Author's notes: Nothing new, yet.
Also, before anyone says anything, the new cover art "hedgehog" is NOT Xenophanes, or any SonicEXE (I do not know if FanFiction hates periods between some words still so I used different spelling). The character on the new covert art with this AU's Tails is a canon character, as far as I'm aware he's still canon anyway, within a Sonic game that is universally disliked. That's all the hint I'm giving here. Update will be given at chapter end.
Chapter 39: New? Villain and Sonic's Fate
Meanwhile, at old Bean Folk Robotnik Fortress...
"HI! We're back again!" said a Omochao with enthusiasm that was not needed before a laser bolt hit it in the head, blasting its head apart and sending wires, bolts and pieces of metal flying. Snively fired at another one of the Omochaos but the small robot dodged and the remaining pack of about twenty quickly flew away from the area, dodging laser bolts as they retreated.
Snively fired the laser pistol until the electronic magnetic catridge self-ejected, signaling that it had spent it's charge and the gun clicked. After five additional clicks, Snively takes a deep breath and slicks his three hairs back and straightens his new overlord-styled uniform before reloading the pistol with a new cartridge and then holstering it. He then turns away from the pile of destroyed Omochao robots and calmly heads back into the base that is slowly being refurbished into a true fortress.
As Snively walked through the halls, his mind turned to how things had gone recently. His uncle had died, killed by an artificially made Mega Ring empowered Sonic with said hedgehog destroying the ring and supposedly disappearing. A grin crossed his face as he knew the truth about the hedgehog's disappearance. In fact, he was going to see if his reconditioning equipment was making any progress on the hedgehog's willpower.
He made a right turn and walked down about two sets of stairs. Unlike his uncle, he didn't mind the walking. After a left turn, he arrived at the lab and pushed the doors open, heading inside. Inside, the blue hedgehog that had caused his uncle so much trouble over the years was strapped into a machine by thick steel restraints and a helmet connected to the machine was latched onto his head. The helmet covered the hedgehog's eyes. Snively noted that the hedgehog was squirming more than usual and seemed to be trying to escape the restraints, without success. He turned to head over to the control panel to see the cause of the recent change.
A hedgehog with dark blue, almost purple (1) and heavily shaggy fur stood over the control panel with dark blue lightning arcing off his claw like fingers onto said panel, adjusting the programming of the machinery mentally tormenting Sonic, slowly increasing the intensity. He brings his hand away from the panel and turns his head towards Snively, revealing his face and eyes. He looks almost like Shadow, if Shadow lacked a nose and a mouth. His the color surrounding his yellow slit pupils was mostly red, save for black veins running through them, like a twisted bloodshot look. Coating his body, mainly the tips of his ears, quills and tops of his eyes were crystals of dark blue and white mixture. His feet seemed to be made out of twisting and churning darkness, giving him the appearance of floating. Rolling off his back and surrounding him was a black-purple fog. He stared unblinkly at Snively.
Snively shuddered at the stare but swallowed the feeling of dread slowly building within him, as he had chosen this...creature to ally with over Naugus within the Void as this one did not require any complex machinery, resources or time to free and was thus easier to ally with. Still, Snively did not like how this creature was so...different compared to the Mobians, or the rare human, on this planet.
"I thought you hated technology?" said Snively walking over to the control panel knowing that this entity had a clear hatred for technology.
"I do but you had this machine set ineffectively. So I had to correct it myself." said the figure, his head following Snively, even going as far as a full 180 degree turn without any issues.
"And just HOW did I have it set ineffectively?"
"Mentally torturing Sonic with the idea of Chili dogs being made nonexistent is worthless. If you want him broken to fufill our deal, you need to remind him of his recent failures. And show him what is to come as consequences for his actions." said the figure as his hand reached for the dial that controlled the intensity of the machinery's visions.
"Just how broken do you want him?"
"To where he begs to be made nonexistent himself."
The figure twists the dial to max and then beyond, breaking the dial off the control panel entirely. He looks at it nonchalantly before tossing it away. Sonic begins yelling in pain and thrashing violently within his restraints.
"Something I don't understand. If you're as powerful as you claim you are, why do you even need Sonic? Why even work with me for that matter? You could easily have your revenge without all this creeping around." said Snively, watching Sonic thrash in pain without any visible emotions on his face. He chokes as he feels the cold clawed hands of the hedgehog entity working with him wrap around his throat tightly. The entity pulled Snively close to where the beak-nosed man was only looking into his yellow slit pupils.
"Do not tempt me Snively. This "creeping about" is because when you're erased from existence, no matter how powerful you are; the pain will linger when you are mysteriously brought back into existence and that pain will weaken you. I also need you because I do not need Shadow catching wind of my existence and return, even if it is with time displacement. And if I TRULY wanted to...I could snap your neck, here and now." said the figure calmly, slowly tightening his grip on Snively's wind pipe.
"O-o-okay! P-point made!" choked Snively weakly, trying to pull the clawed fingers away from his throat without success. Snively tried to get air but his wind pipe was having trouble getting air and it felt like this entity either wasn't aware, or didn't care, that he was slowly suffocating at the lack of oxygen. His vision was slowly turning black and he could feel his eyes starting to roll into the back of his head as he continued to be choked...until he hit the floor and he found he could breathe again. He inhaled deeply before coughing violently. The hedgehog slowly turned away from him and looked at the machine torturing Sonic.
"Have you had any luck finding Chaos?" asked the hedgehog-like being, not caring that he nearly choked Snively to death.
"No. *Coughing fit* None of my scout drones have been able to locate Angel Island. I believe Knuckles is actively keeping the island moving." said Snively through coughs and the entity balls his hands into fists.
"Fine. I'll look myself. Luckily, the Echidna does not keep in contact with the Freedom Fighters TOO much. I'll be sure to remove him from the equation in the process as well." said the figure as he turned towards the doors that Snively had entered through.
"By the way, your "best weapon" is returning with some injuries."
The hedgehog suddenly turns into black-purple fog which quickly leaves through the facility's ventilation system. Snively looks confused before Infinite bursts into the room, actually running instead of teleporting using the Phantom Ruby and panting heavily while holding one of his arms.
"Infinite. Report." said Snively calmly, not wanting to show weakness to the cyborg Jackal.
"That Metal Sonic the Freedom Fighters have suddenly upgraded as I fought him! Bastard broke my arm!" snarled Infinite.
"Wait...he broke an arm?"
"He copied my biodata or something. Was able to match my speed. Broke through the reality augmentation of the Phantom Ruby."
Snively was thinking quickly. That Metal Sonic had suddenly gotten a power boost and could now counter Infinite. Could he also counter Mecha-Sally now? Snively was pulled out of his thoughts as Infinite grabbed him by the collar and pulled him close, turning his head to look Snively in the eye with his single red eye.
"Upgrade me." snarled Infinite.
"W-what?" stammered Snively caught off guard.
"Upgrade me! Remove my arms and legs and replace them fully with cybernetics!"
"B-but there's a chance your body might reject the additional cybernetics! We can't just-"
"Do you want to succeed, where your uncle failed? Or do you want to fail with him? I am the best weapon you still have against the Freedom Fighters! They have minimal counters against me. At best, they only have TWO FULL counters against me. That fucking puppet thing and that Kangaroo/Dragon Hybrid freak with the weird eyes and chainsaw arm scales! The third can only BARELY counter me. We do not need a THIRD FULL counter to my abilities!"
Snively is silent a moment as he thinks all the information over before speaking again, "You realize that if your body rejects the additional cybernetics, you will effectively be out of the fight and worthless, right?"
"Then work on it until my body DOESN'T reject the augmentations." snarled Infinite before he shoved Snively away, staggering the beak-nosed man slightly.
"And what will you do with your broken arm?"
Infinite looks at him and then his broken arm before he deactivates that arm's cybernetics and removes the cybernetic and tosses it aside. He then grabs what remains of the arm...and rips it off in one clean motion without hesitation, shocking Snively. Infinite then hands him the severed arm and holds his now bleeding stump of where the arm had previous been.
"Better get to work Snively." said Infinite calmly as he turned and stumbled towards the infirmary.
Snively stood there, dumbstruck for a few more minutes before he realized what he was holding and fumbled with it for a few moments before tossing it away from him. He turned away from it and used a wall to support himself, trying to ease his now upset stomach but to no avail as he threw up on the lab floor tiles.
Ten Minutes Later, Angel Island...
Purple-black fog lands on one of the outer edges of the Island before it forms into the hedgehog-like figure and he looks around slowly.
"Pathetic. Can't even locate a flying island with drones." muttered the figure to himself as he looked around, trying to sense where the tomb might be. He hovers towards a structure in the distance, his very presence wilting flowers, grass and trees as he passes back. Much of the local fauna quickly moves to avoid him but a member of the local island Flickies is too slow and the hedgehog-like entity grabs it in one of his claws causing it to squeak in terror as he pulls it close and looks down at it with his yellow slit eyes before engulfing it in purple fire yet the fire does not kill the Flicky. When the flames die away, the Flicky has his eye design and a considerably darker feather coloring compared to before and it has the same fog rolling off it. The figure then lets the corrupted Flicky go and it flies off, acting as a scout. The figure resumes the hover-walk towards the structure.
After a few minutes of travel, the figure arrives at the structure revealing a Echidnian design to it as well as several ancient symbols showing a water-like creature absorbing the Chaos Emeralds. He looks over the structure silently, finding no visible door. He goes to what appears to be the front of the structure and raises a hand at it before gathering a large amount of energy in the palm and firing a large orb of energy at the wall. The resulting explosion awakens Knuckles from his meditation and he gets up and runs towards the source of the disturbance.
The figure falls to a knee and appears to be panting slightly but without a mouth, or appearing to breathe, it is difficult to tell. He quickly recovers though and stands up and heads down the ancient stone staircase, not bothering with any light sources. As he heads down, he ignores the pictures left by the ancient Echidna society, finding them worthless. He soon arrives at the bottom and enters a lab-like facility with a single stasis chamber in the center of it. He looks it over, hover-walking around the device. What he finds interesting about it, despite it being technology, is that is bears similarity to future Dr. Eggman tech.
"Hmmm. Odd. Just how much did the time disruption affect?" wondered the entity to himself before he looked into the chamber itself and saw two golden orbs looking back at him. He knew he had found his target and then it crossed his mind that he might not be able to rely on this mutant Chao alone. Come to think of it, if he remembered correctly, it should be sealed within the Master Emerald. His face gained the expression of a sinister smile as he realized just how much the time travel had affected everything and not just him. He deactivated the stasis protocols on the machine but didn't open it. Chaos looked around within its mechanical prison, confusion within its golden orbs for eyes before it noticed the figure before it and it grew aggressive, trying to escape its bounds, to fight back against the perceived threat. The figure put a purple flame coated claw against the glass of the chamber which quickly seeped into the machine and into Chaos trapped within. It squirmed in pain as its watery blue body turned a red-purple and its eyes turned black until it went motionless and looked at the figure motionlessly, waiting for orders.
The sound of hurried footsteps drew the figure's attention towards the way he had entered and he saw Knuckles quickly enter the facility, the last Guardian of the Master Emerald not caring about the technology in the room, only about the intruder on his island.
"Who are you?!" demanded Knuckles, getting into a defensive stance as he instantly noticed that there was something wrong with Chaos within the chamber it was stored in.
"Hmmm. That is a good question, isn't Knuckles? Who am I? It doesn't surprise me most don't remember me. After all, being erased from existence does that. But it is also a blessing in disguise when you think about." said the figure hovering over the release mechanism for the stasis chamber.
"That doesn't answer my question! Who are you? Answer me now!"
"Since you seem to be so eager to die, I'll let you know my name. It's Solaris (2). Or you could call me Mephiles..." said the hedgehog figure as he pulled the lever for the release mechanism down which also triggered the facility to go into lockdown, sending both Knuckles and the figure into complete darkness, save for his eyes glowing in the dark.
"...the Dark."
Knuckles, despite being able to see the eyes of this...Mephiles, was on edge, as he also saw the silhoutte of the containment chamber opening and Chaos climbing out of the machine. His attention went back to larger threat in the room but then his heart stopped as he now saw two, no three, no four, no six, no twenty sets of the same red sclera and yellow slit pupils within the darkness. All of the Mephiles(5) began laughing.
END CHAPTER
End of chapter. Hope you enjoyed and don't forget to review, follow and/or favorite. Constructism criticism is welcomed, destructived is NOT.
(1) I'm colorblind between certain mixtures of black and purple, purple and blue, green and brown. Mephiles is within my "I can't see his color scheme properly" range and did the best I could.
(2) Time travel has terrifying ripple effects, doesn't it?
(3, not shown) Mephiles has been planned for awhile but due to me having issues with maintaining focus on anything due to a constant overload of ideas for a good long while, I've had difficulty getting this far. Doesn't help that now that I'm fully introducing him into this, some people might go "Oh! Crystals on a hedgehog! It's Xenophanes!" despite me SAYING the character's name and the crystals being described as blue/dark blue and/or with white mixed. Aside from all that, I'm really hoping NOT to see that. (If I see jokes about it; ha hah, you guys crack me up)
(4, also not shown) Everything is planned now, for a good while. Despite my mental idea factory overloading constantly nowadays, I know where I want this to go. I'm also only going to focus on this story for a good while hence the cover art change.
(5) How do you do a plural form of "Mephiles"?!
Mephiles belongs to SEGA.