Recursion Error

Episode 79- The future sucks


Sleeping was a strange thing. The sensation of drifting off towards unconsciousness, slowly becoming more and more weightless until consciousness is snapped off entirely. You're not aware of the exact moment you fall asleep. Dreams, nightmares, or the lack thereof on either side is never a straight line; rarely is there a starting point, or an ending point, and for most simple awareness over their reality being a dream escaped them barring rare circumstances.

Being stuck inside a giant magical crystal wasn't like that. For Sorun, it was... well quite frankly it was boring. And annoying. He'd been floating, for what was either minutes or hours. In the same way one couldn't tell how much time passed as they drifted in and out of sleep, he couldn't tell how long he'd been floating there. In some... green, vast, empty space, where the only thing besides him were strange, towering crystalline structures that dotted the infinite landscape, with seeming infinite lengths. That was all there was. Just an empty, green space he was consigned to float around in for who knew how long. During what he perceived as his first few minutes in there only one thought had gone through Sorun's mind:

"I'm gonna punch Sonic in the fucking mouth when I get out of here."

The fact he'd been shoved in the Master Emerald without his consent was something that caused Sorun great distress. This entire situation caused him distress, and he was honestly more upset at himself for being mad than at Sonic himself. He knew they were all just trying to help him, and he hadn't been in any condition to actually have any say over what was to happen with him. Maybe he'd even feel grateful to Sonic after a while, assuming this actually worked and he pulled through, but for now he'd be content at being mad at Sonic.

But, those were thoughts that had only lasted during the first few moments Sorun was floating around in that green space, the only time where he'd had any sense of lucidity. It'd lowered dramatically after that, as if his energy was being sapped right out of him. Ironic, really, considering he could almost feel the Chaos energy that saturated this space. Impressive, really, since he wasn't sensitive to sensing that stuff like other Mobians were. Then again, this was his first experience being inside an Emerald. He didn't like it very much.

He wasn't sure the why of it. Why he felt so tired here, where even here was, if it was some physical space inside the Emerald or some mental space, what was going on, if he'd actually been successfully put in stasis, anything. If this was just his mind shutting off due to a dying body or something else entirely. Mental acuity would fade rapidly as Sorun would go in and out of consciousness, on and off, and in the few moments where he would become awake before going back to sleep he didn't even so much have the ability to conjure overly tangible thoughts.

That was what it was like, being put inside of the Master Emerald. Floating around in a green space, drifting in and out of sleep, and never being entirely aware of what was going on when awoken because those periods of wakefulness were just too brief. To a point that, really, Sorun didn't remember how many times he'd awoken for what seemed like a few moments, only to go back under to sleep, his body still floating in that green space. He could only recall a handful of moments, though something at the back of his mind told him there were many, many more times than just a few. But he never had time to contemplate this, or even try to remember, as he'd go back to sleep right after, and more often than not any potential he had to remember those memories were lost.

And the dreams themselves were even more incomprehensible than his bouts of wakefulness. Flashes of images of things he didn't recognize, nor could barely remember once they passed.

A destroyed city in a desolate world. Familiar surroundings, decayed and dead.

A battlefield littered with the bodies of machines, Overlanders, and Mobians alike. Red blood and black oil both stained the ground. A lone figure stood in the center of all their corpses, purple coat freely flowing in the breeze. In their right hand was sword, a twisted amalgamation of metal and meat. A curved blade fused to a mass of flesh attached to the handle of a noble broadsword.

A tower.

A Mobian. A hedgehog that once likely had such an immaculate coat of white fur, now stained in blood. The body was littered with cuts and bruises, limbs bent and twisted in wrong directions. The face was frozen in a anguished expression, and one of the yellow eyes was gouged out completely. There was a large crater in the chest, where something had impaled the hedgehog to the ground. The purple figure standing in front of the corpse reached down, gripping the white hedgehog's right arm and ripping it completely free of its socket. An item was retrieved from the severed arm: a strange, orange gem, hidden within the glove worn by the arm. The figure in the purple coat clutched the gem tightly as the arm is thoughtlessly discarded.

Eyes.

Fleeting images that held absolutely no meaning to Sorun. Images that a mind in the state of flux he was currently in had no way of comprehending or even remembering. Most of his effort, what little he had to spend, was spent trying to sort through all the madness as he floated there endlessly in that green, empty space.

Of course then there'd been a bright flash of light. The dreams ceased and Sorun suddenly felt like he was falling.


Reality snapped back in a literal flash of light. Following that was the sensation of gravity taking hold, and then Sorun grunting out loud when his back impacted hard, solid ground. The sudden rush of sensations, temperature and smell and actually feeling atmospheric pressure instead of floating in a void, overwhelmed him all at once along with the memories of what happened.

The fight with Enerjak. Him disintegrating. Sonic - fucking Sonic - putting him in the Master Emerald. An undetermined time of drifting in some space, vague memories of dreams he couldn't decipher, no recollection of time. All of it too much, making Sorun's head throb as he reached a hand up to rub at his forehead, though massaging his head went and did nothing towards soothing the migraine he felt.

"What... the fuck... was all that...?" Groaning once more, he opened his eyes up. The sight that greeted Sorun wasn't one he was expecting. "Oh, what the hell now...?"

His vision was still clearing up, though even now he could see he wasn't in the natural cavern that was the Master Emerald's chamber. This was something artificial. A vast, circular metal room, colored in blacks and gold. Dark and dreary, with little lighting. At a first glance it looked less like a room and more like a gilded storage room. Or a prison cell.

Groaning a third time, Sorun pulled his hand away from his forehead. To his surprise, he saw that the skin on his hand had gone back to its normal, pale complexion, free of the gray color and cracks along the surface. He felt equal joy and confusion, but didn't have the patience currently to contemplate it. "Cool," he muttered out, shaking his head and sitting upwards.

The first sight that greeted him was the Master Emerald, sitting right at the center of a large, circular metal platform they were both on. And unlike the last time he'd seen the Emerald, where it'd been affixed to a regal altar in an almost reverent manner, now it was suspended off the ground by multiple chains wrapping around it that lead to the far walls of the room. And not a single altar in sight.

"I... I got no idea what's going on here? Do you? Not really, no," Sorun muttered to himself. He stood up to his feet, surprised to find that he was able to find stable footing, and then looked closer at the Emerald. "Huh?"

He saw his reflection in the gem's green surface. Everything seemed to be right: same face, same clothes, same blue coat, same everything. There was something off with his hair, though. Still its normal shade of jet black. Still a bit of a wild mess. But for some reason, it was shorter than it should have been. Where it used to reach all the way down to his chin, now it barely reached beyond his ears.

"What happened to my hair?" Sorun asked himself, running a hand through his black locks. "I don't have a single clue. I'm still trying to figure out how the hell I'm still alive."

If he recalled correctly Sonic putting him inside the gem should have just been a temporary form of stasis until they found out a way to stop him from disintegrating on the spot. He honestly doubted such a thing could ever happen, but evidently something worked seeing as he was standing here and not crumbling to pieces. What he couldn't figure out was exactly what was done to him. Or why he was all alone. Or why the hell the Master Emerald had gone from being in a cave on an altar to this dreadful-looking place.

"This place kinda reminds me of something you'd see in 'Warhammer'." Sorun walked away from the Master Emerald and towards the edge of the platform he stood on. It was essentially a saucer suspended by more chains over a hole in the center of the circular room. What was at the bottom he didn't know, because when he looked over the edge all he saw was an abyss. Beyond that was more floor outcropping from the room's wall that circled the hole, and near the back side of the room he saw a door leading out. "I'm not even sure I wanna know how the Master Emerald ended up from being in a cave to wherever this is. Just where am I? Who knows, man..."

Fortunately, the gap between the saucer platform and the floor on the other side wasn't that vast, and he was easily able to hop over to the other side. The door was just a short walk away, though he had to pause when he reached it.

"What is this sci-fi nonsense?" There weren't any visible knobs or handles in the slab of metal blocking the way that he could see. Based on the seams he saw in the center it looked like the kind of door that split apart and retracted into the walls, and the electronic panel next to it lead credence to that guess. "Alright..." Sorun leaned closer to examine the panel jutting from the wall. A bright blue display with a small number pad under it greeted him. "Alright, what do we got... hm?"

Curiously, the display only had two images displayed on it: an image of an opened door, and another of the door being closed. Blinking, Sorun reached forwards and pressed the image of the open door, not at all expecting anything to happen. To his surprise, the image brightened for a second, and then the actual, physical door split open and sunk into the wall, opening the way for Sorun.

"Uh..." Stepping away from the panel, Sorun looked towards the opened door with a dumbfounded expression. "I-I didn't think... what, does it only lock from the outside or something?" He regarded the doorway for a few more seconds, and then shrugged before stepping out.


Sorun's first assumption was that, strangely enough, he was in a dungeon of some kind. The dark, dreary lighting, tight stone corridors, and the numerous locked rooms he kept coming across painted a clear enough picture. That and how dank the place looked, felt, and smelled, certainly a large contrast to that admittedly clean, metal room he'd just left. The lighting and dark colors made Sorun uneasy just stepping around in the place, jumping at the smallest noises.

And there were some rooms he'd come across that he was able to see in. Rooms separated off from the main corridors by bars, and inside of what he could see was usually strange things. Things that looked like artifacts and cultural pieces, all chained off the ground like he'd seen the Master Emerald. He didn't recognize any of them, and he didn't care to try and memorize anything he'd seen, just that it all looked old.

Another odd thing was that he wasn't encountering any locked doors. He had confirmed, however, that the door to the room containing the Master Emerald did in fact lock from the outside. There'd been a panel on the other side, and when he'd pressed the display to close the door it'd asked for a code when he attempted to open it again. Ever since then he'd been careful to leave any doors he came across open, but it confirmed enough to him that he was working backwards from whatever this place was. But, without any kind of map or even so much as a mental layout, all he could do was blindly go forwards until he found something.

"Maybe it's some kind of storage place or something like that. Some of those rooms back there, though, the doors that lead into rooms I couldn't see... they seemed kind of small. Like the kind of thing you would see in some castle dungeon. Or a prison." He felt a chill go through his spine despite the lack of a draft. "There's something wrong with this place. How dark it is, how eerie everything feels, the shapes... where the hell am I? What happened?"

Eventually, thankfully, he'd found stairs that lead upwards. He'd climbed them without hesitation, anxiety still steadily growing even as he neared what he assumed to be the top. He did manage to reach the top; thankfully there was just a normal door there, doorknob and all. And even more fortunately the door wasn't even locked.

When Sorun decided to open that door, he was forced to squint when a practical wall of light flooded in through the doorway. Blinking his eyes heavily a few times to clear the blurriness, he managed to see that the door lead out into a hallway. A large, wide hallway, brightly-lit by artificial lights attached to chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and lightbulb sconces hung on the wall.

Rubbing at his eyes some, Sorun released his hold on the door and stepped out into the hallway. Unlike the dank dungeon he just walked out of, this hallway by comparison was downright opulent. Expensive-looking red carpeting that ran the entire length of the hallway's floor and beyond around corners he couldn't see, expensive-looking vases on handcrafted, wooden stands. Yellow walls that shone so brightly Sorun wouldn't he surprised if the things weren't made from actual gold.

"Well this is... huh..." Sorun mumbled out, not too sure on what to make of it. On the one hand the bright lights and lack of grime compared to the dungeon was assuring, on the other hand there was something about everything around him that made him uneasy despite how immaculate everything looked. He couldn't put his finger on what, though, until he'd walked a few steps away from the door he just emerged from and just happened to catch something out of the corner of his eye hung up on the wall. "Wh..." he whispered out, not even being able to form a single word as Sorun turned to see it fully.

It was a painting. A full-body portrait that was hung up on the wall portraying a Mobian with one of the most intense scowls Sorun had ever seen. The weird part was Sorun both recognized the scowl and the Mobian himself.

What he didn't recognize was the golden crown and the red cape the Mobian wore, because Sorun never once saw Shadow wear any of those items in the time he spent with him.

"... I'm choking Sonic out when I find him."


It had only taken Sorun some walking around to figure out that, wherever he was, it was a castle. It had to be for how big and complex the layout was. For now he'd only been walking for about five minutes, and had chosen to stick to the floor he emerged from out of the dungeon door as he figured this was the ground floor and didn't want to get more lost. But no matter where he turned it was just more gaudy hallways. And a painting here and there. Surprisingly no suits of armor hung on displays like one would think to find in a castle, though Sorun couldn't find it in himself to focus on that.

Through all the walking he'd turned his head to the leftmost wall, which was lined with windows tall enough that they reached the ceiling high above his head. Out of those windows he managed to see that there was a courtyard of greenery that surrounded the entire castle. No fencing or gateways, either, which he filed away for later if he needed.

But beyond the castle itself? It seemed, from what Sorun could see outside the window, that the castle was dead-center in the middle of a city. Not a city like New Mobotropolis, which was really just a large village with a few large structures. This was a proper city, like the kind Sorun would see back home on Earth. High-rise buildings as far as he could see outside the window that stretched everywhere and bright lights everywhere that illuminated the night, traffic from both ground cars and, from what he could see at this distance, flying cars of all things, even a sizeable amount of dots walking between the buildings that he assumed to be people.

The sight alone caused Sorun to stop so he could stare out the window. What he saw out there was nothing short of a full-blown metropolis, a bustling city full of life. The kind of sight he hadn't seen since the mission he'd taken part of in Station Square some months back, and before that when he was abducted from his home planet; seeing this sight alone was enough to cause a strong sense of nostalgia to beat inside of Sorun's heart.

"There were not that many places on Mobius that had these kinds of cities. Wherever I am is not the Mobius I'm familiar with. It just can't be..." Sorun thought. "What happened to me? Where is this? None of this makes sense, none of it, none of it..."

He pushed away from the window, head throbbing from the sheer confusion his mind was suffering from. How nothing made sense and he couldn't figure out what was happening, where he was or what this place was or what the painting he'd seen even meant. None of it.

"What is it, what, is it a whole new Mobius altogether? Did I get spit out in some other universe? What did they call them, zones? Di-did something else happen? Is this just some sort of screwed-up dream? Can barely remember anything that happened inside that Master Emerald..." He continued walking on, idly dragging his fingers along the walls and panes of glass as he kept soldiering further. Most of his focus was spent gazing down at the floor as he walked forwards. "What could have possibly happened while I was in there?" Another thought passed him. "How long was I in there?"

It was a chilling thought to have, and one Sorun didn't want to entertain with much thought. He immediately found himself shaking his head in an attempt to rid himself of the idea altogether. That he'd potentially been in there for longer than a few hours or days. "No, no no, it's something else, something else happened, gotta be something... voices..."

Automatically he'd dipped down into a crouch without even thinking about it, moving forwards towards the nearest corner. He creeped his head around it, heart throbbing and head spinning as he peered down the next hall, releasing a short breath when he saw them. Two figures at the end of the hallway he was peeking in. Definitely echidna from what he was able to identify, the red fur and dreadlocks was a dead giveaway, though he recognized neither one. A male and a female talking amongst themselves, both garbed head to toe in black, almost sinister-looking garb. The male one in particular had a dark, hooded cloak of all things, and the female one had a tight-fitting leather outfit.

"The hell's up with the skimpy one over there?" Sorun wondered, eyes drifting to the coiled whip she wore on her belt. "Can't make out what they're saying from here, and no way am I getting any closer." He moved back behind the corner to take full cover from their sight before they could notice him. "From how casual they're acting they're probably guards or soldiers or something. Dressed in full black... yeah, I'm not trusting that."

A part of him entertained the idea of revealing himself, but the paranoid part of his brain took over. The part that had an ingrained mistrust of echidna, the way those outfits looked so shady, the paranoia and fear he'd been feeling ever since exiting the Master Emerald. He shook his head and crouch-walked away from the corner, back down the hallway he'd walked in from to get there.

"I can't trust anything here, wherever I am. I need to find... what do I even need to find? Someone I know? I know Shadow, but... but something's wrong, I can't... what am I supposed to do?" Sorun's breathing became a bit heavier after backtracking by a few hallways. He felt his heart thumping quickly in his chest, and he looked out the nearest window towards the city beyond. "Need to get out of here. Find help, find... something! I don't know how long I have until someone finds me." He leaned closer towards the window, angling his head so he was able to see the ground. It wasn't far from where the window was; just a short hop more than anything. When he looked up, he saw that the lawn separating the castle from the rest of the city was clear of guards. "Fuck it, there's nothing out there, I can just break the window and make a break for the nearest alley before someone comes to investigate. Doubt I'd make it through the front door if I even found the thing anyways."

He could give up all hope of sneaking through the front gate if this place was fully staffed with watchful eyes, and he wasn't nearly confident enough in his stealth skills to pull that kind of exit off. Especially considering he had no idea what the status of the gate was, or even what the layout of the castle was. And the alleys between the nearby buildings looked too enticing for him to pass up. Alleys easy to get lost in. A maze that promised safety that Sorun desperately desired at the moment.

Making his decision, he looked around until he spotted one of the wooden stands holding a vase. He carefully removed the vase from the stand and gently set it on the ground, and then hefted up the wood stand in both of his hands. Struggling a bit with its weight, he swung it back and forth a couple of times, both to test its weight and build momentum. At the third, largest swing he let the stand loose and let it fly through the air, watching as it smashed right through the window.

At the same second he heard the sound of shattering glass, Sorun dove forwards and jumped right through the new aperture in the window. He landed on the grass on the other side, wincing and hissing at the sensation of glass shards cutting into him, and did his best to ignore it as he stood up to his feet.

He ran. As fast as he could, straight towards the nearest alleyway he could see. He almost dove once again after he crossed the street and reached the alley, not even stopping until he'd reached a corner to swing behind. It was only after he was behind the cover of the building's wall that he stopped, bending over and placing his hands on his knees while breathing out heavily from exertion. After catching his breath he'd creeped back towards the building's corner to peek around it.

There were already people swarming around where he'd broken the castle window. More echidna in the black uniforms, at least a dozen of them, and thankfully enough none of them were looking over in his direction. He noticed the female one from earlier, the one with the whip secured to her belt, shouting at some of them like she was barking orders. Seeing enough, Sorun leaned back behind the corner and let out an exhaustive breath.

"Alright... alright, we're good." Running a hand over his ragged face, he palmed the wall behind him and pushed off it, stumbling a bit from feeling the rush from earlier quickly wear off. "Okay, gotta, gotta find... find something, I dunno. Anything. Where even is here?"

Shaking his head, and still clueless as to where to go from here, Sorun decided that the best course of action was to, one, get as far away from that castle as possible, preferably deeper in the city. And from there... from there he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.


He decided at first to keep to the alleyways, away from public sight. He could barely even tell it was nighttime due to the amount of city lights all around, which in other times would have been a warming sight for Sorun, but now all it did was further fuel his anxiety and cause him to continually shoot paranoid glances behind his shoulder whenever he felt spooked. He mostly stuck to cover where he could, hiding behind corners and dumpsters and only transitioning between buildings when there weren't many people around.

There was a wide mix of Mobians that wandered the streets. Mobians of so many varieties and species he couldn't count them, much less identify half. Lots of echidna, too, which Sorun had found odd. At least he did until he discovered, much to his dread, from eavesdropping on some groups of Mobians talking that this city, Portal City they called it, was on Angel Island. The information alone had sent Sorun into an panic-fueled wheezing fit, and he was forced to hide somewhere until he managed to calm down and process that information.

The Angel Island he knew was practically a wasteland. Ravaged by Eggman and most of its inhabitants evacuated by Enerjak. There had been a city, Echidnaopolis, but from what Sorun knew that place had been little more than ruins by the time he came onto Mobius. Everything he saw was in direct defiance of that. It was wrong. All wrong.

It also meant he was stuck here until he found a ladder that reached for a few miles, but one problem at a time.

"Then there's this..." Sorun thought to himself as he peered out an alleyway. He was looking out into what looked like a town square, full of Mobians. Praying Mobians. All praying to a statue, it seemed. What was really bizarre was that it was a statue of a human. Or an Overlander, perhaps, but Sorun wasn't able to tell. A stone statue of a human or Overlander girl that didn't even look to be a teenager yet, with large, angelic wings sticking from her back.

"They... worship a human-looking girl...?" The sight did, oddly enough, put some ease in Sorun's heart, and he found himself easing up off the alley wall he was taking cover behind. "This just gets odder and odder. I... maybe it's fine if I just walk around normally? Guess I can just hide again if worst comes to worst..."

Certainly it'd be much easier getting around without having to stalk through alleyways, so he figured it was worth a shot. He'd made his way away from the square with the statue, though, if only so he didn't inadvertently interrupt something or cause something else that was unpredictable to happen. A few city blocks later, and another ten minutes of gathering the nerve up while Sorun nervously muttered to himself, and he'd stepped out onto the sidewalk and began walking in a random direction that struck his fancy.

Fortunately enough, nobody accosted him, which was a huge breath of relief for Sorun. He did get some odd stares from passing Mobians. Whether it was at what he was or the blue, exotic coat he wore he wasn't sure, but nobody was chasing after him or calling out at him, which was good enough for him. He did make a note of the strange fact that some Mobians he passed bowed their heads and quickly muttered something under their breaths, but it was always too quiet for Sorun to make out. He decided to ignore them all and press on.

"There's something reaaally wrong with this place..." Now that he was out of the alleys it was easy for Sorun to see what the city looked like from within. Digital signs were plastered on the surfaces of all the biggest buildings he passed. Like advertisement billboards, except instead of advertising products these signs looked like they were displaying propaganda. "'The Chaotix is watching y-' Christ, it really is '1984' out here. And what does that even mean? What, is the Chaotix some kind of secret police now or something? God, is that Knuckles?"

It was on the one sign he was paying particular attention to. The stern face of an echidna he was very familiar with was superimposed over the Chaotix message, though Sorun didn't remember Knuckles having a red, cybernetic eye replacing his right eye. Chrome metal around the socket and a big, red lens in place of an actual eye. There were other signs besides that one, too. Signs that read things like "obey", or "King Shadow's word is law". That last one was particularly unsettling to Sorun.

"It's all wrong. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong..."

He felt his left hand unconsciously clench inside of his pockets. He couldn't help the deep yearning he felt for Yamato. The security in feelings its weight in his hand, the safety its power provided. But knowing his hand was empty just made Sorun all the more nervous.

Sorun wasn't sure how long he'd been wandering the streets. An hour, maybe two. Doing nothing but walking with his head hunched down, thoughts looping over and over in his head as he tried and failed to make sense of everything that was going on. How nothing made sense and how his mind was stuck in perpetual confusion, wondering and trying to make sense and failing and feeling scared over the whole ordeal. He only got snapped out of it when he accidentally kicked a can that had been lying in his path. The sound of it skittering and clattering across the ground made Sorun look up, and for the first time in hours he took a look around at where he'd walked to.

... It was still just streets and buildings everywhere, he didn't know where the hell he was.

"Sorun...?"

There was a heavy blink. Another blink. He heard his name called out in that quiet voice, and he recognized the voice, though there was something different about it he couldn't place. He dared to hope, though, and the teen forced himself to turn his head to the left towards the source of the voice he heard call his name.

He was right. He had successfully recognized the voice. He was there in the alley next to Sorun, sitting against the wall with a trashcan nearby. Sonic. More... disheveled than Sorun remembered, but the blue fur and green eyes was hard to miss for Sorun. There was something else different about him, beyond the patches of matted fur and the worn shoes and gloves, but Sorun couldn't place what it was...

"S-Sorun, I can't believe it." The look of disbelief that was on the hedgehog's face began to morph into a smile of relief, while Sorun silently continued to stare at him. "You're... you're really here. Oh, Sorun, I can't tell you how glad I am to see you-"

"YOU MISERABLE FUCK!"

The shout had stunned Sonic, who'd frozen halfway towards getting him. He'd been so surprised, in fact, that he wasn't able to react at all when Sorun burst forwards and punched Sonic right in the mouth. The hit surprised Sonic, who made a grunt of pain as he fell down on his back. Not even a second later Sorun pounced on top of him, straddling him and wrapping his fingers around his throat before squeezing down as hard as he could.

"What the hell were you thinking putting me inside that thing!?" Sorun screamed out, his voice drowning out the choking sounds Sonic was making as he clawed at Sorun's arms. "You stick me in there and I wake up into whatever this place is! What was actually going on in your damn head you fucking fuck!?"

Sonic's hand reached up to Sorun's face in an attempt to try and push the teen off him. In his frightened, frenzied state Sorun bit down on one of Sonic's fingers, causing him to yell and kick one of his legs out. The kick struck Sorun in the center of his chest, throwing him back against the wall.

Gasping, Sonic sat up and grabbed at his throat while breathing heavily. He was only allowed a moment's respite before the lid from the nearby trashcan flew through the air and struck him right in the center of his face, knocking him back into the wall. On the other side of the alley Sorun was sitting against his wall, breathing heavily as he stared towards Sonic with eyes full of scorn.

"You owe me... so many fucking answers..." Sorun gasped out between breaths, pointing his finger at Sonic. "Start talking."

"Ah, man, Eggman was right, you really do swear..." Rubbing at the spot he was struck with the trashcan lid, Sonic groaned out and sat against the wall facing opposite of Sorun. The relief was all but gone now. In its place was a tired, dour expression that overtook Sonic's face. "In answer to the first question, I was trying to save your life, buddy," Sonic said in an unamused tone.

"Save my life? Pfft, yeah, right..." Sorun glanced up and threw a hand up. "I'd say I was grateful but then I woke up here."

"Glad to see you're so thankful," Sonic remarked.

"... It's not that I'm not, it's just... ugh..." Sorun pinched the bridge of his nose. The truth was he was grateful to still be alive and not be reduced to, well, absolutely nothing upon dying without any Emeralds infused in him, but the gratitude fell short given current events. An array of feelings and impulses was really why he decided to attack the blue hedgehog. Half of Sorun felt like apologizing. The other half reminded him it was his fault he was here and suddenly he felt the urge to try and choke him again. He resolved to just keep talking. "Fine, yeah, thanks, now what the hell's going on?"

He flinched back, like he'd been struck. "Can you cool it with the language, man? Seriously." Rolling his eyes, Sonic asked, "You mind telling me what even happened? How are you here?"

"I don't know, man, you put me in there, I was in a weird dreamscape or whatever for I don't even know how long, then I wind up in some creepy castle dungeon, did some running, wound up here." Sorun made a sigh and deflated against the wall. "Dunno what happened, dunno how I got healed from literally disintegrating, dunno what... what all this is." He gestured around at the buildings around them. "I-I don't know. Was hoping you did."

A low sound left Sonic's lips. He gave Sorun an appraising look, and then glanced down at his worn shoes as a troubled look settled over his features. "Yeah, I... guess that'd be pretty disorienting for you," he muttered out.

Sorun's eyes narrowed. He was still hearing it. The difference in Sonic's voice. It was different, rougher... aged. "What's with your voice?" Sorun asked him, though it came out sounding more like a demand. "There's something different with you."

"Oh, noticed, huh?" A dry laugh left Sonic. He ran a hand over his quills, some of which were standing up and away from the major spikes hanging off the back of his head. "Yeah, I guess being in your forties'll do that."

"Forties...?" Sorun quietly repeated. He felt his throat grow dry as fear and denial gripped at his heart. "W-what do you mean-?"

"Sonic? Sorun!?"

The new voice caused both males to perk their heads up and turn towards the source. The owner of the voice was standing at the mouth of the alleyway. Despite the toolbelt, goggles, and other assortments worn on their body, Sorun would be hard-pressed not to recognize Tails given his abnormal amount of tails, new physical maturity aside. There was somebody else behind him, but he didn't recognize them. A female echidna, clothed with a navy blue pair of boots and a jacket Sorun had realized with a quiet scoff. He paid less attention to her than the fox in front of her giving both him and Sonic a large, bug-eyed stare.

A short grunt left Sorun. He should have been happy that he finally found people he knew, but the forties comment from Sonic earlier was screaming inside his head and he was finding it hard to be happy over everything right now. "Hey, Tails," he lethargically greeted, gripping the wall behind him and rising to his feet. He took a few steps in the direction of the fox, leaning closer as he looked him over. A mixture of wonder and fear went through him as he took in the details, the more angular features and trimmer form the Mobian held now, and the maturity in his eyes that he didn't recognize. "Wow, you... you grew up. And got taller. I mean not by much, but-"

"H-hey!"

"- but this is just... man..." Sorun glanced over Tails' shoulder and at the echidna behind him. "... I don't know who you are," he said.

"Oh!" The girl - teenager from the sound of her voice, Sorun guessed around his own age - cleared her throat and adjusted the glasses on her face before addressing him. "I'm Lara-Su. Nice to meet you!"

"I-I still don't know who you are."

The small smile she held instantly vanished. "Yeah, well, feeling's mutual," she said, causing Sorun to rear his head back a bit. She ignored him and turned her attention towards Tails. "Hey, Tails, who's the weird Overlander?"

He didn't respond immediately. The yellow Mobian was still staring towards Sorun, eyes wide and mouth agape. There was a pained expression on his face, and in an attempt to form words he ended up making a stammering sound before finally getting something out. "He's... he's a ghost..." he mumbled out, much to the confusion of Lara-Su.

"A... ghost?" she repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"He means this human," Sorun said, giving the echidna a pointed look, "is an old friend." His eyes snapped to Sonic, who was silently observing the three. "Very old, evidently," he hissed out, causing both Sonic and Tails to glance away at him.

"Human?" Lara-Su echoed, watching as Sorun leaned his back against the wall opposite of Sonic. "You mean like that Overlander subspecies that live under that mountain?"

"I'm not explaining it. Don't have the time." Sorun's glare shifted to Sonic. "You know what we do have time for? You fucking explaining to me exactly how long you left me in the Master Emerald." Lara-Su blinked in surprise, features thinning as she continued to look at Sorun. Tails had practically jumped hearing him speak, after which his expression turned more and more regretful the longer he looked at Sorun, whose glare hardened, causing Sonic to shift uncomfortably from where he was sitting. "Everyone's older. You, Tails. I don't recognize anything around here, and apparently Shadow's a king now?" He leaned forwards. "Sonic. What. Happened?"

"Sorun, I..." Sonic tried to explain, but words seemed to fail him, causing him to sigh out and hang his head. Tails, similarly, avoided eye contact with Sorun, a fact the human took note of, while Lara-Su watched on in confusion. "Twenty-five years," the hedgehog said, causing Sorun to snap his head to him with wide eyes. "You were in there for twenty-five years."

Twenty-five years. The number echoed repeatedly in Sorun's head, so much that it was the only sound he could recognize. He'd felt his breathing increase slightly, and he had to fight from collapsing right there out of shock. Amazingly, he managed to keep his composure, just barely, though it didn't help all the thoughts running through his mind.

Shock and denial, which was quickly fading away to outrage. Anger. Confusion and more anger, all aimed at the hedgehog sitting across from him. He tried breathing heavily to calm himself down, but Sorun was finding that it wasn't helping in the slightest. He felt his hands twitch, the urge to pull a sword out from an invisible scabbard that he wasn't holding very evident to feel, but instead of doing that all he managed to do was run a hand over his face.

"Twenty-five years...?" Sorun mumbled out, equal parts angry as he was astonished. He'd missed Tails stepping towards him holding a hand out to try and help steady him, but he'd frozen when the human began speaking. "You... I can't believe it. You gave me the Noctis treatment?" The anger overgrew his astonishment. The hand was dropped to his side as he gave Sonic an angered look. "No, it's even worse than Noctis!" he yelled out. "He was only in his magic crystal for a ten-year timeskip, you stuck me in one for more than double!"

"I don't know who Noctis is!" Sonic exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "And-and what was I supposed to do, Sorun, huh!? Let you die!?"

Gasping out in outrage, Sorun pushed himself off the wall. "I don't even know what's worse at this point!" he angrily stated. "Twenty-five years of my life just gone like that, fuck all the effort I put into fixing my life, and I get to wake up in this dystopian nightmare, and all you got to say is 'what else was I supposed to do!?'"

"What were we supposed to do then, huh!?" Sonic argued. "Let you die!?"

"You could have not stuck me in the Master Emerald for two-and-a-half decades and ruin my life! Again!" Sorun screamed out. "Jesus fucking Christ, twenty-five years, Sonic!? What the actual fuck were you thinking!?"

"It wasn't his fault, Sorun!" Tails' voice made Sorun whip his head towards the fox, though he found his anger subdued somewhat when he saw the saddened, and heated, look the older fox had on his face. "We tried everything we could to save you, alright!? For years! We tried for years to find some way of saving you but we just couldn't find anything! I tried, Rotor tried, Knuckles and his dad tried, Sally and the Republic tried, even Shadow got G.U.N. to try! Nobody could figure anything out!"

The information did nothing to assuage Sorun's anger. "So you all thought the best solution was just to leave me in there!?" he yelled. "'Ah, Sorun, cool guy, saved all our lives multiple times now, guess we should just leave him in the stupid magic crystal forever!' Is that how it went!?"

Tails' expression began to turn into something that was equaling Sorun's own anger. "What, would you have preferred we just let you out to turn into dust right in front of our eyes!?"

"No! Maybe! Fuck, I don't know!" In anger Sorun pounded the wall behind him. He instantly regretted it, recoiling his hand back and hissing a bit as he felt the appendage throb from the impact. Afterwards, a sudden weakness began hitting him once the heat of the anger began to ebb off, and Sorun was forced to lean back against the wall. "Arguing about the ethics of what you did to me isn't gonna get us anywhere. We're here. So does someone mind explaining to me what 'here' is? How Shadow became a king?" His eyes darted across all three Mobians. "Anybody?"

"That," Sonic began, gaining Sorun's attention, "is a bit complicated." He made a low sigh, staring down at his shoes as a look of deep contemplation overtook his features. It took a full minute of silence before he began speaking. "Some time after you were put in the Master Emerald someone killed Eggman. Him and Snively. We never figured out who. Best we ever got were reports of someone wearing a lot of red from some of the Dark Egg Legion guys, but... well, to be honest, I don't think anybody ever cared enough to look too deep into it, and it never came up again, so who knows?"

Sorun stiffened. He'd been near-elated to hear Eggman had been killed off until Sonic mentioned someone wearing red. "That's three times now. Three times I've heard about the same person. The man dressed in red..." Sorun thought to himself. "This guy..."

"Things worked out really well after that," Sonic continued, though by now Sorun was only paying half-attention, too caught up in his own musings. "M-me and Sally actually got back together, you know? And-and after a while Elias stepped down as king, so... so we took over leading the Republic. Can you believe that?"

"That people trusted you enough to be a king?" Sorun asked with a barely-suppressed scoff. "Not really," he truthfully admitted, though he was surprised Sonic had even chosen to shoulder that much responsibility to begin with. Sorun never pegged him as that kind of guy.

Sonic actually laughed a bit at Sorun's response. "Yeah, well... won't lie, kinda hated the job," he admitted. "Things were going well, but..."

"But then the time anomaly happened," Tails finished, drawing everyone's attention towards him. "I don't know exactly what caused it, but I saw enough that I was able to protect myself and my family from... from whatever happened in time. That's how I managed to remember everything, why... why it feels like I'm walking around with two sets of memories now," he said. "Is that what you mean to say?"

"Yeah. That," Sonic confirmed with a small nod. There was a moment where he'd looked happy at the mention of Tails' family, a bright look that had quickly flashed over his face, though it'd left as soon as it arrived. "Rotor managed to figure it out. Him and this other scientist he worked with, Cobor. Said it was my fault," he muttered out, causing surprise to bloom on the faces of the other three watching him. "Me breaching dimensional barriers back and forth using my powers all the time back in the day, saving the whole planet from the stupid Quantum Dial thing the Xorda used that one time, that zone me an' Knuckles blew up in that one fight long ago, it... I dunno, it all stacked together or something."

"You did what?" Sorun muttered out, half in shock and half in tired disbelief. "Since when can you do all this? W-how did you and Knuckles-?"

"It was... it was all before you came to Mobius. Earlier on," Sonic quietly answered. "I never really traveled to other zones 'cause I didn't have reason, and the thing with Knuckles is a... it's a long story, and it's not important." A short sigh left him. "Rotor and Cobor said everything I did caused some kind of anomaly to form, that it was tearing apart the fabric of reality or something. We were all feeling it - the earthquakes and the storms that wouldn't go away. Pretty plain to see something wrong was happening, and according to him we didn't have long before the whole zone was consumed in it.

"So... we decided to fix time."

"... Fix time." The words that left Sorun were equal parts flat and incredulous. He'd followed along with the story easily enough to this point, trying his best not to think about all the reeling implications of being twenty-five years in the future, but this was making him pause. "You decided to 'fix time,' huh? And how exactly did you plan on accomplishing this?"

"Robotnik was makin' a time machine." Any further questions Sorun had died on his tongue when he heard Sonic say this. "Long after you were put in the Master Emerald. 'Fore the red guy got him. Guess he saw he was losing and was desperate to try something. We'd been routing him for a while, and someone or something, don't know what, kept hitting major installations of his, stalling his plans and shorting his resources. Whatever was hitting him was making it so we were cleaning house, so the best we could figure is that it was a last-ditch attempt at winning. But I guess the red guy got him before he finished it."

The pieces were beginning to click together in Sorun's mind. "Sonic, don't tell me you tried using an unfinished time machine made by that madman to fix this," he said, mostly in a groan that well-hid the pleading tone in his voice.

"Call him whatever you want, but Eggman's stuff usually worked. Rotor just didn't have time to think up anything else; there weren't any other options. So I went in the... what was it, the tachyon somethin' or..." Sonic paused as he attempted to remember the name, but then shook his head with a grunt. "Doesn't matter. The scientists had a plan, we had the machine, I just had to go in and fix everything."

"Christ, you did." Suppressing a sigh, Sorun reached up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. He wanted to shout, but the part of his brain telling him he wasn't there and couldn't judge kept reminding him of the fact. He snapped at that part of his consciousness in anger, and did his best to keep his voice level as he looked back to Sonic. "So what happened?"

"..." Staring towards Sorun with a blank, unknowing expression, all Sonic could offer was a shrug. "I guess I screwed up," he said. "One minute I'm there, fixing everything, the next minute I'm... I'm here in this alley, in a world I don't recognize, and I... I... I don't know what happened, Sorun."

"You altered the timeline." This came from Tails, in a tone more grave than Sorun wanted to hear. All eyes focused on him, with Sorun withering a bit when he saw the solemn look on the fox's face. "I don't know exactly what you did, Sonic, but you're not in any of my memories of this timeline. In fact, I don't think anybody here knows you. Knuckles did, I talked with him earlier and he knew-"

"He was there when the time machine went... all wrong. Him and Rotor and Cobor," Sonic supplied.

"So the tachyon chamber did preserve the memories of those that were nearby..." Tails mumbled out, rubbing at the back of his head in an uncomfortable motion. "You shouldn't have been messing around with time like that, Sonic. You stopped the time anomaly, but best I can see is that you wrote yourself out of history up to the point in time you used the time machine in the process, and because of that the timeline got... well, you see. It's so altered now that it looks nothing like the other present."

"Wait. W-wait, just wait a second." Sorun held a hand up, his breathing increasing a bit as he gave Tails a wide-eyed stare. "What does that even mean-!?"

"It means nothing in the original timeline, the one we remember, ever happened. None of it exists anymore," Tails sadly stated. "Us, the Freedom Fighters, our experiences, events, everything. Because Sonic was never there due to erasing himself from time history took a different course. This course." He rose a hand up to gesture at the buildings surrounding them. "This timeline where Shadow conquered the whole world, because Sonic wasn't here to save it." He focused his attention on Sorun. "I don't even know what happened with you since you don't even exist in this timeline, but what happened back then's starting to make more sense. Maybe the Master Emerald... preserved you somehow. Chaos Energy and time don't really go hand-in-hand so maybe being in there, maybe, shielded you from the time alteration? The shock of the timeline shifting must be what ejected you from the..."

The sound all around Sorun began to fade out to the sound of his own heartbeat. The feeling he felt was the emotional equivalent of hearing a record screech to a halt. Tails' words echoed endlessly in Sorun's mind, reminding him no matter how many times he tried to deny it of what happened. That the world he'd been living in didn't exist anymore.

That everything he did didn't exist anymore. That none of his actions carried over into this world.

That almost everyone he knew didn't even remember him anymore.

It was almost maddening, the torrential rush of emotions going through him, and all he could do was stand there while staring down at the ground. He felt his head throbbing, repeatedly, tried holding a hand to his forehead to try and calm the throbbing but it did nothing to help. He had to fight down the urge to scream.

Instead, Sorun ended up laughing.

It wasn't an overly loud or energetic laugh. It was more a quiet, dry chuckle that held absolutely no joy or mirth in it. The three Mobians gathered around all gave the Earthling odd looks as he turned away from them, hand held to his face as he continued with his low, choked chuckling as he slowly shook his head.

"This is just rich. Truly," Sorun muttered out, hand dropping from his face as he turned his head to Sonic. His face was far from amused. It wasn't clear if he was about to break down and cry or fly into a rage. "The biggest hero in the world dropping the ball this badly. I really can't believe it."

"W-what the..." Sonic's features began tightening. "What, you think this is funny!?"

"I'd find it hilarious if I wasn't dragged into this mess, too." Sorun's features began to change to match the growing, angered expression Sonic was adopting. "The Sonic the Hedgehog, the guy everyone looked up to, fucking king of all things, and what'd you end up doing, huh? How big a failure did you end up being?"

"I did my best-!"

"Oh, your best, is it? Your best!?" Sorun's voice began to grow hysterical as he shouted over Sonic. "Yeah, some good your best did, huh? Fucking erased any evidence we ever even existed from history, all our friends are gone and replaced by whoever the hell lives in this world, changed the world into som-some dystopian world, this was your best!?" He ran his fingers through his hair, shouting out, "For god's sake, the world was screwed up enough as it was, how the fuck did you manage to screw it up even more than it was already-!?"

"I LOST MY KIDS, SORUN!"

He stopped dead at hearing that, having frozen in shock. Before Sorun could even respond Sonic had zoomed up off the ground he'd been sitting on, standing mere centimeters from the human's face with a truly furious expression.

"W-wha-?" Sorun stammered out, but was silenced when Sonic began screaming directly into his face.

"Yeah, Sorun, my kids! The ones I had with Sally! Two of them!" he exclaimed, loudly enough that Sorun began shrinking back. "But she doesn't even know who I am in this timeline, so guess what!? They don't exist anymore! You think I don't realize what I've done when my own children ended up getting wiped out of existence!?"

Tears had begun streaming out from the corners of the hedgehog's face halfway through his rant. He'd stopped eventually, either from running out of steam or being too emotional to go on without bursting into tears, though he continued to stare at Sorun through the tears even with the heaving breaths he was taking.

Sorun didn't respond. All he could do was stare back at Sonic, looking more shocked than anything else. He listed off backwards, his hand moving up to cover his face as he looked down, quiet sounds coming out of his mouth, muffled by his hand. Sonic looked ready to go off shouting again, but then he'd leaned in closer, and stopped completely when he made out the words coming out from Sorun's mouth.

"What are we supposed to do? I don't know, Sorun I don't... is there anything we can... don't know, you seriously want to fix... Yamato, maybe, but I don't think... that isn't gonna work, you know there's nothing it can... we can't just leave things like this..."

"S-Sorun?" The furious look Sonic had held began to fade away into a more disturbed one the longer he listened to Sorun. He looked to the side, growing more visibly worried when he saw both Tails and Lara-Su both had equally disturbed, unsettled looks on their faces.

Before anybody could say anything further, Sorun's hand dropped away from his face and slapped against the wall. The three Mobians jumped in shock, looking towards him and recoiling when they saw the vacant, empty stare he was giving the ground. Sonic was the first to react, slowly reaching forwards to try and jostle Sorun, but before he could make contact the human lifted his head and looked right into Sonic's still-moist eyes, surprising the hedgehog somewhat.

"Alright. Alright," Sorun mumbled, voice dry. "We're gonna fix this." He used his hand to push himself off the wall, coattails blowing past his legs from a passing breeze as he shook his head. "Not gonna let this lie. We're gonna make this right."

"Make this right?" Sonic echoed. "And how exactly are we gonna 'make this right,' Sorun?"

"Dunno. We'll figure something out," he claimed, walking past Sonic towards the alley entranceway. "But we're getting your kids and the old timeline back."

He was stopped in his walking when he passed by Tails, who reached out and grabbed at Sorun's wrist. "Sorun, this isn't something we can fix. We can't just 'reset' a whole timeline," he said with a shake of his head. "And besides, we have other things we need to talk about. You-"

"Whatever you have to say can wait," Sorun said, pulling his wrist free from the fox's grasp. "We're dealing with this now before anything else."

"No, Sorun, you don't understand, wait!" Tails shouted out as Sorun began walking away. "You told me that- would you just wait!?"

"I don't care what you have to say. I'm not gonna stand around waiting when-!"

"Hey, would you just chill out!?" Once more, he was grabbed. This time by the echidna, on his shoulder. This resulted in Sorun deeply inhaling after halting in his movement, and then turning to meet the echidna teen's eyes while resisting the urge to smack the glasses off her face. "What exactly is your plan, huh!? You can't just go off half-cocked without even knowing what you're doing!"

"And what's it to you?" Sorun shot back, slapping the hand off his shoulder and then turning to Tails. "Who even is this?"

Seeming to suppress a sigh, as well as visibly appearing to hold in a great amount of frustration, Tails gestured out to the echidna. "As she said, she's Lara-Su. She's Knuckles' daughter. She retained some memories of the previous timeline, probably because of her Chaos powers, we're not a hundred percent sure."

"Oh. Oh... I see." Immediately, Sorun's face took on a soured expression, surprising both Sonic and Tails and causing Lara-Su to scowl at him. He completely ignored their reactions and looked closely at her face, particularly at the stands of pinkish hair amidst the fleshy dreadlocks on her head that blended well with the red fur and the purple eyes behind the glasses. "Pfft. Friggin' figures you're his kid."

She didn't seem very appreciative of the tone Sorun had taken. "And just what is that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"I don't mean any offense, but your father isn't exactly on my list of favorite people right now." Sorun glanced off to the side. "He's pretty low right now, actually, you know, with his face being on evil-looking billboards all over town and everything."

"Hey, he's a great guy! And a great dad!" With anger in her voice, Lara-Su stepped forwards and jabbed a finger in Sorun's chest, hard enough that he was sent back a step. "I don't know what your problem with him is, but I don't see how some guy I've just met-!"

"You poke me one more time and I'm breaking those glasses right off your-"

"FREEZE!"

Following that yell, and a series of thunking sounds, the entire alleyway was engulfed in bright light. The light was intense enough that Sorun and the rest were forced to shield their eyes from the sudden brightness, and when Sorun lowered his arm from his face, he felt his stomach drop when he saw something at the end of the alleyway. A lot of somethings.

Cars. Both the floating variety and the ground variety, all parked or floating at the end of the alley and shining their headlights at the four occupants. And alongside and in all the vehicles were echidna, wearing matching tan uniforms and pointing weapons right at them.

"Wait, is that...?" There was something on the sides of all the vehicles that caught Sorun's attention, forcing him to look closer. Even as he and everyone else were forced to raise their hands in the air in surrender, he couldn't help but notice the red, swirling, tribal-like symbol that was emblazoned on the sides of all the vehicles shining their lights on the group. "Isn't that the same symbol that was on Shadow's bike from that one time? Man, what the fuck, he's got his own symbol and everything." A figure, one of the echidna, stepped in front of all the other ones pointing their guns at the four of them seemingly to address the group. All of Sorun's attention was torn away from the symbols on the vehicles to the sole echidna standing in front of them all. "Oh, it's you, huh?"

From how menacing his face seemed from all those billboards Sorun had seen wandering the city, he would have assumed Knuckles would look more authoritative at the moment. He certainly looked the part, with that tan uniform and the wide-brimmed, leather hat he was wearing on his head. That and his visible age made it so Sorun wouldn't have recognized him at all if it weren't for the red, bionic eye he'd seen in the posters. But at the moment Knuckles didn't seem so authoritative at all. Not menacing in the slightest, even given the squad of heavily-armed echidna right behind him.

No, he was... surprised, and that was about it. Surprised and disbelieving, with his sight focused solely on Sorun. Not on Sonic or Tails. Not even his own daughter, who was standing besides Sorun and giving her father her own shocked expression. He was only looking towards Sorun.

"It... it can't be..." Knuckles mumbled out under his breath, so quiet Sorun could barely hear him. "You... you're not supposed to exist in this... Sorun? How...?"

There were a lot of words Sorun wanted to say to Knuckles. Some kind, most not so kind. And certainly there were enough grievances, both due to present circumstances and Sorun's current disposition over the echidna and everything else. That would have colored most of everything he had to say in a negative light. Instead, all he could do was look up at the hat Knuckles was wearing, and then make the loudest scoff he could utter.

"I was wrong. That hat looks ridiculous on you, Knuckles."


A/N- So originally I had this whole chase scene planned out where Sorun had to run away from the castle while being chased by echidna, followed by a motorcycle pursuit. I had it planned for the entire time ever since I started writing this story, but then I got to this point and I realized two things: baseline human Sorun has a 0% chance of outrunning a Mobian of any kind, hands down. He'd have, like, ten seconds at best before getting dogpiled.

As for the motorcycle scene, the idea was that there was a couple who parked their bike in front of the castle and Sorun would just steal the bike and drive away, resulting in this big thrilling, high-octane motor chase. Even if I managed to write around that being too convenient, there's the matter that Sorun would barely even know how to drive a motorcycle to begin with. How to operate one, yeah, vaguely, but he isn't nearly skilled enough with one to outrun being pursued by other vehicles. So for the sake of "realism", a term I use really loosely considering the setting, substitute it for immersion if you really feel like it, I cut the two scenes out in lieu of the practical "just break a window and run out when no one's looking" solution.

So I find sometimes in writing, when you've planned a whole story out, some parts of it are planned different. There are parts where you go, "I know exactly how this chapter/part/arc whatever is gonna go 100%," and sometimes there are parts where you go, "kinda iffy on the details here but I know the general important bits so I'll just improvise it when I get there." In terms of how I've done the story it's about 80% the former and 20& the latter, give or take 5%, and this whole section of the alternate future, out of all the parts I had planned for this whole story, sits firmly in the latter category of "I'll wing it when I get to it." Part of it is because when this happened in the comics there were a lot of details and specifications that weren't ever really addressed or they were poorly explained. And technically speaking this never even happened in the main "cannon" timeline, it was one of those alternate universe timelines (alternate future turning into a different alternate future, as if that isn't confusing enough), and technically events in the main cannon timeline should have made it so something like this could never even happen, but all I have to do is get Sonic to say "there was a red guy that did such and such" as a way of the story saying, "Rubrum did some stuff in the background offscreen that made all this possible." And since that's the case there's some details that aren't completely 100% in-line with the comic variation of these events, but they're relatively minor, doesn't affect much, and I honestly don't think anybody even cares to look that deeply into it as long as it's done well enough.