard something shuffle next to him, and looked to his right to see that Tails had sat down next to him. "What aren't you getting?" the fox asked. "Is it the-"
"The whole thing," Sorun finished for him. "I don't know, it's- it's really complicated. The whole constant adjustment due to altitude and wind speed, calculating fuel consumption based on what feels like a million factors, I still don't understand what a knot is-"
"It's a unit of measurement concerning wind speed."
Sorun sighed. "Yes, that, thank you, Tails." His feet began to kick outwards. "I don't even really wanna learn to fly if I'm being completely honest with you. It was all Sonic's idea and I kind of just went along with it, and I thought it'd be easy to learn but now that I'm actually going through with it... man, I just don't wanna."
Tails frowned at Sorun. Deeply. "It kind of sounds to me like you're just too lazy to learn, Sorun."
"Nooo... that's not it at all, man, come on." Actually, that was what it sounded like, wasn't it? Sorun could see how Tails would make that assumption based on what Sorun said. And now that he thought of it, it was kind of how he felt. "Fine, maybe a little bit. Like, the littlest of little."
The frown the fox was wearing turned into one of disappointment.
"Hey, c'mon, don't give me that look," Sorun pleaded. "It's not like I'm not trying at all, but this-" he waved to the plane's controls, "- this is all beyond me, and with the whole war thing going on in the background I don't think you guys are gonna have a reasonable enough amount of time to train me. Especially at the rate we're going."
"It'd go faster if you could just remember the basic maneuvers the control yoke makes," Tails told him.
"Yeah, yeah, pitch and yee-haw, I remember." He missed the small twitch Tails' eyelid made at his remark. "The only reason I even went along with Sonic's idea was because it was something I could do, you know? Something I could contribute to the team so I could get home faster. But I don't think this is gonna cut it."
There was an understanding hum from Tails, who began to kick his feet in the same way Sorun was. "Was that really the only reason?" he asked him in a quiet voice.
Sorun took a second to think. "Well, that and I'm, well... a bit self-conscious about the fact that I'm not really helping out all that much. And it kind of makes standing around people awkward 'cause I feel like I just don't belong."
Tails perked up slightly at that explanation. "I think I understand," he said. "You feel guilty about not contributing all that much and just want to help out, right?"
"You're giving me too much credit here, Tails. I just don't want to feel awkward around people since I'm practically mooching off of you all at this point." He couldn't actually say that, of course, because he was already a shallow enough person in everybody's eyes. The last thing he wanted to do was commit social suicide when his reputation was already on shaky legs to begin with. "Sure, something like that."
"I didn't think you cared so much about what other people thought about you," Tails commented.
"Well, I don't- huh. Wait." Why should he care? Reasonably speaking, what everybody thought of him shouldn't matter in the long run. As long as he got home in the end, everybody's feelings towards him should be completely irrelevant. Sure he'd look like the scummiest person in the world if he just lazed around and did nothing until all the Chaos Emeralds were gathered, but who cared what they all thought once he left? It wouldn't matter.
Except, wait, they might take exception to him if he did that. He kept forgetting. He didn't think him doing nothing and drawing everybody's ire would negatively impact the gathering of the Chaos Emeralds, but it sure wouldn't help. And even more, he just didn't want to be that guy. Nobody liked that guy, and he sure wasn't going to become him.
Or he would try not to, at least. And he didn't think he was doing too good a job.
"Are you good at anything?" The only reason Sorun didn't glare at Tails was because he'd asked the question in such an innocent tone. As it was, Sorun just sighed and shook his head.
"Video games. I'm good at video games. That's about it," he answered. "You wouldn't happen to have a big mech or something I could pilot with a gamepad, do you? 'Cause I could do that."
Tails chuckled, and then shook his head. "Sorry, but no. We don't have anything like that."
Damn. Of all the crazy things they had in Knothole, mechs wasn't one of them. That was something he could have actually made work.
"Ah, well. It's fine." Sorun scooted off of the plane and landed on the ground below. "I'll figure something out. Don't know what exactly, but-"
The sound of a speeding object approached Sorun's ears, and he turned around right as a high-speed, blue object blurred into his view and stopped right in front of him. The sudden stop caused a cloud of dirt to be kicked up, making Sorun cough and wave in front of his face to clear the air of dust.
"Sorun! Yo." Sorun's vision cleared just in time to see Sonic standing right in front of him. "How are the flying lessons going?"
With a quick glance back at the plane, Sorun shook his head after turning back to Sonic. "Not too well," he admitted. "Piloting isn't really clicking with me."
"Aw, really?" Sonic's shoulders slumped in disappointment, but then almost immediately picked right back up as a grin grew on his face. "Well, I know what's gonna cheer you right up! You and Tails need to get back to the HQ ASAP!"
Something to cheer him up? He doubted it, but he decided to humor the hedgehog regardless out of curiosity. "What's going on at HQ?"
"Oh, I don't wanna spoil the whole thing. You'll have to follow me back to the HQ to find out." He turned around, but then swiveled his head back far enough to glance at Sorun with a single eye. "But I will say there's a good chance at us finally nabbing a Chaos Emerald today."
Sonic was right. That did cheer him right up.
There was a clear memory in Sorun's mind about an offhand comment Mighty had made about there being a lab in Freedom HQ. He'd expressed interest at the time, but in the face of playing a video game it had quickly worn off. But today he had good reason to finally enter the coveted room to see what it was all about.
And boy, did it not look anything like how the rest of Freedom HQ looked.
It was almost like stepping into another world (again) when Sorun walked through the door leading to the lab. It looked... modern. Beyond modern, even. Sleek metal plating covering all the walls, smooth flooring, lights everywhere to make the room bright. There were computers and other machines Sorun couldn't identify lining practically the whole perimeter of the room, and at the very back there were large screens bolted to the wall with an extremely large computer under it.
Place was even air conditioned. It made him wonder why this room got air conditioning and not the rest of the HQ.
Sorun decided to wander to a nearby machine that caught his eyes. Sonic and Tails, who he'd followed into the lab, walked forwards towards the large computers and screens in the back of the lab. Sally and Rotor were there waiting for them.
"What's this thing?" Sorun wondered as he stopped next to a... thing. A small, metal pole with wires running out the top and going all the way to outlets in the wall. "Some weird metal... yeah, I don't know."
"- So the sensors we had in that sector went off?" His attention was drawn from the pole to the four Mobians at the computers in the back. He cursed silently at missing the beginning of the conversation and made his way over to them.
"What's this about Chaos Emeralds and sensors?" Sorun asked as he joined up with the group of four.
He saw Rotor glance back at Sorun before facing back forwards to point at the computer screens. "Back when we were trying to get the Chaos Emeralds back from Eggman, we managed to cobble together these long-range sensors that could detect Chaos Emeralds. They give off a unique energy signature, so it was easy enough to calibrate them to pick up Chaos energy. We set them up in a bunch of sectors all around the eastern portion of Northamer just in case." He tapped a few buttons and one of the computer screens flipped to an image. "Well, we got a ping on one of the sensors, and the camera we installed in it picked this up."
Sorun squinted at the screen. It looked like plain enough grove at first glance, but what caught his eyes was what was up in the sky, just barely inside the camera's field of view. A ship, from the looks of it. A ship painted black and red that almost looked like the kind of air carrier he'd seen in pictures on Earth, except this one was floating in the air from large thrusters on its sides and back.
"That's one of Eggman's ships from his armada..." Sally grimly mumbled. "Don't tell me..."
"Yep. Signal from the Emerald is coming right from it," Rotor confirmed. "My best guess is that he sent out detachments of Badniks to go find the Emeralds, and this one found one. And then it just happened to fly over the sensor for us to pick up."
"That doesn't sound good. I need those Emeralds to get home." Frowning, Sorun began rubbing at his chin. "Everybody makes it sound like they had a really hard time getting them the first time around. They'd probably have an even harder time getting them a second time if Eggman gets them all back."
And that just wouldn't do. He'd rather not directly confront the evil genius with the robot army on top of everything else in the effort of getting all the Emeralds back, but if he was gunning for them as hard as Sorun was, that may not have been possible. The prospect alone made Sorun uneasy.
"Well, we know where it is, right? Then it's simple." Sonic balled one of his fists up and slammed it into his open palm. "It's not even one his bigger ships. Just one of his scouting cruisers from the looks of it. Tails flies me over, I go down and bust heads, grab the Emerald, and get out." He turned his grinning head towards the human. "Oh. Sorun's coming, too."
Sorun's heart rate suddenly spiked. "Uh... no?" He backed up a step away from Sonic. "Fighting robots didn't really work out so well for me last time."
"No, don't worry about that. You won't be fighting." Sonic zoomed next to Tails. "You said flying lessons weren't going so hot, right? So why not just watch Tails fly the plane for real?"
A beat of silence passed between everybody, and as Sorun stared at Sonic owlishly he nodded at the hedgehog for him to continue.
"Look, it's simple. Tails flies the plane, you sit there and watch, and while you're all doing that I'll go and take the Chaos Emeralds back." Sonic locked his fingers back behind his head as he leaned back with a pleased smile on his face. "Perfect plan all around."
He didn't think so. Sorun thought it wasn't, at least. He wasn't wild about flying in the same cockpit as Tails since that seat was so small, but he could see them making it work. And actually, as long as he didn't have to fight as long as Sonic handled everything... and he did say it was a small cruiser. "Yyyyeah, alright," Sorun agreed after a moment of thought. "If Tails is up for it, sure."
The fox shrugged. "I'm good if he's good."
Sally blinked in confusion at the three of them. "You're trying to teach Sorun how to fly the Tornado?" she asked. "How's that been working out?"
"Well-" Sonic began, but was cut short when Sorun lightly shoved him.
"What're we waiting for? Ship's getting further away the longer we wait c'mon let's go."
Not even waiting for any reply, Sorun left the lab. Everybody else silently stared after the human, with the silence being broken by a bemused chuckle from Sally. "So flying's not going well?" she guessed.
Sonic gave her a small shrug. "He trying." He turned to Tails. "Come on. We gotta go get that Emerald."
"Yep. Still not getting it."
It wasn't like he wasn't making an effort of learning an airplane's controls. The thing was, learning an airplane's controls was about a hundred times more convoluted than Sorun would have ever imagined. At this point he felt like he'd have better luck trying to learn to fly a UFO from watching an alien. And upon thinking harder, he realized that this was technically already happening.
There wasn't much to say about what happened after they left the lab. Tails had hopped in the plane, Sorun had squeezed in the seat right behind him, and Sonic didn't even bother to sit in the seat behind them and instead chose to stand on the wing. Taking off into the air had been an event without flair, though Sorun was more focused on Tails and his hands working the Tornado's controls over the actual scenery.
He didn't even realize they were already hundreds of feet up in the air until he looked away after a half hour later, eyes half-lidded and exhausted. He rubbed at his eyes, and then moved his head over to the edge of the plane so he could look at the land they were flying over.
"It really is just all trees, huh?" It really did feel like the whole eastern portion of what was once America was nothing but forest. Forests, plains, groves, and every once in a while a small mountain or large hill. A grand vista of green that carried on all the way to the horizon, and even further Sorun imagined. It still boggled his mind how different Mobius looked compared to Earth. "'Least it looks pretty, I guess. For a post-apocalyptic world at least."
But what boggled his mind even more than that was seeing Sonic stand on the plane's wing with his arms crossed without even showing a hint that he was having trouble keeping his balance. How Mobians managed to accomplish such a feat, Sorun didn't know, because he'd seen Mighty and Knuckles do it, too. He knew that Tails sometimes made rough turns and dives- he'd seen it watching the controls. But Sonic was making it look as easy as standing on still ground.
"Maybe their kind is just really good at balance. Chalk up something else Mobians can do that humans can't," Sorun morosely thought as he looked ahead. He saw something that caused his eyes to widen. "Hey, ain't that...? Yeah, it is."
The small cruiser they were pursuing was finally coming into view, and from Sorun's perspective it was anything but small. And it was only now he realized he wasn't exaggerating when he compared it to a air carrier; it really was that big, maybe a bit bigger.
It was a bit of a sobering sight, really. A flying air carrier, something that Sorun never once in his life ever thought he'd see. So distracted by the sight was he that when Tails dove the plane towards it he'd almost lost his own balance and had to grab onto the sides of the cockpit for support.
"Egg Carrier spotted!" Tails called out as he dipped the plane downwards. "It looks like they spotted us, too! They're aiming their anti-air cannons at us!"
"Anti-what now?" Sorun's irises snapped down to the ship they were flying towards, and they constricted in fear when he saw the weapons Tails was referring to. Six double-barreled cannons were lined on both sides of the ship's main deck, with all twelve cannons slowly swiveling up towards the plane. "Isn't that a bad thing!?" Sorun yelled out as the plane began flying overhead.
He would have thought it was a problem. Getting blown out of the sky seemed like a huge problem that had Sorun extremely concerned, and it was written on his face. But unlike the human teen, the two Mobians he was riding with looked the opposite of concerned. Tails, wearing a smile, was shooting Sonic a knowing look, and Sonic, for his part, had the most confident smirk on his face Sorun could see.
"A problem? Hah, as if!" The hedgehog crouched down into a running stance on the plane's wing as the Tornado began to swoop near the guns. "Watch this Sorun!"
And then he jumped off. Just like that, he jumped off right as the plane passed over one of the guns. With his eyes locked onto the hedgehog's body, all Sorun could do was stare as Sonic's body fell towards the gun. Much to his confusion, right before impacting with the anti-air cannon Sonic had curled his body into a ball. An oddly spherical ball, he had noted, with the quills on the back of his head sticking out from the sphere.
And then, even more oddly, he began spinning.
Sorun didn't know how. His knowledge on physics was extremely limited, but even he knew that there must have been some law of Newton's that said something couldn't build up that much momentum in such a short amount of time while falling, even with the kind of super speed Sonic had. But apparently that hedgehog defied the impossible, because his curled-up body began spinning to such a degree that any features disappeared as his body blurred, making him indistinguishable from a perfect, blue sphere. And Sorun could have sworn he even started to slightly glow, though that could have been a trick of the light from the bright sun overhead.
After all that, Sonic's spinning, curled-up body slammed into the barrels of the anti-air gun. The barrels proceeded to fall onto the deck of the ship. Just like that. Sonic had used his body to cut right through the barrels. There hadn't even been any resistance; his body went through those large, steel tubes like it was nothing.
But he didn't stop there. After cutting through the barrels of the first anti-air cannon, he uncurled and landed on his feet on the deck of the ship before sprinting at super speeds towards the next anti-air cannon. And just like the first, he'd curled up into a ball, span, and launched himself up to the cannon before cutting through a barrels all in a time frame that Sorun would have blinked if he missed. By the time the severed barrels fell onto the deck of the ship Sonic was already sprinting towards his next target.
"Oh, he can- he can just do that," Sorun marveled as he watched what should have been an intensive battle be rendered practically trivial by Sonic's efforts. He actually found himself at awe at the sight. The sheer power of it. "He can seriously just buzzsaw his way through those things like that?"
"It's pretty cool, huh?" Tails commented with a light chuckle. "Yeah, that's our Sonic. He isn't called the Hero of Mobius for nothing, after all. People all over the world look up to him."
"Hero, huh?" By the time Sorun got that thought out, the last anti-air cannon had been completely disabled by Sonic, who was waiting in the middle of the ship's deck and waving up to the airplane. Right after, Tails began to slow the plane down and lower it towards the deck where Sonic was. "I can see it," Sorun thought with a frown as he looked at his right hand. "I just don't know what he sees in me. How am I supposed to help with anything with guys like THAT in the Freedom Fighters? How are the Freedom Fighters slowly losing if people like that exist?"
It didn't even surprise him anymore, but seeing somebody as laid back and as nice as Sonic become something short of a weapon of mass destruction and lay waste to air carrier's entire anti-air defense system was beyond humbling for Sorun. If it wasn't already shattered to dust, his confidence would have taken a big hit at seeing that. As it was, he barely felt anything at all at this point. Just a bad feeling in his stomach he couldn't quite describe.
Was it fear? Sorun honestly didn't know, but he couldn't help but wonder how it was that Eggman was successfully taking over the world despite the fact people like Sonic were fighting him. It didn't imply anything good, that was for sure.
The Tornado's wheels touched down on the steel deck of the ship and slowly came to a halt next to Sonic, who stood in wait with his arms crossed and a big grin on his face. Sorun still had an awestruck look on his face mixed with downcast eyes, but he managed to tear his gaze away from the sheer destruction around him down to the hedgehog standing below the plane.
"How was that for a way past cool display, Sorun?" Sonic asked, an accomplished gleam shining in his eye. "Impressive or what?"
"Way past c- what?" Sorun blinked in confusion, than shook it away. "Yeah, man, sure. You took 'spin to win' to a new level." He slumped against the edge of the cockpit and let his arms hang limply down. "You're amazing. What do you want me to say?"
He'd said that in the most bland tone he could possibly muster, but Sonic didn't seem to notice. He'd adopted a thinking pose as he blinked in surprise at something Sorun said. "Spin to win?" he slowly repeated, and then a large smile broke on his face. "Hey, that sounds really cool! Why haven't I thought of that before!? I'm gonna use that from now on! Thanks, Sorun!"
"..." Sorun opened his mouth, and then closed. "Ah, what have I done?"
"Anyways, Tails! Get down here!" Sonic spun on his feet and pointed down the deck of the ship, where the command structure that Sorun assumed led to the ship's interior was. "Let's go get that Chaos Emerald and jet out real quick!"
"Wait, Tails is going too?" Sorun asked as Tails spun his tails up and flew out from the cockpit. "You guys are leaving me here alone?"
While hovering in the air, Tails spun around so he could address Sorun. "I'm technical support," he explained. "Sonic can usually navigate through Eggman's traps fine and locked doors usually aren't a problem for him, but knowing the Doctor that Emerald will be locked away somewhere real secure. He might need my help getting to it or solving any other problems that come up."
"Yeah, but don't worry!" Sonic gave Sorun a thumbs-up. "Pretty much all of the heat's gonna be on us, so you can just chill out on the Tornado 'til we get back!"
That sounded reasonable enough. As long as it kept all the danger away from Sorun, he was fine with it. "Okay. Stay safe," Sorun said as he waved the two goodbye.
The two Mobians gave him a nod, and then left to do whatever it was they did. Blast through a legion of robots and other deadly things, probably. Do other things that would usually express a high chance of massive bodily harm that would likely be blown through like nothing.
As for Sorun? He planned on huddling up in the Tornado's cockpit to wait it all out, completely safe and away from all of that. He might have even been able to sleep, too, but Sonic and Tails were causing so much of a commotion inside of the ship already that it was shaking from all the explosions.
"This works. Right? Yeah." Locking his hands behind his head while kicking his feet up on the plane's controls, Sorun let out a content sigh as he relaxed in the pilot's seat while trying his best to ignore the pandemonium shaking the Egg Carrier. "The people with super powers can go do the actual dangerous stuff while I just stay behind like this, all carefree-like. No murder bots trying to turn me into a shishkebab, no falling construction equipment, and no tangible threat to my life... yep. I can deal with this no problem."
If the rest of his tenure here on Mobius turned out like this, than it would be smooth sailing. Hopefully. The whole "Eggman was still technically winning and gaining ground on them" bit of the current situation had him a little nervous, but seeing a blue hedgehog slice through heavy artillery like that had a way of making him forget problems. And it wasn't like there was much he could do to change the situation anyways, so he didn't see the point in worrying about it.
So yeah. Staying back and letting everybody else handle all the fighting? It seemed like a solid plan for getting through this nightmare.
At least it did until a saw a metal lance fly over his head.
"... Nah, that didn't happen," Sorun decided as he closed his eyes. Right as he did, he could see the sunlight bleeding through his eyelids darken for just a second as something else passed over his head. Seeing this, Sorun groaned out loudly before picking himself up to see what the commotion was.
When he popped his head over the plane's windshield to see what was throwing lances, he let out a high-pitched shriek and ducked back into the cockpit.
Egg Pawns. It was dozens and dozens of Egg Pawns slowly marching towards the plane. There were circular hatches all along the deck of the ship that would periodically open, with a metal tube shooting up through the hatch. The tube would open and a Egg Pawn would march out towards the plane.
"Oh shit! Oh man! That ain't good!" Sorun heavily blinked his eyes a few times and peeked his head over the plane's dashboard just to make sure he was correct in what he saw. He screamed and lowered his head when a lance flew just over his head after an Egg Pawn had thrown it. "Alright-alright-alright! Options! What are my options!?" He squeezed his eyes shut to try and think of some idea, but much to his dismay nothing even closely resembling a reasonable solution came to mind. "... Shit!"
And here he'd been congratulating himself on having found such a perfect solution for surviving this mess of a war he'd been dragged into. It apparently wasn't as foolproof a plan as he'd been hoping it was, but that thought wasn't nearly as terrifying as the sight of a small legion of robots coming to rip him limb-from-limb. Literally, if the fact one had tried to skewer his head said anything.
"Oh, man...! What am I supposed to do!? We're hundreds of feet in the air and the only thing separating me from them is this airplane!" Right as that thought ran through the teen's head, he slowly blanked out as a realization came to him. "... Wait, you goddamn moron! You're in an airplane! Do something!"
Just like that, a determined scowl folded over Sorun's features as he sat forwards in the pilot's seat and looked at the controls. The controls that featured a myriad of lever, knobs, and switches that was already making the human teen more befuddled than he would have liked. For the life of him, he just couldn't remember what most of these did even after Tails showed him. Multiple times at that, too.
"Alright, uh... so if I wanna fly the plane, I... on switch is this, right?" Sorun muttered to himself as he flipped a small switch near the center of the control board. To his delight, he felt the plane shudder to life as the propeller in front began to spin. "'Kay 'kay 'kay 'kay... so then what I do is... uh..."
He couldn't even say he wished he'd paid more attention, because he did pay attention. But all those lessons were quickly slipping his mind, and the fact that the Egg Pawns were getting closer by the second was making him panic more and more to the point his vision was becoming shaky, and that was just making him forget faster.
"Damn, why didn't I write any of this stuff down!?" he cursed. "Ergh, maybe... no, that's not the... or maybe it is!? Fuck it. I'm just gonna start hitting random buttons."
A pretty terrible strategy if he was being completely honest with himself, but he was extremely desperate and didn't have any better ideas. And doing something was better than nothing, even if he didn't know what he was doing. So with that in mind, Sorun began to randomly pick out and press different buttons in the hope that one of them would do something to make the plane fly away from the robots.
"Uh, this one?" He flipped a small switch, but nothing happened. "This one!" There was a slight jerk in the plane, but otherwise nothing else happened. "Oh, come on! How 'bout this one!?" He pushed a small, green button, causing a pair of windshield wipers to being wiping across the plane's windshield. "That's... aw, yeah, great," Sorun breathed out, "just what I needed!"
A distressed whine sounded from the back of Sorun's throat as he looked at the wall of controls, switches, and flashing lights in front of him, but it was quickly becoming apparent to the teen that this was all beyond him. He didn't know what any of this did, and the closest Egg Pawn was a good ten seconds away from making it to the plane.
With his eyes flashing around the control board wildly, Sorun's gaze stopped upon the throttle stick right in front of him. There was a small, red button on top of the stick, and in his desperate attempt to make the plane do anything helpful he'd thoughtlessly pressed the button.
Boom!
Something peculiar had happened. One of the approaching Egg Pawns that had been right in front of the airplane exploded, right after Sorun had pressed the button on the throttle stick. Sorun blinked owlishly at the small, black burnt spot the robot had been standing previously, and even all the other Egg Pawns seemed to stop and stare in surprise at their missing comrade. After a single, heavy blink, Sorun slowly moved his eyes back to the throttle stick and hit the button again.
There was a high-pitched, electronic thrum from the plane, and in the next instant two short beams of yellow light flew out of the front of the plane and impacted the Egg Pawn that had been standing behind the one that had exploded. Just like the first, the second Egg Pawn exploded in a bright flash. When the dust settled, there weren't even any parts leftover. It had been completely destroyed.
"... This thing has laser cannons...?" Sorun's mouth dropped open in surprise at his discovery, and then just as suddenly clamped shut into a thin frown. "Oh, fuck you, Rotor. 'Freedom Fighters don't use guns' my ass. You'll trust the eleven-year-old with a weaponized plane but won't even give me a gun!?"
The sheer gratitude towards the world for this new discovery was easily overshadowed by the simmering rage he was beginning to feel bubble up within him, but the heavy footfalls Sorun heard distracted him from those thoughts. He looked up from the button at the Egg Pawns, and almost laughed out loud when he saw they had all turned around and were running away from the airplane as fast as their robot legs could carry them. He even heard distorted, electronic screaming coming from them.
Well, he wasn't going to have that. Sonic and Tails had enough trouble on their end as it was; they didn't need all these robots to pile up on them as they searched for the Chaos Emeralds. But even more importantly, Sorun was still incredibly sore over nearly being killed by that one Egg Pawn. And now here he was, manning a plane with a laser gun. Pointed right in front of them all.
A savage grin slowly formed on Sorun's face, and he hissed out "Therapy...!" as his hands roughly gripped the throttle stick with his thumbs over the button.
He'd thought it was impossible ever since he failed to kill a single Badnik, but he'd done it: he'd gotten destroying robots down to a science. He couldn't move the plane, but with the propeller running he could at least turn it with the stick, and that was all he needed to aim. From there it was a trivial matter of merely aiming the plane at groups of robots and hitting the button to fire the laser cannons and destroy them. Sometimes he didn't even need to hit them; the blast made from the laser impacting the ground near them projected enough force to destroy robots sometimes.
"And here I was, always complaining about turret sections in video games." He didn't even know levels of catharsis this intense was possible, but to Sorun it felt that every Egg Pawn destroyed sent a burst of ecstasy through his entire system. Seeing something he'd feared so much and had traumatized him running in fear and being blown up in droves- by his hand, no less. He was ecstatic. "Never again. I'll never say bad things about turret sections again."
The sound of hysterical laughter coming from the teen was drowned out by the sound of laser fire and the dying wails of Egg Pawns.
"Do you think Sorun's okay?"
"Why wouldn't he be okay? All the trouble was inside the ship." A brightly-glowing, diamond-shaped object was tossed up in air, and then fell down on it's tip on top of Sonic's finger as he balanced the spinning gem on top of his appendage. "Does it feel like Egghead was slacking with this one? Felt like he was slacking."
Because really, stealing as something as valuable as a Chaos Emerald of all things from the mad Doctor shouldn't have been a complete cakewalk. But that what it was: a complete cakewalk. A lackluster amount of robots guarding the interior of the ship, some of the most simplest traps the pair of ever encountered in their careers with dealing with the man, not so much as one giant, super robot to fight...
There wasn't even so much as a single spike trap. It was almost insulting.
"Well, this was presumably a scouting vessel made to look for an Emerald and bring it straight back to Eggman," Tails reminded him. The pair were making their way through the darkened corridors of the Egg Carrier, with the blue light being given off by the Chaos Emerald Sonic held being their only source of illumination. Surprisingly, they'd yet to encounter any resistance after destroying the storage crate holding the Emerald and taking it away. Sonic would have assumed that meant they were walking into a trap, but they'd yet to encounter anything. And it didn't feel like a trap.
"Yeah," Sonic agreed, "but-"
"It probably isn't gonna be as easy the next time around," Tails continued. "He manned the place with some basic Badniks, but nothing overwhelming for people like you or me. I doubt somebody like him is gonna make the same mistake twice."
"Mm, yeah, you'd think. But it's Eggman we're talking about here."
The fox smirked at the jab. "Heh, yeah." He pointed to a door they were approaching. "That's the door we came in from. Let's get out of here and back to Sorun so we can leave."
"I hear that." Sonic began tossing the blue Emerald up and down in his hands as Tails fiddled with the controls to the door. "Hope Sorun didn't get too bored out there while we had all the fun."
"Are you kidding? Sorun probably slept through that whole thing. Besides, I don't really think he considers this type of thing fun." There was a small spark from the door control Tails was fiddling with. "Actually, I think that's just you, Sonic."
He couldn't disagree with that, and shrugged in response. His thoughts were still mainly on the human stuck in the airplane, however. He should have been fine- he'd cleared out all those cannons on top of the ship and everything, after all.
"Ah, you're worrying yourself too much," Sonic thought to himself as the doors leading outside slowly slid open. "Sorun's probably enjoying sleeping through all the action. Guess I can't really blame him after what happened the last time he tried fighting, but the fact he even came out here with us is a good sign, right?" He pursed his lips and nodded. "Yeah. I hope this piloting thing pans out for him, 'cause- wait, huh?"
Of all the things he expected when the two of them walked back out to the deck of the ship, a scorched deck littered with bits and pieces of Badniks scattered everywhere wasn't one of them. Sonic's walk slowed to a halt as he gazed out at the destruction around him, and Tails did the same as he stared wide-eyed at all the robot bits around them.
"Where did all... is this where all the Badniks went?" Sonic wondered as he looked around. "Huh. No wonder the resistance on the inside was so lackluster, 'cause... wait." A thought came to him, and he gasped out. "Oh, no! Sorun!"
Tails looked up to Sonic in confusion after hearing his panicked cry, but then grew horrified as he realized the same thing Sonic realized. Most of the Egg Pawns on the ship had been sent to the upper deck after the plane. That's why there was so little resistance on the inside; they'd all been up here.
"Argh, we were so stupid!" Sonic thought as the pair of Mobians whirled towards where they had left the plane. "We thought it was going so easy when of course they were all up here! Did they attack Sorun!? Is he...!? Wait. Sorun?"
Both Sonic and Tails had sprinted and flown respectively towards the plane in panic when they'd seen all the destroyed Egg Pawns, but as they grew closer their frantic approach slowed down when they saw that the plane was perfectly fine. Even better, Sorun was there and looked no worse for wear. He was sitting on the deck of the ship and leaning against one of the plane's wheels, with one knee propped up and an arm slung over it.
A relieved sigh escaped both of them, though Sonic had still blinked in surprise as he approached the human and called out his name. "Sorun? Hey, what happened out here?"
The black-haired teen turned his head towards Sonic, and the hedgehog could have sworn that something was a bit off with him. He wasn't smiling, but his lips were curved up in a way that suggested that he had been smiling and he'd simply grown too exhausted to keep it up. His eyes seemed drowsy, too, and his breathing seemed a bit heavier than usual.
"Oh, Sonic. Tails. You're both back." Even Sorun's voice seemed tired. "Hey, what happened to no guns?" He looked up towards the front of the Tornado. "'Cause that felt like a gun. What's up with that?"
That certainly hadn't been something Sonic was expecting him to ask. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"Oh, after you guys left a bunch- like, a BUNCH- of robots popped up outta the ground." Sorun waved his hand at the field of robot parts and scorch marks. "I fumbled around with the plane's buttons and found the laser cannon button. So I shot all the robots with the laser cannon. Why is there a laser cannon?"
Both of the Mobians blinked, glanced at each other, and then looked back to Sorun. "You destroyed all of those Badniks on your own?" Tails questioned him with a surprised tone of voice.
Sorun shrugged. "Technically the plane's the one that blew 'em up, but yeah."
"You... seriously?" A large smile began to grow on Sonic's face. "That's amazing, Sorun! You managed to blow up all those robots on your own!"
The human teen thumbed the plane. "Plane."
"Same difference!" Compared to his performance so far, this was the hugest leap Sorun could have made! Sure he needed the plane to beat all those Badniks, but even that alone was more than most people could have managed. Sonic almost couldn't help the feeling of swelling pride that was welling up inside of him. "It couldn't have been easy shooting all those bots, huh, Sorun?"
"I mean... it kind of was," Sorun admitted with a shrug. "You just aim the plane and shoot. And they all started running when I blew the first one up." His face scrunched up in confusion. "Also apparently robots... feel fear, I guess?"
"Yeah, Eggman has some real weird priorities when it comes to programming robots, but don't worry about that!" The hedgehog zipped to Sorun's side and gave his shoulder a teasing shake. "You must be feeling great after all that."
The pale teen slowly shrugged the hand off his shoulder, but Sonic had caught that small smile that formed on his face. The brief sight alone was enough to make him happy. "Yeah, felt real good," he agreed. "But seriously, how come you got laser cannons on a plane when you all don't use guns?"
"Uh... what does the Tornado's weapons systems have to do with guns?" Tails asked as he walked up to the two.
Sorun shot the fox a questioning glance. "Are you trying to tell me that guns aren't okay, but laser planes are?"
"The Tornado needed a defense system," Tails answered. "I couldn't just build her with nothing. She would have gotten shot out of the sky otherwise."
The human look bewildered at the explanation, but he quickly shook the confusion off. "That's a really weird distinction for you guys to make, but whatever." He pointed to the glowing gem in Sonic's hands. "That the Chaos Emerald? Baller. Let's go."
After stretching his arms over his head, Sorun climbed up to his feat and turned to the airplane before he began climbing up towards the cockpit. Tails looked at Sonic, and then gave a shrug before spinning his tails up to fly to the same seat Sorun was settling into.
Before going to the plane himself, Sonic looked down at the blue Emerald in his hand, hummed, and looked up at the plane. "Hey, Tails," he called up, "you think Sorun could fly us back instead of you?"
Tails blinked in surprise. "What?"
All the exhaustion in Sorun's eyes shifted into panic. "What!?"
"He's been watching you fly the thing, right? And he just took out all those Badnik's with it!" He jumped up to the Tornado's wing and gave the two a reassuring smile. "It'll give him a chance to show us how much he's learned."
"I dunno..." Tails looked back at Sorun, who was completely still as his eyes darted between Tails and Sonic. "You think he's really ready, Sonic?"
"Aw, sure, and if he messes up you'll be right there to correct him. What's the worse that could happen?"
The walk back to Freedom HQ had been an uncomfortably quiet one, with Sorun doing his best to not look at Tails while Sonic walked besides them tossing the Chaos Emerald up and down in his hands. Sorun felt he couldn't have opened the door to the HQ fast enough. The three soon found themselves navigating the short halls and stepping down the steps towards the living room, though Sorun could still feel the disgruntlement roiling off of Tails.
"Never again," the fox told him as the three stepped down into the living room. "You're never touching my airplane again until you learn to fly."
"I said I'm sorry," Sorun muttered in a defeated tone.
"Sorry!? You almost crashed us three times! Three! You lost one of the landing wheels when you clipped that mountain!"
Sorun rounded on Tails and pointed an index finger at him. "That mountain came out of nowhere, Tails. Anybody could have made that mistake."
Tails blinked at him in disbelief. "We all saw that mountain coming from miles away! Literally! And when I told you to pull up you pulled down!"
"I'm not used to inverted controls!" Sorun argued as he lifted his hands up in frustration.
"Alright, alright." Sorun gave Sonic a silent thanks when the hedgehog stepped in between the two. "Sorun screwed up a little bit with the plane, but it was his first time, so cut him some slack. Besides, you can just fix it later."
Tails looked ready to argue the point, but he stopped himself right before he said something and closed his mouth. His expression softened, and he gave Sonic a small nod before passing one final glance at Sorun and then turning around to walk away. Sorun for his part, let out the breath he'd been holding as he gave Sonic a thankful look.
"In my defense, that mountain really did come out of nowhere."
"It... it really didn't, Sorun," Sonic said with a shake of his head.
Sorun hummed, and then looked to the side at the living room's couch. "Tails isn't mad at me, is he?" he asked Sonic as the two walked towards the couch. Sorun felt it was a little deserved after the yelling incident, but he hadn't intended to make the fox Mobian upset with his flying. He'd tried really hard, too.
"Who, Tails? Nah, he's fine," Sonic assured him as the two sat down on the couch. "He's just a bit annoyed over having to fix the plane, but he spends so much time performing maintenance on that thing anyways that I feel like he isn't even losing any time over it. But you really didn't do yourself any favors scraping Tails' logo off on that rock."
He was relieved that Tails wouldn't stay mad over the plane, but Sorun couldn't help the withering look he sent Sonic over the rock jab. "Man, I tried pulling away."
"I know. You're doing really good! But, eh, I think you might need some more practice behind the wheel. Er, stick. You know what I mean."
Sorun's response was to grumble under his breath and cross his arms, which caused Sonic to chuckle at the sight and lean further into the couch.
So he hadn't done so well flying the plane. Seeing as it was the first time he'd ever flown anything, Sorun thought he'd done pretty well. The plane may not have been in one piece anymore, but he'd managed to get it back to the airstrip. Even if Tails had to take over on the latter half of the trip back. And then absolutely refused to let Sorun touch anything despite his and Sonic's protests.
Well, he'd tried at least. It was more than even Sorun expected out of himself. And the fact he'd flown a plane semi-successfully? He was rather happy over that fact, even if he'd already almost forgotten everything about flying.
"Hm..." In his thinking, Sorun's blue eyes had wandered to to the gem in Sonic's hand with an equally dark blue shade that the hedgehog was holding. "So... that's a Chaos Emerald," he observed.
Sonic nodded. "Yep," he confirmed as he tossed the blue gem to Sorun, who caught it with his right hand. "One gem of infinite power out of a set of seven. Six more and we can get you home."
"Cool." Sorun held the gem closer to his face to get a better look at it. It was a gem cut into a diamond shape, and was so large it barely fit in his hand. It continually shined with a dark blue light with the gem itself colored the same shade of blue.
He found himself frowning. Other than the fact it glowed and was rather shiny like any highly-lustrous gem ought to be, he couldn't really feel anything special about the gem he was holding. It definitely didn't give him the impression that he was holding a source of infinite power.
"Not gonna lie. This thing is kind of underwhelming," Sorun admitted, his eyes still affixed to the gem. "Also, shouldn't this be green? You said they were Chaos Emeralds. Aren't emeralds green?"
He looked to Sonic for clarification, and then raised an eyebrow when he saw Sonic wince slightly. "Yeah, that's... kind of complicated," he said in response to Sorun's question.
"Hah... of course it is." Sorun tilted his head back and let an tired sigh out. "Why's everything gotta be so complicated with you people?" He held the blue Emerald up. "Alright, Sonic. Gimme the lore. What's the story this time?"
"The story is that there used to be more than seven of those. A whole lot more." Sonic paused, and then mumbled something as he scratched his chin in thought. "Actually, wait, I gotta back up a bit further. So, uh, way back when there used to be hundreds of thousands of the things scattered all over the universe, but they were all way smaller. Still infinitely powerful, but small," he elaborated. "All the green Chaos Emeralds were here on Mobius an in some small, localized parallel zones, across the universe all the red ones were on a different planet, the blue ones on another, you get the idea."
Sorun nodded in understanding. "So what happened?"
Something strange happened with Sonic's face. For just a moment he made a grimace, as if the subject was uncomfortable, but it disappeared just as soon as it arrived as the hedgehog continued explaining. "Some, uh... things happened. There was this incident with a tower, and all the Chaos Emeralds were brought together here on Mobius. Tails and Shadow dumped them all in the Special Zone, and the guy that was in charge of that place, Feist, fused them all together into the seven Chaos Emeralds." The hedgehog coughed and looked away. "So that's why they're all colored differently. There is a green one if it makes you feel better."
"It doesn't." The human teen found it a bit odd how Sonic had grown a little quiet during the explanation, but he waved it off over examining the gem in his hand further with furrowed brows. "So these thousands of gems of infinite power got gathered together and fused into gems of infinite-er power?"
Sonic nodded. "Yeah, that's right."
"... I'm drawing the line there." He sent Sonic a flat expression. "That's stupid. That sounds really stupid."
"It's... pft, yeah, a little," Sonic admitted with a small laugh. "Makes it a lot easier to keep track of them since there's just seven, though."
Sorun rolled his eyes, but otherwise said nothing. He was too distracted by his own thoughts to pay much attention to Sonic, as well as the strange sensation going through him as he looked at the Emerald.
This was one of the objects responsible for bringing him to this world, and he was holding it in the palm of his hand. Such a thing was almost funny to think about, but he just felt... odd, holding it. He should have happy that he was partway done with this horrible journey, and by all rights he was, but he just couldn't ignore that peculiar feeling welling up in him.
Actually, he was beginning to think that feeling wasn't an emotional one. Because his skin was starting to tingle and he could feel the light amount of hair on the nape of his neck begin to stand up. Suddenly he didn't want to hold the Chaos Emerald anymore.
"Hey, Sonic? Do me a favor a take this back," Sorun requested as he tossed the blue gem into the awaiting hedgehog's hands.
Only the Chaos Emerald never made it to Sonic. It had seemingly frozen in midair, and as Sorun watched it he saw that there were small bolts of blue electricity arcing out of the gem. When he followed the arcs, the black-haired teen grew shocked to discover the electricity was ending at his five fingertips and palm. And right as he made this discovery, the Chaos Emerald decided to defy gravity and snap right back into his right hand's grasp.
"... Eh?" Sorun began to blink rapidly and waved his hand in an attempt to shake the gem from his hand. It didn't budge. "What the... come on, get off...!"
"Sorun?" Sonic's voice sounded concerned as he scooted over the couch to be closer to the human. "What's going on?"
Still shaking his hand, Sorun turned his head to address the blue hedgehog. "The, uh... the Chaos Emerald's stuck," he said. "It won't come off."
Sonic tilted his head back in surprise. "Huh? Why is...? Here, lemme help." He held a gloved hand out to Sorun, who leaned forwards to place the Emerald in Sonic's grasp. The Mobian's fingers curled around the gem, and then he pulled back away as Sorun did the same.
Unfortunately, despite both of them pulling away, the Chaos Emerald remained fixed to Sorun's hand.
"Sorun, c'mon! Let it go!" Sonic grunted through clenched teeth as he continued pulling.
"I did let it go!" Sorun grunted back. "It's not letting me go!"
This continued for a minute before Sonic's grip slipped, causing him to yell out in surprise and roll backwards on the couch. Sorun merely fell onto his back, though he let out an annoyed whine when he held his hand up to his face and saw the blue Emerald was still stuck to his hand.
"What's going on?" As the two of them sat back up, they turned their heads to see that Sally and Tails had wandered to the front of the couch. They were both casting confused looks on the pair. "You two looked like you were struggling with something," Sally explained, "so we came over to see what was wrong."
"What's wrong is this." Sorun held his right hand up for the both of them to see. "The Chaos Emerald isn't letting me let it go. It's stuck to my hand."
The explanation seemed to only confused the other two even further, and Sally offered her hand out. Sorun obliged and placed the Emerald in her hand, but like Sonic, she wasn't able to pull it off his hand.
"Ergh...! Oh, wow," Sally gasped out as she let the Emerald go. "Yeah, it's... it's really stuck on there, huh? How'd that happen?"
"I don't know!" A light amount of unease was beginning to grow inside Sorun, because that strange feeling he felt was becoming stronger. "I just grabbed it and it stuck itself to me!"
Tails' tails swished behind him in a confused manner while his head tilted in thought. "Really? That doesn't make any... wait here, I'll get help," he said as turned and walked away from the trio.
Sorun watched the fox walk off, and then let out a distressed noise as he attempted and failed yet again to shake the Chaos Emerald off of him. "This is normal, right?" he asked. "This is the part where you tell me some crazy story explaining why they stick to things, right?"
To his dismay, both Sally and Sonic shook their heads. "Chaos Emeralds have always been weird, but they've never done anything like this before." He supposed he should have taken some comfort in the puzzled expression Sally wore since it meant they were as clueless as he was, but the odd feeling welling up in him was growing too distracting. "Did you do anything besides touch it?"
"No, I just grabbed it for a minute," Sorun said with a shake of his head along with his hand. "You think we could pry it off? Just wedge a knife or something between it and my hand and leverage it off?"
Sonic looked very hesitant at that idea. "Why don't we explore other options before sticking sharp things into your hand?" he suggested. His eyes wandered to the side, and he pointed away at something. "Oh, look, maybe they can help."
Sorun followed the green-eyed hedgehog's gaze. Tails had returned to them with Knuckles and Shadow in tow, the former looking at a loss at what he was seeing while the latter just looked annoyed.
"What is this about the Chaos Emerald being stuck to the human's hand?" Shadow asked as the three of them stopped in front of the couch. His gaze snapped down to Sorun's hand and the blue Emerald it was holding, and he held his hand out to the human. "Urgh, of all the... give it here. I'll get it off."
"I dunno, Shadow." Sonic sent the darker hedgehog a teasing smile as Shadow grabbed at the Emerald. "It's on there real tight. I don't think it's coming off."
"Don't be ridiculous. It's a Chaos Emerald, not a... hm?" Shadow began pulling on the Emerald, and Sorun gave the gem a nonplussed look as it remained affixed to his hand. He did make a note on how harder Shadow pulled compared to Sally and Sonic. He was a lot stronger than he looked. "It really is stuck on there," the hedgehog realized. "Don't tell me you glued it to your hand or something else as moronic as that, Sorun."
"I look like an idiot to you?" When Shadow didn't answer him, Sorun sighed out loud and hung his head. "No, I didn't. I grabbed it and these weird blue sparks stuck the Emerald to my hand. Now it won't come off."
Shadow blinked in surprise, and then looked down at the gem. "Blue sparks...? How strange. I've never seen such a phenomenon from the Chaos Emeralds." He turned his head over his shoulder to look at Knuckles. "Come over here and help me pull it off, echidna. We might just not be pulling hard enough."
Knuckles nodded and stepped besides Shadow. "Sure. Sorun, c'mere and give us your hand."
He was incredibly nervous over the prospect of two super strong Mobians pulling on his hand, but the alarming feeling growing in him had him even more worried. So, reluctantly, he held his hand out and nodded for the two to grab at the Emerald. They did so, and then immediately dug their feet into the ground as they began to pull.
Both Knuckles' and Shadow's faces were screwed in exertion as they pulled on the Chaos Emerald stuck to Sorun. Sally and Tails stepped back with concerned look, and Sonic, his face a mixture between hopefulness and worry, held on to Sorun's shoulders to try and anchor him in place as the other two Mobians pulled his hand.
It wasn't working, though. Sorun couldn't so much as feel the blue Emerald budge in his hand. What he could feel was the muscles in his arm beginning to become strained from being stretched. Eventually he began to hear his shoulder creak, and the pain started to become too great, so he waved his free hand for them to stop.
"Okay, stop, stop! You're gonna pull my arm off!" Thankfully they let him go when he asked, at which point Sorun pulled his arm back and began to roll it to return feeling to the limb. Everybody around looked disappointed in the fact that they hadn't been able remove the Emerald, with the exception of Shadow, who looked perplexed at the issue. "Any more bright ideas?" Sorun asked.
Knuckles scratched the top of his head. "I could go get Mighty. Maybe he could-"
"No, brute strength isn't enough to remove it," Shadow disagreed with a shake of his head. "We could always cut the hand off."
Reflexively, Sorun hugged his arm to his chest. "That ain't funny."
"Hmph." Shadow crossed his arms and seemed to look deep in thought, and Sorun had to wonder if he really had been joking. "The Emerald affixed itself to his hand... why would it do something like that? How do we undo it?"
"I dunno. You're the Chaos Control expert here," Sonic said as he bounced off the couch to stand at Shadow's side. "Couldn't you just, y'know, Chaos Control the Emerald off of Sorun's hand?" he asked as he gestured to Sorun.
Shadow made a "tch" sound. "What would you have me do? Summon a Chaos Spear and blow Sorun's arm off with it? I have an extremely limited skill set with those abilities, Sonic."
Sorun liked that idea even less than cutting his hands off, and then thoughtlessly tried to pull the Emerald off with his left hand. He quickly found that the left became stuck as well the second he made contact, and grew extremely frustrated when he couldn't remove it. "Oh come on!"
"What the- Sorun, why did you grab it with the other hand!?" Sally exclaimed as she held the side of her face.
"I panicked, alright!? I-" The teen stopped, because that feeling was beginning to grow painful, and even more alarmingly dark blue sparks began to arc off of his hands and slowly creep up his arms. "Guys, I'm getting really worried," he whispered as he shrunk back into the couch, his voice laced with fear.
It was starting to hurt, too, especially around his hands where the sparks were. A deep kind of pain that felt like his hands were being continually shocked. The pain he was in must have been evident on his face, because everybody else, even Shadow, started to look worried at his plight.
"Okay, is there anything else we can do?" Knuckles asked. "We can't leave that on him!"
"Maybe Rouge can get it off. She steals gems all the time, so this should be right up her alley."
Shadow shot Sonic a heated glare at that remark. "We're looking for serious solutions here, hedgehog, not jokes."
"I wouldn't be joking if you weren't freaking Sorun out by threatening to cut his hands off!"
"We can get him cybernetic replacements if it comes to it, but I really doubt we're going to have to resort to that if you actually tried thinking for once!"
"Should we get him to the lab?" Tails suggested. "We have a- a bunch of equipment used to read Chaos energy, so maybe-"
"Guys?" Sorun interrupted, causing five sets of eyes to move to him. All of those eyes widened when the blue Chaos Emerald began to intensely glow in Sorun's grasp. "Is it supposed to be glowing like this? 'Cause-"
He wasn't able to say anything else. There was a bright pulse from the Chaos Emerald and Sorun was flung backwards off the couch and onto the ground from a surge of electricity ran into his body. But to his horror, even after being flung onto his back it didn't stop. The Chaos Emerald continued to electrocute him and cause his body to uncontrollably spasm as bolts of blue electricity arced off his entire body.
And it hurt. It was a burning, shocking sensation across all whole body and through all his nerves that hurt worse than anything else he'd ever felt in his whole life. He might have even been screaming from it, but he couldn't tell as all he could hear was a light ringing in his ears. His vision was becoming spotty and dark, too, but he could see that the others were shouting at him and that Sonic and Knuckles were desperately trying to pry the Emerald out of Sorun's hands.
But it just wouldn't come off. Sorun's wasn't even sure he could control his fingers anymore with all this power running through his nervous system.
Right as Sorun felt like he was going to pass out from the electrical assault, the Emerald pulsed brightly again. Sonic and Knuckles were thrown off of Sorun, and the energy surging into him increased to such a degree that he could barely even feel anything anymore. After that there was another flash that turned Sorun's vision white, and then, thankfully, he finally passed out.
