Recursion Error
Episode 46- And now revolution, apparently
"~Black night, dark sky, hm hm-hm hm-mmm~"
Life at the hospital was boring. The good technically brand-new Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital. Sorun didn't really know where that name came from, just that Nicole picked it out. He did, somewhere in the back of his memory, recall Rotor mentioning someone named Tommy once, when Sorun mentioned a turtle. His best guess was that he was someone the Freedom Fighters knew that died. He chose to refrain from ever asking out of respect seeing as he figured the dots he connected painted a good enough story. If not that, then the small statue of the guy out in front of the hospital said enough.
He guessed he really wouldn't be the first guy they knew that would die on them.
Thinking of Rotor now made Sorun quietly scoff and turn away from the window he was staring at while humming a song out. He got to leave the hospital today from what he heard. Sorun was still stuck here until Dr. Quack said he could leave. And while it wasn't like he was bored to tears since he often got visitors, at the same time, being stuck in a white room with absolutely no entertainment was leaving his mind dull.
He wanted his Chao to keep him company. Or to at least alleviate this boredom. He didn't exactly want to spend the last of his days wanting to bash his head against the wall.
He'd asked around. Virgil had been there with everybody else during the whole Egg Grape incident. From what he was told, they'd found somebody to look after the Chao until Sorun was well again, a mother and daughter pair that apparently arrived in Knothole a mere two days after it came to be. Sorun didn't know the details. Apparently Amy did, though, since she was the one that brought them here, but that was all he knew. He supposed he'd ask when she showed up to take him to where they and Virgil were later on.
Hope he hadn't given his temporary caretakers too hard a time.
A knock on the door drew Sorun's attention away from the window.
"Amy? That you?" He stumbled a bit when he distanced himself from the window, but soon after Sorun managed to right himself as he walked towards the door. "'Bout time," he said as he grasped the door handle and opened the door. "I'm going insane cooped up here, so can we-"
He cut himself off when he saw that the person on the other side of the door was not Amy. In fact, he didn't rightly know who the person standing in front of him was. A light brown fox Mobian that had on the same blue and red jacket that Antoine and some other members of the royal forces wore. He had an eyepatch, too, just like the one Sorun currently wore. Only his was on the left eye. An light blue eye that looked rather curious as it eyed Sorun.
"..." Sorun stared at the stranger for approximately one second and then reached his hand out in the hallway to point to the left. "Wrong room, dude."
"Actually, I'm quite certain this is the right one." Right when Sorun moved to close the door the Mobian stuck his hand out to halt him. "Your name is Sorun, right?"
Breathing through his nose lightly, Sorun opened the door back up and stared the Mobian in the eye. "I'm literally the only human in this city with a blue demon arm. I'm probably the only human on the whole continent. I know for a fact everybody that lived in Knothole was there in the thunderdome along with me and Eggman during that whole mess. You know who I am, man. What do you want?"
Whether the Mobian was at all taken back by Sorun's bluntness or not wasn't clear, but either way Sorun didn't find himself caring all that much. He didn't have the patience right now to deal with it, and he was expecting somebody. The only reason he hadn't slammed the door in the guy's face to begin with was because he wanted to be polite, but even now he felt that urge beginning to wane.
Fortunately, the Mobian seemed to get the point and cleared his throat. "May I come in to speak with you?"
Had he not asked so nicely, Sorun would have said no. Alas, he did, and Sorun felt himself compelled to respect his niceties by opening the door further. "I guess. Just please make it quick. I got plans."
The one-eyed fox nodded, and stepped into the room. Sorun closed the door behind him, remaining in place and staring at the door handle while wondering what was going on before sighing and turning towards the fox.
"So," he began, "these things usually start out with an introduction, right? You know who I am. What's your name?"
Sorun found it hard to get a read on the fox as he turned towards him. He kept his hands folded behind his back at all times, and he had a kind of... steely expression. Something that mostly just went to confuse Sorun as he stared at his eyepatch-covered face while nervously standing towards the door waiting for a response.
"My name," the fox said in an even tone, "is Amadeus Prower. General in the royal forces. I believe you know my son?"
The pale teen scratched his chin in thought. "Prow- oh!" He snapped his fingers in recognition and pointed at the other male. "You're Tails' dad? Yeah, I know him. He kidnapped me."
There was a noticeable flinch in Amadeus' form when Sorun's words registered with him. "I, uh... was made aware by him of your circumstances. I've actually been meaning to talk to you for some time now regarding-"
A short laugh from Sorun cut him off, causing him to regard the teen with an odd glare. "Don't sweat it, man, I'm kiddin' around. We're cool," he said. "If you really wanted to talk about that, though," he added, "you sure did wait a long time to get to it. I've been here for months, man."
"Yes, well... I've been busy." Amadeus briefly rose one of his hands to awkwardly cough into it before folding it back behind his back. "I'm glad to hear you hold no ill will towards him, though. He tries not to let it show, but I'd be a poor father if I didn't notice something had been eating at him for some time now. But, lately, he seems to have been put at ease. I suppose I have you to thank for that, along with, well, securing the safety of the entirety of the Kingdom of Acorn." His eye glanced up at Sorun's own eyepatch, and then down to his spectral arm. "You have my respect for everything you've done, and my thanks for saving my family along with everybody else."
There was a strong urge for Sorun to scoff and act flippant towards the fox's respects, but they sounded genuine. And it was hard to turn those down when they came from somebody who lost an eye like he had. So he made a simple "Mm" and nodded at him, and then asked, "Well, thanks, Amadeus, that means a lot, but I'm assuming you coming all the way here to say that wasn't the only thing you wanted to say? I mean it'd be really nice of you if that was, but..."
"No, you're right. There was one other matter." Without another word Amadeus turned towards the window and walked towards it. He stopped right in front of the window, choosing to remain completely still as he stared out at it. This continued on for tens of seconds, during which Sorun just awkwardly stood behind him while shuffling his feet, unsure of what to do. It carried on long enough that Sorun opened his mouth to say something, but right before he could Amadeus spoke up again. "What do you see when you look out this window, Sorun?"
The Earthling closed his mouth and thought on the question while quirking an eyebrow at the fox. "Er... a city?" he tried. "A really nice-looking city."
"Yes, true, but what do you see beyond that?"
"Nanites? I don't kn- man, where are you going with this?"
Sighing, Amadeus turned his head halfway so that his eye met Sorun's. "Let me rephrase," he tried. "What do you think of the kingdom's government?"
"The monarchy?" Sorun asked. He reached his blue hand behind his head to scratch at it in thought. "I mean, it's... it's fine, I guess. Elias keeps things together well enough. City's not on fire, so that's good for him."
A scoff left the fox. "That's apt of you to say," he said, now fully turning around to meet Sorun. "Also apt of you to mention how it's a monarchy."
"'Cause it is...?" Sorun blinked and shook his head. "W-where are you going with this?"
Amadeus didn't answer immediately. What he did was turn his head to look out the window again, his body still pointed at Sorun. "Did my son Miles ever tell you of what befell me and my wife?"
"Uh... something about you being stuck in space until Sonic and Tails brought you back." He wasn't that privy to the details. He thought he remembered Tails explaining to him once. He also vaguely recalled blanking out for most of the story because of how ridiculous it sounded and because he'd had his mind on other things at the time. Something about them being stuck in space with a colony of aliens. He forgot how that even happened in the first place. Or if Tails even told him.
Probably should have paid better attention in hindsight.
"It was an interesting government they ran up there, the Bem," Amadeus stated as he looked back at Sorun, who could have sworn he'd heard that name from somewhere before. "Did you know they ran a republic there?"
"No? Good for them I guess?" Sorun heavily blinked and ran a hand through his hair. "Is there a point to any of this?"
"My point is that my experience in an alien colony showed me a far more efficient form of government than what is currently operating in this city. When I came back to my true home in the Kingdom of Acorn all I saw around me were deficiencies in the system."
"The hell's this guy going on about?"
"Do you truly think that the current system of government is the correct one we should be operating under?" Amadeus asked Sorun. "One who has had a singular family line rule it for generations? One that landed us in a war with the Overlanders? One that was foolish enough to let it get completely overthrown and had the world thrown in chaos by giving a singular Overlander and his nephew a high position of power? One that was defragmented enough it was forced to allow children such as yourself to pick up the pieces and rebuild the kingdom back up from a small village hidden in the forest? A kingdom that is now currently ruled by a king that has no prior experience ruling and is only in his position solely because of a birthright?"
... As far as Sorun was concerned he had a lot of valid points, most of which he couldn't refute. "Well, uh... yeah, admittedly that does all sound pretty bad, but so far things with Elias has been going good."
"Yes, so far, but I'm not one to let things remain as they are because things have been well so far." Amadeus took in a deep breath before speaking again. "I'm vying for a change with the system of government."
"Okay, alright, time out." Sorun held up a hand to stop the Mobian from speaking. He shook his head in disbelief for a few moments, and then refocused on him before he began talking. "So what you're saying... is that you're trying to start a revolution?"
"Yes, essentially."
"You fucking kidding me?" The sudden use of harsh language sent Amadeus reeling back a bit in shock. Sorun, meanwhile, continued to speak in the same breath as his eye narrowed at the brown-haired fox. "It's barely been over a week since Knothole got obliterated. A week! A week since that disaster and you decide that's what the people need right now? Civil upheaval? The fuck's going through your head?"
"It's because we're all safe from Robotnik thanks to the city's defenses that now is precisely a perfect time to do this!" The fox argued at him in a raised voice. "Without having that madman looming over our shoulders we can focus on fixing a system that's held us back, a system whose negligence is in part responsible for Knothole being lost in the first place!" He paused, eye narrowing a bit when he saw Sorun groan and rub at the bridge of his nose. "I'm not alone in this, you know," he told the human. "Half of the city's population is in agreement with me on this subject."
The statement made Sorun freeze up a bit in surprise. He slowly lowered his hand, and then looked towards Amadeus' face. He seemed to be truthful, which only went to go and make him even more surprised. "Seriously? You got half the city in on this?"
"Not everybody has been completely content with how things have been run for some time now," he informed the human. "They're scared. Scared now more than ever with the loss of Knothole. They want change. But change isn't exactly going to happen when the all the power in the kingdom is held in the hand of one man." He took a single step towards Sorun, and the sharp look he'd been giving the human softened a bit. "You really don't think there's an issue with that? One man holding all the power of the government? A man who gets to choose whether or not he has to listen to the people's wishes? Somebody who probably doesn't even know what he's doing compared to some of the citizens he's responsible for?"
A pale hand being rose up stopped the fox from speaking once again. He respectfully obliged, allowing Sorun to think to himself as the fox patiently waited. "I mean, he's not wrong. Monarchy ain't exactly the best government system to be rocking. There's a reason it kinda fell completely on the wayside back on Earth. And if half the people agree with him... shit, but Elias has been doing really good so far. For the most part, at least. Decent. He's been decent." He made a small sigh and looked away. "Then again, he's not really that enthusiastic about the job. Told me himself he doesn't think he's a good fit for it, but because of the whole monarchy lineage thing he's kinda stuck with it. And yeah, there's probably people with actual experience running things that'd do a better job than-" Sorun shook his head to interrupt his own thoughts. "Why am I even thinking about this? I'm not even a citizen here, and I'm dying soon anyways. It ain't my problem."
It wasn't as if government was his forte anyways. Far from it. And at the end of the day, this didn't really affect him, and quite honestly... he didn't care all that much. And the last thing he wanted to do was get in bed with what was apparently a revolution. He had better things to do. Like go die.
Still, there was one question gnawing at Sorun from all this. "What does all this have to do with me?" Sorun asked him. "Why did you bother to come all this way just to tell me this?"
"Well... I was hoping you'd join in with us on the protest."
A dry, humorless laugh left Sorun as he buried his face in his hand. "Oh, now I know you're messing with me..."
"I speak the truth," Amadeus stated. "You're, well... something of a local hero due to recent events. The one who singlehandedly confront Dr. Robotnik to save a kingdom of people who wasn't even the same species as him at the risk of his own life."
"You're gonna bring race into this now?"
"What I'm saying," the Mobian rephrased, "is that people deeply respect you for what you sacrificed, and if somebody like you was with us then our voice would be heard all that much clearer."
In other words Sorun had a lot of credibility 'cause he almost died saving everybody's lives, and if he was in on this it'd turn a lot more heads. Amadeus wanted to use him to gain more clout. It's how Sorun saw it, and the pale Earthling honestly couldn't say he appreciated the sentiment all that much. He couldn't rightly blame the fox for trying this, either, but he still didn't like it.
Because of this reasoning, his answer was immediate. "Yeah, I don't wanna do that. Sign me out."
Sorun's answer seemed to have the effect of stunning Amadeus a bit. His body had flinched, and his eye had blinked in surprise as he eyed the human with an unsure expression. "You're saying no?"
"Listen, Tails' dad-"
"Amadeus."
"Tails' dad, listen," Sorun reiterated, causing the fox standing across from him to grow a bit annoyed. "I can't say I really like the idea of you trying to use your son's friend for political gain. Don't feel like protesting with a guy who rolls like that. More importantly, though, I just don't want any part of this. It doesn't have anything to do with me." He turned to the side and then began walking towards his bed. "That said," he continued, "I'm not exactly opposed to what you're doing, either."
"You're... not?" Amadeus asked, voice hesitant as he watched Sorun sit down on the bed. "Why not?"
Sighing through his nose, Sorun craned his head up at the ceiling. "Look, most of the countries in the world where I'm from switched to various republic and democratic governments. Hell, my own country America did the same thing. so I get where you're coming from," he explained. Amadeus perked up just the slightest bit and made to speak up again, but Sorun stopped him by raising a hand. "But listen, don't think switching the government to a republic system's gonna solve all you're problems. It's got its own issues, saw it all the time in America. Bureaucracy's slow as shit when it comes to changing and adding laws and the senatorial in-fighting's a nightmare, among other problems. But, otherwise... I guess it kinda worked for the most part. No government's perfect." He kicked his feet out onto the floor, crossed his arms, and turned his head away. "And far be it for me to interfere with the people's wishes. Ability to protest's a basic right. I ain't gonna interfere with that. So if you wanna round up half the town and go protest at the castle, then go ahead. I'm not with ya, but I ain't goin' against ya, either."
Sorun's words hung in the air for a few moments after he finished speaking. Amadeus continued to silently regarded Sorun, and then finally let out a resigned sigh as he slumped his shoulders a bit. "I... suppose that alone is more than I should have asked for. I apologize if I made it seem my intentions were less than pure. I merely want what's best for the people living here."
"Yeah, I know. Now get out of my room."
The fox didn't even hesitate in turning towards the door. Sorun had turned his head just slightly so his eye could watch the fox cross the room, and it was only when he'd opened the door halfway did he speak again. "One more thing."
Amadeus paused, hand still on the door's handle as he looked to Sorun. "Yes?"
"It is a peaceful protest you're planning here, right?" the human asked him. "Just a big rally where you all yell at the king? That it?"
"That is what my wife and I indeed planned, yes."
"Good. That's good." Sorun glanced towards the window. "'Cause I'm all for peaceful protest. Emphasis on the word 'peaceful'." He looked back at the fox. "I don't care what you people do as long as nobody gets hurt. If somebody does get hurt, though, or if even so much as a brick gets tossed through a window... then I don't care what your intentions are. I'll tear my way out of this hospital and drag you back here with me." He nodded his head towards the IV pole next to him. "Specifically I'll take that IV pole right there and break it across your face. Them's street rules. But that's only if things get a tad bit too rowdy. You understand."
The threat loomed in the air between them for a solid ten seconds. A legitimate threat, too, seeing as Sorun knew Amadeus knew Sorun could do it if he wanted to. He'd seen the fight, after all. And Sorun fully intended on fulfilling that promise if things really did turn violent, regardless of whose father Amadeus was. The Mobian himself stiffened up at the threat, while Sorun merely continued to stare at him with a half-bored, half-relaxed expression, going as far as to drum his spectral claws along his real flesh-and-blood arm.
"... Don't use that course language around my son." Amadeus stepped through the opened door. "Have a good rest of your day. And get well soon."
The door closed behind him a bit harder than it ought to have as Amadeus left. Sorun simply breathed outwards as he relaxed his body and looked back towards the window.
"I swear, the whole Prower family is out to kill me from stress alone. Merlin, Amadeus, Tails, I'm just waiting for his mom to get a shot at screwing me over. Huh. Miles 'Tails' Prower. Miles Prower. Ower, hour, miles per hour- OH GODDAMMIT-!"
It was official. This was the most humiliation Sorun had ever endured. Nothing topped this. It was the pinnacle. The summit of embarrassment. He couldn't stand it.
"Amy, please let me get out of the chair."
"Nope. Doctor's orders."
That was the summation of why he was sitting in a wheelchair being pushed around by Amy.
Granted, it was... somewhat relaxing, being pushed around the city's streets by the pink hedgehog. Nicole really had done a fantastic job designing the place from how immaculate it looked. How all the bushes and trees everywhere mixing and intertwining with the artificial architecture made the place look hyper-modern and at the same time natural and almost fit in with nature. It was nice. Homey. And admittedly it was very soothing being able to take in the sights as he was wheeled around.
Didn't stop him from hating being so restricted.
"So how are you doing, Sorun?" Amy kindly asked as he was gently pushed down a sidewalk by Amy. "I'm sorry if things have been a bit lonely in the hospital. We've all been a little busy reorganizing and getting used to things since we all moved here, and that's been a really big adjustment. I know Knuckles had to back to Angel Island yesterday to check up on things up there and for me personally it's been an utter struggle getting everything in my new home organized-" She cut herself off with a bit of a guilty chuckle. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to go on like that. You're feeling okay, right?"
"I've been good," he answered, eyelid twitching a bit as Sorun kept his head forwards. "So... what's the deal with these new people? And why did you give my Chao to them?"
"Oh, well, about that..." Amy made another chuckle, this one more nervous. "Virgil, um... he kind of just does what he wants. None of us could really keep him in our homes since he kept getting out and, well, nobody wanted to try and, you know, grab him." She made a soured face and turned to the side as she continued to push the wheelchair. "Your pet's kind of nasty, you know."
"You couldn't have just put him in one of the server rooms or something so Nicole could keep an eye on him?" Sorun asked. "He actually listens to her. Sometimes more than me."
"She said she was too busy," she answered with a shake of her head. "While we were trying to figure that out I had to go all the way to the Southern Baronies because we got a distress call. A mother and her daughter who had their home next to a Chao Garden all destroyed by you-know-who's nephew."
"Oh, yeah, Mr. I'm-Gonna-Cut-His-Head-Off-Next-Time-I-See-Him-'Cause-I-Don't-Gotta-Worry-About-Eggman-Bombing-The-City-Anymore." Sorun made an affirmative sound. "What was he doing harassing some random folks?"
Amy made an annoyed scoff. "Chao have a bit of Chaos energy in them and we guess he assumed the readings he got from the Chao Garden were a Chaos Emerald or Power Rings or something. He's made the same mistake before according to Sonic. Then he went and destroyed the place anyways, and the family's home along with it," she continued with a small sigh. "I saved the family and all their Chao but their homes were gone. I had to let them stay at my house until Nicole built them a new one, and I had to convince her to make a Chao Garden in the park where she put the artificial Lake of Rings she made. So the important thing is they're all fine."
"Okay... but why'd you give my Chao to them?"
"Because nobody else wanted to watch him and one of the people I saved, Cream, is really good with Chao. She even has some of her own and managed the Chao Garden she used to live next to; she's got a lot of experience. So I decided to just hand him off to her until you got better."
"Ah-huh." The sidewalks began to disappear as they entered into the park area of the city. With a small frown, Sorun craned his head around to face Amy. "It kinda just sounds like you foisted Virgil onto some random stranger just 'cause you didn't wanna look after him."
"He ripped one of my dresses, Sorun! I don't have many of those left since most of my stuff got lost in Knothole!"
Sorun's head flinched back a bit when Amy all but screeched that at him. He made a single sigh, and then faced back forwards while sagging in the wheelchair. "Alright, fair enough," he mumbled out as Amy resumed pushing him. "So this girl, er, Cream and- what was her mother's name again?"
"Vanilla."
"We're onto food now?" Sorun made an exasperated noise, shook his head, and asked, "So how is she with Virgil?" The last thing he wanted to hear was that his pet Chao had acted untoward a little girl that had been looking after him. He didn't even know if he should expect such a miracle like him behaving since Amy had went and dumped him with a complete stranger. Of course, the last thing he expected was for the Chao to do something seriously bad like accidentally poke a hole in the girl by mistake with one of his bladed arms, he wasn't that vicious, but then again he liked cutting Sonic at every available opportunity. Even so Sorun was fairly certain he only did it because he knew he couldn't actually physically harm the hedgehog.
At least that's what Sorun thought.
"I don't know," Amy said in answer to Sorun's previous question. "I've been so preoccupied I haven't really checked up on the both of them since they moved out of my home. But I'm sure everything's fine with-"
"No Mr. Virgil! No! Bad Chao!"
"Oh dear."
The part of the park Amy had wheeled Sorun onto looked relatively like a Chao Garden. Lots of grass, some trees here and there, a big pond in the middle surrounded by a bunch of Chao. All the same, default-looking blue and yellow things Virgil used to look like before he got his own form. And mostly they were all meandering about and minding their own business.
A disturbance towards the end of the Chao Garden was what drew Sorun's attention. There were two figures wholly different from the Chao all around, one Sorun recognized, and one Sorun didn't. The one he did recognize was Virgil's blue and black form, sitting up on a branch of a tall tree and looking down at the second figure, whom Sorun didn't recognize. A small, cream-colored rabbit Mobian in a white and orange dress.
"Alright, so... that's gotta be the Cream girl Amy mentioned." With a sigh, Sorun looked back up at Virgil. "Why's he gotta go and terrorize children while I'm not looking?"
The rabbit girl was reaching up towards the branch Virgil was sitting on while trying to hop up to him, but she was about ten feet too short for that. When Sorun looked closer he noted that there was something hooked on one of the blades on Virgil's arm. A small red bowtie. And he was also scowling down at the Mobian kid.
"Ugh, for the..." With a small groan, Sorun sat up off the wheelchair. "I'm gonna go deal with that."
"Are you okay to move?" Sorun paused and turned around at Amy, who was giving him a worried expression. "The doctor said-"
"Doctor, shmocter," he interrupted. "Amy, c'mon, I don't want the kid or Virgil to see me in a wheelchair and it'll only take me five minutes. Just give me this."
She looked ready to argue with him, but when he sent her a pleading look, Amy held her tongue. She looked towards the rabbit child in the distance, back to Sorun, and then made a small sigh as she shook her head. "Five minutes, and then as soon as we're out of sight it's back in the chair, mister," she said. "I don't need somebody yelling at me because I let you move around so much."
"Thanks Amy you're the best." Sorun flashed her a quick thumbs-up, to which she made a small groan and shook her head, seemingly already regretting her decision. Sorun ignored it and turned towards the distressed child and Chao, humming slightly as he thought on what to do.
"Could just walk up to them. In truth, though, just standing up on my own's kinda exhausting as it is. Could just teleport there... but I don't wanna freak the kid out." After deliberating with himself for a few moments, Sorun finally shrugged his shoulders and made up his mind. "Eh, Mobians're tough. She can handle the shock."
And so, his decision made clear, he Tricked right behind the rabbit girl that was shorter than even he was and appeared in a small crouch. She didn't register his sudden appearance, it seemed, though she did freeze completely when Sorun reached out and placed his right hand on top of her head between her large ears.
"Yo, kid. I want my Chao back."
The child continued to remain frozen even after Sorun finished speaking. He blinked a bit in confusion and removed his hand, still staring towards her even as she continued to stand in place. He started to worry he'd scared her too much, but finally she seemed to regain her senses and slowly, almost painfully so, turned around towards Sorun.
"H-hello...?" Her high voice came out as small and meek as she finally turned to meet Sorun's blue eye with her own brown ones. She'd made a small "Eep!" noise the second she registered Sorun's appearance, and then took a step back with widened eyes as she covered her mouth with her hands, eyes still affixed to him.
Sorun, in response, made a small hum and tilted his head. It almost looked like the child was afraid of him in some way from the way she was just standing there and staring at him with that wide-eyed expression. She was even shaking lightly. He wondered why until he looked down at himself, and then clicked his tongue in realization.
She was a child from outside of Knothole and this city. She probably had never even seen somebody like him before. Some weird, pale person in a black t-shirt and blue pants. The demonic-looking blue, spectral Bringer Claw replacing his arm and the eyepatch over his right eye probably didn't help his appearance, either. Or the way he'd just suddenly appeared behind her like he had.
He was probably downright terrifying from her perspective.
"Okay, maybe I could have approached this a bit more tactfully." Mentally kicking himself, Sorun stood up, placing his hands in his pockets, and tilted his head back straight. "Er... hi. Lemme try that again," he requested. "I'm Sorun. You're Cream, right? The person looking over my Chao Virgil?" He nodded up the tree. "That Chao up there?"
"S-Sorun...?" The name seemed to register with her, as he saw a bit of recognition flash in her eyes. The hands slowly lowered from her mouth, and she appeared to become much more relaxed. "Oh, you're Ms. Amy's friend!" she realized, her previous fear all but evaporating. She'd brightened up so quickly to him, in fact, that Sorun himself was slightly startled from how fast her demeanor had changed. "She told me you were hurt and couldn't look after your Chao. She seemed really worried about you."
"Er, yeah. Lotta... lotta people were worried." Sorun removed his left hand from his pocket and nervously scratched the back of his head while turning away. "So, Cream..." he continued as he looked back down at her, "what's the problem with little ol' Virgil?"
"Oh, Virgil..." Her demeanor shifted again, this time into a slightly displeased one. "Mr. Virgil's being very mean right now. He stole poor Cheese's bowtie and won't give it back!"
"..." Sorun tilted his head to the other side. "An' Cheese is...?"
"Cheese! He's this Chao right here."
She gestured to the side of her. Sorun followed the gesture, eyeing a Chao that was floating besides her. By all appearances, other than the small apple slice it currently held it looked the exact same as all the other Chao, so he'd quickly glossed over it when he'd first examined the girl thinking it was just one of the local Chao. It must have been Cream's Chao, then.
"Still... she called her Chao Cheese? For real?"
It took a monumental amount of willpower not to sigh out loud at that name right in front of the Chao's owner.
"Okay, lemme take care of this, Cream," he told her. "He'll listen to me."
"Are you sure?" she asked him. She looked hesitant at the idea, and even looked down with her hands behind her back while lightly kicking at her own feet. "It was my job to look after him, so I would feel bad if-"
"Nah, nah, he's a bit unruly, I get it. Just lemme deal with him, it's fine." He he leaned down to pat the top of her head again and gave her a small grin. "Sit tight and relax, huh?"
She looked back up at him after he removed his hand and gave him a small smile. Sorun had only seen a glance of it, though, as by then he'd already moved away from her and towards the tree. He stood a few steps away from it, sighing and looking upwards at the branch where his Chao was currently sitting on. He noticed that he was staring right at Sorun.
"Virgil, get down here."
Sorun saw that the Chao was staring at him with wide, surprised eyes. He'd obliged immediately and zoomed right off the tree branch, flying towards Sorun so fast that if Sorun didn't know any better he'd assume he meant to ram right into him. Fortunately his spectral arm managed to snap upwards out of his pocket and snatch the Chao in its grasp right before he hit him.
It was almost amusing to Sorun, seeing the look on the Chao's face. The wide smile he had on just didn't fit the appearance. The silver, crest-like horns, the sharp features, the pointed teeth; the smile just didn't fit with them. But here Virgil was, squirming in the spectral hand as he reached out towards Sorun with his bladed arms.
"Chao! Chao chao-chao! Chao!"
"Heh-heh. Glad you missed me, little guy. I'm touched."
Virgil froze almost immediately, and his mood changed in such a way he may as well have been a different Chao. His expression turned back into one Sorun recognized: a perpetual, grumpy-looking scowl. He even crossed his arms and turned away from Sorun, or at least as much as he could while still being grabbed.
"Chao." The tone was low and tersely delivered, like it was said in denial. Sorun understood immediately and shook his head as a result.
"Yeah, that's more like it. Sorry I worried you so much, pal," he said. "Did I at least look cool during the fight?"
"... Chao."
"Thattaboy." Sorun reached over with his other hand and rubbed at the spot between his silver, cylindrical horns. Virgil made a displeased noise and swiped at the finger, causing Sorun to pull back and grin a bit more.
"Alright, alright," he said, releasing Virgil so he could float in front of him with his v-shaped wings. He saw Virgil eyeing his arm, and asked, "What?"
Virgil didn't speak at first. Instead, he pointed down at the spectral arm that had been holding onto him. "Chao." He looked up at the eyepatch covering Sorun's lost eye. "Chao."
"I got a bit dinged up, so what? We're not talking about me right now," he said. "Now why don't you tell me why you're bullying the other Chao over there?"
Making another displeased sound, Virgil turned to the side, towards the Chao floating next to Cream. The plain-looking, saddened Chao holding the apple slice. Virgil scowled even deeper and turned towards Sorun.
"Chao. Chao-chao chao. Chao chao. Chao. Chao-chao. Chao. Chao."
"... I didn't get a word of that."
Virgil twitched, and then suddenly looked annoyed. "Chao." He gestured to the apple slice Cheese held. "Chao." He shook his left arm, which had the bowtie hooked to the black, organic blade on the back of the arm. "Chao."
"Ohhhh. Gotcha." Nodding in understanding, Sorun turned from his Chao to Cream. "He says Cheese stole his lunch and he's not giving the bowtie back until he gets his apple."
A gasp came from Cream, and she whirled right towards the Chao at her side, who suddenly looked very guilty from the way he shied away from her. "Cheese! Is this true?"
"... Chao..." the light blue Chao shamefully admitted.
"How could you!?" Cream exclaimed in an affronted tone. Sorun refrained from laughing due to how non-threatening her high voice and small stature made her. "Mr. Virgil is a guest of ours! You can't be mean to him like that!" She pointed up towards Virgil. "Please give him back his food so you can stop being mean to each other, Cheese."
Meanwhile, while they talked, Sorun and Virgil both turned to eye each other. "You gonna make up with her Chao at the end of this?" he asked him.
Virgil shook his head. "Chao-chao."
"Come on, man, you'll make the kid upset. And it's just an apple. You're seriously gonna hold a grudge over an apple? Just make up with the guy so the rabbit girl stops looking so sad."
After thinking for a moment, the black and blue Chao made a small sigh. "Chao."
Right after agreeing to Sorun's request, the lighter blue Chao floated into both of their views. Cheese apprehensively held the apple slice out towards Virgil, lip quivering in regret and the yellow dot above his head formed in a spiral. Virgil had taken one look at the saddened Chao before him, glanced back at Sorun, and then sighed again as he undid the bowtie secured to his arm.
"... Chao." Virgil tossed the bowtie up in the air. Cheese's eyes stared off after it, during which Virgil snatched the apple slice from his arms. The light blue Chao caught the bowtie and affixed it to his chest, while Virgil nipped at the apple slice he'd taken back.
After securing the bowtie to himself, Cheese looked back towards Virgil. "Chao?" The spiral turned into a question mark.
"Chao," Virgil replied as he took another bite of the apple.
"Chao-chao?"
"Chao-chao."
"Chao?"
"Chao." A pause. "Chao."
"Uh... problem solved, I guess." He glanced to the side at Cream. She was beaming a wide smile at the two Chao. "Er... yeah."
"Hello? Cream, dear?" Sorun's attention was drawn away from the three when he heard the sound of rustling and a womanly voice calling out behind him. "Are you here- oh my..."
"This her mom?" Sorun wondered as he turned around. "Ah, great, I don't really deal well with mo- what."
Oh, it was Cream's mom, alright. The Mobian woman he'd turned around to face was practically the spitting image of her, right down to the looks and clothing. What wasn't the same was the height. At all. In fact Sorun had never seen a Mobian as tall as the woman he'd turned around to before. His eye only came up to her chest. He had to look up just to see her bewildered eyes staring down at him.
"Why does she get to be so tall?" Sorun wondered as he took some steps back. "This is bullshit."
"Um... you must be Cream's mom," Sorun mumbled out, slightly flustered at the Mobian woman's height. "Vanilla, right? I-I'm-" he turned away to cough, "- I'm Sorun, nice to meet you."
"Oh, yes, hello." The older rabbit had gotten over her initial surprise over Sorun's appearance and straightened herself out. "You... would be the one who primarily cared for the Chao my daughter has been looking after recently, correct? I remember Amy kept speaking of you."
"Yeah, that's me." Sorun turned his head towards the smaller rabbit who, along with the two Chao, had apprached them. "Sorry if the li'l guy's been a bit of a handful for you two. I know you're both new here, so having to look after someone like Virgil probably isn't helping all that much."
To his surprise, Cream had shaken her head. "Oh, it isn't so bad. Mr. Virgil usually behaves himself really well. He hasn't ever misbehaved like this before."
"... That right?" Sorun's eye flicked up to Virgil. He avoided locking eyes with the Earthling, even grimacing slightly out of embarrassment it seemed like. "Huh." He focused back on Cream. "That's actually kinda surprising. He usually doesn't get along with that many people."
"Chao." That came from Virgil, who was still floating behind Cream with his arms crossed. It had come out sounding like a scoff.
He tried downplaying it, but he was honestly shocked that Cream called Virgil well-behaved. He usually was... but only around either himself and Nicole. Sonic's parents, too, on the occasion he was absent on a mission back in Knothole, though that was just for feeding purposes as he was usually left to his own devices otherwise. He tolerated people, but tolerance usually didn't go outside of that: basic tolerance. All the ire Amy had expressed earlier over the Chao said enough.
"Hm..." Sorun gave the small rabbit child a thoughtful look. She'd used to care for a Chao Garden according to Amy. Probably cared for this new one, too. Compared to everybody else he'd ever talked to about Chao that probably meant she was more an expert with them than anybody he knew, himself included. She had a parental figure to boot, and Vanilla seemed like a responsible person. She was a mother, she had to be.
Probably more responsible than Sorun was. Hell, individually they both probably were.
"... To hell with it. I'm not gonna be around much longer, and there's nobody better qualified. Not really sure about leaving him with total strangers, but... egh, I'll leave him with 'em for now and think on it. Come to a more final decision later."
Well, that's what he thought, but Sorun really doubted he'd find anybody better than the small rabbit family surrounding him at the moment. If they decided to do it, great. Worst case Sorun would just have to leave Virgil in the Chao Garden here when he finally died, and all things considered leaving him in a small park filled with his own kind in a safe and secure city surrounded by Mobians he implicitly trusted wasn't exactly the worse idea in the world. But he'd make up his mind on that later. For now he'd see if the family would take him so he could see if that would work out.
"Hey, Cream," Sorun said as he kneeled down in front of her. "You mind holding onto Virgil a little longer for me?"
Virgil's head whipped in Sorun's direction in surprise. "Chao?"
Cream seemed equally surprised at the request. "R-really?"
"Well, you see, I'm not really sure the hospital I'm staying at right now allows pets." He gave her a small grin while scratching the back of his head with his spectral hand. "I know he's a bit too smart to be called a pet, but I dunno if the doctors would see it like that."
"Chao."
Sorun looked up at the Chao when he heard the displeased sound he made. "Come on, don't be like that. I'm on thin ice with the doctors there as-is. You know how much they keep yelling at me over there?" He nodded his head to the light blue Chao with the red bowtie floating nearby. "'Sides, don't you wanna hang with your new friend for a bit longer?"
An affronted expression crossed Virgil's face. "Chao!" he said in denial.
"Sooner you accept it the less of a headache it is in the long run. Trust me on this one." Sorun looked back down at Cream. Her mouth was downturned, which made him pause a bit before speaking again. "Sorry if I'm asking for a bit too much here. I'm not saying you have to. I can just leave him in the Chao Garden and get him when I finally get out of the hospital, so-"
"No, no! It's completely fine. I actually wouldn't mind looking after him for a little bit longer if mother allows it."
At once, both of the Chao, Cream, and Sorun looked back at the older Mobian in the group. She looked about just as surprised as Cream had when Sorun made the request, though at the same time she still had that easygoing smile that looked downright motherly. And it was focused mainly on Sorun, forcing him to turn away a bit. "I don't think that would be much of a problem at all, Sorun. You don't need to worry. We'd be happy to keep him a while longer for you."
"T-that's great, thanks..." he quietly mumbled out.
"Mr. Sorun?" A tug on Sorun's pant leg drew his attention to the smaller rabbit. She still had that small, sad look on her face. "Mrs. Amy said you were really hurt. Is that why you have to stay at the hospital?" he saw her eyes look towards his spectral arm replacing his missing one. "Is your... is your arm supposed to look like that?"
She looked like she was on the verge of tears.
"Aw, geez, come on, no, don't cry, not in front of your mom, I can't handle crying kids." Thinking fast, Sorun put on a faux smile that looked as genuine as he could possibly make it and waved it at the small rabbit child. "What, this? Nah, the arm's supposed to look like this. I'm kinda special like that." His left Bringer Claw appeared over his shoulder, making Cream jump a bit. "See, I even have an extra third arm. If anything I have too many arms." The Bringer Claw disappeared as Sorun pocket both his hands and stood up from his kneeling position. "I, uh... just kind of got a bit hurt. Y'know, doin' Freedom Fighter stuff. Hazardous position. I'm completely fine, so don't worry about me."
"O-oh. Okay." To Sorun's immense relief, Cream looked to calm down. The corners of her mouth even started to upturn a bit, which was a welcome change to how it did look. "I only asked because Ms. Amy seemed really worried about you when we moved in with her. She and a bunch of her friends in the Freedom Fighters kept talking about you."
"Yeah, uh... some stuff happened. And they're really great people like that. But like I said, it's all good now, so... yeah." His tolerance needed to keep a straight face was running short. He couldn't do this much longer. "Listen, speaking of which, I gotta go back. Nice meetin' ya Cream, Vanilla. Cheese." He turned around to give the tall Mobian a brief nod, and then faced back forwards and downwards to give the smaller one and the Chao next to her the same nod. "I'll see you around, I guess."
"Bye, Mr. Sorun!" Cream waved to Sorun as he began walking away. "Please get better soon!"
"It was wonderful meeting you, Sorun," Vanilla called after him. "We'll make sure to look after little Virgil, so do make sure to focus on your own recovery."
"Chao!" Similar to his owner, Cheese waved after Sorun.
"Yeah, guys, I'll do that. Again, thanks." Sorun stopped moving when he crossed next to Virgil, turning his head so the two's eyes met. "Seriously, man, behave yourself around them," he quietly mumbled to him. "They seem really nice and I got enough stuff to worry about here."
Virgil rolled his eyes at Sorun, but then stopped when his eyes fell on Cream, who was looking towards them. He paused, continuing to stare after her for a few moments before the Chao sighed out and looked back to Sorun. "Chao." The sound came out as low and resigned, and with it came a small nod.
"Thanks, pal." Sorun gave Virgil a quick thumbs-up, and then quickly turned around towards where he left Amy and the wheelchair. Without another word, he continued moving forwards, choosing not to look back at the group.
"I don't know. I probably am just gonna end up leavin' Virgil with 'em," Sorun thought to himself. "They seem like a nice bunch. Might do Virgil some good if he's around another Chao like him, too. Give him a little friend he can act all cool around to stroke his ego further. Pfft, yeah, like that's the last thing he needs." He took a small breath and looked towards the sky. "It's all comin' together. Kinda scary to think about."
He passed a tree and saw Amy from the corner of his vision while he mused to himself, chair right besides her. He'd given her a single curt nod and continued walking forwards. He only made it a few steps before she called out to him.
"Sorun. Chair."
"Aw, come on, Amy," Sorun complained as he turned back to her, "do I really need-?"
She had her hammer in her hands.
Sorun froze when he saw it, and then looked up at Amy. Her eyes (eye?) was narrowed at him in a threatening manner. "You'd really hit a cripple, Amy?" he asked her.
"Won't have to if you get in the chair."
With a loud, resigned sigh, Sorun hung his head and made his way towards her and the wheelchair.
"Push me down the hill."
"No."
"Oh, come on!" Sorun turned his upper half around to look at the person holding the handles of the wheelchair behind him. "I barely ever get any fun while tied to this thing, Nicole, and the hill isn't even that steep!"
Nicole glanced her green eyes down at Sorun. Her mouth was in a thin line, and her expression was a cross between looking amused and stern. "My apologies, Sorun. I hadn't realized me taking time to personally come and visit you didn't provide you with adequate amusement."
Sorun opened his mouth to retort, but only wordless sounds came out as he failed to formulate a good enough response. He settled with sighing and turning back forwards, crossing his arms in the process. "That's not what I meant and you know it," he mumbled out.
All in all, behind all the teasing Nicole had a point. He could have just been left in his hospital room to rot, but the ever-merciful Dr. Quack allowed him movement in the form of a wheelchair outside of that place on the condition someone was there to wheel him around. Only reason he got Amy to take him out earlier was because of that. And it was the only reason Nicole was wheeling him around outside right now.
The AI lynx had wanted to show him around the city. Or parts of it, at least. Sorun had noted that no matter where she took him the hospital was always somewhere in sight or at least close by, and he wasn't even sure she had any specific destinations in mind. She was kind of just wheeling him around wherever, seemingly aimlessly, as they both talked about whatever was on their mind. Sorun didn't awfully mind too much, something that slightly surprised him. But it was nice just being there, talking with her, even if he was confined to a wheelchair. He didn't care where it was or what they were doing.
He still would have liked to go down that hill, though, if only because he'd never rolled down a hill in a wheelchair before. Not for any particular reason other than he just wanted to see what it was like. A spontaneous urge. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Nicole agreed in letting him act on this urge.
"C'mon, it'll just take a few seconds," he eagerly said in an attempt to get her to push him down the grass hill they were on top of. "There's not even anything in the way, it's a clean shot. I'll be fine."
Nicole shook her head. "I am aware you have a proclivity towards unusual activities, Sorun, but I'm afraid I cannot allow that. You're still recovering."
He made a "tch" sound, and then gripped the arms of the wheelchair. "Look, how about I just get up and carry the chair halfway down the hill so it's not as dangerous-"
Sorun was stopped midsentence when one of Nicole's hands placed itself on his left shoulder, and then pushed down hard enough that he was forcibly sat back down in the chair. "I think you're fine here," she said.
Grumbling under his breath, Sorun finally relented and released his hold on the wheelchair's arms, choosing to fold them in his lap. "Alright, fine," he muttered out. "So, going back to what we were talking about before," he continued in a lighter voice, "What made you want to name this place New Mobotropolis?"
Nicole began pushing the wheelchair along again. When Sorun glanced back at her he saw that the stern look had completely vanished, leaving behind the small smile Nicole had on beforehand. "Originally the Kingdom of Acorn inhabited a city named Mobotropolis. It was renamed to Robotropolis at Dr. Robotnik's behest following his conquer of the city, though the city itself now lays in ruin."
"Oh, yeah, it got nuked 'cause of a foible in one of Robotnik's schemes, right?" Sorun asked. "I'm not really familiar with what happened exactly but that's the gist, isn't it?"
"Yes, essentially," Nicole answered. "There were many that were disheartened by the destruction of the city, even though much of what it had formerly been had been stripped away by Dr. Robotnik. One of the reasons I devised to create this city in the first place was to try and give the Mobian people here back a piece of what they had lost." Her features brightened up a bit more. "As it happens, the city ruins itself is contained so none of the nuclear material and fallout bleeds out into the surrounding nature, though I made it so that radiation from those ruins runs off to New Mobotropolis via an underground conduit. It gets filtered and transferred into the power generators that power the nanites that comprise the city. It's the primary source of power here," she explained, smile ever-so wide and sunny, with just the smallest bit of pride detected underneath Nicole's humble attitude.
"You decided to power the nanite city with... nuclear runoff?" Sorun asked, quirking his eyebrow. "Why?"
"More siphoning off and purifying the ambient radiation from the Robotropolis ruins, but yes, that is correct. It was a readily-accessible and abundant supply of energy that was doing more harm than good merely existing in city reduced to rubble," Nicole succinctly answered.
"Sounds... practical, I guess," Sorun admitted. Practical, if not a bit strange. If it worked, he supposed... "Won't the city run out of power though once all the radiation is clear?"
"That is why I created a Lake of Rings. The hope is that one day the energy conversion process will clean the Robotropolis ruins so that nobody will be harmed by simply being near them. Perhaps then a new city could be rebuilt there."
"Yeah, but they already got this city," Sorun said.
"True," she agreed, "but there's only so much space here. I would very much like it if this city remained indefinitely to give Mobians a home, but population numbers do not remain static. These are what-ifs for events that will not happen for decades from now, though. For now I believe everybody is content with this home, and I myself am content with the freedom it has afforded me."
Sorun turned around to look at Nicole again. A wry grin grew across his features. "You didn't make this city just to give everybody a new home, did you, Nicole?"
"Well... perhaps not, no." She turned a bit away from Sorun as the smile on her face turned a bit shy. "You know I always wanted a chance to live life among Mobians, away from that handheld. In a way that wasn't restricted by all the power requirements and time limits. I saw no reason why I could not benefit from the city the same as everyone else."
Sorun smirked, but said nothing as he turned back forwards. Not like he could blame her for wanting something like that after being stuck inside that handheld for practically her whole life. It made him wonder if she wanted that almost more than giving everyone a new home, but considering she'd done both at the same time, he didn't see any point dwelling on the question.
The wheelchair stopped. Sorun made a small, questioning hum, and glanced back up at Nicole. She'd stopped walking and chose to look down at Sorun with a strange look. The smile wasn't on her face anymore, though her green eyes were still staring into his one. She looked almost... discontent with something from the way she was looking at him.
"I made this city to help everybody... and yet, it seems not to have been able to help you all that much, Sorun," she quietly stated.
"Huh?" He gave her a confused look. "What do you mean? I woulda died if you didn't make the hospital and all the equipment in there for the doctors to save me. You've helped me more than anybody else here." In more ways than one, but he didn't feel it appropriate to go that far with it.
The corners of Nicole's mouth had briefly twitched upwards in appreciation of Sorun's words, but it hadn't gone to completely improve her mood all that much. "That means more to me than you know, Sorun, but... I'm not satisfied with just that." She looked downwards to his arm. The spectral one.
Oh. He knew where this was going immediately when she looked at the arm.
"I don't like seeing you like this. Missing body parts. Being... incomplete." She looked up at his face. Sorun couldn't help but note she was focusing more on his eyepatch than his actual eye. "Why won't you allow anybody to transfer cybernetic replacements on you?" she asked. "I could ask Rotor and Tails for assistance with the designs. We could make them in a way that would suit your tastes. It would only take me minutes to construct them from nanites, and the doctors are accomplished in their field. There would be absolutely no risk to you and you would have everything you lost back."
"I don't need them," he answered simply, raising his spectral arm up. "I have all the arms I need right here." He lowered it back into his lap. "If you count my Doppelganger I technically have seven arms."
"At least let me replace your eye," she pleaded with him.
He shook his head. "I'm fine."
"Are you that worried about having to adjust to cybernetics? You can talk to Bunnie; she could help you. I promise it won't be bad for-"
"It's not that," Sorun interrupted. "I just don't want them."
"Sorun, please."
"It'd be a waste of your time and nanites."
"It would not be a waste!"
They'd both flinched back when Nicole raised her voice. Sorun in surprise, not having expected her to take it that far. Nicole seemed more shocked than anything, having went as far as to release her hold on the chair to cover her mouth with her hands as she looked at him with wide eyes. A few beats passed, and she slowly seemed to calm down as she lowered her hands while looked down slightly.
"It would not be a waste to help you," Nicole quietly reiterated. "I would not be offering to give what I would consider a piece of myself to you if it were a waste. I'm doing it because you're you. Please just consider it, Sorun. For me?" she asked him. "I just want to help you."
It took all of Sorun's effort not to groan out loud and cover his face. He knew where she was coming from - he almost wanted to go through with it just to make her stop feeling bad - but he meant what he said. No point in becoming a cyborg when he was dying soon. No use in wasting everybody's efforts like that. No use in getting inhibited by hardware he wasn't familiar with when what he had right now worked just fine. And he for sure didn't want Nicole using her nanites on him. It was already eating him alive knowing what him dying might do to her without adding that onto it. If things were different he would have said yes. But they weren't. He just didn't have a use for them with the time he had.
But, he could at least give Nicole some hope. False hope made from a lie, but that wouldn't be so different compared to everything else he did to her and everybody else. Just a lie to placate her for a while longer until he finally died. It'd make him feel horrible, but at least it would improve her mood for the time being.
"I'll... I'll think about it, alright?" he said, causing her to look back up at him. "It's just not easy for me to get into something like that immediately. But I don't like seeing you so worried, so... I'll think it over. Just give me some time with it."
It tore at something in him to say that, knowing he was lying, but at least it got Nicole to brighten up considerably. She even started smiling again. "That's all I'm asking for," she said. "You needn't worry, Sorun. I'm confident we can get the resolution in the artificial eye's lens to a point that you will not even be able to tell the difference between it and your organic eye. I'll even see about making it resemble your organic eye. You won't notice a thing."
"Yeah, that's... that's real great, Nicole," Sorun mumbled out, lacking all energy as he looked to the right. "Real great... hm?"
He noticed there was somebody down at the bottom of the grass hill they were both on, sitting on a bench with their shoulders slumped over. When he squinted to look closer, he realized he recognized the regal red and blue uniform the person wore. He found it especially hard not to recognize the tail and the crown on top of their head.
"Hey, is that Elias down there?" Sorun asked, pointing towards the person in question. Nicole followed his gesture and looked towards where he was pointing.
"Yes, I believe it is," she said. "He looks rather unwell, Sorun."
"Yeah." A few sparks of blue electricity danced along Sorun's body as a small smirk played over his lips. "Yeah, he sure does."
Before Nicole could say anything else, she felt somebody tap her shoulders. She turned completely around to greet whoever it was behind her, but then stopped halfway when she realized it wasn't a person at all behind her. It was Sorun's spectral Doppelganger, who was playfully waving at her before it dissipated. When she turned back around towards Sorun, she saw him wheeling towards the edge of the hill, no doubt with the intent to roll down it.
"Yeeeaah- oh come on."
He'd barely even gotten any momentum before the grass in front of him rose up a few feet in the shape of a rectangular, green wall. The wheelchair had softly collided with it, halting all his momentum and causing Sorun to grow a flat, disappointed face. The wall was only lowered back down when Nicole had calmly walked behind him and grasped the wheelchair's handles.
"I believe we'll be taking the safe way down the hill," Nicole said as she turned Sorun's chair around. "There just happens to be a paved walkway right over there that leads to the bench Elias is sitting on."
"She's literally omnipotent here with all these nanites, isn't she?" A small, unenthused sigh left Sorun, and he found himself slumping into the wheelchair as Nicole gently pushed him along down the path. "All I wanted was a bit of fun, damn..."
Slowly - agonizingly slow in the most unenthusiastic and mind-numbing way possible all in the name of something as trite as safety - both Nicole and Sorun had reached the bench Elias was sitting on. He didn't even seem to acknowledge their presence. He wasn't even staring out into the pond that was in front of him. Just staring down at his own boots.
Nicole and Sorun glanced at each other with unsure expressions that mirrored each other, and then faced back towards Elias. It was Nicole that took the initiative and spoke out to him. "Your highness?"
Blue eyes darted up to the pair of them. The most Elias did was breath out slowly and look back down. "Hello Nicole, Sorun," he glumly greeted. "I'm glad to see you're doing well, Sorun."
"... You really don't sound like it," Sorun pointed out. His statement caused Nicole to raise a hand up and slightly nudge the side of his head. He hissed out in surprise and swatted the hand away.
"Do I not? Forgive me, I'm... I'm a bit out of sorts." Elias sighed again and looked up at the pond. "I presume you're here about the riot?"
"Uh... riot?" Sorun blinked in confusion, and then looked up at Nicole. He was even more confused when he saw she didn't seem fazed by the news at all. Like it wasn't even news to her. "What-what riot, there was a riot?"
And now they looked confused at him. "The riot," Elias repeated. "Half the town was lead by general Amadeus Prower in a massive protest. They kept demanding I step down from power."
"The guy actually went and did that? And I missed it?" Sorun thought. "When did this happen?"
"Sorun, it was this afternoon," Nicole informed him, sounding a bit stunned. "You... what were you doing this afternoon that made you miss all of that?"
"Well, uh... in the morning Amy wheeled me to the park 'cause I had a whole thing with Virgil going on, then I went back, and after that, uh..."
"~And the notches on his pistol numbered one and nineteen more- man, what is with the racket?" Sorun muttered out, interrupting his song as he looked towards the window. He could faintly hear what sounded like a crowd of people, though it was too faint for him to pick up anything intelligible. It mostly just served as annoying white noise.
White noise that made him lose track of where he was in the song.
"Damn, where was I?" he muttered to himself. "Man... I'm starting to run out of songs I heard in video games from back home..."
"... I dunno."
Elias looked a bit skeptical at Sorun's claim, as did Nicole, though he didn't act on it at all. He just looked back towards the pond. "I was forced to detain the general and disperse the mob."
"You... detained him?" Sorun asked. "Why?"
"Because what else was I to do when half of the city comes knocking on the castle's front door demanding I step down so they can reorganize the entire government?" Elias looked back to Sorun. "Do you think I made a mistake?"
"Well, um... did things get violent?"
"No."
"Was there any property damages? Like a thrown brick, or...?'
"No."
"Ah, ooh, oh..." Sorun nervously scratched at his cheek with his spectral claws. "You, um, you sure that was the best idea?"
"I don't know, Sorun. That's why I asked you if you thought I made a mistake."
"... That was a real question?" Sorun asked. "I thought you were being rhetorical." Nicole nudged the side of his head again, a bit harder this time. "Man, quit it," he quietly whispered as he softly batted the hand away.
"Yes, it was real." Groaning, Elias slumped forwards and held a hand to his face, shaking his head while muttering out in a voice so quiet Sorun had to strain to hear it. "I visited Amadeus in the detention center, and he... he made a number of valid arguments, Sorun. Time and again for decades the royal family has come up short. The war with the Overlanders, everything having to do with Dr. Robotnik, we've lost both Mobotropolis and Knothole now..." He made a deep sigh. "It seems like it's only because of the Freedom Fighters that anything ever got done. They're the ones that pulled the royal family back together, rebuilt the government, kept things in order under Robotnik's tyranny. And the good general was quick to remind me how a band of children was needed to keep the kingdom from falling apart in those dark times." He slowly turned to Sorun. "And how the only price we needed to pay to survive the invasion of Knothole was to watch a Freedom Fighter fight the Doctor one-on-one and get dismembered in front of all of us."
"I mean he's not exactly wr- don't you do it." Sorun turned just in time to see Nicole's fingers near his head. "Anyway, you don't think he maybe has a-" he briefly cut himself off to quickly glance at Nicole again, and when he saw no hand near him, he continued, "- point? Listen, I don't blame you or anybody else for what happened to me back in New Megaopolis, that was all on me, but the other stuff..." Sorun exhaled and looked up. "Well, I've only been around for about four and a half months so I can't really say I'm in a good position to criticize all that other stuff, but, well... it sounds kinda legit." He looked back down at Elias. "You seriously arrested him over a peaceful protest?"
"Don't make me ask again, Sorun. Just say you agree or disagree with me."
Shrugging, Sorun said, "Alright, I disagree." He waited a second, and when Elias looked for him to continue, he elaborated. "I know, like, nothing about the king game, RTS games were never really my thing, but I think it's reasonable to assume that a king's supposed to listen to his people, right? And when they tried talking to you, you... kinda just locked up the guy speaking for them," Sorun said, making Elias hang his head again. "If things went violent then yeah, that's when you step in, but they didn't. That's less keeping the peace and more stifling the public voice."
"And riling up half the people in the city is meant to keep the peace?"
"I mean when you say it like that-"
"And what am I to do, Sorun?" Elias continued. "Disband the monarchy that has been ruling the kingdom for hundreds of years? Hand the city over to people who want to be in power just because they asked? Is that the precedent I should set here? Is that what I'm to do?"
"... I don't know, man, I suck at politics," Sorun said, genuinely clueless at what to tell Elias. "Don't you have a sister to talk about this to?"
Nicole flicked his head.
"What did I ever do to you!?" Sorun exclaimed as he turned to the lynx. He froze in place from the stern look she was giving him, after which she leaned down to whisper in his ear.
"Sorun, king Elias is clearly in distress right now and you making foolish comments and adopting flippant mannerisms is not helping matters," she quietly informed him. "Please be more thoughtful to him and try to take this seriously."
"Come on, Nicole, I don't even want to have this conversation with the guy," Sorun whispered back, eye flicking back and forth between her and Elias, who didn't even seem to be paying attention to the pair. "Why can't Sally do this? She's his sister! And even more than that she'd actually know what to say here! She has real experience with this kind of thing!"
"Because Sally isn't here right now and he trusts you as someone close to him and as someone who saved the entire kingdom. Your input is not insignificant to him," she whispered, "and we wouldn't be here if you hadn't chosen to approach him in the first place."
"What, so just because I wanted to say hi to the guy suddenly I gotta deal with all this heavy political nonsense?"
"Friends are there when needed, Sorun, not when it is convenient."
"You're seriously gonna drop this wisdom on me right now?" That's what he said. Inside, he knew she had a point, and it was far too late for him to just wheel away. Nicole probably wouldn't even let him if he tried. And admittedly he didn't like seeing Elias look like this. "Ugh, why do you have to be the right one all the time...?" Sorun muttered to the lynx as he turned to face Elias once more.
Choosing to face Elias, however, didn't meant that Sorun still had a clue on what he was supposed to say to him. He was still completely blank in that area. Government jargon and shifting political systems wasn't his forte, and he actively avoided it. He had nothing for Elias, because he genuinely didn't even know who was in the right here. He didn't exactly agree with locking up an innocent protestor, but he didn't know if he agreed with what they were trying to do, either. Because they both had good points Sorun agreed with and he didn't feel like he was embedded in the kingdom enough to actually have a good opinion in the matter.
He wasn't even a technical legal citizen, for crying out loud.
Still, he had to say something. Or at the very least string together some random words until some miracle happened. That's how he got through most conversations in life, Sorun felt.
"So, Elias-"
"Maybe they're right," the king interrupted, causing Sorun to quiet down. "I'm no king. I've barely any experience running a kingdom. I only have the crown because I was born into it. Because I came back to Knothole after spending my whole life up on Angel Island beforehand. And now I feel like running away all over again."
"Hhhhh..." Sorun glanced away from Elias for a moment in thought, and then looked back to him. "Hey, man, I have doubts all the time, too," Sorun said, gaining the king's attention. "I know I usually exude this aura of utmost confidence in everything I do, but I really don't. I mean, especially back when I first got here, 'cause boy, that..." He paused just to shake his head. "You remember how I was. The whole fish out of water thing I had going on. Admittedly it still kind of goes on every single day, but, well... I kinda get what you're coming from."
It may have been a trick of the light, but Sorun almost saw Elias' mood brighten up just the smallest bit. A minute amount. Miniscule. But it looked llike something Sorun said got through to him somewhat. "And how do you deal with these doubts, Sorun?" he asked, almost desperately.
Unfortunately, all Sorun could offer was a shrug. "I don't know, never figured it out." He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end when he sensed Nicole's hand near his head, so he spoke quickly to stay her motions. "Most of the time it feels like I don't even know what I'm doing and everything I do end up doing is done in a blind panic. I'm a joke of a strategist. Never really plan all that much. So when I'm in doubt, and don't know what to do, I just do whatever feels right, without even thinking about it, and a good chunk of the time I'll have made... maybe not the right choice, but still a good choice."
The black-furred hand stilled in the air next to Sorun's head, and then lowered back down to Nicole's side. Sorun found himself exhaling in relief.
"I'm not sure I know a single person in the entire world that thinks like you do, Sorun," he heard Elias mutter out. The statement was followed by the squirrel making a bitter, sorrowful chuckle. "You really are unique like that, you know? I truly mean it."
"So does that mean my advice took?"
Elias chuckled again. "Oh, no. It's complete rubbish." Sorun frowned a bit, though it dropped when Elias spoke again. "Then again, this entire situation is rubbish, Sorun, so I truly think that rubbish advice is the best possible advice you could have given me."
"... Yeah, man. Totally." He was just winging it at this point, but it seemed like whatever Sorun was saying was working. He decided to roll with it. "So what are you going to do?"
"I'm still unsure. If I'm to be completely honest, if I were to follow your advice my first reaction would be to agree to Amadeus so we could hash out terms, but..."
"But...?" Sorun hedged.
"But there's still the issue of-" Elias cut himself off mid-sentence, looking at something behind Sorun with widened eyes as his posture straightened up. "My father."
Squeak.
"Speak of the devil..." He knew that menacing squeak from anywhere. The sound of a creaky wheel on a wheelchair. Even more, he knew that specific squeak. That was the squeak of the former king's wheelchair.
Taking in a sharp inhale, Sorun slowly turned his head around to where Elias was looking. He noticed Elias' mother there at first, Alicia, who was behind a wheelchair that most certainly was not Sorun's. Because in that chair was an aged squirrel Mobian, glaring towards his own son. Maximillian.
"He won't 'cause of his dad? Yeah, I guess I can see that. Don't really think the idea of giving up a monarchy spanning hundreds of years would really go well with an old-fashioned guy like..." Sorun's thoughts paused when he saw Maximillian's face. "Wait, what's wrong with him?"
There was something amiss in the old Mobian's eyes. They looked... strangely vacant, for some odd reason. Sorun couldn't place it. Even his general expression was only half-focused on Elias. He didn't seem distracted, but he didn't seem all there, either.
"Hey, Maximillian?" Sorun called out. He inwardly cringed when the Mobian turned his way, but didn't seem to be facing him completely. "Uh... hey, look, now we both have wheelchairs. Isn't that cool?"
"..." Maximillian's eyes just barely managed to focus in on Sorun. "What is an Overlander doing in the kingdom?"
"Uh... I'm a human. An Earthling human," Sorun corrected. "I'm Sorun. Remember? We talked about the wood tablet thing, and it was... it was a really awkward conversation? 'Member that?" No response. "I... saved literally the entire kingdom by fighting Dr. Robotnik in a mech suit of death in front of everybody? Lost an arm and an eye?" Still no response. "... Dude, come on, that was like a week ago."
"..."
Now Sorun was just uncomfortable. He looked up at Alicia, and then internally winced when he saw the pained look on her face. He looked back at Elias and saw he had a similar expression. A pained, pitying look.
"Sorun, erm... could, could you please give us the room, as it were?" Elias softly requested. "My father, he... he really only responds to familiar faces these days. I mean no offense, but your appearance... I fear it might upset him-"
"No, yeah, I get it. I'll... we'll leave." Sorun glanced up at Nicole, who was also giving Maximillian a sad look. "Hey, Nicole? Can we please go back to the hospital?"
"I think that would be best." Nicole gripped the handles of the wheelchair and slowly spun Sorun around. "We'll be taking our leave now." She offered Elias a hopeful smile. "King Elias, I'm sure things will turn out for the best, so please try not to strain yourself too much."
"Mm. Take care you two."
And then, they left. Not soon enough, as far as Sorun was concerned. Even as Nicole pushed him away Sorun couldn't help but look back towards the setting sun. He focused less on the orange horizon and more on the family trio that was slowly shrinking away due to the growing distance.
"All respect to Elias, but... I think his dad's going senile," Sorun muttered out, his eye still on the family. "Like... legitimately. Guy's really old, isn't he?"
"He is rather advanced in his years, yes," Nicole said in a tone a bit more quiet than usual. "I have doubts that Dr. Robotnik's attack, the destruction of Knothole, and the abduction of the entire kingdom helped his mental state."
"Yeah, probably not..." Having seen enough, Sorun finally turned his body forwards on the chair. "Must be really rough to be Elias right now..."
Sorun hadn't been able to sleep all that well that night. He hadn't slept at all, really. He'd laid in bed for a solid thirty seconds before he realized he just wasn't tired. And now it was the middle of the night and his room was probably the only one in the whole hospital with the lights on.
Too many things had happened today for him to just sleep on it. He tried to keep it out of his mind, but all that served to do was leave Sorun alone in an empty hospital room. Boredom led to him laying in bed and staring up at the ceiling. Boredom from that lead to pacing. The exhaustion following that lead him to sitting at the window and looking out at the city.
"Dead of night and all lights are out. 'Cept for the ones in the castle." His eyes traveled to the center of the city, where the brand-new castle was. He couldn't help but look at the lit-up window he could see even at this distance, compared to all the other houses and structures in the city that were all dark. "Wonder if Elias is as sleepless as I am right now? Guy probably has almost as much stuff on his mind as I do." He exhaled to fog the window. "What am I even doing? My last days left alive and I'm spending 'em angsting away. Guess I really don't know how much longer I got, though..."
In truth, he hadn't been putting any effort forwards towards locating the last Chaos Emerald. Nobody had, really, but Sorun hadn't been pushing for it, either. Never even asked or inquired about it. Knowing it'd all end with that last Emerald had him dragging his feet towards the finish line. No more than delaying the inevitable, perhaps, but it was the best he could do with what he had.
"Wasted so much time being the standoffish guy in the corner when I just folded in the end anyways..." Sorun began dragging his index finger along the fogged glass to form a shape. "I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. Just... waiting? Is there anything I can do?" His finger curved upwards. "Just wanna spend a bit more time with them. With her. 'Til the end."
He'd only half-finished the heart he was drawing in the window until he saw a green flash of light reflect off the glass, coming from the middle of the room behind him. Sorun's eye had squinted in confusion as he stared towards the window's reflection, and then it widened dramatically when he saw it was Nicole's reflection.
There'd been a great, heavy wheeze of panic that left Sorun as he quickly wiped away the half-finished drawing with his hand before spinning himself and the wheelchair around completely. Indeed, Nicole was there. Staring right at Sorun. Before she'd even opened her mouth, though, Sorun had gotten the first word in.
"Nicole, jeez! You scared me," he sighed out. "You can't just teleport into people's rooms like that without a single word. It's super rude." Not even he went that far with his Trickster power. Scare people for laughs, sure, but he didn't invade privacy with it.
Nicole started, straightening up a bit while glancing away from Sorun with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Sorun. I'm still adjusting to corporeal life. I'll knock next time." She looked back towards him, and he saw her eyes brighten a bit in relief. "I just wanted to come check on you."
sorun relaxed a bit, though he was still a bit puzzled. "Okay...? Why?"
The relieved look in Nicole's eyes went away. She made a small frown before addressing him. "We're currently undergoing a small crisis," she told him. "Tails and his mother are currently attempting to break general Amadeus out of prison."
"Wow, really?" Sorun found himself so surprised that he actually laughed a bit, and had to cover his mouth as he stared down at the floor with a widened eye. "Wow, way to go, li'l guy. Never thought you'd take things that far." He always seemed too mild-mannered to do something like that. And here he was. Committing borderline-treason against the kingdom. Sorun had to respect it.
Nicole didn't look nearly as amused as Sorun did. "Sorun, this is serious," she said.
"I know, I know." The amused grin fell off his lips as he looked back up at her. "So what's gonna happen?"
"I went to inform Sonic of the break-in at the detention center, but he took off before I had an opportunity to tell him it was Tails. I'm going to the castle now to alert king Elias of the incident so he can decide how we proceed. I just came to ensure nothing was amiss here." She paused, glanced towards the empty bed, and then looked back at Sorun. "Why aren't you sleeping?"
As much as Sorun found the prospect Nicole randomly checking on him strange, if not a bit pleasant, he found the question stranger. "Because I couldn't sleep," he answered in a simple tone. "You seriously teleported in here just to see if I was okay?"
"Yes. I did. And now I must talk with the king." Nicole's form slowly began to disappear. "Please try and get some sleep, Sorun. You need your rest."
"I mean I'm not really that tir- and she's gone." Sorun probably stared at the spot Nicole had been standing for a good thirty seconds before he breathed out and wheeled back towards the window.
"Amadeus Prower. Gotta be honest. Don't really like ya too much. You seem like kind of a user," Sorun thought as he looked towards the castle. "But, on the other hand, guess your heart is in the right place for what you're trying to do for the people. And you seem like a straight-shooter of a dad for a guy who was absent most his son's life since he was stuck in space with aliens. I fucking hate the fact I can think that unironically and it's true.
"Still, you tried your little protest and it went absolutely nowhere. Got you locked up. Now your own family's putting themselves on the line for ya, so what's a desperate guy to do? You gonna skip the whole game and try to run to the final boss up there in the castle? Hell, putting myself in your shoes, I can't think of any other options. It's what I'd do. Don't really feel like letting you go all Julius Caesar on Elias, though.
"Ahh, Amadeus... you put me between a rock and a hard place. I really didn't wanna get involved. Maybe things'd go fine if I did nothing, but on the off chance it doesn't, well... that wouldn't sit well with me." He wheeled the wheelchair around and rolled it towards his bed. "Sorry, Tails. Looks like I gotta go feed your dad his own teeth."
He reached forwards and grabbed at the IV pole next to his bed. Maybe he was being paranoid. In fact, Sorun hoped he was being paranoid and that the first thing the fox Mobian would do after his family sprung him from jail was go straight to the king to try and enact some bloody coup in an ill-fated attempt at changing the government. Because that would be stupid.
It was because it was stupid that Sorun strongly suspected that exactly just that was happening, because that's what this world operated on: stupidity.
"Just in case I need that little saline electrolyte top-off on the way there," Sorun thought as he jammed the IV needle into his arm. "Alright. Full speed ahead! No stopping 'til I get to the castle so I can smash this over Amadeus' face in case he really did do a dumb."
With the IV pole in hand, bag of clear fluid hanging off of it and the tube connected to it stabbed into his arm, Sorun manifested his left Bringer Claw and began pushing the wheels on his wheelchair towards the door to the hospital room. One quick twist of the handle later and the door was opened, after which Sorun wheeled right out of the room.
It hadn't even been a full minute after the door to Sorun's hospital room swung closed after he left that it opened again. What popped inside was a head covered in a red hood, which slowly scanned the room to ensure it was empty. After confirming that the room was, in fact, empty, Rubrum quickly opened the door, slinked into the room, and then shut it behind him.
"Lookin' smooth," Rubrum mumbled under his breath as he stepped away from the door. "So I guess I just leave this lying around for him to find later. Where's the cabinet- oh, there."
After taking another brief look around the room, Rubrum spotted what he was looking for: the series of white cabinets above the sink in the back of the hospital room. He slowly began to approach it, all the while rolling around a syringe full of a clear fluid in his right hand. With his left hand he reached up and opened the cabinet, gently placed the needle inside of the cabinet, and then shut it.
"Easy peasy." Giving himself and accomplished sigh, the red-cloaked man then turned towards the room's window and approached it. He opened it up, and then began crawling through it with some difficulty due to its small size. He'd finally made it all the way through, though right as he did and closed the window behind him his grip on the window had slipped, resulting in Rubrum yelling out a curse as he fell away from the window.
"Deja vu... I've just been in this place... before..."
So New Mobotropolis' layout wasn't that intuitive. In terms of the shape of the perimeter, it was circular in nature. A protective barrier surrounded the whole city (thank god, Nicole knew the value of walls), and beyond that was a small, artificial forest that circled the city. It was past that the city actually started.
The outer perimeter of a good half of the city was a residential district where all the homes were. Nice place, orderly layout and lots of grass and trees. Right in front of that was where the hospital was, and it was because of that Sorun had a good scope for how big the city was, because the park where the Lake of Rings and the Chao Garden were was clear on the other side of the city, a fact he'd learned when Amy took him there prior. So he had a rough idea for how big the city was, which was why he hadn't been looking forwards to taking a wheelchair all the way to Castle Acorn in his state. Because Nicole had placed the castle dead-center of the city.
Wasn't the worst distance in the world, but it was far from ideal.
"Hi-higher on the street, and I- and I know it's my time to... to go..."
Sorun's worries were justified as he'd already become winded a quarter of the way there.
"Calling you... and the search is... is a-a mystery..."
And that lead him here: crossing the New Mobotropolis streets in the dead of night. Singing with an exhausted voice. Body slumped forwards in the wheelchair in a panting mess as his Bringer Claws slowly and lethargically pulled him along by crawling on the ground at a slow pace, their forms flickering every so often.
The doctors had probably had a point when they said his body needed time to recover.
"Standing on my feet, it's so... hard, it's... man, this is hard, fuck it, you push me."
Sorun's Bringer Claws disappeared in the same moment his Doppelganger appeared behind the wheelchair. It automatically grabbed the chair's handles and began to push it forwards. Sorun, meanwhile, was just doing his best not to fall out of the chair.
"Hah... hah... deja vu...!"
Amazingly enough he'd made it to the castle. Even more amazing there weren't any guards. Whether it was because of the prison break-in or some other reason Sorun wasn't aware of wasn't clear, and he didn't care at all. All he cared about was that he finally made it to that damn castle.
Front door hadn't even been locked.
"What'd I tell you about locking your shit, Elias?" Sorun that as the Doppelganger wheeled him through the front entrance of the castle. "Doors unlocked, no guards... Elias is practically leaving the place wide open for Amadeus to just stroll up on in." He blinked. "Oh my fucking god, that's literally what he's doing, isn't it? He's trying to pull some one-on-one man-to-man final confrontation type deal- man, he's the kind of guy to do that, too."
It was completely absurd, but it was the only reason Sorun could think of as to why there were no guards and why the doors were completely unlocked. There'd be no other reason to do something like that unless Elias was vying for some kind of final confrontation whatever with the general. And the worst part was Sorun could see him doing that. And it was just absurd enough to be true by this world's standards.
"Goddammit, Elias, you weren't supposed to actually act like a stupid final boss," Sorun thought as his Doppelganger wheeled him forwards. "I'm gonna beat both of them up for being idiots, I swear. If it's really going down like that-"
Thunk.
Sorun's thoughts ended at the same time the momentum of the wheelchair halted. He tilted his head back a bit in surprise when he saw a wide staircase right in front of him leading up to a second floor. And when he looked down, he saw the wheels of the wheelchair pressed right up against the first step.
"Son of a bitch."
He ended up just abandoning the wheelchair to walk up the steps.
Worst choice Sorun ever made.
"Hah... how the fuck... does this place not have wheelchair accessibility... when old man Max is in a wheelchair...?" Sorun panted out as he made it to the top of the steps. He'd had to start using the IV pole as a walking stick halfway up, but he'd still made it.
Tired. He was just tired and out of breath from moving around so much. He would have just Tricked up the steps but it was hard enough maintaining the Bringer Claw replacing his right arm, and at this point that was the only limb he had capable of swinging something.
It was probably by a miracle he managed to find the room he presumed Elias was in. He'd just wandered down the biggest, most important-looking hallway he could find until he came to a door from which he heard voices behind it. It was another miracle he'd even made it that far considering he was barely standing on his feet. But here he was. And all he had to do was open the door.
The door that he realized was locked when he tried opening it.
"..." Eye narrowed at the door, Sorun passed the IV pole to his left hand, and with no hesitation punched the door with his blue right hand. The wood-like wood crumpled inwards, and at the same time all the voices Sorun had heard inside of the room ceased immediately. The pale Earthling paid none of this any mind as he slowly walked into the room, IV pole in hand.
"Both of you," Sorun called out as he walked into the room. "I'm gonna slap both of you foooooorrrr- wait, what's going on here?"
Well... he'd been right about finding Elias here. He'd been right about Amadeus being here, too, so it turns out his intuition had been on point. What hadn't been so on point was that the mood he'd stormed into seemed... extremely relaxed. They weren't locked into some battle of mortal combat like he'd been expecting. They didn't even look that upset if Sorun was being honest with himself. They were sitting at a short table having tea of all things.
He crashed a damn tea party.
They weren't the only ones there, either. Elias' wife and adopted child were there, sitting on the bed next to who he presumed to be Tails' mother, another brown-furred fox, all of whom were giving him the same wide-eyed, bewildered look both Elias and Amadeus were giving him. Sonic, Tails, and Sally was there, and also had the same looks. Nicole was even there holding a tray with a tea pot and- oh boy Sorun didn't like that look she was giving him.
"Well, don't I look silly? I dragged myself all the way from the hospital just to find them having a completely amicable conversation." He honestly would have preferred if he'd arrived to break up some stupid fight instead of this. That way he wouldn't have looked like an utter fool right about now. More than that he probably could have avoided that glare Nicole was beaming at him.
How anybody could look so threatening while holding a tray of tea was a mystery to Sorun. And he didn't want to stick around to find out the answer. So he decided to do what he did best: run away.
"... Well, seems I made a mistake. Have a good night, all." With a small wave of his spectral hand, Sorun turned around in a desperate attempt at escaping.
Evidently Nicole had put the tray down somewhere because she'd teleported her lynx body right behind him, hands on her hips and face set in a deep frown. A very angry frown. One aimed right at him.
"..." Sorun turned back around to the room, only to encounter Sally standing in front of him with practically the same posture and expression Nicole had.
"Huh. Guess I'm dying sooner than I thought."
"Care to explain yourself?" Sally asked. Her eyes were boring straight into Sorun's one eye with such intensity he couldn't help but fidget on the spot.
"... Hold that thought," Sorun requested in a small voice. As calm as he could, which wasn't much, he turned towards the tube connecting him to the IV bag on the pole and flipped the small switch on the tube to allow the clear fluid to flood into him. "Okay, listen-"
"You're supposed to be recovering in the hospital," Sally continued in an icy tone. "You busting down the door to my brother's room is not recovering in the hospital."
"W-well I thought- you know, the whole riot thing- it sounded bad- I th-though Elias and Amadeus were gonna do something stupid like fight," Sorun stammered out. "So I want-wanted to, to... you know... avoid that."
A slow, deep exhale left Sally. The stern look didn't drop off her face in the slightest, but her shoulders did relax a bit. "They were fighting," she informed him. "Nicole and I handled it. And now we're talking. Peacefully." She eyed the door fragments at their feet. "At least we were until you punched the door in."
"Eh-heh, yeah, I... hah, ha-ha, I, I goofed up, yeah..." The laugh that came out of Sorun was one he couldn't control. Nothing too big; just a small, high-pitched giggle, but he couldn't have stopped it. And oddly, he didn't find himself caring about it too much.
Come to think of, everything felt kind of funny. Sorun couldn't tell why. Every second that ticked by was... doing something. Easing the tension, making the heart-splitting anxiety melt away.
Why was the whole room moving around?
"Sorun?" Sally's voice came to his ears muffled and distorted. And her face for some reason looked warped and really funny-looking, making Sorun giggle again. "Sorun, what's going on with you?"
"Ha ha, Sally, I don't... I don't think that's saline," Sorun giggled out as he pointed to the bag hanging off his IV pole.
His vision grew more distorted by the second, though he was able to make out Sally reach for the bag and turn it around to read it. By the time she was finished he was too far gone to see her give him a deadpan expression. "Sorun, this is morphine."
"Yyyyyep, that'd do it." In hindsight he probably should have read the bag befojrnfyerfpiernvyrfehbf-
It was hard to disappoint Sally even on a bad day. She liked to think she was an understanding person who could see all sides to an argument and could understand people well enough to see where they were coming from. Being mad or upset or annoyed at somebody for something they did was one thing, because that could be forgiven and made up for in most cases. Straight disappointment was a rare thing for her to experience.
She came awfully close when she saw Sorun collapse on the floor right in front of her. she would have thought he'd passed out completely if it weren't for the fact he made a small giggle every now and then. The only thing that stayed her from full-on disappointment was because she understood immediately why Sorun did what he did when he stuttered out that explanation to her with that terrified look on his face.
Sally couldn't put it past him. The Earthling had been proving a lot as of late he cared much more about people than he let on. A startling amount, even. The words he said alone during that awful confrontation with Eggman while they could do nothing but watch were still words she played over in her head sometimes. They'd been words that surprised her to no end, and she'd even felt a bit of pride hearing the words from how much she resonated with her. From hearing that to seeing everything he'd done, it'd been clear to her and everyone else just how much he actually cared. She still caught Sonic smiling from time to time about the fact he'd finally decided to call them friends. So with all that in mind, she couldn't too disappointed in Sorun when this was something she would expect out of him.
Didn't change the fact that he shouldn't have left the hospital, but in the back of her mind she was already thinking about letting it slide since she figured him being scared so much by her and ending up in this state in front of them all was punishment enough. And hopefully he'd learned from the experience.
Nicole didn't look like she was going to let him off as easily, but that was Sorun's problem.
"So careless..." Nicole mumbled out, reaching forwards to flip the switch on the IV tube to cut the flow of morphine. "Why is he like this, Sally?"
Sally found herself wincing a bit at Nicole's tone. She couldn't quite place how the AI was feeling other than she was unhappy, and even from looking at her it was clear she was displeased from the way she was looking at Sorun's fallen form.
"His heart was in the right place, Nicole," she offered, "he just..."
"Never thinks about himself?" Nicole interrupted. "Or how the way he treats himself affects others?"
"He just cares, that's all," she reiterated in a soft tone. "In his own weird way." She saw Nicole's body relax a bit, though she was still staring down at Sorun, prompting Sally to ask, "You're not upset at him, are you?"
"... No. Just worried," she answered. "I think I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on him with the security cameras so this doesn't happen again. At least until he can last without the wheelchair."
"That might be for the best," Sally admitted with a small nod. "Just try not to hold it against him, Nicole. You, well, you know his type."
It was by sheer coincidence that Sonic chose to zoom into the empty spot right next to her, looking down at Sorun in concern.
"Hey, is Sorun doing alright?" he asked.
"He's fine," Sally answered with a small sigh. "He went and accidentally drugged himself with painkillers."
A barely-contained snort of amusement left Sonic's lips as the worried look vanished. "W-wait, seriously?"
Sally didn't even look over at him when she'd smacked the side of his head.
The hedgehog quietly exclaimed from pain, holding the spot on his head that had been hit as he mildly glared at Sally. It only lasted a few seconds before he relaxed and looked back down at Sorun along with the rest.
"I'll take him back," Sally volunteered, walking over to and crouching down next to Sorun. "I think things here are calm enough anyways. And somebody needs to have a word with the doctors about letting their patients roll out the door while under their watch."
"It's kinda hard to keep an eye on a guy that can teleport, Sal," Sonic pointed out.
"Don't start with me now." Sally briefly glanced up at Sonic with a pointed look, which caused him to quiet down and back up a few steps. Satisfied, the chipmunk looked back down at Sorun and reached for him. "Come on, Sorun, let's go."
"We're goin' somewhere?" Sorun mumbled out in a half-slur. He had a dazed, unfocused look in his eye as Sally picked him up in her arms while Nicole helped by placing the IV pole above him. He didn't move around once during the process. In fact his body remained completely limp even as she began walking away with him.
"Mm-hm, yeah." Sally gave him an acknowledging hum and a forced half-smile before turning towards the others, at which point the smile dropped and she shook her head at them. They all nodded, prompting her to reciprocate the nod and then silently exit the room, Sorun's limb body in her hands.
She almost thought he'd fallen asleep with how quiet he'd been until she saw him turn his bleary-looking eye towards her.
"Where going?" he asked her.
"Back to the hospital," she answered, the forced smile returning to her face as she continued walking forwards. "Where the people whose job it is to look after you can actually do their job and make you all better so we don't have another incident like this."
"Noooo..." With weak, flaccid movements Sorun attempted to sit up in Sally's arms and reach behind her. He failed miserably. "Wanna stay with the pretty lynx lady..."
Sally stopped walking and looked towards Sorun's face for a moment. She couldn't get anything due to the absolute lack of clarity in his languid features, though, causing her to make a small sigh and continue walking. "You can talk to Nicole tomorrow," she said.
A childish whine left him. "No, don't wanna wait."
"To-mor-row," Sally reaffirmed in a slow voice. "When you're in a better mindset and... what the?"
When she made it to the stairs and looked down, Sally saw that there was an abandoned wheelchair sitting next to the bottom step. She gave the empty wheelchair one questioning look before focusing back on the human in her arms.
"Sorun, did you... did you wheel yourself all the way here from the hospital?"
"Mhm."
"... Why didn't you just make a portal?"
"Kitty."
All in all it was a more coherent response than the princess had been expecting, and yet it still told her absolutely nothing.
"Okay," Sally mentally sighed out as she began descending the steps, "at least it saves me the trouble of carrying him all the way back." She approached the wheelchair immediately after making it to ground floor, and then proceeded to carefully set Sorun down in it while laying the IV pole across his lap. She double-checked to make sure he was secure in the chair, and it was only after she was satisfied did Sally begin pushing the wheelchair.
While pushing the chair, Sorun's body had completely stilled in the chair, making Sally think he finally passed out. When they'd left the castle interior he remained motionless in the chair, and when they'd departed from the castle proper he was still completely silent. When they'd started moving along the paved street towards the hospital, though, Sorun began to lowly mutter out words in a voice quiet enough that Sally had to lower her ear closer to him to hear properly.
"I'm so scared of what's coming, Sally..." the human muttered.
"It's not that bad, Sorun," she mumbled back in an comforting voice, one hand on the wheelchair's handle while the other patted his shoulder. "We'll look back on this and laugh one day, alright? It really isn't that bad. We just need to get you back to the hospital."
"You're all gonna be so upset..."
"No, no, Sorun, it's okay. We're not mad. You sure don't make it easy, though," she said. "Just take it easy for now, alright, Sorun? You can go back to doing stupid stuff when we're all not worried about you falling apart on us."
"Mmmhhhh..." Sorun's breathing stilled as his body sagged forwards. Sally briefly stopped just to lean down further to Sorun's level, where she heard soft breathing and saw his chest slowly and steadily rising and falling. She made a sigh of relief at him finally falling asleep, and then wordlessly continued pushing him forwards towards the hospital.
"So it all worked out in the end?" Flat on his back and body covered by the shade of the tree his was lying under, Sorun cracked his eye open at the squirrel Mobian that was sitting right besides him. "It's all talked out? Everything finalized? Don't gotta worry about riots in the streets or anything like that?"
It was around mid-afternoon of the next day. A few hours after Sorun had come to from last night's escapades, of which he remembered little. All he did remember was going to the castle, walking into Elias and Amadeus calmly talking over tea, and then for some reason Sorun was hit with a sense of foreboding and doom before everything afterwards became a blank for him. He kept wondering why until it was explained to him he'd mistaken morphine for saline.
Not his brightest moment, right next to him having realized right after he could have just teleported himself to the castle and saved burning himself out using the wheelchair. Not his best morning, either, having to listen to Nicole speak in that quiet, subdued but intense voice she used at him whenever she was upset when she'd explained this all to him, followed by Dr. Quack yelling at him for leaving the hospital without a chaperone. It'd been a verbal lashing so intense Sorun was still surprised he'd made it through alive.
But he had, and now he was here. Sitting under a tree next to Elias as he explained everything that had happened to Sorun so he could catch up on everything he missed. The breakout at the prison, Sonic and Tails making amends because of something that happened between them during the night, and what had actually concluded as a result of it all.
"Yes. My sister had to be the one to talk some sense into the both of us," Elias shyly admitted to him. "We discussed our points, saw each-other's perspectives, and came to a decision we could both happily agree on. In the end it all worked out."
"Wow, so... talking with your sister, the thing I suggested you do, turned out the be the right answer all along instead of everything else you all tried to do. Amazing."
"I hear that tone in your voice," Elias said with a small pout as he turned towards Sorun. "What do you want me to say, Sorun?"
"I want you to say I was right," he said.
"Really, now?" Elias demurred. "I seem to recall you said I should just do what I felt like without thinking on it, or something along those lines. Which ended up with me dueling with Amadeus until we were stopped by Sally."
"..." Sorun scoffed and slung one of is legs over the other, closing his eye. "It's your fault for misinterpreting my golden advice."
Elias made a single, tired-sounding half chuckle as he turned away from him. "Yes, clearly..."
"So what ended up happening in the end?" Sorun asked. "What'd you agree to?"
"The power of the king is to be split between six democratically-elected council members, with me and any future holders of the crown acting as a seventh member," he explained.
"... Sounds kinda like a monarchy with extra steps."
Elias shook his head. "It isn't. Having a council that can outvote the king on matters gives the people a voice and say in how our government is run while still technically preserving the monarchy. To that end, we're no longer a monarchy but a republic, but... I think it's worked out for the best. I'm happy the royal line can continue, Amadeus is happy the people have a voice, the people are happy that positive change is happening, everybody is happy..." He trailed off as a slight sad look overtook his features. "Everybody but my father, at least. He won't speak with me."
"Surprised he can speak at all," Sorun thought, though chose not to voice this. "Don't worry about him. Tryin' to please everyone's a waste of time," he told Elias. "As long as most everybody's good with it then just be happy with it and move on."
"And what of you?" Elias asked. "What's your opinion on this?"
"It's your kingdom, man. Run it how you want. I don't care."
Nonplussed, Elias shook his head with a small grin as he stood up to his feet. "And here I thought you would have been a bit more warm to the reception of the kingdom changing to a governmental system that slightly resembled the one of your home," he said as he dusted off his blue and red jacket.
"Again, don't care. I'm glad it worked out for you all, though," Sorun said in earnest. "So you're gonna take off now?"
The Mobian nodded. "Diminished political power or not, I'm still king and have an election to oversee," he said. "Would you like me to take you there, Sorun? I could even leave you at one of the voting polls if you wish."
"Nah. As much as I'm raring to be a part of the democratic system, I'd have to be a citizen to do something like that. Which I'm not." In other words he was too lazy to vote, but Elias didn't need to know that.
The small grin on the king's face transitioned into a frown. An apologetic one. "Right, I... I never did get those papers to you, did I? Goodness, I never even started them," he mumbled under his breath. "Sorun, you... you're the one who saved the now-former kingdom. You've earned the right more than anybody else, citizenship or not. Nobody would question it. And I promise I'll do everything in my power to rectify this situation as soon as possible. I'm terribly sorry I didn't sooner."
"It's fine, man, no harm no foul," Sorun said, making Elias' posture ease out. "Just go do your thing. I'm just gonna relax here for a bit longer."
"Should I at least send someone to help you back to the hospital when you're ready?" he asked, nodding towards the empty wheelchair nearby.
With a small sigh, Sorun took his spectral hand out from under his head. "I think Big Sister up there's got it covered," he said, gesturing up to the tree. And the camera lens sticking out of the tree. The one that was looking down directly at Sorun.
"Right, of course." Elias blinked up at the camera, and then looked back down at Sorun. "May I ask why there is a camera growing out of the tree?"
"Oh, that's the beautiful thing about nanites all connected to a central computer system Nicole is in control of, Elias," Sorun stated in a sarcastic voice. "Literally anything in the city can turn into a camera. And Nicole thinks I have glass bones and paper skin so she's keeping me under twenty-four hour surveillance 'til I get better," he explained.
He couldn't be too upset at her over it. "For his own safety" had been her justification of it. And honestly, she was probably right with the stunts he kept pulling. Sorun didn't really mind all that much since it didn't inconvenience him. However it did leave him with a somewhat creeped-out feeling all the time knowing he was under temporary full-time watch by Nicole.
Elias offered the human a comforting smile despite the fact his eye was closed. "Well, Sorun, hang in there. It isn't forever." He turned and began moving away. "I must be taking my leave now. Until next time."
"Bye," Sorun called out. He placed his hand back under his head and settled in a more comfortable position, and then sighed out as he began to relax.
The quickest and most non-violent revolution ever having occurred to Sorun's knowledge aside, things were relatively easy for Sorun. Living inside of a cozy, protected city like this had perks. He may have been bored out of his mind in that hospital, but at least he wasn't getting stressed out of his mind going on risky, dangerous missions. It was nice, not doing anything for once. He didn't know how long it'd stay like this, but the break was welcome, and he'd take it for all it was good for until the end caught up with him. Whenever they got wind of that last Emerald.
'Til then, though? He was taking it easy. Both for his own sake and so people stopped worrying about him. It'd do everybody some good.
"Where can I find Knuckles?"
A voice. An unfamiliar one. Male, aged and... oddly had a sort of tinny-sound to it. Like it was filtered through an electric speaker.
Sorun made an unsatisfied groan. So much for peace. "Heck if I know, man. Ask somebody else."
"There is nobody else nearby. I require your assistance in locating Knuckles."
"We're in a town full of people, man. Go bug somebody else with this. Go bug a Freedom Fighter, any Freedom Fighter other than this one. Geez, go ask somebody in the Chaotix, they're the ones that hang around him the most. Just leave me alone."
"I beseech you-"
With a frustrated groan, Sorun opened his eye and bolted up into a sitting position. "You are really starting to test my patience here with- uhhhhh..."
... Well, he had absolutely no idea what he was looking at. It was a head inside of a floating, clear ball. A metal head with red sensors for eyes. A head that oddly looked like an echidna like Knuckles was. A floating metal echidna head.
"..."
"..."
"... Uhhhhhh..."
A/N- Yeah I know Cream and co. didn't show up 'til way later in the comics, but we're technically months in the future anyway 'cause the story's events made the canon timeline jank, so bleh.
