Recursion Error
Episode 28- Defend that other kingdom
Technology on Mobius was always a strange subject to Sorun. In most areas of tech it was lightyears ahead of anything Earth had ever produced, but yet, at the same time, there were times all this advanced technology didn't look advanced. Eggman's machines, for instance. There had been a time he'd been bored enough and curious enough to ask about them and Tails had gone as far as to show him a half-disassembled Egg Pawn he had just hung up in his workshop. The internal components and circuitry were so unbelievably advanced that Sorun got lost pretty much immediately in trying to figure out the mass of metal and electronics under that shell.
None of that changed the fact that there was something... childish about their design. They were all threatening, for sure, but at the same time they weren't what Sorun pictured when envisioning and advanced, streamlined design. It was the same with computers, too, like the one in the HQ's labs. Nicole had shown him the specs when he'd asked out of curiosity, and he was surprised to find that thing was pumping out more processing power and speed than any computer he'd ever heard of on Earth. It made sense to him why they had to keep that lab so cold if it was performing that hard. But again, nothing about that computer screamed "incredibly advanced" at a first glance. It looked below average, if anything. Even the user interface looked like something out of the nineties.
And then there were things like the vehicle he was riding in right now. A straight-up flying saucer. Admittedly it only hovered a few feet off the ground, but it was still a saucer-shaped vehicle that floated. That counted as far as he was concerned. He didn't even know where that fell on the spectrum of performance versus external design.
Currently he was laying down on his back, fingers interlaced behind his head with one leg slung over the other as he stared up at the daytime sky and the clouds rapidly passing by his vision due to the speeding vehicle he was in. He had been napping for the first few hours of the trip, but he'd eventually woken up and couldn't go back to sleep. This lead him to staring up at the sky while deep in thought, though even that grew dull after a while.
With a soft groan, he sat up in the saucer and turned around. The only other two occupants of the saucer with him was the golden-furred squirrel driving it and the black and red armadillo sitting on the edge of the saucer and watching the forest and trees pass by them. Sorun yawned, rubbed at his eyes, and then slowly made his way towards the edge of the saucer before sitting down on the edge next to the Mobian.
"Hey," Sorun muttered in greeting. Mighty flicked his eyes in Sorun's direction to acknowledge his new presence, and then stared back forwards at the trees. Sorun did same. "So what's the deal with this Mercia place we're heading towards? I've heard of it, but I've never really looked that deep into it."
"It's a small kingdom of Mobians. Not nearly as big as the Kingdom of Acorn, but they get by. Had a bunch of rough patches with Robotnik back in the day, but they recovered well enough up until he got his hands on the seven Chaos Emeralds," Mighty airily replied. "The people there kept getting into skirmishes with his forces after that, though they've managed to scrape by with help our help from time to time. But I guess something major happened for them to send that messenger to Knothole."
"Yeah, about that, who uses an actual mail carrier to deliver messages anymore?" Sorun asked with a quirked eyebrow. "There's a whole communications network back at the HQ. They couldn't have just used that and saved the poor guy a whole trip across the continent to hand Sally a letter?"
The guy had even been a pigeon Mobian of all things. Dressed in a green leotard. He just knew it had to be outside of the norm when even other Mobians had been giving him an odd look right before he collapsed on the ground from exhaustion after handing Sally that letter that was written on parchment. Not paper like everybody else he'd seen in Knothole use. Actual old-school parchment. Apparently there was an issue in the Kingdom of Mercia, and since the Kingdom of Acorn were allies with them, it was decided that a detachment of Freedom Fighters were to be sent.
Sorun was lucky enough to be a part of that team.
Mighty shrugged at the human's question. "Mercia isn't really all that advanced technologically speaking. They're kinda old-fashioned like that."
"Yeah, but still, parchment...?"
"Don't know what to tell ya. They just have a different way of doing things over here."
Sorun tilted his head in Mighty's direction. The armadillo seemed a lot more sullen than what he was usually accustomed to seeing. Every time Sorun saw him his demeanor had been relaxed and overall happy. But right now it almost seemed like he was despondent from the way he was blankly staring ahead at the trees passing them by. He even noticed that Ray would tear his attention away from driving to look at him sometimes, like he was attempting to check to make sure he was alright.
"Usually I'm the quiet, sulky guy. What's his problem?" Sorun tapped Mighty's shoulder to gain his attention, earning a sideways glance from the armadillo. "Something the matter? You seem a bit more quiet than normal," Sorun noted, his concern completely masked by his otherwise impassive expression and tone.
"Mercia doesn't really hold that many fond memories for me," Mighty answered.
"Hmm. Okay."
"..." Mighty's ears perked up, and he turned his head further towards Sorun. "You're not gonna ask anything else? Not why I'm not really excited to go there or anything like that?"
To the armadillo's surprise, Sorun shook his head. "I'm not really in the business of prying into people's backstories unless they ask or offer to tell me. Past is the past. I'd rather just focus on the future. Plus it's kinda rude to just pry like that outta nowhere." Not to mention he had better things to worry about than whatever was plaguing Mighty. Besides, he was tough. Sorun was sure he would be fine.
An inquisitive look overcame Mighty's features. "Most people would see trying to pry into people's past as a way of trying to figure out what's making them upset so they can help. I wouldn't see it as you being rude if you asked."
Sorun rose an eyebrow. "Do you want me to ask? Or even talk about it to begin with?"
Mighty's ears fell flat. "Well, no, not really..."
"Then why are we having this conversation?"
"... Heh. You got me there," Mighty admitted with a sigh. "Thanks for lookin' out for me, but I'll be fine. Don't worry."
"Never said I was." With that said, Sorun scooted away from the saucer's edge and back into its circular interior. He cast one final glance back at Mighty, and then shifted his view towards Ray.
The brightly-colored squirrel had mainly focused his efforts on flying the saucer they were riding in forwards at this point. Feeling a bit mischievous, Sorun slowly crept up to the Mobian's back, taking care to keep a low stance as to not be easily seen. He slowly leaned in towards the back of Ray's head while holding his breath, and then, when he was close enough, said, "Yo, Ray!" in a bit louder than necessary voice.
Hearing his name be called so suddenly caused Ray's hands to fumble on the controls, making the saucer wobble slightly. He scrambled to take back the controls and reorient the saucer, all the while having to listen to Sorun's snickering from behind him. He glanced back towards the human with a none-too-pleased look, with Mighty at the rear looking even more irritated due to almost having fallen off the saucer. Sorun was just grinning.
"C-can you please try not to d-do that?" Ray asked as he turned his head back forwards. "I'm trying to drive."
"Sure, sure." Sorun nodded in agreement and stepped a bit forwards, lowered himself in a crouch besides Ray. "I know we're going to Mercia, but is there a specific destination we had in mind or what?"
"M-most of the inhabitants of Mercia live in a s-settlement inside of the Deerwood Forest. It's-it's where we're going," Ray informed him as he steered past a dense thicket of trees. "Actually, I think... yeah, that's it up there."
With that, Ray pulled the wheel back in order to bring the floating saucer's speed down. Soon enough it came to a complete halt, prompting the trio to step over and hop out of the saucer. Sorun, once his boots hit the ground, took the moment to step forwards a bit to observe the surroundings in front of him.
It was definitely a Mobian settlement as far as he could see. Lots of colorful Mobians were running around doing whatever. What surprised him was the actual structure of the settlement itself: it didn't lie in a large clearing of trees to make room for a lot of homes and structures like he was normally accustomed to seeing, but rather from what he saw a majority of homes were up in the trees. Dozens upon dozens of wood structures were suspended high in the treetops, with a complex system of bridges and ladders connecting everything together. There were some structures on the ground, as well, but from what Sorun observed those were few and far in-between compared to everything up above. In fact, there were more giant piles of logs strewn about on the ground than actual houses.
"Well, this is certainly different." Sorun slowly began traversing into the settlement, Mighty and Ray following closely behind. He couldn't help but note the looks that were being sent their way, though he was somewhat put at ease at seeing they were all mostly curious looks, even if a majority were aimed at him. "Antoine said his family's from here, didn't he? Am I gonna have to deal with a bunch of French-speaking people I can barely even understand? Agh, why'd she choose to send me along and not him?"
"Good morrow there, sir!"
"... Eh?" His ears perking up from the voice, Sorun tilted his head up just in time to see a Mobian figure drop down from one of the bridges above and land right in front of Sorun. He about had a stroke when he took a look at the newcomer's features. "Oh dear god, not another one..."
He almost mistook him from Sonic at first glance, as the hedgehog he was looking at looked about the same. The fur color was off, though. More of a teal color than the solid blue he recognized as Sonic having. He was pretty sure Sonic never wore a brown hood and carried around a bow and some arrows, but aside from that and the brown boots in place of the usual red sneakers, the guy was a dead ringer for Sonic.
Sure didn't talk like him, though, which Sorun rapidly began to discover once the hedgehog began speaking again.
"Good tidings, stranger!" the hedgehog greeted in an accent that already began grating on Sorun's nerves. "Prithee, may I ask where thou hails from and what thou's intentions are?"
"Fuck me, he's speaking in some old school English. I know Mighty said these guys were kinda backwards, but damn, he didn't tell me the half of it..." It wasn't exactly a dialect he was fond of, but he'd put all that aside for the pressing business. "We're from Knothole," Sorun slowly said in a strained voice, the muscles in his face struggling to resist from grimacing. "You asked for help."
The teal hedgehog blinked at Sorun in surprise, and then leaned a bit to the side to get a better look behind him. His eyes lit up in recognition when he saw the other two Mobians standing behind Sorun, and then proceeded to look back towards the human's face. "Ah, so it is! I recognize friend Ray and friend Mighty, but I do believe we have never met, good sir."
"I'm Sorun," the teen greeted. "Sorun the Freedom Fighter, a horribly ironic title given my current circumstances. But that's neither here nor there." He gestured to the hedgehog. "Who're you?"
"My name, good sir, is Rob O' the Hedge, king of the Kingdom of Mercia." He even went as far as to do a highly-sophisticated bow right in front of Sorun, which had him feeling more uncomfortable than honored from how low the hedgehog had bowed down. That along with the accent forced him to take a step backwards. "'Tis unfortunate, but I fear any further formalities must be halted o'er the foul evil approaching our good lands," Rob continued as he straightened back up. "'Twas the reason I sent for the Knothole Freedom Fighters. My sincerest thanks for having arrived here post-haste, my friends."
Sorun slowly nodded along, and then held up his index finger to stop Rob from speaking. "... Hold that thought." He backed up away from the hooded hedgehog, and then turned around to his two companions. He leaned in close to Mighty in particular, holding a hand up to his mouth to try and conceal his words. "Mighty, I don't wanna deal with this guy. Can you talk to him?" he asked in a hushed whisper.
The armadillo cocked his head back, a questioning look creasing his features. "Uh, Sorun, I don't-"
"Dude, come on, I can barely understand half of what this guy is saying," Sorun desperately whispered to him. "You got more experience with them anyways. I'll wash your socks or whatever as thanks, just do me this solid!"
It was more that he just didn't want to deal with that accent Rob was speaking in more than anything else. That added to the fact he looked like Sonic was setting off a lot of warning flags in Sorun's annoyance indicator. It was perhaps a bit biased of Sorun, and now that he thought it over he realized he may be acting a tad bit unfair here, but these days his tolerance for bullshit was astronomically low. He just wanted to help these people as soon as possible so they could all leave.
At first Mighty looked like he wanted to decline, which had Sorun worried, but after glaring at the human's pleading face for a few moments the armadillo sighed and nodded his head. "Alright, fine. I'll go to Rob and assess the situation. You two do whatever until I get back with you."
"That sounds like a great plan, Mighty." Sorun clapped the red-shelled Mobian on the back and stepped aside. Mighty rolled his eyes in response, but otherwise chose to walk forwards towards Rob, who had been watching the exchange with some curiosity.
Watching as the two Mobians began conversing and walking away from him and Ray, Sorun allowed himself a small breath of victory. That was one item of potential stress eliminated for the time being. The actual source of his stress, the mission they were on, was still a prevalent force hanging over him, but that would be dealt with in due time once Mighty got back to tell them what they were actually doing here. That left him and Ray plenty of time to do... something.
"... So, uh... what, what should we do?" Sorun found himself asking as he turned towards Ray. "Should we, like, help out or something?"
"I don't know. Everything l-looks fine to me," Ray noted as he took a look around the settlement. Sorun did so as well, looking up at the homes in the trees and the Mobians walking around on the ground and on the bridges above. Everybody had gone back to their own devices for the most part, though there was a certain tenseness hanging in the air that was not lost on the two Freedom Fighters. "Everybody s-seems a bit nervous, though."
"Probably because of whatever's going down that needed us to come all the way out to another continent," Sorun reasoned as both he and the yellow squirrel began walking in a random direction. "But, it'll be fine. We'll fix whatever's going on then head back home. Hope Virgil's doin' okay. I left him with Jules to feed him, but the li'l guy gets real antsy whenever I leave for a mission."
"But what if we can't fix what's going on?" By now Sorun had interlaced his hands behind his head as the pair continued walking, though Sorun had tilted his head to the shorter male in response to Ray's question. "I-it's just the three of us, and I-I know you and Mighty are real strong but-"
"Ray." Sorun's calm and even tone snapped the squirrel out of whatever trance he had been, making him look up to Sorun. "I don't care what the problem here is. Whatever it is, we're gonna fix it." He looked back ahead as his features creased slightly. "We came here to save people, so we're not gonna do a half-baked job and leave these people to whatever messed-up scheme Eggman's made up. We're saving everybody here."
What was the point of him giving up his life for the planet if he didn't go all-in? Maximum effort wasn't exactly the norm for him, but seeing as this was it, he didn't see a reason not to. And it wasn't like he wasn't going to try and save as many people with his powers as he could anyways before finally dying. It'd leave a bad taste in his mouth and reflect poorly on the Freedom Fighters, and they all didn't deserve that. So maximum effort it was, if only it meant he got to vent more of his rage out on the robots.
When he looked back towards Ray, he saw the yellow Mobian looking up at him with shaking eyes. He shyly smiled and began pulling on his short, blue jacket as a small laugh left him. "You sound just as brave as Mighty is," he said. "I think it suits you."
At that, Sorun scoffed. "It ain't bravery, Ray. It's consummate professionalism. It's me wanting to spite Eggman as much as possible by wrecking his plans." A few seconds passed, and a small breath left his mouth. "And... I don't really like seein' people suffer, so... yeah. We're gonna help everybody here not matter what." He looked up at the tree canopies, hands still clasped behind his head. "Besides, you know how disappointed everybody would be if we messed up and let everybody here down? We got a title to uphold here, man."
"Ha-ha! Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Ray's smile turned a bit more confident, and he cast a thankful look towards Sorun. "Thanks, Sorun. I really needed that."
Sorun hummed and looked back down at the squirrel. "Er, that wasn't me being motivational, that was just me thinking aloud- you know what, I'll take it. Sure, no problem." The pair stopped after walking a fair distance in what was... actually just another part of the settlement seeing as nothing about the surroundings changed. "Mighty's probably gonna take a bit to get back to us with the situation," Sorun muttered as he moved his hands to the pockets of his sleeveless hoodie.
"Yeah," Ray agreed with a nod. "Do you think we should maybe split up to see if we can help around? Like you said."
An apprehensive sound left Sorun's throat. "I was kinda more just talking about the mission as a whole, but, ah... sure, if you wanna grind out a few side quests before that, go for it." He turned towards a nearby log and began walking towards it. "You've been here before, right?"
"On a mission a couple months ago, yeah," Ray confirmed with a nod.
"Then you know the layout and people a lot better than I do," Sorun said as he sat down on the log. "I'm gonna sit here and contemplate life and all the decisions that've lead me to this point." He held up his left hand, the sheathed Yamato appearing in his grasp. "If something bad happens, you know where me and Mighty are."
"Okay, got it." Ray nodded towards the human, and then turned around and began walking off. Sorun watched him go for a few moments before sighing and leaning back on the log, Yamato resting in his lap.
"Good guy, Ray. Bit shy, but his heart's in the right place along with the rest of the Freedom Fighters. Not really that surprising, I guess. They're all great people." Sorun felt his eyes close as he began thinking. "Hope Mighty's doing alright. Guy seems kinda angsty about Mercia, so I feel a bit bad leaving him with the king of the place. Rob seemed like a nice enough guy, though. But that accent... egh..." He had to stick his tongue out at the mere thought. "I was expecting French, not something out of a medieval play. Makes sense, I guess. From the map I saw this place used to be a part of Europe."
Yet again he was left wondering how the dialect, or any dialect, really, managed to survive the world getting reset by the gene bombs. He'd quit questioning these things a while ago and had just chosen to quietly accept it, as there were a lot of oddities on Mobius that he chalked up to the logic being a bit screwy here due to it being an alternate universe. It's the only explanation he found that made even a modicum sense.
Well, regardless of how strange he found the people's way of speaking here, and how he frankly he wasn't a fan of it, they all still seemed like good people. A bit backwards like Mighty had said, sure, but good nonetheless. And people were people. He'd already promised himself that he'd save the whole planet no matter what.
"Is this seat taken?"
Sorun had heard the new voice, a smooth male's voice, but he chose not to open his eyes and instead merely shrugged. "It's a free log, man. Go for it."
"Many thanks."
The pale teen felt a new presence sit down on the log next to him in silence. He would have liked for it to have ended there so he could have kept thinking to himself, but he could innately feel the eyes of whoever had just sat down become attached to Sorun. He quietly sighed and leaned forwards into a normal sitting position, and then opened his eyes so he could look at the newcomer.
From a single glance, he saw it was a deer Mobian, with antlers and everything. Somebody dressed in brown robes who had exceedingly kind eyes. Kind eyes that were aimed straight at Sorun, which put the teen a bit off as he chose to scoot back a few inches away. Nice or not, he didn't know how to feel about a complete stranger looking at him like that.
"If you wanna talk then just say so. It's really creepy when I open my eyes and the first thing I see is some stranger staring so intently at me," Sorun said.
The deer chuckled lightly. "My apologies. I was just considering how to best proceed with starting a conversation. You looked a bit lost."
"I'm not lost. I'm contemplating my life and the decisions I've made that have taken me here."
"Ah, the art of inner reflection, I see. And what have your findings told you?"
"That I'm an utter fool."
The deer laughed a bit more loudly when he heard that. Sorun allowed himself a small smile, too, though it was quickly wiped off when he looked to the side. Eventually the deer calmed down and refocused on Sorun.
"Forgive my outburst, but it's not often I find that many people so blunt."
"I don't have the patience for anything but blunt," Sorun replied. "That a thing you do often? Talk to people about their inner turmoils? What're you, a priest?"
"More of a friar, really," the deer answered, "which, coincidentally, happens to be my name."
Sorun tilted his head. "Friar the Deer?"
"Friar Buck."
"'Course," Sorun sighed as he brought his right hand up to rub at his eyes. "I'm Sorun. You seriously just come here to observe my mental state, or did you just wanna come look at the human Freedom Fighter?"
"I try not to let such insignificant things cloud my judgement, which, I'm happy to say, is the same for most people in Mercia." Friar's eyes traveled down to the katana in Sorun's hand. "I must admit, though, your weapon is strange to my eyes."
"You hang around me long enough and everything starts being strange." The teen held the sword up higher for the Mobian to see. "It's meaning would be pretty appropriate to somebody like you. Yamato. The Dark Slayer. A sword whose purpose is to divide and wipe out the darkness." He scoffed and put the sword back in his lap. "Well, that's how the saying goes, anyways. It's actually just a magic sword that separates everything. Makes fighting robots real easy."
Friar hummed in contemplation, his eyes traveling up from the sword to the teen's face. "Truly a noble cause for a sword," he said, "but what of its wielder?"
A sardonic laugh left Sorun at hearing the question. "Oh, there ain't nothing noble about that guy," he claimed as he turned his head to the deer. "Friar, I'm possibly the angriest and saddest teenager on the face of the planet. And that's really messed up when you consider how much everybody else in the world has suffered because of Eggman."
"Hence you calling yourself a fool?" Friar questioned. "Pardon my asking, but how is it that a human wound up joining the Knothole Freedom Fighters to begin with? As I understand it your people are on the other side of the world from them."
"Are you asking for real or is this just idle chat?"
"I ask because I believe it is my purpose to help sooth the minds of others," the Mobian calmly answered. "The fact this sometimes means I must join my friends in combating the evil that plagues the land is an unfortunate side effect, though I tend to leave the fighting to them."
Sorun rose an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh, so you're part of the Mercian Freedom Fighters, then." He wasn't even surprised. Freedom Fighters seemed to be drawn to Sorun like a magnet. He never expected a friar of all things to be one, though. In fact he never expected to meet a friar to begin with.
The offer was tempting. Talking to a priest was something Sorun had never, ever partaken in during the duration of his life due to his complete detachment of any sort of religion, and while this was a total stranger, he'd grown somewhat overly trustful of Mobians. And this person seemed sincere, and the fact he was a friar and a Freedom Fighter did nothing but add credibility to Sorun's perspective of him.
But was he really going to bother him with his mental problems, though? He didn't think he should, but on the other hand... well, maybe there were things he could tell him that he wouldn't dare talk to some of the others back in Knothole about. Maybe to help put him at ease. If nothing else, it'd be a good way to kill time. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.
"Everything I say will be confidential, right?" Sorun hesitantly asked as he bit at his lower lip.
The deer nodded. "You needn't worry about a thing. My only interest is in aiding a troubled soul who needs help."
"... Fuck it. I could use some spiritual guidance." He rolled his eyes at that statement, but otherwise nodded in acceptance. "I'll give you the condensed version, so buckle up, Buck." The teen took in a deep breath and began speaking. "I'm from a different universe entirely. Got pulled in through a portal to this zone by the Freedom Fighters because prophetic shenanigans. Can never go back to my home again because of further shenanigans. Joined the Freedom Fighters since I'm stuck on Mobius forever."
Sorun himself was almost shocked that he'd been able to summarize most of his plight, minus some important details such as his inevitable death. Amazing how living the life he just described put everything in such a small perspective. Friar seemed much more taken back by the explanation, though to his credit he seemed to recover from it fairly quickly after clearing his throat.
"Ahem. Well, that is... certainly more baggage for the soul than I'm used to seeing," he admitted with a shy laugh. "I imagine you must feel great conflict over all that."
The pale teen fixed the deer with a blank look. "All that world-shattering stuff I just said just washed off you like water, huh?" he dryly stated.
A wry grin came to Friar's mouth. "Such is the consequence of a holy man, I suppose."
"Why am I not surprised?" Sorun muttered with a shake of his head. "It's not that I'm mad at them anymore. I saw where they were coming from, and yeah, losing my zone sucks, but I'm slowly getting past that. None of that's the issue anymore. I just... never told anybody the full truth of things. It doesn't really matter in the end, but I just keep wondering how everybody's gonna react when it happens."
"Is there a reason you never confided these truths to anybody?"
Sorun scoffed. "There was a time I wanted to tell people, but there were... things holding me back from doing so, no matter how hard I tried." His free hand briefly reached up and rubbed at his neck, and then brushed past his chest as it lowered back to his side. "Now it's the opposite. I don't want to tell them since it would inhibit my abilities as a Freedom Fighter, but at the end it'll... I'm just worried about how it'll affect them. And it's frustrating, because there's nobody I can talk about this to. Because how am I supposed to tell people there's a terrible secret I'm keeping and ask for help with it when I don't want them to know what it is?"
How would they react to his death? That, he wasn't so sure of. There'd likely be grieving, especially due to the fact he'd ingratiated himself so far into them despite his moderate efforts. And he was confident they'd quickly manage to pull themselves back together. They were all accustomed to loss, after all. At the end he'd just be another casualty, albeit one that had tipped the scaled in their favor if he played his cards right. He liked to think he'd at least be remembered, though, which was a slightly comforting fact.
Did absolutely nothing about the knowledge he was gonna die, but it helped a little.
"There's me," Friar reminded him. "Is this not the reason we are talking? This seems to be troubling you a great deal."
"Yeah, you're not wrong." It's not like he could even tell Friar- he plainly couldn't-, but maybe he could try being vague about it. Just vague enough that he would get the idea without Sorun actually revealing anything. "I'm keeping some health issues away from all my friends. Congenital heart defect. I'm worried that the more I fight, the more my symptoms will be aggravated."
Congenital heart defect. A total lie to cover his shortening life, and one he was surprised that the curse let him get away with. Maybe it was being lenient with him since he was talking to a friar vowed to silence, or maybe the lie was just vague and removed enough to not count. He almost wished he'd thought of this lie sooner, maybe all the way back to the first Emerald, but Sorun soon realized the Freedom Fighters probably would have taken him to a doctor to check him out and dispute the lie afterwards. Well, regardless, he was happy to get this off his chest and talk about it to somebody.
Friar's eyes widened a bit, and then softened as a solemn look overcame him. "You're worried you may possibly lose your life over this?"
"..." Sorun didn't respond at first, instead choosing to think over his words very carefully as to not proc the curse and have his heart stop. "Well, I mean, death's always a risk fighting Eggman, right?" he mumbled. "But... who knows? This illness might kill me. And that... that really scares me," he admitted in a small voice. "I don't want to die."
"Then why fight at all?" the deer softly asked him. "Surely there are others that could take your place if this really is so life-threatening for you."
In response, the teen spawned four Summoned Swords at his sides. Friar jumped back a bit in shock, while Sorun continued watching on. Both the swords and the Yamato disappeared, the Mobian quickly calming down while Sorun let out a long, drawn-out breath.
"Because I have powers that nobody else has, and I have it on some good authority that if I don't help out things'll go pretty bad. Part of the whole prophetic thing I said earlier," he answered. "And I'm not good at anything else. It was either use my powers to help fight or do nothing as I watched the world around me die." He looked down at the ground and shuffled his feet. "What a choice, huh?"
"And you chose to use your powers because of a feeling of responsibility and obligations towards helping others?"
To the deer's surprised, Sorun laughed at that. He laughed and shook his head, and yet despite the fact the human's lips were upturned, he didn't seem at all happy. "I'm not a good enough person to say that I value their lives over mine. I don't," he said, though he noted with some interest Friar didn't react much to this. "It's not a numbers thing, either. Not a 'me versus everybody else' type deal. Life just doesn't work with numbers like that. It's too precious." He turned his head fully at the deer. "There was a proverb where I'm from, about a train and some tracks. It goes that there's five people tied to a track a train is about to run over, and if you want, you can pull a lever to divert a train to a second track. But there's one person tied to that track that'll end up dying as a result.
"Of course if it were me as I am now, I'd just use Yamato to cut the ropes and save everyone, but this is assuming the person in charge of the lever is a normal person that can't do anything else. So what do you do? Do you try to save as many people as possible at the expense of the few? Do you pull the lever because you're 'morally obligated' to save people since you're in a position to do so? Because it's the right thing to do? How's killing somebody the right thing to do?" Sorun shook his head. "I wouldn't pull the lever. I'd let the five die. If they die, then it's not my fault. It's the fault of whoever tied them to that track. I pull that lever, though, and I'm actively murdering somebody. And that just doesn't jive with me." Sorun's face scowled a bit. "Everybody's life is just as unique as the next person's. Nobody's life should be more important over somebody else's. One random person shouldn't die just so five others can live. I don't care if people say I'm wrong. It's what I believe in."
To his further surprise, the deer nodded in understanding to Sorun's words. "An understandable position. There truly is no winners in such a scenario. But tell me, if you're not fighting because you think it's the right thing to do, then why are you fighting at the risk of your own life?"
"Because I can." Out of everything Sorun said, that one, simple answer seemed to be the thing that shook the Friar most from the way his ears went straight up and his eyes to widen. "Not because I think they deserve to live more than I do. Not because the lives of the many are more important than my own. I'm doing it just because I want to." He looked up at the canopy's of the trees, and for the first time since he started talking with the friar a genuine, albeit small, smile formed on Sorun's face. "Everybody in Knothole is so great. They're all just... these really wonderful people that are nicer than anybody else I've met in my life, and I can't stand to think about what they've gone through in this war. What they will go through if they lose. What everybody else in the world will go through. I don't want that future to pass, so even if it kills me, I'll make sure it doesn't happen. Because I don't want to see my friends suffer." He looked back down to Friar. "Is it a superficial reason? Maybe. Does it make me a bad person? Probably. I don't really care as long as they get their future. So if you're asking why I fight... I fight so I can protect what's important to me."
The large, wide-eyed stare on the deer settled back into his normal expression. Friar nodded to Sorun explanation while looking to the side in thought. "You said that you don't value their lives over your own. And yet, by that logic, it almost seems like you do."
Sorun shook his head in denial. "I don't value them over me because that's the right thing to do. I value them over me because I choose to. There's a difference," he said.
"So you... do, in fact, value them over you?"
"... Quit pokin' holes in my philosophy, man."
Both quit talking in order to stare quietly at one another, and then broke out into soft laughter which quickly died out due to the mood. "Honestly, though..." Sorun continued, "I'd rather just go home to my world and forget about all this. Does that make me a bad person? Knowing that, if the opportunity was available, I'd abandon everything and go back home?"
"I wouldn't go that far." It was Sorun's turn to look surprised as he listened to the robed Mobian's words. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to stop risking your life to return home, and to say you are obligated to help others with your powers would be rather hypocritical coming from a Freedom Fighter. In matters such as these it's less about what is right and wrong, and rather what you perceive is right and whether or not you can live with the choices you made and say you did the right thing." He leaned forwards a bit and glared into Sorun's eyes, using those kind-looking eyes that seemed to look so deep within him. "If the opportunity did present itself for you to leave, and you did knowing everything you left behind and the possible repercussions, could you truly live with that decision?"
He didn't answer at first. Sorun stared silently back at the deer, and then sighed out as he leaned forwards while hanging his head towards the ground. "I don't even know, man," he answered. "Does it really matter? I can't go back anyways."
"True enough," Friar agreed with a nod. "We all go through our own periods of darkness, Sorun, even me. In the end it's less important on what we think but on the actions we take towards others, though how we perceive those actions still plays a vital role in keeping yourself in balance. Is living a life where you can't hang your head high in satisfaction at the decisions you've made worth living?"
Again, Sorun sighed. "No..." He got what he was saying. He was only doing this to begin with because he freely chose to do so, even if his alternatives weren't at all appealing. But he couldn't lie to himself and say he'd be completely satisfied with himself if he did turn and run after making the decision to save everybody. Whether he would actually do it at this point or not was something he wasn't even sure of, but he knew he'd probably never get over it if he did. He'd just gotten too attached to everybody over time.
And it wasn't as if he'd get to live that much longer anyways, what with his life being dramatically short due to getting thirty-six years cut off so far from the Emeralds. It wasn't exactly the point of no return, but it was still all the more reason not to go back on his decision at this point. And as short as it would be, he didn't want to live it feeling guilty about all the people he would have hypothetically left behind in this scenario.
"... There's still my life here, Friar," Sorun quietly muttered. "I'm fine with fighting to save everybody. I can learn to live with never seeing my zone again. Dying isn't... it wouldn't be a wasted life, but I still would have liked to live it with all these people I'm dying to save." His back straightened up as Sorun looked forwards. "Everybody's gonna be so upset, too. Is it weird I'm just as worried over that as actually dying?"
"You speak as if dying is an inevitability for you," Friar noted in a curious tone of voice. "I realize that fighting jeopardizes your health, but your heart defect certainly can't be that severe, can it?"
"There's certain things I can't say. Let's leave it at that."
"... I see." The Mobian besides Sorun took a deep breath and looked forwards in the same direction with Sorun as he folded his hands over his lap. "Perhaps you are worrying too much. Nothing is set in stone, Sorun, and from what I hear the medical techniques of those within Knothole are top-notch. And I'm sure if you ever got to a point where your life was seriously threatened due to your help, your friends in the Freedom Fighters wouldn't let you fight anymore at the risk of death. You shouldn't sign off your life being forfeit already so casually, especially on matters as insignificant as 'maybes' or 'mights'. Life is too short to live thinking such things."
"Mm." Sorun hummed in agreement, but otherwise remained silent as he listened to Friar continue to talk. Honestly he wanted to laugh right in his face, as he did know for a fact he would die. But he didn't want to risk going that far with him. If anything, he was actually a bit upset this was the conclusion Friar had come to with his lie with the heart defect. It did little to comfort him, if anything.
And it wasn't like he was dwelling over his imminent death. He tried his hardest not to think about it so he could enjoy what little life he had left, just as the Friar said. But something like his death was a hard thing to ignore for him, no matter how hard he tried. He would still try, though, right up until the very end. If not for his sake, then at least for the others so they wouldn't bee too concerned over his mental well being.
"But, for whatever comfort it brings you... I truly do think you are making the right decision here," Friar continued. "For one as young as you to fight for a world that isn't even yours after losing your home is truly unfair, but it doesn't matter what I or anybody else has to say. At the end, you're the only one who can decide if what you are doing is right." He leaned in closer to Sorun's view. "Do you think you're making the right decision?"
After deliberating with himself internally, Sorun gave the deer a nod. "Yeah. I do. I wouldn't be here talking with you if I didn't," he answered. He reached up to brush a few locks of dark hair away from his face, remorsefully chuckling to himself all the while. "Thanks for this, Friar. I... needed somebody to help me order my thoughts. I'm fine now."
The deer smiled widely and nodded his head at Sorun. "I'm just happy to be of service to you. 'Tis my calling, after all. So what is next for you?"
"Eh, I got some time to kill doing something productive until we gotta go do whatever it is we came here to do. Mighty's sorting it out. Don't really know what to do, though."
"Well, I think I can make a suggestion." Friar raised his arm up to point at something in the distance. Sorun followed to where he was pointing, and across the way and past some trees he saw that there was a small group of around twenty children meandering about. "The troubles we've been having with the oppressing forces across the way have had the children's parents absent for some time with preparations." He lowered his arm and looked to Sorun. "Helping is good for the soul, and I often find that there's something about the innocence of children that soothes the mind. Perhaps they could help you as much as you could help them."
"... I dunno, man, that seems like kind of a stretch," Sorun said in uncertainty as he turned back towards Friar. "Are you sure that- the f- what!?"
He wasn't there anymore. Where Friar had been sitting down on the log was now nothing but empty space. Sorun blinked in surprise, and then looked around for any sight of the robed deer. He even went as far as to check behind the log and some of the nearby trees, but there was nothing around.
"Why do the spiritual guys always gotta act so spooky?" Giving up on his search of the Mobian, Sorun huffed out and turned back to the far-off group of kids. To his surprise, in doing so he finally found where the Friar had vanished off to. The children were gone, and in their place was the deer. As for where the kids went, they were suddenly all in front of Sorun and staring up at him.
Sorun started in surprise, and then looked up from the group of children at the deer in the distance as light panic and confusion began racing through him. All the deer did in response to Sorun's shocked expression was to smile and wave at him, and then walk off only to disappear behind the tree lines.
"... Alright, deer dude, you haven't steered me wrong yet." Setting aside his momentary irritation at Friar, Sorun took in a deep breath and looked down at all the children. He didn't have a terribly good record with kids, but they were already here in front of him. And maybe there was something to what Friar said. So he took in a deep breath and addressed the odd-twenty children in front of him.
"How do you do, kiddos?" Sorun asked, voice a bit stilted in nervousness at all these colorful animal children looking up at him. He couldn't even place the looks they were sending his way. It was a lot of interest in place of raw curiosity, so he figured that was probably a good thing. On the other hand he knew fully well how unpredictable kids could be, and he found his forehead began to throb as he took a unconscious step back. "So, uh... F-Friar send you guys?" he asked when nobody responded to his question.
Several nods all around, but still no words. Sorun didn't know whether to be concerned or just plain creeped out.
"Okay, uh... so your parents are all busy doing something or some such...?" Sorun tried in an effort to glean some response from someone.
To his immense relief, one of the kids, a bird-looking Mobian, spoke up. "All the adults are all worried because they said there's a bunch of mean robots, so they're all doing something and told us all to leave them alone," she said. "Are you a Overlander?"
"Nah, I'm a human. We're closely related, though," Sorun said with a shake of his head. "I-I'm Sorun. I came here with the Freedom Fighters to help out."
Another Mobian child in the back rose his hand. "Are humans mean like Overlanders are? My da an' ma said that Overlanders were mean."
Some of the other kids around tensed up at the one child's words, and some of them even began giving Sorun cautious looks. Acting quick, Sorun quickly shook his head again to try and ease their doubts.
"It's nothing like that. Humans are alright. Overlanders, too, just not all of them, you know?" Sorun explained.
The one child who had spoken against Overlanders nodded his head. "Ohh, okay. Are you nice?"
"... I'm pretty sure?" Sorun gave a half-hearted shrug. "I mean, they let me in the Freedom Fighters. They don't do that with mean people."
All the children nodded in understanding at that. One child in particular, a child that was a deer or some other such mammal, raised her hand. "So you're really a Freedom Fighter?" she asked. "What's it like?"
Quickly exhaling, Sorun placed a hand on the back of his neck and rolled back and forth on his feet in thought. "Uh, you know, it's... pretty dangerous, fighting robots all the time. The people I work with are nice enough, though, and, uh... helping out feels good, so... yeah." He saw their eyes were quickly becoming disinterested, so he tried a new approach. "Wanna hear a story about it?"
That caused all their eyes to eagerly light up, with one child in particular raising their hand up to gain his attention. "Ooh! Ooh! If you're a Freedom Fighter does that mean you know Sonic!?"
At that, Sorun frowned. His frown only deepened when he saw a lot of the other kids grow even more excited at the mere mention of the hedgehog's name. It was utterly amazing to him how Sonic's name was so synonymous with the Freedom Fighters all around the world. He understood he saved the whole world on multiple occasions, but still, the sheer fame the guy had was staggering to Sorun. "Yeah, yeah I know him. I arguably know too much about him. I know his stupid sock size because he's always leaving those things around the room. I'm gonna soak his cereal bowl in one of his used socks one of these days I'm getting so sick of it. That's a good idea, gotta make a note of that." Sorun whispered to himself before clearing his throat and looking back to the children, who had grown confused at his antics. "As for a story, um..."
What did he have? The story of how they met? He didn't exactly want to turn the children all depressed with his origin story. A story about a mission with Sonic? Usually they went the way of "Sonic smashed all the robots and said a bunch of one-liners while everybody else on the team watched on" and that was the end of it. Stories about being roommates with him? Those caused Sorun nothing but ire. He really was serious about poisoning the hedgehog's cereal with his socks. He did enough harmless pranks against Sorun to justify the retaliation.
But why did he have to tell a story about Sonic? The guy was famous enough, and sure, Sorun had a ton of stories about being a Freedom Fighter, but he had other stories, too. He could probably get by just telling them a children's story from Earth or someth-
Sorun's head shot straight up. Stories from Earth. He knew too many to count, and they were all good. And there was no way any of these kids ever heard any of them since they were from a whole other universe entirely. And since he was the only person in this whole universe that knew them, he had to keep them all alive somehow. After all, it wasn't like he'd be alive forever to remember them. The least he could do was spread some Earth culture to these children for the sake of entertainment. But which one to pick? A relatively short story he could bang out in a hour or two would be ideal. One that embodied all the morals of hope and friendship all these Mobians kept trying to preach. Something cool.
A smile slowly began to spread across the teen's face. He knew just the story. One of his favorites.
"Alright, kids, you wanna hear a story? I'll tell you a story. Not a Freedom Fighter story, though. This is way better." Some of the kids looked disappointed about him not telling a Freedom Fighter story, though they perked up when he mentioned this story being better. "This story," Sorun continued as he sat down on the log as the children gathered closer, "is one from my childhood. A really famous story that I guarantee none of you have ever heard. By the time I'm done none of you are even gonna remember Sonic's name.
"This is the story of a man who has yet to realize his destiny..."
Up above in the trees, the door to one of the huts hanging up above the ground opened. From that doorway stepped out Mighty, who had to rub a tired hand across his facing after hearing what he had just heard. He stepped out towards the beginning of one of the bridges connecting to the other huts, where he proceeded to lean his body over the rope railing. He heard Rob's footsteps trail behind him as the door was shut, though he paid it no mind as he looked down at the people below.
"Yeah, that is pretty bad," he said at last, eyes still trained on the ground below. "I'll get what you told me back to the others, but... agh, I don't know. We'll figure something out," he promised as he turned around to face the teal hedgehog, body still resting against the rope railing. "You guys have been shoring up the defenses in the meantime, right?"
Rob nodded. "I would be remiss as the king if I neglected proper preparation. I only fear it will be all for naught," he said, a remorseful frown gracing his features.
"Don't say that," Mighty said with a shake of his head. "It looks bad, I know, but we've all faced worse, right? Just let me gather my friends up and we'll talk it over."
Well, that's what he said, at least. On the inside he still had some doubts, especially after hearing the situation straight from Rob O'. He'd faced plenty of Badnik hordes, but what he was describing? Mighty wasn't sure he was willing to bank on them getting out of a fight like that alright with so few numbers. It wasn't like they could call for backup, either. Not when everybody else in Knothole were busy with their own missions. They were all on their own out here.
That didn't mean they wouldn't try their best to save everybody. Not trying was something he absolutely refused to do, and he was sure the others would be in agreement. Even Sorun with how he'd been acting these days. He just wasn't so confident in their odds, and he didn't like that so much.
"Speaking of which, friend Mighty, if I can impose a question to thee," Rob began, waving his hand to gain the armadillo's attention.
Mighty nodded. "Go ahead."
"This new Freedom Fighter you have all recruited, Sorun... dareth I ask your impression of him?"
It took a few seconds for Mighty to register the question, after which he had to take a deep breath and grip the rope railings he was leaning against. He didn't want to assume to know what Rob was implying, so he attempted to try and stay calm at the question. "Sorun? He's been awesome," Mighty said. "Really been supportive over the cause. Kinda rough in some areas, and he's all over the place with his personality sometimes, but he's a cool friend. I trust him to help us with this. Ray feels the same."
"I'll trusteth your word for him," Rob said, an apprehensive look still fixed on his face, "however, I must admit I feel some... reluctant hesitancy. I'm sure he is the sporting sort, but his kind-"
"I'm gonna stop this right here." The calmness was beginning to melt away as Mighty pushed off the ropes, stepping closer to Rob as he flinched back. "First of all, it was the Overlanders that went to war with everybody, not the humans, and Sorun's a human. And second of all, he's one of us." He stopped right in front of Rob, the hot breath blowing from his nose ghosting across the hedgehog's own nose as he glared right into his eyes. "He's been through way too much for you to bring this kind of thing up, and he's risked his life a ton just for our sake. I trust him with my life. He's a Freedom Fighter, same as us. So drop it, okay?"
For a moment, he felt that he may have gone a bit far with the hostility he was radiating, though with how he was feeling it was hard to care. Sorun just mattered too much to him to let this pass without saying something, even if the human himself wasn't present to hear it. He calmed down a bit when he saw Rob back up a bit while nodding his head in understanding, though strangely his face looked more understanding than anything else.
"I sincerely apologize, my friend. I doth seemed to ha'e failed to make my observations proper. I t'was merely inquiring as to his actual fighting ability. Friend Sorun's kind are not known for being robust in the art of combat as we Mobians are" Rob clarified. "You know it is not my place to judge others based on appearance, same all other fair citizens in Mercia."
Mighty blinked in surprise, and then sighed out as all the anger inside of him instantly vented out. "I know it isn't. My bad," he apologized, internally berating himself for having made such an assumption when he'd tried so hard not to. "No, you don't have to worry about Sorun. He's... heh, he may not look it, but he's packing some real power."
"T'is nary a worry, then!" Rob beamed a large smile towards Mighty, though it quickly began to die down when he saw that a frown was still present on Mighty's face. "If... if thou wishes to speak of-"
Mighty held a hand up to stop him. Now wasn't a time to delve into things. "What happened happened, alright? It's in the past." He sighed and looked behind him and back towards the ground. "Really, I'm more worried about this place than anything else with what's coming. And a bit over Sorun."
"He did seem the troubled sort, did he not?" Rob O' noted as he stepped to Mighty's side. "Pray tell, what misfortunes did turn their head in Sorun's direction?"
"... He's lost a lot," Mighty admitted, not feeling very willing to divulge all of Sorun's past to the hedgehog out of respect for his privacy. "More than I have, even. And honestly, seeing him still going despite everything that's happened... it really is inspiring. I got a ton of respect for him." He wryly grinned. "But man, does he not make it easy sometimes with all that sarcasm of his, but I guess I can't put it past him looking at the big picture." With that, he stepped past the rope railing and towards a rope ladder at the side leading towards the ground. "I'm gonna go look for him and Ray to fill them in."
"Right then," he heard Rob say as he began descending the ladder. "I'll remain at the front and do what I can. We'll reconvene on the morrow and formulate a plan of attack then."
"Yeah, we'll, we'll do that," Mighty called back up right before letting go of the ladder halfway. He dropped down to the ground and landed with a small grunt, standing up tall and dusting himself off afterwards. He set off immediately, muttering to himself, "Now where did those two go?"
From how the sun looked, he estimated his conversation with Rob had taken just under two hours. The evening sky was clear even under the canopy of trees above him, and by now the citizens were beginning to return to their homes in the trees to turn in. There were still some out, though, and it was to them Mighty had turned to in order to ask for help as to where his two comrades were.
Apparently Ray had been floating around the settlement to help with small tasks here and there, so there was no telling where he was at the moment. Sorun, much to Mighty's surprise, was reported as to have been... entertaining children, of all things. Knowing Sorun, it was something Mighty absolutely refused to believe, but the people he'd asked had been kind enough to give him directions and were adamant it was the truth. They even seemed thankful he was helping to preoccupy the children from everything going on.
"Sorun entertaining a bunch of kids? I'll believe it when I see it," the armadillo thought to himself as he stepped in the direction he'd been pointed to. "He doesn't really have the kind of personality that kids find all that approachable. It doesn't even sound like something he'd want to do. There's no way he... he... what on Mobius...?"
He'd seen it. He saw it once he walked past a small grouping of trees, though he almost couldn't believe his eyes when he saw it. There was Sorun, alright, sitting on a log with a bunch of children around him. Some were all sitting on the ground while looking up to him with sparkling eyes. Others were hanging off of his Bringer Claws or sitting in the hands' palms as the spectral appendages moved around, almost like he was giving them small rides.
The most shocking thing, though, wasn't the kids around Sorun. It was Sorun himself. The human actually had a wide grin on his face, and to Mighty's further bafflement, he seemed actually happy of all things as he continued speaking while making exaggerated movements with his arms all around.
"And oh, man, it got really crazy after that. It was literally two mechs as big as the universe itself duking it out. The Anti-Spirals were grabbing whole galaxies left and right and throwing them like frisbees." Two Summoned Swords appeared up in the air, spinning around in circles and causing all the children to cry out in awe. "It wasn't happening, though, because with the souls of all those behind him Simon rose up his drill and-!"
It was when he saw Mighty that Sorun stopped dead, his body and even the swords and Bringer Claws freezing in place. The armadillo had chosen to lean against a tree, arms crossed, eyes half-lidded, and smile large and he looked at the human retelling a story to a bunch of Mobian children.
Oh, to think of how much enjoyment he was gonna get out of this. He always knew Sorun's grumpy exterior was just an act. He had all the proof he ever needed now, and he was gonna tease Sorun relentlessly for it.
Sorun, for his part, seemed to become incredibly flustered as he was sent into a coughing fit. His Bringer Claws set the children down and then disappeared along with the Summoned Swords, after which he straightened up to his feet to address Mighty. To much the armadillo's amusement, his eyes were wide with embarrassment and his cheeks were burning a deep red color. "M-Mighty," he stuttered out, "look, man, I can explain-"
"Oh, there's no need for that," Mighty said, his teasing voice causing the human to grit his teeth. "I can't believe you managed to hide this side of yourself from us for so long, you big softie you."
The glare Sorun sent his way only made Mighty's grin spread wider. "That is not... I..." He actually growled out in irritation and whipped his head to the side in an attempt to hide his face away with his hair. "Did. You get. The situation. Report?" the teen ground out.
"Sure did, Sorun." Mighty pushed off the tree and walked towards him, big smile still plastered on his face. He only received more joy when Sorun grew increasingly flustered as he drew closer. "Wanna help me find Ray? We can set up for the night and go over what needs doing."
"Sounds like a wonderful plan..." Sorun sarcastically remarked, stepping past the crowd of kids. "Sorry, guys. Business beckons."
The response among the group was unanimous, as all the children that had gathered around let out a collective "aww" of disappointment. "But what happens at the end, Sorun!?" one of the children cried out.
"Oh, uh, they beat the Anti-Spirals and... Simon and Nia and everybody else got to live happily ever after. The end." The human flinched back when all the children behind him cheered, though a ghost of a smile still managed to make its way onto his face. "Alright, alright. Go home, everybody. It's getting late." He walked past Mighty, his expression turning serious. "Let's go."
The pale human kept walking without another word. Mighty stared after him, looked to the side at the children waving at Sorun's back, and then briefly waved back to them before nodding and catching up to Sorun's side.
He didn't speak at first after they'd walked away from the children, though Mighty put that in part due to embarrassment due to the fact that his cheeks were still tinged red which, due to his complexion, was easily noticeable. But even so, Mighty couldn't resist lightly punching the human's shoulder as a grin played across his face. "I knew that whole gruff, aloof thing you've been pulling this whole time was an act," he said.
"... Was it really that obvious?" Sorun mumbled, refusing to meet Mighty's gaze.
The armadillo rolled his eyes. "Dude, nobody back home buys it." His actions just never backed up his distant personality, after all. Mighty didn't even need to see him happily interacting with kids to know it. He and everybody else had seen him slip up enough times in small incidents to get the idea. It was a whole different thing to see it in person, though. He was still reeling from seeing that happy a Sorun.
Sorun slowly blew out from his mouth. "Well, it's not like I was trying so hard to hide it," he said. "Don't tell the kids, but I flubbed the ending to that story I told them. I didn't have the heart to say Simon turns into a weird homeless dude."
Mighty nodded in understanding, despite not knowing the context of what he was talking about. "Ah, I see. What was that story, anyways?"
"A real man's story," Sorun immediately answered with zero hesitation. "And if you tell anybody what you saw you're dead."
"Right, suuure," Mighty replied, looking entirely unconvinced with the smile he held. "No deal. I'm tellin' everybody."
To that, Sorun didn't have a response. Instead he just groaned and shook his head, asking, "Can we just back to the main topic?"
"I wanna set up for tonight before anything," Mighty said with a shake of his head. "Rob said he'd give us a tent. Help me find Ray so we can get settled in, then I'll explain everything to both of you. We'll figure out what we're doing and get to work tomorrow morning."
With a short hum, Sorun gave a nod. "Sounds like a plan," he said.
By the time night had fallen, the Freedom Fighters from Knothole had set themselves up inside of a tent resting at the outskirts of the Deerwood Forest settlement. Inside there were currently only two of them: Mighty was standing at the head of a makeshift table situated in the center of the tent, looking down at a rough drawing of a map of the forest with several red circles drawn over it. Ray was sitting on one of the three sleeping bags in the corner, his blue eyes looking up at the armadillo in concern.
The tent's entrance rustled as a third person pushed their way in through the flap. This was revealed to be Sorun, who had an annoyed look on his face as he fully entered the tent before closing the flap behind him in a huff. "I swear I have to listen to that buff bird guy sing one more limerick I'm taking that lute and.. oh, hey guys," he greeted, his disgruntled visage turning a tad embarrassed as he waved at the two Mobians. "I miss anything?"
Ray covered his face with his hand, whereas Mighty looked up towards the tent's ceiling and shook his head. "No, you're just in time," the latter commented as he gestured towards the table. "Gather around so I can explain what's happening."
Wordlessly, the human and squirrel gather towards either side of the table. Mighty waited until they stopped and fixed their eyes on him to give him their attention, and then took in a deep breath before leaning leaning down to point at the map.
"There was a big commotion a while back, so Rob O' sent a bunch of his scouts to check it out. Apparently Eggman's getting serious about wiping out the Mercian kingdom. He's got a whole army of Badniks that're clear-cutting the forest one section at a time. Eventually the whole forest will be gone, and if that happens all the Mercians will be left wide in the open. And if that happens..."
"They'll be vulnerable to pretty much anything Eggman throws at them," Sorun finished with a grim look on his face. "It's super slow and methodical, but eventually it'll work." He looked up from the map to Mighty. "Seems kinda... inefficient, though, doesn't it? For him? Couldn't he just bomb the whole forest with his fleet and be done with it? Or set it on fire?"
Mighty rose his head up and gave Sorun a flat look. "This is Eggman we're talking about," he reminded him.
"... Right, nutcase," Sorun agreed with a nod. "How close is this army of Badniks from the settlement?"
"A day out."
"Ooh." Sorun grit his teeth and looked down at the map. "So we'll have 'til, what, sometime tomorrow to put something together before they hit?" When he saw Mighty nod, Sorun asked, "How many Badniks are we talking about here?"
Mighty pursed his lips and lowered his head. "Five-hundred," he answered in a low voice. "Five-hundred and five clear-cutting machines from what Rob reported. That's what we have to deal with."
The reactions between the other two Freedom Fighters varied. Sorun's eyes widened the slightest amount, though otherwise he just frowned deeply as he began scratching at his face in thought. Ray's reaction was much more severe, as the squirrel began wringing his hands together nervously as he looked up to Mighty.
"F-f-five hundred Badniks?" he repeated. "I don't... what are we... we can't beat that many!"
"Not all at once, no. Not even with the Mercians' help," Mighty agreed with a stiff nod. "If we kept doing hit-and-run attacks to whittle down their numbers, then eventually, yeah, we'd get them. The problem is we don't have enough time to do something like that before they hit the Deerwood settlement, and if everybody here loses their homes..." Mighty bit his lip and looked back towards the tent's flap. "Rob's thinking over some evacuation strategies just in case, but even he's pretty troubled at the prospect of moving a whole kingdom to another part of the woods and leaving everybody homeless."
It wasn't a very favorable prospect at all. It was clearly understood enough by Mighty and Ray, who could do nothing but grimly stare down at that map. There was no telling how disastrous a mass exodus of the entire kingdom would be on the people, but any way it was cut, it wouldn't be good. And no matter what, neither of them could think of a way to avoid such a catastrophe.
"I mean... five-hundred is... that's... that's a doable number."
Sorun seemed to have a different view of the situation from the way he was looking down at the map. Ray and Mighty looked to the human in surprise, with Mighty asking, "What do you mean?"
"... Mighty, you think you could take, I dunno, a hundred of them on your own?" Sorun questioned as he looked towards the armadillo.
"That's..." The question seemed sudden, but Mighty looked down in thought. "It'd be a bit hard, but... yeah? What's your point?"
"My point is that it's just a buncha jobber Badniks, right? And those things are easy to take down," Sorun said as he pointed at the red circles on the map. "You're right, five-hundred's too much for any of us. We'd get swarmed. Hitting and running is viable, but you're right, it's too slow since they're all so densely packed together. So what if we split them up?" He began tracing his fingers away from the circles to the wooded areas around them. "I mean, shoot, I can take a hundred, you can take a hundred, Ray can take a hund-"
"Ray can't take a hundred Badniks," Mighty denied with a shake of his head.
"... Okay, so, like, fifty-?" Another shake of his head from Mighty. "Twenty?" Mighty hesitated, and then shook his head again, causing Sorun to groan. "Dude, come on, you gotta give me something to work with." The human turned to the squirrel. "Ray, how about ten? Can you do ten at once?"
Ray regarded Sorun with a nervous nod. "I-I think so, yeah," he answered.
"Okay, we'll just put you in the reserves for any stragglers that make it past, how 'bout that?" With a sigh, Sorun looked back to the map. "Look, what I'm saying is we divide and conquer. Which is... I'm pretty sure it's a legitimate strategy."
It was his go-to strategy in a lot his video games back home, after all. Sometimes in some games going into a group of a dozen or so enemies was tantamount to suicide. Drawing the enemies one by one using items to methodically wipe them out individually was easy, though. It served him well in all sorts of situations, and looking at the drawn map in front of him, he couldn't help but be brought back to that. Five-hundred enemies? Sorun couldn't do something like that.
He could do a hundred easy, though. Especially with his powers and the Yamato.
"Okay..." Mighty slowly said, nodding along to Sorun's plan, "and what about the other three-hundred Badniks? And the clear-cutters?"
Sorun opened his mouth to answer, closed it in thought, and then opened it again with a sigh. "Really wish Sally showed up here with us. Planning's always been her shtick," he quietly complained as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Ugh, okay, uh... I'm not really good at this..." His head suddenly perked up as an idea came to him. "What about all those logs?"
"... The logs?" Mighty repeated.
"Yeah, I remember seeing a bunch of those giant, tree-sized logs piled up all around the village," Sorun explained. "What if we used those?"
Both the Mobians glanced at each other with questioning looks, followed by Ray raising a hand to gain the human's attention. "Why logs?" he asked in a curious tone.
"I seem to remember Badniks don't deal with getting crushed by large, heavy objects all that well." From the side, Sorun saw Mighty lean his head back in understanding. It wasn't hard to see why; that incident with the crane way back was still fresh in Sorun's memory, too. "What if we set up a bunch of traps? We drop logs on the clear-cutters and smash 'em up. Then we drop them on the crowd of robots too to split them up. We already know where they are and where they're headed, right? It's just a matter of setting up a bunch of log traps in their way. We set it up so that an odd-hundred will be drawn in one direction, where I'll be waiting, another odd-hundred will be diverted to Mighty, as for the rest, well, optimistically speaking we nail somewhere from fifty to a hundred with the traps alone, and with the remainder we can just split them up into smaller and smaller groups that can be ambushed by a bunch of groups of Mercians waiting in the tree lines. They're all over the place and they gotta have experience with climbing trees," Sorun said as he gestured his arm out behind him. "If any stragglers get through to the settlement, we can have Ray and a bunch of others here to defend the place." He paused and started waving his hand from side-to-side. "Is... is it a decent plan?" he asked as he looked up. "If Sally were here she'd just instantly slap together a way better plan, but this could work, right?"
When he looked up to see if the other two had his approval, he was surprised to see both of them were looking at Sorun in absolute shock. Ray's jaw was practically hanging down towards the ground, and Mighty looked so bewildered that Sorun was almost worried he'd fall over onto his shell. The armadillo shook his head, though, and regarded Sorun with an expression that just screamed him being impressed.
"Wow, that... kinda makes a lot of sense," Mighty breathed out. "Do you think something like that would really work?"
Sorun shrugged. "Worked in 'Star Wars'. That's pretty much where I'm basing this whole plan off of."
And like that, the impressed look Mighty had melted right into exasperation. "Do not tell me that's another video game where you're from."
"... Movie, actually. 'Return of the Jedi'. And I got the diversion idea back from my gamer days."
A loud slap was heard as Mighty palmed his face. "You know, for a second there I really thought all those strategy lessons Sally keeps giving you were finally starting to get through, but then you pull something like this." He started grinning as he lowered the hand off his face. "I honestly don't know what else I was expecting."
"Yeah, I'll be real, all those lessons she's giving me are going in one ear and out the other," Sorun admitted with a wry grin. "Seriously, though, is the plan alright with you guys?"
"I don't have any better ideas," Mighty admitted with a shrug. "How about you, Ray? You fine with it?"
The golden-furred squirrel looked down in thought, held the pose for a few seconds, and then looked up to Mighty with a nod. "I'm fine with it if you are," he said. "I-if you really think it could work, I th-think we should give it a shot."
"Okay." Nodding back to the squirrel with a smile, Mighty turned to Sorun. "We only got until midday tomorrow until they arrive here, so we'll have to set up all those traps beforehand. Any idea how we're gonna get all those logs into position?"
In answer to Mighty's question, Sorun's Bringer Claws appeared folded over his shoulders. "You have super strength. I have the Bringer Claws," he answered. "We're gonna have to hustle, but if anybody can get those logs into position in time, it's us. Some of the Mercians are gonna have to be the one to tie the traps together, though. I can't tie a knot for jack."
"Not a problem, then," Mighty said. "You really think you can do it, though? Take on a hundred Badniks? I know you've gotten way stronger since we've met because of the Emeralds, Sorun, but are you sure that's a number you can handle?"
Was it indeed a feasible number for him? With a frown, Sorun looked down at his right hand. It was a lot, but he'd beaten them before. He'd done nothing but grow since then, especially with the addition of the Yamato. Even if he was still physically weak, the powers more than made up for it. All he had to do was play it smart and he was sure he could dispense an odd hundred-man army of robots.
The whole point of him gathering strength was to protect others. If he couldn't do this, then he was already a failure. He wasn't gonna let every person here lose their homes. He wasn't going to watch those children suffer. He had power now. He just needed to use it right.
"... Yeah. Don't worry about it," Sorun affirmed. "I'll get it done. Trust me."
"Alright. That's all I needed to hear." And with that, Mighty pushed himself away from the table and made his way towards the tent's flap. "I'm gonna go run the plan by Rob, but I already got a feeling he'll go for it. Hopefully by sunup we'll be out there setting everything up." He reached the flap, made it halfway, and then turned back to the other two with a wide grin on his face. "It's a good plan. As long as we see it through, we'll get it done." He gave them both a thumbs-up. "You should rest up now while we got the chance. I'll join you once I get back, and then we'll get started."
And with those words, he left. Sorun and Ray glanced at each other, and then wasted no time in getting settled into their sleeping bags to catch as much rest as possible.
Tomorrow would be a big day.
Apparently the plan had been an extremely well-received one. Whether it was because it was an actually good plan, or because nobody had any better ideas, was unknown to Sorun, nor did he endeavor to find an answer. What was important was that Rob, according to Mighty, had immediately gone for Sorun's plan the instant he heard it. Which of course meant that, come morning, he and Mighty had been hauling giant logs off into the forest like nobody's business.
He started to regret his plan pretty early on with all the logs they had him and his Bringer Claws carrying around.
Exhausting manual labor aside, it had actually been Rob O' of all people who had chosen all the sites where the traps would be laid for Sorun's diversion plan. Where the teen was right now was heavily panting against the trunk of a tree, looking upwards as he saw a group of Mobians use bundles of rope to tie together one of the many traps they had all devised. So far it was looking good. Once that trap was set, they'd be good to go. All that would be left was for everybody to get into their positions and wait for the enemy.
"Ho there, friend Sorun!" The teen could barely repress the sigh that threatened to escape him when he heard his name be called out in such a manner. When he looked up towards the source of the voice, he saw a teal, hooded hedgehog swinging on a rope above him. He let go of the rope, falling down on the ground right in front of Sorun. He enthusiastically hopped up to his feet, brushed himself off, and grinned towards Sorun's direction. "Once yonder log is set our final trap will be ready to be sprung. I trust you've met thine own preparations?"
"If by 'prepare' you mean 'made peace with myself in case I die', then yeah." Sorun looked upwards. Past the tree canopies he could just faintly see dark stacks of smoke in the distance, slowly growing closer to their position. If he strained his ears he could even hear the sound of large thumps and the sawing sounds of trees being cut down. They were getting close.
The experience as whole was leaving Sorun apprehensive. He had faith in the plan, but now that the time to actually enact it was getting closer, he was losing faith in himself. Saying he'd go ahead and defeat a hundred robots compared to actually getting ready to do it in a few minutes was a wholly different feeling entirely. He'd still endeavor to do it, of course, as was the plan everybody was depending on. He just couldn't help his quickly-fading optimism.
"Not to worry, dear fellow!" Whether it was in response to Sorun's earlier statement or the hedgehog just happened to catch the downcast look on Sorun's face, Rob managed to step into Sorun's view while giving him an encouraging smile. "'Tis high spirits that gets one through dismal times such as these, my friend."
"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," Sorun muttered, not wholly convinced by the hedgehog's words. "Your people are all set up, right?" he asked.
"Indubitably. I'll be joining one such group shortly to aid in thinning the numbers," Rob said. "With my trusty bow and their guile, I trust we will make it through this."
"Ah-huh, ah... huh?" Sorun's head slowly swiveled towards Rob. "Your what?" He eyed the bow and quiver of arrows strapped to the hedgehog's back. "You can't... you're not seriously planning on fighting the Badniks with a bow and arrow, are you?"
"Of course. 'Tis my weapon of choice," Rob confirmed with a nod, much to the human's visible bafflement. "What is the matter?"
"... Nothin', man, you know what? You do you." There were a lot of points Sorun wanted to argue on why that was such a terrible idea, the robots all having a titanium chassis chief among them. But he was fairly certain that any argument he made would fall on deaf ears, so instead he just slowly exhaled from his nose and began walking off. "I'm gonna go get in position," he informed the hedgehog, moving more out of a desire to just get away from Rob more than anything else.
The hedgehog, seemingly not sensing such a desire, instead chose to believe in Sorun's words as he waved at the human's back. "Fare thee well, friend Sorun! May we meet again after the battle!"
"If this day doesn't end with me stabbing that guy it's gonna be a miracle. A bow and arrow, sheesh..." With a groan, Sorun rubbed at his hair. "Hope he knows what he's doing. He's gotta have experience fighting Badniks, so he has to, right? But a bow? I don't know." He looked up at the black smoke stacks in the distance and sighed. "Eh, we're all fuckin' doomed."
As it was, the number of Badniks that had been reported to be cutting through the forest had been accurate. Five large, tractor-like machines with giant saw blades in place of shovels were all lines up in a line, slowly cutting through and clearing out a large swath of forest as smoke billowed from their mechanical bodies. Alongside all of those clear-cutters were five hundred Egg Pawns. Some were the standard red-colored variants, carrying their lances in hand as they guarded the machines cutting through the forest. Others were Egg Pawns painted in a red and black plaid pattern carrying various cutting implements from axes to chainsaws, whose single purpose was to aid in the clearing of the forest.
For the most part the nigh-unstoppable force of metal made its way through the forest without impunity, leaving behind a barren land filled with fallen trees in their wake. This was until the line of clear-cutters reached a section of forest where, right above them and hidden among the tree branches, were multiple logs strung up with rope and Mobians ready and waiting.
With watchful eyes, the Mobians watched down below as the clear-cutter machines came closer and closer to their positions. When they deemed the distance suitable, they all silently signaled to each other with hand gestures, followed by them all nodding in understanding. Wordlessly, the Mobians all brandished short daggers and began cutting through the ropes that suspended the logs up. In short order all the ropes had been cut through, followed by all the Mobians leaping back into the tree branches as the traps were sprung.
Given the large, bulky nature of the tractor-like machines cutting through the forest coupled with the Badniks being caught completely unawares, there was no avoiding it when two logs, held up by ropes, came swinging down from the tree tops to either side of one of the tractors. The ends of the two logs smashed into either side of the clear-cutter, its metal chassis crumpling completely under the crushing force before the vehicle as a whole promptly and mildly exploded in a burst of black smoke leaking out from its interior. The other four clear-cutters met similar fates as more and more logs swung down from the trees, and in short order all five were swiftly disposed of.
The Egg Pawns on the ground, having seen the display, could do nothing but look around wildly up towards the top of the trees in an attempt to glean what was attacking them. They all began scrambling away when more logs began dropping on them from up high, though some were too slow and ended up being crushed completely under the logs.
From there, the Egg Pawns began scattering away as more and more logs began dropping down onto them. One group of around a hundred Egg Pawns were driven away from logs not only falling on them, but falling in a way that cut them off from the main group while pushing them back into a deeper section of the forest. A similar group of a hundred on the other side met the same fate as they, too, were driven away from the main pack. The rest of the Badniks could do nothing but scatter and run in any direction they saw fit as more of their brethren were crushed completely.
"And here we go..."
Sorun had found a nice little perch in the way of a rather tall stump, and chose to wait there until the Badniks he was expecting arrive came. He sat there right now, left hand clenching the sheath of Yamato while the sword itself was gripped in his right hand. Nervously, he began to bounce the blunt end of the blade off his shoulders as he stared straight ahead into the forest.
Sure enough, they came. He heard them before he saw them: a thundering of heavy, robotic feet trampling through the forest and going towards where he was sitting. Next he saw the circular, blue lights that were their eyes as they emerged from the forest and into the small, circular clearing Sorun was sitting at the end of. He couldn't tell what their reactions were upon entering the clearing and seeing Sorun, given their fixed smiling expressions, but he did see that they stopped. All of the Badniks, in fact, had collectively stopped upon seeing him, with only a few dozen having made it into the clearing while the rest remained back in the woods behind them.
"So all the lights I see in the woods are enemies, huh?" Sorun slid off of the stump he sat on. He landed on his feet, straightened his form up, and held the Yamato out to his side. "Works for me."
He saw all the Badniks at the head of the pack ready the weapons they held in their hands. By the time Sorun had walked to the center of the clearing, one of the red Egg Pawns holding a lance had charged towards him. Sorun saw the incoming Badnik, and then breathed out slowly as he quickly sheathed Yamato while keeping a hold on it with both hands. Before the tip of the lance reached his body, Sorun's left Bringer Claw flashed into existence, clenched the tip of the lance, and wrenched it out of the way of Sorun's body while leaving the Egg Pawn in front of him completely exposed.
"Focus..." Sorun's eyes narrowed, and with clenched hands he swiftly unsheathed the Yamato in a swinging motion. The silver blade cleaved cleanly and effortlessly right through the Egg Pawn's midsection, exiting through the other side with practically no resistance on Sorun's part. The teen willed the Bringer Claw to let go of the lance it held, and then he stood back to observe the robot. It stood completely frozen to the spot, with the only indicator of damage being the thin line completely bisecting its midsection. Soon enough electric sparks began to fly out from the body-long slit, the lights in the robot's eyes and mouth winking out as its upper half slid off the lower part and fell lifelessly to the ground. The lower part fell after it soon after.
Looking down at the fallen Egg Pawn with a mixture of surprise and satisfaction, Sorun looked up to the rest of the Badniks staring him down. Without another word he brandished the katana to the side as his Bringer Claws appeared folded over his shoulders and four Summoned Swords spawned at his sides. Without so much as another sign, Sorun began running towards the Egg Pawns as the Badniks met his sprint and ran towards him with weapons aimed at the ready.
One after another, the Egg Pawns that opposed him fell again and again under his mighty blows. It didn't matter how many of them tried to take him on, as his strength proved to be just too much for them to handle.
After feeling the sensation of something sharp glancing harmlessly off his shell, Mighty reached around and grabbed the arm of the Egg Pawn holding the lance that had tried to spear him from behind. He pulled the robot in front of him, and the began to spin the robot around his body with a single arm. With a smirk he threw the Badnik at a nearby crowd, toppling them all and causing them to collapse in a smoking heap.
All around the armadillo laid the bodies of around fifty of the Egg Pawns already. And while the Mobian himself was lightly panting from exertion, his eyes were still wide and energized as he gestured for the remaining robots to come forwards. "Come on," he called out, "I can do this all day!"
His provocation was met in the form of another wave of Egg Pawns rushing forwards. He punched and tore apart any that tried challenging him with ease.
Were they in larger groups, the surviving Badniks that hadn't been destroyed by the log traps and hadn't been separated from the main group would have been able to fend off any resistance against them with some success. As it was, the remaining Egg Pawns had been so split up and divided from the falling traps that the largest groups were only able to maintain a size of about four or five.
These were numbers that proved easy for the Mobians waiting above to ambush and overwhelm them. Whether it was by dropping heavy rocks on the robots from above or rushing them head on with large groups of people wielding various makeshift weapons, it proved too much for the Badniks to handle. They were just too spread out to enact any form of defense, and were all but helpless under the relentless assault. Numbers that were in the hundreds dwindled by the dozens in a matter of minutes as each pocket of robots were systematically eliminated one after another before their attackers would move on to a new group no worse for wear.
Some Egg Pawns, of course, had tried running. Due to the enemies surrounding them on all sides, their only possible route of escape was, ironically, the very settlement within Deerwood Forest that was to be destroyed by them as per the objectives programmed within the robots. But, unfortunately, emerging from the trees and into the settlement was only met with an even greater force of Mobians, all lead by a short, gold-furred squirrel leading the pack.
Suffice it to say, those Egg Pawns that had made a break for it into the settlement hadn't a chance, as their numbers didn't even reach a full ten robots. One had been dismantled immediately by a well-placed shot from a slingshot held by the golden squirrel. The projectile fired found its way into an opening in one of the Egg Pawn's plates. There was a whirring sound from the device that had been shot inside of it, and soon enough the robot fizzled out in a burst of electricity and fell lifelessly to the ground.
The rest, of course, were merely rushed and overwhelmed by the rest of the Mobians and promptly decommissioned.
"I don't... recall this being so difficult..."
Perhaps he'd overestimated himself just a tad bit. Sorun couldn't understand why; by all counts he should have had this in the bag. And to be fair, he did. Between the ranged support of his Summoned Swords, the brute strength offered by his Bringer Claws, and the ultimate cutting ability provided by the Yamato, Sorun should have been more than equipped enough to deal with a bunch of ordinary Badniks.
And, to be fair, at first it had been going well. The first twenty or so robots had all fallen to him without so much as a sweat. It was around fifty did he realize that this was beginning to become incredibly exhausting for him. Mentally he'd felt the control he had over his powers slipping. Physically he was just becoming more and more tired. Whether it was from the strain of fighting for his life against a veritable army of robots, or because these powers were so straining to his body, Sorun hadn't a clue. What he did know was that his endurance, evidently, wasn't at a level that it should have, and had, been at.
That was very concerning.
He pressed on, though, past all the exhaustion and pains wracking his body. The knowledge he was fighting to save a whole kingdom and the faces flashing through his mind were a sufficient motivator for him. The knowledge that's he'd be killed if he fell down in the middle of fighting was an even stronger one, and as it was, adrenaline was very good at keeping Sorun on his feet.
All of this was bound to eventually fail, though. To Sorun's credit, he'd managed to get most of them. In fact there was only one single Badnik left standing: one of the plaid-painted ones holding a metal woodcutter's axe. All around Sorun were the cut-apart and brutalized bodies of all the rest of the Badniks. A testament to how hard he'd been fighting in the form of a miniature scrap yard.
Sorun himself, unfortunately, was kneeling down on one knee and panting heavily as he looked up at the single remaining Egg Pawn, his katana stabbed into the ground and being used as a crutch to keep him kneeling. Despite the fact he'd never been wounded once, blood was streaming profusely out from his nose. Any Summoned Swords he tried creating merely shattered and disappeared upon forming. His Bringer Claws only managed to flash into existence for mere moments before flickering and disappearing.
Even Yamato wasn't able to hold up from the strain his body was going through. Right before his eyes he could see cracks forming along the entire length of the sword's blade, with chips of metal continually flaking off and disappearing. His body was simply too exhausted to maintain any of his abilities. And as it was, he couldn't even summon the energy necessary to stand.
"Is this... seriously my limit...?" Sorun thought to himself as he glared up at the Badnik as it began approaching him. "You gotta be kidding me..."
The Egg Pawn stopped right in front of him, the large, permanent smile etched into its face almost mocking as it rose its axe up into the air. All Sorun could do was stare on helplessly, too worn out to even think any further.
But then, right before the axe was swung down onto his head, the unthinkable happened. An arrow, a completely normal, wooden arrow with a metal arrowhead, flew out of nowhere and managed to pierce the Badnik's right eye lens. Just barely, Sorun was able to stare in complete shock as sparks fell out from the pierced eye before all of the robot's lights went dark. Its arms went limp, and the axe slipped from its grasp and fell harmlessly onto the ground. And then, the Egg Pawn painted to look like a lumberjack tipped over entirely only to end up lying still on the ground.
Not believing his eyes, Sorun slowly, and with great effort, turned towards the direction where the arrow had been fired from to get a look at his savior. He couldn't say he was so surprised to see Rob O' the Hedge standing up on a nearby tree branch, bow held in his hands as he smiled victoriously down at Sorun.
An exhausted, barely audible chuckle left Sorun right as the Yamato finished disintegrating entirely in a cloud of black and blue ash. "I can't believe he actually made a bow work," he thought as he collapsed onto his back. "Mobians... are such bullshit..."
The last thing he saw before falling unconscious was a clear, blue sky free of smoke.
The attack and subsequent defense of the Kingdom of Mercia, by the end, had only ran the course of roughly under an hour. And, short as it was, it had ended as a huge success. A large swath of the forest may have been cleared out now due to the efforts of Eggman's Badnik's, but the entire force had been successfully held back and dismantled. Even better, it had been reported that there hadn't been so much as a single casualty from the Mobian's side due to the plan thought up by the Freedom Fighters and enacted by the king of Mercia.
And even better, while that section of the forest may be barren for generations until the trees grew back, the kingdom had plenty of firewood to last.
So, of course, the next step after repelling the invasion was celebration. Mobians moved about through the whole kingdom, laughing and celebrating amongst themselves. Indeed, it was a time of great happiness for everybody. For everybody except a single, irate human who was currently talking to a group of Mobians.
"- Yeah, Honey, she does good work on my clothes. I don't really recommend traveling all the way down there these days, but if you ever do happen to stop by Knothole, you should visit her shop. She honestly makes good stuff," Sorun explained as he gestured to his clothing. "And can you do me a favor and spread the word? Advertising's hard enough when it's just me doing it."
The Mobians who had approached him as to inquire about his clothes nodded at his request, and then scampered off to their own devices. He watched them go with a small sigh, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his hair. "She better appreciate the hustle I'm doling out for her here," he internally grumbled to himself.
Feeling like he'd sold his soul away aside, Sorun thought it was nice to look around and see all the celebrating Mobians around him. It had been a couple hours since the attack ended. He'd been carried to an infirmary tent and had woken up to see Ray, Mighty, and surprisingly a bunch of the children from before standing over him, but after about a half hour's worth of fussing, he was able to finally convince them he was fine. Which, mild exhaustion aside, he was.
Otherwise, though, he felt great. Great at having actually helped repel an invasion of robots and save a kingdom. From an idea he'd had, no less. One he'd stolen from a movie, maybe, but as far as he was concerned it still counted. Random Mobians who had heard about what he did had even went up to him and thanked him profusely for all the help he provided. Sorun, ever bashful at all the attention, had tried downplaying his role as much as possible while doing his best to shy away from the crowds.
But yeah. They'd done it. They successfully managed to defend the Kingdom of Mercia. Go team.
"Oof!" A sudden weight suddenly found itself on Sorun, causing him to become slightly off-balance as he looked down at whatever it was that attached itself to him. He relaxed immediately when he saw it was just Ray, though he did pry the squirrel off of him before he grew too uncomfortable. "Yeah, Ray, I get it. You're happy I'm okay." He huffed, looked away, and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Thanks for the concern."
"You could stand to b-be a bit happier, y'know," the squirrel reminded him with an easygoing smile. "We managed to save everybody!"
"I said we would, didn't I?" Sorun asked. "Geez, no faith." He turned around in another huff, though his tone had been just sarcastic enough that Ray had just laughed at the statement.
From the corner of Sorun's vision, he saw two figures approach. "Ah, come on, Sorun, Ray's right. You could stand to loosen up a bit," Mighty said as he stopped right in front of the pair, with Rob trailing closely behind him. "Seriously though," he continued with some concern, "are you sure you're alright? Your nose was bleeding really hard-"
"I just took a bad hit. I'm fine now," Sorun lied off with a wave of his hand. "I just... gotta pace myself a bit better next time, I guess. You good?"
"Me? Totally," Mighty confirmed with a nod. "A hundred bots were nothin' to me."
Sorun frowned a bit, and then quickly dropped it for a neutral expression as he turned towards Rob. "Thanks for the save, by the way."
"Think nothing of it, friend Sorun. The thanks should lie with me for your services in aiding the kingdom." With that said, Rob bowed down deeply before the three Freedom Fighters, which made Sorun in particular feel awkward from the motion. "It seems, once again, I am in the Kingdom of Acorn's debt."
It was still such a weird feeling for Sorun, to be thanked so profusely for his actions. He was growing used to it, though, and even more he was starting to actually enjoy it. Enough that he actually found himself in a joking mood. "In that case, do you guys have any Power Rings stashed around? Because I wanna cash in some-"
He was interrupted when Mighty playfully elbowed Sorun in the side, though for Mighty, a "playful" elbow jab was still enough to send him reeling. "You're not extorting the kingdom for Power Rings just so you can play more video games with Nicole," he said as a bemused smile spread across his face.
"Ah, come on, man, I was joking," Sorun muttered as he rubbed at his sore side. "Mostly." He softly hissed as he removed his hand, and then turned back to Rob. "So I guess we're done here? You guys are good for us to leave?"
"Most definitely, friend Sorun," Rob confirmed with a nod. "We will have to take some time to clean out Robotnik's minions from the forest, but afterwards I dare say the kingdom will be in top form." A grin formed on his face as he looked at the Mobians far behind him. "Ah, though it seems nobody had the patience necessary to wait to celebrate beforehand, though I cannot say I blame them." He looked back to the three Freedom Fighters. "Will you be staying to partake in the merriment? I hear they are already preparing the ballads to be sung-"
"Would you look at the time!" Sorun interrupted, voice laced in mock regret as he began pulling on Ray's and Mighty's shoulders. "Ah, man, we'd love to but we gotta head back, right, guys?"
"H-huh?" Ray stuttered as he was pulled away. "But aren't we staying for a bit?"
Sorun shook his head. "Nah, we gotta go back. Sally said to come back as soon as we were done here to get ready for the next mission." He sent a pleading look towards Mighty. "Right, Mighty?"
The armadillo looked ready to argue the point, but stopped himself when he saw the look Sorun was giving him. He paused to think for a second, and then shrugged his shoulders with a small grin. "Ah, yeah, now I remember," he said as he shrugged Sorun's hand off. "I guess you earned a break after today, Sorun, so we'll head back."
The human sent Mighty a thankful nod, and then released Ray's shoulder. The squirrel, for a moment, seemed a bit saddened by the prospect of leaving so soon, but then brightened up at the prospect of heading back to Knothole. "Well, i-if we're going b-back, should I pull the saucer out?" he asked, turning towards Sorun.
Looking down at Ray, Sorun hummed in thought and then looked up towards the settlement. Rob had already gone back to his people to enjoy in the celebrations with them, a female red echida holding an infant having joined his side. He even saw a bunch of the children from before running around in circles around each in some sort of game of tag. From the distance he could have sworn he caught glimpse of a deer wearing robes that was smiling in his direction, only for him to disappear when somebody walked past him.
No. There was no reason to stay. Their part here was done, and they had other people to save.
"Yeah," Sorun absentmindedly mumbled, his eyes still staring ahead at the Mobians as he bent down to rub the top of Ray's head. "Let's go back home."
