Recursion Error

Episode 48- Okay, doomer


"I'm getting real tired of people pulling me through random-ass portals."

Wasn't much to be said about the fact somebody pulled Sorun through a portal. He'd been pulled through a portal, and wound up on the other side face-down in some grass. Real grass, too, Sorun suspected, and not nanites perfectly imitating grass. But other than the effects of the epinephrine shot he'd injected himself with, he felt fine. Physically at least.

Mentally he was between being tired enough to give up and angry enough to start lashing out at everything in sight. He just felt done with it all.

Huffing out, Sorun rolled onto his back and stood up. Surroundings were unfamiliar, mainly from the fact he'd appeared in a grass field surrounded by strange trees that almost looked like palm trees. No people, either. Nobody except for the red echidna standing in front of him giving him about as odd a look as Sorun felt.

"..." Sorun gave the echidna a quick glance. Looked like Knuckles but with blue eyes, and way older. Reasonably aged if the old-looking tribal garb and gray eyebrows said anything, which Sorun had to do a double-take at, because he hadn't known echidna even have eyebrows. At least he thought they didn't whenever he looked at Knuckles and Julie-Su. He shook his head to purge these thoughts and looked at the old-looking echidna with a displeased look. "Thirty seconds, fill it with reasons why you pulled me through a portal."

"You are not Sonic," was the only thing the echidna offered him.

"Gee, really?" Sorun sarcastically exclaimed. "What," he continued with a grunt as he climbed to his feet, "did you see the arm and grab the closest blue thing you saw 'cause you thought it was Sonic?"

A low sound left the echidna's throat as Sorun finally stood up and dusted himself off. Sorun couldn't rightly place what that sound meant. "It was my intention to bring Sonic here to aid with the current situation surrounding Enerjak," he said. "It seems I brought you by mistake."

"Glad you cleared that up." Sorun took a glance at the trees around them. "Where's here, anyways?"

"Angel Island," the echidna answered immediately. "I've brought you to Angel Island."

"Oh. So this is the island, huh?" Explained the palm trees, at least. Didn't help to explain much else. "Okay," he mumbled out, turning back to the echidna, "and who are you?"

"I would ask who you are first."

Sorun's eye narrowed a bit in the echidna's direction. "And I would think that the polite thing to do after pulling some poor guy through a portal up to a floating island would be to introduce yourself to the aforementioned poor, confused, and now slightly-annoyed guy. But you don't seem particularly polite."

The old echidna gave Sorun an equally narrowed look with his eyes, which went along with the unpleasant expression he gave Sorun. The Earthling, for his part, simply kept staring back at the echidna while maintaining a blank expression mixed in with his sharp look.

Finally, the echidna gave in and relaxed his shoulders. "My name is Locke," he finally offered.

The name triggered something in Sorun's memory, and he found himself instantly recognizing it. "Knuckles' dad?" he asked, causing him to nod. "Ah. Dunno if you know this but your kid got possessed by a Chaos... thingy."

"Of course I know this!" Locke exclaimed in a frustrated tone. "It's my intent to fix this entire mess before things get too out of hand! I only had the one Warp Ring on me, but instead of getting somebody I trusted to be capable of helping I pulled you through instead." He approached Sorun closely enough that they were inches from each other. Sorun had rose his eyebrow as he gave the Mobian a questioning look. "I have no inclination as to what somebody of your kind was doing in that city, but if you've no way to contact the city below then I insist that you stand aside so I can do so myself."

Sorun's eye narrowed further, with his head tilting just the slightest amount. His hands twitched. "How about instead of wasting time doing that you just ask me to help with whatever you needed Sonic with and I'll do it in his place, Locke?"

"I am not willing to let an Overlander trample about up here while lives are at stake."

There wasn't maliciousness to his voice which made Sorun all the more confused. The lack of any scorn in his voice, however, did not stop Sorun from taking offense with the echidna for saying that.

"Ohhhh, pal..." Sorun turned his back to Locke. He took another exhale and shook his head. "I'm not even a- do you even know who I am?" Sorun asked, turning his head back around to Locke. "I know you and Knuckles were all radio silent for reasons, but do- have you kept with with anything that's been happening down on the planet for the last four odd months? Anything at all?" Sorun pressed a hand against his chest. "Everything Eggman did, the Chaos Emeralds, any of that? Any of that ringing a bell?"

To Sorun's disbelief, Locke shook his head. "I've been a little busy preoccupying myself with making sure my people on this island weren't wiped out amid the warring factions."

"Yeah, and I've been dealing with stuff concerning the whole world, this island included, so I'm sorry but I just... I just really don't fucking care about you or anything that goes on here. All the nonsense bullshit concerning you echidna and this island, I just- I fucking swear, it's not even self-contained here anymore, it's spilling out onto the planet below, and now there's this whole Enerjak thing going on, so guess what, Locke, this is now my problem, too." When Locke continued to maintain a harsh glare on Sorun, he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Look," he said in a less hostile tone, "this whole thing is because of Dr. Fini-whatever the fuck his name is, right? What exactly did he do to start all this?"

To his credit, and much to Sorun's relief, Locke had taken a calming breath and eased off on the aggressive glaring before he spoke out. "I am... not entirely sure what he did. What I do know was that he somehow coerced Knuckles into using his abilities to absorb the power of the Master Emerald."

"Thing that keeps the island floating?"

Locke nodded. "Yes. Finitevus, he... tampered with the Emerald, somehow. Put a spell of some sorts on it. It corrupted Knuckles, made him more susceptible to Dr. Finitevus' will. Enerjak was the result."

The explanation made Sorun pause. An idea began to form. "He put some kind of curse on the Master Emerald, and that's what turned him into Enerjak?"

"Spell, curse, hex, whatever you wish to call it, yes! Finitevus has been constantly supplying him with his corrupted power-"

"If that hex was removed from the Emerald... separated, let's say... would Knuckles turn back to normal?"

"What?" Locke blinked in confusion, and then shook his head. "Perhaps, most likely, but we've not time to conceive a method for performing such a task."

"Then what's your plan?"

"Simply put..." Locke closed his eyes and tilted his head downwards. A low breath blew past his lips. "This is not the first incident involving Enerjak to arise. Back when it was still intact, a group I was a member of named the Brotherhood constructed a weapon that could end Enerjak and his host, once and for all."

The shock that hit Sorun was enough to straighten his head up as his eye widened in Locke's direction. "You wanna use a super weapon to kill him?" He quietly muttered out. "That's fucked. He's your kid."

"Not... not anymore. He's Enerjak." Locke's eyes opened back up, making Sorun go quiet again. There wasn't mistaking the pain in his face under that resolute and determined look in his eyes. Or any way to miss the way his voice just slightly quivered. He must have gone to great lengths to hide it, though, as Sorun wasn't able to hear it when he spoke further. "Whether you agree or not is of no consequence. This is the entire world we're-"

"You know," Sorun interrupted, causing Locke to angrily scowl, "when Knuckles first told me you decided to go and irradiate him as an egg, I got the impression your morals fell on the wayside and you were a really messed-up dude. Seeing you now, though, I think I was wrong." He turned away from Locke, a frustrated, tired look on his face. "Now I just think you're a fucking dumbass," he continued. "Maybe somewhere under there, way, deep down, is a decent guy and a half-baked father that at least wants to try and be a good person. Maybe. Somewhere underneath all that stupidity." He fully turned back around to Locke. "You don't wanna see the world burn, don't blame ya, but I'm not gonna let you off your own kid just to save it. I'd never forgive you, and you'd never forgive yourself." He started walking, not pausing after passing Locke's side as he said, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for Knuckles and everybody I care about that care about him. Nobody's dying. 'Cept maybe Doc Finny when I get my hands on him."

Save the world at the expense of a single life? Wasn't that just the story of his life. He already knew what that was like, and there was no way he was going to let that kind of fate fall on someone else. Not if he could stop it. And oh, he could. He had a pointy stick that said he could.

He wasn't letting Knuckles join him in the grave of dumbass martyrs.

"There is no other option-" Locke tried, but was stopped when Sorun quit moving and whirled back around to him.

"No way, echidna tech fucks everybody over from everything I heard, I don't trust it. We're doing this my way." His expression softened a bit, and he held his left hand up. "Listen," he tried in a quieter voice as he manifested Yamato, making Locke's eyes widen. "This is a sword made from a Chaos Emerald I absorbed. It's a thing I can do, don't ask. It has the power to separate anything it cuts." He lowered the sheathed katana to his side. "So what I wanna do," he offered, "is go straight to the Master Emerald and use the Yamato to separate it from the hex put on it. Knuckles goes free, threat averted, maybe I cut the evil doctor echidna man's head off along the way, don't know, we'll see. Just show me where it is and I can fix this."

After finishing his proposal, Sorun looked closely at Locke's expression. It'd gone through a number of shifts, from skepticism to disbelief to thoughtfulness, all while he stared at Sorun's sword. Through it all, though, Sorun could have sworn he saw the faintest glimmer of hope in the old echidna's eyes. Hope that maybe his son didn't have to die, which reaffirmed Sorun's belief that there had to be some goodness in there somewhere.

His belief that his goodness was stifled by stupidity was also proven by the red Mobian's next line. "I'll admit that the amount of Chaos energy I feel radiating from that blade is staggering," he admitted, "but you'll have to forgive me for not trusting the word of an Overlander I just met. why would you be interested at all in saving Knuckles?"

"... 'Cause we're friends?" Sorun tried in a confused tone. "Why-why would I lie? Christ, man, I'm trying to help you!"

"You have no guarantee the sword-"

"It managed to separate Enerjak from Knuckles!" Sorun shouted at him, causing Locke to freeze right up. "I kept doing it over and over to try and save Knuckles, but the fucking ghost or whatever Enerjak is kept snapping back into his body! Maybe the hex on the Master Emerald is anchoring him to Knuckles, or something else, I don't know, but if it can do that it can separate the Emerald from the hex." He took a step closer to Locke and gave him a pleading look. "Listen, you don't like me, I don't like you, I get it. But I genuinely just want to save your son and everyone else here. I just need to know where the Master Emerald is and for you to take me there."

"I..." Confliction appeared on Locke's face as he stared down at his feet. "I don't..."

"For the- fine, we'll try this." With a frustrated grunt, Sorun tore Yamato out of its sheath. Two cuts were made in the air, forming a portal. Sorun stuck his spectral hand in the portal afterwards, looking through it briefly as he searched for what he was looking for. Locke looked on in bewilderment, and somehow the shock on his face grew even greater when Sorun pulled himself out of the portal, another Mobian in the grasp of his spectral arm, which he then set down on the ground while also cutting the portal away.

The new Mobian in question, which Sorun had pulled out from New Mobotropolis, was Julie-Su. Hadn't even been that hard to find her- she'd been in the same place everybody else had been when Sorun went through the Warp Ring as Locke called it, arguing amongst themselves. Sorun had simply plucked Julie-Su out of the crowd and put her here. And now the poor, confused Mobian was looking around left and right, nearly looking hysterical as she took in her surroundings.

"What- where- this is... the island...?" Julie-Su held her eyes up to Sorun, still looking completely lost. "Sorun?" she mumbled out as she got up to her feet. "What's going on? Why did you pull me up here?"

"Because Knuckles' dad is being an idiot, and I don't see his mom around anywhere, so you're practically the closest family he's got I know besides dad of the year back there since you two are so close," Sorun explained. "Here's the argument: I can solve the Enerjak problem and save everybody including Knuckles. Locke has his own way of getting rid of Enerjak, but Knuckles'll die. So what're we going with?"

Of course no matter what they were doing Sorun's way. He was determined to see it go that route. He also knew that the female echidna in front of him and Knuckles were in a romantic relationship, and that in no way she'd allow Locke to try and end Knuckles. More than that, she probably knew where the Master Emerald was. If Locke wouldn't take him, she would.

But maybe that wouldn't be necessary. Maybe somehow Julie-Su'd be able to convince Locke that Sorun was on the up-and-up and could do this. It'd certainly be nice, if not hopeful. He'd have to see how it went.

"What!?" Julie-Su had turned on Locke in a heartbeat, anger forming across her face. "Of course we're saving Knuckles!" she yelled out, stomping towards Locke. "You can't be serious! You'd destroy your own son-!?"

"The life of one compared to Mobius itself-!"

"If Sorun says he has a way-!"

"A random Overlander-!"

"He isn't an Overlander!" Julie-Su's outburst had given Locke pause, and as he eyed Sorun with an odd look the off-pink echidna in front of him said, "He's... it's a long story, but he's different, okay?" She turned her head around to the pale teen in question. "Sorun? Can you really save Knuckles?"

Sorun nodded. "Master Emerald got tainted. All I gotta do is use Yamato to separate the thing corrupting it and all's good."

That had certainly sparked some hope in Julie-Su's eyes. Understanding seemed to wash over her as she turned back to Knuckles' father. "Locke, please," she begged, "I know Sorun, we all do, we trust him! More than that I've seen what his powers can do! If he says he can do it, he can! We need to try his way!"

Locke, despite all Julie-Su's pleading, wouldn't so much as acknowledge her. He'd gone back to staring down at his feet, and that look of deep confliction in his eyes didn't provide a clear answer. Julie-Su scoffed in response, stepping away from the older echidna while shaking her head in disgust.

"I can't believe you, Locke. Your own son..." Giving him one last look of contempt, the cybernetic echidna turned away from him and towards Sorun. "Follow me, Sorun. I know where the Master Emerald is-"

"Wait." Julie-Su paused, and then turned back to Locke. Sorun looked towards him, too, eyeing him curiously as the older Mobian looked up and into Sorun's eye. "Boy," he said, "is all of this true? Do you truly have that power?"

"What have I been saying this whole time?"

"Hmph." Nodding to himself, Locke began to walk forwards. "I pray for all our sakes your words hold true," he said as he passed Sorun. "Follow me, both of you. I know a shortcut to the Master Emerald. Perhaps along the way you can tell me just who you are, Sorun."

Watching the echidna walk in front of him, Sorun turned towards Julie-Su. They locked eyes for a few moments, after which they nodded to each other, turned back to Locke, and began following closely behind him.


Locke's "shortcut" was to cut through the trees and shrubbery towards the Master Emerald, evidently. On calmer days Sorun wouldn't be that overly objective towards a hike. On days when he was running on a time limit due to the adrenaline running through him and was racing against the clock alongside a malevolent Chaos god and Eggman, he was in a bit more of a rush. Nothing to do about it, Sorun supposed. Without knowing where the Master Emerald was exactly he couldn't make a portal there, and Locke had no more of those strange teleporting rings of his. So on foot it was.

To pass the time he'd told Locke about himself. His reaction had largely been the same as Dimitri's- stark shock and some skepticism. Nothing more to say about that other than how intrigued he seemed over Sorun's abilities and how they manifested. Sorun, in return, had merely shrugged in response and said he just rolled with what the rocks gave him. He seemed equally surprised that Sorun's body was even able to handle that amount of Chaos energy without breaking down, especially since his species truly was unaccustomed to harnessing Chaos energy.

The irony wasn't lost on him.

In return for all this, Sorun had asked for the skinny on Dr. Finitevus. Somehow it wasn't as convoluted a backstory as Sorun thought it'd be. It was even worse.

"So this thing with Knuckles has happened before?" Sorun asked Locke as they trekked through the thin forest, Julie-Su trailing behind them.

"In part. He was no Enerjak, but he was still overcome with Chaos energy," Locke informed him. "The echidna inhabitants of Albion saw him as a threat, and attempted to... euthanize him, as it were, due to the threat his powers posed."

"Of course they did..." Sorun muttered as he ran a hand over his face. He knew from Knuckles the echidna on Albion were a bit more advanced than the ones here, though he never liked talking about them for some reason. He guess he knew why now. "Finite was there?"

"Finitevus, and yes," Locke confirmed with a nod. "He was... exposed to the Chaos energies Knuckles' body radiated. It morphed him, changed him. Gave him corrupted powers and twisted his mind. I was recently made aware the Albion echidna tried a preventative approach with him the same way they had with Knuckles. He pulled strings in response and had Dr. Robotnik use his fleet to destroy Albion. Those that remain are the few survivors and the echidna Enerjak sent there from the island earlier today."

"Trigger-happy paranoid echidna, evil scientist echidna, evil god echidna, cyborg echidna crazies..." A long groan escaped Sorun. "Your entire species, dude..."

Julie-Su and Knuckles were some of the only good ones that came out of that bunch. They had to be. There was something wrong with them. Sorun refused to believe so much could go wrong with a single species of Mobian due to sheer coincidence. Something was wrong with them. Collective stupidity, maybe.

Sorun's silent musing were interrupted when something appeared on his shoulder in a flash of light, and then spoke out in an unfamiliar voice. "Don't you suppose it's a bit uncouth to lump in an entire species with a few bad-"

A frightened scream left Sorun as he grabbed at whatever teleported on his shoulder and threw him away further into the forest.

Both Locke and Julie-Su stopped in their tracks, looking towards Sorun's in mixtures of confusion and puzzlement. Sorun himself was left staring in the direction he'd thrown whatever that had been, until another flash of white drew his attention to Locke's shoulder. The thing from earlier had teleported to the echidna's shoulder.

... It was a small, red, anthropomorphic ant that was around six inches in height. An ant with a brown hat and vest on. A little park ranger ant who had all four of his arms crossed and was glaring at Sorun.

"You throw everybody you meet for the first time?" the ant grumbled at him.

Growing sheepish, Sorun turned away and rubbed at the back of his neck. "S-sorry, man, you spooked me." He looked back to the ant. "I, um... didn't know Mobians came, y'know... so small. I know bees, like, fifty times your size so I figured... agh, it doesn't matter." He shook his head. "I'm Sorun."

"Archimedes. Pleasure to meet you."

"Weird name for an ant, but alright." Sorun looked to Locke. "Friend of yours?"

"Yes, we're well acquainted." Locke looked down to the ant on his shoulder. "Old friend. How are things?"

"Could be better by what I would say is a substantial margin," the ant informed him in a grim tone. "Finitevus set the Destructix to guard the weapon you're planning on using against your own son. You willn't be acquiring it without a fight."

Locke hummed in acknowledgement. "I see. It's a good thing we aren't going for the weapon, then," he said, making Archimedes tilt his head in surprise. "They're wasting their time guarding something on the other side of the island. Less obstacles for us."

"The who now?" Sorun asked, raising his hand to gain the attention of the two in front of him.

"Mercenaries under Finitevus' auspices," Locke explained. "Last I checked they were being lead by that Scourge rapscallion."

"The evil Sonic guy I heard about?" Sorun muttered under his breath. "Evil guy needs evil henchmen, I guess... well, whatever. If we're not gonna be running into them then why bother worrying?"

"Yes, I... suppose so..." Archimedes cast a questioning look to Sorun, and then focused back on Locke. "May I please ask who...?"

Letting out a single chuckle, Locke turned around and continued advancing through the foliage. "I'll explain everything to you along the way..."

Sorun continued walking behind them, hands tucked in his pocket as he made sure to follow in Locke's path. He glanced behind him towards Julie-Su in order to check on her, and then tilted his head a bit at her in worry. She didn't look too great. All the anxiety over Knuckles, he wagered. She just plainly looked worried sick, especially from the way she kept wringing her hands together like that. He continued to look at her state for some seconds, and then sighed under his breath as he slowed down to walk at her side.

She hadn't even seemed to acknowledge his presence even though he was right besides her now. It was only when Sorun cleared his throat to gain her attention did he see her eyes flick up to him, though even then his being there seemed to do little to help.

"So, uh... I know you're probably not doing alright, but... you gonna make it?" Sorun asked.

Slowly, she nodded. "I'll manage," she said, and inside Sorun felt himself cringe from the slight, broken sound her voice carried. "Thank you, Sorun. For doing this. I know this isn't what Knuckles wants."

"'Course not. He's mind-jacked, that's all. Y'know, 'cause... Enerjak and mind-jack, so..." The poor attempt at a joke didn't even so much as make the corners of the echida's mouth upturn. "Sorry, stupid joke, I-"

"Not, it's fine," she assured him. "I'm just worried about... about everything, you know? Him, the island, everyone in New Mobotropolis..."

"I know. We're gonna fix it," Sorun promised her. "Nobody's dying." Nobody important, at least. Finitevus' fate remained to be seen. "How mad at me is everybody back in the city?" Sorun suddenly asked in an effort to change the topic. "I know they can't be too thrilled with how active I'm being despite the doctor's orders."

For some reason that's what got a small chuckle out of Julie-Su. "Things got a bit heated, I won't lie. Mostly we were arguing what we were going to do about Knuckles, but you came up a few times. They're all a bit scared over you." She turned to look at Sorun as they continued walking. "I share some of their concerns," she continued, looking at Sorun's eyepatch. "Are you sure you're good to go with this?"

"'Til the adrenaline runs its course, yeah," Sorun answered. "Should carry me through the rest of this. After that I'm sleeping for a week straight."

"Ha-ha. I wouldn't blame you." The worried look returned to her face as she faced back forwards. "Just... I know it's wrong of me to ask you to push yourself so hard for his sake, but... but Knuckles-"

"Means a lot to you, and the Chaotix, and everyone else. He's my friend, too, you know," Sorun said. "Just trust me on this, Julie-Su. I got you all out of New Megaopolis, didn't I?"

"You lost an arm and eye in the process," she pointed out.

"Tch. Details."


They'd finally reached the chamber where the echidna kept the Master Emerald that kept the island aloft in the air. It was less a chamber and more a cave, though. A small rock cavern with an open ceiling, in the center of which lied a small staircase leading up to a pedestal holding a great, green Chaos Emerald that was bigger than Sorun himself.

Knuckles had... well, admittedly he'd probably been very detailed with explaining to Sorun its origins, but he hadn't paid that much attention. Something about a bunch of Chaos Emeralds from back when they were numerous fusing to the one big one that held the island up through some complicated series of events, and that its powers were much greater as a result. How it could be greater when the gems themselves could channel an infinite amount of Chaos energy was a mystery to Sorun, maybe smaller one's had a cap to their maximum output, but it didn't matter. The important thing was the Master Emerald. And the person standing in front of it.

The group of four had chosen to spy on him from behind a gathering of stalagmites near the entrance of the chamber. Sorun in particular took as good a look at Dr. Finitevus as he could, focusing in on his features while thinking to himself.

"Geez, the guy's givin' Infinite a run for his money here..."

He'd never wondered what an albino echidna looked like until he saw the one standing before the Master Emerald. Now he knew, and could have went on with his life without knowing. The guy's fur was pure white, also sporting straight, black lines and perfectly diagonal corners. Bandages in place of gloves and feet. Gold rings on his wrists and ankles, and some more adornments on his torso. A strange four-sided, gold shape on his head with a ripple pattern.

The crème-de-le-crème had to be the long, black cloak he wore with a gold star emblazoned on its back. It even had a frayed end to give it that all-important edge. Sorun couldn't help but quietly scoff at the sight, going as far as the shake his head.

"What a geek," Sorun muttered out as he silently drew Yamato. "'Kay, here's the plan." He glanced back at the two echidna and ant. "Um... I'll go take care of him, so just hang back."

"Alone? With no backup?" Locke incredulously stated. "You can't be serious."

"It's one dude and I can stop time," Sorun stated in a flat whisper. "I mean if it gets hairy then yeah, step in, but otherwise I'm gonna go deal with him. Quicker that way." He gave all three of them a nod. "Wish me luck."

With that, he Tricked to the bottom of the steps and took a deep breath. Dr. Finitevus' back was still to him, as he was facing the Emerald doing... something. Something that involved black arcs of lightning to occasionally shoot out of his hands. Something that gave Sorun slight pause, but in the end caused him to merely note it before looking to the white echidna's body.

"Hey, Finbarr."

The black lightning the echidna's hands emitted ceased. His entire posture had gone rigid as his hands slowly lowered to his side as the echidna registered Sorun's voice.

"Finbarr...?" Finitevus voiced.

"Why the hell do the edgy guys like Shadow, Infinite, and this nutjob always get the best-sounding voices?" It wasn't as rich as Shadow's, or as smooth as Infinite's, but there was still something there to the echidna's tone. Velvety, Sorun supposed. He couldn't help but be a bit jealous.

Finitevus finally turned around to address the intruder standing behind him. He'd already looked confused from the way his name had been mispronounced. His eyes, sclera dyed black and irises a smoldering orange, had opened up even further when he looked down the steps at Sorun. He looked, quite simply, at a loss for words at what he was staring at. So much so that he'd tilted his head to the side in a curious manner for a bit, and then set it back in a straight orientation as he continued to stare at Sorun.

"A human?" Finitevus asked. "Why is a human of all things here?"

"You're the first person in a while that's gotten it right," Sorun said to him. "It's always Overlander this, Overlander that, nobody that doesn't know me ever gets the distinction, I swear."

"The finer details are often lost on lesser minds." Finitevus' eyes traveled lower. To Sorun's arm right arm. "That's an intriguing arm you're sporting there," he said. "Just what is it, I wonder?"

"Oh, the arm?" Sorun rose up the spectral limb, which still held the unsheathed Yamato. "Tell you what." He looked back to the albino echidna. "If you stop all this Enerjak nonsense I'll tell you."

The offer actually managed to elicit a single chuckle from Finitevus. "That's certainly one way to go about this. I'm afraid I'll have to decline that generous offer."

"Welp, tried it the nice way."

A single Trick found Sorun right besides Finitevus, with his blade held to the echidna's throat. His eyes had widened in surprise once again, while at the same time his hands were lifted in the air.

"Listen to me, you pasty motherfucker," Sorun quietly rasped out. "It's been a long day. I'd say I'm tired, but I'm hopped up on so much epinephrine I couldn't sleep if I tried. All my friends are worried and it's driving me crazy. This whole mess makes me wanna either go into deep-sleep hibernation or bash a rock over my own head in the hope that I'd cause enough brain damage for me to lose the memory of today happening. If you don't remove the hex you put on the Master Emerald and turn Knuckles back to normal you're gonna lose your head."

Finitevus didn't even seem to be paying attention to Sorun, much to the human's confusion. He was looking down at the katana blade held to his throat. A wide grin spread across his face from the sight of the sword, revealing sharpened teeth, and Sorun had to resist shuddering when he made what sounded like a pleased hum.

"This... is a very interesting sword..." he said. "I would very much like to know where you acquired such a blade."

"Why does everybody keep talking about the sword- ohp!"

Using speed that caught Sorun off guard Finitevus had snapped his hand down, grabbed the katana by the blade, and flung it and Sorun off of the pedestal holding the Master Emerald. The human spun in the air a few rotations, and then Tricked safely down onto the ground. He looked up in time to see Finitevus slowly descend the stairs towards Sorun.

"A teleporting ability, the ability to create a construct from pure Chaos energy to replace a lost limb, a sword which radiates so much power..." Sinister chuckles rang out from the echidna's throat as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "Not even the Guardians have ever displayed such fidelity with wielding Chaos energy like you do so casually. Echidna with modified bodies to strengthen their link to the Chaos Force such as the current Guardian, Knuckles, don't even compare." He stopped right in front of Sorun, grin still wide as he eyed the human up and down, slowly. Like he was examining him. "You truly are remarkable. Fascinating in every sense of the word, and we've only just met," he said. "Just where have you been all my life?"

"... Uh." Sorun took a step back. "You know, around." Another step. "Can we talk about Enerjak now and how you're gonna turn Knuckles back, please?"

"Him?" The grin grew wider, and somehow even creepier, making Sorun take a third step back. "Don't tell me. The former Guardian, Locke, put you up to this?"

"I mean he's involved, yeah, but I'm mainly just trying to save my friend from destroying the world. And also save the world," Sorun said.

"So that's the reason." Humming, Finitevus looked up towards the exposed ceiling of the cavern and at the midday sky. "Are you aware of the history of my people?"

Sorun's shoulders slumped. "I know it's so convoluted I'd probably go insane trying to understand every minute detail of it."

"You jest, but you're not so far off the mark, as it were." The scientist looked back down at Sorun. "Hundreds of years, generation upon generation of Guardians and fighting between them and the Dark Legion, failure after failure of echidna science to wrought one disaster after another."

"They're fools, yeah, nobody's arguing that," Sorun agreed. "I won't lie, there's only two echidna I actually like. Eh, maybe two and a quarter with Locke. The rest though, oof... I'm probably gonna have ulcers by the end of this just thinking about 'em."

"Then you understand how hopeless of a species they are," Finitevus said. "That's not even getting to the world proper, which has its own set of issues. Overlanders misusing technology for their own gain, Dr. Eggman the most egregious case among them. Mobians stuck between preserving nature and peace and defending themselves, which only serves to divide them further and further. Everything in this world is too far gone." He perked up, grin dropping for a second before he gave Sorun an apologetic smile. "But where are my manners? You seem to already know me, butchering of my name aside, but I've yet to ask the name of this spectacular specimen before me."

"... Sorun."

"Sorun..." Finitevus hummed out. "The name is unfamiliar to me, and that much more enticing." He gestured a hand to Sorun. "You agree with me, do you not? Surely somebody with powers such as yours sees the world for what it truly is underneath the surface. How hopelessly corrupted it is. Do you not think it prudent to hasten the inevitable and start again?"

"Nah, not at all," Sorun denied, shaking his head at Finitevus. The answer caused the grin to fall away from the echidna's face. "You're a nihilistic, sociopathic doomer who stooped to using Chaos mumbo-jumbo to brainwash a guy into becoming possessed by some weird Chaos entity." He placed the blunt end of Yamato on his shoulders. "World's trash, yeah. That doesn't mean you gotta go ruin it."

"Well, that's rather rude of you." The eerie smile returned to Finitevus' face. "You agree with me in that the world is in a less-than-poor state, but not that it needs to be purged?" A single, sardonic laugh left him. "So you would, what, try and save it?"

"Fix the world of all its problems? I look talented enough to do something like that to you?" Sorun sighed out and shook his head. "Finitevus, I won't lie to you. If there's one problem in the world I do want to fix, it's Eggman and how his head needs to be separated from his body. Past that? I'll leave fixing the world to the people that actually know what they're doing. I just wanna hang out with my friends and play video games with a girl I really like, or even more than that go home to where I come from." He made a "tch" sound and looked away. "I'm not gonna actually get any of that, but... it'd be nice," he quietly mumbled out.

"... That's all you want?"

"I'm a man who strives for the simple things in life." He looked back to the puzzled echidna. "Why the face? It not fit your world view?"

"..." Finitevus shook his head. "Meaningless conjecture," he claimed in a low tone. "You've said enough. Onto the business at hand. You wish to undo the changes Knuckles has undergone to become Enerjak, correct?"

"Mmhm," Sorun confirmed with a nod. "I know it's 'cause of the hex you put on the big rock up there." He nodded to the Master Emerald. "Now listen, I heard you were responsible for Albion gettin' sacked, but that they tried to do some less-than-virtuous things to you. You probably did a bunch of other shady stuff I'm not aware of, but I'm not gonna judge on stuff I don't know. I'll let that all slide." He gestured his left arm, holding the sword's scabbard, around the cavern. "As far as this Enerjak thing's gone, nobody's been seriously hurt. Dark Legion got all their cybernetics taken away and a bunch of echidna got shunted to Albion, sure, but nobody's actually died or anything like that. So just this once, I'm gonna give you the chance to undo the hex right now. Do it and I'll turn around and walk right out."

It was much more than Sorun felt like giving him. Generous didn't even begin to describe it. And he really was doing it just because nobody'd died yet. Otherwise he would have skipped this conversation entirely and gone with stopping time to cut the echidna's head off and undo the hex. But Sorun wanted to at least try and do it peacefully, if only to avoid any potential fallout from other later on about him killing somebody since they seemed so against the prospect.

"I'm afraid I couldn't undo the hex even if I wanted to, Sorun," Finitevus said. The smile on his face didn't imply he was very sorry. "To put it in terms you would understand, the hex is 'locked' into the Master Emerald. Even I am unable to remove it in this state. And as long as that hex remains in the Master Emerald, Knuckles is bound to my will and shall remain as Enerjak."

"Oh?" Sorun glanced up at the Master Emerald. "That isn't a problem," he stated, causing Finitevus' smile to drop a significant amount. "This sword you're drooling over can separate anything. All I gotta do is use it to separate the Emerald and hex." He looked down to the white echidna. "So move it or lose it."

"You..." The smile was completely gone at this point. In place of it was a deep frown on Finitevus' face. "You bluff."

"Eh, maybe, wanna test it out?" Sorun pointed the tip of Yamato at the Master Emerald. "Just lemme give it a li'l poke and we'll know real quick if-"

A flash of green light interrupted the both of them. It was to the side of both Finitevus and Sorun, the pair of which had snapped their heads in the direction of the light. The light's intensity died down almost as soon as it arrived, and in its place was a figure kneeling down on the ground. Sorun didn't even need to look at them to identify them, as something had rolled away from the figure and stopped against Sorun's feet. When he looked down, he saw a very familiar, golden helmet staring up at him.

"Uh-oh." He looked up to confirm his fears, and then began biting down on his lower lip when he saw it was Enerjak sitting there on his knees. "That's not... wait, something's up with him."

From what Sorun observed, Enerjak looked positively exhausted. The green energy roiling around his hands was so dim that it was practically invisible. He was panting heavily, his eyes half-lidded like he was liable to fall asleep at any moment. Even the blue and gold garb he wore was cracked in some places.

"Enerjak!" Finitevus exclaimed in a surprised tone. Even he didn't seem to expect this kind of sight. "What happened to you?"

"My... my power... it was depleted," Enerjak panted out in Knuckles' voice. "Eggman's Egg Grapes... nearly ended me. Fought my way out, devastated his forces... but I'm nearly out of power. I need more to finish my work..."

"He drained himself escaping from Eggman?" Sorun thought. He looked between both echidna, and then glanced up at the Master Emerald. "... Screw it, if ever there was a time it'd be now."

Without hesitating for another moment Sorun Tricked back up to the Master Emerald. He'd faintly heard Finitevus gasp out and turn his head towards him, but by then it was too late as Sorun had rose Yamato up and slammed its edge against the giant, green Emerald.

Tink!

... Only for it to bounce right off.

"... Fuck."

The next instant found a floating, golden ring portal to appear next to Sorun much like before. What Sorun didn't expect was for a white, bandage-wrapped echidna hand to shoot out of the ring-portal, grab Sorun by the wrist, and pull him through the portal.

On the other side of the portal, down near the feet of the Master Emerald's pedestal's steps, Finitevus had thrown Sorun out of the portal he'd made, causing the teen to roll a few meters before snapping up to his feet. The first thing he registered was the sharp-toothed sneer Finitevus was sending his way.

"It appears you were all talk after all," he said. "You didn't so much as disturb the hex."

"Nah... that's not it," Sorun muttered out as he stood up. "Thing about Yamato is its ability to absolutely separate anything runs on Chaos energy. It's from a Chaos Emerald, you see. So when it tries to cut something made of pure Chaos energy like it, they cancel out," he explained. "Keeps up with the games' lore of the sword. Vergil's Yamato couldn't cut other Devil Arms like Dante's sword, Rebellion. Demonic energy against demonic energy, at least in roughly equal amounts, cancels out each other. Usually for me it isn't a problem since not a lot of things are equal in power to a Chaos Emerald, but it's been a problem a few times. It's the same reason I can't separate the Chaos Emeralds from myself, why Eggman's mech suit was so resistant with that Chaos Emerald he had, why I couldn't instantly kill a Chaos entity like Enerjak... why I couldn't affect the Master Emerald." Sorun scowled as he tossed the black scabbard away and held the Yamato with both hands. "If I can't separate Emerald from hex... then I'm just gonna have to jam the sword in there to get to the hex so I can separate hex from Emerald."

Finitevus bolted upright, having seen the logic in Sorun's reasoning. A small snarl played over his pale lips as black electricity began arcing over his hands. "I won't allow you." He pointed his hands to Enerjak. "Regain your strength so you can deal with this meddlesome human. Leave him alive, though." He glanced back at Sorun, snarl morphing into a smirk. "I'd like to get him on a dissection table and spend some time with him."

"Dude." Sorun gave the white-furred echidna a perturbed look, though it quickly turned to shock when he saw the black lightning arc off of Finitevus' hands leap onto Enerjak, who was beginning to slowly regain his green glow. "Oh shit, he's trying to recharge him. Quicksil-"

An uncontrollable cough left Sorun, and following that a wave of exhaustion hit him with such intensity that he was forced to his knees. He coughed again, a small amount of blood hitting the ground in front of him. He sighed and wiped the blood away with the back of his hand as he looked up at the pair of echidna. "Figures. Adrenaline's wearing off, and Quicksilver is my most stamina-intensive power yet... fine, I'll do it this way."

Following the blue sparks arcing along his body, Sorun's Doppelganger manifested right besides him. Finitevus had snapped his head towards the Doppelganger, half in shock and half in... some twisted intrigue that had him smiling in desire. He'd been so enamored by the Doppelganger's appearance that he'd just barely been able to bring his arms up to guard his body when the spectral Sorun ran up to him and kicked him hard enough to send him tumbling back. While that happened, Sorun cut a portal in the space next to him with Yamato, and then willed his left Bringer Claw to life. What happened next was that he simply grabbed a weakened Enerjak with the spectral claw, tossed him through the portal, and then cut it close with Yamato.

"No!" Finitevus scrambled to his feet as the Doppelganger disappeared, his earlier intrigue replaced by fury as he gazed at the empty spot Enerjak had been in, and then towards a kneeling Sorun. "What have you done!?"

"What? You thought you were the only one that could pull off portal shenanigans?" Sorun asked with a slight chuckle. "I got those, too."

"Where did you send him?"

"Ah, somewhere on Mobius." Eight Summoned Swords, four to each side of Sorun, appeared, with all their tips aimed at a yet again surprised Finitevus. "I may not be able to stand up right now, but I got more than enough power to end you right here and now. So you either-"

Mid-sentence Sorun had fired off the Blistering Swords towards Finitevus, who'd gone as far as to smirk a bit. Whether it was in intrigue at the technique sailing towards him or mild respect towards Sorun having the audacity to pull a cheap move like that was unclear. What was clear was that he had reflexes faster than the average Mobian, as he tossed up a gold ring in front of him which expanded into a portal. A portal that the eight Summoned Swords flew into.

And unfortunately for Sorun, a second ring-shaped portal opened up right next to him, from which the eight Summoned Swords flew out from.

The swords had been too fast and too close for Sorun to think properly. Indeed, in any other scenario he wouldn't have been quick enough to mentally detonate the swords midair so they wouldn't skewer him. In this instance, he wasn't, and nearly died right there from being impaled by eight spectral swords.

Fortunately for Sorun a certain ant who'd been watching the proceedings along with the two echidna at the back of the cavern was fast enough, and had teleported onto Sorun's shoulder in one moment, and then teleported him away in the next right as the eight swords impaled the spot Sorun had been kneeling in.

The two reappeared a few meters away, Sorun still kneeling down but with Archimedes still on his shoulder. Sorun stared towards the spot impaled with the blue swords, panting heavily, and the looked up to the ant that stood on his shoulder as gratitude washed over him.

"Th-thanks for that, Archimedes," Sorun panted out.

"Think nothing of it." Both the ant and Sorun turned their heads towards the albino echidna. "Now onto more pressing matters..."

Footsteps were heard as both Julie-Su and Locke stepped behind Sorun, both glaring towards Finitevus along with the human and ant. Finitevus himself was caught looking between the four adversaries, looking more displeased by the moment as he continued to glance back and forth between them and the Master Emerald.

"All that research, all that time spent casting... all for naught, it seems." With a bitter sigh, Finitevus held up a golden ring. "I'm wise enough to know to fall back when appropriate. It seems you lot have won this one. Take your precious Guardian back." He tossed the ring behind him, the golden hoop expanding into a wide portal. Finitevus took one step into the portal, but then paused halfway and turned back to look at Sorun. "I'd love to discuss with you at length about who you are and your abilities, Sorun, but time is against us. Rest assured you'll be in my thoughts." With a final wave, and a smile, Finitevus ducked into the golden portal. "Until we meet again."

And that was that. The portal closed behind Finitevus, leaving an empty space. All that was left were the four inside the chamber, the human among them proceeding to double over as he coughed some more. Both Archimedes and Locke looked to Sorun in concern, while Julie-Su had bent down to his level to place a concerned hand on his back.

"Is he okay?" This question came from Locke, who continued to gaze down at the human as he continued coughing while Julie-Su tried to sooth him by rubbing at his back. "That cough..."

"I- hck, ack!- may be... out here against doctor's orders," Sorun mumbled out in a tired voice. "And I might have injected a gratuitous amount of drugs into me just to make it this far..."

"Drugs?" Locke repeated. "What drugs?"

"Epi- khack!- epineph- khck!- I took adrenaline," Sorun gasped out, shaking his head to try and clear his clouding vision. "Usin' these powers, it wears me out. I just took it to give me some more time." His left arm tapped on Julie-Su's shoulder, who nodded at him. She helped him to his feet by keeping one arm on his back and another under his arm, after which he nodded towards the Master Emerald. "Can't say it was the worst idea. I still have to stab that."

As Julie-Su began to assist Sorun in walking towards the altar's steps, Locke, now carrying Archimedes after having teleported to the echidna's shoulder, gave the human's back a curious look. "You intend to... stab the Master Emerald...?"

"Gotta get in deep to get to the hex," he called back in a winded voice. By now he and Julie-Su were halfway up the steps, and while they continued to advance upwards, Sorun turned his head towards Julie-Su. "Hey," he whispered out, "I didn't teleport Knuckles that far. He's back in the spot we both were at when we arrived on the island. When I get this hex out he should turn back to normal."

A relieved smile overtook Julie-Su's features as they both made it to the top of the steps. "Thank you, Sorun," she said as she released the human, stepping back with some concern at seeing the Earthling wobble on his feet. "Are you alright to do this?" she asked.

"Prolly not," he honestly answered as he held up his spectral hand, Yamato appeared in its hold. "It's gotta get done, though."

Giving the sword a single look, and then glancing up to give the Master Emerald the same look, Sorun sighed out of exhaustion and willed his spectral arm to push the Yamato's blade into the Emerald.

There'd been significantly more resistance than Sorun had expected. Enough that he'd almost been worried that even his Bringer Claw wouldn't be strong enough to shove the blade through. Fortunately, it managed to crack through its surface, and Sorun let his power run through the blade as he used the sword embedded in the green gem to feel around.

"I'm feeling... yep, that's something," he thought. Past all the raw Chaos energy he felt in the gem - a fathomless amount of energy, he'd realized when he pierced the Emerald - he felt it. Some dark thing that didn't belong. The hex, he presumed. Yamato's power got right to work, and Sorun felt its separation ability affect it almost immediately. He saw as sparks of black lightning arced over the gem before something began to rise out of it from the top. Some formless, foggy, transparent purple thing, like a small cloud of dark energy. Sorun watched as the hex simply floated up and out of the chamber housing the Master Emerald, making a slight hum at the sight of it. "Huh. Well, that's that."

"Was... was that it?" Julie-Su asked, voice somewhat in wonder as she watched the hex float off. "Just like that? It's over?"

"It does feel kind of underwhelming, doesn't it?" Sorun asked as he tore Yamato out from the Emerald, watching in some interest as the hole he'd made in the gem was sealed and healed over. "Huh. Well, anyways, looks like all's well that-"

A horrible coughing fit interrupted Sorun. Waves of exhaustion had hit him, and his vision had begun to swim. It was bad enough that the human found himself stumbling around until he'd accidentally slipped and waved his left hand out to try and hold onto something to catch himself.

On the bright side his left hand found something to stabilize himself.

On the downside it was the surface of the Master Emerald.

"... Whoops."

Face suddenly alight in panic, Sorun tried to tear his hand away from the Master Emerald. To his horror, his hand was already affixed to it. Even more than that he saw arcs of green energy began to spark around his hand.

"No no no, not this one, not this one...!"

The green energies began to coalesce closer and closer to Sorun's hand. Try as he might, Sorun's couldn't free himself of the gem, and beyond that he faintly heard voices crying out his name behind him. Sorun couldn't find himself to even hear them as he continued to try and pull his arm away to no avail.

Hissing out in frustration, he looked down to his spectral hand, which still held Yamato. He looked back and forth between the hands two times, and then bit out a frustrated growl as he rose Yamato up.

"Ugh... fuck me."

As it stood, Sorun thought it was safe to assume absorbing the Master Emerald would be a surefire way of killing him right there. More than that, this Emerald was the only thing holding the island up in the air. It was bad enough letting it fall down to ground to destroy both it and surrounding area. It was even worse considering it was hovering right above New Mobotropolis at the moment. Letting the island fall there would mean destruction for the city and the death of everybody within it.

So it was a no-brainer that Sorun used the Yamato to cut through his left forearm and sever his own hand.

Even if his pain nerves hadn't been fried long ago, Sorun was so exhausted he doubted he would have felt his own hand coming off. He saw with some relief before tumbling down the altar's steps that the severed hand had fallen away from the Emerald and the green energies had recessed back into the Emerald. So that was good.

After that he had tumbled down the steps, leaving a small blood trail behind him from the bleeding stump of his left arm. The last thing Sorun was able to make out was a blurred Mobian face looking down at him before he fell unconscious.


Of all the things on the stupid goddamned list this had been one of the more out-there ones. Enough that Rubrum had to go double-check and triple-check when he first saw it because of how absurd it sounded and just to make sure he hadn't finally dove off the deep end.

It still amazed him he made it this far without going over, so it wouldn't have been that much of a shock.

Looking forwards, it made sense, at least from his perspective. It was only thanks to that perspective everything he'd done the list said to do made sense, and he was sure that to anybody else without this list, it'd probably look like he was doing nonsensical, random actions. And he wouldn't have blamed those people. Because even with that perspective even he sometimes struggled to understand why he was doing what he was doing.

Well, it wasn't his job to understand it. It was his job to follow the list to the letter. And right now he had to follow this particular letter.

- Put the hex Sorun separates from the Master Emerald in a jar and save it for later ()

... He fucking hated his life.

"Yeah, 'cause apparently you can just bottle this shit," Rubrum grumbled to himself. There was an open jar in his left hand and its lid in his right. And nearby a small cluster of trees just outside the chamber the Master Emerald sat in was the hex Finitevus had put on it that was now separated from the Emerald. Just floating around. And here Rubrum was, feeling like an idiot as he creeped up on the floating purple cloud thing with a jar.

"Highlight of my life right here," he groused as he swiped the jar over the purple cloud. He held the jar up afterwards, tilting his head when he saw the purple and black cloud of energy floating in the jar, and then quickly went to screw the lid on to seal it in. "Well, uh... that's-that's it, I guess, job done." Rubrum looked around at the empty forest around him, and then lifted both his arms up in a half-triumphant, half-confused show of victory. "Er, yeah, woo-hoo."

- Put the hex Sorun separates from the Master Emerald in a jar and save it for later (X)


"- orun, Sorun, lad, wake up!"

One of two things had woken Sorun up. Whether it was from being shaken so much or a voice calling out to him, he wasn't so sure. He wasn't so sure of anything at the moment. His mind felt... muddled, sluggish. Random, incoherent thoughts were the only thing that occupied his mind his his blurred vision slowly came into focus, revealing a red form kneeling above him. He recognized him as Locke due to the aged face, but that was as much as Sorun could think before the incoherent thoughts took over again.

"Sorun?" Locke's mouth had upturned a bit in relief when he was Sorun stir awake, though his eyes were still narrowed a bit in worry as he lightly shook the human again. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"Mh..?" Sorun mumbled as he held his left hand to his head. "I don't... wha? Huh?"

Sorun quickly realized he had a left hand, causing him to reel back in shock. His incoherent thoughts snappped right back to normal as he stared at appendage.

The human teen distinctly remembered having severed his left hand in order to stop himself from accidentally absorbing the Master Emerald, so it came as a shock to him to discover that he still had a left hand. He knew it'd happened; nothing showed up on his dark shirt, but he saw some dark stains on his blue pants from where some of the blood had splashed onto him. And yet, there it was. His flesh and blood left hand.

"But... didn't I cut that off?" Sorun looked to Locke with a lost expression. "What gives, I thought... I thought I lost this?"

"Well, you did. Gave all of us quite a scare," Locke informed him with a mild chuckle. He then held up his own right hand, Sorun's eye widening a bit when he saw faint green glows shine around it. "But, when you removed Finitevus' hex it restored my own connection to the Master Emerald, me being a former Guardian. You're lucky I was right there to reattach it with some of my abilities. The arm was still warm and that sword of yours made such a perfectly clean cut that it wasn't even that hard to put it back on."

"O-oh. Really? You did that for me?" Eyebrow risen in surprise, Sorun flexed his fingers. Seemed to work fine. Still couldn't feel anything with it, but the mobility was all there at least. He twisted it around a bit experimentally, and then sighed out before turning back to Locke. "Sorry about doing that," he said. "I can't control it when I absorb Chaos Emeralds. I accidentally touched the Master Emerald, and I didn't want to absorb it and have the island fall on the city, so... yeah, I-I cut it off. Thanks for putting it back on."

Saved him a lot of trouble. He didn't even want to think about how anybody back in New Mobotropolis would have reacted if he came back missing yet another hand.

"Think nothing of it. I owe you enough that the least I could do was give your hand back." Locke turned his head to the spectral arm replacing Sorun's lost right arm. "Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do for long-lost limbs, so..."

"Eh, don't worry about it." A hand was held out to Sorun. The teen grasped it, and afterwards Locke helped him up to his feet. "So Knuckles...?"

"See for yourself," Locke said. He stepped aside, allowing Sorun to have a view of the Master Emerald's altar and its steps. Sorun saw with some surprise that Knuckles was sitting down on the bottom step, with Julie-Su sitting right next to him. He was sitting hunched forwards with a sad expression on his face, but otherwise it was just Knuckles. No egyptian-esque clothes or crazy green energy auras. Just him, his shoes, gloves, and a glum expression.

Casting one last glance at Locke, Sorun nodded to the older echidna and began walking to the two teenage ones. He'd stopped right in front of them, with both looking up towards Sorun. Both had mixtures of surprise and relief written on their faces, along with a bit of worry on Knuckles' part. Sorun simply stared down at Knuckles with a flat expression.

"You're a real piece of work. You know that?" With a sigh, Sorun sat down on the other side of Knuckles. "I'd say I'm sorry for stabbing you a bunch while you were Enerjak," he continued, raising his left hand up, "but this adventure concluded with me having to cut my own hand off, so we'll call it even on that front."

He saw from the corner of his eye Knuckles wince. "I'm... sorry about that," Knuckles apologized. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, your dad worked his magic on me. Literally. I'm fine," he assured him, lowering his hand into his lap. "More importantly, are you okay?"

"That I couldn't tell you," Knuckles muttered out. "I remember everything, you know. It's... it's like it was me speaking, but it wasn't me. I didn't want to do anything that Enerjak did, but..." He shook his head. "I don't know. I wasn't myself."

"Eh, you got brainwashed by a creep scientist guy. A really, really creepy scientist guy. Nobody'll hold it against you. City got kinda dinged up, but Nicole can fix it easy," Sorun assured him. "Me running around outside the hospital on the other hand, nah, I'm a dead man when I get back."

His last sentence managed to elicit some humorless laugh out of Knuckles. "I don't think they'll treat you that bad."

"No, they-they will, but we'll get to that," Sorun said. "Look, it was real bad, but it turned out fine. I mean, no one died, right? You, uh... de-cyborged a bunch of the crazy echidna people and did, uh... what'd Enerjak do with all the other echidna again?"

"He sent them all to Albion. I guess they're just gonna live there now," Knuckles answered. "He sent some of the Dark Legion people there, too, but most of them are still up here, dingoes are in the desert... but I don't know, it's probably for the best if you really think about it. They can all just settle on Albion now without having to worry about warring factions attacking them at any moment."

"There, see?" Sorun softly hit Knuckles on the shoulder. "There's a positive thing right there."

"And..." Knuckles continued, a small smirk stretching over his mouth, "that whole 'try to drain Enerjak of his power' massively backfired on Eggman. Those Egg Grapes of his got overloaded and Enerjak ended up fighting him. Most of his forces got completely trashed."

Sorun blinked. His hand slinked back to his side, and he leaned forwards a bit to get a better look at Knuckles' face. "How much damage did Enerjak do to Eggman?" he asked.

"Oh, I'd say a good... ninety, ninety-five percent of New Megaopolis got destroyed," Knuckles answered, making Sorun's jaw drop open. "He wiped out most of his fleet, too. Probably only got one or two ships left."

"Well that's... actually pretty amazing." In that Eggman's total power got cut down to a meager fraction at least. It was actually spectacular when Sorun heard it. He would have taken the fleet alone getting destroyed, but his city, too? Most of his factories and robots getting deep-sixed? "Geez, Knuckles, war's gonna be really easy to win now that the guy barely has any of his stuff left," Sorun breathed out as he sat back on the steps. "I actually don't think this could have ended any better than it did."

He thought back on that statement and immediately considered that maybe it was false and Enerjak could have saved everyone the trouble and killed Eggman at some point while he was wrecking all his forces, but all this alone was more than what Sorun bargained for. It was making his ill-fated plan of blitzing Eggman once he got the last Emerald that much more feasible.

"Huh, we really did manage to turn this whole mad god emergency around, didn't we?"

"Yeah, I guess. Maybe," Knuckles admitted. "I still feel like an idiot getting duped like that by such a shady-looking guy."

"Fooled by literally the evilest-looking echidna I've ever seen? Granted I haven't seen that many but still?" Sorun deadpanned. "Nah, coulda happened to any of us. Don't sweat it."

Knuckles paused, and then looked up to stare ahead at to the end of the cavern. He slowly then spun his head towards Sorun, his face set in a blank expression. Sorun stared back with an equally blank expression, and after that they both cracked into equal grins and stared back ahead at the cavern.

"You're alright, Sorun," Knuckles said. "Thanks for all your help with this."

"It's all good, man," Sorun said back. "I think I'm gonna go back to New Mobotropolis now. You two want a ride?"

"Actually..." Knuckles hedged off, drawing Sorun's attention back to him. He glanced towards Julie-Su, who gave him an assuring smile, causing him to reciprocate it and turn to Sorun. "This whole thing has gotten me thinking that maybe I should be taken my position as Guardian of that big thing up there-" he gestured to the Master Emerald above them, "- more seriously. Plus the threat of Eggman's massively diminished now, so it's not like you guys need every hand on deck down there. So I'm just gonna stay up here. Julie-Su's staying with, thinking the Chaotix'll probably hop back up here too, we'll see. Plus, you know..." He nodded his head at the end of the cavern, where Locke was talking with Archimedes. "Get some, uh... some more time in with dad, you know? Been a while, so..."

"No, yeah, I get. Well I mean not really 'cause... eh, forget it." Sorun clapped his hands onto his knees loudly, startling both echidna next him, and stood up. "You wanna take the Guardian thing more seriously and spend some time with family now that everything's not so dire, I get it. Your other side of the family, mom and step-dad and half-brother'd all be on Albion with everyone else now, right?"

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, that's right."

"Visit 'em sometime, man." Sorun slid his hands into the pockets of his bloodstained pants. "I'm going to the city. Catch ya around, I guess."

"Sorun, wait. One more thing."

He'd already been halfway to walking away from the pair of echidna before he heard Knuckles call his name out. He's stopped, and then turned around the address the echidna yet again. Sorun felt a small spike of curiosity when he saw Knuckles giving him an unreadable expression.

"Yeah?" Sorun asked.

"It's just... your sword, Yamato..." Knuckles got out in a hesitant voice. "Enerjak, he... you really spooked him with that sword of yours."

"I remember. He got really freaked out by it." Sorun had chalked up to him just being scared of it since it had the ability to separate him from his host, but looking back, he'd said some things that gave Sorun pause. "Demonic" had been at the forefront of specific words Sorun had taken an interest in. Demonic. The sword's lore origins were demonic in nature, true, but that was just that: the lore. The actual abilities were Chaos-based, even if they emulated Vergil's demonic Yamato from the games. And Enerjak had no way of knowing where Sorun had even pulled the sword from.

So what the hell had he seen to call the blade something like that?

"I remember everything from when I was Enerjak, so... I don't know. He - I - We, I guess, uh... kind of got a good look at it when you, you know... stuck it in us." Knuckles cleared his throat to clear the awkward air that suddenly emerged between them. "... The Chaos energy in that sword is really dark, you know?"

"... Dark?"

"Maybe that isn't the right... heavy, I guess. It's just different. And honestly, man, just being around it gives me chills," Knuckles admitted to him. "You sure that thing is safe? I know it's you and everything, but, well... something just feels really off with it."

"I don't know what to tell you, man. Sword's how it is." Sorun offered Knuckles a shrug. "Don't let it get to you too much. It's probably just some of Enerjak's leftover feelings lingering on ya. They'll prolly go away on their own. Just gotta clear your head. Take some time off to yourself, relax a bit."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Accepting the answer, Knuckles gave Sorun a nod. "I think I'll be doing that. Take care, Sorun."

"Bye, Sorun!" Julie-Su mirrored Knuckles as they both waved Sorun off. He reciprocated the wave, and then turned away towards the exit to the cavern.

On his way towards the exit he ran into the older echidna and ant that had been conversing with themselves as he talked with Knuckles. The former turned towards Sorun to offer him a small smile, while the latter hopped on the tip of a nearby stalagmite to be at eye-level with the teen.

"'Ello there, Sorun," Archimedes greeted. "Feeling alright? No, er... adverse effects or anything like that?"

Sorun shook his head. "Nah, I'm feelin' fine. Don't think the Master Emerald did anything to me. Probably a good thing."

"A fact I'm sure we're all in agreement on," Locke added in. "We never did properly thank you for everything. Helping to deal with the Enerjak situation, Dr. Finitevus, all that. And for... willing to cut a piece of your body off for the greater good. I know that couldn't have been an easy choice."

"Eh, easier than you'd think," Sorun admitted with a shrug. "It's all good, now, though. So no worries there." He glanced back towards the altar where Knuckles sat, and then back at Locke. "Not so bad for a 'random Overlander', huh?"

Locke grew a bit uncomfortable, while at the same time Archimedes shot the echidna a look. "Right, er... I must apologize for that," he said. "I'd mistaken you for their kind, and any encounter they've had with the island has never resulted in anything good-"

"It's fine, man, I get it," Sorun said with a wave, letting Locke relax a bit. Far be it from him to judge somebody for a justifiable stigma they had, even if he wasn't so pleased with it. He was always surprised enough he could walk around so freely among Mobians without them holding it to him, even if he wasn't an Overlander to begin with. Sorun was happy enough with an apology. "So you're gonna be spending more time with him, then?"

"Hopefully now that he's decided to take his mantle of the Guardian a bit more seriously," Locke confirmed. "I'd be remiss to say I didn't love my own son, but some of his recent decisions haven't sat that well with me. Such as leaving the island for those down below."

"Knuckles was just worried about everybody and Eggman. Can't exactly blame the guy for wanting to help curb a global threat that endangered everyone, his own species included," Sorun said. A low hum left Locke as a response as he looked down at his feet, making Sorun sigh out. "Look, I... don't really got a lot of experience with this sort of thing, so I don't know what to tell ya. Just try talking to the guy, at least."

A dry chuckle left Locke as he looked back up at Sorun. "I suppose I'll have to endeavor to do my best."

"You dot that." Sorun nodded to both of them, and then summoned Yamato. "Well, it's been real, guys. True experience in and out. I gotta go get my head screamed off by my doctor, though. Take care."


"I really am considering hitting you every time you do something stupid."

"Pretty sure they can get you for malpractice if you started doin' that, doc."

A deep sigh was all the Mobian duck in front of Sorun offered. A very unamused sigh at that. He took the stethoscope off of Sorun's bare chest, and as the human lowered his shirt back down he made a small hum as he looked down at the chart in his hand. Finally, he shook his head and looked back up to Sorun.

"Well, somehow despite all your recent activities and your abiding of non-prescribed 'medicine'-"

"You shouldn't leave needles sitting around," Sorun said with a shrug.

"That's not even a good excuse, but I suppose the fault is mine somewhat. I knew something was off last time I checked inventory, though I don't know how an epinephrine syringe wandered all the way up here from storage... well, it's irrelevant," the doctor finally decided with a shrug. "You made it out of that pretty much completely okay. Well, not okay okay, but you're not worse off than you were a few days ago. Actually you seem much better," he admitted with a bit of a surprised tone.

"Might have something to do with what happened on the island," Sorun offered. "Had some, uh... unorthodox procedures, we'll call it."

"..."

"I could say magic, but I don't think you'd like that."

With another sigh, Dr. Quack closed his eye and shook his head. "Yeah, I tend to tune out all that magic mumbo-jumbo and Chaos what-has-its I know some people can do. Not in my scope. What is in my scope is telling you how you're doing on a physiological scale. And as I said, you're doing fine."

"Ah, that's great to hear, Doc," Sorun said as he began to slide off the hospital bed. "So do I check myself out or-?"

"You," Dr. Quack said as he pushed Sorun back on the bed, "stay here because I'm not fully confident about releasing you from our care yet. Though I will consider letting you out of the wheelchair in a few days since you seem to be doing well on that front," he offered.

Sorun sighed as he was sat back on the bed. "Ugh, for the... fine, that's fair."

"Glad to hear it." The duck began stepping away from Sorun and towards the door. "Also, you had a visitor that wanted to come see you."

"Eh, I'm not doing anything else. Send 'em in." Sorun waved his hand to the doctor, who nodded to him as he continued towards the door. He left, closing the room's door behind him as Sorun sat back on the bed, leaning his back against the metal frame as he clasped his mismatched hands behind his head.

"'Getting better' he says. Ha. If only..." Sorun thought to himself as he looked out the window. It was dark outside due to the nighttime, though not that late into the evening. He still saw a lot of lights on in houses outside the window. "Wonder where that head guy ran off to? Eh, I don't really care I guess... Hope Knuckles'll be doin' well now after that whole thing. If I ever have to deal with that skirt-wearing thing again it'll be too soon." He heard the door to his room open again, prompting him to remove himself from the metal bed frame and slide down to the end of the bed. "Alright, who's... ah, boy."

He'd saw who it was standing at the open doorway, but didn't choose to say anything to them or greet them in any way. Instead he propped his head up onto his hand and looked the other way. There was a deep sigh from a masculine voice on the other end of the room, followed by the sound of footsteps and then Sorun's bed depressing as somebody sat right next to him. A few seconds had passed before the newcomer chose to speak.

"You're a bothersome handful. You do know that, right?"

Lightly snorting in amusement, Sorun finally looked to the side at the black and red body sitting next to him. "You can't talk," Sorun told Shadow. "You punched a god in the face and got knocked flat on your back."

Shadow rolled his eyes and looked ahead at the room. His scowl suggested he didn't seem that amused. "That isn't quite how it went down. And that's not what I meant." His eyes flashed back to Sorun. "I know the details of how you ended up this way. I just... hadn't expected it to be that bad."

"... 'Hey, Shadow, sorry to bug ya but I just called to tell ya Sorun got his arm and eye knocked out of him.' How were you expecting it to look?" Sorun asked him.

"I don't know," he admitted with a shake of his head. "How is it?"

"Eh, it's actually not so bad with this thing," Sorun said as he waved his spectral arm around. "It's actually way better than my normal arm. I'm thinking of cutting my left one off just so I can even them out."

Shadow looked greatly displeased by that statement. "That isn't funny, Sorun."

"So is it a bad time to tell you I did cut it off but had it put back on?"

"You..." With an exasperated sigh, Shadow looked forwards along with Sorun. "I should have been there," he said. Hearing that made Sorun a bit surprised, though he continued to stare ahead at the wall along with Shadow. "I realize the others were helpless to aid you. I don't blame them, but you shouldn't have had to do something like that alone."

"Really doubt you could have helped," Sorun said. "Yamato had trouble scratching that thing 'cause of the Chaos Emerald. It was practically invulnerable. Don't blame yourself," he said with a shake of his head. "I had to pull a lot of tricky nonsense just to pull off a win. Ended up using my whole bag of powers. Even then I still made it out an inch away from dying."

"So I heard." Shadow finally chose to glance back at Sorun. "When did you learn to stop time?"

"Emerald."

"I was being rhetorical," Shadow said in a deadpan.

Sorun slowly nodded in understanding. "Ahhh. You know, if you wanna be playful and say stuff like that you have to at least try and put some sarcastic edge to your voice. Otherwise people take you for real and it messes the whole thing up."

"Tch. Still trying to give me lessons on wordplay?"

Sorun shrugged. "Who knows? Might be nice, passing something along to someone," he said. "Not like I can teach this stuff to Sonic. He overhams it since subtlety's all but lost on that guy. His sarcasm sucks. Me, my sarcasm's dry to the point I got no hope." He turned to Shadow and poked him in the shoulder. "As for you, it just ain't your style. Not your jive, just doesn't mesh. Which is why you could actually pull it off if you seldom use it. You can use the whole unexpected angle since nobody'd see it coming from such a serious guy like you."

With a scoff, Shadow brushed Sorun's finger off him him and stared back ahead at the wall. "You must be alright if you have the energy to say all this."

"Pfft. I try to help a guy and this is the thanks I get?" Sorun interlaced his fingers behind his head and laid back on the bed. "It's nice to know you care, Shadow. I mean, going out of your way to visit little ol' me like this."

"I regret it more with every passing second. Evidently you're fine enough to the point it was a waste of time coming all the way here since you seem so well-off." Sorun felt the bed lighten as Shadow hopped off of it. He heard him walk halfway through the room, and then paused. "... Things on the other side of the world have quieted down some. We've been getting reports that the infrastructure in New Megaopolis was destroyed."

"Yeah, Enerjak went a bit wild on all of Eggman's stuff. His whole power structure's pretty much crippled now. I told Sally and the rest after I got back, so... yeah. It's lookin' pretty good."

There was a thoughtful hum from Shadow. "If there was ever a time to plan the Doctor's demise, it'd be now. That window is fast approaching."

"We'll get there, Shadow, we'll get there. I wanna wait 'til I get my hands on the last Emerald before we spring anything. Wanna be at max power to give us a good a chance as possible," Sorun said with a wave of his hand. "Just wait for that to happen and then we'll do something. At worst I'll get that last Emerald and use Yamato to teleport us to the New Megaopolis ruins. There'd be so little in our way at this point that if it's the two of us we could probably just beeline straight for him and blast through anything in our way until we got to him. One of us stops time, puts a Chaos Spear or Summoned Sword or whatever through his face, boom, job done."

"Not exactly the most well thought-out plan. Then again, with recent events it has some merits," Shadow admitted. "As it is, since things are a bit less hectic I'll be staying here in the city with Rouge for a bit. If something comes up you'll know where to find me. Until then I'll be around."

"Mm-hm, sure." His head facing the ceiling, Sorun waved the hedgehog out. "You do that. I'll let ya know if anything turns up."

His hand hadn't even hit the bed before he heard the door to his room close as Shadow left. Sorun had thought that was the end of it and had tried closing his eye and falling asleep right there in his awkward position on the bed. That was until he heard a knock on the door what felt like thirty seconds later from his perspective, followed by the door opening, followed by Sorun deeply sighing when he heard somebody softly walk into the room.

"I absolutely refuse to say sorry for a single thing I did today," Sorun said as he sat up on the bed to stare at the person who just walked into the room. His sentence and the way his face hadn't changed expressions caused Nicole to stop halfway to his bed, surprise lacing her features as she watched him.

"... How did you know it was me?" she finally asked after getting over the initial surprise of Sorun identifying her immediately.

"You're the only person I know that knocks on a door and then enters the room seconds later without waiting for anybody to say anything."

Looking abashed, Nicole glanced down towards her feet. "Forgive me. I'm still learning at adhering to social customs."

"Yeah, I know. It's fine." Sorun leaned forwards and clasped his hands together again, this time setting them between his knees. He kept his own eye focused on the floor as he felt the bed compress as Nicole sat down in it- right in the same place Shadow had sat in prior. "So. Today was crazy. But hey, it all ended that well end... ed, yeah, that doesn't work," he muttered with a shake of his head.

"The expression is 'all's well that end's well', is it not?"

Sorun nodded. "Yeah, but I tried putting a spin on it with a new end and it kind of fell apart and didn't work out." Nothing but silence passed after Sorun finished speaking. He got fed up with it fairly quickly and clicked his tongue out of irritation, and then looked up at Nicole. She looked about as uncomfortable as he felt, avoiding eye contact with him while having all but copied the slumped sitting stance Sorun had.

There was a strong urge for him to go and gloat about the fact that he'd been right and that everybody else had been wrong. That even slightly wounded he'd had more right to have been there than anybody else in that fight and that he didn't need to be coddled like some newborn infant that couldn't protect itself. He could be strapped to a wheelchair with no arms and still have more lethality than the average Mobian citizen on account he could summon spectral sword out of thin air. If anything he'd been the main factor in solving this entire mess.

Of course he didn't because that would be unnecessarily mean and bordering on cruel, and he didn't really have it in him to pull something like that on somebody he liked. So Sorun thought that a more tactful approach was necessary. Even if it killed him a bit inside that he couldn't gloat. Because he wanted to. Badly.

"Look, I... I get it, you're all really worried about me," Sorun said. "You don't want me doing all this crazy stuff because I'm in no shape to right now, I get it, it makes sense. I don't blame you at all."

"Then why do you keep doing it?" Nicole asked. "Time and time again we have all continued to try and keep you from endangering yourself further, but at every step-"

"It's not like I want to keep doing this," Sorun interrupted with an annoyed tone as he threw his arms up at the ceiling. "What, you think I actually like going up to random evil gods just so I can stab them? I-I-I'm not Sonic, I don't do crazy stuff like that for fun. Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to listen to you guys and sit in a hospital and do absolutely nothing until I got better again. I mean, that's the dream. To just sit around and do nothing." He sighed and sat a bit further back on the bed, enough that he was able to fold his legs in front of him. "But it feels like the world just won't let me take a rest because crazy things keep happening left and right. First a revolution happens and then the whole Enerjak thing happens right after, and I'm just left wondering what crazy, insane thing's gonna happen next. And I'd like to sit it out and let you all handle it, Nicole, but then Enerjak happens and I got this-" he formed Yamato in his hand, "- and-and I just- it- ugh..."

Yamato disappeared, and Sorun flumped right onto his back on the bed. Nicole, looking puzzled at the sight, leaned forwards as Sorun exhaled up at the ceiling with his arms stretched out far enough above him that his hands dangled off the edge of the bed.

"I just wanna sleep until the doctor lets me out of this hospital so I can do stuff," Sorun mumbled out. "I don't want any more crazy stuff happening. I don't want people yelling at me. I just want to do normal stuff for a bit. Why is that so much to ask?"

"..." Nicole's ears flattened halfway as she looked ahead, away from Sorun. "Perhaps we were all a bit overbearing on you," she said.

"No. You weren't," Sorun said, causing her ears to straighten back up as she looked back at him. "I can't really blame you for everything you did."

"Like you wouldn't blame me for putting you in a straight jacket?" she asked, and when Sorun looked up he saw Nicole frowning at him a bit. "That comment was a bit hurtful, Sorun."

"You took my door away."

The frown turned into a pout as she looked away. "The comment having a relatively solid base doesn't make it any less hurtful."

"You didn't even just lock it. You just straight-out took it away."

"I was worried," she snapped as she looked back at him. "And it seems these fears may have been a bit... misplaced," she finally admitted in a softer voice. "You... handled yourself well, it seems. With Enerjak."

"Eh, I'm not gonna lie. I think I just got really lucky," Sorun said to her as he sat back up. "I was really relying on that time-stop surprise of mine one-shotting Enerjak and it didn't, and if I'm being honest with you I don't think I could have taken the guy in a straight fight the more I think about it. I was really heated at the time and thought I could, but looking back Eggman teleporting him away to try and drain his powers only to have it blow up in his face is probably what ended up saving us. Which... would mean Sonic was right in making that truce with him..." Sorun realized as his voice trailed off. "... Goddammit, he was right."

How would things have gone if Sonic hadn't stopped Sorun from killing Eggman right then and there? Poorly, most likely. Chances were Enerjak would have won that fight, and Sorun didn't like thinking about how bleak things would have been for the world after. Him and Finitevus made it sound like they wanted to erase most of the world's population through an armageddon to hard-reset civilization. It would have been the world being brought back to level zero by the gene bombs all over again, only this time with someone like Enerjak there to play (and probably accurately portray) god for the new generation that would rise up from the ashes.

All of that was avoided because Sonic stopped Sorun from killing Eggman.

Hard pill to swallow the more Sorun thought on it.

"Well, at least I was there to separate that hex from the Master Emerald," Sorun finally settled on with a sigh. "Who knows how things would have played out if I wasn't there, and it all ended well because of it. So how about we try not thinking about that, huh?"

"Yes, you did seem highly agitated during that fight." Nicole's voice cut through Sorun's thoughts, making Sorun face her once again. "I was observing through the surrounding cameras. I was too busy attempting repairs to the city's defensive systems knocked out from all the fighting between Enerjak and Shadow, so I couldn't intervene directly. I saw what had transpired though." The corners of her mouth lifted up a bit as she glanced away from Sorun. "You... seemed particularly upset at how his aversion to technology related to me."

"Oh, you... heard all that, huh?" It was Sorun's turn to look away from her as he rapidly brushed as much of his dark hair in front of his face as possible to hide himself. "W-well, you know, I... you really freaked me out after the drone thing and-and, well, I..."

"It's okay, Sorun. I understand." A hand placed itself on the teen's shoulder, causing him to freeze in place. His vision was a bit dark from the hair over his one eye, though he was able to make out Nicole reaching her arm over to touch his shoulder as she smiled at him. "It's nice to hear somebody regard me so highly they'd go out of their way to fight a god." The hand squeezed down a bit. Sorun assumed there would have been a bit of pain from the pressure he felt had he still has access to that bodily function. "It was flattering. Also incredibly foolish of you. But flattering all the same."

He was too flustered at the moment to form any kind of response to Nicole after hearing her words. Fortunately, Nicole had chosen that time to release his shoulder and stand up off the bed.

"I'm happy to have people like you and Sally that regard me so highly. It's made my experience of fitting into real life all the more worthwhile," she said to him. "We can speak more of this later, at a more appropriate time when you're better. For now, I'd like to let you get your rest. It's been a long day for everyone." Her body slowly began disappearing. "Good night, Sorun."

No sooner had she disappeared from the room did Sorun loudly sigh out and flop right back onto the bed. He'd brushed his hair away from his face after to reveal a large blush that had grown on his features.

"Why's it gotta be like this...?"