Recursion Error

Episode 13- I learn a new word


"Ohhh-ho-ho, man... this was such a mistake..."

Fun fact about couches, particularly about the one in Freedom HQ: they didn't feel good to sleep on. It wasn't even one of those couches that folded into a bed, either. No, it was just a normal couch, but seeing as Sorun hadn't had anywhere else to sleep that night, he was short on options.

His spat with Sonic was still ringing in his ears by the time he'd gone back to the HQ after his "dealings" with Eggman, and he had been in no mood to go back to Sonic's house at the time. That would have inevitably lead to talking with the blue hedgehog. And Sorun still didn't know what he was supposed to tell Sonic, because his feelings were still all over the place concerning literally all of his issues.

He'd actually fallen asleep trying to formulate some plan of what to say. While searching around the HQ he'd found a dictionary and had spent the night reading through it to try and find as many descriptive words as possible so he could accurately portray his feelings. This didn't work, but on the upside his vocabulary had increased by a couple of words. So there was that.

This lead him to waking up in the morning with his limbs splayed all over the couch with a open dictionary resting on his face. The first thing he noticed was that his back felt like a bolder had been dropped on it, followed by the uncomfortable stiffness in his entire body. The dictionary slid off his face as he sat up with a loud groan, and he heard all of his joints pop as he moved around before finally stepping off of the couch.

Moving away from the living room to the kitchen, Sorun saw that all the doors to the spare rooms in the HQ were all closed. Whether that meant everybody who lived in those rooms were still sleeping or were simply already out, Sorun hadn't a clue. Given his usual sleep schedule it was likely the latter, but given how he couldn't see the sun while underground, he didn't know for certain. Nor did he really care all that much as he finally stepped into the kitchen.

"Mm, breakfast. The most important- eh?" He stopped himself when he saw a digital clock on the kitchen's oven. It was five minutes until one in the afternoon. "... Lunch, the most important meal of the day," he corrected himself as he went to the nearest cabinet and began searching it for something to eat.

His searched led him to a sealed can of peaches.

"Hm. Sure." He was in the appropriate mood for the fruit. The problem, as was realized as he turned the can up and down, was that there was no tab on the lid to open the can. Nor a can opener in sight. "What am I supposed to... hey, that could work."

In a flash, a blue sword appeared floating by his side. He furrowed his brows in focus, and the sword began spinning in place so fast that the blurred blade became a solid circle. He carefully held the lid of the can out to the sword, and then winced at the loud, grinding sound that resulted from can being cut open. Thankfully, this only lasted for a few moments before the lid popped open, at which point the Summoned Sword shattered.

"Aw yeah, boy..." He held up the opened peaches to his mouth, and then stopped himself. "Wait. I ain't got a spoon."

He looked around the kitchen. There weren't any spoons in sight, and the drawers scattered around were so numerous that he wouldn't even know where to start looking around for the utensils drawer. And he was too lazy and hungry to search.

Frowning, another idea came to him and he had a Summoned Sword manifest once again. He grabbed it by the hilt and slowly dipped the point of it down into the can in an attempt to try and spoon the peaches out.

The endeavor was proving fruitless. Any of the juices scraped up fell right off of the blade and back into the can, and any peaches similarly slid off of the spectral sword and back into the can. He grunted in indignation and shattered the sword as he looked down thoughtfully at the can.

"Okay, so swords don't make good spoons." Somebody passed in front of him towards the fridge, though they were largely ignored by the teen as he continued pondering over the peaches. "Maybe I can just drink out of the can? Nah, what am I? A savage? Then again, I don't really have anything else. Ugh."

He tapped the side of the can with his finger in thought, pursed his lips, and then looked to his right when he heard the fridge open. He couldn't see who it was due to the fridge door obscuring their bent-over body, but he did notice two things sticking over the fridge's door. Two yellow, fleshy objects that looked distinctly like rabbit ears.

"... Whazzat?" Sorun's eyes narrowed in puzzlement as he bent his head forwards to get a better look at the two ears, which briefly twitched. They did indeed seem to be rabbit ears. "Huh. I think I remember somebody that looked like a- oh yeah, the one with the cyborg bits- oooooh, yeah, the one I stared at."

The fridge door closed shut, and he could see that, yes, it was the rabbit he'd been thinking about. The yellow-furred rabbit Mobian in the pink top he'd seen around on occasion. The one who seemed to have a completely mechanical lower half and left arm, for whatever reason.

He really hoped she never caught him staring at the cybernetics. He'd been too interested in them to ever look away.

Eventually, she brought what she had grabbed out of the fridge and took a bite out of it: a carrot, predictably enough. She stood back up while taking another bite, and her eyes roamed around the kitchen before passing over Sorun, and then did a double take at him before she turned her head fully in his direction.

The human was currently leaning against the counter with the can of peaches up to his mouth while he was looking at her over the can.

No words were passed between the two. An air of awkwardness began to settle in the kitchen as the rabbit slowly ate at her carrot while Sorun drank at the peaches. They eventually lowered their half-eaten items before Sorun cleared his throat and waved at her in greeting.

"'Sup." He looked to the left, to the right, and then back at her. "Uh... that's all I got."

Suddenly he was starting to regret never learning anybody's names. Maybe he should have listened to Sally when she suggested he talk to everybody.

The rabbit Mobian blinked her eyes- Sorun rose an eyebrow when he saw the eyelids on her green eyes were purple- and then gave him a curt nod. "Howdy."

"Oh god, she's Southern. How does that even work? Southern America shoulda got blown up with the rest of the- then again the Australian accent and French language survived the Xorda. Somehow. Yeah, why wouldn't a Southern accent survive then?" He was still fuzzy on the details of how such things were even possible, but he feared on asking the details. Never knew what crazy answer would come with it. "Okay, Sorun, play it cool. She's a comrade. You gotta get to know those for the time being."

Except that he didn't know what else to say past a greeting. He had nothing- and from the way the rabbit was looking around, he could tell she was struggling to find anything to say as well. What a great start.

"... So I'm Sorun," the human began. "Er, my name, that is. Sorun. It's Sorun."

"Ah figured," she said. "Mah name's Bunnie."

Because of course it was. "... Hmh, neat." He sipped at his peaches. "So, uh..." His eyes flicked to her robotic arm, and then to the floor. "... Cyborg, huh?"

He figured it was an innocent enough question to lead with. Maybe she got asked about it a lot and would be annoyed by the question, but he had nothing else to go for. Sorun's hope was that she would understand, but he didn't like the way her body stiffened up.

"Yeah... cyborg," she confirmed in a worryingly toneless voice.

Sorun began to nervously tap his fingers on the counter he was leaning on with his free hand. "So, like, did you lose the, y'know... originals...?" He glanced at her legs. "'Cause, like... your whole lower half is-"

"Ah got tossed in a roboticizer if ya really gotta know." Bunnie took a very harsh bite from the carrot, and the loud crunch made Sorun wince. "Sonic saved me before it turned me inta a full robot."

"Oh." He should have started with something else, because the tension he was feeling was actually starting to make him lightheaded. "That's cool."

He saw her face scrunch in confusion at that. "'Cool?'" she repeated.

"Uh-uh-uh, well, I mean...!" The can was starting to shake in Sorun's hand, and he coughed to the side. "Not that you got thrown in a roboticizer, that's horrible, just the cyborg bit." He looked away. "Cyborgs are cool."

In his defense, he really did think they were. Unfortunately he hadn't put any thought into any possible social stigmas a world full of killer robots might have against people with cybernetics. Or her feelings over them since they were apparently involuntary cybernetics. And now he was regretting every single word he'd said.

Why was he so terrible at talking to people?

Bunnie's eyes widened at Sorun's words, and she mumbled something under her breath before turning her body fully to face him. "Sorun, it's okay. Ah ain't mad," she assured him, causing Sorun's shaking to stop. "Ah just... get some stares sometimes. Ya know?" She looked away. "They ain't exactly normal."

"Yeah, I can understand that." As he said this, a Summoned Sword appeared at his side. "This isn't exactly normal, either, but hey." It shattered. "Tell you the truth I probably would have taken a robot arm over the power to make swords out of nothing." Though with his luck the Chaos Emerald probably would have given him an arm that would break with overuse that he'd need to replace. Devil Breakers were even less ideal with Summoned Swords, but there was a very real possibility he only got powers from those games if his subconscious had anything to say about it.

On second thought, maybe Summoned Swords wasn't so bad a power. He didn't need to pay to refill them.

The rabbit gave him an unreadable expression, and then snorted a single laugh out. "Yer a strange one," she said as she finished off her carrot. "Why'd ya choose swords anyways if ya don't like 'em?"

"Hey, swords are cool," he defended. "And I didn't get to choose the power. The power chose me." Not technically accurate, but he didn't have a better way of phrasing it. "But it's, you know... it's serviceable. I can make it work, so it's whatever."

He hoped he could make it work. He'd be crushed if he threw a Summoned Sword at a Badnik and it just pinged off it like the baton had.

"Ah guess." Bunnie shrugged. "Ah wouldn't really know a whole lot about swords anyhow. Now Antoine, on the other hand- oh, speakin' of which. Hey, sugar."

Sorun followed her gaze just as the French-speaking Mobian entered the kitchen. He returned Bunnie's greeting with a way of his own as he turned towards Sorun with a look of... mock surprise, oddly enough. Huh.

"Ah, Sorun! How very much of a coincidence it iz seeing you here where you usually are talking to Bunnie who just happened to wander in shortly before me!" Antoine exclaimed. "How is it you are doing?"

"... Okay, that was weird." Sorun blinked, shook his head, and faced the coyote with a semi-forced smile that quickly fell back into a neutral expression. "I'm good. Just talking about swords."

Antoine's eyes picked up in interest. "Swords, you say?"

"Yeah, check this out." Sorun snapped his fingers, and a Summoned Sword appeared floating by his side. The coyote had actually jumped in fright at it, which elicited a small chuckle from Bunnie, but he quickly got over his initial shock and leaned in closer to look at the sword. "Absorbed a Chaos Emerald, got a sword power." Lost twelve years of his life, too, but that would go unsaid. Whether he liked it or not.

There was a weird gleam in Antoine's eyes that Sorun couldn't place, yet felt familiar to him. Perhaps it was the kind of glare likened to a child looking at something shiny. He certainly looked interested in it. "May I... see it, s'il vous plait?"

"That means please, right?" At Antoine's nod of affirmation, Sorun shrugged and tossed the Summoned Sword into his hands. "Sure. Just don't break it. I only have an infinite amount of them."

If Antoine even heard the joke, he didn't give any indication. His sole focus was spent giving the blue sword in his hand an appraising look. He muttered something in unintelligible French under his breath, looked up and down the blade a few times, and then gripped the sword's handle with both hands before giving it a few slow, experimental swings. He muttered some more while still looking at the blade.

"Eet iz... very light," he commented, "and very balanced for a straight sword." He tapped at the W-shaped guard. "Ze guard has a very unique shape, non?"

"I think they're supposed to represent horns," Sorun explained.

"Oh, interesting." He turned the sword upside down, but then blanched when he looked at the end of the sword. "Eh, Sorun?"

"Yeah?"

"Why iz... why iz ze pommel made of skulls?"

Sorun took a look closer, and then made an "ah" of realization when he saw what Antoine was referring to. The pommel at the bottom of the sword's hilt was indeed carved to look like four skulls fused into a spherical shape, with a small spike peaking out of the pommel's top. He supposed that would be creepy to most people here.

"Because skulls are cool? I dunno. I didn't get to choose how it looks. Its shape is based off of Force Edge." As Sorun spoke, Antoine had gently placed the sword on the ground. He jumped again when it shattered, which caused Sorun to smirk for a second. "And Summoned Swords aren't really meant to be used as swords. They're projectiles. But yeah, the shape's based off a real sword."

As real as a sword from a video game could be, at least, but those were unnecessary details.

"Ze... Force Edge?" Antoine repeated. "This is a sword from your home zone, correct?"

Technically speaking. "Yeah." Sorun nodded. "Force Edge was a... I, uh... it's special to me for certain reasons. Well, I mean, not the sword, more like the... it's complicated."

Much of the confusion stemmed from the fact that he didn't really want to explain he'd technically stole his sword power from a video game character. Half because he didn't need the embarrassment, and half because he wasn't sure they would even understand the concept when he was barely grasping at it. But Sorun had seen those discarded comics in Sonic's room, so maybe for some it wouldn't be lost on them.

Well, regardless, he still didn't feel like elaborating on it to them. Not like they could help anyways since he was the only one in this world that ever played those 'Devil May Cry' games. But boy, was it making it difficult to explain Summoned Swords' origin.

"So anyways, yeah. That's why that's that," Sorun finished. "Make sense?"

"I zink so?" Sorun's couldn't say he blamed the lost look on Antoine's face. "So you practiced swordsmanship back where you are from then?"

Sorun shook his head. "Oh, no. I never touched Force Edge. Or any other sword for that matter."

"Ah, what a shame." A thoughtful look came across Antoine's face. "Well, Sorun, since you use swords, and I use a sword, and am very skilled in the sword where you are... not so skilled, I could, perhaps, help you? With ze swordsmanship?" he suggested.

"Um... wow, wasn't expecting that," Sorun mumbled as he looked away from Antoine. "I appreciate the offer, but I don't actually swing these things. I just throw them. Not really strong enough to use a sword against robots, you know?"

It didn't make the offer any less surprising to the human. He didn't realize he was liked enough that somebody like Antoine would even offer to do something like that for him. The fact they were even having such a civil conversation was more than Sorun had expected out of pretty much anybody.

It caused a weird feeling in him he couldn't quite place.

"Oh hey, you guys!" Sorun's head picked up at the new voice, and he turned around. Sally was standing at the entrance to the kitchen, and for some reason she had a forced smile on. "Fancy seeing you all here. And Sorun! I didn't see you there."

Sorun's lips thinned. "Okay, what going on?" he asked, and the fake smile Sally was wearing fell away altogether. "Antoine was acting all weird when he came in, and now you're all weird. What gives?"

He may have been somewhat socially inept, but even this... whatever it was was so blatant that even he could spot it. And he already knew from the way Sally's face fell that something was up. He just wanted to know what.

"Look, Sorun, I can... Antoine, I thought we told you to act natural," the chipmunk scolded while rubbing the space between her eyes.

"I was!" Antoine protested. "I was acting as natural as was possible!"

"You really weren't," Sorun said with a shake of his head.

"Okay, okay. I can explain." A deep breath left Sally, and she crossed her hands in front of her. "We just wanted to, well... are you doing okay, Sorun?"

Sorun clicked his tongue, looked to the side, and looked back at Sally. "Where'd this come from?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Well, Sonic told us about your issues with the Chaos Emerald. We wanted to make sure you were doing alright."

"And you decided that the best way of doing that would be to gang up on me in the most unsubtle group intervention ever?" Sorun asked while pointing at each Mobian surrounding him.

Sally rolled her eyes. "This isn't a group intervention. You're just not very approachable, so we planned this all out to ease you into talking." She looked down. "It didn't really work."

"Ah-huh." Sorun nodded. "Alternatively you could have just immediately went right to this without the whole song and dance. Like normal people do."

"Well, you... don't really act normal."

"Oh, I'm the weird one?" Scoffing, the teen turned towards the counter and leaned his whole upper body over it so he didn't have to face anybody. "You call me weird after setting all this up? Seriously?"

Something about being called weird when everybody around him was weird from his perspective felt wrong to him. Like everything else with Mobius. He couldn't be surprised with it at this point, but even now it was things like this that put him at a loss. Just how odd people here could be one second and then act completely normal the next. Examples of the former, such as what was happening right now, continued to throw him for a loop.

There was an uncomfortable-sounding sigh that came from Sally. "It's about your home, isn't it?"

The human found himself rolling his eyes. "When has it not been?" he asked. "Yeah. I might be stuck here. I might not. It all depends on if this Emerald is really irremovable or not." He paused, and then made a sigh of his own. "This isn't really a conversation I wanna have right now."

"I really feel that we need to talk about this, Sorun."

"You know, you say that, but do we really?" He turned around to face Sally and leaned back on the counter. The can of peaches were long forgotten by now. "Why do you even care? We're not friends. Our status as comrades is strenuous at best. Don't tell me it's guilt."

He could see that his friends comment caused Sally to be taken back slightly. There was an understanding look in her eyes, but even so she still seemed saddened by it. Antoine looked downright uncomfortable with the statement. Bunnie was less so, but there was a notable frown on her face. He supposed the truth hurt, but he wasn't going to lie at their expense. He just didn't have the energy for it.

"Be that as it may," Sally said, voice notably lower, "I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any animosity between you and the Freedom Fighters. But... yes, guilt does play a small part in it," she admitted. "We didn't mean to-"

"It feels like I've had this conversation a million times, Sally," Sorun interrupted. It really felt like he had, too, with the frequency this subject kept coming up in. Because no matter how much he tried distancing himself away from all these people, they kept bringing it up because they were all apparently so worried about his mental state. His incredibly fractured mental state he couldn't even share with anybody for fear of his heart stopping.

It was still touching, though. Enough that even Sorun felt a little moved by how much these people seemed to care, even if he couldn't understand it. So he sighed and tore his eyes away from Sally to look to the side.

"Look, I'll tell you the same thing I told Tails. I understand why you did it," Sorun said, and he could see from his peripheral vision that Sally had picked her head up. "I'm upset at being here, but I'm not upset at anybody. Mostly." He paused. "Okay, I'm still frustrated at all of you," he corrected himself, "but not so much that my ability to work and talk with you all would suffer because of it. As for the whole 'may-or-may-not be stuck here bit', I'm... still thinking that over." He crossed his arms. "So I'm fine for the most part."

"That's..." Sally struggled to find the right word. When he looked back at her, he could see that she was somewhat surprised by his words. "That's good. As long as you're doing fine and can work with us without issue, that's... acceptable." He could tell she didn't think so from how forced that word came out, but she didn't look like she wanted to press the issue.

That was fine with him. The less he had to dodge around his feelings without risk of triggering a heart attack, the better.

"Oh!" The chipmunk's eyes lit up as if she just remembered something, and immediately she began digging into her vest. "Before I forget, Nicole said that she wanted to meet you. I know you might not really be in the mood to talk with anybody else, but at the very least it wouldn't hurt to meet somebody else on the team, right?"

He couldn't tell if she was being sincere or if she was just fishing for more excuses for him to socialize, though why she would do that, he didn't have a clue. Another try at getting him to open up, maybe. It wasn't exactly underhanded, but he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the attempt nonetheless.

"Nicole was the AI, right?" Sorun silently wondered. "Yeah, the one who was really good at video- oh, that's the strat," he realized. Get him to meet another member of the team, and if they had common interests, maybe put him at ease. He doubted that was the case when he thought on it further; Sally was too sincere for something as underhanded at that. But if it just happened to be a happy side effect of them meeting, then it was nothing but positives. So maybe it was intentional after all.

He silently laughed through his nose. The chipmunk was sneaky, but at the very least he could respect the hustle. Well, he wouldn't say no. He was too curious as meeting an actual AI, after all, and he couldn't find an excuse to say no. He didn't exactly have much else to be doing right now, either.

"Er, hold on a second," Sally muttered as she held a small computer in one hand while continuing to root around in her vest for a second item. "She wanted to generate her body, so I... oh, here it is."

Sorun couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when he saw the second object she pulled out from a hidden pocket inside her vest: a golden ring. A really large ring that looked more like an oversized bracelet than anything else that the chipmunk was currently attempting to place into a slot at the top of the small computer's screen.

"Why's she putting a noodle in the computer?" Sorun thought to himself. The strange ring was successfully slotted into the computer. The small, green-tinted screen attached to the computer briefly flashed, prompting Sally to set it down on the kitchen table nearby. The black-haired teen continued to watch in mild interest as a green outline of a figure materialized right next to the table. The outline slowly began to fill in with more green light, and then textures and features began to take form as the figure shifted and wavered as more colors appeared.

By the end of it, the new person standing there might as well have been another Mobian from what Sorun could see. A feline-looking Mobian with dark brown fur, black triangle markings around her eyes, and covered in purple wrappings that Sorun assumed were supposed to serve as a dress of some sort.

Honestly, though, he was too busy trying to figure out how a little computer managed to generate a whole artificial body to pay much attention to any of Nicole's features.

"Sorun, correct?" He looked up from his musings. Nicole's light green eyes were affixed directly on him, and one of her large, triangular black-tipped ears flicked slightly. "It is a pleasure to finally be metaphorically meeting you in the flesh."

"Uh, yeah. Likewise." He pointed towards her body. "So you're a cat?"

"The body I chose to represent myself is actually a lynx."

A sharp inhale from Sorun. "I was on a winnin' streak there," he muttered, but he quickly picked himself back up and pointed at the computer sitting on the table. "So that little thing can seriously make a whole body?" he asked. "And it's a real body? Not like a hologram or something? How does that work?"

"Real is a rather subjective term considering the composition of this form." If Nicole minded the fact that Sorun was poking at her shoulder to test if she was solid or not, she didn't show it. "As for the actual process of me constructing this body, the method is a rather admittedly complex one. If you really wish to spend two hours learning how I-"

"I'm good," Sorun quickly said as he stepped back. "Maybe later. But I'm good on that front."

She gave him a small smile. "Perhaps for the best. Even with a Power Ring, my time in this form is unfortunately limited. It's a very power-consuming process." Her smile fell into a neutral expression, and she glanced over to Sally, who was making subtle gestures towards Sorun with her hand.

Nicole regarded the hand gestures for a single second before turning back to Sorun.

"In truth, the reason Sally deemed it necessary to bring me along was due to her being concerned for your mental state. It was her assumption that you would be more at ease around a larger group of people, though this assumption has proven to be false given your earlier statements." Sally froze, and the other two Mobians likewise grew uncomfortable. "I would like to apologize on her behalf for this rather roundabout attempt at making you more comfortable with us. She only had your best interests at heart."

The AI stopped, and then took a quick glance around the room. Sorun was staring at her blankly with an unreadable expression, Sally looked downright mortified, and Antoine and Bunnie looked like they didn't want to be there. She registered the facial expressions of everybody present, and then began to shuffle at her feet.

"Perhaps I said more than necessary," she sheepishly admitted.

"Little bit, yeah," Sorun agreed in an equally quiet voice.

Okay, so maybe he'd made too many assumptions about Sally trying to force him to open up. Everybody was just legitimately worried about him and was trying to make him feel better. And now he felt like a jerk for having acted so cold, and felt even worse upon realizing all the words he'd said were actually true and that he didn't actually regret anything.

"I wanna hate them but none of them are giving me reasons to hate them," he silently bemoaned as he ran a hand through his dark hair. "It's the opposite, actually. Ugh, man... why's it gotta be like this?"

"Well," Nicole continued, "In that case, perhaps it would be best for us to leave-"

"Actually..." Sorun interrupted. He had to take a deep breath, and then said to her, "I... heard you were pretty good at video games."

She nodded her head. "This is an accurate statement compared to the performance of the other Freedom Fighters." She missed the pout Sally threw at her.

"Ah. You... wanna play something with me?"

Part of him still felt bad at shafting Sally and the group's efforts at trying to make him feel better. Another part still felt completely justified at his actions, but he ignored those feelings in lieu of not wanting to look like a complete jerk in front of everybody. But above all that, his gaming itch had begun to return, and he wanted a partner who was at least decent.

Nicole looked to him in surprise. "I suppose that would be acceptable if Sally does not mind leaving me here to-"

"No, it's fine!" Sally actually looked relieved at the turnabout, and went as far as to almost shove Nicole away towards the living room. "There's not much happening right now anyway, so go enjoy yourselves!"

She was given an odd look by the lynx, but it was soon dropped as she made her way towards the living room. Sorun's eyes followed after her, and then drifted back towards the other three who were looking towards him with apprehension.

He sighed. Nobody ever made any of this easy.

"Everything I said earlier still holds true. With that said, I... really appreciate the effort," Sorun admitted with sincerity. "I know I'm not really making this easy for anybody. But thanks anyways."

"I understand, Sorun." Sally gave him a small nod. "I realize this isn't easy for you. But just the fact you're at least trying gives me some hope." She held her hand out to him and offered a small smile. "I hope that eventually you can become friends with everybody."

Sorun regarded the hand with a frown. Try as he might, he honestly couldn't see him ever becoming friends with anybody. This was either gonna end with him running away from this zone and leaving everybody to a ruinous future at Eggman's hands, or him running away because he didn't want to touch the rest of the Emeralds. Which would also doom everybody.

That and he was dying against his will to save the people who'd brought him here to begin with and were indirectly responsible in some part for killing him. That was all assuming he didn't even die at some point before doing either of those things.

No. He couldn't be friends with them considering all that. They didn't deserve a friend who would abandon them, and he didn't want to befriend the people who had done this to him. So he shook his head and turned away.

"I don't think so, Sally." He glanced back at her as she lowered the offered hand, and the look of sadness and disappointment written on her face made him turn away once more. Antoine's face was mostly full of disappointment, and Bunnie's expression was reminiscent of Sally's. "It was nice meeting you, Bunnie, for what it's worth."

"... Likewise," she replied in a dejected tone.

He left them behind right after. That awkward air was beginning to settle again, and he didn't want to be in the middle of that. Sorun did his best to push all of that to the back of his mind as he approached the couch that had attempted to cripple him as Nicole finished her preparations with the game console.

"This world can make little computers that can project corporeal bodies powered by noodles or whatever but can't make a wireless controller," he internally groused as he grabbed one of the console's controllers and sat down on the couch. Nicole took a seat right next to him. "Eh, I guess it's fine. Wonder what game Nicole- wait, hold on."

Sorun felt a pit grow in his stomach when he saw it was the spaceship game. The one he'd got the perfect score in just because he'd had that urge to beat Nicole. Through all of that he'd neglected to think about how she would react over it. Would she even react that strongly due to being an AI? She seem sophisticated enough so far that he was debating with himself her apparent level of self awareness but Sorun just didn't know.

"You don't wanna start with a two-player game?" Sorun asked, a nervous bead of sweat rolling down his neck.

"I wish to gauge your level of skill before proceeding forwards. I find that this game's difficulty serves as an adequate benchmark for such measurements," Nicole explained. "How did you know this is only a one-player game?"

"Uh..." Sorun's eyes darted away from Nicole and towards the screen. "Mighty showed me it. I've played it."

"I see. So you must already have a score on the leaderboard." Sorun's heart rate began to steadily climb as Nicole took the controller from his hands and navigated to the score menu. "Let me just load in the scores so I can see for myself."

"N-nah, you don't have to. Really."

"You needn't be insecure about your score if it really was that l-"

She stopped dead once the scores loaded in, and Sorun only needed a quick glance to confirm she was staring right at the top name with the perfect score. The name that was right above hers. An almost inaudible whine sounded in the back of his throat as he nervously tapped at his knees.

Nicole herself didn't speak for the longest moment, And Sorun could have sworn the black locks of hair on her head almost flattened upon seeing the scores. Her eyes merely lingered on the leaderboard, and then slowly her black-colored hands placed the controller back in Sorun's lap. "... It appears you are quite skilled. More so than I originally anticipated." There was an almost an icy edge to her otherwise friendly tone, and a small smile began to form on her lips. A smile that he recognized all too well, as he'd seen it countless times on Earth.

The smile of a competitive gamer.

"Ah, I guess I am pretty good." Any worry the teen had melted right off when he saw that smile, and he almost started to feel excited. "Gettin' that perfect was nothing. I bet you could do it, too, with a bit more practice." As he said this, he shot her an equally competitive smile. He knew she saw it when one of her ears twitched.

"Is that so?" The way she sat up off the couch was almost aggressive as she made her way towards the console. "Perhaps further testing of your skill is required. A two-player fighting game should be more than enough to suit this need."

Sorun settled further into the couch and grasped at his controller. "You're talkin' my language now."


So Nicole was good.

God, but she was good at video games.

Considering she was an AI, it was to be expected. He'd even seen it coming after seeing her score with the spaceship game, but damn, she was good. In their entire session of gaming, neither was able to get a leg up on the other. It was a back and forth game of Sorun winning, and then Nicole winning, and then the pattern would repeat over and over. At the end, Sorun was on a fifty/fifty win-lose ratio with the AI lynx.

It was more than just her being good due to being an AI, too. There was legitimate skill being displayed by her, and over time she would continually adjust her strategies to meet Sorun's own play style, who would in turn have to adapt to her. She was a great conversationalist, too, though any words between them were few and far between seeing as most of their focus was on the game. What little Sorun did get out of her though sounded so natural that he repeatedly kept forgetting that he was playing with an AI.

But all in all, he was having fun. Gaming with Mighty had been relaxing since he'd been so better compared to the armadillo, but with Nicole it was fun. Just like playing back on Earth. She was a great game partner.

It was almost enough to make him forget all the terrible things that had been happening to him. Almost.

"So your mistake here is that you chose your fighter character poorly," Sorun informed the lynx as his fingers flew over the controller. "The one I got has perfect frame advantage over yours."

Right as Sorun explained this, his pixelized character on the screen delivered the finishing blow to Nicole's character. Basking in the win, Sorun leaned back into the couch while shooting Nicole a smug glance.

Nicole, to her credit, was extremely humble when it came to losses. Winning was a different matter, as while she was infinitely better about being subtle about it, she could be as smug as him when victorious in a game. But now, right after losing, she was just giving him a small smile while setting her controller down.

"I must admit that this experience has been an unexpected one. But a very welcome one," she added as she turned her head to Sorun. "It was my expectation that this level of skill was beyond most people's capability after seeing the Freedom Fighters' performance. How did you attain this level of competency with video games?"

"An arguably unhealthy amount of practice," Sorun answered. "Video games were a big hobby of mine back home."

"I see." She gave him an understanding nod. "Your way of playing has given me... insight, as to adapting to to non-ideal situations. In terms you would understand, I believe this means I have learned from the experience." Nicole glanced at the TV, and then back to Sorun. "The likelihood of this experience proving to be valuable during operations is minimal at best, but at the same time I cannot deny the possibility exists. In the effort of being as prepared as possible in order to provide adequate support to the others, I would like to continue these sessions with you."

There were serious doubts in Sorun's mind that any of what they did would be any sort of help out in the field, but then again, she was an AI. So what did he really know? Practically nothing. But if she was offering he didn't see a reason to decline. Besides, he did have more fun playing with her than he thought he would have. A lot more.

"... Except I'm kind of planning to leave her behind to her death or worse along with everybody else, huh?" Sorun reminded himself as he looked down at his controller. Part of why it was so hard to form any kind of bond with anybody in the Freedom Fighters aside from the whole abducted bit was that. It felt almost wrong to accept anything like that considering his intentions.

Well. He did really like playing games with her on second thought. It was something he could overlook for now and reevaluate later on.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind that. If we ever have time again I'm game." He cocked his head to the side when Nicole flickered. Her body had briefly gone transparent, and there was even a static-like sound that resulted from it. "Uh, you okay? You're kinda... glitching," he informed her.

She looked down to her hand as she flickered again, and she nodded before looking back up at Sorun. "I'm afraid my time is up," she said. "I'll be momentarily returning to my real body. If you would be so kind as to deliver me back to Sally at some point, I would much appreciate it."

He really didn't want to and figured Sally would just come back for it on her own later on anyways, but he was in a good enough mood after the gaming session to go ahead and commit to the favor. "Sure, no problem," he said.

"Thank you." Nicole's body began to fade more and more rapidly, and gave a final smile to him before disappearing. "It was very fun meeting you, Sorun."

She vanished right after saying that.

"..." Sorun didn't have anything to say in response, opting to instead just stare silently. He couldn't help but feel that the last smile gave him felt more livelier than any of the other ones.

She really was a spectacular gaming partner.

The teen continued staring at that one spot for a few more seconds, and then slowly stood up from the couch and turned around to leave. He yelled out and fell right back on the couch when he turned around to a blue hedgehog standing centimetres away from him.

"Jeez!" Sorun sputtered out as he brushed away the dark hair that fell in front of his face, then sent Sonic a scathing look. "Man, how long have you been just creepin' there!?"

"I... just got here a second ago?" Sonic tried. He held his hands out to Sorun, both of which were holding a bottle of soda. "So, I noticed you really like these. Can we talk?"

Of course he wanted to talk. Seemed like everybody wanted to talk to him today, though he actually expected this kind of thing out of Sonic, especially after what happened last night. Didn't mean he was looking forwards to it. "Ugh. Sure." He pulled himself off of the couch, grabbed one of the sodas from Sonic, and then gestured towards the HQ kitchen.

Walking to the kitchen was a journey that took seconds but felt like minutes for Sorun. He tried focusing on the cold sensation of the bottle he was holding, but it did little to distract him from the fact that this conversation was about to happen. He didn't imagine it would go so different from the one he had with Sally, but seeing as it was Sonic, he had no idea what the reaction would be. Sorun was mostly afraid he'd be a lot more stubborn over the issue rather than be accepting of it like Sally had been.

What to do in the event this was true was something Sorun had no clue on. He still didn't know what he was supposed to say.

They arrived in the kitchen, and Sorun found himself going over to lean on the exact same spot on the exact same counter as before. Sonic did the same, but on the table and facing him. They stared at each other for a few minutes with lost looks on both of their faces, at which point Sorun decided to summon a blue sword and have its tip float under the cap of his soda bottle. It wiggled around for a bit before the cap finally popped off, which Sorun had caught midair and placed on the counter as the sword shattered.

Sonic, who had watched the small displayed, gave the smallest of chuckles. "Is that really the best way to be using your power?"

"Yeah man, totally," Sorun confirmed as he took a drink from the soda. "I'll never need a bottle opener ever again thanks to these things."

"Hah, yeah. I guess." Sonic didn't even bother opening his own soda, choosing instead to set it on the table next to him. "So last night went okay?"

The hedgehog didn't waste any time apparently. "Yeah. Slept on the couch." Sorun nodded his head into the living room. "Fell asleep reading the dictionary."

"The... dictionary?" Sonic repeated. "Why?"

"I like to be as verbose as possible when I insult people so I can feel even more superior," Sorun lied. "I learned a new word, though: deracinate. Traditionally it's just a gardening term for pulling roots, but its original meaning refers to separating something from its native environment or even its culture. Kinda like if a foreigner went to a new land. Or if some random teenager, I dunno, got pulled into an alternate universe full of weird animal people he can't understand as a crazy example."

The meaning wasn't lost on Sonic in the slightest, and the hedgehog crossed his arms as a response. "What do you mean you don't understand us?"

"You're nice. I don't mean you. I mean all of you," Sorun elaborated, but then paused. "Most of you. Shadow's in this weird area for me, but you're all just so... nice." He sputtered and pointed at his soda. "I mean, Jesus, I scream at you and throw a sword at you and your response is to get me a soda so we can try patching things up. That ain't normal where I'm from."

"What do you mean not normal?" Sonic asked, eyes scrunched in confusion. "We all just want to help you. That's what we do. It's... it's what everybody should do. Even Shadow wants to help everybody in his own weird way." He shook his head. "Why's that so hard for you to understand?"

Sorun threw his free hand up. "I don't know, man. It just is. Nobody on Earth... okay, fine, there were people like you in my zone," he admitted, "but there wasn't whole populations of people like that around. It was mixed. Everybody's personalities were super mixed."

"Then what were most people like?" Sonic asked.

"I dunno, me?" Sorun shrugged. "Kind of me but not really? Some better, some worse, everybody different in their own ways, but compared to everybody else I ever met I was pretty normal. And okay, yeah, maybe bein' the short guy in class made me a bit bitter over time, but overall that's how it was over there."

There certainly weren't many people on Earth that would bend over backwards as far as everybody here was at his expense. Hell, he wouldn't go as far. But they would, because Sorun suspected that Mobians were just so naturally nice.

"Eggman said something about them... what was it, a certain drive humans have that they don't? They can't not be vicious, though. There's wars. These people right here are fighting in one. I don't know, maybe they're just... naturally nice? Or something? I don't know." He blinked. "Eggman..."

Sorun didn't feel discussing what happened with the mad scientist was necessary. He didn't want to cause any more problems, and frankly they didn't need to know. The knowledge that the Doctor could casually just wipe out all of Knothole at any moment but wasn't because he just didn't feel like it was a sobering thought that had Sorun on edge, but there wasn't much to do on that front.

All the more reason to bail when he could.

"Well I'm not gonna pretend to understand what life was like over there, but over here we all just want to help you." He turned down to the floor. "We all really do feel terrible about what we did, but we don't want to help just because of that. We wanna help you because it's the right thing to do. But with everything else... you know." He picked his head back to up look at Sorun. "But... you said a lot of things last night. And I want to talk about it."

"I don't. We're gonna anyways since you're never gonna drop this, but for the record I really don't." Sorun took another swig of his soda and then set it down on the counter. "I'll be real. I've had this conversation with Tails and Sally already, and if I have to have it too many more times I'm gonna go crazy. So I'm only saying all this one more time." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Here's where we stand. I realize you all were desperate in bringing me here, and I understand why you did it. That doesn't mean I'm actually alright with it, just that I understand. But then yesterday got thrown at me, and now I got the possibility of being stuck here forever hanging over my head. What am I supposed to think of you all after that?"

Sonic drummed his fingers on the table. "It's still not a sure thing that you're trapped on Mobius," he reminded him in a quiet voice. "We're gonna find a way to bring you back. I don't know how, but we will. But, uh... you know, by some chance- a really small chance!" he rapidly stated. "Like, real tiny! Practically nonexistent! But, y'know, hypothetically speaking if you were actually stuck here forever-"

"Can we just cross that bridge if we get to it?" Sorun asked him. "I'm gonna have a lot of things to say if that really is the case, but I don't want to waste the emotional energy if it's not even true."

Sonic readily nodded his head, which did enough to show Sorun that he wanted to avoid that topic as much as he did. Suited him fine. The less internal turmoil he had over all of this the better, and he just wanted this conversation to be over already.

"But even still... you're still upset at all of us," Sonic said.

"Sonic, I... yeah, look, I am, there's no getting around that," Sorun admitted. "It's not just the abducting thing or the trapped on Mobius thing, though, because if it was just those things we wouldn't be having this conversation and I wouldn't be avoiding everybody. There's... other factors." His life being in peril thanks to them chief among them. His forced silence was settled right next to that. Wanting to leave them behind to Eggman's mercy or lack-there-of was also a contributing factor.

"Then what is it?" Sonic asked, and there was a desperate edge to his voice that Sorun noticed. "If it's something you want to talk about, or if there's anything we can do to help, then-"

"I can't say," Sorun interrupted with a flat tone.

"What do you mean you can't say? Why not?"

"Because reasons, okay?" Sorun said, and then held up a hand to silence the hedgehog when he opened his mouth. "Just... listen, alright? As it stands, the Freedom Fighters need help with Eggman. I have the Summoned Swords power now, so I can help. I need your help getting the Chaos Emeralds, but you can't because of Eggman. Nothing's changed at that front. We're bound to each other because of mutual need." The human placed his hands inside his pockets. "I'll still be a Freedom Fighter. I'll cooperate with everybody and serve to the best of my ability, which is still severely limited swords aside. What happens past that?" He gave half of a shrug. "Who knows, but for now... that's the deal."

"... Okay." Sonic took a deep breath, and then pushed off the table. "I wish you would just talk to me about what has you so upset, but... fine, if that's how you want it. We can work with that." He gave Sorun a hopeful smile. "But maybe eventually we could be friends? You already get along with us, so... at least consider getting over whatever is bothering you? Please?"

Sorun gave a low sigh. "Why do you keep trying?" he asked him.

"Well, I... think you're cool. That's it," Sonic answered, causing Sorun's eyes to widen slightly. "I get it's hard for you, but even if you can't see it yourself, I can see you're trying really hard. And I just think it would be really neat to be friends with somebody like you." The corners of his mouth turned downwards. "I just wished I understood why you don't want to be friends with us. Are you sure we can't?"

The same thoughts that ran through his head when Sally asked him the same thing rand through his head now with Sonic asking. The deadly effect of the Chaos Emeralds. His intentions on leaving them all behind to their doom. Everything that was bothering him that he truly did want to tell Sonic but couldn't because of this damn curse.

Frustrating. Frustrating because it was making it so that nobody understood him. Frustrating because he just wanted to tell somebody so he could get it off his chest. But he had to keep holding all these thoughts in because he had no other choice. Sonic's words didn't help, either. Something about that little confession... it almost hurt. He didn't even realize the hedgehog respected him to such a degree. How could barely even understand why he was so respected, but deep inside he was genuinely grateful for it, like everything else the hedgehog had done for Sorun. It helped to make him feel like he really wasn't alone in this strange world.

But he just couldn't return that gratitude. Not with everything else going on. Not when Sorun wanted to bail on them all to save his own life. And the worst part was that he didn't know if he was sparing himself or Sonic by distancing himself so far.

"... We're comrades. Nothing more," Sorun decided. "I can't do anything closer than that."

Sonic's face fell, but he gave the human an understanding nod before a sad-sounding chuckle left him. "Why do you have to make things so complicated, Sorun?" he asked with an empty smile.

"Good question," Sorun muttered in response. "That all said, uh... mind if I move back in with you? That couch isn't working for me."

"It's cool," Sonic assured him. "But, uh... about what you said earlier. You really don't feel like you're fitting in with everybody else? Is that what you meant by that whole dera-whatever thing?'

It was more along the lines of why being so nice was so ingrained in Mobian culture, but Sorun had already given up on figuring that out and just settled on giving Sonic a nod. "Something like that."

"Well, we can't have that if you're gonna be working with us. I know you want to avoid people for some weird reason, but that just isn't gonna fly. And the swords are nice, but, well, some extra training wouldn't hurt you." A thoughtful look crossed Sonic's face, and a grin slowly began to grow on him as he snapped his gloved fingers. "That, that can work. I'd have to run it by everybody, but yeah." He grabbed his otherwise untouched soda and headed out of the kitchen. "Things to do gotta juice seeya at home bye!"

He left in blur right after that and was gone completely from sight before Sorun could even blink. The human was left wondering the meaning of Sonic's words, but came up completely blank.

"Ah, great. What's he planning now?" he muttered to himself before reaching over to the bottle so he could down the rest of his soda.


A/N- Fun fact, during the planning stage of this story deracinate was gonna be the title of the story. It didn't make the cut and was dropped pretty earlier because A) it didn't really fit with what I was going for, and B) I thought to myself, "That's the most pretentious thing in the world, nobody's gonna know what that means. I didn't know what that word meant until I randomly happened upon it looking up words." But while it doesn't fit with the story, it sorta fits with Sorun's current plight, so it was a fun little thing I added in.