A/N- I got some stuff to say before we begin this one.

So originally this was supposed to be the "Sorun goes to Angel Island so we can establish all that stuff" chapter. Here's my opinion on literally anything related to the echidna that the comics did: it's a convoluted mess.

It just always seemed like such a disjointed, overly-complex plot you needed a graph to figure out for what basically amounted to a side story, and to be honest, I never liked it. But like it or not it's a part of the universe I chose to write in, it exists, so I have to deal with it. But right before I began writing this chapter I did a quick glance-over in the comic just so I could get some facts straight, and when I did I realized, "oh... OH, no, we can't have Sorun and the gang go there yet and meet those characters, that's way too soon." It's kind of a shame, I had a whole bit where Sorun was gonna go around confusing a bunch of echidna for Knuckles, but yeah, can't happen.

I put in a few hints earlier on, but for clarity's sake since the beginning of this story to now in terms of where this takes place in the comic timeline is between #173 and #174. It didn't progress past that due to Rubrum killing Feist, nabbing the Emeralds, and giving them to Eggman, which essentially "stalled" the comic story and moved it forwards months ahead of time while still technically being in the same place, which is how I explain away things like Team Dark being in G.U.N. is a thing even though at this point in the comics is wasn't. Or maybe Shadow was, I dunno, it's not really clear on that.

You know, that's another thing I wanna point out- the inconsistencies this whole comic has. From everybody's proportions changing practically every new comic because they tossed around the artists like no tomorrow I guess to stuff just being straight-up wrong sometimes. I've seen panels where somebody forgot Bunnie has a robot arm so they drew her with two normal ones. It's the same thing with Julie-Su's arm, I keep going, "is it a robot arm, is it just a sleeve, I don't know they really make it look like a robot arm and it's consistent with her backstory but there's panels in completely different art styles where she takes it off and there's a normal arm underneath and they never address it!" I even scoured the whole wiki just so I could get an answer of if it's supposed to be a robot arm or a pneumatic power sleeve or just a fashion accessory, I don't know, but I got nothing out of that endeavor. And the moon! The dang moon's intact in the comics! I had a heart attack when I saw that because I thought it was shattered because of the whole SA2 thing! The way the comics handled that was literally "just go play SA2 to get the story here", and in the story the moon got shot so I figured, "oh, alright, moon's broke, sure, I can do something fun with that." Nope! Turns out the moon in the comics is all fine 'cause reasons I guess, so now I got that plot hole to deal with. For all intents and purposes the moon in this story is a little broken, alright? It doesn't really change anything anyways, so it's fine.

... Perhaps I've gotten off topic. Point is a lot of time passed without anything actually happening, which froze some things and moved other things forwards. And at this point in time Dr. Finitevus and Scourge are up there doing their thing, and if Sorun met them this early that'd be bad plot-wise.

So it's cut. Chapter's cut and we're moving on to the next one. All that stuff's still gonna happen, it's too important to just ignore, but's it's gonna happen at a more appropriate time when I can integrate all that stuff more fluidly. It's probably for the best, anyways, because of all the chapters I planned I was looking forwards to this one the least and believe me when I say writing something when your heart's not in it is way harder and takes way longer than it needs to, the time it took me to write out Monochromatic Ideals can attest to that. So yeah, Angel Island's on the backburner for later. Right now we're skipping ahead to this chapter.


Recursion Error

Episode 31- The underwater adventure


"Huh. This is cool." Sorun's hand reached forwards, his index finger extending and pressing against the glass covering that separated him from the outside world. The finger slowly trailed down the glass, eliciting a quiet squeaking noise as Sorun looked on.

He'd always been curious about what being under the sea would be like. Mostly from all those marine life documentaries he'd seen, some movies and games that had underwater segments, those types of things. There was always something calming about those scenes he watched, which had eventually grown into a full-blown desire to go to the bottom of the ocean. Seeing it for himself was a different thing entirely.

It seemed like an entirely different world here at the bottom of the ocean. The whole scenery constantly shifting and wavering as well as being covered in a deep, blue film. The rays of sunlight piercing through the surface of the water overhead and helping to illuminate the depths around them. The colorful coral reefs they drove past and the schools of various types of fish that occasionally swam by them. There was something hypnotic about it all that had Sorun sitting back and staring in wonder at it all.

Of course when they crested a small bank, and when Sorun saw a giant, metal structure off in the distance with Eggman's logo painted on its front, he went from being in speechless wonder to silently seething in anger.

Quietly scoffing, Sorun sat back in his seat and looked off to his left. Where he was currently was inside of a small sidecar-like seat sealed in by a glass dome. The seat itself was attached to a larger, one-seated submarine-like vehicle, and past the dome covering to that vehicle he could just barely make out Tails' form past the panes of glass and shimmering ocean dividing them.

"Still can't believe he has his own submarine. And that he called it the Sea Fox," Sorun thought to himself as he leaned back in his seat. "I swear, he gets his own plane, he gets his own submarine, this guy gets everything." He sighed, steepled his fingers together in front of him, and looked out towards the facility they were driving towards. "These Emeralds sure wind up in the wackiest places, huh...?"

He'd nearly jumped out of his seat this morning when they'd gotten word of another Chaos Emerald being discovered. It wasn't inside of the northern continent, though, as it wasn't one of the Chaos sensors the Freedom Fighters had set up that informaed them of its location. Because this one happened to be located in the dead-center of the ocean somewhere, far, far away from those sensors. They'd only even gotten word about because, to Sorun's bafflement, there was apparently an aquatic team of Freedom Fighters Tails was personally associated with that had tipped him off about Eggman building some kind of facility under the ocean, along with them hearing the word "Chaos" over and over again when they'd been monitoring the airwaves.

Their curiosity had been peaked, so Tails had gotten a Chaos sensor, loaded it into the plane, and had then flown off with Sally's permission towards the ocean to confirm their suspicions. Sorun had decided to ride along with him, as he had a personal investment in locating the Chaos Emeralds and he hadn't been doing anything else at the time.

So they'd arrived around in the general location, and waiting there right in the middle of the water to guide them had been a whale. Not even an anthropomorphized, Mobian whale, but a normal whale that could talk to Tails through the plane via some communication thingamajig he'd rigged up, and they'd been lead towards where the suspicious facility was being built.

Go figure. Tails was friends with a talking whale. And a bunch of other talking sea animals in that particular group if his word was to be trusted.

Well, eventually Tails' sensor had picked up a positive reading, confirming their suspicions. He'd said his thanks to the whale, Sorun silently observing the entire exchange for the most part, and they'd flown all the way back to Freedom HQ to formulate a plan. It was decided that, since Tails had the submarine and it could, at most, fit three people via its pilot seat and two sidecars, a three-man team would be sent in to retrieve that Emerald. Tails, since it was his submarine and he was the best person to pilot it, Rotor, since he was the only Freedom Fighter they had who could deal well with aquatic environments and was tech savvy, and Sorun, because he heavily insisted on being there to collect the Emerald.

Thus, they were here. Driving towards a giant underwater facility to fight a bunch of robots, steal a gem of unlimited power, and then take a submarine home.

Sorun hardly believed there was a time in his life he would have found that really cool. Now he just felt tense but otherwise indifferent over the mission. The ocean still looked cool, though, so there was that.

The facility itself was a large, circular complex. The entire thing was held aloft over a giant trench, anchored into the top of the trench wall by six gigantic support struts. On its underside, near its front, was a small, circular opening whose surface lead to a room. A basic moonpool that Tails piloted the submarine up through.

Through the surface of the moonpool, the Sea Fox emerged, and then settled into a stationary position. The three domes on the main sub and the two sidecars lifted up, the three occupants emerging and hopping out from the center of the moonpool to the metal flooring surrounding it. Sorun had hopped out on one side all alone while Tails and Rotor had hopped out on the opposite side.

Taking a glance around the large, circular room, Sorun couldn't help but notice how oddly clean the place looked. The flooring was a sterling steel color whereas the metal walls were painted to be an immaculate white. The lights were bright, too, making it rather easy for him to see all around. And from what he saw, other than the moonpool and a door at one end of the room, the place was oddly empty.

"This place looks cleaner than a hospital room. I get it's brand new, but man... If it weren't for the giant Eggman logo out front I'd have to question if he was the one that really built this place," Sorun thought to himself. He'd seen the way Eggman constructed structures before. They usually leaned towards being more utilitarian than visually appealing. Structures and machines that served no purpose past their functions, unless he styled them after his own face just to taunt his enemies. All his creations, buildings or robots, were always soulless in that regard. Bland and a weird fusion of looking industrial and futuristic at the same time.

Not this place, though. It was too clean, too warm to stand in. Almost too inviting.

"You think it's weird that there wasn't a locked door or anything on that moonpool we just came out of?" As if voicing Sorun's own suspicions, Rotor's voice sounded out from the other side of the room as Sorun continued looking around. "I would have expected, you know, a fleet of water drones to attack us outside or a door we'd have to get through or something. That's his usual style."

"Yeah," Tails agreed in an unsure tone, "and why is he bothering to pump oxygen down here? He has to be since we're able to breath, but the only things that should be down here are robots." A contemplative hum followed the fox's statement. "You guys think this is a trap?"

"Oh, it's definitely a trap," Sorun voiced, drawing the attention of the two Mobians on the other side of the moonpool. "When has it ever been so easy walking into a place of his? I'll give him some credit though, because guess what, the trap works." Sorun spun around and pointed towards the sole door in the room. "Trap or no trap, I'm going for that Emerald."

When he glanced to the side, he saw both Rotor and Tails giving him frowns. "Are you sure this is the smartest move?" Tails asked, twin appendages slowly swishing in the air behind him.

"Pfft, not at all," Sorun scoffed with a shake of his head. He began walking towards the door, remarking, "But when have I ever been known for doing the smart thing?"

"Sorun, he's right. This is a risky move." This came from Rotor, who stepped away from the sub floating in the moonpool and towards Sorun while shaking his head and crossing his arms. "This is way too fishy to call safe. We should fall back and think up another plan."

"What is there to plan for?" Sorun asked. "We only have the one sub that fits three people, so unless you wanna go back to Knothole to wrangle up some scuba gear so we can all get caught in the massive trap behind that door, I say we just bite the bullet and go forwards." When Rotor continued to give him an unapproving look, the human sighed and crossed his arms. "Look, it's either we go get it now or leave a Chaos Emerald here. Eggman's already got it anyways, so it's not like he's gonna give it up without a fight. At least this way we see it coming."

The logic caused Rotor's hard features to soften into a thinking look. He sighed out loud, his tusks lowering to the ground along with his jaw as he ran a hand over his face. "You're seriously willing to freely walk into one of Eggman's traps just for a Chaos Emerald, Sorun?"

In truth, he really didn't want to. But he also desperately needed that Chaos Emerald for more power. To have every single advantage he could get against Eggman so he'd have a solid shot at killing him before he died. Even at the cost of his health for what little time he had left, even at the cost of his life, he was ending that man for everything he'd done and so everybody on this world could finally be free of him. That was the whole reason he was even here, after all.

But to do that he needed power. More power than what he had right now. He needed that Emerald, no matter what he had to go through to get it.

"I'm aware of the danger. I'm still going," Sorun said, addressing both Rotor and Tails. "I'm not asking you two to come with. If you wanna fall back, then fine. I'll go myself."

He really did mean it, too. Not in a way that was insulting to them for not committing, but just as a way of letting them know he was going in there with or without them while subtly implying he'd rather they avoid any potential danger. That was the intent of his wording, at least, but much to his surprise they both glanced at each other and then began chuckling in amusement. "Well, if there's no talking you out of it, I guess our hands are tied," Rotor said, giving Sorun a small grin when he turned back to see a look of surprise on the pale teen's face. "What, did you seriously think we were gonna strand you in the middle of the ocean?"

"Well, no..." He'd in fact just forgotten the important fact that they'd arrived here on a submarine and that is was his only ride out, but he didn't want to admit to them he'd forgotten this detail. "So are we going?"

"Actually, Tails, you mind hanging back with the sub?" Rotor asked, turning towards the fox. "You know, in case something happens and we need to beat a hasty retreat. Get what I mean?"

"Oh. Yeah, sure, I can do that." Tails' ears lowered the barest amount at being asked to stay back, but he still gave Rotor an understanding nod as he turned around and walked back towards the sub. "Try not to take too long, you guys!" he called out as he flew up over the moonpool. "I don't wanna stay here any longer than we need to!"

"No worries!" Rotor called back. "We'll get that Emerald and get back here as fast as possible!"

Sorun remained silent during the exchange, choosing to silently observe the pair from a distance. It was only after Tails retreated back to the sub and Rotor approached him did he choose to finally speak. "So, Rote, just you and I on this one. Sorun and Rotor. Rotor and, er..." When he saw the walrus give him an odd look, he coughed to the side and looked towards the door. "Yeah, let's just, let's, let's go."

"Um, yeah," Rotor agreed, quirking an eye ridge upwards in confusion when he saw Sorun walk towards the door. He said nothing else, and then proceeded to follow him.

The pair stopped in front of the door, Sorun staring unblinkingly at it while Rotor let out a contemplative hum. It was a metallic, white door so integrated into the wall it would have been practically invisible if it wasn't for the rectangular seam that was its border. There was no handle, though there was a small button lit up in a green color right next to it. Sorun took the initiative and reached forwards to press it, though when he did the green button flashed red and the door remained shut.

There was a scoff from Sorun. "Come on, he already knows somebody's coming to get this thing. He can't at least leave the door unlocked?"

"Ah, you know Eggman. Not one to make it easy for us," Rotor commented. He stepped past Sorun and kneeled down towards the button, squinting all the while. "Well, time to see if you were paying attention about your door hacking lessons," he said, claws brushing against the toolbelt he had strapped to his waist. "Wires should be just behind-"

Slash! Slash!

The walrus winced upon hearing two quiet, almost inaudible slashes reach his ears, and then winced again when what was once the door loudly collapsed onto the ground in four metallic pieces. He looked down at the remains of the door, and then slowly looked up at Sorun who was currently holding his katana in his hands. He met Rotor's stare with a blank look of his own.

"Yeah, I'm partial to a different type of 'hacking', Rotor," Sorun said, holding Yamato up for him to see. "Can we move on?"

Clicking his tongue, Rotor stood back up to his full height while pulling at the collar of his brown jacket. "All that time I put into teaching you that. Wasted. You're just like Sonic or Knuckles whenever they see a locked door."

"Hey, that ain't true at all. This is just way faster," Sorun denied as he sheathed Yamato. "Are you sure you're gonna be good here? I always figured you were more inclined towards the... technical aspects of things than the physical."

"Eh, maybe, but I can still hold my own in a fight. Probably not as well as anybody else, but I'm not a Freedom Fighter for nothing." Rotor walked through the open doorway, taking care to step over the pieces of the door Sorun had cut away. "You coming?"

Sorun stared after the Mobian, looked down at his sword, and then began following his back. "Yeah, comin'."

Going inside of the facility, Sorun immediately noticed that, as a whole, the place was constructed rather tightly. It was somewhat of a surprise seeing as the place looked a lot bigger on the outside, but so far all he and Rotor had encountered was tight corridors and hallways. There were some patrolling Egg Pawns that they occasionally had to duck out of the way of and hide from, too, but other than those small, occasional stalls it was mainly them just traversing through hallways.

Granted, there were a lot of those hallways. So many branching pathways, in fact, that Sorun was pretty sure that the two of them were lost and reduced to blindly wandering at this point. Which, now that he thought about it, was actually their only option as neither even knew the layout. But apparently Rotor was keeping track of the hallways they kept going down, or at least pretended to as he maintained that confident air about him whenever Sorun complained about them being lost.

He really hoped Rotor had been keeping track of where they'd been going, at least, because Sorun agreed with Tails sentiment in that he didn't want them to be in this place any longer than they needed to. This mainly stemmed from the feeling Sorun kept getting whenever he glanced at Rotor, which was worry. He didn't doubt the purple walrus had some combat ability, he was a Freedom Fighter, but at the same time Sorun knew this unequivocal truth: guy was primarily a nerd, not a fighter. And sure, Sorun was there, but he didn't want to have to divide his attention between looking after himself and Rotor in the middle of a fight. And Tails was all the way back at the submarine.

Strange feeling, being worried about another Freedom Fighter. Usually he was supposed to be the weakest one that needed to be looked after, but ever since he'd acquired Yamato things had been different. Like he'd been elevated to a slightly more equal level to everybody else, failing body notwithstanding. A good sign of him becoming stronger, he supposed, but those niggling thoughts in the back of his mind telling him his body was just going to get weaker with this Emerald were still present. He tried ignoring them. It didn't work.

The fact this whole thing reeked of "trap" wasn't lost on him, either. Odds were, a fight against something was going to happen. Sorun didn't have any illusions against that- there wasn't a single time he'd ever acquired one of these Chaos Emeralds without having to fight something. It was just the way it went. It made him all the more worried, and... something else. Not exactly excitement. Just a slight anticipation at an opportunity to fight something and forget about the rest of his problems for a little bit. Practically half the reason he went on these dangerous missions anymore was for those moments.

"Hey. Hey, Sorun," Rotor whispered, drawing the teen's attention. "Take a look at this."

Jolted from his thoughts, Sorun looked over towards Rotor, currently leaning against an opening in the hallway while peeking around the corner. He crept up to the Mobian's side, peering past the corner into the first actual room they'd encountered in this place that wasn't the moonpool room they'd emerged it. A wide, open room that was vacant of anything save the numerous amount of doors lining the walls and a smaller, booth-like room near the end.

Both teens glanced at each other, nodded, and began making their way towards the small booth in the back while keeping close to the wall. The booth itself seemed to be a completely enclosed space except for an open doorway on its side which they both leaned up against on either side of. Poking his head around the corner, Sorun saw a small room occupied by two Egg Pawns who were standing at a long computer console that spanned the entire front side of the room, faced forwards and typing away at keyboards as they stared at multiple monitors in front of them.

"I think that's some kind of security room," Rotor whispered to the human as they leaned away from the opening and looked at each other. "A security room or control center or something like that. Either way it's good for us."

"Yeah, man. Totally." Sorun slowly nodded in agreement, pointed towards Rotor and continuing with, "And that's important because..." he trailed off, waiting for the other to finish.

Rotor gave him a flat look. "Because maybe I can get into the systems from those computers and get us a map or a layout of the place so we can stop wandering around blindly," he whispered back in a clipped tone.

"Great plan. Solid plan. I say we go for it." Sorun glanced back into the room. "Want me to take care of those two?"

"No, it's fine. I got it." Rotor crouch down to a lower stance- which, given his stature, looked really awkward to Sorun- and began creeping into the room. "Just stay here and keep watch while I deal with this."

"Uh, sure." Trusting Rotor's judgement, Sorun decided to lay his back flat against the wall, staring forwards while still clutching the katana in his hands.

It didn't take long for the sounds of a struggle to reach his ears. It mainly comprised the sound of a lot of shuffling around, metal clanking, and the occasional grunt of effort from Rotor. Sorun merely continued to stare ahead, still leaning against the side of the doorway with one leg crossed over the other. Tens of seconds passed without the struggling noises relenting, Sorun coughing to the side but otherwise still calmly remaining in place. At one point he'd brought the Yamato up to his face and began fiddling with the blue cord wrapped on the sword's scabbard to pass the time, occasionally sending a glance towards the doorway he was besides.

After what felt like a full minute, he decided to check up on Rotor. "You sure you don't need a hand, man?" Sorun asked, raising his voice over the sounds of the struggling.

There was a loud, metallic bang. "Y-yeah, I'm- ergh!- I'm all good in here!" Rotor shouted back.

"If you say so..."

And so the fighting noises continued. Sorun had begun to idly tap his fingers against the sword's handle, humming under his breath and he continued waiting for Rotor to finish. He hadn't been keeping track of the actual time, but when it felt like another minute passed he called out to Rotor again, saying, "It'll just take me, like, two seconds if you let me-"

"Sorun, I got it!"

"Alright, sheesh. Just tryin' to help." More loud, metallic bangs and crashing sounds were heard inside of the room. Sorun took in a heavy breath, exhaled it, and waited a few more seconds despite his quickly thinning patience. When he heard no end to the sounds he heard inside the room, he groaned in frustration and pushed off the wall. "Oh my god, Rotor, just let me-!"

He stopped himself when he made it to the doorway's entrance, freezing when he saw the sight ahead of him. The two Badniks he'd spied when they'd first came upon the room were on the ground, lights completely out and bodies motionless. Rotor stood triumphantly over the two robot bodies, lightly panting while looking towards Sorun.

"What?" Rotor asked. Sorun was quick to wipe the surprised look off his face and replace it with a timid grin as he shrugged towards Rotor, who rolled his eyes and turned to the computer console at the end of the room. "Alright, well, give me a minute to get in here and see what I can get."

Turning away from Sorun, Rotor approached the front of the computer console and immediately began typing away at the keyboard, his eyes glued to one of the computer monitors. Sorun, remaining near the doorway, glanced at the monitors, saw lines of computer jargon he couldn't make out, and then looked towards Rotor's back. "So any luck?" he asked.

"Eh, getting there," Rotor answered. "It looks like this is some kind of security station. I'm trying to see if I can pull up a map from here, but the security system here is-"

A loud, ringing alarm blared through the air, cutting Rotor off mid-sentence and making Sorun wince and snap his head to the side. The alarm lasted around five seconds until Rotor hit a button, followed by him letting out a loud sigh.

"- Kinda strong..." he finished out. He then turned his head back towards Sorun, an awkward, apologetic look on his face. "So... my bad, but... how mad would you be if I said I accidentally may have tripped a, er, security protocol?"

"I don't think I'd hold it against you," Sorun coolly replied, lazily tilting his head out of the doorway towards the open room in front of the security booth. "You didn't get locked out, did you?"

"No, I managed to avoid that, but..." Rotor paused to look at one of the screens. "We still have a patrol of Badniks coming to check out what we just did. I'm seeing twenty here."

Sorun's ears perked up. He hummed, looked down at Yamato, and began running a finger along the sheath's edge. "Twenty ain't too bad. I'll deal with them, Rotor. Just get that map out of there so we can get this over with."

"Alright. Be careful."

"Ah-huh, careful. Sure..." Sorun stepped out from the doorway, walking towards the front of the windowless booth while stretching his neck back and forth. At the same time, he saw some of the doors at the other end of the room open, red Egg Pawns wielding lances pouring in right through them. Sorun watched on with focused eyes.

Just as Rotor had said, it was a group of twenty lance-wielding Badniks all standing in front of Sorun, eyes and smiling mouths resembling Eggman all aimed right towards him. Sorun's right hand stroked the handle of Yamato, fingers slowly but firmly gripping around it as Sorun watched on. Without another word he began speedily walking towards the nearest Egg Pawn, which took the opportunity to move in on Sorun.

"Oh, that movement, huh? That means... you'll stab in this direction." As Sorun thought this, he eyed the way the Egg Pawn right in front of him was moving. The position it put its feet and arms in, the direction its joints moved, the way it held the lance and the direction it was pointed in. The exact same movement he'd seen on so many other Egg Pawns. So, when it stabbed forwards, Sorun merely sidestepped the lance while keeping up his forward gait. At the same time, he tore Yamato out from its sheath and cleaved right through the robot's midsection. He'd continued walking past the Egg Pawn long before its two halves hit the ground.

He saw another one rushing towards him from the right corner of his eye. Not even pausing, Sorun willed four Summoned Swords to appear and consecutively swing upwards, the swords lifting the robot up into the air. It was helpless when a fifth Summoned Sword appeared over its head, thrusting downwards right through its face while also carrying its body back down to the ground.

That was the thing with fighting these Egg Pawns over and over again. Even if their AI had some rudimentary form of intelligence in the way of basic problem solving, they were still just basic, mass produced AI inside of mass produced bodies. They didn't have the capability to innovate and differentiate their attacks to a serviceable degree. They didn't adapt and learn. Their hardware and software just didn't allow them that.

Because of that, Sorun had been noticing the patterns. They didn't exactly have something as base as a limited amount of attacks, they had that much going for them, at least, but there was a certain... bias programmed into them. A bias that lead them to more often than not to commit to the same attacks over and over again. And Sorun, having fought these things for so long, started seeing those same movements and patterns they would default to. And after seeing them so many times he started memorizing them.

"It's doing that, so dodge this way. That one means it's going to swing to the side. These things never learn..." Sorun still continued to briskly walk right towards the Badniks, changing directions to just narrowly avoid being hit by a lance in the effort of walking past an Egg Pawn only to cut through it with a quick flick of his sword. "It's just like memorizing all those attack animations from those games back then. That's about what these things amount to anyways." The fourth Egg Pawn he approached thrusted forwards. Sorun's right Bringer Claw manifested, grabbed the lance, and then diverted it to the side. "They're nothing like Nicole." He thrusted his katana right through its face. "Nothing but bargain bin, copy-pasted AI. Useless fodder."

Sorun tore his sword out from the robot and watched it fall down to the ground in front of him. Stepping over the corpse, Sorun noticed that some of the remaining Egg Pawns were actually beginning to back up away from him, though they still continually pointed their lances at him. Unabated, Sorun continued walking forwards towards them.

He still didn't like fighting. Never did, and he never wanted to grow to like it. He hated fighting these things and anything else just as much as he did from the first time he fought a Badnik, embarrassing display aside. But there was no denying the feelings he'd been getting recently whenever he got into one of these battles with Eggman's robots, or rather lack thereof. Everything that plagued his thoughts always seemed to disappear in these fights.

The endless dread of his coming death, the frustration over his failing body and his own weakness, his self loathing at the way he treated his friends. None of that was there in these fights. All of those feelings were buried under the intense focus of Sorun attempting to survive these fights, as well as the endless rage he felt due to the Egg Pawns' visage reminding him of Eggman. Washed away by the adrenaline coursing through him. It was another way for him to escape, if just for a little bit.

Another robot charged towards Sorun. A Summoned Sword manifested in front of Sorun and fired forwards, the spectral blade sliced right through one of the robot's legs and causing it to fall face-first onto the ground. It slid right in front of Sorun, who only glanced down at it for a second before the grip on his sword tightened. He brought the entire blade's edge down on its body, cleaving through it completely before lifting the sword up and bringing it down again. Over and over he savagely hacked at the robot's body with his katana, and it was only when it stopped twitching did he finally stab its tip into its body. He dragged the blade forwards, carving right through its body all the way towards the other end.

The blade exited the Badnik's body in a wide, upward swing. The force of it, combined with the preexisting damage done from Sorun's earlier swings, caused the Egg Pawn's body to fly apart in pieces. Black oil flew forwards, splashing against Sorun's body. He looked up at the remaining Badniks with manic eyes, black fluid dripping down from the side of his face that had been splashed with oil. The Egg Pawns, with the most basic level of fear programmed into them by Eggman, did something Sorun did not expect: they ran away. They all turned right around and began to try and run away from him towards the doors.

They didn't make it. Blue, spectral swords rained down on all the door exits, blocking their paths. Two Bringer Claws reached out and grabbed two of the Egg Pawns, dragging them backwards towards Sorun who had his sword at the ready.

"Not yet. Not just yet." The electronic screaming coming out of one of the Egg Pawn's speakers was lost on Sorun as he cleanly cut through its head with Yamato. "Just a little bit longer."

No, he hated fighting. But he liked the catharsis cutting down Badniks afforded him, though. And he liked being able to momentarily forget how terrible his life was.


"Okay, aaaaand... there!" Quick as a could, Rotor pressed down on a button on a keyboard as soon as he saw the progress bar he'd been eyeing complete loading. Upon pressing the button, the bar on the screen was replaced with a 3-D rendering of the underwater facility, which Rotor proceeded to intently stare at. He scanned the entire screen, memorizing as much as the layout as he could as quickly as possible.

The sense of urgency Rotor had held had begun to subside when the sounds of Sorun fighting outside died down just seconds ago, though, all things considered, he was still in a hurry to get this mission done with quickly. He didn't need to spend much effort memorizing the facility's layout, though- despite all the hallways he and Sorun had traversed, the general layout of the place was fairy simple and uniform. He'd managed to memorize everything he needed in a short amount of time, and then moved away from the computer console and towards the door.

"Alright, got that all set. Now I just gotta go get Sorun," the walrus muttered to himself as he moved towards the booth's door opening. "I'm not hearing anything else so hopefully... he... what the...?"

With how proficient Sorun had become at dismantling Badniks as of late, what he'd expected to walk out into was a room full of destroyed Badniks with Sorun standing among them. And, to be fair, that is what he bore sight to once Rotor left the small room. Twenty destroyed Badniks, with Sorun standing up in the middle of them.

What he didn't expect was the state that the Egg Pawns were in. They were cut apart in an extremely excessive manner: there were barely any parts lying around that Rotor could properly identify due to them having been cut apart in so extravagantly. There was black oil staining the floor, walls, and even the ceiling almost everywhere, as well as a small amount of puncture marks and slashes all around the metallic surfaces.

Rotor was forced to pause fully, however, when he saw Sorun standing right in the middle of the carnage. His form was overly relaxed, Yamato and its sheath loosely held in his hands as he stared down at one of the destroyed and unrecognizable Badniks. His clothes and face were splattered in black fluid, though what Rotor couldn't help but look towards was his face. He was staring wide-eyed down at the dead robot, his irises heavily constricted to pinpricks and shaking. The muscles in his mouth were so strained that it was upturned into a small, crooked smile.

"Sorun?" Rotor hesitantly called out, slowly approaching the human while taking care to step over a torn-apart Badnik's corpse. "Sorun, you, er... you okay there?"

The sudden shift in Sorun's demeanor was so swift that Rotor found himself being startled. The grip on Sorun's sword and sheath tightened, while his posture went tense and straight. He snapped his head towards Rotor, irises dilating back to a normal size as his face eased into a neutral, lazy expression.

"Oh, Rotor. Hey," the other teen nonchalantly greeted, nodding towards Rotor. "You get the map?"

"Uh... yeah..." Rotor responded, slowly nodding towards Sorun while surveying the area around them. "Sorun, what happened here?"

Taking a quick glance around, Sorun shrugged and refocused on Rotor. "I guess I got a little overzealous. Sorry about that," he apologized as he sheathed the katana. "Anyways, robots are taken care of, so are we good to go?"

"I'd say they're a bit more than taken care of, but yeah. We're set," Rotor confirmed with another slow nod. Seeing Sorun in that momentary state, if just for a single moment, had him a bit worried, but seeing the dark-haired human speak so normally now made a majority of the worry Rotor had leave him. He seemed fine enough as he was, so he dropped the matter for more pressing issues. "I saw a map of this place and memorized the layout. Couldn't tell where it was the Emerald is stashed, but it looks like this place is mostly comprised of hallways and other smaller rooms, probably maintenance areas. There was one thing I saw that really stood out from everything else, though. A really, really big room at the end of the facility."

Sorun hummed at the new information. "The shiny, important item is usually in the biggest, most important-looking room. We're gonna scour every inch of this place until we find that Emerald, so we might as well start with the most obvious place," he reasoned, turning around to leave. He walked two steps, stopped, and then turned back towards Rotor. "Right, yeah, you're the one who actually knows where we're goin'. Lead on."

"It's this way." Rotor gestured towards one of the open doorways in front of them, and then began walking towards it. He heard Sorun begin to walk in step right behind him, and continued with, "from what I saw, we already managed to stumble halfway through this place already. It shouldn't take us too long to reach that room."

"Sounds great," he heard Sorun say from behind him. "Hey, Rotor?"

"Yeah?" Responded the Mobian, craning his head backwards to address Sorun.

"Where'd all this black stuff come from?" He saw that Sorun was eyeing the black splotches of oil that had been splattered on him from the robots, and that a slight bit of irritation formed on his face when he tried rubbing a spot off of his chest to no avail. "Seriously, what is this stuff? Smells awful."

Rotor's walking slowly down a considerable amount, and he turned his head further towards the teen. "It's... it's oil. From all the Badniks you took out," Rotor slowly explained, gesturing one of his hands towards the pile of cut-apart robots behind them.

Sorun's gaze followed Rotor's gesture towards the fallen Badniks, choosing to stare over at them for a few silent seconds. A look of realization soon lit up in his eyes. "Ohhh, yeah, I guess I didn't notice. Weird, I'm usually really good at not getting splashed by this stuff." He grimaced when he sniffed at a black smear on his arm, shaking his head and lowering it to his side. "This stuff's a pain to wash out, too. Ugh."

"I, uh... I hear that," Rotor replied, head still slightly turned towards Sorun's direction. "Okay, that's weird, but... eh, he's... he's Sorun. He's always kind of strange like that." Shrugging, Rotor turned back towards the doorway and sped up his walking speed. "Okay. Let's go check out that room."


It'd taken a bit of doing to get to their destination. More sneaking around hallways on their part, but with Rotor having gained knowledge of this place's layout they at least were able to progress forwards in an expedient manner.

He kept glancing towards him, though. Rotor. Sorun hadn't noticed it at first, but every so often as they kept advancing forwards past all the halls and doors the walrus kept sneaking glances at him from the side, a puzzled look crossing his features. That look became less and less noticeable as time went on, as if whatever it was that was on Rotor's mind was slowly fading, but it still made Sorun question just what exactly was on the Mobian's mind to begin with that made him continually give Sorun those looks.

Maybe the smell of all this oil splashed on him was bothering him. It still annoyed him that so much managed to get on him; usually his Bringer Claws or Summoned Swords dealt with robots at a good enough distance that any stray oil splashes missed him, or his Yamato cut so cleanly and quickly that there wasn't a huge amount of splash back. And sure, more often than not there was some that got on him, it was pretty much unavoidable in this line of work, but he never got drenched to this kind of degree before.

Perhaps he'd gone a little too hard on those Egg Pawns. He hadn't been able to help himself, as much as he hated to acknowledge it. He'd have to dial it back and avoid doing that in the future if what he did back there was what was causing Rotor to give him those looks. At least if he was with others.

One more door was passed by the two Freedom Fighters before they came to an area that was wholly different from anywhere else they'd traversed in this place thus far. They emerged from the end of a long, rectangular room that looked more like an atrium than anything else. There was more bright lighting from the ceiling lights and white, metal walls, too, and to add to the extravagancy of the room was multiple windows on either side of the room's walls viewing out to the ocean outside and the marine life swimming around in it.

Both Rotor and Sorun were less focused on the scenery and more focused on what was lying right at the end of the gigantic room: a glowing, purple gem sitting plainly on a small pedestal, without so much as a single robot guarding it.

"Yeah, I ain't buyin' it," Sorun began, slowly stepping through the atrium with Rotor right behind him. He began to slowly spin around, too, spreading his arms out towards either side while looking up. "He goes through all the effort of making this big, fancy room only to put the Emerald smack-dab at the end there with nothing between us and it?" He shook his head, arms going limp to his side as he made his way towards the Emerald. "Dude's a comic villain through and through. I'd say the fact he's been toying with us this whole time just to make it more interesting for himself is working in our favor, but I'll hold my tongue 'til we actually have the thing back at base. Where I'll then proceed to eat it for a super power."

"I can't exactly call it classic Eggman, but yeah, it's looking real obvious now," Rotor agreed. "You know, it's times like this I actually miss fighting the old Robotnik. He wasn't so... what's a word for something being so overly showy?"

"Ostentatious," Sorun supplied.

"Osten- wow, good word," Rotor complimented with an approving look. "Yeah, those days it was back and forth between us and he had to put in effort to get one in over the Freedom Fighters. But this Robotnik, he... it feels like he never takes us seriously, but he's still winning the war. It just feels insulting."

"Ah, not to worry, Rotor, we'll hoist him by his own petard yet."

He received an odd look from Rotor. "Hoist him by his own what?"

"It's from Haml... ah, I guess you wouldn't know what that is, huh?" Sorun mumbled to himself, and then turned his head around to face Rotor. "It basically means a guy like him with an overwhelming amount of hubris can only get so far before we exploit enough of his carelessness to beat him. Y'know, like that one story with the turtle that won that race because the other guy was so overconfident."

Rotor nodded in understanding. "Oh, Sonic told you about Tommy, huh?"

"Who?" They both stopped, Sorun affixing Rotor with a questioning glare while Rotor responded with a confused look. A few seconds passed, and then Sorun shrugged and turned back around. "Well, anyways," he said, "looks like we got what we came for. Now all that's left is surviving whatever happens next."

The Chaos Emerald Sorun's eyes were locked onto became more distinguishable the closer he and Rotor got to it. Cut in the same diamond shape as all the rest of the Emeralds he'd seen so far. Colored a deep purple color and constantly glowing and radiating in power. All perched up on a metal pedestal without so much as a glass casing covering it, or seemingly no other security measures Sorun saw as he glanced around the area. It truly was just sitting there for the taking. Seemingly, at least.

"Jackpot," Sorun mumbled, stopping right in front of the pedestal to admire the Emerald. "Oooh, Rotor, look," he commented as he turned his head around at the walrus. "It's purple just like you."

"Yeah, har har." Rotor sighed out of his nose and shook his head. "So what do you think's gonna happen once you take it off?"

"When you take it off. I'm not touching it 'til we're safe at HQ," Sorun corrected, and then hummed as he looked closer at the pedestal. "Well, it's sitting right on a pressure plate of some kind," he observed, eyeing the off-colored and slightly raised platform on the pedestal the Emerald was sitting on. "And," he continued, looking up towards the ceiling, "I'm pretty sure a TV or something with Eggman's face on it is gonna come out of those openings over there. I can see the lines where the metal plates shift and everything."

"Oh. Huh, yeah, I see it, too." Rotor looked up towards the ceiling where Sorun was looking, and then looked down towards the Emerald. "Okay, guess I'll grab it, then. Get ready for anything."

His arms slowly reached out towards the Emerald, with the Mobian gulping as his digits reached closer towards it. He stopped centimeters away from it, nodded while muttering something silently to himself, and then quickly snatched the Emerald off of the pedestal. He backpedaled away from the pedestal immediately afterwards, staring at the small, discolored platform that the Emerald sat on with apprehension while Sorun looked on in boredom. As Sorun had predicted, the platform began lowering down into the pedestal.

There was a loud, banging sound that startled both teens and caused them to whirl around. Metal plates began to slam down in front of all the windows lining the sides of the room, while at the same time the lights on the ceiling seemed to increase in intensity in conjunction with a single, blaring alarm sounding out. Up above on the ceiling, the seams Sorun had pointed out earlier began to separate to reveal a hollow space in the ceiling, where a large, rectangular monitor attached to a mechanical arm-

"Called it, I called it!" Sorun shouted, pointing towards the monitor.

- began lowering down from the newly-revealed space in the ceiling. The robot arm positioned the gigantic monitor so it faced down towards the two, where static proceeded to fill the entire screen. An image began flickering repeatedly on the screen, becoming clearer with each occurrence, until finally the screen solidified into a singular image: Eggman, sitting in a chair in a dark, metal-lined room and maniacally smiling towards the camera.

Rotor's face hardened into a steely expression, his body tensing up upon seeing Eggman on the large monitor above them. Sorun's reaction was much more subdued, the human silently exhaling, rolling his eyes at the ceiling, and slowly readjusting his grip on the sheathed katana in his grasp.

"Well, well, well..." Eggman's voice came out from an unseen speaker on the TV, sounding just as malicious to Sorun as ever. He steepled his hands in front of him while leaning in closer towards the camera, the Doctor's grin widening. "If it isn't the meddlesome... hey, wait a minute." The grin immediately dropped off of Eggman's face, followed by one of his hands reaching up to adjust the blue spectacles that hid his eyes. "Sorun? You're not that miserable hedgehog."

"Thank god for that," Sorun airily replied, spinning Yamato around in his grasp and resting it on his shoulder as he looked up at the monitor. "Don't tell me you were expecting him."

"Of course I was! I thought if anything would could drag that blue pincushion into my sights, it'd be a Chaos Emerald! Though I suppose it's not all that surprising to see you were drawn here in his stead. The allure of an Emerald's power must be irresistibly captivating to somebody like you." Eggman leaned back in his seat, propping his head against one of his closed fists. "Goodness' sake... all this preparation for the the wrong Freedom Fighter."

A fake, shocked expression lit up on Sorun's face as he looked around. "Wait, this was all a trap? I can't believe- I can't even fake it." Sorun's face dropped back to his normal expression as he looked back up at Eggman. "Look, we knew it was a trap, like, five seconds in, so can you just spring whatever you have set up so we can get on with the rest of our day?"

A sigh left Eggman. "You're really taking all the fun out of this, Sorun. Agh, fine, fine. The suspense is already ruined, just, where's the...?" The Doctor began grumbling under his breath as he began looking around for something on his end of the screen, his head picking up a bit when he found what he was looking for, followed by him reaching forwards and pressing it.

From the middle of the room, a large, circular hatch in the floor previously unseen by the two Freedom Fighters began to open up. They both looked towards the opening as a loud, grinding sound was heard, not unlike the sound of a mechanical lift raising something up. At the same time, something began to poke its head up from below the newly opened hatch as Eggman began speaking from the monitor again.

"You know, I had this whole speech planned out from the moment I conceived this trap. While Sonic was floundering over the fact this underwater facility was a deathtrap, I was gonna go over the new model of Egg Pawn with a dramatic flourish mixed in." As Eggman spoke, the thing being lifted up through the open hatch made it up halfway. From what Sorun observed, it appeared to be a Egg Pawn. A very big Egg Pawn, if the current size he saw said anything. It was painted differently, too. Primarily a dark purple color with red highlights here and there. "It was going to be this whole thing, but nooo, you wanted to get to the point, so here you are. Presenting the brand-spanking new enforcer to the Eggman Empire, blah blah blah, armored with the latest in specially-treated, composite titanium armor plating, details, details, I can't believe I put so much effort into this just for the likes of you."

The lift bringing the Badnik up finally reached its limit, and settled right into the floor with a loud, mechanical clank! Standing menacingly across from both Sorun and Rotor, grinning down at him with green lights for eyes and a sharp-toothed smile etched in Eggman's likeness, with four spikes sticking out of the rim of each of the hammer's heads for that added, menacing flair.

"Introducing, dah-dah-dah-dah, the Egg Hammer. Hurrah," Eggman introduced, sounding unenthused and almost upset. "Fresh off the assembly line and ready to pound you into oblivion."

Sorun looked the giant Badnik standing across from him up and down, finally ending with a rather unimpressed expression. "Wow, you... made an Egg Pawn bigger and gave it a hammer instead of a lance." A single Summoned Sword spawned next to Sorun. "Yeah, not really feeling the inspiration behind this one. For cryin' out loud, that hammer's just a shoddy copy of Amy's."

The Summoned Sword fired off towards the Egg Hammer's face. The Badnik, for its part, stood completely still and didn't so much as flinch when the spectral sword impacted its face. It continued to stand unflinching even as the sword shattered harmlessly against it, not leaving so much as a scratch.

Sorun blinked in surprise. "Oh, I see."

"No inspiration, eh?" Eggman said, leering down at Sorun from the monitor held above him and Rotor. "The armor plating on that bad boy is seconded only to the armor I placed on Metal Sonic. Good luck getting through that." He made a "hmph" sound while adjusting his blue spectacles. "And I'll have you know that just because that pink reprobate uses a hammer doesn't mean that she has a monopoly on the entire hammer market."

"Ah-huh." Sorun only paid half-attention to the mad Doctor as he slowly began to unsheathe Yamato. "Yeah, that's real interesting."

"What is that? That katana you keep carrying around?" A disbelieving scoff left Eggman alongside a mocking laugh. "You can't be serious! What makes you think that a flimsy little piece of forgotten eastern culture-"

A blue line appeared over the front half of the Egg Hammer's torso. Eggman stopped talking entirely, his focus shifting towards the Badnik. At the same time Sorun, holding Yamato with blue energy coursing down its blade, swung the katana through the air over and over again in the Badnik's direction. With each swing another blue line would appear somewhere on the Egg Hammer's body, and it was only when ten lines formed on its body did Sorun choose to stop and slide the Yamato back into its sheath; a small clink! was heard upon the hilt connecting to the bottom of the sheath. At the same time of the sword being fully sheathed, the Egg Hammer fell apart to pieces from the slices made throughout its entire body, the pieces clattering down onto the ground.

"Uninspired. Trash," Sorun drawled out, turning upwards towards Eggman who was gawking at the remains of the cut-apart Badnik. "You nailed it with the menacing color scheme, and the spikes were a nice touch, but man did that thing not perform well. Didn't even get a single swing in."

"What the- but- how did...?" Floundered, Eggman's face on the monitor looked back and forth between the fallen Egg Hammer and Sorun. His cheeks were slightly tinged in red, though whether it was from anger or embarrassment was unknown to Sorun, as he was too busy enjoying the look on Robotnik's face. He made an angered hum as he settled his gaze on Sorun, his head turning down slightly towards the Yamato. "So that sword of yours is no ordinary katana then..."

"I see why they call you a genius," Sorun responded. "If that's all there is, then we're taking the Emerald and leaving."

The large frown that had settled on Eggman's face deepened. He continued looking down at Sorun's sword for a few moments, and then rose his head back up towards the teen holding it. "Well, what sort of evil genius would I be without a backup plan? I wanted to reserve this for sending Sonic to a watery grave, but you and the walrus will do just as well." He reached over to the side and pressed a button just outside of the screen's view. "I'm blowing all the explosive charges I had set in the structural supports. Have fun sinking to your doom, boys!"

A sudden rumbling caused the floor Rotor and Sorun stood on to begin shaking, knocking both off balance and causing them to fall to their knees. Sorun managed to pick himself up in a kneeling position, looking up just in time to see Eggman cheekily grinning down at them and waving before the screen cut to black. He scoffed, and then looked to the side to see Rotor steadily get up to his feet.

"That maniac's trying to drop us into the trench the facility's hanging over!" the walrus exclaimed, running over to Sorun to help him up to his feet. "We got the Emerald, so we need to get back to Tails and the Sea Fox before all those support struts go!"

"I hear ya," Sorun grunted before getting tossed to the side again at the rumble of another distant explosion. He caught himself with another grunt, exhaling while standing upwards. "Times like these I really wish I figured out how to make portals with this thing..." he mumbled under his breath, thumb running across Yamato's sheath as he looked towards the back of the atrium. "Alright, we just gotta double back and- ah, of course..."

The doors to the back end of the atrium Rotor and Sorun had entered began opening, and pouring out from the small opening was a stream of dozens of Egg Pawns, all running towards the pair with their lances pointed forwards. Sorun clicked his teeth in frustration at the sight, pulling Yamato out from its sheath once more as blue energy began coalescing around the katana's blade. He swung the sword in a wide arc, a blue line running through the torsos of a number of Egg Pawns that had been in the front row of the group charging both him and Rotor. They fell down in their respective halves, Sorun turning back towards Rotor and yelling, "Rotor, c'mon, we gotta go!"

"Don't gotta tell me twice!"

Rotor and Sorun both took off in a run towards the group of Badniks approaching them, Sorun continually swinging his sword to cut them apart the closer they got. It was just when they reached the group that Sorun had cut apart the last Badnik, though when the pair of Freedom Fighters ran past the group another explosion rocked the facility and caused them to become off-balance. They caught themselves easily enough and dove past the doorway, and then pressed themselves against one of the hallway's walls as the floor beneath them, as well as the walls and ceiling, leaned a bit too far to the left before settling back into their proper position.

Keeping one hand on the wall while the other hand remained gripped around the Emerald, Rotor faced Sorun and asked, "Why weren't you doing that thing with your sword earlier!?"

"'Cause... 'cause that really takes a lot out of me," Sorun panted out. His entire form had become slightly hunched in exhaustion, making Rotor's eyes widen slightly in concern, though Sorun managed to find the energy to push off the wall and point down the hallway. "Let's go."

"Yeah." Rotor nodded in agreement, and with that they both turned down the hallway and began running forwards. "Hey, we don't have time to sneak around!" Rotor shouted over their running. "Are you gonna be good to fight anything else before we get back to Tails!?"

"I'll be fine!" Sorun shouted back. Left unsaid were the concerns Sorun had that he, in fact, wouldn't have the energy to cut down any Badniks in their way and make it all the way back to Tails, but the impending doom of sinking down to the bottom of an ocean chasm was keeping him going. For now, at least. He'd have to hope it was enough to make it to Tails. "Let's just focus on making it back, alright!?"

Little more was said between the two as they continued winding their way through the myriad hallways on their way back to Tails and the submarine. Rotor stayed ahead of Sorun and had been leading them down the facility, having still memorized the general layout from that computer he'd hacked earlier. Sorun had been forced to cut down any Badniks that had just happened to be in their way, and with every single time he used Yamato to dispatch a robot he felt his strength going weaker.

The doors were a problem, too. Whether it was a security measure due to the Emerald being taken or due to the self destruct sequence Eggman triggered, all the doors they'd previously passed that had been unlocked were now locked, or even worse giant bulkhead doors comprised of thick steel had slammed down from the ceiling in the middle of some hallways to block their way back to Tails. Probably as a way to stall them or keep them trapped, but seeing as Sorun had the Yamato, they were able to simple cut their way past any and all doors. It was taking a heavier and heavier toll on Sorun every time, however, and he simply didn't know how much longer he could keep going at this pace.

He tried to stay at a constant pace behind Rotor between all the running, the robots, and the doors. The constant explosions heard in the distance and the floor beneath them shaking was a good motivator to keep going forwards, but even that was beginning to lose its effect. It was when he'd just cut a triangular hole through another bulkhead door that had slammed down in their way that he was really beginning to feel the fatigue beginning to wrack his body. Rotor had ran on ahead a little bit while Sorun had lagged behind, holding a hand against the wall for support as he walked forwards.

"Huh? Hey, Sorun!" Rotor, still a little bit ahead of Sorun, had turned around looked towards Sorun. Intense worry was written all across his face. "You doing okay!?"

"Y-yeah," he called back in a low voice, turning his head back towards the opposite end of the hallway when he felt two streams of warm fluid begin to run down his nose. "Just... just gimme a few- egh!"

Another explosion rocked through the facility, throwing Sorun off balance and making his entire side slam into the wall. No sooner had his body made contact with the cold metal did his ears pick up the sound of something extremely alarming: the sound of rushing water. He looked forwards towards the hole he'd cut through the door, his eyes widening when he saw a torrent of sea water rush in from down the hallway and towards him.

There hadn't been any time to dodge the water, and even if there had been, he wouldn't have had the energy to do so. He was washed right off his feet and carried down towards the end of the hallway where Rotor was, only stopping when he'd been carried right into another wall. Multiple spluttering sounds came from Sorun as he spat out the seawater that had wound up in his mouth, who then proceeded to wipe away any excess water as he began to shakily stand up to his feet.

"Well, at least the oil problem's taken care of... mostly." Legs quavering in exhaustion, Sorun managed to make it halfway up towards a standing position despite the water rushing up against his ankles. He only made it that far, though, as his legs buckled right after and caused him to crash back down to the sitting position. "Agh, gimme a break here..."

He was about to make another attempt at getting up to his feet when he felt something roughly tug on his arm and pull him upwards. He managed to catch out from the corner of his eye that it was Rotor who, with some difficulty due to the height advantage he had over Sorun, slung the human's arm over his shoulder to support him.

"You're a real handful, you know that?" Rotor grunted as he and Sorun hobbled forwards, doing their best to push through the ankle-deep water that was rushing past them. "I didn't know your powers wore you out that bad."

"I haven't really had them long enough to acclimate to them," Sorun lied, speaking between heavy breaths as he and Rotor continued pushing forwards. While he was speaking, a random Egg Pawn had rounded a nearby corner and had turned right towards them. It fell down onto its back when a Summoned Sword found itself going through its face. "Just... just keep me going like this."

"Yeah. Yeah, don't worry. It's just a bit further," Rotor grunted out, pushing them both along further and further down the facility.

After that it had been more moving. More robots skewered by Summoned Swords and the occasional door that needed cutting. Sorun had seen it as a good sign when they passed that security room they'd ran into earlier, and eventually after that Sorun began to actually recognize some of the hallways they were passing through.

They were getting closer to Tails, which was a good thing. Not so good was the fact the water had risen from around Sorun's ankles to his knees. Even worse was that the edges of his vision was turning black from his waning strength. But they were almost there. Rotor made fit to keep reminding him and encouraging him, to help him fight through all the exhaustion until they made it back to Tails.

"Alright, Sorun. We're almost there." The both of them had passed another corner, and Sorun had groaned out in dismay when he saw yet another bulkhead door in their path. "I think I remember this hallway," Rotor continued as they stopped right in front of the door. "We just gotta cut through this last door and we're home free, okay?"

With a groan, Sorun removed himself from Rotor and took a few steps away from the walrus. Rotor looked towards him expectantly, though his features turned confused when he saw Sorun shaking his head. He immediately saw why when the human teen lifted up Yamato- half of the blade was gone while the remainder was completely cracked and crumbling away. "Yeah, about that..." Sorun mumbled out, dropping the sword as it finally disintegrated in a cloud of black and blue ash.

"Ugh! Okay, okay, it's not a problem." Rotor quickly patted Sorun on the shoulder, and then made his way towards the side of the bulkhead door. There was a small panel where Rotor had stopped in front of, which the walrus proceeded to crouch down in front of and begin removed using a tool procured from the belt wrapped around his waist. "Look, I'll get this thing open. Just watch our backs, okay?"

Sorun, lacking the energy to respond, simply turned around to the opposite end of the hallway to watch out for anything dangerous as Rotor got to to work. There was the occasional Egg Pawn that wandered into the hall, though it was quickly destroyed from a quickly-fired Summoned Sword from Sorun. He was having a hard time creating even those, though. Each new sword he manifested was more cracked and broken than the last, and he was finding it difficult to keep his eyes open just to stay awake.

"Hurry it up, Rotor," an exhausted Sorun thought as he mentally threw another Summoned Sword at an approaching Badnik, adding to the pile of fallen robots at the end of the hall. "I don't have much more time here."

He didn't think he could make any more Summoned Swords after that last one. He was barely standing on his feet as it was, and his thoughts were becoming muddled in the exhaustion. He felt his eyes widen just the barest amount when he heard a loud, clanking noise behind him, and turned around just in time to see the bulkhead door having risen up. It only went up about a quarter of the way, though, and he saw that Rotor had stepped away from the console he'd been messing with and turned towards Sorun.

"Sorun," he began, "the door's stuck on something. Think you can-?"

With a groan of sheer effort, Sorun manifested a barely-visible, flickering Bringer Claw that slowly reached forwards and gripped the underside of the door. It managed to raise it halfway up before Sorun's power gave out entirely, causing the spectral arm to disappear and Sorun to stumble forwards as he lost his footing. He was fortunately caught by Rotor, who was forced to all but drag Sorun under the door and through the hallway.

By that point Sorun had been fading in and out of consciousness from his weariness. He did manage to make out the doorway he'd cut out at the very beginning, when they'd first entered the facility. He managed to make out the wide, circular room with the moonpool in the middle, and to his eternal gratitude he saw that Tails' submarine and the fox himself was still there. Due to his exhaustion his vision was slightly blurred and it was difficult to make out any hard details, but he saw enough to tell the fox was there. Even his hearing was spotty, as he managed to hear Rotor and Tails shout at each other but hadn't managed to make out the words they said.

The distant explosions combined with whatever it was that Rotor had said must have made clear the urgency of the situation, though, as Sorun managed to make out Tails hopping into the submarine's main body along with the distant-sounding hum of the Sea Fox starting to life. Rotor had helped Sorun into the sidecar-like vessel attached to the sub's side, the human being able to do nothing more than limply sit back as the glass dome closed in overhead and sealed Sorun inside the pod. He assumed Rotor had managed to get into his own sidecar as well, as not long after the submarine dipped below the surface of the moonpool.

Past the fogginess of his vison Sorun saw the whiteness of water foaming and rushing past the small vehicle he was sealed in before it soon gave away to the clear, dark blue surroundings of the deep ocean all around them. He saw the submarine immediately turn around and begin driving in the opposite direction of the facility, though Sorun found himself turning around in his seat for little more than an urge to see the facility he and Rotor had just narrowly avoided dying inside of.

It was still there when he turned around, albeit slowly shrinking away due to the growing distance between it and the Sea Fox. He saw one more explosion go off near its side, at the final support strut that hadn't been completely blown away from the previous explosions. That final strut being destroyed marked the end of it, as no sooner had the strut had given out than Sorun was forced to watch as the facility fell downwards into the deep sea trench below. He breathed out a sigh of both relief and exhaustion as he saw the metal facility disappear into the chasm's blackness, sitting back forwards towards the ocean view as Tails drove them away from the devastation.

He was only able to take in the grand sight of the ocean for a few seconds before finally passing out.


A/N- It's gag curse part deux, because this thing is proving to be a constant source of consternation for me.

I got asked if Sorun could use Yamato to separate himself from the gag curse. Short answer: yes, he could. He hasn't because of two reasons:

One- The gag curse is less of a restriction at this point and more like a safety net in case Sorun messes up and says something he isn't supposed to. Even though he's completely on board with the whole thing he still slips up every now and then, as evidenced last chapter when he was talking with Sally. He hates it more for the principle of what it represents over its actual function.

Two- Sorun literally never thought to do it. I was gonna go into that, like, way later, but there.

To be honest there's... a lot Sorun's Yamato can do. Enough that I had to restrict almost all of its abilities behind Sorun not knowing how it works, because if I didn't and he got all of its abilities on the get-go the story would have ended right there. And not in a good way. So it's all locked behind Sorun's inability to figure out how it works, hence him slowly working it out over the course of the story.

As for the curse not working around Merlin, chalk it up to it not proccing near Neo-Watchers and Sorun's wording and intent not being specific enough to trigger it.

And lastly, regarding Silver, who I made a reference to in a previous A/N over Virgil's name, here is all the information I am willing to give on the subject matter of that specific character in regards to whether or not he has a presence in this story and to what that presence exactly entails:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯