With Sojourn's ankle fully healed, Sonic decided to take her to one of the many islands he had visited in the past. He set the Tornado down on the coast, leading the black echidna across the plains.
"This is Keimusho Island," he told her. "Eggman tried setting up shop here on my thirteenth birthday. I stopped him, like I always do. Victory is sweeter than any cake. It was better than my fourteenth birthday, when there were two of me, and my fifteenth, which was spent in a cell."
What a hard life, fighting Eggman since you were a child, spending your birthday locked up in space. There's a meme about getting tired of being nice, have ya seen it?
Sonic wasn't going to answer the voice in public.
Sojourn nodded, understanding most of what she had been told, before noticing something up ahead. It looked like an ancient section of stone wall, with some sort of image on the side. Walking over, she noticed the image depicted a hedgehog, shrouded in a gold swirl, attacking what looked like a giant man with a mustache.
"Sonic, over here!" she called, pointing to the mural. "Does that image look like the Eggman you've told me about?"
"Eh, kinda," shrugged Sonic.
"But this looks ancient, long before your birth. How could the artist have foreseen your coming here?"
"Dunno." By now Sonic was walking off.
"Are you not curious?"
"Look, Sojourn, I already told you I don't want my life to be determined by destiny*, so that picture on the wall is just a picture. Capisce?"
Sojourn nodded, following Sonic further across the island. As they reached a valley, the duo spotted what seemed to be a city dug into the side of a cliff. It was then Sonic noticed something moving.
Gesturing to Sojourn, the two watched a reptilian figure walking between the arches of the city. The blue hedgehog quickly realized who this was. "Rava…"
Hey, it's weird-lizard-eyes guy.
"Who?"
"He's, uh, my brother. I think? Anyway, I don't know what he's doing here, so-"
He turned, preparing to leave it alone, when he discovered they weren't alone at the top of the valley; a horde of E-1000s had surrounded them, battered, but still combat ready.
"Looks like someone didn't get the memo," remarked Sonic, stretching his arms, "Eggman's not here, go away."
The ones armed with blasters raised their weapons, as the ones armed with hands prepared to grab the Mobians. Sonic was too quick, smashing one of the robot's legs and causing it to crumple. As the others tried retaliating, he went after them too, smashing them all apart with ease.
"Sonic, look!" shouted Sojourn, as Buzzers descended from overhead.
The flying Badniks peppered the area with cannon fire, one blast being close enough to Sojourn to knock her unconscious. Sonic quickly deposited her somewhere safe (doing his best to be gentle), before turning his attention back to the attackers. Before he could do anything, half of them were taken out by spears, with the other half retreating. Turning to see what was happening, several figures wearing concealing robes stepped forward.
"The savior has returned," one of them said, dressed in a deep red robe as opposed to the other's pale blues.
"Sorry, do I know you?" he asked the stranger.
"You liberated our camp when Eggman tried occupying the island," the stranger continued, pulling the hood of her robe back to reveal a fox with faded blue fur. "My name is Winder, the leader of the people here. We must get back to shelter before more of these robots show up."
"Wait, I need to get my friend first-"
But before Sonic could say anything else, he felt himself get grabbed and moved elsewhere. When his eyes adjusted, he found himself in a small village, similar to Knothole. All the buildings were made from wood and held together with rope. There wasn't a scrap of metal to be found. And standing next to the blue hedgehog was Rava.
"What are you doing here?" he asked the lizard.
"Do you think my life revolves around yours?"
"We've only met each other once**, I don't know you."
"But I know you." Rava stared intensely at Sonic, who looked somewhat confused, but his tone stayed neutral. "When you were taken away, I was made to find you. I can walk from one place to another like walking through a doorway, and I was meant to find you and bring you home."
"So you were given powers?"
"Mm hmm. However, I didn't want you around. You were always the favorite sibling, even though you had vanished for years, and I didn't care much for having that reinforced."
"That's why you didn't take me during our meeting."
"Correct. Now, talk with Winder here." And Rava stepped away, vanishing into thin air.
Sonic looked around the village, seeing the occasional passerby tending to crops or talking with each other. A sign was hung from one tree to another, proclaiming the site "Freedom."
"Fitting name," remarked Sonic. "So, what did Egghead make you do?"
"He took our bodies and augmented them with machinery to make us better laborers," scowled Winder. "Its only thanks to you that we were able to free our souls from the ill of technology."
The blue fox pulled her cloak away, revealing that her left arm ended at the elbow. Sonic was surprised, then glanced around at the villagers. Some of them were also missing arms, others legs, and a few of them were even missing eyes.
"We don't allow any technology beyond our gate," continued Winder, pointing to the wooden fortifications further away. "We must keep our bodies and souls pure."
"None whatsoever?" asked Sonic. "So, not even a hearing aid?" Earning a shake of the head, he gave a small chuckle. "I guess it's a good thing I didn't bring my phone with me, huh? Anyhoo, who's controlling those robots?"
"Dissidents," snarled a voice, a graying tiger marching up to the two. He was the most "pristine" villager Sonic had encountered, not missing any of his body parts. "Those who are so brainwashed by Eggman they continue to pervert their bodies with his garbage and carry out his vile deeds!"
"Calm yourself, Logg," soothed Winder, placing a hand on the tiger's shoulder. He took a breath before calming down.
"Brainwashed?" repeated Sonic. "I didn't know he had the tech."
"Not brainwashing that way," the vixen said. "But some of our youths refused to purify, and so kept their augmentations and even now continue to terrorize the island. That's why we rarely venture beyond the village."
The blue hedgehog was silent, rubbing his chin. "I mean, are they hurting anyone?" he asked, causing the two elders to stare incredulously at him. "Do you have proof that it's them specifically causing those robot attacks, or are they just minding their own?"
"What proof do we need?" scoffed Logg. "They have Eggman's parts on them, and Eggman's machines keep attacking us, it correlates perfectly."
Sonic still wasn't sure, but he didn't want to start an argument. So instead he chose to search the area, in hopes of recovering Sojourn.
Sojourn was awoken by an unfamiliar odor. She tried ignoring it before a very unfamiliar sound began to rock the ground beneath her. Opening her eyes, she could make out shapes vaguely resembling Mobians, as well as some of their conversation.
"…looks fine, doesn't look like she needs any augments."
"That's a shame, I'm sure some new arms would really suit her."
Quickly rising up, she found herself staring at the two who had been conversing. One was a vixen, with melanistic colors like hers, sporting a metal left arm and eye, and the other was a teal monkey with both his legs replaced by metal ones.
The vixen walked up to her first, placing her organic hand on Sojourn's shoulder. "Hey, hey, just relax, stranger. A Buzzer's blast isn't something you just shrug off."
"Where am I?" demanded Sojourn, trying to feel around for her spear.
"We don't have a proper name for this place, so we call it the Underground," said the vixen. "Anyway, my name's Lana, and he's Jumper. What's your name?"
"Sojourn. Why are you here in this 'underground'?"
"'Cause of the folks above," retorted Jumper, crossing his arms.
"Be nice."
"What? It's true, Lana."
Lana's face fell, turning back to their guest. "It's true. Whenever Eggman arrived, he had some of us augmented with machinery to make us better laborers or something. When Sonic liberated us, a lot of the older folks placed a ban on all technology."
"That does not sound so unreasonable. Why use tools made to oppress you?"
"Sojourn, here's the thing. I was born without a left arm, and now I have one. I hate Eggman as much as the next person, but now I can do what I couldn't before, and I wasn't going to let anyone take that from me." She frowned harder, wiping at her original eye. "But they didn't agree, and they shunned me. They shunned us all, kicking us out of our home."
The echidna frowned as well, placing a reassuring hand on Lana's shoulder. "Alright, enough moping," said Jumper, walking to the doorway. "C'mon, let's show the newcomer around."
The trio left the room they were in, walking through a towering corridor. "These are ruins of an old civilization," explained Lana. "My mom would always take me here when I was younger. Nobody knows who lived here, or how they died out, but these ancients must have been giants compared to us."
Sojourn listened along, looking at the faded murals on the walls. Some of them depicted tall blue creatures, resembling a figure from her family's historical texts. Maybe these ancient beings evolved into that figure?
"I heard you speaking when I woke up," the black echidna commented. "Were you planning to augment me?"
"Oh, you heard that?" Lana wrung her hands together. "I was just-that was a joke, see? I was joking about how you'd look more attractive if you had metal arms like mine. N-Not that you aren't attractive, I just-did that sound weird? That sounded weird, didn't it?"
Sojourn just stared as Lana continued rambling, while Jumper wearily held his head in his hands. At last, the black vixen stopped talking and took a deep breath.
"So, we saw you attacked by those robots, but we couldn't make out who you came here with. Who else was out there?"
Sonic looked everywhere, but couldn't find Sojourn, and so returned to the village where he found Rava. He looked up with a disinterested expression as the blue hedgehog approached.
"What do you want?" the lizard demanded.
"I just wanted to know what your home life was like," answered Sonic.
Rava seemed ready to retort with some dry witted question, when he paused and instead chose to answer more honestly. "At first, not great," he answered. "For as long as I can remember, I've been treated like a tool, and not like her offspring. Fyr tells me she was also treated differently. She usually only spoke to me to give me some kind of instruction or provide a lead on where you might be heading." He smiled ruefully. "I wanted to keep you away, to make sure she could never have you again after how I'd been treated, and yet… part of me wondered if I had brought you home, would she finally see me as a son?"
Damn, that's a real messed up family tree. Y'know, coming from a bad home can lead to villainous tendencies.
Hearing how messed up his "biological" family was, Sonic was beginning to regret ever being curious about it. "And… what's it like now?"
"Well, it's… better?" Sonic tried not to snort; Rava had to make a simple statement into a question. "She finally treats me like a son, she lets me call her 'mom.' It's much better than how it was before."
Before they could talk any further, one of the villagers blew into a horn, as everyone else stood to attention. Logg stepped out of his hut, watching as shapes began approaching from the horizon.
"They've found us," he declared. "Everyone in defensive positions!"
The villagers that could fight armed themselves, standing behind the fortifications. Sonic and Rava ran out to the front, wondering what was going on.
"Get inside!" Sonic told the villagers who couldn't fight, watching as the Badniks got closer.
Egg Pawns marched up to the barricades, weapons beginning to fire. Sonic launched himself into a Spin Attack, knocking some of them back. As a Flapper tried to fire on him, Winder knocked it out of the sky with a spear. Rava suddenly teleported behind one of the Badniks, brought it with him into the sky, and then teleported back to the ground as it fell-shattering on impact.
"Push forward!" yelled Logg. "Don't let them get past!"
Eventually the robots were able to get cleared away, and some of them were retreating.
"Well done!" Winder congratulated Sonic and Rava.
"All in a day's work, right?" replied Rava, feeling rather pleased with himself.
"The fight isn't over," said Logg, the others looking at the tiger as he spoke. "If we follow those robots back where they came from, we can destroy their base of operations and their impudent masters once and for all!"
There were a few cheers, but not everyone seemed as enthusiastic. "Are you sure about this?" one of the villagers, a red cat, asked. "Those are still children. We need to get rid of the technology, yes, but destroy them?"
"It's the only way," replied Winder, even if she didn't sound very sure herself. "Beasts die quicker without their heads, after all."
"Follow them and round up the vagabonds," ordered Logg. "I'll be with you shortly."
"What'cha up to?" asked Sonic.
"Nothing," the tiger snapped. "Now do as you're told."
He marched away, picking up pieces of the fallen Badniks as the siblings followed after the other fighters.
"You don't trust him, do you?" asked Rava.
It's like he read your mind
"Nope. For now I'm gonna follow these guys, and maybe run into Sojourn on the way. I hope she's alright."
In the Underground, Sojourn and Lana were both playing an ad hoc game of kickball with some of the other youths present. Sojourn kicked the ball a little too hard, causing it to bounce off the wall.
"Nice one!" laughed Jumper. "You don't need any augments, those legs are weapons!"
The ball bounced off the other wall, but it was suddenly shot out of the sky before it could land. The group started panicking, as Badniks began to march towards them, blocking any exit points.
"How did they find us here?" asked Lana anxiously, holding up her hands in fright. "We were hidden!"
"You will stay where you are," ordered an Egg Pawn. "We are here to detain you by order of-"
Whatever it said next was cut off by a spear being thrown into its head, the youths watching as Sojourn stomped over to wrench it free.
"Well?" she asked the others. "Fight back!"
This was all the prompting the others needed, as they used their augments to fight against the surrounding Egg Pawns. They tried to fire on the group, but they were too fast. However, their advantage didn't last long, as one shot hit Lana in the shoulder, sending her sprawling to the ground. Sojourn ran to help her up, right as the villagers arrived.
Sonic sped past the crowd, kneeling beside Sojourn. "Sojourn, you're okay! What happened?"
"One of those machines injured her, she needs help!" the black echidna cried, before the villagers produced spears.
"Funny, it's as if these robots want you gone as much as we do," taunted Logg. "For once, technology has helped us."
Lana groaned, her eyes fluttering open as she stared at the crowd. She instantly became more alert upon seeing Winder staring back at her.
"M… Mom?"
If anyone's still here, you're probably wondering where I've been all this time. Long story short, life got in the way. I got a job recently, and the only times I've felt motivated to write are for shorter stories. Also I've been demotivated by this story in particular, about how long and bloated I've made it, how many plot threads I have hanging even as I introduce more. But y'know what, I'm gonna keep writing it. Naysayers can nay all they want, I'm writing this for me first and foremost.
Anyhoo, onto the chapter itself. This was partially inspired by the Archie Knuckles comics, in which the Dark Legion were treated as evil because they used technology (ignoring, of course, the many instances of the heroes using technology). So I decided to do a twist on that, make the villains luddites while the heroes either like technology or need it to survive. If you can guess where I got the name for Logg the tiger, you get a cookie.
It was also during writing of this chapter I realized Sonic and Rava only interact once in my entire series. Yeah, that one's on me.
Anyway, enjoy this one, and I'll see you next time.
*EBTH Chapter 6: Fireside Chat
**Resurgence Chapter 27: A Second Try: Epilogue