Recursion Error
Episode 12- Gotta bail
"How did my life go from bad to worse to whatever this fresh hell is?"
It was a question Sorun found himself struggling with as he aimlessly wandered around Knothole while absolutely refusing to meet anybody's eyes. He didn't have to think too hard on the question; he knew the how of the issue. He just found himself struggling with the why.
Why him? Why, out of the seven-odd billion people on Earth, had he been the one to be pulled through that portal by Tails? Out of all the places on Earth, why did those coordinates point to a random grocery store in Detroit? And why, oh why, did he just have to be there at that one specific moment?
Because he'd wanted orange juice. It all boiled down to orange juice at the end of the day. The fact that he'd won the most rigged lottery in the world by accident over orange juice served no end to his frustration.
So where did that leave him? Here. Surrounded by weird animal people. Stuck in a world under siege by some weird mad scientist wacko. Getting the very life sucked out of him by magic rocks. Summoned Swords. Gag curse.
What was he gonna do with all of that? He didn't know. Hours upon hours of thinking of all this, over and over, and now it was dusk and the conclusion he'd come up with so far was that he didn't have any conclusions.
Fantastic.
"Huh? Hey, Sorun! Sorun! Slow down!"
The teen's head picked up. He recognized that voice calling after him from behind his back. That feminine voice that carried such a carefree lilt but had just the slightest hint of being just a little unhinged- oh god it was Honey.
"Oh god oh fuck no not right now." He absolutely refused to take on anything else today, because Honey wasn't going to be the straw that broke Sorun's back- she'd be the whole hay bale. And he was shaky enough as it was with everything else that had happened, so he tried walking faster in an effort to get away.
But then he started to panic when he heard rapid footfalls behind him.
"Jesus she's chasing me!" he internally screamed as he picked up the pace. But the footfalls behind him were gaining quickly, and he soon realized he wasn't going to be outrunning the golden cat. So he spat out a curse, dug his heels into the ground, and spun around to meet the cat.
This was a mistake, as Honey hadn't known that Sorun was going to make such a rapid stop and so ran right into him. They both grunted and stumbled on their feet, but fortunately managed to remain upright. Unfortunately, Honey had been carrying a paper bag in her hand that had been sent flying up into the air.
Sorun's eyes traveled upwards to the paper bag, and he heard a large gasp from the Mobian right in front of him. The bag fell towards the ground, and would have touched down entirely if a blue sword hadn't appeared next to it and stabbed forwards so that the blade caught the bag's string-like handles on the top.
"Well, at least I'm getting some mileage out of these things." The sword floated next to Sorun, and then shattered away right as he grabbed the bag. "Here," Sorun said as he handed the bag to a bewildered Honey, who was flicking one of her ears in curiosity.
"Oh! Uh... I didn't know you could do something like that!" Honey commented as she gingerly took the bag from Sorun. "Guess you're not a Freedom Fighter for nothing, huh?"
"... The swords don't freak you out?" Sorun asked in a surprised tone.
Honey tilted her head to the side. "Why would it?"
"... Mobians," Sorun whispered under his breath. He supposed he couldn't be surprised- they all had to live in this world. It was little wonder they treated strangeness as the norm. "Anyways, yeah. I can make swords. It's kind of a new development for me, actually."
"Oh, huh. Oh!" She suddenly held the bag out to Sorun. "I almost forgot! This is for you!"
For him? He couldn't hold in the blink of surprise, and awkwardly took the bag out from Honey's hand before opening it up. There was only a single item in the bag, and he could tell from the way it was crumpled that it was a piece of clothing.
Of course. She's said something about wanting to expand his wardrobe during their talk about his image. He wasn't too thrilled about that, and with everything else going on he hadn't managed to fit in any time to weasel out of it. And he for sure couldn't find any excuse not to take it now.
Giving an inaudible sigh, he reached into the bag and took out the clothing item. It was a deep blue color that matched his eyes, so at the very least he could appreciate the color. The zipper in front and the hood hanging off the neck hole automatically classified it as a hoodie to Sorun's eyes, but oddly the hoodie was missing sleeves. It was plain otherwise. Didn't even have drawstrings for the hood.
"It's very... utilitarian," Sorun commented as he slipped the sleeveless hoodie on, but just couldn't find the energy to zip in closed. "Part of the practical ensemble, I guess?"
Honey nodded. "Yeah, but looking at it now... I don't know." She gave a dissatisfied hum as she rubbed at her chin with her tail slowly swishing behind her. "I dunno if it's really fitting the aesthetic I'm going for now. The hoodie almost makes you too... punkish. It blends too well with your shirt too, and the contrast between your upper and lower half is a bit too harsh. Hm..."
She didn't sound very pleased at all with his look. "You want it back...?" he asked as he tugged at the bottom of his hoodie.
"No, keep it. It's fine." She shook her head. "I'm gonna figure this out, don't worry. Oh, and I finally got to making those spare pants and boots and other things for you. I tried dropping them off at Sonic's place since I heard you were staying there, but he said you weren't there. I left them with him." She pursed her lips. "Sorun, is everything okay? Sonic sounded kind of... well, sad when he mentioned you."
This was probably the first time he'd heard her sound so concerned. She even looked a bit worried, too, which had Sorun a little surprised. "Yeah, some stuff happened," he confirmed with a nod.
"Oh. Are you alright?"
"No."
She blinked, and then coughed into her hand. "Um... do you want to talk about it?"
"No." He would if he could, but he liked it when his heart actually worked. "Look, Honey, I... don't worry about me," Sorun said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It's... resistance stuff. Yeah. Everybody's kinda stressed. Just go back to worrying about clothes and your business, okay?"
He didn't even sound that convincing to himself, so he almost expected the skeptical look she was sending him. To his relief, she nodded in understanding and took the empty bag back from Sorun. "Well, if you say so. I should get back to my shop. Have a nice night." She turned to leave, but stopped and looked back at the human. "And Sorun? You look awful, and believe it or not you're more than a walking mannequin to me. So please don't push yourself too hard, because I don't want to see you hurt because of it."
After saying her piece, Honey left Sorun alone in the middle of the street. He watched her disappear around a corner, and then looked down at the sleeveless hoodie he was wearing before sighing.
"Yeah, trust me, Honey," he whispered, "I'm well aware that going too far is gonna kill me."
"Is Sorun not joining us for dinner tonight, dear?"
The fork that was being held in Sonic's hand clattered onto the plate, and his eyes turned upwards. Across the dining table, his mother was giving him a questioning stare, and to the side his mechanical father was doing the same. He shuffled uncomfortably in his chair under their stares, and then sighed before shaking his head.
"No, Sorun's... not coming home tonight," he informed them. "A lot happened today."
"Oh, my." The female hedgehog held a hand to her mouth. "He isn't hurt, is he?"
"Well, no. Er, maybe? I don't... he's not in a good place right now." He shook his head and placed a hand on his forehead. "I don't really know where to start with him."
Because where was he supposed to start when it came to Sorun? There were so many underlying issues that he'd thought were being resolved that he had trouble counting them. Issues that were still there and were getting worse, and no matter how hard he tried to help Sorun nothing changed with him.
Why had it gone so wrong after he got that Chaos Emerald? He seemed to be doing so well until that point...
"So what happened?" His father asked him as he leaned forwards on the table. "I assumed-"
Sonic's mother glanced at her robotic husband. "Jules?"
"Yes?"
"Elbows."
Jules started, and then quickly removed his arms off of the table. "Sorry, dear," he quickly apologized before turning back to Sonic. "As I was saying, I assumed that Sorun was acclimating well. What happened?"
"I don't know, dad. I thought he was doing fine, too." Sighing, Sonic leaned back into his chair and slung his left arm over its top. "You've seen him around. He was still kind of quiet, but he didn't look so upset all the time anymore. I even caught him hanging out with Mighty. He was opening up. I thought... I really thought that was progress. Then today, while he was taking flying lessons from Tails, we got word of a Chaos Emerald that was found by one of Eggman's ships. Sorun needs them all to go back to his zone, and Eggman getting an Emerald is never a good thing, so we decided to go get it. So I grab Tails and Sorun and we fly to the Egg Carrier where the Emerald is. Sorun stays behind in the plane while me and Tails go do our thing and get the Emerald.
"But then it turns out Sorun gets attacked while we're gone. He's fine," he assured his parents when he saw them grow worried. "He found the cannons on Tails' plane and took them out. And I felt really... proud, you know? I felt happy for him because he took out all those robots on his own, and sure, he needed the plane to do it, but it was still him. He even looked happy! He was... sort of smiling, in a weird, tired way. He's always tired for some reason."
"He does sleep in a lot," Bernadette mentioned.
Sonic nodded. "Yeah. After that happened we go back to the Freedom HQ and the Chaos Emerald... stuck to Sorun for some reason. We all tried to pry it out of his hand but it wouldn't come off, and then it started to shock him. It got really bad, and he started screaming..." He had to take a breath before continuing. "But then it just suddenly stopped. The Chaos Emerald disappeared, and Sorun was asleep for a couple minutes. He woke up and... he started making swords."
His two parents stared at him for a long moment, and his father leaned forwards to gain his son's attention. "He... started making swords?" he repeated.
"Yeah, Sorun can absorb Chaos Emeralds and get powers. We don't really know why he can. It was kind of a shock for everybody." His green eyes suddenly lit up. "They're really cool, too! He makes them out of nothing and he can spin them around and stuff!"
Those swords really were cool in his opinion, but Sonic just didn't know why. It might have been the color- he never thought blue would look good on a sword of all things, but Sorun's strange power made it look good. He just really liked them.
"It came out of nowhere, but I was really glad for Sorun. He finally has a power now and can seriously help out. But Sorun..." Sonic trailed off and looked to the side. "He didn't take it well. He flipped out. I think it's because Tails said there isn't a way to take the Emerald out of him, and now Sorun's all worried that we won't be able to send him home because of that. I tried telling him that we'll find a way, but... but I just don't know."
Because what were they supposed to do if he really couldn't go home? What were they going to say to him? "Sorry for taking you away from your home forever, Sorun?" Sonic didn't even know how that conversation would go, and he didn't know what Sorun was supposed to do if that really was the case. Or how they were all going to live with themselves for that matter.
He would have never even considered listening to that stupid wooden tablet if he knew it was going to turn out this bad.
"So anyways, yeah. Sorun's worried over his home, and he's still really sore at us for bringing him here," Sonic finished. "I wish he'd just talk to us, to somebody, but I don't think Sorun likes talking about his feelings all that much. What do you think?"
His mother had a contemplative look on her face, but the unsure look she had underneath that expression said enough. His father eye-sensors had lowered in thought, and eventually picked back up towards his son.
"Is he still going to fight Robotnik with the rest of you?" Jules asked.
"Huh? Uh, I'm pretty sure, yeah. Why wouldn't he?" He understood Sorun was mad, but he couldn't see him being so mad that he would leave the Freedom Fighters. Especially now that he had those weird blue swords of his.
"Well... I can understand the difficulties the young man is facing. And his fears of never going home do seem justified, but if he'll still continue to fight with you all, I don't think he'll be upset forever." His robotic arms crossed over his said. "That said, you have torn him away from his life, son. If it really does come down to him being stuck here, you'll all have to deal with it when that comes."
Sonic sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm still trying to figure out what we're even gonna do if it's true. I don't want us to be responsible taking him from his home."
"So you're just going to give up on finding a way to get him home?"
"No way!" The younger hedgehog shot up in his seat and shot his father a rebellious glare. "I'm not gonna give up on getting him home even if it looks bad now! We're just... swamped with Eggman right now. You know how it is." He sat back down in his seat, crossed his arms, and began tapping on his shoulders with his fingers. "It's just not something we can focus on right now. After we finally stop Eggman, then yeah. I'm not stopping until we find a way to get Sorun home. But we just can't do it right now."
It was more of a promise towards himself than for Sorun, but it held the same meaning all the same. He wasn't one to give up, especially when it was on something this serious.
"We're gonna find a way to bring him home," Sonic said at last. "I don't know how, but we will."
"And if you can't?" his father asked.
Sonic didn't have an answer for him.
"So... swords?"
Violet eyes flicked to the left to regard the armadillo sitting next to him on the log as Knuckles tied the laces on his shoes. "Yeah, swords. Weird, blue, kind of glowy."
"Like... sword-swords?"
Knuckles' mouth opened slightly. "What do you want me to say? Yes." He turned back to his shoes. "Sorun took a Chaos Emerald inside of himself and attained some form of Chaos Control."
Mighty nodded. "I get that part, but... swords?"
"Yeah, he condensed Chaos energy into a solid state and managed to control that shape somehow. Don't know why he shaped it into swords of all things. Or why they're blue, either, but Chaos energy has always been weird." He finished tying his shoe and sat up to look at Mighty. "Why do you think got that sword power?"
The armadillo pointed at himself. "You're asking me? You have more experience in using that stuff than almost anybody else here, especially when you were walking around all green that one time," he said. "If anybody would know, it'd be you."
"I don't, though."
"Oh." Mighty shrugged. "Eh, than why worry about it? I don't really get it, but as long as Sorun's fine then does it really matter?"
"Who is it we're talking about now?"
Both of their heads swiveled towards the trees in front of them, just behind the hill that Freedom HQ rested under. A purple Mobian with a yellow horn jutting out the center of his forehead walked into their view from behind some trees. A shorter, bumble bee-like Mobian was buzzing around in the air behind him while humming happily to himself.
"Oh, hey, Espio," Knuckles greeted with a wave. "Didn't see you there."
"Naturally," the chameleon grunted as he stopped in front of the other two. "Me and Charmy overhead you. What is this about blue swords?"
"Something weird happened with Sorun," Knuckles answered. "He grabbed a Chaos Emerald and sort of... took it into himself, and now he's got this weird power to summon swords right out of thin air."
Espio hummed in acknowledgment. "What kind of sword?"
"What the- how should I know!? I don't know swords!" Knuckles yelled as he ran a frustrated hand through his dreadlocks. "They were, I dunno, straight. The middle part was kind of weirdly shaped- look, it was a sword, okay?"
"... So a straight sword, then?"
"Sure, that," Knuckles sighed out. "We've pretty much given up on figuring out why that happened to Sorun in the first place, so now we're trying to put together why he got the power to make swords with Chaos energy. You two have any ideas?"
The chameleon shook his head. "I don't think I've shared a single word with him ever since he was brought here. He never approached me, and I never had a reason to speak with him, so we've remained distant," he admitted. "I'm sorry that I'm not much help in the matter."
"Nah, that's not your fault," Knuckles said. "That's just Sorun. He's not really that sociable. Keeps to himself mostly now that I think about it."
Not that there was anything wrong with that. If there was anybody who could understand somebody who wanted their own space and didn't feel like talking all that much, it was Knuckles. Thing was, he didn't get that kind of vibe off of Sorun whenever he saw him. The few times he had actually talked to the human he'd been fairly conversational. Talking to him was one thing, but actually approaching him? Knuckles wasn't so sure.
"Yeah, I haven't talked to him yet, either," Charmy lamented in a high-pitched voice as he floated nearer to the group. "I tried going up to him once, but when I was about to say something to him he just glared at me. Really hard. I got kind of scared and went away after."
Espio's yellow eyes narrowed and flicked towards Charmy. "He didn't do anything, did he?"
Charmy shook his head. "No, he's just... he isn't mean," he said, "but he can really feel mean sometimes, you know? I don't know how to describe it." The corners of his mouth turned downwards. "Saffron's actually too scared to go near him."
"Aw, Sorun's not that bad a guy," Mighty claimed as he waved his hand. "I played some games with him. He's really chill when you get to know him. He can just be a bit... prickly." He paused and began to lightly tap at his knees. "He's really good at video games too," he muttered. "He beat Nicole's score in that one spaceship game."
That drew everybody's attention and caused everyone's eyes to widened. Nicole's scores in those games were nothing to sneeze at. They represented a level of finesse with games that were considered by everybody to be unattainable to anybody who wasn't an AI named Nicole. Knuckles himself wasn't even that good at them to begin with, and he gave up on them altogether when he saw that Sonic never even came close to beating Nicole's score.
What hope did anybody have if Sonic's reflexes weren't enough to beat Nicole? Apparently Sorun found an answer, but he couldn't imagine what it was.
"I don't believe you," Espio said in a disbelieving tone. "There's no way he managed to surpass Nicole's score."
Knuckles couldn't hold in the small smirk that formed, and neither could Mighty or Charmy. Espio refused to even touch a video game ever again when he failed to even make it to the top five on the leaderboard of that game, and always claimed that he was cheated because his control stick and been sticking or something. They all knew better.
Mighty shrugged at Espio's skepticism. "Check the game's leaderboard if you want, but I was there. Did it on his first try, too. Got a perfect score and everything."
"Perfect, huh? Wow. That's impressive," Knuckles said with genuine shock to his voice. "So-" he turned to Espio and Charmy, "- Vector still doing good?"
"His ankle's fine. He should be out and about tomorrow," Espio informed them.
"Oh. Good." The echidna crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the ground. "So nobody's got any idea what the deal with the swords is?"
Mighty shook his head. "Nope, nothing."
"I haven't a clue," Espio said.
Charmy shrugged.
"Yeah, that's what I figured." Knuckles sighed. "Man, what a weird guy."
For hours the sound rapid keystrokes were the only sounds that could be heard within the HQ's lab. The source of this tapping was from Tails, who, for the most part, had been sitting at the same computer he'd sat at ever since he'd recorded those Chaos readings from Sorun's body. So engrossed was he in his work that he didn't even notice when somebody stepped up behind him. He did notice when that somebody tapped at his shoulder.
The sudden contact made Tails yelp and jump up in his seat. He calmed down almost instantly when he saw it was a just a familiar walrus behind him, at which point he pouted and turned back to his computer.
"Oh, hi, Rotor," he tiredly mumbled as he continued typing. "You just get in?"
"Uh... yeah, there were some projects I wanted to catch up on," Rotor answered as he blinked down at the fox. "Tails, it's almost nighttime. Why're you still here?"
"Mm. I'm worried about Sorun. Some issues with the Chaos Emerald happened."
Nearby, Rotor pulled a chair away from a different computer and sat down in it before addressing Tails once more. "Yeah, I heard. Blue swords. Sounds crazy. What about it?"
"Well, I've been trying to figure out the mechanism behind how his body managed to convert a Chaos Emerald from a solid state into a pure energy state and integrate it into... wherever it got integrated into his body," Tails explained as he typed away at the computer. "We need to get it out of him eventually so we can power the portal machine and send him back to his zone, so I've been running a lot of simulations to test out some theories I had."
"And?" Rotor pressed.
Sighing, Tails tapped at one more button and then rotated the chair around to face Rotor. "They've all come up as negative," he lamented. "I just don't understand it, and that's frustrating because I always understand things, but then this happened and none of the data is lining up and-"
"Tails, take a breath." The fox's speech had began to grow more rapid, and Rotor had to hold his hands up to stop him. "I get it, you're freaked out."
"I'm not... yeah. Sorry," Tails apologized. "I just can't find a way to separate the Emerald from Sorun's body. For all intents and purposes, these models are basically telling me they're completely fused. So if we can't remove it..."
"Then we can't send him back," Rotor finished. He hummed, and then folded one his his leathery legs over the other. "You really are worried about the guy," he noted. "I would have expected you to be a bit, I dunno, off-put by him. Especially after he yelled at you."
Tails shook his head, and then turned back to the computer as Rotor watched on. "Oh, he said he was sorry for that. I don't really blame him; I think I would have been a little freaked out if something like that happened to me, too. I don't think I would have reacted so violently, though. Eh heh." He paused to type out a string of commands on the computer. "Sorun's not a bad person. At least, I don't think so. I think he's just sad."
"I think you're mixing 'sad' up for 'angry' here, Tails," Rotor commented.
"Mm, well... yeah, maybe," he admitted. "But he's had a lot thrown at him and he's not us, you know? And... I think that's why I had some trouble understanding him at first. I've been around Sonic for so long and seen him shrug off so much that it seems normal, but none of this is normal for Sorun. So I tried doing something normal for him and talked to him."
Rotor hummed. "And how'd that go?"
"He's... nice, it not reserved a bit. If you're really patient with him he really opens up."
"Oh, come on." Rotor rolled his eyes. "I've only known him for over a week but he doesn't give the impression of being a conversationalist. He usually just spends the day standing around glaring at people. He's as bad as Shadow."
Tails shook his head. "No, he's just shy. At least that was the feeling he gave off when I was talking with him. He can be friendly, but he just... he doesn't approach anybody. And I think it's just because he's always nervous around us." He stopped typing and glanced back at Rotor. "I mean, he's friendly with Sonic, but I think that's mostly just because they're sharing a room." His face fell. "Or, well, they were friendly. Sorun kind of... snapped at Sonic, I think, after the thing with the Emerald."
That was how Sonic had put it to him, at least, right after that incident. He had to wonder if more had happened though from the dour expression Sonic had held, and knowing how upset Sorun must have been, he wouldn't have been surprised to learn things grew a bit too heated. But all he could do was hope that things would settle down soon.
"Well, he still kind of creeps me out," Rotor said as he pulled his chair towards a different computer and booted it up. "But I can guess I can understand his attitude all things considered when you put it like that. Oh yeah, by the way, didn't you say something about wanting to conduct maintenance on the plane? I saw it got dinged up pretty bad."
"Uh... later. Tomorrow, maybe," Tails answered. "I want a few more cracks at this simulation to see if I can't get an idea about what to do about that Emerald."
"Any progress on that front?"
The fox's blue eyes turned up at the computer screen. They slowly closed when he saw the words "critical failure" flashing in red letters across the monitor. "Not really, no."
Boom!
"I somehow knew I'd find you here."
The location was a small training area tucked away in a small clearing past a stream near Freedom HQ used primarily for, unsurprisingly, training purposes. One section of the training area was a small space comprised of wooden boxes and crates stacked on top of each other spread out all over. Currently this area was being occupied by a dark hedgehog standing on the ground and a white bat that was sitting on a pile of crates and looking down at him.
Shadow regarded the bat for a moment, and then looked down at his hand. A crackling bolt of yellow-green energy that was vaguely shaped like a spear formed in his hand, and he turned towards a nearby crate. "And what gave you that impression, Rouge?" he asked before he threw the energy spear at a nearby crate, which exploded upon impact.
"I thought to myself 'where could Shadow possibly be if he's not in his room' and came to the first place that came to mind," Rouge answered him. She slung one of her high boots over the other and blinked her teal eyes down at him. "What's got you so riled? You normally only chuck those Chaos Spears around so wantonly when you're upset over something."
"I'm not upset," Shadow denied as he threw another Chaos Spear at a crate. "I'm simply... intrigued at something. And intrigue is slowly turning to vexation." Yet another Chaos Spear formed in his hand, and he scowled down at the energy bolt he was holding. "Hmph. It just won't shape the way I want it to," he muttered before throwing it at a crate.
Rouge watched the explosion with an impassive expression, and then looked back to the hedgehog. "Alright, I'll bite. What happened?" she asked.
"Are you aware of the incident that transpired with Sorun and the Chaos Emerald that we recently acquired?"
"Something about him absorbing it? I heard people talking." The bat shook her head. "Waste of a good gem if you ask me. But I heard he got a sword ability or something out of it?"
"He gained some form of Chaos Control," Shadow confirmed. "The mechanism behind how such a thing is possible is unclear, but what's even more unclear is the ability he manifested." His face furrowed into an puzzled expression. "I thought it was a Chaos Spear at first, but it's clearly something different. He made a sword."
"... So a Chaos Sword?" Rouge tried.
Shadow shook his head. "No. You know I have a deep connection with Chaos due to my biology. Sensing Chaos energy is second nature to me, so you can trust me when I say that sword Sorun manifested was nothing like a Chaos Spear," he explained. "Compared to my own Chaos Spear it practically had no power behind it. He could barely even sustain it; it shattered. But... not only did he manage to form it into a completely solid state, but he did so while forming it into an intricate shape. That sword."
The explanation caused a semi-interested hum to come from Rouge. "Alright...? So what's the problem?"
"The problem is that I can't recreate it," Shadow grumbled under his breath. "I have an innate mastery over the manipulation of Chaos energy. I thought shaping my own Chaos energy into something as simple as what I saw Sorun create would be simple, but it appears I was wrong. I can't even grasp how he created such a technique. Or why he created it for that matter."
A very, very strange Chaos Control technique at that. Even the blue coloring of the ability had been peculiar, though Shadow was less concerned about its color and more behind the actual intricacies of it. It was unthinkable that him of all people couldn't replicate a Chaos technique after having seen it firsthand, but that particular ability continued to elude him, though admittedly his desire to create that technique for himself was more out of academic curiosity than anything else.
He would have to discuss it with Sorun at some point, though he had his doubts that the human was approachable at the moment. Especially after all the shouting he'd overheard earlier today. But then again, reading people wasn't a strong suit of his. For Rouge, though, such a thing was practically an inborn skill. The perks of being a spy, he supposed.
"What's your impression of the human, Rouge?" he asked.
"Impression, huh?" She looked up at the darkening sky in thought. "We've pretty much avoided each other for the most part, so I can't really say much. I never really thought much of him so I pretty much just ignored him."
"That doesn't sound like you at all," Shadow noted.
"Hey, you heard him during his big 'inauguration speech' or whatever you want to call it. He didn't give any reasons to be paid attention to." The bat rested her head against a closed fist. "Speaking of which, swords or not, that guy's still technically a civilian fighting as a resistance soldier. He's unskilled, and that kind of thing is dangerous for himself and everybody around him."
Shadow nodded in agreement. "I know, but they're desperate. We all are at this point. But maybe we can make something of him now that he has that sword ability of his."
Rouge scoffed. "What, you wanna train him and his power?"
"More like pick his brain about those swords," Shadow admitted, "but if need be... perhaps. Whether he likes it or not, he's an actual asset to us now. It'd be unfortunate waste for him to suffer a fatal injury because we didn't properly prepare him."
Anybody dying at this juncture would be detrimental to their operations. But Sorun was inexperienced, and if anybody in the Freedom Fighters was in danger of falling due to a stupid mistake, it was him. At the very least he could maybe give him a few pointers on those swords of his so he didn't end up poking his own eye out with them. Or somebody else's for that matter.
He would really need to talk with that human at some point.
"Ah, well, you have fun with that." The two black, leathery wings on Rouge's lower back began to flap, and her body picked up into the air and off the crate. "You gonna be here much longer?"
"Just a few more minutes," he answered.
She didn't say anything in response, choosing to just give a shrug before her body turned around and flew off. Shadow didn't even bother to see her off, as he was too focused on the crackling weapon forming in his hand as he concentrated on an image of a sword.
To his disappointment, the weapon still came up as a Chaos Spear. It was promptly thrown at a crate.
"Huh? What do ah think about Sorun?"
"Well, yeah." Sally sat up in her seat and gestured to the yellow-furred rabbit Mobian sitting across from her. "Likes, general concerns, any, er, issues you may have had with him," she elaborated. "I'm worried he's not fitting in here, and in the long run that could be problematic. I want Sorun to trust us, but he socializes so little with everybody it's hard to gauge him in any regard."
It wasn't exactly a problem, but it wasn't something she was comfortable with letting lie, either. The problem was that Sally just didn't know how to approach Sorun to solve these issues since his attitude was so... different. Alien even by human standards, and she didn't know if it was because Sorun was still acclimating to everything this zone was throwing at him or if he was just this strange naturally.
So she decided a practical solution was in order by way of discussing the issue with somebody else. Specifically, to go to her friend and fellow Freedom Fighter's house to talk to her about the odd human that had joined them.
"Well... the feller sure is different. And ah don't mean just his looks," Bunnie admitted in a southern drawl. She placed her left arm, a robotic limb, on the table. "Ah haven't spoken to him once, but there've been times ah've caught him starin' at my robot bits."
"Huh!?" There was the sound of a fridge door closing as a coyote Mobian's head poked in from the kitchen door and into the dining room. "Say it is not so! Sorun has been what!?" Antoine yelled as he looked towards Sally.
The chipmunk winced and made a lowering gesture with her hand to calm Antoine down. "It's not his fault. I've heard him mention some things here and there about where he's from. I don't think his zone has anything like cybernetics over there," she explained. "I'm sure he's just curious about them."
"Oh. Right. Of course." Antoine- for reasons that were unclear to Sally- sighed in relief and stepped into the dining room. "Eet's understandable then that Sorun would be curious."
"And what about you, Antoine?" Sally asked. "Do you have any thoughts on Sorun?"
"He iz... very difficult to talk about," he admitted. "We have talked very little, but to me he seems like the nice kind of person. Perhaps he iz just nervous?" He stopped himself and rethought his words. "But... he did go on zat mission for us, so he cannot be the fraidy-cat, unless... I don't know." His shoulder hung and he gave Sally an apologetic look.
"Ah just thought that he never looked to be in the mood to talk if you know what ah mean," Bunnie added. "What brought all this up anyhow?"
Right, they hadn't been there during the incident earlier today, Sally had to remind herself. Well, now was as good as time as any to fill them in, and it would give her a chance to air her own concerns. "Sorun apparently has a condition where he can absorb Chaos Emeralds. Earlier today Sonic took him on a mission to get one, and when he touched it the Emerald disappeared. He's fine," she assured them when they grew concerned looks, "better than fine, really. He got a, well, an ability out of the ordeal. But mentally I think he's about as upset as he was the day he came here."
Bunnie blinked her green eyes in confusion. "The feller gets a new power out of a Chaos Emerald, an' he's upset?"
"Sonic filled me in. Sorun's worried that, since the Emerald is stuck in him, that he won't be able to return home since he needs all seven. Whether that's actually true or not remains to be seen." She lowered her gaze towards the table. "Add that to the fact that he's still upset at us since we were the ones that brought him here and, well, you get the picture. I'm worried that Sorun is holding us responsible for possibly stranding him here in this zone forever because of everything that's happened."
Her words hung in the air for a few moments before both Bunnie's and Antoine's faces fell in realization. "Ah. Oh," Bunnie voiced as her large ears fell. "Ah guess, uh... he would be really sore, huh...?"
"Zat is... not the ideal sort of problem," Antoine agreed. "It is no wonder he looks so angry all of the time."
"But that's the thing. He isn't," Sally sighed out in exasperation. "Or, most of the time he isn't. Today and day one notwithstanding. I've talked to him and if anything he just sounded, I don't know... scared. But at the same he's been patient with everything going on around him. It's confusing. On one hand he's upset at all of us, but on the other hand he's been understanding towards us at his own inconvenience. It's as impressive as it is frustrating."
"If I may interject?"
The new voice sounded from the inside of Sally's vest, and drew the attention of everybody present. She immediately reached into her pocket to pull out an object and place it on the table: a small, square keyboard with a green flip-screen attached to it.
"Have you considered that perhaps it would be wisest to just talk to him?" The small computer talked in a feminine voice, and the words she said were displayed on the screen. "Would that not be the simplest course of action?"
"I'm... not really following you, Nicole," Sally admitted.
"There is little to follow. Talk to him. In my experience talking with others in concern to issues causing mental duress can be an effective treatment. It is obvious that Sorun is experiencing stress due to recent events, so if he will not approach anybody on his own, then why would you not approach him yourselves?"
Everybody blinked at the simple solution. So simple that Sally felt like kicking herself for not thinking of it earlier, and she forcibly reminded of why she confided so much to the little computer.
"That... sounds really practical actually," she agreed, and then looked up to Bunnie. "Maybe tomorrow we could try something?"
The rabbit looked uncomfortable at the idea. "Ah dunno," she muttered, "ah wouldn't really know what to lead with when it comes to him."
"Open up with the cybernetics," she suggested. "Or if you're uncomfortable with that we could just open up with something else. Anything is fine as long as it gets him to talk." She leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. "Just... please try talking with him? About anything?"
The other two Mobians gave each other unsure looks, but eventually they turned towards Sally and gave her a nod. It offered some relief to her that maybe this issue could be fixed yet.
"Maybe you could talk to him, too, Nicole?" Sally suggested. "I feel that the more people on this the better the results would be."
There was a pause from the computer. "I'm not entirely against it," Nicole said, though the chipmunk had noticed that her volume sounded slightly lower. "That being said, from what you have told me Sorun's experience with mechanical beings has been extremely poor. I fear that this has caused a negative bias within him against anybody who can be seen as an artificial construct. Such as me."
Sally's eyes widened in realization, and she immediately shook her head. "No-no-no! Sorun's isn't... well, I don't think he... no, he wouldn't have any reason to dislike you. You're not a Badnik," she reasoned. "It'll be fine. I can even get a Power Ring and you could make your body to talk to him with! You two could, I dunno... play a video game? You like video games. I think I heard Sorun mention a couple of times he likes video games. That's already something you two have in common!"
An ellipses symbol appeared on the small computer's screen as Nicole mulled over Sally's words. "... Is he any good?" she finally asked.
"I think?" Sally shrugged. "I'm pretty sure Sonic mentioned something about him being good. But you could find out."
"That is acceptable."
And just like that, Sally saw her plan of getting Sorun to finally open up to someone actually have a decent chance of success. There'd be a bit of planning to put in, but it would be all the worth it in the end if this actually worked.
She really hoped it would work.
By now it was the middle of the night. Midnight, more accurately, as the broken moon was high in the center of the sky and was the one source of illumination for the sole human walking through the woods just outside of Knothole City's edge. With his hands firmly tucked into his pockets, the teen was mainly spending this time walking in random directions with hunched shoulder while thinking quietly to himself.
"Freakin' Emeralds and the echidna and Sonic and... egh. Everything's all screwed up," he thought as he kicked a rock away. "Maybe I should just jump off a cliff or something and cripple myself so that I'm too disabled to save the world. I'll do it just to spite Aurora." He sighed. "No, that's a stupid idea. And I like my legs."
So far he'd come up with no solutions to his current predicament, nor even a plan on moving forwards. Sorun wasn't even so sure he'd come to terms with everything yet. And despite walking for practically half a day at this point, he was still coming up blank on everything. This lead him to this point: exhausted both physically and mentally while wandering the woods.
What to do, what to do...
"Do nothing? Take the 'wait and see' approach? Probably wouldn't end too well. Fight? If I wanna wind down into the grave, maybe. But fighting's the only way I'm getting those Emeralds. But those Emeralds will... man. What am- agh!"
He'd walked into something. Something small and metallic from the peculiar ding he'd heard upon collision. Sorun backed up a step and rubbed the spot on his forehead he'd been hit as he looked up to see what had impacted him.
Sorun didn't quite know what he was looking at.
He almost thought it was a floating golf ball at first, but the way its smooth, white surface shined implied it was made of metal, and there was red eye-like lens right on its front looking right at Sorun. Looking closer he saw that it was more oblong in shape than spherical, and there were four small ports on its underside with jets of air firing out of it.
It looked harmless enough, but Sorun had to wonder why something like this was just floating in the middle of the woods.
"Hell are you? Some kind of drone?" He wondered as he leaned his head forwards. In response, the small, white drone zipped enthusiastically around in the air and floated a fair distance away from Sorun. It stopped and turned around so the red lens was facing Sorun once again, and then shook up and down in what he assumed was an attempt at getting his attention.
Sorun rose an eyebrow at the drone's antics. "What, you want me to follow you?" he asked, though it was more to himself than the robot.
The drone shook up and down again.
"Alright, let's think this over. There's a mad scientist named Eggman trying to take over the world with robots. There's a vaguely egg-shaped robot trying to lead me somewhere. Coincidence? Who the fuck knows when it comes to this world." He sighed while deliberating with himself on what to do. "... Agh, why not? Day can't get any worse. Sure, let's follow the strange white egg drone from outta nowhere."
Was it the wisest decision for him to make? Probably not, but he was too tired to even care at this point. So he gave the drone a stiff nod and began following it as it lead him pasts trees and brush away from Knothole.
Was it Eggman? He truly, honestly didn't know. He didn't know the man outside of what Sonic had told him. Maybe it really was just somebody else trying to get his attention. But he didn't know anybody else besides the crazy robot guy terrorizing the world who would be even remotely interested in him. And yet he didn't know why Eggman would take interest in him.
He supposed he would find out when he made it to wherever the drone was leading him.
Eventually, Sorun and the drone emerged from the trees into a large, circular clearing of grass and a few large rocks. The broken moon was still shining brightly above them with few clouds in the sky, and with that lighting Sorun was able to see that there was somebody in the clearing sitting on a rock fiddling with a controller of some type in his hand.
When he walked closer to get a better look, Sorun was shocked to find it was a human. An admittedly odd-looking human, but a human. Or maybe an Overlander, now that he thought on it, but he didn't know how different they looked from normal humans. Based on his stature he looked to be shorter than even Sorun, which made him laugh once under his breath, was bald save for six individual hairs vertically aligned on his head, and had probably the longest nose he'd ever seen. His clothes were even stranger: he was wearing a short, green jacket with pointed tails and a black pair of pants that, to Sorun's bewilderment, looked to be fused with his boots.
In a word? Odd. Everything about this strange, little man was odd. But he didn't look like a maniacal tyrant at first glance, so there was that.
"Eh, hm? Oh! There you are." The little man looked up at Sorun as the white drone floated over to him and hovered in place. He waved to Sorun with an unreadable, easy smile as the teen walked closer to him. "My apologies for taking so long with the navigation. The camera on that things was a last-minute slap job. Resolution's quite poor."
As he said this, he hit a small button on the controller before setting it down. A small, pin-sized hole next to the drone's lens lit up red, which Sorun took a brief note of before focusing back on the shorter man.
"Uh... yeah," Sorun commented. "You, um, you were looking for me?"
"Well, we were using the drone to scout around Knothole so we could catch sight of you. We weren't planning on making contact this early, but you just so happened to be alone so we chose now to talk," he explained.
So far he seemed nice-ish. There was a devious undertone to his otherwise neutral voice, but Sorun didn't have any problem with him. Yet. "What happened to your face, man?" he asked. It was only know he'd noticed a rather glaring black eye over the man's right eye.
The man frowned. "I was hit," he plainly stated. "I'd prefer not to discuss it further."
"Okay. So are you Eggman or what?" Might as well get that question out of the way and go from there.
The short man chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, no. The honor of being at the head of the illustrious belongs to the brilliant Dr. Ivo Robotnik. I would be his assistant and nephew, Snively."
He blinked. The teen looked to Snively, looked around the clearing to confirm that they were alone, and then blinked again as he looked back to the other man. "... Ohhh!" Sorun pointed towards Snively and smiled in light amusement as he threw his head back in realization. "Yeah, I heard he had a nephew helping him out, hah hah."
A small stream of laughter escaped from the teen, and Snively looked at him oddly before he began chuckling along with him, though his head was tilted in confusion. This carried on for thirty seconds before they both stopped to take a breath.
"Hah... hey, Snively?"
"Yes?"
"What's stopping me from literally fucking murdering you right now?"
The shorter man's eyes widened in shock, and then his entire expression changed to abject horror after a small flash of blue light and particles appeared on Sorun's sides. Four blue swords, two at each end of the teen's body with one over the other, were floating next to him with their points aimed directly at Snively, who became rooted to the spot.
"I'm gonna be honest with you. The day I've had today? Worst day of my whole life. The week I've had? Hoo boy." The teen's expression had gone completely cold as he regarded the shorter man with utter contempt in his eyes, his hands still casually tucked in his pockets despite the swords next to him. "So here's what's gonna happen. You either give me a real solid reason why I shouldn't kill the man partly responsible for the current shitty state of the world, or I ram these things through your body and turn you into a carcass."
Because after everything that had happened today? He wasn't having it. He wasn't having any more nonsense. The fact he was considering actual murder at the moment wasn't even crossing his mind as he affixed Snively with a deadly glare. He just wanted all of these problems to be over with.
"Y-you're bluffing," Snively stuttered as he back up a step. "You wouldn't dare. Freedom Fighters don't kill!" A sword flew away from Sorun and into the ground right in front of Snively, causing him to fall onto his backside. A fifth sword appeared to replace the one Sorun had fired.
"I'm a pretty terrible Freedom Fighter." The points of the swords had moved in a way that tracked Snively's movement, who was frozen on the ground chattering in fear at the pair of cold, blue eyes locked onto him. "You know what? Forget it. You're not worth the effort-"
"Whoa-whoa-whoa! Hold your horses there!"
A new voice. older, and coming from the white drone of all all things. It slowly floated between Sorun and Snively, and the teen watched in mild interest as the top of the round drone opened up to reveal a small projector on its inside. Light spilled out from the projector and quickly warped in the air until a stunningly clear, holographic image of a man was being shown.
If Snively looked strange, than this new man was straight out of a cartoon.
He wore the same outfit as Snively, though it was red in color. A body that was impossibly round but with limbs that were so long and thin by comparison it was grotesque. A round, shining head that was bald save for a wild ginger mustache, eyes hidden behind blue-tinted glasses, goggles on his round forehead, and a smile that was almost manic to Sorun's eyes.
He'd shoot himself with a Summoned Sword if this wasn't Eggman.
"And you must be Robotnik." He looked up and down the hologram that was so clear he practically looked like he was standing there in the flesh, and the teen scoffed. "Jesus. No wonder they call you Eggman."
"Ah, yes. A childish nickname I've grown oddly fond over given the... stature of this body I've been shackled with. But I believe proper introductions are in order." He bent down and flashed Sorun a mocking smile as he held a hand out in the gesture of a handshake. "Dr. Ivo Robotnik, at your service, though these days I do indeed go by Eggman. Or Emperor Eggman if it suits your fancy."
"Sorun." The teen kept his hands in his pockets as he regarded his hand, and then looked back up to the Doctor. "Hey, Eggman, I'm gonna kill your nephew right in front of you in a hot second here if you don't stop wasting my time."
A bitter chuckle left Eggman as his image straightened its posture. "Ah, how I've missed dealing with humans and Overlanders. It's refreshing, honestly. Our kind always did have a certain bloodlust that made things all the more interesting. The frustrating part of fighting Mobians is that a majority of their kind lack this crucial drive. Ironic, really, given their ancestral heritage as common animals." He turned his head down to Snively. "Stop cowering and pick yourself up you fool," he groused. "This is why I suggested we make contact by remote drone, but nooo, you wanted to make it personal because it looked more 'professional'. Please." He looked back to Sorun. "And I'll have to ask you not skewer my nephew. As incompetent as he may be, he still has his uses, and keeps things mildly amusing from time to time. So put those things away."
Sorun watched as Snively stood up and hid behind Eggman's hologram. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Well, maybe I don't feel like it," he said.
"Well, maybe I feel like taking my Egg Fleet out to carpet bomb all of Knothole if you so much as scratch Snively with one of those swords. Funny how that works, huh?"
The muscles in Sorun's body tensed, and his breath hitched. "You're not gonna do that," he claimed, voice dry from the threat he'd heard. "Knothole's been there how long? You can't tell me you could have bombed them at any time you wanted and haven't yet. That doesn't make any sense."
It really didn't. He may have had the ships- Sorun had even been on one- but if Eggman could use them to do something like that, he would have. And the conflict between him and the Freedom Fighters had been going on for an absurd amount of time. There was no truth to his words.
Except, now that Sorun thought about it, he did have the ships. And fitting them to drop bombs was, admittedly, probably trivial for a mad genius like Eggman. And the fact they scouted around Knothole for Sorun meant that they knew the exact location where Knothole City was. It would have been laughably easy for him to wipe it off the map if he chose to, actually.
... Why didn't he just carpet bomb the place?
"Oh my god you're being serious," Sorun realized with widened eyes.
Eggman smirked at the teen. "Pieced it together, have you? Now be a good boy and put the swords away."
A small, frustrated growl sounded from the back of Sorun's throat, but he obeyed and had all the swords shatter and disappear. It was right after that Eggman clapped his hands together with a wide grin.
"Excellent, he listens to reason! That's more than can be said for most people on this rock," he said. "But you're not from this particular rock, are you, boy?"
"And just how do you know that?" Sorun demanded.
"I've my sources." Eggman waved his hand to the side. "You strike me as somebody who knows what they want and who is willing to get it as quickly as easily as possible. A very human trait if any, and one I can respect. The fact you were willing to kill somebody you just met mere moments ago proves that. Not only that, but you have power. I can use someone of that caliber, so I'll get right to the point: why not leave those filthy animals in Knothole behind and come join me?"
The offer was so out of left field that Sorun choked slightly in shock, and he had to hold a hand to his throat to regain his normal breathing. With wide eyes he looked to the hologram, but he couldn't tell how sincere Eggman was being. That smile he wore was just so unsettling and almost unnatural that he couldn't tell what it was. Snively was still hiding behind the hologram, and his expression, now holding nothing but contempt for Sorun, didn't help either.
Join Eggman? Of all the offers he was making, it was that? The lack of a carpet bombing didn't make sense, but this? This was downright madness. He didn't know what to expect from a mad doctor, but it surely wasn't this. He didn't understand.
"You want me to join you?" he repeated. "Let's pretend for a moment that I'm even remotely interested. Why in the world would I want to join you?"
"Oh, where to begin?" the Doctor said as he began to stroke at his mustache. "To have a place at the winning side of this conflict? You must have some sense of self-preservation, and you must know that the Freedom Fighters' days are numbered. You can't tell me you don't want an escape from that destruction."
"That... that doesn't-"
"How about the fact that you don't even like them?" Sorun stopped dead at Eggman's almost knowing words. How could he know? "Oh, poor Sorun. Ripped from his life in another zone and forced to work with his own captors. Strange animal people that took everything from you and expect to give everything in return. Don't be coy; you hate them, so why give your life for them? Come over to my side. Humans and Overlanders may not be the exact same species, but we're kin nonetheless, regardless of what zones we are from."
He was right. That was the thing- he was right. Sorun truly didn't like any of the Mobians back at Knothole. He disliked the Freedom Fighters, and today's events had exemplified that fact. Leaving them to join somebody who was the closest thing he'd seen to a human since coming to Mobius? He was afraid to admit the idea sounded appealing.
But he was afraid. The fact that he agreed with everything Eggman was saying terrified Sorun, and he couldn't stop the slight tremors going through his body from just hearing how much he agreed with Eggman. The Doctor must have saw his reaction, too, because his smile was growing. That unnaturally wide smile on that unnaturally shaped body. The sight alone had the teen on edge.
"And if none of that hooked you, then think about this: I can get you back home."
Sorun's blood ran cold, and his felt his hands begin to tighten up as he grit his teeth. "You lie," he hissed out. "I need all seven Chaos Emeralds to return to my zone. Since one of them is stuck inside of me, I can't. There's no other way back."
"Really? Really now?" Eggman asked. "I'm capable of a great many things, Sorun. Unraveling the mystery that is your body and extracting that Emerald? Hah! Child's play. In the unlikely event such a thing is in fact impossible, then it's just a matter of finding an alternate route to your zone." He gestured at himself. "I'm Ivo Robotnik! The greatest mind to ever grace the world! Finding a way back to your zone may indeed prove to be a challenge, but it is one I would welcome with open arms if only to keep me occupied with something interesting. So what do you say, Sorun? Feel like joining the winning team?"
He wanted to. He didn't want to admit it to himself, but the offer was so enticing that he he couldn't help but desire it. A chance at getting rid of this Emerald for a chance of getting the twelve years he lost back? A chance at going home? That alone gave him pause. The prospect of going home, of finally getting to see everybody he'd left behind when he'd gone through that portal again, of returning to his life without having to risk his life fighting a hopeless war against robots? If that were really possible, he couldn't ignore it. And the hologram right in front of him was offering it.
There was a very real possibility he would take it, too. But he had to know one single thing before he made a decision.
"Answer me one thing," Sorun asked in a subdued tone. "Why are you acting like this? Why are you still fighting the Freedom Fighters if you could end it all-" he snapped his fingers, "- just like that?"
"It's simple, Sorun. Knothole and its Freedom Fighters are the last bastion of resistance on the whole planet. Conquering them means I've conquered the world, and I refuse to have my last hurrah be won at the simple press of a button. No, my victory will be absolute. I want to watch the hope leave the eyes of every single person there as my complete and total victory finally sinks in. I don't merely wish to conquer. I wish to win, Sorun. Blowing them up at the drop of a hat just won't do."
"... What...?" He was so dumbfounded by the explanation that Sorun couldn't even speak. He went as far as to wait for Eggman to continue, to maybe add in some crucial part of his explanation that would make it all clear, but he didn't. He was simply waiting for Sorun to reply. But he couldn't, because nothing that Eggman had just said made sense to the human. "He's... he wants to personally... he's so fucked in the head that he would rather torment everybody into defeat than just bomb them?"
It was an absurd notion to him. Beyond absurd. It didn't make sense. Sorun didn't understand it because there was absolutely no sense to be found in the man's reasoning. Hell, there was no reasoning!
"Why?" The question came out of Sorun's mouth in a choked whisper. "Why... do any of this? Take over the world, ruin everybody's lives... why? What's the point of all this!?"
Eggman's expression changed. His mouth flattened into a thin line, and to Sorun it almost looked like he was disappointed by the question. "This is why I dislike people. Everybody always asks that question, over and over again. Why? It's infuriating I have to keep answering such a simple question," he growled out with a shake of his head. "Because I can, Sorun. Because my intelligence dwarfs that of every single being in this entire zone, which automatically makes me superior to everybody else. You need proof? Take a look around at the world." As he said this, Eggman swept his arms out to the sides. "I can do whatever I want because I'm better than everybody else. I'm doing this because it's fun. I want my own empire, and I want the thrill of crushing everybody under my boot who stands in my way. I want the challenge." His hologram leaned forwards. "That's the why of it, Sorun. If I want to take the world over, I'll do it at my own pace at my own leisure."
There was something terrify about how simple the reason was. The childlike simplicity of it. "Because I can and want to" was his answer. That was it. He remembered Sonic telling him basically the same thing when he'd asked, but Sorun hadn't believed him. Hearing it for himself though was an almost surreal experience. Eye-opening.
He had to hold his head, he was so taken back by his thoughts. Images made from Eggman's words flashed through his head, causing Sorun to sharply gasp at the sudden intrusion of pictures. He saw Knothole, destroyed entirely and burned to the ground. The Freedom Fighters all chained and watching in despair as the world around them burned. Humans and Mobians enslaved.
"Oh, hell no." There was still the fact that Sorun didn't believe Eggman could remove the Emerald from him. He trusted Athair and Tails more than the thing in front of him. Could he find a way back to Earth, though? He doubted that, too, especially since all seven Emeralds were needed to get him in the first place. Then again, Eggman did have some amount of credibility to his words. Sorun truly didn't know, but the possibility was there. What Sorun did know was that he didn't want Eggman anywhere near Earth. "No way. It's not happening. I'm not gonna work with this psycho if it means even a chance of him finding Earth."
That just wasn't happening. He wasn't going to bring this insanity to Earth. He didn't trust him not to touch it. And he wasn't going to work with somebody who wanted to ruin everybody's lives just for the fun of it.
"Alright, here's the truth, Eggman," Sorun muttered out in a haggard voice. "You're right. I don't like the Freedom Fighters. They ruined my life, but at the very least I can understand the reason they did it." He pointed a shaky finger at Eggman. "I don't like them, but I hate you. You're insane. You're wrecking the whole world just because you feel like it! You're acting like a damn cartoon villain except you're actually ruining everybody's lives with all your batshit insanity!" Eggman's face was completely impassive so far, and he seemed almost bored as he drummed his fingers against his elbows, though this went largely ignored by Sorun. "No. No way. You're a psychopath. I'd rather work with people I can barely tolerate than you."
His fears over Earth went unsaid. Sorun wouldn't even dare to so much as put the seed of that idea in the madman's head. But above that, he wouldn't work with somebody who was enslaving people for fun. Ruining and ending people's lives just because he wanted to. It was almost incomprehensible at how wrong it all was, and Sorun was almost disgusted in himself in how he understood how simple the why of what Eggman was doing was. Just because he could. He found it absolutely revolting.
He shook his head as he finished and backed up from the hologram. Eggman was giving Sorun a critical glare, and then slowly sighed while he adjusted his glasses. "Truly disappointing, Sorun. Very well. We're done here."
Sorun paused in surprise. He hadn't expected that. "Wait, what? That's it? You're gonna leave it at that?" he asked in a disbelieving tone. "You're not even gonna threaten to bomb Knothole if I don't join? You're just letting me go?"
That had been a legitimate fear of his. A fear because he didn't know how he was going to counter such a move. But it didn't happen. Instead he was just being let go, which had been the last thing Sorun had thought would happen.
"Oh, please. What do you take me for? I'm not letting go of my last bit of fun at your expense," he said. "It doesn't matter anyways. I was just going to use you to keep the Freedom Fighters at bay so they could gather strength and put up a better fight against me. If you stay and continue to oppose me? It's just another opponent for me to crush, but at the very least you have the potential to bring something to the table to make the game interesting.
"So go on, Sorun. Fight me if you so dare. Take the Emeralds back and grow in strength. Entertain me." He snapped his fingers, and the hologram began to flicker. "Either way I will gain my victory. It's your loss."
The hologram finally cut out, and Sorun gasped out the breath he'd been holding as the drone closed up. It flew into Snively's hand, who quickly placed it in his pocket before looking up at Sorun. That affronted, fearful look was still in his eyes from Sorun's earlier threat, and he didn't so much as spare the teen a word before he turned around towards a nearby rock.
He wasn't having that. "Hey, Snively. One more thing."
The shorter man stopped and turned around as Sorun stomped up behind him. He opened his mouth to asked something, but was cut short when Sorun grabbed the collar of his jacket and punched him right in his already blackened eye. Snively cried out in pain and stumbled backwards, holding a hand to his aching eye while staring up at Sorun with an infuriated expression.
Sorun's response was to flip both middle fingers at him.
"Juvenile," Snively snarled at him before turning around and marching towards the rock. He sped up with a yelp when a blue sword stabbed into the ground behind him, and he practically dived behind the rock. The low hum of an engine reached Sorun's ears, and the teen watched as a white, saucer-like vehicle floated out from behind the rock with Snively riding on the top.
"Man. That was cathartic," Sorun thought as he watched the saucer carrying Snively float up into the night sky and disappear. "Like, that felt really good. I can make a habit out of punching that guy in the face." He just might, too, because that one punch had relieved more stress than he had expected. A lot more.
"Alright. So Sonic was right. Eggman's insane." He shook his head, pushed his hands into his pocket, and began walking back in the direction of Freedom HQ. He'd underestimated just how psychotic Eggman had been from Sonic's description, but after meeting him? Sonic hadn't been exaggerating at all. If anything, he'd undersold just how unhinged Eggman was.
And Sorun couldn't even tell if he was unhinged or not. For all his talk of taking over the world just because he could, no matter how much Sorun disagreed with it, there was one thing Sorun couldn't deny: the Doctor was technically right. Because he was winning and nobody could stop him.
That truly terrified him. That a madman like that could make such a terrible philosophy a reality because of his innate genius. That'd he'd unraveled Sorun and read him like a book within two minutes of meeting him. It was no wonder the Freedom Fighters were losing against him... he was a monster. Both in ideals and ability.
How was he supposed to beat that even with powers? He wasn't so sure he could. And he wasn't going to stick around to find out.
"Fine, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna find those six other Emeralds and keep playing at being a Freedom Fighter in the meantime. I'm not gonna touch any of them. I'm gonna find some way to get this Emerald out of my body, and once I have all seven I'm bailing from all this." He slowed down. "But this world..."
Those images flashed through his head again. Knothole burned, every Mobian there defeated. Chained. Dead. All with those terrible expressions on their faces. The Freedom Fighters. The citizens. Children. All the Mobians he'd met. Aurora and Athair's warnings still rang in his head. That fate was what awaited everybody if he really did leave them all behind.
He shook his head and sped back up.
"Not my problem. I'm not... this isn't my fight," he thought as he disappeared into the foliage. "I'm going home. What happens to this world doesn't matter as long as I get home, but there's no way I'm working with Eggman to do it. I'll do it my way."
Despite how resolute his thoughts were, he couldn't help but notice the painful, tugging feeling in his chest that appeared when those images flashed through his head.
On the other side of the clearing, a hooded figure watched as Sorun walked into the forest. He then stood up from the stump he'd been sitting on, and then stretched his arms above his head while groaning softly.
"Ah, good on you for not being an amoral psychopath, Sorun," Rubrum thought as he finished stretching. "Just keep staying on the path and everything will work out. At least it will if I don't screw it all up."
Humming in thought, the man in the red hood crossed his arms and dipped his head down at the ground. "Did I mess up? I told the Neo-Walkers not to tell Sorun about me, but I didn't actually threaten them with anything. Maybe the fact I killed Feist serves as a good enough warning, but knowing them... eh, that's real iffy. But then again, even if they do go out of their way to talk to him they don't actually know enough about me to do any damage. Unless they describe my sword, but I don't see that coming up in a conversation. Nah, it should be fine. We're good." His head picked up to look at the empty clearing. "I forgot to tell Eggman to not tell Sorun about me," his thoughts continued, "but maybe that's a good thing. He probably would have if I asked him not to just to mess with me. And he seems like the kind of guy that doesn't want to admit I helped him, but even if he does gloat about me, he can't say anything that would reveal too much."
Rubrum groaned again, and then moved his hand past his hood's shadow to rub at his head. "This is all such a pain to keep track of. Should have wrote more details down when I copied that stupid list. Speaking of which..." His hand reached into his pocket and brought out a piece of notebook paper, which he held in front of his shadowed face and scrutinized for a few moments. "Alright, so... actually, there isn't a lot for me to do right now. Okay. Guess I'll just chill out for a bit, then."
He folded the paper up and placed it back into his pocket. It was while his hand was in his pocket that he felt something else, and then removed it to take a look. The object he held was the same tape recorder he'd played for Eggman.
His thumb briefly rubbed at the faded-over, scratched two-tailed logo on its side, and a tired sigh escaped him.
"It's all in accordance with the First's will," Rubrum reminded himself before placing the recorder back into his pocket. He stepped deeper into the woods, quickly vanished from sight amidst the trees.
A/N- So this chapter was more of a little intermission break to get a feeling for everybody's thoughts before continuing forwards, as this chapter marks the end of what is basically the "beginning exposition part" of this story. If I still did arcs this would be the end of arc one, but I elected to just go with the episode format I've been using. But yeah, thus far everything has all been foundation for the story ahead.
Everybody's a little mixed on Sorun. To be expected due to the way Sorun acts, but down the line he's gonna be spending time with everybody, so we'll see how that pans out. Sorun himself just wants to nope out of the world and go home no matter what it takes, but as much of a dreary jerk as he is, he at least has some standards. And then there's Rubrum, who's doing all his shadowy background man-behind-the-curtain things but seems worried about slipping up, because hey, everybody makes mistakes. Who is he and what is he trying to do? Who knows. I mean, I do, but I'm not telling. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it all, though.
Anyways, that's that. See ya in the next one.
