Recursion Error
Episode 38- The sunk cost fallacy of Chaos powers
Spagonia.
Sorun had absolutely no idea where the hell the name came from. It was an Overlander city, he knew that much. It sounded vaguely Italian, so he assumed it took its roots from there. It also sounded like somebody just named it after spaghetti, and Sorun's biggest fear was that the only surviving remnant of Italian culture in this strange post-apocalyptic world was spaghetti.
Place wasn't even a whole country like Italy was. It was just a city. A city that used to be under Eggman's control until G.U.N. had done their thing and started taking territory back. Not all of the Overlander cities were free, not just yet, but from what Sorun heard a good majority of them were already secured at this point. And seeing as how close Spagonia was to the G.U.N. HQ, it wasn't that hard to see why it had been one of the first cities G.U.N. liberated and put back in Overlander control.
Well, whatever the case for the ridiculous name, he was here for one reason and one reason only: a sweet, sweet Chaos Emerald.
"Thank you for spotting me for the ice cream, Rouge," Sorun thanked. He licked on the white ice cream scoop sitting upon the cone in his hand, his eyes glancing towards the side at the white bat standing next to him. "I would have bought it on my own but I'm poor."
The white bat, her arms crossed, regarded Sorun with a lazy look. "You never considered that mobiums wouldn't be recognized as a valid currency in Overlander territory?"
"No, even if it was, I still wouldn't have been able to afford this."
"It's sad stories like this that make me glad that I chose a job that actually pays." She sighed and shook her head. "Can't say I've ever had a guy take me out and make me pay for the food."
"Don't flatter yourself that much. You only got me the basic vanilla." He took a bite from his ice cream and turned away from Rouge, facing forwards to the large building in front of them. "Spagonia University, huh..."
It looked like a large, standard campus to him. Large main buildings connected to small side buildings, all surrounding a central courtyard. A classic university if he ever saw one. For some reason there was a Chaos Emerald here, and they only knew about it thanks to the Overlanders. Specifically, the Commander of G.U.N. had been the one to contact Sally and tell her about the Emerald being held here, who had relayed it to Sorun. And Rouge, under orders from her employers, had been the one to show Sorun the way to the university after he teleported here.
"So how exactly did a Chaos Emerald wind up here?" Sorun asked, taking the final bite out of his ice cream. "Would have figured that Eggman would have detected an Emerald sitting in one of the cities he used to occupy with how much Chaos energy these things radiate."
"Some G.U.N. operatives that were hiding in a makeshift outpost in the outlands between here and the HQ under orders from the Commander. They were avoiding the occupation and keeping in close contact with other operatives to build up to the operation that took place back at HQ. When the Emeralds scattered after we brought you to this zone, one of the Emeralds just happened to land near them. One of the operatives, an engineer, thought fast and managed to jury rig a sort of containment device that helped mask the Emerald's signature. The university was a safe place we had people in during the occupation, so it was discretely transported here for study and to keep it out of Eggman's hands."
Sorun hummed in acknowledgment. "Must have been a smart engineer to make something that quickly."
"Ah, I wasn't that surprised when I heard. It was Hope that did it."
"... That really young girl I saw when I was over there?" Sorun asked, tone a bit surprised.
She nodded. "Yeah, that's the one. Girl's real gifted, I'll give her that much."
"Didn't know G.U.N. was into recruiting children."
"Just in the same way the Freedom Fighters let child prodigies like Tails fight with them."
He scoffed. She had a point there, one he couldn't refute.
Rouge stepped in front of Sorun's view, with Sorun's eyes lazily following her as he munched on the waffle cone. "Hey, you should know that Shadow's the one that pushed for them to tell you all that the Emerald was here for you. Commander Tower was really hesitant in going through with it, but he relented and agreed on the reasoning that you were owed something for helping out over at the HQ the other week."
"Is that so?" So the good Commander was hesitant in letting him have more Emeralds. He had to wonder if it was because G.U.N. wanted them for their own uses or if it was because they didn't like the idea of some random teenager running around and getting powers off of them. Especially a teenager that already expressed no interest in joining them.
Maybe he was being a bit too critical of them, though. They were still giving it to him, and they were still a good organization from the impression he got. Working against Eggman for the sake of the planet. So he'd trust them, even if the cautious part of his brained exposed to countless media examples cautioned him against it and made him wonder if they were only letting him take it since they all had a common enemy in Eggman. "Well, I appreciate you guys doing me this solid and giving me the Emerald," he said. "It would have been a real shame to have taken it from you."
"Thank G.U.N., not me. Not every day I'm going out and giving gems away..." Rouge muttered under her breath. "Anyway, they radioed ahead. Just go up there and ask for Professor Pickle. He was the one in charge of studying it."
"... Professor Pickle," Sorun repeated in disbelief.
Rouge gave him a shrug. "I don't know, that's just the name they gave me."
"Okay... You want me to make you a portal back somewhere, or-?"
"Thanks for the offer, Sorun, but I've got my own ride." She gave him a short nod before her bat wings lightly began flapping to lift her off the ground. "See you around."
Sorun wordlessly watched Rouge take off. His eyes trailed after her form, and then fell down to the university sitting before him. He tossed the last piece of the waffle cone in his mouth, brushed his hands off, and began walking forwards.
"I fucking swear, if he's an actual pickle..."
Ding!
The first thing Sorun encountered when he'd entered the front door to the university was a massive foyer that branched off into multiple hallways. There was a small office right next to the entrance fortunately enough, though, and there was even a man in a white coat manning what looked like a kind of greeter's desk in front of that office. Seeing no reason not to, Sorun went up to the desk and rang the bell on the front to gain the Overlander's attention.
"Hm? Huh?" The man jumped up a bit when the sound of the bell being run reached his ears. He looked around the front of the desk, and then looked downwards towards Sorun. He'd blinked in surprise at the sight of him. "Er, hello little boy. Is there something I can help you with?"
"Don't hurt him." He felt anger spike in himself when Sorun heard the man refer to him as a boy. He took a calming breath to even out his mood, and then calmly looked up at the man behind the desk. "Do you know where I can find Professor Pickle? I'm suppose to meet with him, so if you could please direct me to him, I would be most appreciative." Calm and respectful. He'd hoped it was enough that he could just get his directions and be on his way.
The man behind the desk scratched at his head. "Professor Pickle? Is he you're grandfather? Didn't even know he had kids," he muttered. "Did your mom and dad send you here, 'cause-"
A spectral blue hand grabbing the collar of his suit and pulling him halfway across the desk shut him right up. He froze entirely when he met the eyes of a very angry teenager in front of him.
"Listen you moronic fuck, I'm the dude G.U.N. said was taking the Emerald you all have here, so if you don't stop calling me a goddamn kid and tell me where the hell this Pickle guy is in the next five seconds-!"
"Er, um, hey, guy? You doing okay there? Kid?"
The voice of the greeter shook Sorun from his daydream. He grimaced a bit when he recalled the images he thought up, and then did his best to put the image out of his mind as he cleared his throat and looked back up at the Overlander.
"Sir, could you please just direct me to Professor Pickle?" he requested.
"Um, yeah. Upstairs, room 2-A."
"Thank you." Sorun walked away from the desk, turning around but keeping his head craned in the direction of the Overlander. "Don't go around mistaking teenagers for kids. We don't like that."
Not bothering to look back, Sorun turned away from the desk and stormed towards the stairs. Stomping up them managed to alleviate some of his anger, and by the time he made it to the top half of it had simmered away. He still wore a cross expression on his face though as he began walking down a hall labeled "A", muttering under his breath as he followed signs until he came upon a door with a "2-A" plaque hanging next to it. When he reached forwards and felt that the door was unlocked, Sorun hummed in approval and opened it up.
He'd never been in a university lab before. Upon first glance, it looked less like a lab and more like a library. There was still actual equipment lying around - tables filled with all sorts of doodads and science things beyond Sorun - and what seemed to be science notes scattered around everywhere, but there were also a large amount of bookshelves everywhere that were filled to the brim with books. Some were even out and laying on some of the tables, the books all opened up to random pages with even more notebook paper filled in with writing resting on them.
"Wow, this place is a mess," Sorun muttered to himself as he looked around the room. He saw plenty of books and equipment, but, much to his confusion, no Pickle. "Er, Professor Pickle? You here? Hello?"
There was no voice that called back to him. The only sounds he heard was the low hum of the various pieces of science equipment haphazardly strewn around him.
"Is he not in at this hour? No, the guy at the desk woulda said something. So where the hell...?" Sorun trailed off when he walked next to one of the tables. He saw something on it from the corner of his eye, something that made him immediately freeze and snap his head towards it.
A pickle. There was a single pickle lying on the table, in a clean spot between a mess of notes spread around it. Sorun stared unblinking down at the pickle, various, unbelievable thoughts running through his head as he regarded the otherwise innocuous pickle with skepticism and trepidation.
"No way. It's impossible. It can't be." Slowly, ever so slowly, Sorun began to reach out towards the pickle. "There's no way this can actually be happening..."
Gingerly, he took hold of the pickle. Nothing happened. He swallowed, and with a beating heart, he turned the pickle the other way around.
... It was just an ordinary pickle.
"Well that was a letdown," Sorun gasped out, his shoulders going a bit slack. "... Wait a second here." Sorun lifted the pickle up a bit for the light to catch it better, and then squinted his eyes at it. "Hold on, this ain't even a pickle. It's a cucumber."
"Oh, thank you for that."
Sorun felt himself freeze and go completely rigid when a wrinkled hand came into his view and gently took the cucumber out from his hand. He was so perturbed by the action that Sorun was just left there, staring blankly at his now-empty hand that had once been holding the cucumber. He slowly blinked and, not knowing what to think of this, turned around towards whoever just took the cucumber from him.
There was a man behind him. An aged man in a brown suit, who... had put the cucumber he'd taken from Sorun, put it between two slices of bread, and was currently consuming it in a really slow and almost uncomfortable fashion. He didn't even seem to be acknowledging Sorun's existence right next to him, though Sorun wasn't too sure if that was true or Not. Considering the old Overlander's bushy, white eyebrows were completely obscuring his eyes, Sorun didn't even know if he could see.
No, on a second look, it was true. The old Overlander was eating his sandwich while facing towards a wall.
"... Why me?" Sorun forlornly thought to himself before loudly clearing his throat. "Um, hi? Hello?" He stepped closer to the old man and attempted to wave his hand in front of his face to gain his attention, but he didn't even seem to react to his presence. "Yoo-hoo? Old timer? Come on, man, I ain't got all day."
"H-hm? Oh!" It was only when he was halfway through his sandwich did the old man finally acknowledge Sorun. "My apologies, lad, I didn't see you there."
A forced smile found its way on Sorun's face. "Hiiii... are you Professor Pickle?"
The old man took another bite from his sandwich. An agonizingly slow bite that made Sorun more uncomfortable by the moment. "Yes, that is I," he said after swallowing his bite. "Did you need something from me?"
"Yeah, I- come on, man, don't- he did." Sorun's hand slapped into his face when the professor took another bite of his sandwich. He waited for him to finish, and then, suppressing a heavy sigh, looked back at the brown-suited Overlander. "Look, I really need something from you."
"... Oh, hello. I didn't notice you there."
"Christ..." Inhaling deeply, Sorun couldn't help but to run his hands through his hair as he watched the professor walk off, mumbling something under his breath all the while as he finished off his sandwich. Ignoring Sorun like he'd forgotten the teen had been standing there, which, from the looks of things, he probably did. It caused a strange sensation of frustration and sadness to well in the teen. "They didn't tell me I had to deal with a senile geriatric. How do I even do this?"
He didn't think he could shake him like he'd fantasized doing with the guy out in the front desk. He was so old and brittle-looking that Sorun was worried he'd accidentally break something, or worse, outright kill the guy. Then again, talking seemed to be getting Sorun even less than nowhere, if such a thing was even possible. He didn't know at all what he was supposed to do here.
"Oh, wait! I know you!" In a sudden turn that startled Sorun, the professor turned right around towards Sorun and regarded him with a knowing smile. "You must be the one who's here for the Chaos Emerald, yes?"
"Yes, yes I am!" Sorun confirmed, nodding fervently towards Professor Pickle and his newly-found clarity. "G.U.N. said I could have it so if you could please give it to me that'd be just great!"
"Of course, of course. I-I have it around here somewhere, just give me a minute here."
Sorun nodded towards the older man, and then stepped back to lean against a nearby table. He watched as the aged professor stepped towards a nearby shelf full of mechanical... somethings, his hands reaching forwards towards the handle keeping the shelf shut. He opened it and began shuffling his hands around in the interior, and he began removing bits of equipment from inside only to then place it on a nearby table.
"You know, as fascinating as studying this artifact has been, this kind of research was never my forte, you see," the professor mumbled out in a voice that was almost too quiet for Sorun to hear. He continued to set aside more pieces of equipment while he rambled on. "I got my doctorate in history, you see, but they were understaffed what with all that nonsense about robots going on outside, so those kind uniformed men had asked me and my lab assistant to look into the matter until they got their own labs back into shape. Are you a delivery person for them, young man?"
"No, uh... I'm Sorun. G.U.N. said I could have it since I need it for something. It's a long story."
"Oh, alright, alright. Ah, here it is."
Sorun started when the aged Overlander pulled something out from inside of the cabinet: a small, cylindrical glass container, the top and bottom of which seemed to be metal lids with all sorts of electronic diodes attached to them and with wires haphazardly spilling out. Sorun was less concerned with those, however, and more with what was on the inside of the container: a brightly-glowing, green gem.
"Oh, hey, look at that. An Emerald that actually looks like an Emerald," Sorun thought as he watched the professor place the container down on a table. "So that container is what hid its energy signature from Eggman. According to Rouge that little girl at G.U.N. built it. Hm. Looks... kinda thrown-together. Guess they were desperate at the time."
"Now let me just see here..." the professor hummed as he stared towards the container, hand stroking his chin. "There was a code for opening this, though I don't quite recall... hm..." He reached forwards and began tapping at a small numerical pad on the top of the container's lid. "Was it two-zero-eight-three...? Oh, no, that wasn't it," he muttered when there was a quiet beep accompanying a small red flash from a light next to the pad. "Two-two-zero-five? No, not it, either. Hrm..."
"Er, professor?" Sorun called out. "You, um... you doing okay?"
"No, I seem to have forgotten the code for unlocking this contraption. Forgive me, Sormur, I'm usually quite good at remembering these types of things."
Sorun ignored the mispronunciation of his name for more pressing issues. "Did you write it down somewhere?" he asked.
To his dismay, Professor Pickle shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Well, there's nothing to it, I suppose. We'll just have to work our way through all the numbers."
"What?" He found himself not believing what he just heard, but then he felt a shock go through him when he saw the professor's finger hover over the button marked with a zero. "Hey wait, man, come on-!"
"Zero-zero-zero-zero... no, that's not it. Zero-zero-zero-one... no? Mm, unfortunate."
Sorun slapped himself in the face to help muffle the frustrated cry he instinctually made. When he lowered his hand, twitching with its fingers slowly curling inwards, he asked, "You want me to just break it, 'cause I can-"
"No, no, that is quite alright, Summer, that won't be necessary."
"Seriously it'll only take like two seconds and I got places to be-"
"Have some patience, young Sonder, this won't take but a mere few minutes."
Sorun sputtered out in disbelief. "'A mere few-' you're trying to brute-force your way through ten-thousand codes!"
Whether Professor Pickle even heard his objections or not wasn't clear. He simply continued plucking away at the numerical pad, murmuring under his breath in what was surely unintelligible gibberish.
There was a flash of blue as Yamato was summoned in his left hand. Sorun's right hand, still twitching, slowly inched closer and closer towards the handle, though it stopped just shy of actually wrapping around it. His hand was stuck in that position for a few moments, after which Sorun made a loud sound that was halfway between a sigh and a groan as the sword disappeared from his grasp. He shook his head, found a nearby chair, and plopped down in it. Afterwards he splayed his legs out, crossed his arms, and looked towards the professor as he continued guessing away at the numerical pad.
"Well, on the upside, this is the least most labor-intensive way of getting a Chaos Emerald yet," Sorun thought. "Just gotta wait about a billion years for him to finally get that thing open. Piece a... cake..."
Yawning, Sorun began to sleepily blink his eyes. Tiredness began to overtake him as his head nodded downwards, and before he knew it he'd fallen asleep completely.
BING!
"AH AH WHAT- HUH-!" He'd been in a deep sleep before that loud binging sound roused Sorun from his slumber. It'd been so jarring that he'd fallen right out of the chair and onto the floor, disoriented and confused from the unfamiliar surroundings. There he stayed for a solid five seconds, wondering why he was laying on the cold floor of some lab before the memories of his day caught up to him and he realized what he was currently suffering through.
Groaning, he stood up to his feet, the popping sounds of his stiff joints accompanying him. He let out a low, dejected sigh, which was immediately wiped off his face when he looked towards the table where he remembered Professor Pickle was at. The container from earlier was empty, the lid opened and the light next to the numerical pad glowing green. Besides it stood the professor himself, holding the Chaos Emerald in his hands.
"Oh, you finally got it open?" Sorun groaned out, rolling his neck around and forcing the joints to elicit a few more pops before stopping in front of the old Overlander. "How long was I- you know what, I don't even want to know."
"Hmm? Oh, Sorghum, you're awake," Professor Pickle stated, not seeming to register the way Sorun's face subtly wrinkled when he stopped right in front of the older male. "No, actually I eventually remembered what the correct combination was. Sorry for making you wait so long, young man."
"It's... fine." It's not what he wanted to say, but he didn't have the heart in him to scream at an old man. Even though he really wanted to. So instead he exhaled a slow breath to calm himself, and then extended his right hand. "May I please have that now?" he requested.
He nodded. "Of course. Here you are."
The green, glowing gem was held outwards towards the teen. Sorun stared down at it, almost mesmerized by the green glow of the gem. Part of him found it a bit funny at how easy this was turning out, but he wasn't going to complain about his life being made a bit simpler. And so, depriving the world of any opportunity to take this moment from him, Sorun placed his hand down on the Emerald, his face flinching when he felt it affix itself to his palm.
"Well, that was easy," Sorun mumbled as he pulled his hand back, Emerald still attached to him. "Alright, that's all I needed. Sorry to have disturbed you over this, old- er, professor. It's been... it's been an experience and a half. I'll let you get back to it."
"But of course, young man, think nothing of it. Though I must confess I do feel compelled to ask you just what exactly you plan on doing with that," the aged Overlander said, wrinkled hands folder in front of him as he stared towards Sorun's face.
Sorun clicked his tongue. He thought about telling him, but then decided against it. "It's, um... it's not something you should worry about, man."
"Alright, then." The professor nodded at Sorun, which brought the teen some small relief that he wouldn't be pressing the issue. "Would you perhaps be willing to stay behind for a sandwich or two with me? I rarely ever get guests here besides from my assistant, though he's been out for quite a bit now. Something to do with that silly occupation nonsense everyone kept whispering about, I'm sure, but now that that's over with he should be coming back soon."
Blinking, Sorun looked down at the Emerald stuck to his hand, and then back up at the professor. "I'd love to, but I really don't want to. Professor?" When he saw he wasn't standing in front of him anymore, Sorun swiveled his head around to look for the old man. He found him slowly shuffling away, muttering under his breath again as he made his way to some random corner of the lab. "... Well that happened," Sorun sighed out, looking down once more at the Emerald in his hand. He sighed, and then placed his other hand on it. "Alright, let's just get this over with and go home," he said to himself as green sparks began arcing out of the gem.
The first thing that had happened when he exited his portal was that he was assaulted. Granted it was by a small dog that barely even come up to his knees, so assault may have been a strong word, but with how he was feeling it certainly felt like it.
He didn't know what the matter was with himself. Some time after Sorun absorbed that Emerald he just felt a bit off. Sick-off. He always felt a little bad after absorbing an Emerald, and admittedly it had been getting steadily worse with each Emerald, but there was something especially bad with this one, and right now he just felt sick to his stomach. So when he'd teleported into the Hedgehog household's kitchen and gotten rammed in the legs by Sonic's dog, Muttski, Sorun about doubled-over right there. But he managed to maintain a brave face, close the portal behind him, and then dispelled the katana as he bent down to pet the dog on his head.
"Hey there, pal," Sorun whispered, stroking the tan dog on the top of his head. He tried to lick at the hand, causing Sorun to recoil his hand away from the dog and stand up. The dog whined at tried pawning at Sorun's leg, but when he stepped away he simply huffed and turned away.
Sorun watched the dog leave him, breathed out, and looked up. He felt his breath hitch in his throat when he saw two individuals already in the kitchen with him. Jules, sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of oil and with his mechanical eyes affixed onto Sorun, and his wife, who was over at the sink with her hands inside of soapy water holding dishes, currently frozen and staring towards the teen. Sorun let out an awkward laugh and waved at the two, not entirely sure on what to say.
"Uh, hey guys," Sorun greeted, a small, incredibly forced smile on his face. "Sorry for, er, startling you. I meant to go to the front door but getting an exact location is tricky sometimes so-so- I didn't mean to just barge into the kitchen like that."
"Oh no, dear, you're alright," Bernadette assured him, after which she turned back to her dishes. "How did everything go on your trip to... oh my, what was the place called? Spagornio?"
"Spagonia," Sorun corrected her, "and it went fine, thanks for asking." He moved past the kitchen table while nodding towards the blue, roboticized hedgehog sitting in it. "Jules."
"Sorun," Jules greeted with another nod. He then lifted up his cup of oil and began drinking from it, Sorun already having moved into the living room.
A low groan left Sorun as he found the couch in the living room, proceeded by him sitting down in it. He slumped forwards, his head falling into his hands. Fingers curled into his scalp, dark hair spilling out between the gaps in his fingers as he made a sigh.
"I feel sick. It wasn't so bad after I got the Emerald, but it's been getting worse since I left the university." He felt something in his abdomen, like his very organs had shuddered inside of him, and he had to hold back a gag from the sensation. "I don't know what's going on..."
"Hey, Sorun!" The sound of Sonic's voice hadn't even reached Sorun's ears before he felt the couch seat right besides him compress. He steeled himself to not look as unwell as possible, and then sat straight up as he turned to the blue, teenage hedgehog sitting right besides him. "You just get back from your mission?"
Sometimes Sorun really wished he could feel good enough at all times of the day to have that same big, optimistic grin Sonic always wore. He hadn't felt that good in months, though. He especially didn't feel like it right now from all the pains he was feeling.
Sorun forced himself to nod, the very motion making him regret doing so. "It was less a mission and more a chore for how easy it was, but yeah."
"They had an Emerald?"
"They had an Emerald," Sorun confirmed, refraining from nodding again. "They left it to some professor guy to look after and study it. He was..."
"Interesting?" Sonic finished for him.
"... I wouldn't go that far," Sorun denied. "But yeah, it was a simple grab-and-go. No robots or anything like that. Don't really have anything to say about it."
"Ah, alright. Cool, cool."
Sorun remained silent after that, not wishing to respond. In truth, talking was a bit of a struggle for him at the moment. Saying words only exacerbated the intense nausea he was feeling, and even then it was a sensation that was slowly becoming worse in him. Keeping a straight face was becoming harder and harder. He was tempted to get up right now and just go to bed so he could try and sleep this off, and it was an idea that grew more tempting by the second the longer this went on.
"So..." Sonic leaned back in the couch, slinging one leg over the other while interlacing his hands behind his head. "You get a cool new power from the Chaos Emerald?" he asked, still looking at Sorun from the corner of his eye.
It took much more effort than he was comfortable with to not grit his teeth when he answered. "Yes, of course."
"Neat. What'd you get?"
"Nothing too special," Sorun answered, voice calm and even.
"Aw, come on!" Sonic exclaimed, turning towards and leaning closer to Sorun. "You always get something cool from the Emeralds! I wanna see it!"
Softly groaning, Sorun flicked his eyes over at Sonic and said, "And ruin the surprise? No way." He tried playing it off as him just being a tease, but the reality was he didn't think he'd be able to show that off without something bad happening. He was already struggling to hold it together with how he was feeling. He didn't want to imagine what activating that would do to him.
"Come on, don't be like that! Show me!"
"I'll use it if I have to, but I'm not gonna-" Sorun cut himself off, clamping his mouth shut as another painful spasm rocked his insides. He just, just managed to keep his composure throughout it, but he could feel that he was losing the ability to keep it together.
He couldn't lose it in front of anybody, especially Sonic. Couldn't let him see him sick. There'd be questions he couldn't answer.
"I need to use the bathroom," Sorun suddenly announced, standing up just a bit too quickly from the couch. So quickly that it seemed to have startled Sonic, though this was something Sorun barely paid any mind to.
"Uh... okay?" Sonic quirked an eye towards Sorun as he began walking away. "You feeling alright?"
"Ate something bad in Spagonia." That was the only explanation Sorun offered before turning a corner, which he hoped would prove more than sufficient to get any worries of Sonic's off of him. It better have, because the instant he'd turned a corner and made it out of Sonic's sight, he'd lost his composure and collapsed against the wall.
The spasms on his insides were becoming more and more frequent. There was a pain that accompanied it, too. A deep, stabbing pain that was intense enough that he was barely standing on his feet, needing to use the wall he was crawling across for support. He almost didn't make it to the bathroom at all, every single step being another agonizing moment, but he'd just managed to make it to the door. And he'd probably slammed it behind him harder than he ought to have, but at this juncture he didn't even have the capacity to care.
He'd flung himself onto the toilet without even thinking about it. He hadn't been a moment too soon before he started throwing up into it, which only intensified the pain he was feeling throughout his entire torso. He violently coughed through the bouts of vomiting, and ended up collapsing on the ground with his arms instinctually wrapped around his stomach.
Something was very wrong.
Sorun had thrown up before in his life. They were rare occurrences, when he'd been sick or ate something exceptionally bad, but he knew what vomit tasted like. That acrid, stinging sensation that would assault his senses and the unpleasant taste that would be left in his mouth. And he'd always felt slightly better whenever something made him throw up.
This wasn't that. He felt worse. And he didn't smell and taste an acrid sensation in his mouth. There wasn't a stinging sensation from having his stomach contents ejected from his mouth. This felt... stickier. And there was a pungent smell of iron assaulting his nose, and a similar taste in his mouth. That wasn't vomit. That was something much worse. And Sorun was very afraid of what that was.
Shaking, he slowly unwound his arms and gripped the edges of the toilet. With great effort he lifted his head up to look into the bowl, and when he stared down it, he nearly found himself collapsing back on the floor.
Dark red. The water inside the bowl was stained in dark red.
"Wait... wait, hold on..." Sorun's very vision had begun to shake when he saw the dark contents of the toilet bowl. When he realized what the smell and taste in his mouth was. He felt his breaths become heavier. "Th-that can't be-"
He began to uncontrollably cough again. Every cough was joined by a splash of blood leaving his mouth and splattering against the toilet, staining it further and further. It was enough that he'd bolted up to his feet, almost in fright from seeing all the blood being expunged from his mouth, the feeling of it dripping down from both of his nostrils, but due to the state of his body the sudden rise had caused an intense sensation of vertigo to assault him. He spun on his feet, dizzy and vision spinning, when he'd suddenly felt his foot catch on some of the blood that had been dripped onto the ground.
There was a loud squeak noise, and Sorun found himself slipping over entirely. He thoughtlessly reached his hands out to grab at something, but unfortunately he wasn't able to find anything to grab onto before he felt his head slam into the side of the nearby bathtub. He collapsed right onto the ground after, his body under assault from all sorts of pain. The pain in his abdomen, the throbbing sensation he felt from where his head had been hit, all the fright from seeing all the blood leaving him. It was too much. He couldn't find himself to do anything but remain on the floor, frozen and shaking from it all.
And then, all of a sudden, it stopped.
He didn't know what had happened. One second he'd been paralyzed on the floor in agony from it all. And then, like a switch had been flipped, it had all just stopped. The pain in his abdomen and head had vanished, just like that. Now he felt absolutely nothing. He took a shuddering breath at the sensation, or lack thereof, and slowly placed his hands on the ground and began to pick himself up.
"What... I... what happened...?" He held a hand to his head, noticing the small bump that was beginning to form from where he'd been hit, and then glanced over to the side. There was a red smear from where he'd slipped on his blood previously, and the toilet was still a blood-spattered mess. "Wasn't a dream... what happened?"
Confused, Sorun looked down at his hands. Slightly stained in blood, but otherwise alright. He tightly clenched his hands, but then found his brows creasing after the action.
There was... something wrong. The way his hands felt when he clenched them. He'd still felt it, felt the pressure of the tips of his fingers pressing into his palms, but that had been all he felt. He felt the tendons in his hand constricting to move the fingers. But that was all he felt. He pushed down harder, hard enough that small, red crescents were beginning to form in his palms from the nails digging into them, but while he felt the pressure of it, he didn't feel the stinging sensation he should have felt from his own fingernails stabbing into him.
"What is this? Why don't I feel this?" His heavy breathing returning, Sorun willed a Summoned Sword to appear. Hesitantly, he held his right forearm towards the floating sword after rolling up the sleeve on his shirt and coat. His eyes flicked from the spectral sword to his arm, and then, gritting his teeth, he willed the sword to jab forwards just a bit to dig its tip through his skin.
Nothing. He felt nothing.
Even as the sword shattered and disappeared, and even as he watched blood drip down from the new wound he made in himself, he felt not a single thing other than the pressure of the sword entering him. He did other things, like pinch random places on his body and even hit some areas with his own fists, but no matter what he did, all he felt were the dull sensations of something landing against him each time. He didn't actually feel any physical pain from it.
"Oh..." He found himself collapsing into a sitting position, leaning against the bathtub he'd slammed his head into prior. He couldn't help but laugh at it. A low, bitter chuckle that held absolutely no joy in it whatsoever. "My body's so fucked up from whatever these Emeralds are doing to me that I can't even feel pain anymore..."
A lack of pain. A side effect from the Chaos Emeralds damaging his body, it must have been. Nerve damage, probably, or at least something similar. He didn't know. His medical knowledge was nonexistent, only bits and pieces he'd picked up from his mother. He didn't know nearly enough about the human nervous system to make any kind of guess as to what had been damaged to cause this effect.
Knock, knock!
"Sorun, dear?" That was Bernadette's voice. Concerned, from the sound of it. "Are you alright in there?"
"Shit." He took another glance around at the room, at all the blood splattered everywhere. He couldn't let them see this. Forget them thinking he was sick, what were they going to think if they saw him losing all this blood everywhere? He wouldn't put it past Sonic physically dragging him to the doctor against his will if he saw all this. "Can't let her see this. Need to get rid of it." He grimaced and began standing up, Bringer Claws forming over his back. "Just gotta flush the blood away, mop up the rest with the paper towels they keep by the sink. Make a portal and dump it in the ocean somewhere. Need to hurry..."
"Sorun?"
"Y-yeah, I'm fine!" Sorun called out. He'd already scrambled to the toiled and practically slammed down on the handle, causing it to flush. At the same time his Bringer Claws were frantically grabbing at paper towels, wetting them slightly with water from the sink and proceeding to clean up the blood all over the toilet and floor. "I-I just- I'm just a bit sick, that's all," he answered through the door, grabbing some paper towels of his own to wipe any excess blood off his face.
The door handle began to jiggle. Sorun thanked himself for having had the foresight to blindly hit the locking button on the handle after he'd thrown it closed when he'd burst in here.
"Do you need any help?" Bernadette asked from the other side of the door.
"No, I'm fine!" Most of the blood was mopped up by now from his blue claws. A portal had already been opened with Yamato.
"Are you sur-?"
"I only need a second, ma'am!" The spectral claws were shoving the bloodied paper towels through the portal by the handful. Once done he dispelled them, the portal, and Yamato, the panicking teen then taking a quick and careful look around the bathroom. Floors were clean. Toilet was without a speck of red. Nothing on the bathtub or sink. All seemed good. He took a second glance around the whole room just to be sure. Then a third.
After the fourth one, he breathed out a small sigh. The blood was gone. Evidence gone, washed away in the ocean. It was fine. He just had to keep up the lie and say he had something bad on his trip, that was all.
Rolling the sleeves on his right arm back up, Sorun finally unlocked the door for Mrs. Hedgehog. He found himself stumbling a bit after, but tried playing it off as best he could by making it appear he was just casually leaning against the door frame.
The blue, female hedgehog he was currently looking at in the eye looked very concerned. An uncomfortable amount of concern, all directed at him. There was a deep, worry frown on Bernadette's face, and he saw her eyes repeatedly look past his shoulder and into the bathroom, and then look back towards Sorun's face.
"Sorun, are you alright?" she asked him. "You sounded dreadful just now."
"Yeah. That." Sorun's cheeks tinged red in embarrassment, and he glanced back towards the toilet. "I... there was this professor guy I met on my trip in Spagonia, and he offered me a sandwich. There must have been something in it that didn't agree with me," he explained, turning his head back to the hedgehog. "Humans don't really deal with food poisoning all that well. Or I don't, at least," he continued. "But it was just something I ate. There's no need to worry."
She visibly relaxed a little bit, which Sorun was thankful for. She seemed to believe him. "We could help you to the doctor if-"
He practically heard his mind screaming "no" over and over. "It's fine," he assured her. "I don't need a doctor."
"You're sure? You... is your skin supposed to look so light, Sorun?"
He glanced down at his hands. They were a bit paler than normal. He guessed that wasn't too surprising, given all the blood he'd just lost.
Sorun shook his head. "It's alright, ma'am." He lightly pushed himself off the door frame. "I... actually think I'm going to try and sleep this off, if it's not too much trouble. I'm sorry to have been a bother, ma'am."
"Oh, hush now, Sorun. It's no issue at all. I was just worried." She sent him a warm smile that proved to be too much for him, causing him to turn away from her face. Then he felt the pressure of her hand compressing against the back of his shoulder. "Some rest will do you some good. Please don't strain yourself too much and hopefully you'll feel better when you wake up."
His face still turned away from her, Sorun smiled. An empty, broken smile. "I don't think you'll have to worry too much about me," he assured her, reaching back to softly brush her hand off of him. The smile dropped from his face, and he continued walking forwards without another word.
Eventually he made it back to Sonic's room, on his spare bed. Sonic's racecar bed remained unoccupied by its owner. It was still dusk out, so it wasn't too surprising to him. Either he didn't want to retire this early or his mother explained what had happened to him and he wanted to give Sorun some peace and quiet. He was thankful for it anyways, whatever the case was. He needed some time to himself.
"I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this," Sorun thought, laying in his bead and staring upwards, his own hand hovering above his face. "At what point does absorbing Chaos Emeralds turn into a detrimental process? My powers are compensating less and less for my body failing. I used to be able to fire off hundreds and hundreds of Summoned Swords without batting an eye, back when I first got them. Now I can't so much as shoot off more than a handful or a few of the techniques without getting winded. My stamina keeps getting lowered further and further with each Emerald. And now I have this shit to deal with."
A large part of him, the sensible part, wondered if he would even be in any kind of fighting shape if he absorbed any more Emeralds. That if he went and absorbed the sixth one he'd even be left standing. He was already left with a deadened sense of pain, and he didn't even know how far that truly extended. What if it was brain damage? What if his brain was being damaged from all this Chaos energy coursing through him? What about his organs? For all he knew they were still convulsing and failing inside of his torso, and he just didn't feel it anymore. He didn't even feel nauseous from it.
He could probably keep his symptoms under wraps, especially if he didn't have to worry about pain anymore. That would probably actually work in his favor, but he didn't know if that would do anything for his lessening stamina. He'd felt it the most during his fight with Eggman, when he'd been overtaxing his powers so much he hadn't even lasted a few minutes against him. Fighting weak enemies and taking quick rests between fights kept him going. It was a strategy he'd been relying on this entire time. Extended fights became less and less viable the further this went on. They plain weren't viable anymore for him.
But what if the opposite was true? What if the powers from the final two Emeralds made it worth his body failing? He doubted it, but the possibility was there considering he didn't even know what they were. There was truly no knowing at the end of the day what the final two Emeralds would give him, if he even made it that far.
Five out of seven. So few left, and so little life to give for them anymore.
"... Agh. I guess it doesn't really matter. If we get any more I'll have to absorb them anyway to avoid suspicion from the others." His hand flopped onto the bed besides him, and Sorun found that his eyelids were growing heavier. "I'll deal with it all later. I'm just... really tired now..."
Sorun drifted off to sleep before he even registered his eyelids closing all the way.
