Recursion Error
Episode 32- Trickster
Egg.
The very meaning of that one, singular word had changed a lot for Sorun over the course of his stay on Mobius. Before on his life on Earth it hadn't meant much to him. Personally, he never really liked the taste of the things. Baking with them was one thing, but eating them raw or scrambled or any other variation? He just couldn't do it. So his opinion on eggs was already low to begin with.
And then Mobius happened, and along with that came Eggman, and from then on the word was completely ruined for him. He couldn't even see an egg the same way ever again, internally cringing if he so much as caught sight of an egg while raiding Sonic's fridge. So that was two foods ruined for him forever: juice and eggs.
Breakfast would just never be the same.
But now he was here, sitting down on the Freedom HQ's couch with such a thing resting in his hands. An egg. Not a normal, garden-variety egg one would eat or bake with. No, this was a larger egg that just barely fit in Sorun's hands. A light blue egg with its tip being colored a yellow color.
Apparently this egg was Virgil.
It was right after the underwater mission, where Sorun and Rotor had acquired the fourth Chaos Emerald. Sorun had been asleep in the submarine for most of the ride back, only awaking when they'd made it to land and had to walk to Tails' plane to make it back to Knothole. The flight back, for the most part, had been uneventful. They'd made it to Knothole's hangar, parked the plane, and the three had proceeded to make some idle chat as they walked back towards Freedom HQ, where Sorun planned on calmly sitting down, taking in the fourth Emerald, and then deal with whatever came next.
He walked into the Freedom HQ seeing Sonic with Virgil in egg form. Thus he was here.
"... I gave you one job." Sorun looked from the egg resting in his hands to the hedgehog sitting on the couch next to him. On any other day Sorun would have relished the extremely nervous smile Sonic had. The way the muscles around his mouth and eyes were tightened in worry and the way sweat was beading down his face and arms. But right now Sorun just couldn't find it in himself to look past the fact his pet had turned into an egg under Sonic's watch. "It was a simple thing. I left my pet Chao with you while I went on the big, scary mission under the sea, and when I came back I expected to find Virgil safe and sound. What I got was an egg." He lowered the egg into his lap, sighed, and affixed Sonic with a deadpan stare. "Dude. What happened?"
"So, uh, listen, Sorun," Sonic began, holding his hands up in an effort to try and placate Sorun, "Chao, they, they do this kind of thing all the time, you know? It's a natural part of their life cycle-"
"What the hedgehog is neglecting to mention is that he took his eyes off of your Chao for a time because he attempted to challenge me to a race out of boredom."
Slowly, Sorun's eyes drifted away from Sonic towards the far end of the wall of the HQ. He saw Shadow's black and red form leaning against the wall, arms crossed as he sent an admonishing glare towards the blue hedgehog. Sorun slowly looked back towards Sonic, who looked increasingly nervous under both Shadow's and Sorun's scrutiny.
"Is this true?" Sorun asked in a level tone.
"Well... yeah," Sonic hesitantly answered, giving Sorun a shaky nod, "but I was only gone a few minutes! How was I supposed to know I'd come back to an egg!? He was completely fine when I left him alone!"
Sorun listened closely to Sonic, and then took a slow, deep breath. He exhaled, eyes falling down to the egg in his lap, and without taking his eyes off of it he said, "Sonic, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do."
"It's fine, bud, it's a natural thing for Chao. Virgil'll just hatch and-"
"No, I mean with you," Sorun interrupted. "I don't know how I'm supposed to punish you for this."
"... You know this isn't actually my fault, right?"
"Yeah, but from where I'm sitting it really doesn't look like that." The human teen sighed and began to idly tap at the egg. "They do this when they reach the end of their lifespan so they can 'evolve' or something along those lines, right?"
"Something like that. I've only ever seen it happen once, back when me, Knux and Tails ran into that one Chao Garden," Sonic helpfully added as he shuffled closer to Sorun. "I think they do this thing where they evolve to be like whoever raises them, though. That's how it worked for us. They, er... the little fellas really like to emulate things."
"Hmm. So what you're saying is that you don't have a clue what's gonna happen."
Sonic started in his seat, and then gave Sorun a sheepish grin. "Sorry, pal, nobody really knows a whole lot about them. Didn't you say you checked a book or something out?"
"Yeah, but it didn't really- oh my god I forgot to get that book back to the library," he whispered under his breath. He'd been so preoccupied with everything else over all these weeks that it'd slipped his mind. Come to think of it he didn't even remember reading the full thing in its entirety now that he really thought about it. He hoped library late fees weren't a thing here. Or that the librarian would be too upset at him. He didn't even remember where he left that book, maybe somewhere in Sonic's room...
He shook those thoughts from his head. He was less concerned over an ornery librarian and more concerned over the egg that was sitting in his lap right now. Chao went through cycles like this all the time where they'd reach the end of a 'lifespan', turn into an egg, and hatch out from that egg. Sometimes it was the same Chao as last time, sometimes they evolved into a different and unique Chao, sometimes the egg turned gray and that marked their final life and permanent death.
Well, the egg hadn't turned gray, so there was at least one positive about this. Virgil wasn't dying, just... doing something else. The book and any other details he'd managed to get from people on the exact mechanics and functions of Chao evolution were rather vague. Sonic was right in that they did evolve in some semblance of whoever it was that cared for them since they were really emulative like that, but on the other hand there were apparently some cases of Chao evolving on their own without the need of a caretaker. And yet, in those same circumstances, they usually didn't evolve and just reincarnated as a normal Chao again. Or died.
In essence, the Chao did what they wanted. Maybe there were a myriad of other factors and variables Sorun and anybody else who made a study on the topic were neglecting concerning their evolution, but the fact was he had a Chao egg in his lap right now that was gonna hatch into something. Sonic personally attested to having a Chao evolve in his visage at one point, so he had that much to go off of. Maybe the same was going to happen to Virgil.
That still left the question of just what Virgil would evolve into, but Sorun would save those concerns until the actual hatching.
"Hey, guys." Sorun's attention shifted from the egg towards the side of the couch. He saw Tails and Rotor walk into his view, the former having been the one that addressed them while the latter was still holding onto the purple Emerald. "No change with Virgil, huh?" Tails asked, looking towards Sorun.
"Yes, Virgil's still an egg. No, Sonic's not getting out of me putting something weird in his gloves when he goes to sleep tonight." Sorun cast his eyes back on the egg, pretending not to notice the affronted look Sonic sent him. "You won't know which pair it'll be, either. You'll wake up one morning to put on a pair of gloves and then bam!"
"I think you're being way too serious about this," Sonic muttered under his breath.
Sorun's eyes flicked over to the hedgehog. "And I think the next time I ask you to look after Virgil while I'm gone getting stabbed at-"
The egg moved.
His mouth snapping shut, Sorun's head turned so quickly towards the egg that his neck had made a slight cracking sound. Everybody else leaned in closer as well as the egg jumped in Sorun's lap slightly, with some light cracks appearing on the shell afterwards. At one point Sorun had hesitantly raised a finger to poke at the egg, but then Sonic had reached over and slapped him on the shoulder while shaking his head, causing him to lower it back to his side.
And then something burst out of the side of the egg. A small, sharpened appendage of sorts that made Sonic, Tails, and Rotor recoil back in shock, caused Shadow to widen his eyes in slight surprise, and had Sorun tilting his head to the side in curiosity. The appendage continued to cut and slice away at the egg shell containing it, and slowly the small figure resting inside of the egg was revealed to those that were watching.
The thing that was inside of the egg had the same general shape as a Chao, but that was where the similarities ended. The blue coloring had darkened from a light to a dark shade of blue, and the yellow tips on his hands and feet had completely darkened to a black color. And on the back of each of his small arm appendages was a black, blade-like claw that curved up the arm, the tip of the two blades extending past his shoulders.
The strangest change was with the Chao's head. Virgil had blinked his eyes open, deep blue eyes looking straight into Sorun's. His teeth had become sharpened, and the yellow dot and teardrop-shape on the top of his head was gone completely. In place of that was a... silver crest of sorts sitting on top of Virgil's head. A crest in the form of two cylindrical horns jutting out of his head, both with flat tops and pointed diagonally in opposite directions.
"... Huh." That was the only response Sorun could find in himself to say as he reached forwards and tapped Virgil on his face. To his surprise, the Chao actually scowled and tried batting his finger away, Sorun just barely moving his hand out of the way before one of his two bladed arms cut him. "That weird silver horn-crest thing on his head... it's the same thing Vergil from the 'DMC' games had. His Devil Trigger had those horns," Sorun realized. "How the hell did that happen? I get my powers came from my subconscious and memory, but... but how'd he...?" He looked to one of his hands, and then back to the Chao. "Man. Chao sure are freaky."
He'd never even pretend to know how it was that Virgil's body managed to evolve to form into some kind of... mock imitation of his game counterpart's transformation. That book had said something about their species being natural conductors for Chaos energy, so Sorun suspected there was something there to that. Maybe being around Sorun and his powers had influenced it in some way? He didn't know at all. Nothing concerning Chaos energy was never straight.
Well, strange or not, he'd admit one thing: it was a good look for the Chao. Way better than how he previously looked in Sorun's opinion.
"Um..." That unsure hum had come from Sonic, which drew both Sorun's and Virgil's attention. The blue hedgehog was staring down at the Chao, eyes half-lidded and mouth held in a hesitant grimace. "Sorun, uh... don't you think that's kinda... too scary a transformation for a Chao...?"
"What are you talking about? He looks cool," Sorun defended. Sonic looked back towards Sorun in shock, and Virgil looked up at him with an almost... pleased expression on his face. "Look, he's got the two little swords on his arms and the cool silver horns. And... hey, look at that! His wings!"
He'd only noticed it when Virgil suddenly flexed the appendages on his back. The first thing Sorun noted was how they looked: where they were once small, pink, heart-shaped insect wings, now they were a solid blue appendage sharpened to look like a reptilian's wing, with a split near their tops to give the wings two tips. The second thing he noticed was that there were two wings on either side of his back, even the right side, which had previously lacked a wing due to Virgil's previous wound.
Virgil looked towards his back, his two split wings experimentally flapping. They beat down on Sorun's lap, the human chuckling slightly when the Chao's body was raised into the air where he then proceeded to float directly in front of the teen's face with a blank, almost bored expression.
"So your wing grew back when you evolved? Or it was replaced with the other one? Something like that?" Sorun guessed, tilting his head to the side a bit to get a better look at his back.
"Chao." Even Virgil's voice had changed. It was a noticeable few octaves deeper. Not too deeper- it was less the high-pitched voice it had been and now more a deeper, boyish voice, but it still hit differently for Sorun compared to how he used to sound. "Chao-chao."
"Oh. Huh." He still couldn't understand what he was saying, but he couldn't help but note how... dismissive the Chao's tone was now. Almost haughty in a way. "Well... I'm glad you got your wing back, buddy." He reached a single finger forwards to rub at the top of the floating Chao's head. Virgil stiffened up and flinched at the touch, but still allowed Sorun to rub at the spot between his silver horns.
He really was glad he had his flight back, too. It always bugged Sorun that Virgil had to live with a crippling injury and had to be carried around everywhere. Maybe now the little guy could finally get some freedom back, maybe even feed himself now, but really he was happy with Virgil's transformation as a whole. Sorun couldn't put a finger on why. It just... seemed fitting to him.
"Well, he looks kinda weird, but as long as he's happy with it I'm happy with it," Sonic voiced. He grinned a little at the floating Chao, and then leaned forwards while reaching a hand out towards him. "C'mere, Virgil, let me get some head rubs in, too."
Sonic's finger had made it within about an inch of Virgil before the Chao's head snapped down towards the appendage reaching towards him. Without a single sound, the Chao sliced one of his bladed arms in the direction of the finger before going to float over Sorun's shoulder. Sonic reflexively recoiled his hand at the strike, gripping his wrist while staring up at the Chao with shocked eyes.
"What the!?" He looked down at his finger, his eyes widening dramatically when he saw that the finger of the glove he'd extended towards Virgil had a long cut in it. The finger below was completely unharmed, but nevertheless the glove had been cut. "H-he cut me!" Sonic sputtered out as he pointed towards the Chao.
The Chao looked down towards Sonic, and then, in a seemingly disdainful tone of voice, said, "Chao."
Sorun, for his part, began to uncontrollably chuckle at the small feeling of pride going through him as he looked up at Virgil. "Oh, man, that was pretty good."
"Pretty good!? He picked up all your bad habits!" Sonic hotly claimed.
"You mean he picked up all my good habits," Sorun denied, reaching up to briefly rub the top of the Chao's head again. Sonic had an almost betrayed look on his face when he saw that the Chao let Sorun touch him without so much as raising an arm up in defense. "Good Chao. Gooood Chao..."
"Chao-chao." It seemed that Virgil reached the limit of how much embarrassment it was willing to endure, as he carefully batted Sorun's finger away with his arms while taking care not to cut him with the bladed ends. Sonic continued staring up at the Chao, and then began grumbling under his breath as he turned away to look at his cut glove. He noted from the corner of his eye that the Chao was seemingly smugly grinning down at him, which only made his angered mutters increase in volume.
"Well, I'm happy your pet Chao's all better now! Even he's a bit, well, spooky-looking." This came from Tails, who slowly began shuffling towards Sorun as he reached a hand out. "Hey, you think he would mind if I-?" He stopped when Virgil's head snapped towards him, the Chao's eyes narrowing as a frown settled on his face. Tails began to back up, nervously muttering, "O-okay, uh, nevermind. I'll just, er, be over here..."
Virgil huffed, his expression turning back to normal as he shifted his gaze from Tails to Rotor, who looked towards the Chao with an unsure look. He gave the purple walrus a dismissive look and then looked towards Shadow. The dark hedgehog met Virgil's gaze in a mostly calm, inquisitive manner, though he looked mildly surprised when the Chao gave him a small, barely-perceptible nod of respect in return. It came as such an unexpected motion to Shadow that he had no time to formulate a response before the Chao looked back forwards.
Sorun watched the entire display silently, chuckling under his breath after seeing the Chao nod at Shadow before finally settling to lean back in the couch. "Well, I say this counts as a successful day. Virgil got a makeover and his wing back, and we survived another mission and certain doom yet again. And it's not even evening yet."
"Uh, yeah. Great day all around," Rotor said. "So do you want this Chaos Emerald we survived certain doom for, Sorun?"
Blue eyes snapping open, Sorun looked towards the taller Mobian, and then down at the gem in his hands. "Oh, yeah! Can't believe I almost forgot that. Yeah, give it here."
Shrugging, Rotor tossed the Emerald through the air and towards Sorun. The human caught the Emerald with both of his hands, wincing slightly when he felt the Emerald affix itself to his hands and sighing out deeply when he saw arcs of purple energy begin to crackle around his hands. He sat back in the couch, breathing out slowly to prepare himself for what was inevitably about to happen.
He continued to stare down at the purple Emerald for a bit, and then looked up at those surrounding him. Rotor and Tails were both giving him reassuring smiles, and when he looked to the side he saw that Sonic was doing the same thing, even going as far as to give him two thumbs-ups. Shadow, inversely, only continued to look at Sorun with that perpetual scowl of his, though he did afford the human a slight nod of encouragement.
A small scoff, followed by the barest of smiles, found its way onto Sorun's lips right before his entire body began convulsing. He felt his muscles cry out in pain and felt a deep pain lance through his body, but compared to the other three times he'd done this... this time was almost mild in comparison. He was even able to keep his eyes open and look down as the Emerald continued to run its power through his body, and instead of having a pained grimace on his face it was more of a curious, questioning look.
It must still have at least looked like it hurt, though, as from the corner of his eyes he saw almost everybody save for Shadow wincing towards him in sympathy. At this point seeing as the pain was at a more than tolerable level, Sorun didn't feel it was necessary. It still felt nice, though, to be considered in such a way by them. And it made going through the whole process that much easier, even if it was already bearable.
He watched as the purple gem in his hand slowly began to dissolve and disintegrate into particles of purple energy that was soon enough siphoned off into his arms. He saw the veins on his limbs briefly glow purple, shift into a blue color, and then dim entirely. All the glowing and electricity arcing around him ended, and with a heavy breath Sorun slumped right into the couch.
A few moments passed where everybody stared towards Sorun's body with bated breath, Virgil in particular hovering close nearby while looking down towards him. Sorun's body suddenly twitched, startling everybody else and causing them to lean back slightly. The teen slowly groaned as he sat up a bit straighter, smoke still roiling off of his form as he began leaning his neck back and forth.
"Yeah, that'll wake you up in the morning. Or put you to sleep at night. Can't even tell anymore," Sorun mumbled under his breath as he began winding his left shoulder. "Man..."
"You okay, Sorun?" Sonic asked, blinking towards Sorun in concern.
"By some definition of the word, yeah." Wincing, Sorun stopped winding his shoulder and held his right hand out in front of his face.
Sonic's features relaxed slightly in relief. "Oh, great. So, uh... what'd ya get?"
"Well, I'm not feeling scaly, so I can tell you what I didn't get." He began flexing his hand as a disgruntled look crossed Sorun's face. "I swear, I ask for one specific power and they won't give it to me..."
"Um... what?" Sonic asked, face scrunching in confusion.
Sorun glanced up to the blue hedgehog, and then shook his head. "It's nothing. I was just wondering-"
He vanished mid-sentence.
It had happened so suddenly that there had been no reaction at first, as everybody watching needed to take a few seconds to process what had just happened: Sorun, right in the middle of talking, had completely disappeared in a small cloud of black and blue vapors that disappeared just as quickly. Sonic and Tails had actually jumped up in surprise when it finally registered that the human teen sitting on the couch in front of them had just vanished into thin air, while everyone else was staring at the spot with widened eyes.
A loud bang, followed by a quiet groan, was heard at the other end of the room. All eyes were drawn towards the source of the noise, where it was seen that Sorun was lying flat on the ground in front of a wall, holding both hands against his face. He slowly sat up in a sitting position, shaking his head while looking up at the wall.
"Tricking. I got Tricking," Sorun groaned out as he rubbed at his nose. "Slammed my face on the stupid-"
Once again, Sorun disappeared, only to then reappear slamming into another wall on the opposite side of the room. He groaned out loud as he slid down the wall, though he wasn't even able to hit the ground before disappearing and reappearing on another side of the room in the same instance.
Five sets of eyes slowly tracked Sorun as he teleported all around the room, slamming into a wall or the odd piece of furniture as he uncontrollably and sporadically appeared all over. A chair and a nearby lamp had been toppled over in his relentless teleporting, and at one point he'd teleported all the way up to the ceiling, yelling out as his body spun uncontrollably in its fall only to impact the ground. He finally ended it by teleporting once again, sliding face-first against the ground right at Shadow's feet.
The darkened hedgehog looked downwards, giving the downward-facing human a blank look while also taking a step back. Sorun, feeling multiple pains across his body from the multiple times he impacted against some surface, groaned out, "Shadow, how does this work?"
"You're asking me?" Shadow asked, face morphing into one of incredulity. "You're usually able to figure these things out fine enough on your own."
"No, dude, you don't understand. This is really hard." Sorun slowly got up onto his knees, grimacing slightly while holding a hand to his side. "Like, like I just keep zipping around everywhere and I- ah!" He teleported again, though this time he remained in the same position on his knees while only having teleported a few inches forwards. "Okay, I... I think I'm gettin' it down... man, that's a weird feeling."
"Are you okay to stand?"
"Er... yeah..." He sounded unsure of himself, though nonetheless Sorun managed to get up onto his feet, stumbling slightly but managing to catch himself before falling fully. "You can teleport, right? Can you help me out with this?" Sorun asked, looking back up to Shadow. "'Cause this is kinda tricky to get the hang of, I can't... this's just so weird."
Shadow hummed, looking Sorun's body up and down with his eyes narrowed in concentration. The look was enough to get Sorun to wonder what it was he was thinking of, but before he had too much time to ponder on this Shadow nodded his head. "I suppose it can't be avoided. Not like anybody else here is a better instructor on the subject." He went as far as the glance to the side towards Sonic, who was still sitting on the couch in the center of the room. Sorun could have sworn he'd heard some edge of superiority edged in that last sentence that somehow went with that look he was sending Sonic.
The blue hedgehog's mature response was to stick his tongue out at Shadow, who scoffed and rolled his eyes at the ceiling at the sight. Sorun stared in confusion between the two, and from the side he could see both Tails and Rotor palming their faces at the sight of the two hedgehogs' antics. Virgil just continued to hover in place, looking just as confused as Sorun looked.
"Okay, uh... yeah." Shaking his head, Sorun turned towards Sonic. "Hey, so uh, I'm gonna go with Shadow to try and work this teleport thing out. That alright?"
Sonic waved a hand to the side, calling out, "Yeah, sure, if you're feeling alright after all that go ahead. Have fun hanging out with the grouch over there."
"Don't mind him. He's just upset that you keep turning to me for help with your powers since I'm the only one here qualified to do so," Shadow said, maintaining his glare towards Sonic who was doing the same. Sorun looked back and forth between the two again, and after a few moments of this behavior continuing he decided to step in.
"And I deeply appreciate you taking the time to do so, now can we please go?" Sorun asked, leaning his body between the two hedgehogs while looking towards Shadow.
"Hmph. Of course." Casting one final glance towards Sonic, Shadow huffed and turned towards the stairs. "We'll go to the usual spot."
"Sounds good." Sorun looked back and nodded his head towards Virgil, with the Chao immediately flying over to hover next to Sorun's left shoulder. Satisfied, Sorun turned back around towards Shadow's back and began following him to the stairs that lead up and out of the HQ.
For some reason, though, Shadow stopped right at the base of the stairs. Sorun had stopped right behind him and looked on in confusion, but when he looked towards the stairs he understood why the hedgehog had stopped: somebody else was already coming down the stairs. And Sorun only needed a few seconds' glance at her legs to tell it was Sally.
"Hm? Oh, hey guys." Sally had stopped in surprise at seeing all the people in the HQ after descending the stairs, but then relaxed immediately upon seeing all their faces and even gave a small wave. Her eyes turned towards Sorun, at which point she lit up a bit and said, "Oh, Sorun, you and the others are back from that mission. I trust it went well?"
"About as well as it could have gone," Sorun answered with a nod. "Even managed to get an Emerald. Shadow's helping me out with some difficulties I have right now, but it's not an issue."
Sally nodded. "Alright, well I'm glad to... hear..." Her eyes slowly looked upwards, her voice trailing off when she saw the floating, split-winged and horned Chao hovering right next to him. She continued to silently stare at him, and then slowly lifted a finger up to point at Virgil. "Is that...?"
Sorun looked up to the Chao. "Oh, yeah, that's Virgil," he answered, turning back to Sally. "He did his weird egg-evolution thing and turned out like that. Guess his wing grew back, too."
"Ah, I understand. I'm happy to see he's all better now!" She sent a bright smile up at the Chao, and Sorun, with some amusement, noticed the way Virgil had crossed his short limbs while turning his head away, almost as if he was embarrassed at the attention. Sally giggled at the action and looked back towards Sorun. "Well, I won't stay in your hair any longer than needed. Oh, but one more thing."
"Mm?" Sorun gave her a questioning hum, but then instantly grew still when he saw her reaching into her vest.
"Nicole wasn't doing much and kept asking me when you'd be back from the mission you, Rotor, and Tails went on," she explained, brining out the handheld computer from a pocket inside of her vest. "Getting a Chaos Emerald from Eggman is a big accomplishment, so I don't see any reason why you two can't take some time to-"
"Can't."
Sally froze at the interruption, and then gave Sorun a wide-eyed look when she realized what he'd just said. She was right in the middle of making the motion to hand him Nicole, too, though after hearing him speak she pulled her back a bit. "What?" she asked, almost as if to see if she'd heard right.
"Can't," Sorun repeated, eyes locked right on the handheld. "I'm doing the thing with Shadow right now."
"O... kay, but right after you can-"
"Can't." For some reason Sorun couldn't keep his eyes off of the computer that was being held in Sally's hand. Nicole's body. He'd felt his heart begin to beat heavily in his chest the moment he saw her, and in truth he desperately wanted to grab her from Sally. He couldn't, though. He just couldn't. "Shadow, let's go," Sorun quickly muttered, walking right past a stunned Sally and going straight for the stairs.
There wasn't anything said between any of the Mobians as they watched the human quickly storm up the stairs, his pet Chao following closely behind. Shadow had cast a single, curious glance towards Sally's way, but in the end this look had only lasted a second before he headed for the stairs following Sorun.
"Um..." It was the only response Sally, still staring up after where the human had gone up the stairs and out of sight, could form. She shook herself out of her stupor moments later, and then glanced down at the computer held in her hand. "Er, Nicole, I'm sure Sorun's just busy with something. Nicole?"
The computer didn't respond to her. In fact, the green screen on the top part of the handheld went completely dark, forcing Sally to sigh out and close the computer completely and then place it back into her vest. She then looked towards the other three in the room, who looked just as equally surprised and confused as she did.
"What was up with that?" Sonic was the first to speak, an eye ridge furrowed in confusion as he gestured towards the stairs. "Sorun always jumps at the opportunity to hang out with Nicole."
"I'm just as confused as you are, Sonic," Sally admitted with a shake of her head. Ever since they'd gotten to know one another Sorun never, ever turned down an opportunity to do something with Nicole, especially as of late. It went both ways, too; Sally couldn't recall a time where Nicole had said no to hanging out with Sorun without good reason whenever he asked, and being the good friend she was, of course she'd lent him Nicole whenever the time allowed it.
It was just supposed to be something to motivate Sorun at first. There was precious little else Sorun enjoyed doing, and sometimes it seemed like to Sally the mere prospect of doing something as simple as playing a game or talking with the AI was what got him out of bed. And she'd noticed he'd begun to become more proactive over time, probably as a result of it, so she'd been subtly shifting tasks around from time to time to make it so their free time lined up more and more with each others'.
For the most part, it had seemed to be a big success. Mentally speaking Sorun had been improving a considerable amount over time, especially after him accepting he was here to stay on Mobius and his continued sessions with Nicole. He'd even gone so far as to start volunteering for missions, which, if someone had told her the human would take on such initiative for the Freedom Fighters, she wouldn't have believed it. But he had, and he'd been getting good results. And these days she didn't even need to shift the schedules around anymore- Nicole made her own free time by moving her own work timetables around directly than Sally having to ask for her. Their interactions seemed to be doing them both some good, because while it was almost too subtle for her to tell, Sally still noticed that in the last month Nicole had become somewhat more productive in her own personal tasks.
But beyond all that, more than just helping each other improve they seemed to both be happy with the arrangement they'd made between themselves. So seeing Sorun straight-out turn down Sally's offer to lend him Nicole for a bit like that had her floored. He never did that. By all logic he shouldn't have done that. His behavior just seemed bizarre to her.
"Sorun did... act kind of off during the mission." Rotor's voice drew the attention of everyone present, causing three sets of eyes to focus over in his direction. "He just... I don't want to say he spaced out, but... I don't know. He just acted a bit weird," the walrus clarified with a shake of his head.
"Maybe all these missions he's been going on is taking a toll on him," Sonic suggested, shrugging his shoulders. "He's been doing a ton of them lately, so it'd be no wonder if he's a bit worn out. Guy's bound to act a little wonky if that's the case."
Sally slowly nodded at the logic, though an unconvinced frown was still present on her face. "That... makes some amount of sense, but I don't see why Sorun-"
"Look, Sal, I gave up trying to understand the guy. A lot of what he does doesn't make a whole lot of sense." Sonic leaned back into the couch, kicking his feet up on one of the cushions while locking his fingers behind his head. "Maybe he really is just tired. He just absorbed another Chaos Emerald- you know he gets tired whenever he does that. I don't know, but I'm sure whatever that was will work itself out. I don't think it's anything to worry about."
"Maybe," Sally mumbled in agreement, her hand unconsciously brushing over where Nicole rested in her vest. "Hopefully you're right, Sonic..."
So. Teleporting. It was tricky.
Ever since getting the Summoned Swords and Bringer Claws Sorun assumed that all of the powers he would get would be as easy to master as those two. Yamato put that theory to bed immediately, but Sorun had chalked that up to the sword being a special case among his powers.
But then he'd gotten the ability to teleport- or Trick, as he referred to it in keeping up with the games' terminology- and he began to realize that, perhaps, they wouldn't all be that easy. He was currently working on getting a good amount of control of it with Shadow over in Crate Land, the name he'd given the small training area full of crates he and Shadow frequented, but it was proving to be a challenge to wrap his head around.
Tricking was... an exceptionally odd sensation. He felt a small sort of "jolt" in his body whenever he did it. Not jolt in the sense of an electrical shock, but more like he felt his entire body just... shift. Like the feeling one would get when they would move at a high speed, only to abruptly stop and feel all their organs shake as a result. It was like that, except for his whole body experiencing this feeling simultaneously for less than a second. Though it was less he was moving rapidly and more that his body was bending space and literally teleporting him from one point to another. Or something along those lines, at least. He wasn't entirely sure how it actually worked. Chaos something-or-other.
Controlling where he would teleport to and doing as little as initiating the act of Tricking had been a bit of a struggle. Shadow had given him some tips: telling him to focus on where he wanted to go when he Tricked so he would actually end up where he wanted to go, while admittedly probably a no-brainer of a suggestion, was still immensely helpful. One big piece of advice he'd been given was to mentally associate the act of Tricking with a mental keyword he could focus on to control his Tricking so he didn't just randomly teleport whenever his thoughts went idle; a mental switch of sorts. Of course, Sorun had gone the simple route and went with the word "Trick" for his mental trigger phrase.
It hadn't exactly been an instant fix, but it was a long way away from where he started, which was randomly and uncontrollably Tricking everywhere. Shadow assured him it would get easier over time, and Sorun was inclined to agree with him. He had to have some faith that the guy who could teleport could teach somebody else how to teleport. But for now, Sorun had some degree of control over it. The disorientation from changing positions instantly was a hurdle he was slowly overcoming. He could at least initiate a Trick whenever he wanted to without it going off on its own.
Controlling where he actually went was a different matter.
"Agh!" Another unsuccessful Trick had landed him on the ground instead of on top of a pile of crates he'd been focusing on, causing his body to bounce off the ground and tumble in the complete opposite direction he wanted to go. "Egh-oof-ack-rrgh...!"
He finally stopped tumbling around when the momentum in his body finally ran out, causing him to roll onto his back and end up facing upwards. He huffed out an exhausted breath, his features soon settling into a scowl when he saw Shadow's face come into view as the hedgehog leaned over him. And the bastard looked smug.
"You look like you're having fun," Shadow commented. It was that superior tone of voice he had along with that smug smirk on his lips that made Sorun roll his eyes.
"Bite me." Sorun looked away from Shadow and towards a nearby crate. He focused intensely on that spot, thought the word "Trick", and before he knew it he'd ended up from laying on the ground to sitting on the crate. "See, I'm getting better."
"Any progress regardless of the rate you go still falls under the spectrum of 'progress', so yes, by technical terms you are improving."
"... You're not good at this whole sarcasm thing, are you? 'Cause that one fell really flat," Sorun said, shaking his hand from side-to-side in Shadow's direction. Shadow's smug grin instantly devolved into a frown, followed by a scoff as he trudged over to a crate right next to Sorun before sitting down on it. "You had the setup all right but you messed up on the delivery-"
"I don't need to take this from you," Shadow interrupted with a huff.
Sorun rolled his eyes in response, and then looked off to the other side. He saw Virgil hovering in the air besides him, and while he began to try and poke at the Chao as he dodged Sorun's finger, the human asked, "So did you have this much trouble when you were learning to teleport? Whenever that was?"
"Me? Have trouble honing my natural abilities?" Shadow opened his mouth to continue with this train of thought, but as he looked towards Sorun poking at his Chao he slowly closed his mouth and rethought his words. He opened his mouth to speak again, saying, "Admittedly... teleportation did give me some small amount of trouble in the beginning. I'm actually quite surprised how well you're adjusting to your... 'Tricking', as you call it."
"See, now that sarcastic jab from earlier really is worthless. You just obliterated your punchline by admitting I'm making good progress," Sorun said, turning back towards Shadow. "You're never gonna beat Sonic at wordplay at this rate."
Shadow's face actually scrunched up in mild disgust at hearing Sorun's words. He scoffed once again and crossed his arms. "As if I need to be better at telling meaningless jokes to be superior to him."
"It's not like you'd have to try very hard- guy's already worse than you. He just recycles the same one-liners over and over." A sad sigh left Sorun as he shook his head. "Always a shame to see such good opportunities for banter go to waste 'cause that guy just blows all his chances on petty, overused insults. It's freakin' frustrating doing missions with him."
"Because you don't approve of his witty remarks?" Shadow asked in an incredulous tone.
"That and other things. Y'know, just the way he does everything so easily, how he never seems to struggle and keeps that stupid grin on his face all the time." Sorun's hand snapped out and pressed down on the top of Virgil's head, the Chao flailing his arms as Sorun pushed him down slightly. "What's your deal with the guy, anyways?" he asked, easing up on the pressure so Virgil floated up only to push him back down again. "Every time you two are in the same room there's this real thick, competitive tension that fills the air and and I feel like I gotta swim out of the room just to get away from you two."
He felt a prick on his hand, and wincing slightly he reflexively pulled his hand away while also looking over towards Virgil. The small Chao, brandishing one of his bladed arms, simply gave Sorun a simple smirk as it floated closer to his side. Sorun snorted in amusement, and then he and Virgil both looked back towards Shadow.
The black and red hedgehog had a thoughtful look on his face, as if pondering the question Sorun had asked while at the same time picking his words out carefully. Finally, he sighed out loud and settled on saying, "We have a bit of history that lead up to where we are now. He thinks he's better than me, I know I'm better than him, and we've yet to definitively prove that I'm right and he's wrong."
"So it's like a rivalry?" Sorun asked.
"I suppose you could call it that, yes."
"Ohhh. Jeez, it's Dante and Vergil all over again, except the colors are reversed. Actually, that... that hits way too close to home. Egh." Sorun uncomfortably breathed out and shook his head. "So just because he's super fast and super tough and you got all your stuff that automatically means you have to keep trying to one-up each other?"
"It's more complicated than that. As I said, we've history," Shadow corrected him. "History I'd rather not get into."
Sorun blinked, looked towards Virgil who just shrugged at him, and then turned back to Shadow. "Fair enough," he said. "It's probably a good thing you don't rely on humor, anyways. Gives you your own style distinct from his. It's a thing you get to have that he can't, you know? This whole... sophisticated and overly-serious thing you got going on," he said, waving his hand in Shadow's direction.
Shadow's crimson eyes rolled away from Sorun, though his body straightened up just the smallest bit as if he was pleased with what he heard. "That's one way of looking at it," he said. A few moments passed, and he looked back to Sorun with an inquisitive look in his features. "What happened back there with the princess and the AI?" he asked.
"A little something I like to call 'none of your business'," Sorun answered, his sitting form going a big rigid as his eyes narrowed just the smallest amount. "Drop it, Shadow. I don't want to talk about this."
To his complete surprise, Shadow shook his head. "I told you about my struggles with learning to teleport and talked a bit about the Faker. You have to tell me what happened at the HQ now."
"What the- I never agreed to a quid-pro-quo convo with you," Sorun denied with a shake of his head. "Where's this coming from?"
Shadow sent Sorun a look mixed with confusion and annoyance. "This is how conversations transpire, is it not? A back and forth between individuals in order to progress the conversation?"
"I mean... yeah, but why do you care?" Sorun asked.
"I don't."
"... So why are you asking?"
"Because you seemed distressed and that can affect your performance," Shadow coolly answered. "The last thing we need is issues arising because of interpersonal problems. And you said you trusted me, did you not? I fail to see who else you would go to if not the AI if there truly is some issue."
"Her name's Nicole," Sorun snapped, but then closed his mouth when Shadow gave him a pointed look. He groaned a bit, and then turned to the side, only to then see Virgil giving him the same inquisitive look Shadow had, which caused him to groan some more. "You're the last person I would ever expect to care about this kind of thing. I'd sooner expect Eggman to walk in here asking about my feelings than you," Sorun mumbled, turning his eyes towards the ground. "Seriously, what gives?"
He would have believed Shadow was asking for purely pragmatic reasons if it wasn't for the fact he was pursuing the issue. Pursuing it meant interest, and Sorun had always thought Shadow considered himself above these kinds of things. That was always the air he gave off. So him coming in out of nowhere and asking this thing was left field for Sorun, and was making him confused. It didn't fit.
Shadow, seemingly sensing Sorun's distress and puzzlement, chose to answer. "I more concerned about the potential for this becoming a bigger issue than necessary more than anything else. If you really need a reason, though, then just call it payment for coming to me all the time for help with your powers."
A few seconds after Shadow's words reached his ears, Sorun's brows creased and he picked his head back up to Shadow. "How is that payment?"
"It gives me something to hold over the Faker. The fact you always come to me for help and not him gets under his skin, even if he won't openly admit it," Shadow answered, a ghost of a smirk playing across his lips. It vanished as soon as it arrived as he refocused on Sorun. "Why did you act so dismissive of Nicole?"
The small amount of appreciation Sorun felt over Shadow using Nicole's name was overshadowed by the urge to not tell Shadow why Sorun had done what he did. And he wasn't going to tell him. Even if... he did feel nice knowing Shadow was acknowledging the trust Sorun had said he'd put in him that one time, even if up until now he acted like he didn't. It was something, but not quite enough for Sorun to tell Shadow the truth on that certain matter.
Still, he felt he deserved something, so Sorun decided to go with what was on his mind to try and deflect the conversation.
"Shadow... sometimes in life it's easier to run away from your problems than face them head-on," Sorun said, form slumping slightly as his limbs went a bit limp. "This-this is essentially what I'm doing in regards to Nicole. I decided I'm just gonna do that forever now."
There were a few moments were Shadow continued to look impassively at Sorun's face, almost as if he'd not believed what Sorun had said or that he'd said some sort of jest. After some time passed, though, Shadow's face morphed into silent realization when he realized Sorun was completely serious, and right after his face set into a deep frown. "Sorun. That is completely moronic and ridiculous."
Sorun winced and turned away from Shadow. "You don't mince words, do ya?" he muttered.
"Chao."
The teen's eyes widened when he heard that tone of voice from Virgil, and when he looked to the Chao the small creature had his arms crossed and was glaring right towards Sorun, almost as if he was in agreement with Shadow's sentiment. This only caused Sorun's resolve to break even further.
"You shut up. I don't need this from you, too," Sorun hissed, turning back forwards to avoid both their glares. Despite him not having to see their eyes, though, he still felt them looking at him, and looking away had helped him none. "Look, this doesn't concern you."
"I would argue that is false, but we both know you're aware of this, so I'll save my breath," Shadow responded. "What happened between you and Nicole?"
"Nothing happened, I just... I can't take a break from somebody?" Sorun groaned out loud, leaning back on the crate he sat on to look towards the sky. "Geez, man, I try to diversify by hanging out with people outside my normal circle of my singular friend and you give me the third degree?"
"That isn't a circle."
"..." Sorun blinked, and then looked back down to Shadow. "What?"
"You and your friend, in this case Nicole, would only make two points. You can't make a circle with only two points," Shadow clarified.
It wasn't said as a joke, as Shadow had said this with a completely deadpan expression and serious voice. Any other time Sorun would have laughed at what he'd just heard, but right now the anxiety coursing through him was making him hold off on any laughing. "Straight line, whatever, you get what I mean," Sorun sighed out. "I just wanted to hang out with someone else for a change. Is that good enough for you?"
"No. It isn't." Sorun's eyes widened in surprise at the answer, whereas Shadow's just narrowed. "We aren't friends, and Nicole and I are the only two in Knothole you openly trust. She's your only friend. And this has nothing to do with the fact you told me you're running away from a problem regarding her." The scowl on Shadow's face deepened, and he leaned forwards on the crate towards Sorun. "Now stop lying and tell me the truth."
The extremely forward approach Shadow was taking with Sorun caused two reactions within the teen: the first was complete shock. He never expected Shadow to ever put much effort into anything Sorun had considered so mundane for him, and for Sorun of all people no less. It was... almost touching in a weird way only Shadow could produce.
It was also making Sorun more cross than he would have liked, because he refused to budge from his position and he genuinely felt Shadow had no business prying this far into a matter he absolutely did not want to discuss.
"You want me to tell you some truth?" Sorun's tone had shifted towards a more terse one, and the change had elicited some surprise in Shadow from the way his head just slightly twitched. "Here's some truth: I'm not telling you," Sorun continued. "You wanna have a chat with me so we can talk about some random whatever, then sure, I'm fine with that. But every time I ever ask something personal about you it's always 'I don't wish to discuss that', or 'that is none of your concern', so you don't get to sit there actin' all Mr. Mysterious and expect anything from me, especially after I told you all that personal stuff about my powers. I never even told Nicole about that."
He was fully aware that what he was saying came off as completely hypocritical, especially considering everything he was hiding from everybody, Shadow included. But Shadow didn't know that, so there was no way he would be able to call Sorun out on it and turn the argument in his favor. More importantly, it gave Sorun an out. A way out of this topic so he could stop scraping for reasons to avoid talking about the issue and focus on something else, or better yet just leave.
And as it was, he actually did just feel like leaving. Both to escape from this conversation and because he was legitimately a bit frustrated at Shadow and his own brand of hypocrisy. And it seemed like something Sorun had said got through to Shadow, based on the way he'd gone from an angry scowl to a small, almost surprised expression with thoughtful eyes. Either way, it was a chance Sorun was taking to get out of this mess.
"I think we're done here," Sorun said, standing up from his crate while keeping his eyes locked on Shadow.
"It would appear so," Shadow silently agreed with a small nod. "You're leaving, then?"
"Yeah. I gotta go clear my head." Sliding his hands into his pocket, Sorun nodded towards Virgil and then turned his back to Shadow. "Gonna go take a walk. I'll... talk to you later, I guess."
He began walking once Virgil floated to just over his shoulder, and as he walked he didn't hear Shadow say anything in response to Sorun's final words with him. He did feel the hedgehog's eyes on his back, but whatever face he was making was lost on Sorun as he refused to turn around and meet his gaze again. He just wanted to leave.
"Why does life here have to be so complicated?"
Maybe it was his fault. Going back and forth with people all the time while trying to maintain the cover that he was fine and that everything was fine when, no, everything was not fine and he never felt fine. But he accepted that as long as he maintained the illusion that everything was fine and tricked everybody else into thinking he was fine, that for long as he had that going, things would proceed smoothly and nobody would have to worry themselves into an early grave. That was his job. It wasn't something he took pride in, but seeing as how he'd given so much up already he figured it was his by right by now. So he just had to keep it up 'til he died.
But things always made his endeavors complicated. His wishy-washy relationship between the Freedom Fighters made it complicated. His thoughts on Nicole, oh, there were complexities aplenty there, but all he could do with those was hide from them and hope they would go away. Which they probably wouldn't, but a chance was a chance. Even if it was miniscule. Abysmal. Practically nonexistent. And made him feel even more awful than usual.
He felt like this should've been way simpler than it needed to be. Go to a new world, get powers, kill robots, kill fat tyrant, die. Why couldn't it have been that simple?
"I don't know, it's just- it's this whole thing, you know?" Sorun mumbled out in an exasperated tone, throwing his arms out in front of him as he shook his head. "I feel like I'm going out of my mind here. I probably am going out of my mind, but it's like, it's, I'm not the bad guy here, am I?"
"Chao."
Sorun cast a weary glance at the Chao floating next to him. He didn't know if walking through the outer edges of Knothole talking to a floating creature with the same energy of a madman mumbling out insane ramblings was the greatest of ideas, but as it happened Virgil was a great listener. Sorun didn't have a clue what he actually said outside of his expressions and visual cues, and his strange... emotion dot thing disappearing with his transformation wasn't helping in translation much, but he got enough of a gist to understand what the Chao meant. Usually. And right now he was giving Sorun judgmental eyes.
"C'mon, gimme a break, I'm doing the best I can here," Sorun grumbled out as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "And no, I'm not telling you my personal issues, either. You'll just have to deal with it like everybody else."
Virgil rolled his eyes, and then gruffly muttered, "Chao-chao."
"Because I figured it doesn't matter how much I suffer as long as everybody else comes out alright in the end, so it doesn't matter how people see me, but it's like, it's like I grew to like them all and tried to pretend I didn't and that's falling apart more and more like water on the daily. They probably see me as one part weirdo who can't make up his mind on what he wants and one part workaholic going on mission after mission, because somehow going out fighting robots to the death turned into a break for me." He sighed and let his hands drop to his side. "I don't even know why I care. 'Cause I care about them? Maybe. This is all... strange and confusing for me."
"Chaaoo...?" Virgil hedged, leaning in closer towards Sorun's face.
The human sighed and lightly pushed the Chao away. "No, I don't wanna talk about Nicole, just, just drop it. Don't wanna."
"Chao?"
"Because I don't want to, alright?"
"Chao," Virgil muttered, voice admonishing.
"I'm aware my solution's an awful one, but it's all I got. It's literally all I got! What else am I supposed to do, talk to her about it? Pfft. That ain't happening." Sorun sighed out and ran a ragged hand through his hair. "I mean, I could, but I don't know how that conversation would go and if the worst happened... ah, geez, this is all my fault. I shouldn't have gotten the ball rolling by avoiding her like that. Shoulda just kept the status quo up. Could have avoided this whole thing, but nah, I had to go and make it weird because I, because I didn't, I didn't want- rghh, I don't even know anymore." He frustratingly pulled at some of his hair, sighed, and pulled his hand away. "You get what I mean, right? Right? Virgil?"
When he didn't get a response from the Chao, Sorun looked to the side towards where he'd last seen Virgil floating. To his mild surprise he didn't find Virgil there, and after some light searching around, Sorun saw where the Chao had wandered off to: towards a tall tree near him, where the Chao was currently floating up to get at some of the apples hanging off the branches.
"I'm losin' my mind here," Sorun murmured to himself, shaking his head while rubbing at his eyes. "Guess that's what I get for trying to hold a conversation with a... hey now, what's this?"
He didn't think he'd find anybody out this far at the edge of Knothole, and yet Sorun did manage to spot a figure out in the distance up ahead. When he squinted his eyes and looked closer he realized it was Antoine, who was currently walking along while... talking to himself, for some reason. Sorun huffed out a breath at the sight, looked towards Vigil who was still going for the apples on the tree, and then looked back towards Antoine.
"... Screw it. I need a distraction." A mischievous grin formed on Sorun's face as an idea came to his head. "I'm gonna mess with him."
In that instant, his body disappeared only to then reappear right behind Antoine, who was none the wiser of the human teen suddenly appearing near him. Sorun's grin widened a large amount, and after mentally preparing himself he said, "Hey, Antoine."
He saw that the coyote's ears had perked up upon hearing his name be called out, though right before Antoine turned around Sorun had Tricked away out sight. As such, when Antoine had turned around all he saw behind him was empty air.
"Eh?" Antoine turned back around forwards, though when he still saw nothing his ears had flattened in confusion. "Strange... I could have sworn-ed I heard my name..."
"Antoine, behind ya."
Picking his head back up, Antoine whirled right back around towards where he heard the voice. But, yet again, there was nothing behind him.
"What in ze... Sorun, iz that you?" Antoine called out, turning his head left and right in search of the human. "Where are you?"
"Dude, right behind you. Been here the whole time."
"No, you have not!" Antoine hotly denied, turning towards the source of the voice yet again only to find absolutely nothing. He took in a deep breath, and then slowly lifted his hands up as a sign of surrender as a breathy chuckle left him. "Okay, Sorun, mon ami, I am having to admit I am not understanding how you are doing this, but can you please be stopping it?"
"Huh? What am I... oh, right." Once again Antoine turned towards the voice behind him, letting out a small sigh of frustration when he found nothing. "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't be able to see me-" continued Sorun's voice from behind him, "- seeing as I'm a ghost."
"Eh heh heh... heh... ghost?" Antoine repeated, trying in vain to turn around only to see the space behind him was empty. His shoulders seemed to reflexively hunch up in fear as he began glancing at the wooded area around him. "You are- you are being serious?" Antoine asked with a loud gulp.
"Yeah, in my zone people just turn into ghosts when they die. That not happen here?" By now Antoine had given up trying to find Sorun, though now his teeth were beginning to chatter as his eyes darted left and right at the sound of Sorun's voice. Sorun, still maintaining his position outside of Antoine's visual area, smirked at the reaction and continued with, "Sorry to break it to you this way, but it is what it is."
"S-S-S-Sorun, if this eez some kind of joke, I will tell you right now eet iz not very funny," Antoine stammered out, his whole body seemingly shaking in fright as he continued glancing around for Sorun. "You cannot seriously be ze ghostie type right now."
"Oh no I am. See?" And then, right after speaking, Sorun Tricked right in front of Antoine, his sudden appearance causing Antoine to completely freeze and his irises to shrink to pinpricks. "Boo."
The smile on Sorun's face increased to near-manic proportions when Antoine, upon seeing Sorun appear right before his eyes, let out a high-pitched shriek and fell over right onto his backside. Sorun couldn't contain his amusement and doubled over while laughing and pointing at Antoine. The Mobian's fright quickly began to subside upon hearing the human's laughter, and the scared look on his face turned into a heavy frown once he began to climb back to his feet. Sorun's laughter began to taper off considerably, though he was still making a few chuckles even after seeing Antoine stand across from him with that unamused expression.
"Tricked ya, Antoine~" Sorun softly called out, bending forwards slightly while still grinning at the coyote. He let a final sigh out and straightened up, running a hand through his hair. "Ahhh... yeah, I got a teleport power. Cool, huh?"
"Oui, oui, eet iz very 'cool' as you say. I am being very glad you have chose-ed to play a joke on me using it," Antoine remarked, brushing his hands against his jacket to discard any loose dirt.
"Yeah, ah agree." Sorun found himself frozen when he felt an iron-like grip clamp down on his left shoulder. And when he looked towards it, he saw that it was, in fact, a metal hand. Seeing that and hearing the feminine, Southern drawl behind him, Sorun didn't need to think too hard to guess who it was.
Thing was, Sorun hadn't expected that voice to be right behind him, or for that hand to suddenly appear right on his shoulder. And, due to his earlier actions, the word "Trick" had still been fresh in his mind. So as a consequence to all of this, when he realized it was Bunnie that was standing right behind him, Sorun had been startled enough that he'd accidentally Tricked away by a few feet.
Sorun had stumbled forwards a few steps from the unexpected teleportation, though he quickly caught himself from falling straight over. He would have sighed out from managing to catch himself, but then a strange sound reached his ears. An odd, electrical sparking sound. And, much to his uneasiness, he began to realize there was still a weight on his left shoulder.
Slowly, Sorun turned his head to the side to looked down at his shoulder. To his growing horror, he found that there was still a mechanical hand attached to his shoulder. The arm, however, was not where it was supposed to be. It was currently dangling down on Sorun's back from where it was grabbing onto him, and when he looked behind him at Bunnie, he saw that she was standing in place a few feet behind while staring wide-eyed at her missing left arm.
"Ooooh, that's... yeah, that's my bad..." Sorun slowly hissed out at the emotional anguish that was beginning to settle in him as he, with some effort, removed the cybernetic arm from his shoulder. He Tricked right back in front of Bunnie, an extremely apologetic look on his face as he awkwardly offered the arm back to her. "I'm... I'm so sorry, Bunnie. I just got this power a couple of hours ago and I'm still learning how to use it. I didn't mean to do that."
He was worried she was going to yell at him for literally disarming her, or, even worse, that she'd give him a cold glare while snatching the arm out of his hand. He'd feared these things, at least, though he didn't find himself all that surprised when Bunnie just sighed and gingerly took the cybernetic arm from his grasp using her flesh and blood arm. "This actually happens a lot more than ya'd think," she mumbled to him, her green eyes glancing down at her metal shoulder socket and the few sparking wires sticking out of it. "It ain't no worry, Sorun. It goes back on easy enough. Might need tah go to Rotor fer some adjustments, though."
"That's... good," Sorun said, still warily eyeing the sparking shoulder. "So what are you and Antoine doing out here, anyways?"
"We were takin' a walk together," she answered, stepping around Sorun to go to Antoine's side. The teen couldn't help but wince when he saw Antoine glaring at him, his own eyes constantly switching from glaring at the human to looking worryingly at Bunnie's detached arm. "We were talkin' an' my darlin' Antoine got into tellin' another one of his stories. Ah swear, his head got lost in the clouds, an' he plain just started walkin' the other way! I went to go lookin' for 'im when ah found ya messin' around with him."
"Non, zat iz not true at all!" Antoine denied, appearing to have completely forgotten Sorun as he turned to fully face Bunnie. "My head was perfectly on ze ground and not in ze sky!"
Bunnie sent him a flat look. "Antoine. You were walkin' off by yerself still talkin' while I was all the way behind ya."
Antoine sputtered in denial as a result, but Bunnie's look towards him remained unwavering. Realizing he wouldn't be convincing her, he just simply crossed his arms with a loud huff while turning his head to the side, a light blush on his cheeks. Sorun was mostly just glad that feeling of slight animosity he felt from Antoine seemed to have passed, and so he cleared his throat to gain Bunnie's attention back.
"Well, uh, glad you're okay," he said, voice quiet and still nervous. "You need any help, or...?"
Bunnie shook her head. "Not unless ya can use that fancy new power a yours to get us back to the HQ lickity-split."
His lips thinning, Sorun flicked his eyes back down to the detached arm and then looked back into Bunnie's eyes. "Yeah, I don't think it's a good idea to do that with people holding onto me. And I can't- I can't really go that far using it," he said to her. "Really helps with that mobility problem I have, but it's not really something I can use for travel. It's a short-range kind of thing, you know?"
"Ah. Alright." Bunnie nodded her head and stepped to Antoine's other side. She wrapped her remaining arm over the other Mobian's shoulder, hand still holding onto the artificial arm while a small grin formed on her face when she felt him shyly squirm under her grasp.
"Why do you insist on doing zis in front of him?" Antoine mumbled under his breath, looking so far away from Bunnie Sorun was surprised his neck hadn't snapped.
"Sorun ain't the only one that likes teasin' ya, Sugah..."
"And like that, I'm out." Sorun's hands were promptly shoved into his pockets, and he spun right around and began walking away when the two began acting like that. He was glad at the excuse to leave, too. The fact he'd accidentally torn Bunnie's arm off by Tricking wasn't something he was going to forget any time soon. "I really gotta learn not to Trick like that on accident. Might end up hurting somebody if I don't.
"Ah, but man, they sure seem happy together," Sorun thought to himself, going as far as to crane his neck over his shoulder to briefly glance at the couple before going back to looking forwards. "Guess it's not so surprising. Looks really nice, two people bein'... together like that... gah, quit it." He reached up to slap the side of his head, shaking it while incoherently mumbling under his breath. In the midst of his slapping, though, an unpleasant sensation shot through him. His footsteps stopped immediately, and before he knew it he began to uncontrollably cough.
He tried to contain the coughing, but that unpleasant sensation proved to be too great. His body began to uncontrollably shudder from the uncontrollable coughing, and after a bit he began gasping for breath when the coughing proved to be too intense for him to breath alongside it. He'd almost fallen over on the ground from the coughing, though fortunately it soon relented as that unpleasant feeling faded from his chest.
"Ack, ah... agh..." Bent over, Sorun was forced to take in a few heavy breaths to regain his bearings, after which he stood back up straight with a grunt of effort. Not long after, though, he felt something moist on his arms, and with his stomach dropping he looked down to examine his limbs.
He managed to ascertain what that wet feeling was in an instant when he saw specks of red dotting both of his forearms. He'd accidentally coughed blood onto himself.
"... Gonna have to wash this off in the river so nobody sees." Heavily sighing, Sorun re-pocketed his arms and continued walking forwards, trying his best to put the picture of his blood-stained arms out of his mind. "Guess I'll go do that then get Virgil. Hope he doesn't wander too far from that tree."
