Recursion Error
Episode 17- Knuckles Buster
It was with a multitude of bad feelings running through him, both mental and physical, that Sorun opened his eyes up.
Once again, he'd been knocked out by a glowing rock. And once again he'd woken up on his back staring up at the ceiling. If there was an upside it was that there weren't any strange visions he couldn't remember and he didn't feel like he was going to pass out again, but the aches and lingering pains of being shocked unconscious was still present.
The first thing he noticed as his vision cleared, though, was the red blur hovering over his form that slowly became more clear as Sorun blinked focus back into his eyes. Eventually he came to realize that the person looking down at him was Knuckles. And any of the physical pains his body was experiencing was overridden with the mental ones. The mental ones that were screaming at him that he'd just lost another twelve years of life because the echidna had forced that Emerald on him.
He wanted to punch Knuckles right in the face.
So he did.
It wasn't one of Sorun's arms that punched Knuckles, though. He hadn't even gotten up to make the motion. The only thoughts that had been running through the teen's mind were ones saying they wanted to punch Knuckles, so something shot out and punched him. A large, blue, spectral arm to be specific had shot right out of Sorun's body and punched Knuckles right in the face.
The force of the punch had been so great that Knuckles had flown all the way clear across the living room and into the wall. He'd bounced off the wall, but mid-bounce the spectral arm had shot forwards, wrapped its clawed fingers around his head, and slammed him back into the wall.
"Knuckles, you...!" By now Sorun had risen up to his feet, his face completely livid and teeth bared as he stared at the pinned echidna. The blue arm holding him against the wall trailed all the way to the lower back of Sorun's right shoulder, and on his left side jutted another feathered, blue arm that was hovering protectively over Sorun. "You... why did you do that...!?"
Again. It had happened again. Another Emerald inside of him, and another twelve years of his whole life lost. And he'd tried, tried, to avoid it, but even when he was trying to get away what did Knuckles go and do? He practically shoved the thing right into Sorun's hands! And now his life was cut that much shorter all because Knuckles hadn't listened!
It was so rage-inducing that Sorun couldn't help the growl that came out of him as the arm holding Knuckles cocked backwards before shooting forwards and slamming Knuckles into the wall again and again.
"Sorun, stop it!" He felt somebody shake his arm roughly, and he whipped his head to the side to see Sonic was the one shaking him. He looked extremely concerned, but there was something in his eyes that was giving Sorun pause. An angered edge accentuated by the way his lids were slightly narrowed. For whatever reason it was enough to send a small twinge of fear through Sorun, and that was enough to snap him out of his blind rage.
The blue hand holding Knuckles' face opened and let him go, and the echidna fell down off the wall and onto his knees. He coughed a few times, and then shakily got up to his feet as he cast his violet eyes towards Sorun. The anger in them was a lot less subtle than the anger in Sonic's eyes.
"What was that!?" an angered Knuckles yelled as he stomped towards Sorun. "I check to see if you're alright and you slam me into a wall like that!?"
Sorun roughly shook Sonic's hands off his arm and matched Knuckles' stomping as he approached the echidna. "Why did I do that!? Why did you give that thing to me when I didn't want it!? You couldn't have warned me!? You know how much that hurts!?"
Sonic had zoomed forwards in a blur and was attempting to push Sorun back. Sally, who had still been in the room, was doing the same to Knuckles. Their efforts proved to be successful, and eventually the two angered teens were pushed to a complete stop. Knuckles' gloves were still dangerously flexing while the spectral arms behind Sorun were flared out, but under the harsh and stern glares of both Sonic and Sally the two eventually sighed.
"Don't. Do that. Again," Sorun slowly told Knuckles as the blue arms lowered. "Seriously. I meant it when I said I didn't want to touch it."
Knuckles exhaled heavily through his nose, but relaxed his fists and gave Sorun a small nod. "I'm sorry. I'll ask next time."
All Sorun gave in response was a single blink and a shake of his head before he turned away from the trio of Mobians. At his will, he made the two spectral arms stretch forwards so he could examine them.
Upon closer inspection, they were less arms and more feathered wings that were in the shape of arms given the wing-like plumage of blue, spectral feathers attached to the elbows of the arms. The two feathered arms ended in spectral hands, each one tipped in five long, opposable talons in place of fingers.
Sorun only needed a second's glance to recognize them.
"What the... aren't... aren't these Nero's Bringer Claws?" he thought to himself before promptly frowning. "Aw, you gotta be... what, is every single power I get from an Emerald gonna be from 'Devil May Cry'? And they're not even gonna stick with Vergil? They're just gonna give me powers from whoever? Shit ain't even consistent."
He'd suspected that perhaps him getting powers exclusively from 'Devil May Cry' was a possibility, a strong one at that, but he had really been hoping that wasn't the case. There were so many other powers from other games, movies, and anime he'd seen that were so world-breaking that, if he really was going to be saddled with powers, he could at least get something along those lines to make life easier on himself. But now there was a pattern with this second power. Likely just because he liked that series so much and played it last shortly before coming here, the same reason Aurora had alluded to.
"So much for getting Rinnegan eyes," he silently lamented. "I could have gotten up to some real shit with those eyes. Or, fuck, literally ANY Stand from 'Jojo'. Electric powers from 'InFamous' would have been nice seeing as I'm fighting robots that run on electricity here. Infinity Gauntlet. Could have had any of those things, but noooo, they all get locked out because apparently I'm stuck with 'Devil May Cry' stuff."
Why the Bringer Claws though, he had to wonder. Getting the swords from Vergil made sense- he'd been his favorite character. He'd played him the most out of everybody. Nero was a close second for sure, but why not another power from Vergil? Why, out of everything else, a power from Nero?
"Is it just because Nero was Vergil's son? Is that a close enough relationship that... agh, but this doesn't work using genes from fake video game characters! It works because my stupid subconscious wants it!" he internally groused. "I mean yeah, sure, Nero was great since he was the only character in the whole series that could do command grabs, but-"
He stopped himself right there. He looked down at the arms, and then blinked in realization as the two spectral hands slowly flexed their talons.
"... Oh yeah. Command grabs. Inescapable command grabs that interrupt enemy attacks and do a shit ton of damage. That's why I liked Nero so much." He looked up from the arms. "Nah, I can run with this."
There would be a lot of thinking about these arms, but that was for later. For now he needed to process it all. And for that he needed sleep. It had already been a long enough day from the heist he just committed. His tolerance for the day was done.
The Bringer Claws folded into Sorun's back, with the talons resting over Sorun's shoulder as the feathered elbows hung off his back, giving the appearance that he had two blue, spectral wings hanging off of him. He slid his hands into his pockets with a sigh, and turned back around to face the three Mobians he turned his back to.
At the very least, the tenseness that had permeated the whole room had subsided. The slight anger was still present in Sonic's eyes, and now he looked worried on top of it. Sally mostly just looked worried. Much of the anger had faded from Knuckles, and while there were still some vestiges of rage left on his features, he looked more confused than anything else.
"... I'm going to bed," Sorun told them as he turned towards the stairs. "I'm tired."
He was surprised he even made it halfway to the stairs before he heard Sonic call out to him. "Sorun-?"
"Sonic. I'm tired. Later." Really tired, actually. More than he'd initially thought he was, now that he thought on it. He rubbed at his sleepy eyes, and then shook it off. "We'll talk later."
Sorun ascended the stairs and, too tired to even remove his hand from his pocket, willed his right Bringer Claw to remove itself from his shoulder, reach out, and open the door for him. He walked through the door, and once he made it through the other side the Bringer Claw reached behind him and slammed the door hard enough to cause the three Mobians to flinch.
It was right after Sorun stomped out of the HQ that Sonic let out a frustrated sigh while he began to pace. "I can't believe he did that," he grumbled in an irritated tone. "What was he thinking!? I just- I think I finally start to get him and he pulls something like this! Do any of you guys have any idea what Sorun's problem is?" he asked as he turned to the other two. "He acted just as bad when he got the sword things."
And try as he might, he couldn't fathom why. He would readily admit it and say that they should have held off when he said he didn't want to touch it yet, that was their bad, but even so! Even if they did make a mistake it didn't warrant beating Knuckles against the wall with those... arm-things that had come out of his shoulders! He couldn't even place that look Sorun had given the arms once he got a good look at them, only that he seemed much more calm afterwards. Calm and tired.
It didn't make any sense at all. Like a lot of things about Sorun.
"I don't know," Knuckles groaned as he rubbed the back of his head. "Those arm-wing-whatever things he got sure pack a punch though. Ow." He winced, and then slowly removed his hand. "What even were those?"
"His new power, I guess." Sonic gave a shrug. "I'm so fed up with trying to figure out what makes him upset." He started tapping his foot in thought. "The first time was after he found out the Emerald might be stuck in him, that I got, but this time it happened so quick. So what happened this time!?" He looked towards Sally. "Was he acting like that during the mission?"
To the hedgehog's greater confusion, she shook her head. "No, not at all. If anything he was more collected than normal." She reached into her vest and opened Nicole's computer body up. "Nicole, you heard all that. What do you think?"
"His aggression levels did seem to spike to abnormally high level following his contact with the Emerald," she answered. A beat passed, and she added, "I'm worried for his mental state."
"I'm more worried about Knux's head!" Sonic exclaimed. "Where does Sorun get off on doing something like that!? I get he's upset for some reason that's way beyond me, but that's no excuse to go attacking people!"
"Sonic, I'm fine," Knuckles grumbled out as he rubbed at his head. "You ever try talking-?"
"No, that's the thing! That's the thing with him!" Groaning in frustration, Sonic thrust his arms up in the air while he began pacing again. "He's got some internal issues he absolutely refuses to talk about, and I know it for a fact because he told me to my face he's keeping things from us, and he just will not open up because... I don't know, ah, because he's Sorun!"
His arms and shoulders went slack with an exhausted sigh, and he flopped right onto the couch behind them with his feet dangling over the edge. He stayed motionless for a few moments, and then slowly turned his head to the side when he saw Sally walk up next to the couch.
"I seriously don't get him, Sal," he admitted to her. "One minute he's fine, another minute he isn't, and I don't... I don't know if it's a human thing, or if people just act like he does normally in his zone, or if Sorun's just weird... I don't know. Might not even be any of those things." He slapped a hand on his face. "It'd be so much easier figuring this all out if he'd just talk!"
"I know how you feel," she said. "He can be unusually reserved at times."
Which was odd, because Sorun never gave off the impression that he liked hiding stuff. He'd had a lot of conversations with the human, and not just him, but all the other Freedom Fighters. It was never much, but he always talked about little things from his previous life on his zone if somebody asked him out of curiosity. It was always little, inconsequential things, but he always seemed fine talking about it.
He didn't even go as far as to hide the fact he didn't want to befriend them. He'd seemed uncomfortable when he'd said it, too- Sonic had seen it in his eyes. Uncomfortable to the point that he seemed like he wanted to keep it to himself, but he hadn't. Because he knew Sonic was going to press the issue over and over, so Sorun had decided it would take less effort being straight with him than being secretive.
So why was this the exception to that experience? Why wouldn't he tell them why he was so touchy around the subject of Chaos Emeralds? What was the problem he had that was so important that he was going so far out of his way to keep it from all of them? And for that matter why did he seem so familiar with these powers he kept receiving? There was confusion among all the Freedom Fighters over the abilities and why they were manifesting the way they were, and if anybody should have been questioning it the most, it should have been Sorun. But, just like with those wings, he seemed almost intimately familiar with them.
None of it made sense, and Sonic knew it would if Sorun just explained himself, but he wouldn't. "Because reasons" he had said. He hated that excuse so much.
"I don't even care if it's with me," Sonic said after a long moment. "I wish he'd just talk about this with somebody so he could just deal with his issues. But he never even goes out of his way to talk to anybody."
"That statement is false," the computer being held in Sally's hand said. "There have been multiple occurrences where Sorun has actively sought me out specifically."
Sonic's head shot right up off the couch at that. Sally looked down at the computer she was holding in muted shock, and even Knuckles near the back was looking towards them oddly.
"... We're talking about the same Sorun here, right?" Sonic asked. "Sorun? The human guy?"
"Who else would I be referring to?" Nicole asked. "Sorun often desires to play video games with somebody, so he seeks me out. I always accept when I can. He is very skilled and offers an interesting experience every time we play together, so I find myself making time available for whenever he asks."
"Well yeah he's good, I saw the score that night, but why doesn't Sorun ever ask anybody else to play with him?" the hedgehog questioned.
There was a pause from Nicole before she answered. "... I believe it is because I am the only one among us that can actually keep up with him. Sorun does not like easy challenges when it comes to video games."
Sonic took offense to that, and wrinkled his face in displeasure. "Hey, I'm plenty good-!"
"Not compared to him you aren't," Nicole interrupted. "I've seen both of you demonstrate your skills. You don't come close to Sorun, I'm afraid."
He opened his mouth to object, but with a small grumble he closed it in silent acceptance. So Sorun was amazing at video games. Sonic had seen it for himself; he wouldn't argue the point. Especially if Nicole was vouching for his skill. But he was more interested in Sorun's frequent interaction with the AI over anything else. He didn't frequently interact with anybody on a regular basis as far as Sonic knew.
"So... you and Sorun talk a lot?" he pressed.
"Sometimes," Nicole answered. "Most times we are more focused on playing more than anything, though we do take time to converse with each other between sessions. Sometimes it will be him giving me advice, and other times it will be casual chatter. Why do you ask?"
The thought of Sorun going out of his way to casually chat with anybody was a foreign concept to Sonic, but it made sense once he realized that Nicole was probably the only one among them who could have gotten through to Sorun through video games. It was practically the only thing he liked as far as Sonic knew. It was a pleasant surprise, but more than that it gave him a spark of hope for the human along with an idea.
"You think that maybe you could get Sorun to talk?" Sonic finally asked her. "I know this sounds a bit weird coming from me, but I wouldn't be asking if there was any other way."
Because there wasn't any other way. Not at the rate they were going and with how closed off Sorun was to everybody. But if unlike everybody else he had somewhat of a good rapport with Nicole, then maybe there was a way.
Unfortunately, the answer that Nicole gave wasn't too encouraging to that idea.
"I... believe that if Sorun wishes to keep certain thoughts to himself, he then must have a reason for doing so," Nicole answered, causing Sonic's mood to deflate. "I do not wish to pry into an issue he is taking active steps to keep to himself."
"Nicole, I know, but-"
"He has the same right to his own privacy as everybody else," she said. "If he wishes to divulge whatever it is that is unsettling him, then I trust that he will come forwards with it on his own when he is ready. But I do not want to stress the trust he has in me by attempting to force a confession out of him. I'm sorry."
Sonic held his hands up. "Hey, nobody was saying you had to go that far, but... yeah, I get what you're saying," he sighed out as he rubbed a hand through his quills. It was probably for the best, anyways. The last thing Sonic wanted to do was jeopardize the biggest step Sorun had taken towards befriending anybody just so he could get his answers. And he respected Nicole's choice enough to call it good.
But he still wasn't going to let the physical assault against Knuckles slide without a conversation.
"I'm still gonna talk to him tomorrow about what happened with Knuckles," he finally said to them as he crashed back down onto the couch. "That wasn't cool. He can't go around slamming people into walls just because he feels like it."
"That's probably for the best," Sally agreed as she closed Nicole and placed her back inside her vest. "I'm going to call it for a night here. Good luck with tomorrow."
"Yeah, same," Knuckles called out to them.
Sonic waved them off, and then softly sighed as he interlaced his fingers behind his head and looked up at the ceiling in thought.
The next morning for Sorun was just that. Another morning.
Sonic hadn't been in his race car bed when Sorun woke up. Whether that meant the hedgehog had both came in and left while Sorun was sleeping or he'd never returned to begin with, Sorun didn't know, nor did he really care all that much. After what happened last night he needed some distance away from the blue hedgehog.
So where did that leave him? In the house's kitchen, seeking breakfast. But unfortunately, it seemed he'd woken up way earlier than he usually did, and because of that the other occupants to the house, Sonic's parents, weren't up. Which meant Sonic's mother Bernadette couldn't make him her pancakes.
Damn.
"Damn." Grumbling incoherently, Sorun stomped over to a nearby cabinet and opened it up. After a quick search he'd found a package of bread. "Sandwich it is, then. Ugh."
It was a great that the concept of stacking stuff between bread wasn't lost on him, because that and throwing french fries in an oven to bake, and the use of microwaves and toasters were about all his cooking skills amounted to. A good thing those were all the skills he needed, then, since all he'd done was toast two pieces of bread and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
All one needed to get the day started was a sandwich. Pancakes were preferable, but he'd make do.
He hadn't bothered to egress all the way to the dining room to eat his sandwich, so Sorun had just elected to lean on the kitchen's counter as he nibbled at his cobbled-together meal. His eyes slowly roamed over the kitchen until they landed on the kitchen sink. A kitchen sink that was full to the brim in dirty dishes that needed to be washed.
"Hm. Somebody better get on that," Sorun thought to himself as he ate the sandwich. "For all that praise people always give Sonic, he sure is a terrible son. Leaving all this work to his poor mother. Woman's a saint. She doesn't deserve this mess."
A hum of slight irritation left him, and at the same time a flash of blue light lit from his back as his Bringer Claws appeared, hovering over his shoulders. "How much dexterity can I get out of these things, anyways?" he thought. "I'm like, what, a quarter of the way through this sandwich? I got the time. And I gotta test out the fine motor control on these things. Sure, let's go for it."
So the Bringer Claws were amazing apparently.
It was to be expected, Sorun supposed, that being able to manifest two arms that could reach out however far they could go- he had yet to test that distance- and grab/punch things with unworldly strength- which by this world's standards was probably normal, but again, testing- was pretty great in of itself, but as he'd discovered they were capable of finer things, too.
Thing was, he didn't control the Bringer Claws like he would control an arm. It was much the same way he controlled the Summoned Swords: he just thought of what he wanted them to do, and they followed his will. They were somewhat autonomous in that regard, though they moved so naturally to his thoughts that Sorun himself could barely tell the difference. It was a lot easier to have the spectral arms do things as opposed to his normal arms, though, as he didn't feel any physical exertion from them.
So washing dishes? Easiest task in the world for the Bringer Claws. All he'd done was lean back and continue to eat his sandwich while he watched the Bringer Claws go to work at the dishes at what was a dizzying, almost supernatural speed. Those blue, clawed hands had been scrubbing those plates so fast that he was worried they were going to get scratched or broken, but even though the hands were working at breakneck speeds they'd efficiently cleaned each and every dish without leaving so much as a single mark.
All in all, they managed to do a half hour's worth of dishes in about three or four minutes. He'd barely even finished his sandwich by the time they'd finished.
"Wow, these things just trivialize everything," Sorun thought in wonder as the feathered arms retracted back onto his back while grasping at his shoulders. "They'd be the best thing in the world if I didn't have to spend another twelve years of life for them."
And that was the real kicker right there. His plan of not touching another Emerald after the first was completely shattered thanks to Sonic and Knuckles, and because of that he had two inside of him now. Twenty-four years of life taken from him in total, and with the sixteen he'd already spent living normally before being dragged to Mobius that added all the way up to forty.
Forty years. In terms of lifespan he was already forty. He sure didn't look it, because he'd checked extensively in the mirror this morning. Aside from all the stress he'd endured making it look like he hadn't slept in a billion or so years, he still looked as youthful as the day he came to Mobius. He sure didn't feel it, though. His movements felt more lethargic than he would have liked, and he suspected the reason he'd woken up so early was because his natural sleep schedule was being interrupted.
"This sucks." About the only conclusion he could draw, really. "How'd I already hit forty years? Friggin' math." He ran a hand over his face. "All because fuckin' Knuckles went and... it's fine, he didn't know, it wasn't his fault, it's fine, it's not fine, AGH!"
His right hand had balled up and almost struck the counter he was leaning on, but after a deep, calming breath he lowered it back to his side. He sighed, but with his mood it came out as more of a high-pitched, saddened whine.
"What am I gonna do now? Keep collecting the Emeralds?" he wondered. "I don't have to touch any of the others, but now with two in me, I... I haven't even gotten any closer to figuring out if there's a way to get them out or not. Everybody keeps saying they can't, and the longer this goes on the more likely it looks..."
"O-oh my. Sorun?"
The teen was snapped from his terrible thoughts when he heard a female voice say his name. He looked towards the kitchen's entrance and saw Bernadette standing there, looking back and forth between the kitchen sink and rack full of dishes, Sorun, and the Bringer Claws folded into wings on Sorun's back. Bringer Claws that quickly disappeared completely when Sorun grew self-conscious of them.
"Er, hey, Mrs. Sonic's Mom the Hedgehog ma'am," Sorun shyly greeted.
The hedgehog woman warmly giggled at him. "Sorun, I keep telling you that it's alright if you just use my first name."
"I... it just seems kind of rude, y'know? Doing. That." He averted his eyes away from her. "You just get up?"
"Yes. I was surprised to find you up already at this hour." Bernadette stepped into the kitchen and made her way towards the sink and dishes. "I had planned on cleaning all these dishes later in the afternoon." She looked to the human. "Sorun, did you...?"
No denying this one, he supposed. "I, uh... saw them all and figured I'd just do them to save you the trouble," he quietly murmured.
"Oh, dear, you didn't have to do that!" She stepped closer to him, and a very meek Sorun tried to take a step away. He was too nervous, though, and remained rooted to the spot. "You're a guest as long as you stay here, so you don't-"
"It's fine," Sorun interrupted. "It was no trouble. Really. Your life must be stressful enough since you're a mom and everything, Sonic's mom especially, so I thought you deserved a break."
If it was almost anybody else, he wouldn't have bothered. But he'd always had a soft spot for mothers, and Bernadette had grown on him somewhat. Particularly because of the pancakes. The fact that he needed something to test the Bringer Claws out on had just been a convenient enough excuse for himself.
Though he really didn't know what to feel when the motherly hedgehog leaned in and gave him a chaste peck on his cheek. He'd practically seized up, actually.
"Well, dear, thank you for giving this hedgehog the afternoon off. Maybe I can finally catch back up on some of my reading," she said with a wishful sigh. "Do you at least want me to make you something before you head out? It's the least I-"
"No I'm fine really no problem!" Sorun quickly shook his head in denial, and reflexively tried hiding his face behind his dark hair when he felt his cheeks burning red in embarrassment. "Bye Mrs. Bernadette."
He walked away too quickly to catch her reaction, but he felt his cheeks burn even hotter when he heard her giggle again from behind him. "Have a safe day, dearie! I'll make you something special for dinner tonight when you and Sonic come home!"
The pale human couldn't have gotten out of that kitchen fast enough. One of his greater vulnerabilities that was even more devastating than mothers: nice mothers like her. Sorun blamed his own mother. The fact that Bernadette kind of reminded him of her wasn't helping matters at all.
But even still, she was a nice woman. Hard to believe someone like Sonic was born from her, but Sorun supposed all those heroic traits had to come from somewhere. But thoughts of the other, teenage blue hedgehog slowed Sorun's tracks as he made it past the kitchen and dining room.
"Ah, man... Sonic... he's probably gonna want to talk about what happened last night." And that was a fun conversation waiting for him. He didn't have any justifiable reason to give them for being upset enough at Knuckles to slam him like that. Not any he could say without stopping his heart, at least, and even then he still felt a little justified over it. Somehow he didn't think Sonic would see it that way. "I got not idea what I'm supposed to say to him. Guess I'll just play it by ear. Because that strategy's had such a great record so far..."
"Going already?"
Sorun stopped himself at hearing the male, synthesized voice, and turned towards the living room. His eyes were drawn towards a lone figure sitting in a chair with his head facing towards Sorun. It was Jules.
"... I'm not in a rush or anything," Sorun hesitantly answered as he moved his hand away from the front door he'd been reaching for.
"Ah. Good." Jules leaned forwards in his chair. "So you have time to have a chat with me, then."
"... Sure," Sorun said as he slowly walked into the living room. He felt something brush by his leg, and looked down to see the small family dog rubbing against him. He softly pushed Muttski away with his boot, and the dog whined a little before going towards its bed in the corner. "Hey, Mr. Jules," the teen greeted as he looked back up at the metallic hedgehog.
Whereas Sonic's mother always made Sorun nervous due to her motherly nature, Jules was just intimidating. Sorun knew he didn't mean it; the older hedgehog seemed like a normal person and talked normally enough during the dinners Sorun had participated in with the hedgehog family. Part of that intimidation may have stemmed from the fact he looked like a deadly robot, but there was something more to it.
It was possibly because, underneath that steely exterior, metaphorically and literally speaking, there was a war veteran from what Sonic had told him at one point. A war veteran that fought, and very possibly if not for certain, killed Overlanders. That might have had something to do with it. He was always friendly enough around Sorun, but even still, that intimidating aura was still there.
"So Sonic told me about what transpired last night." Apparently he was going right into it. "You really went and attacked his friend Knuckles?"
Sorun took a deep breath. "I had what you would call a momentary lapse in judgement," he informed the robotic hedgehog. "Absorbing mystical rocks of unlimited Chaos energy will do that. I'm not exactly used to it."
The red sensors that were Jules' eyes regarded Sorun silently for a few moments before his metallic fingers interlocked. "I saw what you did in the kitchen for my wife," he added.
"Well, your wife is a very wonderful person. You're a lucky guy."
"You don't know the half of it." Jules briefly looked down at his metallic exterior before focusing back on Sorun. "You've lived under my roof for a while now, Sorun, and I've gotten to know you a bit. I will admit I had some... reservations at first about having a human sleep in the same home as my family." An awkward pause hung between them. "I realize that every individual regardless of who and what they are deserves a chance, but I won't lie and say the war didn't implant some small bias within me regarding your kind. But at the time we met you didn't seem like an overly malicious boy, and my own son vouched for you. So I gave you a chance and let you stay here."
Sorun darted his eyes to the left and right of the metallic hedgehog. "This is kind of coming out of nowhere. What did-?"
"We're having this conversation because of what you did to Knuckles. I'm getting there."
"... Oh." He hadn't realized what he did would be this significant. He wouldn't have decked Knuckles across the face with a Bringer Claw if he had known.
... No, he was mad enough at the time that he probably still would have, anyways.
"And over time, you proved that Sonic was right to put his trust in you. You began to seriously embed yourself into the resistance, and my son has been talking of you fondly over it." Jules slowly started to get up off his chair. "Of course you haven't been all that friendly, but I'd chalked that up to your unusual circumstances. But then this incident with Knuckles happens, and I begin to worry my initial, biased assumptions were correct after all. And right when I begin to worry I turn my back and you decide to go out of your way and save my wife an afternoon by doing dishes for her." A low, tinny sigh came out of his mouth speaker. "I'm just very confused Sorun. And I just want to know what's going on through your head to make sure you're not a danger."
The statement rose a chuckle out of Sorun. "Me? A danger?" He made a light scoff. "Jules, even with the arms and swords pretty much any one of the Freedom Fighters would beat me in a straight fight. I couldn't be a danger to anybody if I wanted to."
"That wasn't what I was referring to," Jules corrected him. "I sincerely believe you're beginning to worry some of the others with the way you've been acting. Sonic in particular voiced a lot of his frustrations about your attitude at me last night. I'm only telling you so you can understand how the way you have been acting has been affecting those you've been working with in the resistance."
So that was the issue, then. Sorun somewhat saw where the older male was coming from, especially considering his perspective. Sorun himself still wasn't completely used to the way most Mobians were so friendly and open. He wasn't surprised they found him and his mannerisms weird in turn, but what was he supposed to do about that? He couldn't say anything. Which was the crux of the issue.
And now here he was. Attacking people without explaining himself adequately. Maybe people were right to start worrying about him like this.
He found himself sighing. The most practical and easiest solution, talking, was out of the picture due to the gag curse. So what options did that leave him? Ignore it? They sure weren't going to. Really all he could do was roll with it and hope he could string something together so that they would at least drop it for the time being.
"I have issues," Sorun finally said to Jules. "It's not that I don't want to talk to someone about them. It's that I can't. For various reasons." He looked down. "I didn't mean to lash out at the guy like that. I'm not a violent person. But all this stuff just keeps adding up and I slipped. That's all."
Probably a really pathetic excuse, but it was literally all he had.
"I know that it has been extremely challenging for you. But these types of problems... I will tell you from firsthand experience that keeping it all to yourself isn't going to help you down the line," Jules said. "I don't understand why you refuse to discuss it even though it sounds like you know you need to talk to someone, but... I would assume you have your reasons if you are that aware of the problem. You do plan on eventually doing something about it, correct?"
"... Yeah, of course," Sorun lied.
Jules hummed in response, and stepped closer to Sorun. The teen flinched back when he rose his right hand up, but went still when he felt the artificial appendage softly touch down on his shoulder.
"You're a good boy, Sorun. Rough around the edges by a large margin, but I can see you're at least trying. Just... please try not to get violent anymore. I'm sure everything will work out fine if you keep working at it." His mouth turned up into a small smile. "And don't tell Bernie I said this, but I wouldn't mind if you continued giving her a break like that every now and then. I don't want to think about what she'd do if she found out I asked a guest to do some of the chores around the house, even if it's for her sake."
"Eh-heh. I can imagine." Sorun stepped back and pointed his thumb at the door. "I gotta go." He turned to open it, but paused when his hand grasped the doorknob. "... Thanks."
"Anytime, Sorun," Jules said as he returned to his chair. "Just be safe and remember that everybody is there for when you're ready to finally talk."
The little grin that had grown on Sorun's face lowered moderately. "Right," he whispered under his breathed as he stepped through the front door, closing it behind him after he left.
He collapsed right back on the door after closing it.
"And now we're lying to robot dad. Robot dad that I thought didn't like me but is actually cool with me. Gah..." He ran a tired hand along his face. "I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this. I feel awful." He pushed himself off the door. "To the HQ, I guess. Ugh, I really don't feel like walking... unless."
A thought came to him, and in a flash of blue his Bringer Claws appeared. They stretched out past his back, and Sorun gazed thoughtfully at the wing-arms.
"... Can I fly with these things?" he silently asked himself. "In the game the most Nero ever did with them was do extra jumps and glide, but he did fly in that one cutscene when he first got them. Dunno if that means they were limited for gameplay purposes or because that was when he got his Devil Trigger." He looked up to the sky in thought. "Man, I wonder if one of the Emeralds will give me a Devil Trigger? That'd be nice. I could actually keep up with everyone with that." He looked back at the Bringer Claws. "Well, I can already do stuff with Summoned Swords that weren't in the games. Makin' chairs and ramps and stuff. Flying should be in the realm of possibility, right? They're wings. Sort of."
With a deep breath, he furrowed his brows as the Bringer Claws stretched above his head. "Yeah, I got this."
"I-don't-got-this-I-don't-got-this!"
Flying, evidently, was really hard. Could he get air? Yes, he could. The Bringer Claws were strong enough to get him into the air. Maintaining altitude and maneuvering with them, though? He didn't have any idea how that worked.
Birds made it look so easy.
By some miracle he had made it to the hill Freedom HQ was under, but the ride there was less him flying and more him zipping and jittering randomly in the air as he attempted to figure out the subtle intricacies of how flying worked. So far all he figured out was "flap the wings occasionally to maintain or gain altitude", but the more advanced things like steering were beyond him. In fact he was pretty sure he only managed to make it to Freedom HQ because he'd started out facing its direction, because he hadn't sussed out turning.
Another important thing he had yet to figure out? Landing. Which was why the human teen had turned into a screaming human missile as he tumbled through the air towards the ground. Right when he was nearing it the Bringer Claws reached out to grab at tree branches to try and slow him down, but his momentum was so great that anything they grabbed snapped off. It did slow him down some, though. Enough that he landed with a roll and tumbled head over feet for a fair distance before Sorun stopped on his back with a loud gasp.
"... Man." A loud, heavy breath left his lungs as the panting teen slowly sat up. "That's really hard. Ow."
"Nice landing there, pal."
Sorun turned his head towards the voice, and then rolled his eyes when he saw the speaker while the Bringer Claws on his back disappeared. It was Sonic, who was sitting on a nearby stump with his elbows resting on his knees.
He didn't look particularly happy. The hedgehog was frowning at Sorun with creased eye ridges. Sorun recognized the unhappy demeanor, and then sighed as he got up to his feet.
"You don't look very glad to see me," the human noticed as he turned towards Sonic.
"Really?" Sonic sarcastically remarked as he jumped off the stump he was sitting on. "Gee, Sorun, what do you think has me so down?"
"Ah, I don't know, you're usually such a cheery guy. Could be a multitude of reasons you're so sour right now," Sorun, his tone completely dry, said as the two teens stood face-to-face. "If I had to guess I'd say it's about Knuckles."
A calm breeze blew between the two. Sorun's expression remained calm for the most part while Sonic's maintained an unsettling air of frustration that was unfamiliar to the human teen.
"That thing with Knuckles isn't going to happen again, Sorun." The way he said it was almost commanding, and Sorun was taken back by the amount of raw seriousness to Sonic's words. "You do not go around hitting people like that. Especially using your powers."
"It's not gonna happen again." He meant it, too. Relieving a minute amount of stress by punching somebody wasn't worth it if this was the fallout he had to deal with afterwards. Even if it was a thoughtless punch done in the heat of the moment.
Sonic crossed his arms. "Are you sure?" he asked him. "You said that you wouldn't have a problem working with the Freedom Fighters. That this whatever-issue of yours wasn't going to affect anything. It sure looks like it's affecting things to me, Sorun."
"Sonic, it was a one-time slip-"
"Was it, Sorun? 'Cause I don't know if it was." Throwing his arms out the side the side, Sonic irritably stepped past Sorun before turning back to him. "You know, we wouldn't be having this problem if you just talked. I wouldn't be over here worrying about you if you just talked." He roughly shook his head. "Why won't you just tell us what's the matter with you?"
Sorun didn't answer Sonic. Instead, he simply closed his eyes with a sigh, looked down, and slipped his hands into his pockets as he tried thinking up a solution.
"You really screwed yourself here, Sorun. Now Sonic thinks my issues are becoming a serious problem. He's not wrong at all, but I still can't talk to them about anything because of what Aurora did. But I can't even tell them about that. Ugh, he's not letting it go, either..."
He'd been fine with keeping it all under wraps and just ignoring it. It hadn't been an issue until he'd freaked out so much about the Emerald and reacted like that to Knuckles. Now Sonic wanted answers. Answers Sorun couldn't give without his heart stopping. So what was he to do? Lie? Or try stalling for more time? He hadn't thought up of a good lie yet, so stalling was his only solution. But how to go about doing that?
Well, Sorun had one idea. It had some risk involved, but it would buy time. Hopefully enough time that he could plan out his next escape from this subject the next time around.
"Look, Sonic, my issues with the Emeralds is something I really don't want to talk about." Sonic opened his mouth to argue, but Sorun held up a hand to stop him. "Just listen. I know what I did to Knuckles was wrong. I shouldn't have attacked him. I shouldn't attack anybody. I'll be the bigger man and say that it was my bad. But I know that isn't enough for you. Right?"
Sonic shook his head. "I wasn't happy you were keeping things to yourself, but I was fine with dealing with it as long as it didn't cause problems. Well, now it's causing problems." The expression in his green eyes hardened. "I'm not going to ignore it if it's going to put my friends at risk. And believe it or not that includes you."
Sorun's eyes widened the slightest amount. Sonic saw the movement in the human's eyes, and then sighed out loud.
"I know you don't consider us friends for some reason, reasons you won't talk about like everything else, but that just doesn't go both ways." He blinked, and then sent Sorun a pleading look. "Please just tell me what's wrong, Sorun. I just want to help you."
Sorun bit the corner of his lip. Something inside of him was twisting terribly, but he just didn't know what it was. "I won't," he said. "But," he added, "I'll tell you what. This isn't going to become an issue ever again, but if for whatever reason it does, Sonic, I'll lay it all out. Everything. That's the only thing that'll get me to give up everything going on inside of my head. Is that okay with you?"
It was a total lie, of course. He couldn't even if that happened because of the restriction put on him. But as long as he watched himself and didn't react too violently again, he wouldn't have to have this discussion again. All he had to do was keep himself clean if Sonic agreed.
Sonic, in response, narrowed his eyes. "You promise?" he asked. "You promise that if this issue comes up again, you'll fess up everything that's been bothering you so we can actually talk it out?"
"Yeah, I promise." And now he just felt like he was shearing off pieces of his soul.
The blue Mobian's eyes narrowed even further, but eventually he let a breath out and gave an agreeing nod much to Sorun's relief. "Alright. But I'm gonna hold you to that."
Sorun didn't doubt it in the slightest. That's what he was so scared of.
Both teens wordlessly turned towards the HQ door right after and began to walk towards it. They passed through the door, and then began making their way down the short hallways towards the actual HQ.
"Hey," Sonic had said while they were walking, "you're gonna apologize to Knuckles for what you did."
"Yeah, yeah, I will," Sorun muttered in response.
"I'm serious, Sorun."
"Dude, I said I would." They emerged through a door and began walking down the steps towards the living room.
The place was unusually packed compared to how it was most days; Sorun saw that around half of the Freedom Fighters were already here. He reasoned that maybe there weren't any missions going on today, so most of everybody was down here socializing.
Most of everybody included Knuckles, who was off to the side of the living room talking with Julie-Su. Sorun tried backpedaling away from the pair, but Sonic stood in his way and was actively pushing him towards the pair. The human shot him a look, but eventually relented and trudged towards Knuckles.
Knuckles must have seen Sorun approach from the corner of his eyes, as he said some parting words to the other echidna before he turned towards Sorun and began approaching him. They stopped a arm's distance away from each other, both holding off on saying anything.
If anything, Knuckles didn't look nearly as upset as he did last night. As far as Sorun was concerned that was the best possible start to this thing.
"Hey... Knuckles," Sorun awkwardly greeted. "So... what happened last night with the whole arm thing shouldn't have happened, but it did happen, so... yeeeah..." He began to rapidly scratch at the back of his head. "I'm super sorry, man. I shouldn't have hit you."
The long silence that passed after his apology was having Sorun fear that his lackluster sorry wasn't nearly convincing enough. Eventually, though, Knuckles barked out a short laugh and gave him a small grin, which made Sorun's upper body slump forwards in relief.
"Ah, don't worry about it, man. It happens." Knuckles held one of his open, spiked fists out to Sorun. "We're cool, right?"
Sorun blinked down at the hand in surprise. He hadn't expected forgiveness that easily. In fact he expected to jump through a lot more hoops than just saying he was sorry before any kind of apology was accepted, so seeing the hand being outstretched to him with that genuine grin on Knuckles face had Sorun completely flummoxed.
He was so flummoxed, in fact, that while he willed something to reach out and reciprocate the handshake, he couldn't actually move his arms. So instead a third, blue and spectral arm appeared and reached out to grab the hand. Knuckles' eyes had widened slightly when the clawed hand grasped his own, but he still held it firmly and gave it a shake.
"Yeah," Sorun mumbled as the Bringer Claw squeezed Knuckles' hand in return. "We're cool."
"Great, then there's no problem." Knuckles let go of the spectral hand, wincing while shaking his own hand. "That thing is pretty strong, huh?" he pointed out. "What is that, anyways?"
The blue glow of the sole Bringer Claw was beginning to attract the attention of everybody around, and they began to eye the arm curiously as much as Knuckles was. This did not go unnoticed by Sorun, who shyly folded the arm back onto his shoulder before addressing Knuckles again.
"It's the new power I got. My Bringer Claws," Sorun quietly answered.
"... Bringer Claws, huh?" There was a pause as Knuckles scrutinized the spectral hand resting on Sorun's shoulder, and the blue feathers jutting out of the arm connected to the hand. "Why'd you name it that?"
Sorun narrowed his eyes in irritation. "Because it's a cool name," he hotly defended. "When you start eating Chaos Emeralds for powers then you can name them whatever you want, but it's my power, so I'm calling it whatever I want. They're Bringer Claws." Plus he had too much respect for the things to name them anything differently then their proper names. It was the principle, dammit.
"Hey, just asking," Knuckles rose his hands up in defense. "Still, though... these powers of yours keep on getting weirder and weirder. The swords I kind of got because of Chaos Spears, but hands? I've never seen anything like that."
"Mm, couldn't tell ya," Sorun airily replied. "All this Chaos stuff is still new to me, and I don't get to choose the powers."
"Fair enough," Knuckles said with a shrug. "But seriously, how strong are those things?" he asked Sorun as he held his gloved hand up to examine it. "The grip on them is real strong."
A great question. Sorun truly didn't know. They were stronger than his real arms, he knew that much. A lot stronger. How much stronger was anybody's guess, and he didn't know if that strength was proportional to his actual strength or not. All he knew was that they could grab things, throw things, punch things, claw things, and do menial labor for when he couldn't be bothered to do it himself. Fly, too, but that was a work in progress.
"I haven't actually tested how strong the arms are," Sorun answered Knuckles as the single Bringer Claw extended outwards. "I can tell ya for free they're way stronger than I am, though."
"Is that right?" The grin on Knuckles' face grew a bit wider. "Well, why don't we test it out right now?"
In response, Sorun tilted his head to the side. "I'm not following," he said. "What, do you wanna... arm wrestle the Bringer Claw?"
"That wasn't what I had in mind, but sure, why not? That works." Knuckles nodded at him. "You gotta test its limits, right? And I'm pretty interested myself to see how strong they are."
Sorun continued looking into Knuckle's eyes, but no matter how long he looked the echidna seemed completely sincere in the suggestion. His eyes moved from him to the right Bringer Claw, and after a few moments of consideration Sorun came to a decision.
"Yeah, alright. I'll play that game." The teen looked towards the kitchen, and in the blink of an eye the Bringer Claw shot across the living room to the kitchen, grabbed the circular table, and pulled it all the way back. Knuckles and everybody else around had blinked in surprise at how rapidly the table had been away, though Sorun paid them no mind as he set the table down in the middle of the living room.
As he was grabbing two chairs from the kitchen with his Bringer Claw, Sorun heard a rapid pair of footsteps stop next to him. "What's going on, Sorun?" he heard Sonic ask. All around everybody else slowly began to approach in growing interest at the display.
"Knuckles wants to arm wrestle my Bringer Claw," Sorun answered as he set down the chairs. "I gotta school him."
"Oh, that's how it's gonna be, huh?" Knuckles sat down in one of the chairs that Sorun had provided, his grin growing competitive. "Alright, bring it," he said as he slammed his right elbow down on the table.
Sorun sat down at the chair next to him, and then crossed his real arms as the Bringer Claw set itself down on the table. After the human and echidna nodded at each other, the two arms grabbed each others' fists. They both counted to three silently in their heads, and then at once began to push against the other to try and bring their competitor's hand down on the table.
Funnily enough, Sorun didn't feel any exertion from wrestling with the sole Bringer Claw. He felt resistance, though saying he sensed it might have been a more accurate term. Something in his mind was telling him that something was pushing against his Bringer Claw, but otherwise it wasn't tiring at all exerting the thing against Knuckles. The same couldn't be said for Knuckles, whose tan muzzle began to grow red from the effort he was putting in trying to push the spectral claw down. Sorun merely continued to calmly sit in his chair with his arms crossed.
"Come on, Knuckles!" There were cheers for them, of course, but for the most part they were directed towards Knuckles' favor. Likely because the only people cheering in addition to spectating was the Chaotix. And likely because the only one among them actively cheering was Charmy, who was flying his small body around them in circles. "You could beat a weird blue arm wing thing any day of the week!"
"Yeah, you got this, Knux," Vector called out. "Hey, Espio," he half-whispered to the purple chameleon next to him while bumping him with his elbow, "between you and me, who do you think's gonna win?"
Espio rolled his eyes. "Do not tell me you wanna bet on this."
"I wasn't saying that at all! Buy hey, if you wanna put a little down on this-"
"Vector..."
"Lay off, I'm jokin' with you."
The small conversation went largely unnoticed by either Sorun or Knuckles, though Sorun did frown at the fact people were cheering Knuckles on and not him. He turned to his left, where he saw Sonic and Tails standing nearby. "Where's my cheers?" he asked.
"You look like you're doing fine on your own," Sonic told him with a small grin.
Sorun gave him a flat look, and then turned to Tails. The fox gave him a small smile and an encouraging thumbs-up, which caused Sorun to laugh with a small shake of his head as he turned back to Knuckles.
"Man, Knuckles, all these people cheering you on. You're so lucky." At Sorun's will, the Bringer Claw began to slowly push Knuckles' hand back. "Be a shame if you lost or something," Sorun continued. "Like this."
"What the...!?" Knuckles grunted as his hand slowly began to be pushed down from the Bringer Claw. He grunted with exertion and tried pushing back against it, but not only did he not make a single budge, but the rate at which his hand was being pushed down wasn't decreasing in the slightest. "You were holding out on me!?"
The human teen shrugged. "Mm, maybe," he admitted. He hadn't wanted to risk accidentally hurting Knuckles by going at it with a hundred percent strength with the arm out the gate. Even so, he could feel the spectral arm struggling against Knuckles. Not much, but it was there, and by now he was making the arm give it all it had against Knuckles.
"Oh, come on, Knuckles. Don't tell me you're gonna let the newbie beat you." This tease had come from from Julie-Su, who was standing behind Knuckles. "I don't think I could ever let you live it down if you let it come to that."
For reasons that were beyond Sorun, the words seemed to have given Knuckles a new sense of invigoration. He'd stood up from his chair and was now using his body weight in addition to his muscles to try and reverse the pin the Bringer Claw was exerting on his arm. Alas, it was for naught.
"You know, if I really wanted to I could call you out on using your weight like that." As Sorun said this, the Bringer Claw finally pinned Knuckles' hand onto the table. "Don't really think it matters, though," he said with a smirk.
There were collective groans and sounds or surprises all around, though the one who looked most surprised was Knuckles. Even after Sorun had removed his Bringer Claw the echidna had continued to stare down at his hand in muted shock, his eyes periodically flicking from his hand to Sorun. The pale teen had begun to worry before Knuckles made a smile, reached out, and patted Sorun on the shoulder.
"Nice win. Those things are really strong after all," Knuckles congratulated before he sat back in his chair. "Wanna go with the real arm now?"
Reflexively, Sorun held his real right arm close to his chest. "No way, man. You'd beat me in a second with the real one. I'm quitting while I'm ahead."
This earned a laugh out of Knuckles, as well as some other chuckles from those around the room. Sorun had joined in on the light laughter, but his quickly tapered off as he glanced thoughtfully at the Bringer Claw.
He hadn't expected for it to have been physically strong enough to beat Knuckles, but now that he knew it did and had enough witnesses to its feat to last him a lifetime, he felt good. Winning against Knuckles and proving that, at the very least, his Bringer Claws were stronger felt good.
And he wanted more.
"So..." Sorun called out as the Bringer Claw raised itself into the air with a slight shake. "Anybody else want a go?"
He was always going to dislike these powers of his due to the fact that the Chaos Emeralds were sapping the life out of him in exchange for them. That was a fact that just wasn't going to change for Sorun. But it was the little things like this that were making the ordeal all the easier and making him feel, amazingly enough, positive. And the only time he ever felt positive on Mobius was when he was playing video games. Preferably with Nicole.
Using the Bringer Claws to beat everybody in arm wrestling, though? Close second. Because Sorun was feeling great.
"Feel free to give up at any time, Amy," Sorun said as he leaned back in his chair, Bringer Claw slowly but surely pressing the pink hedgehog's hand down to the table. "There's no shame whatsoever in admitting defeat."
Eventually the word that Sorun was challenging people to arm wrestling with his weird new arm power had gotten around, so more Freedom Fighters who weren't already at the HQ had come to spectate and participate. All in good sport and fun, of course, as today was an off day for them all. Which so far was going amazing for Sorun, because nobody he'd arm wrestled thus far was actually as strong as Knuckles. And the Bringer Claws just didn't grow tired. So he was blowing his way through all the competitors like it was nothing.
Most had abstained from participating entirely when they saw him beat Knuckles, while those that still tried had been laughably easy when using the Bringer Claw to beat them. A couple were more resistant- those bionic arms Bunnie and Julie-Su had were for sure stronger than organic Mobian arms from what he felt, but again, still didn't compare to Knuckles. Sonic, surprisingly, had been unusually strong, too, compared to everybody else. But he lost all the same.
Right now he was on Amy, and in terms of raw arm strength at least, Sorun was struggling to decide whether he should place her below or above Sonic. Mostly due to the fact that it was hard to gauge strength since he was sensing with the Bringer Claw and not actually feeling. But he supposed she had to have more than just above average strength to twirl that giant hammer of hers around like it was nothing.
Still wasn't enough to beat a Bringer Claw, though.
"Don't listen to him, Amy-girl, ya got this now!" Bunnie had cheered from the sidelines. She looked down at her robotic arm right after. "Golly, but that new arm a' Sorun's really does pack a wallop. Ah hope he didn't jostle nothin' important."
"It should be fine. He didn't go that hard on it. And it's gone through worse than that anyways," Sally, who stood besides her, said while rubbing at her wrist.
Amy was relentless in trying to pin the Bringer Claw to the table, Sorun would give her that much. With teeth grit in exertion, she'd given up entirely on playing fair and was attempting to pin the spectral hand with both of her arms at once while using her feet to push against it. It was a vain effort as Sorun was slowly pushing her hands down to the table, but she was trying. He could respect that much.
And then he pinned her hands and won.
As he removed the Bringer Claw, Amy let out an exhausted sigh as her arms limply slid off the table. "Ah, gee. They weren't kidding when they said that thing was strong," Amy gasped out.
"Tell me about it." Interlacing his hands behind his head, Sorun let out an easy sigh as he closed his eyes. Felt kind of good to finally be marginally good at something. Fulfilling, almost. He might have even gone as far to say he enjoyed it if he hadn't had to spend twelve years of life for it.
He heard a new set of footprints approach him, and at the same time everybody quieted down. It almost felt like the air around chilled slightly, too, and Sorun didn't even have to think hard to guess who it was. So he wasn't surprised at all when he cracked an eye open and saw Shadow standing in front of him.
"'Sup?" Sorun greeted.
Shadow didn't even so much as nod as he looked around at everybody gathered and then back to Sorun. "I'd heard there was some commotion back at the base, but I didn't think it'd be because of you," he said. "What is all this?"
"I needed help testing some stuff with the power I got from the Emerald last night, so I've been arm wrestling everybody that's been willing."
The dark hedgehog paused for a moment. "... Why arm wrestling?"
"'Cause of the arms." Sorun demonstrated the ability by making the Bringer Claws appear. "I got arms from the Emerald."
If he was at all taken back by the sudden appeared of the Bringer Claws, he didn't show it. "Arms," Shadow repeated. He scrutinized the blue arms extending out from Sorun's back, but he slowly furrowed his eye ridges in confusion at the sight. "The power you gained was arms?"
Sorun shrugged. "They double as wings, too."
"Why of all...?" Shadow shook his head and refocused on Sorun. "Why did you gain arms? How did it even-?"
"Shadow, I have absolutely no idea," Sorun half-lied. "Powers I get from the Emeralds are practically a lottery. Sort of."
"'Sort of?'"
The human teen tensed up. "Yeah, you know how it is. Probably better than I do. You're the Chaos expert," he said as he leaned further into his chair. "I don't really know how it works, but as long as it works, I don't care. Too much." He glanced at the spectral arms. "Woulda liked some choice, though," he grumbled.
"Right..." Sorun didn't like the way Shadow trailed off on that word, or that way his eyes were slightly narrowed. Almost in suspicion. But after a second they widened back into their neutral expression, and his form relaxed. "So you decided that the best way to test your arms out is by arm wrestling everybody."
"Ah, come on, man, don't be like that. Nobody had anything else to do so we all decided to have a bit of fun with it. Besides, I already know how the arms work. I'm just testing the strength limits."
Shadow folded his arms. "You seem to be rather confident in those arms despite the fact you haven't even had them for a day."
"... Dude, they're arms," Sorun deadpanned. "Not a lot of complexities there."
"I suppose not." With that, Shadow turned a away. "Well, you all have fun with that."
He started to walk away, but he only made it three steps before Sorun spoke up again. "You don't want a round with the arm? Y'sure?"
"I've better things to do than waste time messing around with your new arm."
"Oh, wow, Shads. Didn't know a spooky blue arm was all it took to scare you off." This comment had come from Sonic, who was standing off to the side with the rest of the small crowd. "Ah, but hey, it's a free world. Who am I to judge?"
Sorun saw that the darker hedgehog's body tensed up at the blue one's words, and he slowly exhaled before turning right around and stomping back towards the table. "I'm only doing this because I'm slightly curious as to the physical capabilities of those arms," he informed the human as he sat down and propped his elbow up on the table. "Hurry up so we can get this over with."
"Sure thing." Sorun's Bringer Claw propped its own elbow onto the table and grasped Shadow's hand. "Since you're so impatient, we'll go on go. Go."
And once more, he felt the pressure of something pushing against his Bringer Claw as Sorun calmly sat in his chair. It wasn't enough to overcome it, and like all the others Sorun began to slowly press Shadow's hand downwards. "I guess even he's not as strong as Knuckles," he thought, "but... yeah, I think he's doing better than everybody else besides him did. Wow. This guy's really strong."
It was still hard to tell exactly how strong due to the fact Sorun got almost no sensory input from the Bringer Claw, but he could recognize the pressure pushing against it, and it was heavy. Not Knuckles heavy, but definitely up there. It was enough to make Sorun let out an interested hum, but that was about it.
For his part, Shadow was doing his best to not actually show he was exerting all his effort on the arm. His face was kept straight and his breathing was barely above normal, but even so he was still slowly losing. Even as Sorun finally pinned his hand and won, the most he did was let out a soft grunt. Sorun removed the blue claw, and Shadow regarded his own hand with slightly widened eyes. He looked up to the spectral hand after, and then sighed as he got up from the chair.
"They're certainly strong," he said. His tone seemed slightly clipped, but otherwise he maintained a level tone. "You know where I'll be if you ever want more practice."
"Uh, yeah. Sure." Sorun had barely even finished his sentence before the striped hedgehog had went back towards the steps leading out of the HQ. After he left, Sorun turned towards the other with a questioning look on his face. "What was all that about?"
Everybody present mostly had looks of confusion on their faces too, though it was Sonic who took the initiative to answer Sorun. "Eh, don't worry about it, Sorun. Shadow's just being Shadow."
"If you say so." He hoped that was all it was. Something about the way Shadow had been looking at his new arms made him uneasy. The questions he asked over them and the way he remarked over Sorun being so familiar with them.
Though, perhaps he was being paranoid. He'd been the same way about the Summoned Swords. Probably just curious since he was apparently into that Chaos stuff for whatever reason. But Sorun was still kicking himself for that "sort of" comment he'd accidentally let slip. If anything had set something off in Shadow, that had probably been it.
Ah, well. Worst came to worse if it ever came up he'd just lie and weasel out of it like always, but Sorun doubted it was anything that serious.
"Hm. Well, anyways, can I put the table back in the kitchen?" Sorun asked them. "I think I've gotten enough testing out of these things short of throwing boulders, so-"
"Er, actually, wait." There was a small shuffling in the crowd of Mobians as someone stepped forwards. Sorun had recognized the voice immediately, though the black fur and the shine of a red shell on his back was enough to confirm him as Mighty. "I wanted to try it, too," he requested.
"Oh, Mighty." He'd almost forgotten about the armadillo. He was somewhat surprised he hadn't come up sooner, too, but Sorun thought nothing of it as he gestured to the empty chair next to him. "Yeah, sure, come on. We'll get this last one in and I'll put the table back."
Almost eagerly, Mighty stepped towards the chair and planted himself in it. He'd practically slammed his elbow onto the table, though despite this he was giving Sorun a gentle smile as he flexed his fingers. "Hey, good luck, Sorun," he told the human.
"Um, thanks." The Bringer Claw got into position and grasped Mighty's hand. "You can start us off."
"Oh, okay." Mighty licked his lips and rapped his fingers across the blue hands claws before firmly gripping it. "Alright, let's go."
They both began pushing against each other. Immediately Sorun felt something different from Mighty, much to his surprise. The pressure being exerted on his Bringer Claw was more than even Knuckles' pressure. Much more. So much, in fact, that he had to immediately begin pushing back against Mighty with as much strength as the Bringer Claw had.
But then something peculiar began to happen. Unlike with Knuckles, or Shadow, or anybody else, Mighty's hand wasn't being pushed back. They weren't even deadlocked. No, instead it was Sorun's spectral hand that was slowly being pushed towards the table.
"... Wait." He narrowed his eyes in focus and tried willing the Bringer Claw to push more, but nothing was happening. He could see it from the slight trembles in the spectral arm's feathered forearm that it was already giving it its all. And yet, somehow, Mighty was still pushing it back. "Wait, no, this is bullshit. He can't be- there's no way he's that strong!"
He remembered Mighty describing to him he'd had abnormally high strength compared to even other Mobians, but at the time Sorun had just compared it to strength on Knuckles' level. That was the kind of resistance he'd expected when they'd initiated the arm wrestle. He didn't expect strength that would equal the Bringer Claw's, and he sure didn't expect strength that would exceed it. But here Mighty was. Exceeding his Bringer Claw.
And everybody else was noticing, too.
"Yeah, Mighty!" This cheer came from Knuckles, who proceeded to pump one of his fists in the air. "Keep going, you're almost there!"
Along with him the rest of the Chaotix began cheering for their teammate, and everybody else began leaning forwards in great interest as Sorun continued to be pushed further towards the table. And as he looked at Mighty, he couldn't help but notice the severe lack of a look of effort on Mighty's face. It wasn't like with Shadow, who had been actively trying to conceal his exertion. Sorun could see just from the way the muscles in Mighty's face were halfway relaxed. There was effort being put it, but it wasn't all of it.
This wasn't even that difficult for him. It was right after Sorun realized this that Mighty pinned the Bringer Claw to the table.
There were victorious cheers all around the moment Sorun's spectral hand hit the table. All the Chaotix practically rushed him, Vector having rubbed the top of his head with the knuckles on his fist. Sorun just continued to stare silently at the Bringer Claw, which had yet to move from its spot laying on the table.
"... He beat my Bringer Claw," he thought. "He's stronger than the Bringer Claws."
And all of a sudden, that great feeling he'd had when he displayed the arms' strength by winning all those arm wrestles went away just like that. He'd felt so accomplished, too, especially after he beat Knuckles. But it had been taken away just like that, and now he was left with a somewhat empty feeling.
"Ha ha ha! Guys, come on," Mighty pleaded as he gently pushed his teammates away to give him some space. "Hey, Sorun!" the human looked up from the hand to Mighty. "Those arms of yours are really strong, Sorun! I'm really impressed! Thanks for the match!"
A forced half-smile found its way onto Sorun's face as he got up from his own chair. "Yeah. Anytime. Thanks for the help with testing the arms out."
Mighty gave him a nod, and then turned back to the rest of the Chaotix while everybody else began to scatter. Sorun didn't pay them any mind, and instead began using his Bringer Claws to bring the kitchen furniture back into the kitchen.
"Yeah, of course Mighty's gotta be so nice and humble about the win, too. Ugh... alright, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world," he tried reasoning with himself as he placed the table and chairs back. "Yeah, Mighty beat them, but he's freakishly strong the same way Sonic is freakishly fast for some reason. And they beat Shadow and Knuckles, right? That's gotta count for something."
That's what he told himself, at least, but going from thinking the arms were infallible in strength to knowing they could be beaten with raw strength was unsettling to Sorun. Mostly because the same thoughts he'd had with the Summoned Swords after that small spar with Shadow were popping up again. They were still good powers, but up to what point? How did Mighty compare to some of the serious threats out there?
Probably not as strong, he wanted to say, but it's not like he knew. And not knowing worried him.
"Nah, nah I'm overthinking this," Sorun thought as, after placing the furniture back, he walked towards the TV and game console to turn it on. "It's still good enough to work. It's two extra arms that are way stronger than mine that can extend and fly and stuff. It's not nothing, but... ugh. Why'd Mighty have to go and beat me?"
He wasn't sure what he thought of them now. What he did know was that he needed a confidence booster stat. Fortunately there was still one thing he was good at that only one other person in the whole of the Freedom Fighters could claim to be his equal in.
"Yo, anybody want a round of games with me?" Sorun asked as he sat down on the couch and waved a controller up in the air.
"I'll take ya on!" In a blink blue momentarily passed Sorun's vision before he felt the couch compress next to him. He looked to the side and saw Sonic sitting there with a controller.
"Your funeral," Sorun said with a shrug as he and Sonic bother turned towards the TV.
Suffice it to say he went home that day having completely defeated Sonic and everybody else that had felt like playing with him after the fact. But even still, all the victories couldn't take his mind off of the Bringer Claws as he walked all the way back to Sonic's house.
A/N- I'll assuage all your fears now: no, Sorun's not gonna get super eyeballs that give him a stupid amount of broken powers or an invincible punch ghost or anything world breaking like that. He's firmly locked into DMC stuff for reasons that will become more clear as the story goes on, if it isn't already. Assuming he gets more powers, of course. I know it's a bit spoiler-y saying this but I only say this because I put the little bit in about powers Sorun does want in, and then people begin worrying because it can be construed as a form of foreshadowing for future stuff. Which may or may not be something I do sometimes, but in this case I'm saying no, it wasn't.
