A/N- You guys remember way back when I said 2k-word chapters could be a thing? Yeah, me neither.


Recursion Error

Episode 18- Objective: Survive


"Okay, let's try it. The- AGH, DAMMIT!"

The stabbing pain running through Sorun's chest caused him to toss the notebook and pencil to the ground as he clutched at the area over his heart. After a few seconds he felt his heartbeat return, and then let out a sigh of relief as he sat back against the cobblestone wall of the HQ entrance.

"Well," Sorun glumly thought as he looked down at the dropped implements, "that didn't work."

With his life on the line, Sorun would be remiss to not at least try and find a way of preserving his own life through means other than the shaky plan he had currently, which was "just do what I can as I go and hope for the best", because so far that plan had netted him twenty-four years off his life with two Emeralds in him. He'd set goals for himself, but he neglected to make an actual plan for achieving those goals.

The problem, of course, was that there was very little which he could use to make a plan. Getting the Emeralds out of him? If such a thing was possible, nothing on Mobius had presented itself to Sorun yet, so as far as he was concerned that goal was on the back burner. Cut all his losses and run? Easy enough that he wasn't too worried about it at the moment. Find a way of telling the Freedom Fighters that the Chaos Emeralds were slowly killing him? Not strictly necessary, but if he could convey this message to them, it'd make his life easier. And out of everything, maybe he could accomplish that last one right now.

But then he had the gag curse to worry about, and apparently Aurora had been serious when she meant "convey through any means". Sorun had found a notebook and pencil and had attempted writing a note about the affliction, but he'd felt his heart stop before the pencil even hit the page. Suffice to say she covered her bases. Great for her, not so great for Sorun.

"Geez, what, is raw intent enough to set this thing off?" Sorun wondered as he stroked at his chest. "The hell else am I supposed to do if that's the case? Hook myself up to a heart monitor and just give myself a heart attack in front of everybody? Where would I even get a heart monitor? Probably at a hospital somewhere in Knothole, but I don't think they'll let me walk away with it. And even if I do manage to snag a heart monitor my own heart'll probably stop before I even hook it up if intent's really all it takes."

So much for that charades idea he'd been entertaining. If something as meager as intent was really enough to set the gag curse off, then he didn't know if there actually was anything he could do to tell them about his ailment. Which, of course, meant that if and when they acquired more Emeralds they'd likely want him to power up more. Which would shorten his life even more. And even though it had been a few days since the incident around the second Emerald with his Bringer Claws he had yet to think of any justifiable excuse not to touch any more Emeralds.

"What am I supposed to say? 'Ah, I dunno, guys. That shit hurts real bad. But Summoned Swords and Bringer Claws are enough, right? I don't need any more power than that.' Pfft, I don't even buy that. And if I raise enough of a fit Sonic's gonna want to know what the deal is, and thanks to that promise I made he's not gonna let it go." He tilted his head up at the bright morning sky. "I can't think of anything. I'm so cooked."

He really should have thought further ahead with his "just weasel out of it plan" when he'd actively set things up in advance so that it was nearly impossible to weasel out of it next time around.

Whoops.

The door leading into the HQ swung open, though despite sitting next to it, Sorun hadn't bothered to looks towards it. He did notice out from the corner of his eye that the figure walking out of the doorway was Sally, though he hoped she had something important to do and would just ignore him so he could continue contemplating his bleak future.

"Sorun?" No such luck, as she'd noticed him immediately and turned towards him. "What are you doing here?"

The human teen took a deep breath, exhaled, and then rolled his head towards Sally. "So it all started when I went go buy orange juice," he began.

A wry grin spread across the princess's face. "No, I mean why are you sitting here?" She gestured to the notebook and pencil. "And what's with the writing stuff?"

"Oh, that." Sorun leaned forwards to pick the implements up. "I thought about maybe starting a journal or something to help me keep a grip on my sanity," he lied, "but, I dunno, when I actually tried writing I just didn't feel like doing it. It's hard to articulate my thoughts on paper when there's so much on my mind all the time." It was equally hard when attempting to write those thoughts stopped his heart.

Sally tilted her head. "I would think that having a lot on your mind would make for easy writing in something like a journal."

"Yeah, you'd think." With a soft groan Sorun stood up to his feet. "So what are you up to?"

"I was actually just about to go and get you," she answered him. "You feel up for another mission?"

Usually Sorun would have said no at this point, and oh, did he want to, but with all the worrying he'd done over Chaos Emeralds and trying and failing to find solutions to his problems he figured that some distraction was in order. And working a mission to get further into everybody's good graces never hurt. "Sure, I guess," he said with a nod. "What's going on?"

"Come with me to the hangar. I'll explain along the way."

She began walking off in the direction of the hangar, gesturing for Sorun to follow her. He shrugged, and then lightly jogged for a bit before slowing to a walk once he'd made it to her side.

Walking to and from the HQ to Knothole over time was beginning to become easier for Sorun at the very least. Perhaps that was just his body becoming accustomed to it all, but there was something oddly peaceful about the land encompassing Knothole. All the trees and greenery. The vibrancy of it all. The way the air always smelled so fresh and the occasional sound of some small non-Mobian bird or other animal.

Maybe it was because he didn't have anything to listen to since all his music had been lost with his phone, but after a while the infrequent noises and lush scenery was beginning to become somewhat calming to Sorun. A kind of natural, ambient white noise he could get lost in. He'd still always prefer huddling up in a room to play a video game, but walking through this scenery all the time was growing on him.

"You know, before coming here I'd never been in a forest before," Sorun told Sally as the pair walked down the path towards Knothole.

"Really?" Sally turned her head to acknowledge him. "Why is that?"

"I lived in a city. Detroit," he reminded her. "Most greenery I was ever around was this little park near my house, but otherwise I mostly just grew up around concrete. I never traveled, either."

"So what do you think of the forest?" she asked him.

He hummed in contemplation for a moment. "It's... nice," he decided. "I don't know, something about all the plants and nature is... it's weird. But in a nice way. The air's great, all the forest looks nice, the colors here are way sharper than on Earth, and I'm still trying to figure out what the deal with that is." He looked up towards the sky. "You can even see stars here at night. I'd barely ever seen stars before."

The first night he'd been here the sight of the night sky had mainly went over his head, both because of what had been going on inside his head and because of the broken state of the moon distracting him. Some days later, though, he'd ventured to take another look up and was completely taken back by the sheer amount of light in the night sky. The countless dots of white and the hues of purples and dark blues illuminating an otherwise inky black sky. It was the kind of sight he'd seen in pictures online and in video games, but he'd never expected to see such a thing in reality.

He liked the sky here.

"Why couldn't you see stars where you're from?" Sally asked.

"Eh, too much light pollution from the city lights. Or smog from the normal pollution," he answered. "Sometimes you saw some really bright ones, but it wasn't usually that many. And then you think you spot a really big one but it starts moving across the sky and you realize that it was a plane or a weather balloon or something." He sighed. "You have no idea how many times that happened to me." He glanced at Sally. "But here I can actually see the sky at night. It's real neat-looking."

"I think I can understand," Sally said. "There were a lot of times back in the day we would run recon missions at night in Robotropolis, which was... the former capital city of the Kingdom of Acorn, though back then it had a different name. Before the original Dr. Robotnik took it over at the beginning of all this. I remember looking up at the sky and wondering why it looked so dark and lifeless all the time there, but between all the lights and the pollution he created, I can see why. Even to this day some of Eggman's factories and refineries blot the nearby skies out." She sighed. "I don't want to imagine living your whole life under a sky like that."

"Nah, it's real easy. You just do what I did and cover all the windows in your room with curtains so you never have to look outside."

For a few seconds they continued walking in silence while Sally's head perked up as she registered the sentence Sorun said. Afterwards a small laugh left her, and with a shake of her head she gently shoved Sorun's shoulder. "I was being serious there," she laughed.

"Hey, so was I. Why do you think my skin's so pale? Barely ever got any sun." He casually tucked his hands into his pockets. "So, what's this mission about?"

The mirthful grin was still present on Sally's face, though an air of seriousness had taken over her features. "It's a medical relief effort," she explained. "Supply lines and trade routes are pretty much all annihilated thanks to the war with Eggman, and traveling these days is too dangerous. Most of the villages and settlements in the eastern portion of Northamer are self-sufficient in terms of foods and other supplies, but in terms of modern medicine they all lack the means of production." A soft sigh left her. "Nobody wanted to see all the Mobians out there so close to the kingdom suffer because of the war. It took some pressuring from me, but eventually my brother agreed to send out medical transports to them whenever we could."

Sorun nodded in understanding. "So you want me running meds?" he summarized. "Couldn't you just load Tails' plane up or something and just fly them all out?"

Sally shook her head. "No, the Tornado's too small for all the cargo, and the Special's out on a different mission. That's why we're using the train."

"... Train?" Sorun repeated. "What train?"

"There's an old track back from when the Overlanders had a presence in Northamer." Sally held a hand up in the air and began tracing an invisible shape with her finger. "It runs a full circuit over the whole eastern portion of the upper continent. A long while back a bunch of engineers got the train that was attached to it up and running. Some people from the kingdom already loaded the supplies onto the train, and messengers were sent out to all the recipient settlements. The plan is for them to send their people out to certain stops along the track where you'll unload the medicine onto them before continuing on and then finally circling back."

That... didn't sound that bad at all, especially compared to all the other missions Sorun had done before. No sneaking into buildings? No fighting killer robots? Just cruise around the country in a train, see the sights along the way, and unload some boxes? Sounded like a vacation to Sorun's ears.

Yeah, he'd do that. It'd be a nice distraction from everything else happening to him. He needed the break.

"Gee, I dunno, Sally." A faux yawn left Sorun's mouth as he removed his hands from his pockets and stretched his arms over his head. "Kinda sounds like you just want the guy with the cool new arms to carry around a bunch of heavy boxes."

The light tone to his voice was enough to clue her in to his teasing, causing Sally to grin as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes away from Sorun. "No, that's not it at all. But I'm sure all those poor Mobians will get by just fine without their medicine if you're really so against it."

"Well, it does sound pretty horrible when you say it like that." Sorun's arms flopped back down to his sides. "Alright, I'll go from being Sorun the Freedom Fighter to Sorun the Mailman for a bit. Sorun the Courier." He held his hands up in front of him and slowly started to spread them outwards. "Sorun the Great Deliverer. How does that sound?"

Light laughter from Sally. "Weirdly enough, it suits you," she said, before giving him a grateful smile. "Thanks for taking this on, Sorun. I wouldn't be asking you if it wasn't important."

"Yeah, sure thing." The teen's hands went back into his pockets. It wasn't like he was going to turn down such a nice-sounding change of pace. "So am I going on the train alone, or...?"

"No," Sally said with a shake of her head, "I'm sending two others to come along with you."

"Aw, come on, Sally. I know it's me we're talking about here, but I'm not that bad anymore." Sorun's walking speed slightly increased so that he was in front of the princess, at which point he turned to face her while walking backwards. "All I gotta do is ride around in a train and drop off the meds. You're seriously saddling me with two other Freedom Fighters for something as easy as that?"

The chipmunk sent him a challenging smirk. "Well, if you're saying you can operate a highly sophisticated train on your own and want to ride all around the upper continent on your lonesome..."

She had a point. "Hah, okay, I get it." Sorun blew a lock of black hair away from his face. "So who're you sending along with me?"

"Oh, Antoine and Bunnie."

After hearing the two names, Sorun's footsteps completely halted, with Sally walking past the human blissfully unaware of his frozen state.


"Bonjour, Sorun!"

"Ah, great. This chucklefuck..."

That was the one sole thought that went through Sorun's head as he saw the French coyote wave at him while quickly approaching. He quietly sighed at the sight Antoine, and then looked behind him at the sky to the biplane that was quickly disappearing towards the horizon. A small part of him wished Tails would fly back to take him back to Knothole.

It wasn't that Sorun had any personal animosity towards Antoine, aside, of course, from him being one of the ones that voted to use the coordinates on that wooden tablet to bring him here. If anything he was a fairly decent guy. Even forgave Sorun for blowing him up with that paint bomb. The French accent and broken English even stopped bothering Sorun after a while.

But there were still some things about him that bugged Sorun. Like how he couldn't take a damn hint. He was there right along Sally and Bunnie when Sorun flat-out stated he didn't want to become friends with anybody, and of course he was acting like Sorun had never even said it like everybody else was. But he was just as bad as Sonic in that he acted like they really were friends on those rare occasions they talked.

Maybe it was the language barrier not letting the message get through. Or Sorun barely doing anything to back up that statement he'd made. He kept neglecting to do that.

Other than that, it was the little things. Small, inconsequential things that added up. Little quirks in his personality. The way he'd exaggerate things about himself sometimes when telling stories, which others were quick to correct for Sorun's sake. That damn haircut of his.

... Sorun's jealousy over the fact he could so expertly handle that saber he carried around when Sorun's own swordsmanship skills amounted to the equivalent of swinging a baseball bat.

All that aside, he was still a loyal person who was as bizarrely friendly as almost the rest of the Freedom Fighters. It was mostly just Sorun nitpicking on the smallest, most insignificant flaws, which the teen himself was aware he was doing. But he'd ignore all that for now in light of the fact they had a job to do.

"Hi, Antoine," Sorun greeted back as the human took a look around at the surroundings. He'd been dropped off in a small clearing that was largely unremarkable. Save, of course, for the train tracks a short distance behind Antoine and the train on top of it. A black, old-timey-looking train with six boxcars connected to the engine.

A train if Sorun ever saw one.

"Sorun, mon ami, you are just being on time! We were worried we would have to leaved without you!"

"Yeah, there was some turbulence on the way here." Right when Antoine reached out to pat him on the shoulder, Sorun reached his right leg out and did a large sidestep to avoid him. "So that's the train?" he asked as he began to walk towards the train.

"Er, oui, le train iz over zere," Antoine confirmed as he began following Sorun. "We are just getting ready to depart."

Sorun hummed, and crouched down next to the train. Curiously, he couldn't see any wheels under the train. It seemed more that the train itself was directly connected to the tracks. "No wheels, huh?" He craned his neck behind him at Antoine. "Is this like some kind of bullet train or something?"

The question seemed to cause great confusion to Antoine. "Non, Sorun, eet iz a train, not a bul-let." He shook his head in amusement. "I am having ze very hard time imagining ze train fitting inside of a gun."

"No man, I- ugh." Sorun palmed his face in irritation. "The rails, dude. There's no wheels on the train. Is it magnetic or what?"

"... Je vois, oui, ze train runs on ze magnet railz," Antoine said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

Humming in acknowledgment, the human teen looked towards the front engine of the train and saw a small step ladder on his left. He walked over to climb it, and quickly found the door leading into the engine compartment on the top. He reached out and casually opened and stepped through the door.

From his limited experience with trains due to only ever having seen them in movies and games, the actual train part of the train looked about what Sorun had expected of a train. In front of him was a small staircase that lead up to what he assumed was the control room, as from this position he could see a console chock full of knobs and diodes at the end of the small room.

Under the stairs was a different story. There was a large, mechanical something embedded into the wall. Tubes and other cables spread out from it towards the floor, and based on all the gauges and levers installed in it, Sorun had immediately assumed it was the generator that powered the train. What it ran on, though, was outside of his knowledge. He couldn't even see a port to open in order to insert whatever fuel it used. It looked rather strange to him the longer Sorun looked at it.

His ears perked up when he heard the door squeak open behind him, and he looked behind him to see Antoine entering the engine compartment behind Sorun. The teen felt compelled to ask him about the train out of sheer curiosity, so he turned around to address him.

"So you're the one driving this thing, right, Antoine?" he asked him.

"Oui, of course." He gave a nod. "Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering what this thing runs on." Sorun turned back towards the train's engine. "Is it coal, or oil... some mystical something or other...?"

"Non, ze train iz running on electric power," Antoine explained. "Ze engine right over zere uses Power Rings as a fuel source. We were fueled up when ze train was loaded, zo we should be good for ze delivery today."

"Right, those weird golden noodles..." He still had yet to ask what those golden rings he'd seen here and there were. The most he'd ever actually seen them used for was on Nicole's computer body so she could generate her lynx body, but from pieces of conversation he'd picked up here and there he reckoned that those rings served as a universal power source.

He still didn't know what the rings actually were. Or why one of the mains sources of energy in this world was rings. He'd probably get a straight answer if he asked somebody, but if it followed the same trend as every other answer he'd ever gotten for anything he asked, it would be something so convoluted that he'd regret asking in the first place. So until it became a relevant topic in a conversation he'd settle for rings powering everything. For some reason.

"... Wait, did Antoine just say a day?" Both eyebrows raising in confusion, Sorun turned back to the coyote. "Did you just say a day?" he asked. "We're doing this run in day?"

Antoine slowly nodded, his own confusion taking over his features. "Why would we not be taking a day for ze deliverance of ze medical supplies?"

"I thought we were looping over the whole eastern portion of Northamer!" That was running a circle through the eastern half of what was once America and Canada combined. He didn't know exactly how long a trip like that was going to take, but he was expecting a lot more than just a single day considering a distance like that. "How fast does this thing go, anyways!?"

"Well, ze amount of time to make a full lap of ze track eez about... twenty-seven or twenty-eight hours, I believe," Antoine said, "and if we add in some hours to give out ze medicines, around... perhaps thirty hours? Zat sounds about right."

"Oh. Okay. Wow." So apparently the train was really, really fast, then. He understood how absurd trains on magnetic rails could get in terms of speed, but he didn't imagine speeds this ludicrous, especially for a train. Technology on Mobius really was something else.

And yet he still couldn't find a goddamned wireless game controller. He knew the technology existed, too. Everything else practically did.

The door leading to the engine compartment rattled again, drawing the pair's attention. Before the door even opened Sorun had seen a long pair of yellow rabbit ears through the door's window, and chose to lean back against the wall as the third occupant entered. As expected, he immediately heard a female Southern accent speak out.

"Antoine, Sugah, any idea when we're- oh, Sorun, yer here."

Tilting his head up, Sorun turned his head slightly to glance at the yellow rabbit from the corner of his eyes. He raised up two fingers and greeting, and then lowered his head back down.

"Tails dropped Sorun off just some minutes ago," Antoine explained. "I believe that is meaning we are good to go now?"

"Not waiting for anything else," Sorun agreed as he shuffled in his position leaning on the wall. "I'm good to go when you two are."

Bunnie nodded. "Same here," she said.

"Alright, zen." Antoine walked past Sorun and began ascending the steps towards the train's control room. "I will get us all moving along after-haste."

Sorun's eyes followed the coyote up the stairs, and he softly groaned when his words reached his ears. "It's post-haste!" he called up.

"Oui, merci, Sorun! Post-haste!" Antoine called back.

Rolling his eyes, Sorun suppressed the slight smirk that threatened to form as he crossed his arms. A deep, whirring sound was emitted from the train's generator, and almost immediately afterwards the train lurched forwards as it began moving. It began accelerating at an extremely rapid pace, too, as Sorun could see from a window that the forest next to the train tracks was already starting to quickly whiz past them.

"So how many stops are we making?" Sorun asked as he turned to address Bunnie.

"'Round five, if ah recall," she told him.

He hummed in acknowledgement. "That's kinda low, isn't it?"

Bunnie shook her head. "All the settlements nearby a stop send their people tah collect, so we're supplyin' multiple settlements at once each stop. But... you're right, it is a might bit low," she agreed in a quiet voice. "Ain't too many left out there 'cause a' Eggman. Ya know how it is."

"... Right," he mumbled out.

"Hey, hey, what iz it with ze frownie faces?" Both of their heads turned back to the stairs, where they saw Antoine descending back towards them. "This iz a time of happiness given le contexte to our mission, non?"

Sorun quirked an eyebrow at the coyote. "Antoine, shouldn't... shouldn't you be driving?"

"Aw, eet iz all automatic, Sorun. I just need to be zere to start and stop ze train," he explained, "and we have some hours yet until ze first stop."

"Oh." Made complete sense when he said it like that. "So... what do you two wanna do in the meantime?"


"Any fours, Antoine?"

Playing cards hadn't exactly been what Sorun had in mind, but the two Mobians had been thoughtful enough to bring a set with them and there wasn't much else to do, so he wasn't complaining. So they decided to go ahead and play some cards. The name of the game? Go Fish. Because as it turned out between the three of them they all didn't know that many card games, and Sorun had always strayed away from the gambling side of games due to a lack of interest.

It beat Bunnie's suggestion of Texas Hold 'Em, a game that was apparently still alive and going strong in the post-apocalypse. Blackjack was one thing Sorun knew, but straight poker was a game outside of his purview. Antoine had denied it as well. Vehemently at that, with a wildly blushing face for whatever reason that was beyond Sorun, though Bunnie had been subtly teasing him about it.

Yeah, he didn't know what the deal there was.

So they'd all agreed on Go Fish and crammed themselves into one of the train's boxcars. It was vacant of furniture since it was mainly used to store boxes of medical supplies, but there was enough space in one of the ones further back that they could all comfortably sit around in a circle to play some cards.

"Non, Sorun, go fishing," Antoine mumbled from behind the deck of cards he was holding against his face.

Frowning, Sorun peeked up from his own deck and narrowed his eyes at the coyote sitting cross-legged in front of him. "You didn't have any tens, you didn't have any fives, you didn't have any threes, and now you're telling me you don't have any fours," he said. "We're all drowning in cards here and there's barely any in the pile, Antoine, so unless you're telling me Bunnie's holding the rest of the fours or they just happen to be in the pile, I don't believe you. The math says you have the cards."

"Implying you are holding few of ze fours?" Antoine noted with a smirk from behind his cards.

"Uhhhhhh..." Sorun quickly held his deck closer to his blushing face. "Nah, man, don't know what you're talking about." He quickly swiped a card from the pile.

"Oui, I am zo sure." Antoine turned to Bunnie. "Twos?"

"Nope."

"Ah." He drew a card from the pile.

The rabbit turned to the slightly fuming teen. "Any eights, Sorun?"

"Yeah, I got eights. I got almost every number in the universe in my hand right now," he hissed as he handed her his three eights.

"Ah'm sure. Aces?"

Sorun shook his head, causing her to reach for a card in the pile. "I said almost." He turned to the coyote. "Antoine, six. Gimme."

"I have no sixes to give you, mon ami."

It took great mental effort to not strangle his cards as Sorun reached to draw one from the pile.

"Now then, Bunnie," Antoine began, "Would Sorun's earlier implication of you possessing many of ze fours be true?"

Grumbling, the rabbit removed two cards from her deck and quickly handed them off to a grinning Antoine. She shot Sorun a dirty glare afterwards. "Thanks a lot, pardner," she grumbled at him.

Sighing, Sorun dropped his deck into his lap. "Really wish I would have taken the time to learn more card games before getting sucked here," he complained. "Or brought an Uno deck."

"That a game where yer from?" Bunnie asked.

"Mm-hm. The friendship ender," Sorun said as he picked his cards back up. "It was a simple enough game, but there were a bunch of zany house rules you could do that would make some of those games go on for hours." He was pretty sure he remembered going on a five-hour stretch of the game playing the online version. How brutal of a session that had been. He barely even remembered the last hour of that game as Sorun had been foaming at the mouth in anger at that point.

Good times.

Antoine chuckled in amusement. "I fail to see how a simple card game could go on for zo long."

"You don't know, man. You just don't know. Maybe that's something I can do. Introduce this world to the most evil card game ever devised," Sorun mused. "Give me something to do in my off time other than play games with Nicole and hide from Sonic whenever he wants me to do more 'endurance training'."

"Mm." Humming in agreement, Antoine looked down at his deck. "Give me your four, Sorun."

With a harsh sigh, Sorun practically tore the card out from his deck and gave it to Antoine. He hummed happily, and put down the full set of fours next to him on the floor.

"Now that ze fours are out of ze way, Sorun, do you have any sevens?" he asked.

The human shook his head. "Nah, go fish."

Antoine pouted, and reached for the top card in the pile. He turned it around, and immediately his features lit up in glee. "Oh, tres bon, ze last seven!"

The deck of cards in Sorun's hand were promptly thrown against the nearest crate of medicine following a frustrated yell from the teen.


True to Antoine's word, they'd arrived at their first stop after a few hours after they'd departed from their starting point. There wasn't much special about the stop itself; there weren't any structures or anything of the like around, it was just that the clearing of forest the tracks ran through was significantly less dense with trees. But the giant crowd of Mobians waiting for them all was a pretty big indicator along with a map full of marks Antoine had in his possession.

They'd stopped in the middle of the crowd waiting around the tracks in short notice. While Antoine's job had been driving the train, Bunnie's had been to go outside to organize the crowd based on what settlements they were from so they could get by with the delivery as smoothly as possible. Soon enough at her direction everybody was lined up at one of the train's magnetically-propelled boxcars.

Sorun's job? The illustrious position of handing boxes off.

"Okay, we got anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, pain killers, isa... something-zonium... sulfate... this, this one. Man, I wish mom was here to pronounce some of this stuff for me." Bringer Claws had appeared and extended out from Sorun's form to gather up the boxes of medicine as he stood in front of the opened boxcar in front of the lines of waiting Mobians. Spectral armloads of boxes that would have been a challenge for four people proved easy with the Bringer Claws, which returned to Sorun's sides carrying an inordinate amount of boxes.

It was quite a large crowd in front of him, too. Mobians of all sizes, shapes, species, and colors all standing right there. Squirrels, deer, various birds, wolves, foxes, and dozens of other species Sorun couldn't place. A large part of him had been somewhat afraid of them when the train had stopped, actually, and he had to take a few deep breaths before coming out of the train to open the boxcar up and hand off the medicine.

That incident way at the beginning of all this was still plaguing his mind, after all. That rock. That and the knowledge that humans, or Overlanders at the very least as there was a large distinction to be made there, were responsible for a lot of terrible wars. Eggman really wasn't helping with their image. And people in Knothole knew him at this point, sure, but these were complete strangers out in the sticks. And he'd been extremely paranoid over the fact that all these Mobians probably wouldn't appreciate his mere presence even with Antoine and Bunnie with him. He'd expected the worst: name calling, things being thrown, maybe even a mob rushing him. It was bad enough to the point that his shoulders had constantly been tensed while he waited for a confrontation.

None of that ever happened.

In fact, it was the dead-opposite of his expectations. Everybody was so... happy and overjoyed to see him. Cheerful. Him, some random human who'd come in on a train. Albeit to hand out life-saving medicine, so the gratefulness was to be expected, but he hadn't expected how friendly everybody was being with him. Friendly and thankful, some almost to the point of tears, which really put Sorun off. None of them were even batting an eye at the spectral, winged claws he had coming out of his shoulders. If anything, they were all treating it like normal.

All of this made Sorun confused and bewildered beyond his belief. So much so that, as he was handing off the boxes of medicine to these incredibly grateful Mobians, he couldn't so much as speak or emote properly. His features were mainly marred in confused, unsure creases mixed with rapid blinking, though like the Bringer Claws this, too, was ignored by everybody he was handing the medicine off to.

He didn't know what to think of any of this.

"Thank you thank you thank you so much!" He didn't even get a chance to hand anything off before a brown-furred rabbit Mobian had crashed into him while mumbling more thanks into his sleeveless hoodie. "Everybody at my village was so worried we didn't know what to do and-"

"Yeah, I get it, I get it," Sorun quickly muttered. Alarmed from the unwanted contact, he used his real arms to pry the rabbit girl off of him. "Just take this stuff back there, okay?"

She wiped away a tear- people actually crying for him, he couldn't believe it- as she took the boxes from his spectral arms that she didn't even flinch at before walking away with the rest of the Mobians that had already received their medicine.

Sorun stared after her and the rest, still incredibly perplexed by the events even as the Bringer Claws continued to rummage around in the boxcar behind him for more medicine. A beige colored Mobian- squirrel, mongoose, something, Sorun couldn't tell- approached him with just as wide a smile as everybody else had.

"Seriously, what the hell is going on?"

"Here," Sorun tonelessly said as the blue claws extended towards the Mobian with the boxes.

"Oh, man, this is such a huge relief," the Mobian sighed out as he took the boxes. "We ran out of this stuff at my village, and my sister's illness came back, seriously, you're a lifesaver!"

"Yeah, dude, just go."

Over and over and over again this would happen. With everybody. So much unexpected kindness that to Sorun, who hadn't expected or even ever experienced this treatment in his life, it was suffocating. Almost literally. It was just such an overwhelming amount of happiness and smiles and thanks that he didn't know what to do with it, or how to respond to any of it. And it made him feel something, too. This strange, alien feeling in his chest that had been slowly growing throughout this whole process that welled up particularly whenever he handed off boxes.

He didn't know what it was, nor did he even understand this feeling. Or why everybody was acting like this. It frightened him.

"Fuckin' finally." He breathed out a large sigh of relief when he was finally allowed to close up the boxcar once everybody had received their medicine. "Ugh, man, this is the exact opposite of what I expected to happen. What the hell... I don't get any of this."

"All set, Sorun?" He nearly jumped out of his boots when he heard the voice addressing him. His neck snapped to his right, and he breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw it was just Bunnie. "You doin' alright?"

No, he was never doing alright, but at this particular moment he was doing worse than normal. "When's the train leaving?" he almost demanded in a ragged voice.

"Er... Antoine's up an' at the controls right now-"

"Great, can we go?" Sorun hadn't even waited for a response before he began climbing up the stairs to the train. "I wanna go. I wanna go now."

She looked confused at his statement, but not nearly as confused as he was. He was pretty sure that was impossible. "You don't wanna stick around for a bit-?"

"Nope, nope-nope-nope." Sorun rapidly shook his head. "We got four more stops, right? Can't leave all those people hanging. Clock's tickin'- ANTOINE, HURRY UP!" he yelled out towards the front of the train.

A window at the head engine car opened. "I am going, I am going! Start having some patience!" Antoine yelled back.

"I'm plenty patient," an impatient Sorun hissed out as he turned back to Bunnie. "Hurry up, we're going."

He'd made his way inside the train before she could get another response in. He walked in through the door of the engine car, slammed the door behind him, and then crashed his back against it while breathing out heavily. He heard a door to one of the boxcars open and close as Bunnie entered, and soon after Sorun felt the train lurch forwards again as they began moving back forwards.

That should have been the end to the anxiety right there, but Sorun had made the mistake of peeking his head towards the window to look outside. All the Mobians were still there, holding all the boxes he'd given them but all still smiling and doing their best to wave the train off with any free appendages they had. He saw that a majority of them were making eye contact with him, too, which caused Sorun to slink away from the window and slide down into a sitting position on the train floor.


He'd needed some time to himself after all that happened. He'd gotten it, fortunately, when he'd expressed a desire to stay in the control cabin for a bit when Antoine had made to leave. Antoine being Antoine hadn't even questioned it and left towards the back end of the train where Bunnie was.

Some time passed. Tens of minutes or maybe an hour- he wasn't so sure. He'd mainly spent it leaning against the train's wall in the control cabin while he stared out of a window and at the country rapidly passing by. Most of his focus was more on his own thoughts as opposed to looking out at the view, though.

"I just... they were all just so... nice. Not a single one so much as gave me a bad look. They didn't even question my Bringer Claws. That's just not normal. Maybe it's normal to them? Is the problem me?" He looked down at his hand. "Am I seriously so socially inept that I got a panic attack out of doing something like that? No, I... they're the weird ones. Goddammit, why can't anybody act normal?"

There had never been a point in his entire life when he'd been showered with so much affection by total strangers like that. He knew Mobians were nice, but he just hadn't seen something like that coming. Especially to him. Some stranger. Some random-ass human they'd never seen before. A random-ass human with weird magic arms. He couldn't handle all that positive attention.

"Is that- is that just how they act? All the smiles, the hugging- ugh, the hugging. And that group of girls kept giggling at me. Fuck was up with that?" He sighed. "I'm not a Mobian. So why would...? Maaaan, I don't know..."

Sorun just didn't understand. Anything. Like usual. Eventually in a thoughtless movement he'd gone to open the window to get some fresh air in the room to maybe help his thoughts, but due to the speed of the train it'd nearly felt like he'd been punched in the face by the wind ripping past the fast-moving train. He quickly closed the window back up, panting heavily as he tried to smooth out the locks of black hair that had been completely blown back from the wind.

He'd idly noted the door to the train car opening and closing after he'd fixed his hair as best he could, though largely ignored the footsteps coming up. His eye briefly flicked to the window where he saw Bunnie's reflection, but then he looked back out the window without offering a greeting.

"Penny for your thoughts?" he suddenly heard the rabbit behind him ask.

"Pennies don't even exist anymore, so how do you- ugh, forget it." Sorun turned around and flopped his back onto the wall so that he was facing Bunnie. "Whaddya want?"

The rabbit girl reached up to adjust the brown had sitting on top of her head. "Just checkin' up on ya." Bunnie walked over to Sorun's wall and pressed her own back against it so that they were side-by-side, facing the windows on the wall opposite of them. "Ya looked pretty rattled back there," she began.

Somehow he knew she was going to ask about his behavior eventually. He found himself sighing and rolling his eyes. "Whatever. She's here and I gotta get this stuff of my chest. Maybe get some answer over what all that was."

Who knew? Maybe talking about this would help. Sonic sure kept vouching for its effectiveness, and this wasn't the kind of conversation that would give him a heart attack.

"The first day I came here, some kids threw a rock at me," Sorun started. "Called me a bunch of names. Kept wondering why until Sally gave me a history lesson the next day, and after that I figured, yeah, no wonder there's a prejudice against humans and Overlanders after all the war and Eggman and all that. So I assumed that anybody outside of the Freedom Fighters, so pretty much everybody, would be... adverse towards me." He paused. "I've mainly been avoiding Knothole and its population this whole time because I'm scared of them."

A long moment of contemplation passed before Bunnie addressed him again. "That why you've been holin' up in Freedom HQ all this time? Even when nobody's there?"

"... Pretty much, yeah," he truthfully admitted. "I mean, what do you want from me? I get shoved in an alien world and one of the first things I learn is that 'oh, my sort-of kind attempted to commit genocide against your kind. Multiple times. And there's a madman robot guy still doing it.' What was I supposed to think?"

Bunnie slowly nodded, and after a long sigh she brushed some of her blonde hair over her shoulder and turned her head to Sorun. "Sugar, I get where you're comin' from, but ya need tah relax. Nobody's prejudiced against humans."

He didn't believe that for a second. "There would be a gash on my forehead that would disagree with you if it didn't heal over," he stated.

"Sorun, that was just a buncha idjit kids," she said. "Ya can't expect them to make the best a' choices given everythin' that's happened."

"I mean... I mean yeah, sure, but-"

"Let me ask you this," she interrupted, green eyes affixing to his blue. "Has anyone, anyone at all in Knothole besides those kids, ever give you any gruff 'bout what ya are?"

"... No?"

"Alright. Have we?"

Sorun scoffed. "Oh, come on. You guys don't count."

"And why not?"

"Because... because..." Well, now that he thought about it, he didn't really have a good answer for her. They were all Mobians just like everybody else. He wanted to say that maybe it was the guilt for bringing him here, but nobody ever even brought such a thing up anymore. And they kept approaching him. Offering him hands of friendship that he kept turning down. Because he was what? One of them? A comrade? Somebody helping out that they thought was cool enough to try and befriend?

Was the fact he was even a human a factor in their eyes? Because the more he looked back on his memories with everybody, outside of his physical limits, nobody ever even brought attention to it.

"... Well, no, none of you ever treat me weirdly for being a human," Sorun finally admitted, "but people outside of the Freedom Fighters-"

"Honey," Bunnie challenged.

"She's crazy," Sorun snapped.

"Sally said you and her brother got along pretty well when you two met."

"Okay, that was... so we had a thing or two in common, so what? Guy's the king. Pretty sure he has to be all courteous and stuff."

Bunnie rolled her eyes. "You don't really know him too well, 'cause that ain't it. Sonic's parents?"

"You're going for the low blows now," Sorun muttered. "Fine, no, they treat me really nice. Even Sonic's dad now."

"Oooh, well, that's real interestin'. Sonic's dad, a war veteran from the Great War, who would have the most reason outta anybody to not like humans an' Overlanders, likes you." She sent him a flat look. "Ya know the war wounds he got that keep him from turnin' back to a normal Mobian came from Overlanders, right?"

"The implication was pretty strong, yeah..." The human teen sighed out and hung his head so that his hanging hair hid his face away from Bunnie's eyes. "So you're saying... that I've been wrong this whole time in assuming Mobians would be racially discriminate against me? And that when you and Sonic said the thing with the kids was a fluke it really was just a fluke and not you guys trying to make me feel better? You all really don't care about race?"

"Sugah, have you seen how many different species of Mobians live in Knothole alone? Darn near nobody would ever be able to get along if people actually cared about something like that. Now I can't speak for every single Mobian out there-" her eyes quickly flicked to her arm and back to Sorun, "- but for the most part? It really don't matter to Mobians." A small chuckle left her. "Ah mean, shoot, nobody freaked out when we all went tah Station Square for the first time an' saw all them humans walkin' around. First time any of us evah even saw humans an' nobody raised a fuss."

"I wasn't there when you guys went to Station Square..." Sorun quietly reminded her.

She waved a hand. "Well, I'm jus' sayin'. I can tell ya that the only thing on my mind back then was wonderin' why they was all so tall." She paused. "Speakin' a' which, ain't it kinda strange yer around Mobian size when yer a-?"

A few specks of blue light briefly shined behind Sorun's back as the Bringer Claws threatened to manifest. "Change the subject," he demanded.

She blinked at his response, and then wryly grinned while rolling her eyes. "Anyways, if what happened back there with all them people you gave the medicine to don't say nothin', then I dunno what to tell ya."

Blowing a quiet breath past his lips, Sorun tilted his head up at the train's ceiling. "Alright, so maybe I was wrong the whole time and Mobians are actually super progressive in terms of race." Thinking about it in a purely objective manner, he realized he'd seen more evidence supporting this as opposed. And that other than the rock and the slight bias Jules had against him that he'd eventually dropped, there really was no evidence towards Mobians disliking him due to his humanity. And he wasn't even sure if he could count the rock, since it'd been by kids. And kids did stupid things all the time- he sure couldn't say he'd done any less stupid things as a kid.

So then, all the hiding around and avoiding Mobians was for nothing? Every single person in the Freedom Fighters had been supportive towards him, even Shadow in his own special way, but that would extend outside the group? Everybody would just treat him like a normal person? Sure, Honey had, but he didn't think that basket case was a good example. Except for the fact she'd openly admitted caring about him as a friend. A fact he detested but had to acknowledge.

Perhaps in hindsight he shouldn't have made so many assumptions. Half of him argued that they were logical assumptions, but then the other half argued he never actually went out to Knothole to interact with the populace and confirm it. He'd always just hidden himself away in the HQ for being too afraid.

Maybe, he would admit to himself, that had been a mistake.

"Fine," he sighed out. "You... raise a lot of really good points, Bunnie."

She gave him a satisfied nod, which caused him to groan and turn his head away from her again. "I can tell ya for a fact, Sorun, that everyone in Knothole knows ya've been contributin' tah the Freedom Fighters an' that ya've helped out. If anythin', ya got nothin' but positives goin' for ya."

"Ugh, I get it..." he groaned out. "Fine, I'll... I'll try it out. Walk around town. See what happens," he said. "Later. When I got some free time and none of the other Freedom Fighters are around."

"That's all ah'm askin' for," Bunnie said. "Now why don't ya tell me why ya'll freaked out so bad back there with all them people."

"Oh, that." Sorun ran a hand across his face. "I don't know what to say, Bunnie. Because of my... apparent misconceptions we'll call it... of Mobian views on humans, I thought I was gonna have to end up throwing medicine at an angry mob." He quickly shot up into a straight posture while still leaning on the wall. "But man, oh man, they were all just... it was all too much."

Bunnie tilted her head, causing her ears to loll to the side. "What was too much?" she asked.

"All the friendliness, the affection, the-the... people have never acted that way towards me before," he told her, "and I didn't know how to feel or react to any of that. And what I did feel was just weird. So yeah, I freaked out."

The yellow rabbit just looked more confused at Sorun's explanation. "Er, yeah. People tend tah be nice like that."

"I'm not used to it," Sorun said with a shake of his head. "Nobody ever acted like that towards me before. My own mother and friends never acted that... cheery and happy. It was all just so weird."

Giving out a long hum, Bunnie scratched the underside of her cheek with her robotic hand for a few seconds. She perked up as a dawning realization hit her, and at the same time she pointed a robotic digit at the human. "Oh, I get it. Yer shy."

Sorun's knee-jerk reaction was to violently push himself off the the wall, turn back to a smirking Bunnie, and point a finger at her. "I am NOT," he hotly defended. "I just... lived a kind of closed-off life and never got that much social interaction outside of school."

"It's nothin' ya'll should be 'shamed of," she said. "I get it, yer not used to these kinds of things. A bit weird, fer sho', but ya jus' gotta learn tah ease into it."

"Ease into it," he repeated with a shake of his head. "It's not that easy, Bunnie. It just felt so weird." That overwhelming, suffocating feeling. That strange emotion that had welled up he couldn't place. All of it was too strange.

"Oh, brother," Bunnie muttered as she pushed herself off the wall. "Alright. Ah'll give ya some advice."

Sorun quirked an irritated eyebrow. "Advice?"

"Ah can't claim tah know exactly what's goin' on in yer noggin', but I can give ya a few pointers to help with yer... nervousness. Ah live with Antoine. Ya pick up a few things livin' with someone as nervous as him." She walked in a half-circle around Sorun, who was slowly turning his body to follow her. "Just breath."

"... Breath." That wasn't exactly the sage wisdom he'd been hoping for. Sounded more like something he'd read on a self-help website back on Earth. "Are you joking? Seriously?"

"It helps more than ya think, Sugah," Bunnie claimed. "I really don't see how havin' a bunch of people happy tah see ya makes ya nervous, but Antoine has the same thing with crowds sometimes. And a lotta other things. Ya'd be amazed how much breathin' helps with the nerves." She stopped to hum. "An' maybe try actin' a bit friendly with them all yerself," she suggested. "Nothin' that huge. Maybe a just a smile or somethin'."

"A smile," Sorun deadpanned. "You think breathing and a smile will help with my problem."

Bunnie flashed him an affirmative grin. "Maybe if ya calm yerself down and try tah be as friendly tah them as they are tah ya it'll give ya a bit a' perspective. Maybe then ya'll will undahstand an' stop bein' so confused and worried ovah nothin'."

He couldn't give her a response to that. He couldn't because, as Sorun mulled over Bunnie's words, he realized that what the rabbit was saying might actually make sense. Try a different perspective in order to gain better understanding? It seemed practical enough to work. He didn't know about smiling, or trying to be as overly friendly as them because he just couldn't do something like that, but... it was certainly an idea. A good one, even. And one more idea than all the ones he had, which were zero.

"... Sure. I'll try it out. Can't promise you a smile but I'll try it out." He was starting to see Bunnie in a new light now, and gave her a very appreciative nod. He'd been so skeptical at first, but her suggestion was just... it was good. "Thanks a lot, Bunnie. You're really smart, you know that?"

She gave out a bashful chuckle in response. "Well, ah wouldn't go that far now. Ah just got a lotta experience." She turned towards the stairs leading out of the control room. "Well, ah'll get outta yer hair fer now." She made her way towards the stairs, but then paused halfway and turned her head back Sorun. "Also, Sorun, just wonderin', were ya gonna stay here much longer?"

"I guess?" Sorun shrugged. "Just wanted some time to myself to think while looking outside. Why?"

"Oh, no reason." She turned back to the stairs. "If it ain't too much to ask, ya mind doin' that for a while longer so me and Antoine could get some privacy tah ourselves?" She unconsciously began adjusting her hat for whatever reason. "Just askin'."

"Sure...?" His voice trailed off to match his confusion. "I, uh... I was actually just gonna stay here until the next stop."

Bunnie looked extremely relieved at that. "Oh, great! Ah mean, good. Yeah." She began descending the stairs while heading to the next train car, holding her bionic arm up to wave at Sorun. "Seeya in a bit, Sugah!"

"Er, yeah. 'Til then. The hell was that all about...?" he murmured to himself as soon as Bunnie had exited the car. He thought hard for a long moment, but after coming up with nothing but blank thoughts, he shrugged. "Eh, whatever." He turned back to the windows to watch the trees rushing past outside.

"Perspective, huh?"


The second stop was going about exactly the same as the first. Stop in a small clearing in front of a large crowd of Mobians, and have Bunnie organize the crowds into lines while Sorun handed off all the boxes.

There was one main difference, though, in that Sorun didn't look like he wanted to jump out of his skin and run away with each and every single Mobian that walked up to him. In fact, from her position near the front of the train, Bunnie could see a marked improvement in the human's mood at a distance compared to the last time. He wasn't shaking, for instance. She knew that had to be a good sign.

He was even speaking with a few of them, too. Actual small little conversations, and not the clipped little goodbyes he'd said previously. And while he didn't look completely at ease, it was still better.

It made her glad to know that at least some things she said got through to Sorun.

"Ze train is being ready to go soon, ma cherie." She smiled at the voice behind her, and turned around to greet the voice. She of course saw Antoine stepping up behind him. "And what would you be doing?" he asked.

"Mm, watchin' Sorun," she answered. "Feller was havin' some nervous issues, but ah think he's got a handle on it."

"Ah, I see. He was very much acting ze peculiar way before leaving ze last time if I recall," Antoine said with a nod. "Do you zink he has been becoming more, as Sonic would say, 'chilled'?"

Letting out a light chuckle, Bunnie shook her head. "It's 'chill', darlin', but... with him, hard tah say." She looked back towards Sorun. "Ah think he's gettin' tah be a bit more open, but ah don't know."

"Oui, it iz hard for me to see as well," Antoine admitted, "zo I am not remembering zat ze Sorun I knew from all zose weeks ago would be volunteering to be going out into ze country to handed out medicine like zis."

"Yeah. He's sho' changed since first comin' here," Bunnie said as she crossed her arms. "Still barely won't talk to no-one, though, but ah'm thinkin' now he's just way more shy than we ever gave 'im credit for."

"Ah, in time, in time. He will open up when he iz ready, I am sure," Antoine assured her. "These zings just take ze gathering of the nerves before finally being prepared."

She smirked at the other Mobian. "You'd know all 'bout that, huh, hon?"

Antoine doing a double-take on her before sputtering and moving back to the train was all the confirmation she needed. She made another chuckle, and then began following him.


"Yeah, Honey, she's the tailor I go to for all my clothes." Sorun's Bringer Claws, carrying medical boxes, moved in front of him and deposited said boxes into the awaiting gray bird Mobian's hands. "Anyways, here ya go. And, uh..." He rose up his hand in an unsure manner, and went through about a dozen different hand gestures before finally settling on a thumbs-up. "Good, uh, good-good job. Y'know. Comin' out here and every- just, good on you. You're great."

"Haha, thanks! Bye now!" The avian Mobian turned around and walked off towards the rest of the Mobian settlers waiting for her. Sorun breathed out a sigh, and turned around to close up the train's boxcar.

So that hadn't turned into a complete internal disaster like last time. He'd taken Bunnie's advice and tried breathing, and though he just couldn't get any smiles out, he did try being moderately kinder to everybody walking up to him. The result of this effort mostly resulted in a softer tone of voice and a lot of "your welcomes", but he thought it got the point across.

He still didn't do hugs, though. He went to great lengths avoiding those as much as possible and tried to dodge them by shoving the boxes of medicine into the arms of anybody that tried. But otherwise it had gone extremely well, and he didn't feel afraid of all these people this time around. More at ease than anything else. It was rather relieving.

"This was... nice. Nice?" He kept trying to pin down that warm feeling that bloomed in his chest every time he handed off those boxes to somebody and they gave them those warm smiles and heartfelt thanks, and while he still couldn't quite identify it, he found the warm feeling... pleasant. Slightly. He was still unsure, but he was pretty confident in saying he liked it. "Yeah, this was... it was nice. Helping people. Huh."

It wasn't like he'd ever done anything like this before. He'd never even so much as done volunteer or community work back home on Earth. It was either school or video games with the occasional friend, i.e. David, thrown in. Maybe lunch with somebody if he felt up to it. And personally he'd never understood why people would bother to go through the effort of volunteering free time to help others. Still didn't, actually, but on Mobius at least he could understand since the circumstances were different and they were all trying to save the world by doing as much as they could.

Well, all the Freedom Fighters were, at least. He was just along for the ride until he bailed.

He turned away from the boxcar and towards the front of the train. He saw a flustered Antoine heading in with a smirking Bunnie right behind him. Her eyes briefly met his, and he gave her a thankful smile. She smiled back before continuing to follow Antoine into the train.

The smile on his face quickly left as soon as she was out of sight. He turned his eyes towards the train, towards the crowd of Mobians holding the medical supplies he'd given them, and then down at his own hand. He frowned, and then turned around completely to board the train.


Passing time quickly was becoming a means of survival, as there wasn't much to do on such a small train like this one. There wasn't much they could do on this front: eating the small amount of rations Antoine brought didn't pass any time, cards grew old, and talking grew exhausting. So exhausting that Bunnie was choosing to spend her time until the next stop taking a nap in one of the train's boxcars.

And Sorun couldn't slow down on eating those rations to spend as much time as possible if he tried. For field rations it was some of the best food he'd ever eaten, and when he'd asked Antoine about them the coyote admitted to having homemade them just for the mission. The idea of the Frenchman being a good cook had made Sorun snort in amusement, but there was no denying that, yes, Antoine was a pretty phenomenal cook.

As a consequence, though, they still had a boatload of time to chew through.

Where did that leave Sorun and Antoine? In another boxcar, both of them sitting down and pressing their backs against a wooden crate as they stared aimlessly ahead at the dimly-lit wall of the boxcar with the quiet rumble of the train under their feet.

"... And I kid you not, Antoine. He turned himself into a pickle. Funniest sh- I mean funniest thing I've ever seen."

"Mon dieu," Antoine gasped out from besides him. "What happened next?"

Sorun shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't care enough to remember the rest." He ignored the disappointed huff from Antoine and looked up at the ceiling. "We ain't even halfway done and I'm already bored outta my mind."

"We can always have another round of Twenty Questions," Antoine proposed. "You are quite fond of zis game, non?"

"I was. Until I started playing with you," Sorun dryly stated as his head rolled to face Antoine. "Every single time we play you pick the most obvious things. What's it gonna be this time, man? 'Le tree', or 'le sword', or something else that probably took you about a microsecond of thought to think up?"

"You are no better at all!" Antoine claimed. "How in ze world was I supposed to guess 'ze second step from ze bottom of ze Freedom HQ's stairs'!?"

"Somebody's not asking specific enough questions," Sorun breathed out. "Alright, Antoine, level with me. What's going on between you and Bunnie?" he suddenly asked. "You both kind of give each other these looks and act differently around each other, so I'm just, y'know, just wonderin' what's going on there."

He may have had exactly zero romantic experience to fall back on, and while he may have been the equivalent of a social neanderthal, even he could see the signs. Likely not all of them- definitely not all of them, actually, but even he could see the real obvious stuff. The warm, almost melting smiles they sent each other. The way they got so happily lost in their eyes. The hand holding. The fact they lived together. The hugging. The kissing, that last one was probably a big hint.

Granted Sorun had only seen the kissing when he'd been spying on them when he was bored once, so they'd likely only done those things when they thought they were alone, but they still acted extremely affectionate of each other regardless.

Did he care if they were in a relationship or not? No, not really. But he was desperate to talk about anything to alleviate the boredom.

"Oh, Bunnie." A happy smile spread across Antoine's face. "Mon amour. Ze light of my life. My very dear-"

"Okay, dude, I get it," Sorun interrupted. "You two a thing or not?"

The interruption had ruined whatever moment Antoine was having that second, causing him to briefly frown at the human, but the smile came back soon after as he began speaking. "Oui, we are very much together. In fact, I am engaged to her."

"My man!" Sorun flashed two fingers guns at Antoine, who grew very confused at the gesture. "I'm-I'm genuinely shocked! How did you manage to land that!?" Because while he couldn't talk, Antoine didn't seem like a ladies man at all. Bunnie even implied that he was a bit socially awkward like Sorun was. So he managed to land a wife of all things with Bunnie of all people mystified him.

"I ask myself ze very same question often, mon ami," Antoine sighed out. "Eet was something zat bloomed over ze years of fighting Robotneek since we were ze le petite little children. She would save my life, I would save her life, we would grow closer as friends over time, and I strongly believe me nevair having even flinched away from her cybernetic parts spoke to her. One thing lead to ze other, and while zere were a few hiccups here and zere..." His face grew dark. "A hiccup lasting half a year in one case..." He brightened back up. "We grew very happy, and so I proposed after weeks and weeks of building ze mental preparedness."

"So love can bloom on the battlefield after all, huh?" Sorun said, smirking at himself for the inside joke.

The blonde-haired Mobian laughed a little at that. "Zat iz a very poetic way of saying it, oui." A look of contemplation briefly passed over him. "You know, zat... actually speaks to moi." He smiled. "Perhaps I may be using it for when it comes time to say vows, non? 'Love blooming on ze battlefield'. It sounds like something out of ze storybooks. I am thinking ma cherie would be finding ze charm in it."

Sorun snorted. "I don't know if you should be using a 'Metal Gear' quote for- actually, nobody knows what that is, huh?" he asked himself, ignoring the questioning look Antoine was giving him. "I take it back, go for it. She'll love it." He looked back to Antoine. "Hey, what was that half a year thing you muttered?"

Antoine's face soured again. "Zone trouble," he grumbled out.

"Ah." Sorun was a little surprised at how angry he looked at the answer. He didn't think he'd ever seen Antoine genuinely angry. Even when he'd paint bombed him he looked irritated at most. "Been there," he said.

"I... hah, I suppose you would, non?" Antoine said with a small smile. "Forgive my upsetedness, but to have been pulled away from zose you love for zo much time... er, no offense, Sorun, and have your relationships almost ruined by an impostor, to lose... certain zings. It was a very dark time, and I am very fortunate ma cherie stayed with moi through it all."

Sorun gave him an understanding nod. "Sounds heavy. But impostor? What was the deal with that?"

"From an alternate zone, eet iz a long story." Antoine waved a hand aside. "You would not be interested."

He was incredibly interested, but he could very well see that Antoine wasn't. In fact, the brown coyote looked very uncomfortable with the subject altogether, and his ears along with his eyelids were drooping down. Sorun, feeling a bit bad for bringing the mood down, tried changing the conversation topic.

"So, um, no rings?" The human had noticed upon looking at Antoine's hands that there was no ring, nor did he remember seeing one on Bunnie. And he knew marriage rings were a thing. He'd seen a set on Sonic's parents' fingers. "What's up with that?"

Sorun wasn't sure if Antoine looking from depressed to irritated was that good an improvement. "Ze rings are only supposed to be worn after ze wedding ceremony. We had plan-ned one, but shortly beforefoot Eggman had gotten hiz hands on ze seven Chaos Emeralds. We just nevair had time afterwards," he mumbled out. "My dear Bunnie was crushed for weeks over it."

The teen winced. "That sucks, man."

"I do not see what suction has to do with eet, but oui. Eet does indeed."

A few moments passed, and Sorun had pulled up one of his knees to his chest while mulling over another question. "So the fact that you're a coyote and she's a rabbit," he began, "that isn't- it isn't weird? One species of Mobian marrying another?"

"Huh? Non, non," Antoine denied with a shake of his head. "Anybody is free to be with whoever they love, no matter who or what zey are. I love Bunnie, cyber bip-bops and all. Why would her being a rabbit be important?"

"No reason." Wow, Bunnie hadn't been kidding. Mobians really didn't care about what species other people were. "So, uh... how, uh..." With his left hand he made a circle with his thumb and index finger, and with his other hand he slowly began moving his right index finger in and out the makeshift hole. "So how does... how does that work?"

Antoine tilted his head to the side. "I am not understanding, Sorun."

"Well I'm just askin' 'cause, 'cause you know, her... her whole lower half's robotic, so, like, how do you two...?" When he saw that Antoine wasn't catching on to his implications, he sighed and lowered his hands down. "Ah, forget it," he said with a huff.

"Alrighty." Antoine blinked his blue eyes and shifted his body so that his shoulder was leaning against the crate, with his front facing Sorun. "Why did you wonder about relationships between different species?"

Sorun shrugged. "I'm just a curious human from another world tryin' to kill time, man," he replied.

His answer caused some reaction in Antoine, who started to smirk at him much to Sorun's puzzlement. "Oh, I see. I see." A knowing laugh escaped him. "So, Sorun, tell me, would it be zat you happened to be having your eye on somebody?"

"My eye on- oh, no." Sorun's disagreement over the question was so intense that he'd risen up to his feet, with Antoine's amused eyes following him up. "Nuh-uh, nope, not interested in anybody. No way. I don't even wanna have this conversation."

There were so many things wrong with something like that. He could barely even count them. Never mind the species gate, which alone was a good enough reason for him to never even consider the idea, but he barely even got along with anybody in the Freedom Fighters because of them having forced him onto this planet. That wasn't something that was ever going to go away, and he barely knew anybody outside the resistance group. Nor did he feel like meeting anybody new. And even if there were some he did get along with he was planning on leaving/abandoning them all at the best given opportunity.

He just plain couldn't like anybody that way.

"You do not seem zo sure of yourself," Antoine said in a teasing tone. "Zere iz no shame in admitting you have ze feelings for-"

"I super do not," Sorun denied as he spun towards Antoine while pointing a finger at him. "Antoine, I haven't even been here for a month. Or, wait, have- no, but it's close." He shook his head. "Ugh, not important. Look, barely anybody knows me past the superficial stuff, and I don't know anybody past all the Freedom Fighter stuff. I don't even wanna try to get to know people past that. And even if I did I got a bunch of reasons I can't, half of which I can't even tell you."

Antoine didn't look convinced at all, and kept up that same smirk on his face. "Oh? Name one."

"For the- urgh." Sorun pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Antoine, man, I'm not gonna be around forever. I gotta go home back to my world eventually. That is a serious long-distance relationship I'm not willing to commit to." He shook his head and waved his hand. "It wouldn't work with anybody. And again, I'm not interested in anybody. Totally not."

"Zo you say, and yet I am not convinced at all." Though he was still wearing that smirk that was beginning to irritate Sorun, the coyote had tilted his head to the side in confusion. "But I thought zat you were stuck in zis zone forevair? Because ze Emeralds-"

"That's not a confirmed thing," Sorun mumbled out. The fact he'd said it in such an unsure tone was not lost on either of them.

Antoine blinked, and then awkwardly coughed into a closed fist. "Er, oui, right, of course," he agreed with a stiff nod, "but if we pretended that you did remain here on Mobius, would you still-?"

"Still wouldn't be interested in anybody, and I don't want to be interested in anybody," Sorun said.

"Not even with-?"

"Antoine, read my lips: no." In a motion that the human teen hoped would signal his finality with the subject, he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "It's never gonna happen. Not like anybody'd ever be interested in me, anyways. Geez, would never have brought your thing with Bunnie up if I knew it was gonna lead to this..."

Finally giving Sorun some reprieve from the topic, Antoine gave off a small chuckle while moving so that his back was against the crate again. "Alright, I can take ze hint." He pulled his knees up and draped his arms over them. "I only bring it up because ze Sorun I see right now iz much more differen' and approachable than ze Sorun from a long bit ago."

That gave Sorun pause, and then caused him to turn away from Antoine while still looking at him from the corner of his eye. "Dunno what you're talking about."

"Oh, do not be ze coy type with moi. Ze way you acted with all ze people and other Freedom Fighters is saying enough. You are being the very friendly person for someone who said zey did not want to be friends with anybody. I believe Bunnie was right when she said you were ze shy type."

Sorun found himself groaning and rubbing his eyes. He already got enough of this from Sonic, and he didn't have the energy to argue the point with Antoine. "You're seein' things, Antoine. You're seein' things," he claimed as he walked towards the end of the boxcar, slightly bristling at the small chuckle he heard from behind him.

"Alright, so maybe I haven't been hammering the point home that well," Sorun began to think to himself, "but why does everybody keep trying-?"

Knock.

The pale teen's head picked right up when he heard it. A knock, right outside the boxcar door he was standing next to. Which should have been impossible considering they were on a very high-speed train right at this second. He thought he was hearing things for a second until he heard another knock come in from the other side of the door, causing him to flinch back.

"The hell?" Sorun looked back towards Antoine. It seemed that he had heard it, too, as he was looking towards the boxcar in great alarm and confusion. He shifted his gaze to Sorun, who could only give him a confused shrug. "Uh... guess I'll open the door..."

Slowly, he reached out and grasped the handle of the boxcar door. It took great effort due to the wind rushing past the train, but Sorun managed to open the door partly to look outside. And even with his dark hair whipping wildly around his face, he was able to clearly see what was right next to the train and knocking on the door.

He'd almost thought it was Sonic. The shape and color was there, and he was about the only other hedgehog he knew besides Shadow that could keep up with a train going this fast. But it immediately stood out to Sorun that the figure's blue body had a metallic sheen as opposed to fur. And it wasn't running next to the train- it was flying. Flying with what looked like a torso made into a turbine.

Sorun didn't know what to think about what he was looking at until the robot turned its metallic, mouthless head towards him. Black, screen-like eyes with glowing red irises stared right back at the teen, and silvery, metal claws in place of fingers began to flex, but otherwise the Sonic-like machine simply stayed in pace of the train's opened door.

In a flash of blue, a Summoned Sword appeared at Sorun's side, and immediately afterwards it fired into the flying robot. For whatever reason the machine hadn't even made to move, and the sword had collided directly with it. To Sorun's dismay, he saw why it hadn't bothered moving: the Summoned Sword had completely shattered against its metallic chassis. There wasn't even a scratch left from where it impacted its face.

"... Well then." In an act of eerie calmness, Sorun ducked his head back inside the boxcar, gingerly took the handle to the door, and closed it back shut. He took a deep breath, and then slowly backed away before turning towards Antoine, who was staring at him expectantly. "Hey, so-"

The boxcar rattled. Roughly. Roughly enough that Sorun was sent sprawling to all fours while Antoine had been knocked flat on his front. The screeching sound of metal cutting across metal soon reached their ears from somewhere else on the train, and at the same time as the noise reached them the train began rattling even harder.

"Argh!" The boxcar had jostled so hard that Antoine had been thrown against the wall. "Sorun, what iz happening out zere!?" he yelled at the human.

"There was- agh!" The boxcar shook again, forcing Sorun to grab onto the door to steady himself. "There was some, some weird Sonic-looking robot or something, I don't know!"

"Sonic-looking...? Oh." Antoine's irises shrunk, seemingly in fear. "Mon dieu, non, not zat..."

"Antoine!?" The fear-ridden look on the coyote's face did not bode well to Sorun, who was struggling to stay on his feet. "Antoine, what's- whoa!"

Something blue- it was too fast for Sorun to perceive properly- smashed right through one side of the boxcar between Antoine and Sorun and punched right through the other end. It appeared again less than a second later, going right through the ceiling before smashing all the way through the front of the boxcar.

With the front of the boxcar having been completely destroyed by the blue robot, Sorun and Antoine were clearly able to see the train in front of them. And, much to their collective horror, the blue Sonic-like robot was buzzing around at dizzying speeds, going through different parts of the train over and over in what seemed like an effort to destroy it.

And then, too fast for the both of the to react, the blue robot smashed its way through the bottom of the front train. The resulting screeching sound was loud enough that the Mobian and human had to cover their ears while wincing, but more than that the train's alignment with the tracks began to become more and more loose as the train's engine and all the boxcars began to rattle.

Eventually, though, the front train had derailed completely from the tracks. Worse still, it began to dangerously tip to the side before rolling over entirely. This, combined with the fact the whole train was still carrying heavy forwards momentum, meant that all the boxcars in front of the pair were quickly derailing and rolling end over end as the train crashed. Antoine and Sorun's eyes met briefly, but holding onto something and screaming was all they could accomplish as their own boxcar began to start rolling and crashing.


At the time, the train had been traveling through a rather desolate piece of land compared to most other places in eastern Northamer it had traveled to beforehand. Not a single tree was in sight, for all the way to the horizon was nothing but a continuous, flat stretch of dry, cracked land that lacked even so much as grass with the sun beating down heavily on it. The only break to this dry land was the train track that cut right through it, with the newest addition being the crashed train on top.

The damage sustained by the train due to the robot had, of course, caused it to derail. After separating from the tracks entirely the train and all its segments had kept crashing and rolling forwards for a large distance, but eventually their momentum had ended and all of the train settled. Almost miraculously, they had all stopped practically right on top of the tracks, though due to the state of the train it did it little good.

The train engine and all of its boxcars had become completely separated in the crash and were all scattered around the track and on their sides, though the train engine had sustained the most damage as it had been the focus of the robot's attack. It had been riddled and shredded by its body so much that, combined with the actual crash, it barely resembled a train anymore and more like a giant hunk of smoking metal laying on its sides. The boxcars scattered around had sustained significantly less damage, though their contents laid scattered around on the ground in the form of completely smashed crates and boxes.

Some distance away, on the right side of the crash, was Antoine, who had been thrown away from the boxcar he had been in from the crash. He slowly stood up with a groan, running a hand through his hair as he looked down at himself. His blue jacket was heavily scuffed and torn in some places, but otherwise he seemed to be without any serious injuries.

He would have sighed in relief if a blue object hadn't zoomed past him before landing on the ground in front of him and came sliding to a halt.

Terrified eyes looked up and met red, mechanical eyes staring coldly back at him. The robot resembling Sonic had slightly hunched itself over in its landing, but soon rose up to its full height as it kept its eyes locked onto Antoine.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Antoine reached down with a shaky hand towards the sword tied to his waist. His hand met empty air, though, and when he looked down he saw that his sword wasn't even attached to him anymore. The sound of an engine heating up drew his attention back up to the robot, and he didn't even have time to scream before the blue robot came rocketing towards him with its metal claws outstretched.

It never reached him, though. Because he'd been frozen stiff with fright, Antoine hadn't been able to close his eyes to avoid seeing his own demise, which was why he was clearly able to see the four blue swords that appeared in front of him, their blades crossing one another and shielding him. The robot ran right into the shield of swords, and bounced right off and skidded backwards.

Back at the site of the train crash, there was a raspy cough as one of the tipped boxcars rose up slightly. Underneath the boxcar was Sorun- pinned down from the boxcar's weight, but avoiding being crushed entirely from the two spectral arms holding up the boxcar. His head and right arm were free from the boxcar's weight, though, with his head spun towards the sight of Antoine and the robot with his right arm outstretched towards them.

"Sorun... c-comin' in with the clutch assist..." he gasped out, though with how far away they were he doubted they heard him. He groaned, and then turned his head up towards the boxcar pinning him down. There was a shadow covering half of his face, and he looked to the left towards it and realized that there was another boxcar leaning on the one threatening to crush him, adding its weight. "Aw, that ain't good..."

With a grunt, he tried to will the Bringer Claws to lift the boxcar off of him. The weight proved too much, though, and even worse he felt his concentration slip multiple times which resulted in the Bringer Claws flickering and dimming sporadically. His head was still ringing and vision still swimming from how much he'd been tossed around during the crash, but fortunately he had enough mental strength to not pass out on the spot right there. Most of his mental fortitude was split between staying awake, the blue arms holding the boxcar off him and the four swords hovering in front of Antoine, though, and Sorun couldn't summon up any more strength to do more no matter how hard he tried.

Soon, though, he heard the sound of small jet engines, and looked up at the sound. He couldn't help the small laugh that left him when he saw Bunnie flying up in the sky, jets on the soles of her feet keeping her propelled in the air. The jets cut out and she landed with a small huff next to Sorun.

She didn't look as shaken as Sorun or Antoine did, at least. The most he could see were some slight scratches on her body along with the fact she was heavily breathing, but otherwise she seemed alright. She seemed incredibly worried, though, from the way her widened eyes were snapping from Antoine and the blue robot in front of him to Sorun.

"Hey, Bunnie...?" Sorun weakly called out. "Don't know if... if you got some way to get me out of here... but I can't do this forever." To accentuate his point, the Bringer Claws flickered and the boxcar lowered slightly. "I'd really appreciate it if you helped me out here..."

"S-Sorun, ah..." She tilted her face down at Sorun, and then looked back towards Antoine. "But... but Antoine's out there. He ain't even got his sword, he can't-!"

"I'm... not gonna let that thing touch him..." Right as Sorun said this, the four swords in front of Antoine disappeared. In their place flashed eight swords spinning around a bewildered Antoine, all pointing outwards. "We can both help him, but you gotta get me out first... I'll defend him with the swords until then."

With confliction clearly written on her face, Bunnie looked out towards Antoine one last time. Her eyes particularly lingered on the blue robot, though her features grew more resolved as she ran towards Sorun and crouched down by his side. "I'm trustin' you to keep him safe," she whispered as she began fiddling with her left arm.

A sardonic chuckle escaped Sorun. "A terrible choice, really..." His pupils shrunk when he saw the hand on Bunnie's artificial left arm morph and shift into a vaguely nozzle-based shape, out of which came a stream of blue flame. "H-hey, wait-"

"Gotta cut you out," Bunnie mumbled in response as she positioned the torch onto the boxcar pinning Sorun down. "Don't move too much. Ah don't wanna burn ya."

"Yeah, got it." Sorun turned his head back towards the distance. Antoine and the robot were still standing still and apart from one another, with the coyote having looked back towards Sorun and Bunnie. Sorun saw him eye the boxcar on top of Sorun and the torch Bunnie was using to cut him out, and as his eyes dipped down to the swords spinning around him a look of understanding flashed across his eyes.

The robot, for its part, was still silently standing its ground, though its red eye-like sensors were fixed down on the swords spinning around Antoine. A sight that made Sorun grow worried; he'd shot it with a Summoned Sword point-blank and it hadn't done anything. He didn't know how long he'd actually be able to defend Antoine with just Summoned Swords.

"What is that thing, anyways?" Sorun asked as he saw the Sonic-like robot hunch down in a ready stance. "Why does it look like Sonic?"

Bunnie continued to cut away at the steel trapping Sorun, though she did tear her attention away for a moment to look towards the robot. "It's Metal Sonic," she informed him with an incredible amount of disdain lacing her voice. "One a' Eggman's Badniks. It's a robot modeled after Sonic." She turned back to her work on the boxcar. "I got jostled around a bunch from the crash, but the communicator ah had on me managed tah survive," she said. "Ah managed to call fer help. Sally said the Special had just come back and they're roundin' up everyone, but-"

"But we need to wait, yeah," Sorun finished for her. "Alright, we can work with that. Just focus on getting me out." His eyes narrowed in concentration. "I'll worry about Antoine."

Obeying some invisible start, Metal blasted towards Antoine with its metal claws flared to the side. The coyote ducked out of the way, and while the Spiral Swords spinning around him managed to rake across the robot's body, they did no damage. Further still, its claws had shredded through and shattered three of the swords protecting Antoine, leaving a noticeable gap in the ring of swords spinning around him.

"The guy went and made a robot after Sonic? What the hell... and it's... it's fast, too. Too fast. My eyes can't keep up and he's tearing right through the Summoned Swords."

The five remaining swords spinning around Antoine stopped and closed in further towards him. He looked down in worry, and then flinched when the five swords shot straight forwards in the directions they'd been facing. One of the swords had sailed straight towards Metal Sonic, though the robot merely swiped one of its hands at it and shattered the sword. As it did this, though, twenty more swords appeared right above it pointed downwards, and as soon as it swiped at the sword the twenty above rained down on it.

The Heavy Rain Swords technique may as well have been that, though: rain. Because, while the swords were landing tip-first on the robot, its exterior shell was so sturdy that they were shattering on contact. Metal Sonic had stood completely still during the ordeal, almost tauntingly, but when the last sword struck it the engine making up its torso flared back up to life.

"What the fuck is this thing made of, anyways!?" Sorun's thoughts screamed as he saw the engine light up hotter and hotter. "Alright, offense ain't working! Just focus on defending Antoine!"

He had to will more swords crossed into shields to appear in the path Sorun predicted Metal would go in, and as dozens of sets of four crossed swords appeared between it and Antoine he was glad for making the decision, as the robot had taken off at nearly the same time. In a blurry, blue line that was all but imperceptible to Sorun's eyes due to its sheer speed, it smashed through shield after shield in its relentless pursuit of Antoine, who was trying his best to maintain his distance away from the thing. It seemed, much to Sorun's panic, that Metal had realized that actively striking the swords was more effective than bouncing off of them. Even attempting to just block with the swords was becoming more and more useless.

Thoughts wondering to what Antoine was thinking about all this briefly danced through Sorun's mind as he encircled the coyote with dozens and dozens of swords crossed into shields in a desperate effort to slow down Metal as much as possible. He had to at least somewhat realize what it was he and Bunnie was trying to do since he wasn't running towards them, and for that much Sorun was grateful. He looked worse for wear, though. His eyes were intensely focused, but there was no denying the fear-laden look embedded in his features. But despite that, he was keeping cool. Adapting to the Summoned Swords Sorun was placing around him and not moving around too much away from their protection.

Sorun had to wonder how much good that would do him, though, as Metal tore its way through dozens of swords in a matter of a few seconds.

Antoine tried backing up as Metal rapidly approached through the veritable wall of swords Sorun had made, but both he and Sorun knew it was in vain due to the robot's speed. Four swords, two at each side, appeared at Antoine's sides and repeatedly fired off swords at the approaching robot with more swords appearing to refill vacant positions, but not even these were so much as slowing the robot down. The wall, though, was. Not by much; a negligible amount, really, but it was slow enough that Sorun could actually perceive its movement. And that was enough for him to accurately place four Summoned Swords behind Metal, which all reared back and, in a movement where each sword mimicked the swings of the one in front, swept upwards and knocked the robot into the air.

The four swords at Antoine's sides turned to eight, and the Blistering Swords rapidly shot off in pairs at the robot flailing in the air. Surprisingly, all eight swords managed to hit the airborne robot. As expected, they all shattered and did no damage.

Curiously, however, each and every single sword that had struck the robot propelled it high enough that it made up from the amount it dropped down before the swords hit it. Even as the eight swords hit Metal, it was still the same place in the air as it had been before the swords hit it due to the small amount of lift afforded by being struck by the swords.

"... Huh?" Sorun scrunched his brows in confusion. "The swords, they... the air. Air! Gotta..." He winced as a sharp pain from the mental toll raced through his head. "Keep it in the air. It's all I can do."

He didn't understand how the swords were keeping it in the air, but Sorun didn't question it. Instead he focused more intensely as four spinning swords appeared around Metal. The Round Swords flew towards it, and over and over the spinning swords would pass by it in definitive hit before flying away, only to turn around and strike it again along with the other three swords. The Round Swords were doing no damage, but they were keeping Metal Sonic up in the air. Up there and away from Antoine, who was still trying to back up away from in with that unreadable, panicked yet focused look.

The assumption that Metal was helpless in the air, however, proved false. To Sorun's dread it curled into itself and began spinning into a perfect, blue sphere. The Spin Dash proved too much for the Round Swords, all of which shattered upon contact with it. Fearing it would move too fast towards Antoine and that he wouldn't be able to defend him, Sorun willed four more swords to appear right in front of Metal. These four swords were arranged in a cross shape with their pommels all pressed together, and instantly began rapidly spinning against Metal's Spin Dash as a deadly, blue wheel. The Prop Shredder Swords technique, miraculously, did as Sorun had hoped for and knocked Metal out of the Spin Dash so that it was once again flailing in the air. Eight Summoned Swords appeared below Metal, all aimed diagonally up towards the robot. They fired off one after another, with another sword appearing to replace any sword fired, and under the combined rapid onslaught of the swords Metal was kept juggled in the air.

Snap!

Sorun had barely even heard the loud, metal snap of the boxcar above him before a section of cut metal fell down around him. The dust of the metal hitting the ground hadn't barely even risen before he felt a cold hand roughly grip his shoulder, and with a loud heave Bunnie threw him out from the underside of the boxcar before it collapsed entirely on the ground.

The human teen rolled on the ground a few times, and then came to a stop on his front. He quickly got up to his feet, and then looked up at Bunnie who gave him a quick nod. He nodded back, and then turned around towards Antoine and the blue robot still being juggled in the air by the Summoned Swords. He nearly began moving forwards, but as he moved he felt his foot hit something and cause it to rattle against the ground. He looked down, and felt his eyes widen when he saw a sword with a curved blade still nestled in its sheath lying on the ground in front of him. Antoine's sword.

"There you are," the teen huffed as he bent down to scoop the sword up. He looked up ahead at the mess of swords keeping Metal Sonic aloft in the air and Antoine, and then took a large breath as the Bringer Claws flared up behind him.

A final Summoned Sword shot up to keep Metal Sonic in the air, and afterwards it began to fall back down to the ground once the swords ceased. Antoine, who had kept his eyes glued to the robot, began to grit his teeth in worry as the robot began to approach the ground. He saw a blue glow approach from the corner of his eye, though, and turned his head just in time to see Sorun fly towards Metal, the Bringer Claws on his back flapping madly to propel him forwards. When he was close enough to Metal the wings ceased flapping, with the right Bringer Claw rearing back and scratching upwards. The five talons moved fast enough that blue lines of power were left in their wake, and they successfully managed to claw across Metal Sonic's face, sending it careening backwards.

Seeing Metal fly backwards from being clawed, Sorun flapped his Bringer Claws once to send him backwards. He dropped down right next to Antoine with a grunt, panting as the Bringer Claws folded onto his shoulders. He watched in extreme irritation as Metal backflipped in the air and landed perfectly on its feet, slowly bringing its head up to face Sorun and Antoine.

Being directly clawed in the face from Sorun's Bringer Claw had done absolutely no damage whatsoever. The blue paint hadn't even been scratched.

"Oh, come the fuck on," Sorun mentally sighed as he stood up straight. He looked to his left at Antoine, the coyote looking towards the human in great surprise. "You dropped this," Sorun said, and wasted no time in tossing the curved sword in his grasp to Antoine.

Deftly catching the saber out from the air, Antoine gave the human an appreciative nod. "Merci, Sorun," he mumbled out as the two turned towards Metal. "Although I fear one more sword will not be enough of a difference."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Sorun replied. "So listen. I'm pretty sure we don't have anything that can actually hurt this thing, and it's moving too fast for me to see." He glanced towards Bunnie, who was still near the crashed train but hovering slightly above the ground with the jets beneath her feet. "But Bunnie called for help," he continued, "so we don't gotta beat it. We just gotta survive for a bit."

"Oui, oui, I understand." A soft scraping sound reached Sorun's ears as Antoine slowly unsheathed his sword. "And what would be your plan for doing that?" he asked.

"... I was really hoping you had one."

The turbine on Metal Sonic flared to life and cut out the conversation between the two. It zoomed towards the pair, and then began circling around them so fast that it may as well have been a solid, blue ring going around them. Wordlessly, Antoine and Sorun pressed their backs together, though as much as Sorun tried his eyes just couldn't follow the blue form spinning around them.

"Sorun, zis iz not ze good time to be joking," Antoine said as he rose his sword up defensively.

"I'm tellin' ya I'm tapped," Sorun grunted in response, his eyes furrowing in concentration at the blue ring around them. "Actually, I got one idea..."

"Oui?" Antoine pressed, voice growing slightly higher as the circle began to slowly enclose on them.

Sorun didn't say anything further, and instead dipped his head down as thoughts rapidly began to run through his head. "If I could just get a Bringer Claw on that thing then MAYBE I could do something, but it's going way too fast for me to catch it. If I stunned it for a second though... agh, but with what!? The Summoned Swords can't... but they can, can't they? That first time it ran into them when it was going for Antoine. They didn't break. What was different then?" Sorun's head picked up in realization. "It didn't attack the swords that time. It just ran into them while flying. Like the way it's flying around right now. So...!"

Eager to test the theory, Sorun willed a crossed set of four Summoned Swords to appear in Metal's path. To the teen's excitement, the robot's face had collided directly with it, though instead of it smashing through, Metal's body had just stopped and bounced back slightly. The small reprieve was all Sorun needed, though, and in the next instant one of his Bringer Claws stretched out and wrapped its claws around Metal's torso.

Wasting no time, Sorun used the Bringer Claw to raise Metal's body into the air and slam in back into the ground. This was done three consecutive times, with the third one making a noticeable crater in the ground, though like with everything else it appeared that Metal's body had sustained no damage at all. Widening his eyes in anger, Sorun willed the second Bringer Claw to reach out and grab onto Metal's left arm. It began pulling the metal limb back in an attempt to tear the arm off while the other Bringer Claw continued to hold Metal down, though the robot appeared to catch onto the plan when it turned its head towards the arms. Its engine-torso fired up again and, despite the spectral arms holding it down, it began to fly forwards towards the train wreck.

Sorun had endeavored to maintain the Bringer Claws' grip on Metal Sonic, but this had quickly proven to be a mistake. The teen's body we jerked forwards and dragged quickly across the ground as Metal pulled him away. He had the sense to let go amidst all the sputtering and grunting from behind dragged, though even after the Bringer Claws let go of Metal the momentum he'd gathered kept rolling him forwards until, eventually, his back had slammed right into one of the overturned boxcars.

His body jarred from the sudden stop, Sorun made a soft groan as he slowly slid down onto the ground. He just barely saw a blue shape whizzing around from his winced-shut eyes, and almost subconsciously his Bringer Claws slammed onto the ground and pushed Sorun far up into the air. The second he left the ground a metal, blue sphere Spin Dashed a hole through the boxcar, and milliseconds later it smashed through the roof. A Summoned Sword appeared above Sorun and shot downwards, with the teen reaching out and grabbing the sword's hilt so that he would be pulled downwards with it. Metal's spinning form pierced the air where his body had been, missing Sorun's head by millimetres.

With another grunt Sorun crashed into the ground. He'd conveniently enough rolled onto his front at the very least, and with shaky legs he slowly started to stand back up. He coughed once, and then felt a wave of exhaustion mixed with pain briefly wash over him as the Bringer Claws on his shoulder flickered. He looked up, though almost regretted it when he saw a blue ball of death shooting down from the air towards him. He'd wanted to move his Bringer Claws to defend himself, but the blue object was moving too fast and he couldn't think in time-

A yellow form jumped up in front of Sorun and held its artificial arm out. He only needed a second's glance to tell that it was Bunnie. What he didn't recognize was the pink, circular shield made of raw, crackling energy that formed out of her bionic left arm, though he had no time to even mentally question it before Metal Sonic had crashed right into it. The shield, surprisingly, held firm, though Sorun had briefly noted a worrying creaking sound from Bunnie's arm before the force of Metal's attack pushed Bunnie back into Sorun. It was then the shield broke as the two of them rolled over each other repeatedly about ten feet back, ending as they slid to a stop with their bodies tangled together.

They had tried to undo themselves so they could get back up, but by the time the pair even attempted to move Metal Sonic was flying towards them with outstretched claws. Sorun had attempted to form a Summoned Sword to defend them, but after another wave of exhaustion hit him the sword shattered in the air before it could do anything. By the time Sorun had blinked in surprise, Metal was almost on top of them before he'd even fully opened his eyes from the blink.

Clang!

There was a flash of steel as something swung in front of Metal's path. The object, a curved sword, scraped across Metal's frame and carried enough force behind it that the robot was knocked backwards away from Sorun and Bunnie, who were quickly untangling themselves and standing up on the ground.

As soon as they had gotten themselves in order, the pair looked towards the sword and the person holding it. Of course it had been Antoine, who was heavily panting while standing his ground in front of the blue robot slowly rising up to its own feet. Sorun and Bunnie were quick to run to his side, though they were faring little better from the way their forms were hunched in exhaustion.

Drip.

The sound of something wet faintly hitting the dry ground below him was heard by Sorun's ears, causing his eyes to snap down to the ground. He saw a small dot of red on the cracked dirt beneath his feet, and he felt something warm and moist trailing down his nose. He touched a hand to the spot, and when he brought it back to examine he found spots of blood left on his hand. The growing worry in him furthered when he saw the Bringer Claws flicker again.

"Using all these powers... it's wearing me out," he somberly realized as he lowered his hand. "Dunno if it was the train crash or if it's because I'm using powers that're killing me, but I can't do this for much longer." He looked towards the two Mobians next to them. Antoine was still panting heavily, and Bunnie looked about as exhausted as he was. "The're almost done, too." He looked back ahead at Metal Sonic. "What am I supposed... huh?"

Another sound reached his ears. The distant, roaring sound of engine turbines that were very different from the sounds of Metal's engine. A sound familiar to Sorun. Antoine and Bunnie had heard it, too, and looked towards the sky at the source of the noise, and even Metal Sonic seemed to have picked it up as its head turned to look as well. It only took a second's examination to confirm what was making that sound: a large, silvery ship that Sorun had become intimately familiar with in the short time he'd come to know it.

"About time... they finally got here..." Sorun's tired mind thought. Besides him, could see the two Mobians' shoulders slump in relief.

The Freedom Fighter Special ship had rapidly come into view and even more quickly flown over them, though it didn't lower itself or even move to stop. What it did do was open the hangar door on its back, and before it had even opened all the way two forms had jumped out. A black and red ball and a solid blue ball, both spinning aggressively and leaving a blurred line of speed in their wake as they rapidly dropped towards the ground.

Once again, Sorun heard the sound of Metal's turbine engine begin to fire up. He looked towards the robot, and then widened his eyes when he saw the machine turn away from them. The jet of flame coming out of its back was steadily increasing in size as it hunched down and pointed its body forwards at the empty horizone.

It was making to try and run away.

"No ya don't!" The left Bringer Claw shot forwards and grabbed Metal Sonic's torso right before it took off. It still began flying, and like before Sorun was dragged along with it, but this time he willed his right Bringer Claw to reach out and dig its talons into the ground behind them. Successfully anchored, Sorun's boots ground to a halt on the ground as he looked towards Metal, flying in place due to the Bringer Claw holding it. The two spinning forms of Sonic and Shadow had hit the ground and they were quickly speeding towards them.

Yet another painful wave of exhaustion hit Sorun, and the Bringer Claws began flickering. He looked towards the two approaching hedgehogs, and then back to Metal. "Just a second. Just gimme a second or two here..."

He began concentrating intensely on the spectral arms holding the ground and the robot. Their blue glow flared dramatically as the spectral arms re-solidified, though Sorun felt more blood spurt out of his nose right after, and the exhaustion that he felt almost made him collapse. Almost a second later, though, it happened: the two spinning balls had finally reached them, and then split up before they converged on Metal Sonic, held in place by the Bringer Claw. A loud, grinding sound was heard as the two spinning hedgehogs began grinding into either side of its neck, and in almost no time at all there was a loud, metallic snap! sound. The two hedgehogs passed each other right as they cut through, and as a result Metal Sonic's severed head hit the dirt below it. The red lights it had for eyes rapidly dimmed to a solid black, and the turbine in its torso cut out completely.

Sighing loudly, Sorun dismissed the Bringer Claws. They disappeared immediately, Metal's limp body falling to the ground as a result. With his own body waving on his feet, Sorun turned back around towards the two Mobians he'd been dragged away from. He saw Antoine and Bunnie standing back there and staring at him with shocked eyes, and nearby he saw that Sonic and Shadow had finally stopped to stand still near the pair. They were giving him similar looks.

He managed to muster the strength to give the four of them a thumbs-up, and then collapsed into unconsciousness.


Awakening wasn't the most pleasant experience for Sorun. Mostly due to the fact that his back felt so stiff, and after a second of groggily feeling his hands around, he understood why: he was in a sitting-up position. Against a metal wall.

Groaning lightly, he opened his eyes and blinked multiple times to clear the blurriness in his vision. The lighting wasn't the best, but he recognized enough of the surroundings to conclude that it was the hangar of the Freedom Fighter Special. From the small hum he heard outside and the subtle vibration of the ship, he figured that they were still airborne and flying. He must not have been out long, then.

He looked to the right, towards the end of the hangar where the door was. He saw multiple shapes converged over there and talking, Shadow and Sonic's colors standing out the most in the crowd. He sighed at the sight, and tried to stand up, but found himself too exhausted and sat back down against the metal wall.

"H-hey, Sorun, Sorun don't move around too much." He heard the voice, and through great exertion he lifted his head up at the speaker. He lowered it back down when he saw it was just Sally. "Are you doing okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just tired," he mumbled out as he watched Sally crouch down next to him. His eyes looked towards the group near the back. "Antoine and Bunnie, they're-?"

"They're fine, yes." She reached forwards to brush locks of hair out of Sorun's face. "They... told us what happened down there. What you did."

He didn't make any outward reaction, though the inside was a different matter. "Ah, great. Just great." Sorun huffed out a breath and tried moving his head away from Sally's hand. "Now everybody's gonna like me for saving Antoine's life. I don't have any reinforcement for my 'let's not be friends anymore' claim. Why am I even bothering?"

Time after time he continued to try and distance himself from them all, but not matter what he did nothing worked. Now he was going around saving lives. Maybe he could just ignore them and eventually it would die down and they'd go back to barely acknowledging him. No, that wouldn't work at all because everybody was already interacting with him. And they'd probably do it more now. All because he'd gone and saved the damn coyote's life.

He didn't regret doing it, but he did not like how this was going make him look in front of everybody. Ironic, considering it was going to make him look great.

"Are you sure you're al- quit moving," she snapped while holding his head still with her hand.

"Leggo of my face, I'm fine." He wanted her to go away, but he didn't even have the energy to push the hand away.

Sally made a "tsk" sound. "Your nose was bleeding a lot," she noted. "What was up with that?"

"Mf. Powers went... wonky," he said. "I got knocked around from that train crash and hit my head a bunch. And using all my powers so much on top of all that took a lot out of me." He tried raising his hand up, but it flopped down on the ground. "Seriously, I'm fine. I'm just wiped."

He still found it curious, though, the way his powers had acted. Even back during that spar with Shadow he hadn't felt anything like that- that painful exhaustion. Never did. He had to wonder if it really was just him getting knocked around by the train that did it, because even while under that boxcar he'd been fighting not to pass out due to all the hits to the head he took. More worryingly, there was also the fact that, according to Aurora and Athair, Chaos energy was basically poison to his body. And he had that stuff running through him all the time now.

So had that been it? Spamming his powers in an injured body weakened it further? Possibly. Made sense, but he didn't know for certain. What he did know was that, besides the exhaustion, he felt fine. Given that, he was a bit worried, but not too much so.

A dissatisfied hum left Sally. "Are you feeling any nausea? Distorted vision?" she questioned him.

Sorun groaned in annoyance, and this time he found the strength to successfully raise his hand up to brush her hand away. "I don't have a concussion, man." She finally relented and took her hand away, much to his relief. "Hey, so... the train..." he started.

Sally gave him a sad nod. "Yeah, it... it's gone." Her mouth lowered into a deep frown. "Right now our best guess is that Eggman knew we were using the train to deliver medical supplies and sent Metal Sonic to disrupt it. We're gonna send a team back later to salvage what we can, but... the crash looked really bad. A lot of the medicine looked like it was lost in the crash, and I don't know what we're gonna do about the train." She shook her head along with letting out a frustrated sigh. "We came as fast as we could when we got the call from Bunnie- Tails and Rotor practically melted the Special's engines- but it was gonna be too late no matter how fast we got there. I'm just glad you, Bunnie, and Antoine made it out."

"Yeah," Sorun quietly agreed. "So... the rest of those people waiting for the medicine...?" He looked back up at Sally, but when he saw the somber look she gave him, he immediately understood and lowered his head back down.

So they just weren't going to get it, then. Couldn't. Not when the delivery system was shot and all if not most of the medicine was destroyed. He didn't doubt Knothole would be fine, they wouldn't be donating those supplies if they couldn't spare them even at Sally's request, but the rest of the settlements they hadn't manage to deliver to simply couldn't get them now.

"All because one guy sent a robot... damn it all." He kept seeing them- the faces of all those Mobians they delivered that medicine to. All those smiles and gratefulness that they had all given Sorun that, he began to realize, had felt nice. They'd only made two out of the five deliveries. Not even half. So many more Mobians than the ones he'd seen that wouldn't be getting those medical supplies they'd been depending on. "Damn Eggman... that guy really is screwed in the head. Messing up all those people's lives... for what? For his damn 'win'? Fuckin' maniac."

The more he thought on it, the more he realized how bad he felt over all of it. It surprised him, but it did. It surprised him because he didn't think he'd ever feel so bad over them like this.

"... Well, anyways, I need to go." Sally rose up to her feet. "Please try not to strain yourself too much. You're getting checked out by a doctor when we get back to Knothole."

"Aw, what?" Sorun looked up at Sally in protest. "Come on, Sally, I don't-"

"Doctor. That's an order." She didn't even let him argue the point before turning around and walking off. Sorun huffed in outrage, but otherwise just sat back against the wall while closing his eyes.

He didn't even get thirty seconds of peace before he heard two sets of footsteps approach, with one set clanking against the metal flooring. He slowly opening his eyes, and look up to his right. It was Antoine and Bunnie, both looking down at him in concern.

"... I'm never going on a train with you two again," he said in a blank tone. They both tiredly grinned at that, with Antoine in particular chuckling a bit.

"Eet iz good seeing you well, mon ami," the coyote said to him. He saw Sorun try to get up on his feet, and he reached down to offer the human a hand. Sorun stared at it for a full five seconds before sighing and accepting it. "We were all being worried something was seriously hurted when you collapsed like zat," Antoine continued as he pulled the him up.

"Nah, I'm fine," Sorun assured them, steadying himself as he finally got up on his feet. "Just, you know, train crash and fighting the super killer robot. Really took it out of me. Heh." He looked into Antoine's eyes. "Are you fine?" he asked. "You had a bunch of close calls with the... the Sonic robot. Thing. You good?"

"Oui, I am fine, thank you for ze concern," Antoine assured him with a nod of his head. "It was quite ze showing, though, non? All of ze swords appearing left and right around me, I was practically in a daze from it all! And when I saw you trapped under ze train car and Bunnie cutting you out, I understood what it was you were doing, but I will admit zere were some moments you were having me worried!"

"Yeah, I know, I cut it close a lot," Sorun muttered. "I didn't mean to scare you. I was just trying to keep you in one piece." He glanced towards Bunnie and gave the tiniest of grins. "I mean, come on. You know how bad Bunnie would have messed me up if I let her fiance die out there? I was throwing those swords like a madman because I was more scared of her than the robot." A total lie, but he would rather they think that than know he legitimately didn't want Antoine to die.

Unfortunately, he was pretty sure that they saw through the lie. Because Bunnie was giving him a knowing smile, and Antoine was leaning in close. Dangerously close to physical contact level.

"Hey, man, come on, you don't- and he's doing it," Sorun whispered to himself when he felt Antoine wrap one of his arms over his shoulder in a one-armed hug. He tried squirming out of it, but he was too exhausted, so with a sigh he just gave into it.

"I must be thanking you from ze bottom of my heart, mon ami. I would not be being here if it were not for you," Antoine said in the most sincerest tone Sorun had ever heard from the coyote. It made Sorun turn his eyes away from him. "You are a true Freedom Fighter now, what with ze fighting of ze robots and ze saving of lives-"

"Yeah, cool, can you get off please?" Sorun asked in a clipped voice. Chuckling sheepishly, Antoine obliged him and stepped back.

"Ah, pardon moi," he apologized. "I am forgetting you are ze shy type. But we will be working on that, non?"

Sorun inhaled deeply to calm himself, but otherwise said nothing.

"But even zo," Antoine continued, "would it, perhaps, be too much in inviting you to le dinner with me and Bunnie tonight? I am thinking that after today-"

"Can't. Sally's making me see a doctor," he interrupted. Which alone probably wasn't a good reason, as he doubted a little doctor visit would lead all the way into the night, but he didn't want to reinforce the friendship perception that was slowly building up outside of Sorun's control. Which was really unfortunate seeing as how Antoine was probably the one making that dinner. So it would probably be amazing if those rations he'd had said anything.

Antoine's shoulders slumped in disappointment at that. "Ah, I see. It iz fine." He turned around. "Well, if you are changing your mind you are welcome to visit any time! I must be going back now- monsier Shadow was very interest in ze part of you being dragged around, and I was saying..."

The coyote trailed off as he continued walking away until Sorun could no longer hear his voice. He scoffed with a roll of his eyes, and then turned towards Bunnie. "Ah man, that guy's a handful. I don't know how in the world you-"

He was cut off when Bunnie rushed forwards and wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug, making Sorun go rigid immediately.

"Get off. Get off get off get- eh?" He was about ready to try and likely fail to push her off of him, but he stopped when he noticed her body was shaking. He understood why almost immediately, and stopped himself from getting ready to push her. "Oh, for the... come on, why do I gotta deal with all this emotional junk...?"

"Thank you." The weight behind the thanks carried more gratefulness than Sorun had ever heard out of anybody else, and it was spoken with more clarity than he'd ever heard Bunnie speak in, which made him pause in muted surprise. She slowly removed herself from him, and he felt even more awkward when he saw that her green eyes were slightly glistening with moistness. "Ah'm sorry, it's just... Antoine was out there, and I couldn't get there in time, an' if you hadn't gone and defended him like that-"

"Yeah, I got it, it's fine," Sorun quickly said as he waved his hands down. "Please don't cry, man, your arm might rust."

He'd hope that terrible joke would be enough to lighten the mood, and to his immense relief it did, as it caused Bunnie to chuckle and rub the water away from her eyes. "It's all waterproof, but thanks for the concern," she said. "Just... thank you for savin' his life, Sorun. I don't know what I woulda done if he..."

"Y-yeah, look, don't worry about it, Bunnie. Really. I saved his life, you saved mine twice, he saved ours, we all saved each other." He started sounding desperate. "Can we please, please just call it good?"

Bunnie looked at him in surprise for a moment, but then she scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, alright. Only since yer such a shy guy."

"I told you I'm not- man, whatever," Sorun sighed. "Seriously though, your arm fine? It took a hit back there."

He pointed towards the robotic appendage in question. It looked fine for the most part, though it appeared there was a metal plate or two slightly out of place. Bunnie rose it up to inspect it, though she didn't look all that concerned.

"Pshaw, this ain't nothin'," she assured Sorun. "Ah've dinged out more dents than this, but if it starts actin' up ah'll have Tails look at it. Don't you worry none."

"Worried? I wasn't worried. Just asking." He crossed his arms and turned his head away, but when he glanced back at Bunnie out of the corner of his eyes he could see that smirk she was sending him. "Don't you have a fiance to go console or something?" he bitterly asked.

She laughed, and then tipped her hat at him. "Right ya are. Seeya 'round, Sorun."

The human teen waved her off as she left to rejoin Antoine, and once she was out of eyesight he looked down towards the side. A Summoned Sword flashed to life besides him, and Sorun frowned as he scrutinized the blade.

"Why did the Summoned Swords juggle the Sonic robot like that?" he internally asked himself, eyes boring into the translucent, blue sword. "That thing was way heavier than the swords, and they didn't have enough power to pierce it. They just kept breaking. So how-?"

"Sorun? You holding up alright?"

"Not a single moment of peace..."

He couldn't help the groan that left him when he heard the question, and willed the sword to shatter as he turned to face the voice that addressed him. "It's the question of the hour, Sonic," he said to the blue hedgehog. "Physically, yes, I'm fine. It's not stopping Sally from sending me to a doctor even though I'm fine!" he yelled out in the direction towards where Sally had walked off. "Mentally," he continued, "well... I don't know. Still getting over the fact that we failed the mission."

In response, Sonic blinked and shook his head. "Failed the- Sorun, what are you talking about? You didn't fail anything."

An unbelieving chuckle rumbled out of Sorun. "The train got destroyed and probably all the medicine got lost before we could deliver it all," he said. "Sounds like critical mission failure to me considering we were supposed to deliver all that stuff."

"Maybe, yeah, but you saved Antoine's life," Sonic reminded him. "You can't call the mission a failure when you saved him. And we'll figure out something with the medicine. Don't worry."

Sorun regarded Sonic for a second, and then scoffed while turning his head to the side. "Shouldn't have had to save his life to begin with," Sorun grunted. "Shouldn't have let the train get destroyed. If I'd just managed to destroy that robot when I first saw it-"

"Hey, nobody's expecting you to be able to keep up with something like Metal Sonic," the hedgehog interrupted. "Eggman built that thing to keep up with me. Sally wouldn't have sent you three out there at all if she knew there was a chance of you running into it." He stepped closer to Sorun. "Don't beat yourself up. You all made it out alive, and you kept Bunnie and Antoine alive and held that thing down while me and Shadow finished it. You did more than enough."

The pale teen wasn't convinced at all by Sorun's words, and it showed on his face from the downcast look he had. "Right. Sonic, I need some time alone. Could you tell everybody else not to bug me for a bit?" He started to rub at his head. "I'm too tired to deal with any more people right now."

"Yeah, sure. Get all the rest you need." He turned to leave, but then stopped and spun his torso back to Sorun while pointing at him. "And listen to Sally about that doctor if you're not feeling well, okay?"

Sorun didn't say anything in response, though he did give Sonic a nod. That proved enough for the hedgehog, who turned back around and went to rejoin the rest of the group in the back of the hanger. Sorun, seeing him leave, had crumpled back against the ship's wall.

"I should be fine with this result? Shut the hell up, Sonic. I'm not fine with this at all." He looked down at his hands, frustration clear on his face. "My powers couldn't even touch that thing. Summoned Swords couldn't hurt it. Bringer Claws couldn't hurt it. I was helpless out there..."

And that's what frustrated him most. Frustration that he tried to bury down until Sonic had brought the mission up, and now it was all he could think about. For so long he'd kept wondering and worrying if his powers were strong enough or not, and after today his fears that they weren't were finally confirmed. Fears that were already confirmed by Shadow that he'd desperately tried to ignore.

His powers weren't nearly enough if that fight with Metal Sonic said anything. He couldn't even kill it properly and had to wait for Sonic and Shadow to finish it. What was he supposed to do if Bunnie hadn't managed to call for help? What was he supposed to do if Bunnie and Antoine weren't even there to defend him? How many times did he almost die just because he couldn't do anything against it?

What would have happen to them if Sonic and Shadow hadn't been there? He wouldn't have been able to protect them at all if they'd taken even a second longer. Or even himself, for that matter.

Too many. Too many times he almost died. Too little power. Even now in a more calmed down state he couldn't think of a way he could have gotten out of that situation alive if he were just alone. He almost died because he had too little power. Antoine and Bunnie had almost died. People probably would die because he hadn't been strong enough to stop Metal from destroying the train and the medicine it had been carrying.

None of it was enough. He needed more.

"Power. I need more power." His eyes widened at his own thoughts, and Sorun roughly shook his head. "No, no I don't! I don't need more powers when they'll just keep killing me more and more! B-but all those people, they... egh!" He gripped his own hair in frustration and anger as images of all those happy Mobians flashed through his mind again. "It's because I was so weak they... I don't care, this isn't my world! I don't... I don't need more..." His other hand gripped his hair, and he began shaking. "I don't want to see people hurt- no, shut up. Just shut up. I don't need more power. Antoine and Bunnie almost died because I didn't have enough- SHUT UP! I don't... I need more... I don't want more power... don't wanna die..."

Sorun peered out between his locks of hair towards the back of the hangar, where he saw Antoine and Bunnie amidst the small group there. He felt happy over the fact that he saved their lives. He hated himself for feeling happy over them. The dread over his mounting situation and the curse that was keeping him silent frustrated him to no end and the longer it went on the more hopeless he felt. More conflicting thoughts continued to whirl through his mind, and he continued suffering through the ordeal until he grew tired enough to fall back asleep.


A/N- So there I was writing the first half of the chapter when I start getting reviews pointing out Sorun hasn't actually tried circumventing the gag curse yet. In fact it was literally hours after I write in the heart monitor bit I get a new review from Speedhunter talking about a heart monitor. And then I'm just looking from the review to my laptop screen going, "What the- how...?"

At that point I realized that I probably waited a bit too long to have Sorun try and cheat the curse so he could tell everybody everything. Mostly because I had other things I wanted to get out of the way, but then I look back and realize at this point he's had it for weeks almost and I start to see it looks a little weird he only tried now. Hindsight and all that.