chapter 13 - Repayment of Perturbation

'Where!?...Where are you!?' a frantic woman's voice called out. It seemed to echo in the surrounding void of darkness.

[Round all of them up! Don't let any of them escape!] a voice shouted. Coming from a direction from far away, it seemed to be from a multitude of speakers.

'There is no time! We have to-' a man shouted before he was cut off. Sounds of lasers were being fired from a gatling gun. It boomed and panned everywhere as a body fell to the ground.

'DANZEL!' a woman screamed from somewhere behind.

'Don't make his death in vain! We got to move now!' another male shouted and pulled what sounded like a couple people along. Their hurried footsteps seemed as if it were going over wet dirt or light mud.

[...enemy spotted...heading north...pursuing...] one robotic machine announced. An orchestra of gears and heavy footsteps announced themselves nearby and far. A reply from more droids resulted in more blasters shooting off. The act was accompanied by more screams and terror from the opposite direction.

[%^#$%$%^] a garbage of noises and people blared loudly. Images started occurring showing a scrambled sort of visions and events. Stopping at one scene, it was staring at a high ceiling with lights that glowed red. A presence came nearby in which a few unknown silhouettes came into view.

'To think this is what our kind wanted...this evolved primal to be treated not only as a pet, but a social worker!' a person stated with much angst in its voice.

'Yes...and what came of their creation...this forced evolution of 106 years...a Great War that has devastated Mobius!' another proclaimed with agitation in their tone.

'I agree comrades...thisss has been another one of humankind'sss greatessst failuresss,' a third individual spoke having a lisp. 'At firssst...it wasss usss that were the parasssitesss of the planet. But...as our tainted brethren decided to continue with the thought of morphing primalsss and barbariansss into freaksss of nature...they have committed the greatessst...sssin of playing god.'

'Indeed...and for us that want to protect our kind from these...rodents,' a familiar sounding man spoke. Hearing it seemed to fester emotions of anger and malice.

'We must take matters into our own hands. Think of this process...as an act of cleansing our scientific community's greed...gentlemen...we extract the vermin...with their own kind.'

'Mind control doctor?'

'...' the man chuckled with his mouth close. As he continued to talk, the surroundings began to close in. Everything started to get static and more distorted.

'...no my fellow colleagues...it is the metamorphosis of flesh...to an obedient mechanical beings,' the scientist began with dark mirth in his voice. 'Starting with this...fine...#$%#$%...specimen... #$% #%'

"..." the stranger growled in his sleep. As the nightmare continued and grew, he began to move around a little. Shifting his head from side to side, sweat started to appear on his body. Clenching his teeth together, they began to grind a little. Cringing his face, the amputee hedgehog sat up quickly.

"...haaa...haaaa...haaa," he breathed deeply looking at the ground. Seeing where the sun was, based on the shadows on the ground, it was getting closer to dusk. Closing his real eye, he placed his hand over it while rubbing his temple with his left thumb. Breathing out a sigh of frustration from his subconscious world he ventured to, he moved his hand down a bit.

'...the same type of dream...again,' the cloaked man thought frowning a little.

About to ponder, he opened his eyes. Blinking to get rid of the cobwebs, his mind focused from seeing two different visual feeds. One was of staring at his hand and his cybernetic one was viewing something in forest. Turning to where it was staring at, there didn't appear to be anything moving. Remaining still and watching, the mechanical sight moved slightly and detected something. Training on the same line of sight, he saw what was there.

Coming out of the greenery several meters away was a predator. A large black primal panther was slowly moving in his and the blue boy's direction. Observing it stare at their spot, it kept sniffing the air. It gave the impression that it was picking up a scent of some kind and was cautiously following the trail. After it seemed to get a better direction from the smell, it proceeded forward slowly.

Getting closer, the massive feline lowered closer to the ground to as it continued. Staring the predator down, the male hedgehog observed its movements carefully. Cautiously perking his ears up more, he could hear the soft huffs from the creature when it smelled the air repetitively. Now half of the distance it was before, the being changed its tactics. It crawled a couple more steps then stopped.

With the array of vegetation coming from the ground, there was not a clear open space for either party to see each other. However from where the stranger was sitting, he could follow the four-legged animal's outline. As if it was detecting danger ahead of itself, it panned its head both left and right. Not finding anything, it moved up slightly and tried again. Observing that the large feline still could not see him, the ash gray creature remained still and continued to wait.

Watching the panther looking back in his direction, it crept closer staying low to the ground. Seeing it stop again and slightly turn its head to the left, it spotted something. Not moving a limb, the stranger knew that the blue boy was lying to his right. Boring at the creature, its pupils changed sizes a little as if to attune its depth perception. Lying flat on the ground, it inched forward more and more till it breached through the vegetation.

Once its head passed the plants and wild weeds, it came to a stop. The adult hedgehog remained as a statue and viewed the beast through his right peripheral vision. Seeing it shifting its paws and adjusting its hind legs, the pupils became larger. Doing a view small rotation of its paws and getting ready to pounce, the male hedgehog acted. Shifting his position quickly and doing a mad dash, he cleared the space between him and the predator.

Getting within the primal's personal space within a second, it was about to pounce. Seeing an object rush it, it changed its projection. Instead of going forward at the small defenseless hedgehog being, it tried jumping up and to the left. Getting air, it got rammed hard by the silhouette on its right torso. Getting knocked off balance, it flew into a large rock to the left.

Yelping from the pain of impact, it landed on all four paws. Growling loudly and turning to face the threat, there was nothing there. Shifting side to side and hissing angrily, nothing appeared. Feeling alert and cautious, it looked back at its prey. Seeing it still there, it did not wake up. Hearing movement to its right, it turned its head.

A hard and fast fist slammed into its right jaw. Instantly dazed and staggering to the left, it fell down to the ground. Getting up and roaring in pain, it shook its head hard. Seeing it as it helped a little, it pounced with its front claws produced. Swiping at nothing, there was no one around. Turning to the left, a flying silhouette came at it fast. The left side of the feline's face got slammed with a side kicked.

Whiplashing to the right and tripping to the ground again, the beast's sense of balance was gone. Laying on its right side, the panther panted and breathed fast. Feeling blood staring to ooze into its eyes from the harsh impacts, its ears picked up sounds of something approaching its left. Unable to recover quick enough to see where the figure was, it growled loudly to frighten it. Hearing that the vocal threat was given no heed, the silhouette continued toward it.

In pain and shifting itself quickly to be one its paws again, it pounced hard to its left. Opening its mouth, it tried to chomp on the attacker. Feeling its teeth not tear into anything of flesh, it flopped to the ground. Hyperventilating with pain and growing fear, it looked up. Seeing the distortion in its vision returning a little, it saw a short dark figure towering over it. Unable to see details of it, a crimson ring amongst its unfocused outline glared down at it.

Seeing movement of the figure's right side, it saw a shape of something trying to reach of it. Giving into the fear of the unknown being, the panther lurched. Trying to snatch where it thought the extension of its body was, it was like the previous attempt. Biting air, something brutally punched the top right side of its head. Screaming a high squeak in agony, it dropped to the earth.

Groaning while continuing to take short and fast breaths, crimson started coming out of its nose and mouth. Noticing that the predator was still towering over it, the panther looked up with terror. The blood colored eyed seemed to glow to a haunting appearance. Seeing something below it, the mouth of the attacker appeared. Seeing it bare its teeth at it, it gave the feline beast horror from the significance of it.

"..." the stranger reacted with hatred. A flashback came to him hard from a similar situation. It wasn't one from the nightmares. The event was from when he came to many years ago and was trying to survive in the forest alone. The almost fatal encounter during that time and what the predators did, the memory pushed him to become more barbaric.

'...eye for an eye...' he thought forming a murderous fist in its left hand. It took a couple of steps to be next to the downed animal. Without hesitation, the adult hedgehog violently stomped on the creature's noggin.

'...tooth for a tooth' he continued. Hearing it cry out, he raised his right boot and shoved it hard back into its skull.

'...blood for blood...' the hedgehog said in his mind. Hearing it give a haggard cough, blood started to ooze out faster from its face. Seeing it was still alive, the amputee lifted his foot again and brutally slammed it down again in the same area.

'...food for food...' the being stated mentally. Seeing crimson fly out from the feline's head, it gasped for air as blood flowed into its throat. Feeling the veins around his cybernetic eye twitch, the man bore down at the creature with scorn. Getting his right foot off its head, it brought it back down murderously to its head.

'...life...' the foot impacted and caused something to crack.

'...for...' lifting and slamming it down again. Blood flung out around the impact area. The skull began to cave in.

'...a...' raising the crimson stained boot again, he violently stomped again. Cracking more bones, the head flattened a bit.

'...life...' doing one more and swing his body weight into the attack, the beast's head was crushed into the ground.

"..." the cloaked hedgehog spoke slowly breathing in and out deeply.

Getting his foot off the dead being's unrecognizable face, it was a blood splatter mess. Its eyes had burst as crimson flowed out of the holes. Its teeth went through its exposed tongue as its jaw was dislocated and broken. The undamaged but covered in the iron smelling liquid was its nose. The rest of its body was limp and the torso was not rising or falling to indicate breathing.

Moving back a couple of steps, the adrenaline from the brutality was still present. Trying to calm himself down, his robotic eye began to move on its own. Following it by turning to the left, it stopped in the direction of where the deceased predator came from. Remaining still and focusing, there seemed to be much movement. Based on their outlines and body movements, it seemed to be quad-pedal animals.

A group of five more panthers were running towards his direction. Seeing how their eyes were directing killing intent towards him, it caused another flashback to occur in his mind. Instead of forestry, the environment was of a battleground of some sorts. Shaking his head from the images, the vision showed rapid illustrations of something grizzlier and savage than the other triggered recollection.

"..." the stranger spoke feeling his eyes widen.

As if caught off guard, fury blew up in his mind. Heat generated on his skin as the flare of goosebumps on his body made his fur stand up. Trying to control his emotion, he focused quickly on the incoming squad. Covering half the distance, all five of them roared at him to maul him down. Their battle cry seemed to crescendo the wrath that was growing in him. Feeling his mouth tremble from unable to contain it, he tensed his neck and tilted his head to the left a little.

"..." the hedgehog reacted with feeling himself begin to shake all over.

Shooting eyes of animosity at the incoming enemy, his teeth clenched together and began to grind. His closed fist trembled. Grabbing his cloak to remove it, he threw it aside. Seeing that the predators got near their lunging attack distance, the first ones began to crouch. Opening his mouth from the unable to contain the fury that was about to explode, pain shot through his jaw and the new surgically attached organ. The severity of the pain receptors flaring seemed to enhance the emotion even more.

"GGGGGRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" the adult hedgehog screamed at them viciously.

Seeing the two beasts pounce at him with claws and fangs, he moved. Zig-zag dashing passed all five of them, he went from a standstill to 60 mph in an instant. Causing surprise and confusion among the group, they only saw a blur go by them that was faster than they could track. The amputee slid to a stop nearby while using his hand to claw the ground to slow down. Turning around and bolting just as fast to the nearest predator, he cocked back a tight left fist.

Getting within its personal space, he got low and then swung his arm down. Pulling up hard and torquing his body right, he slammed an uppercut on the right side of the large feline's jaw. From the fast and hard impact, its head whiplashed left and towards the sky. As if time slowed down, the other animals began to turn their bodies back. Seeing one of their brethren falling to the ground, the killer bore malevolence at them. Only blinking and growling at the anthropomorphic being, it rushed them as its image blurred toward them.

'...huh...?' Sonic spoke confused.

Looking around himself, he knew he was in a dream of some sorts. The sky around him seemed to be in an overcast setting. However instead of it being gray, it was a murky and dirty pale light purple color. Surrounding him seemed to be an odd array of landscapes. It seemed that the plant life had been repurposed to something more mechanical and minimalistic.

What occupied most of the everywhere besides the ground, brown grass, and hills was piping. Intricate and massive systems of tubing littered throughout the surrounding lands. Water would come out of openings from cylinders that defied gravity and the need for any support structures. The liquid would drop down to another tube opening that was closer to the ground. Where it went afterwards seemed to go in many directions given how much tubing there was.

'...what...what is this place?' the boy wondered.

Feeling cold, the surreal sensation made him blink and look at him arms. Seeing his fur stand on end, anxiety started to creep onto him. Thinking that something was lurking in the background, the child slowly did a 360 degree turn. Not seeing anything, the only sound and movement that was around was the water. Rubbing his arms from not feeling comfortable, he looked forward and saw something.

'...is...is that...a person?' he guessed in his mind.

Narrowing his eyes and staring, there seemed to be a silhouette. Focusing more on the outline, it seemed to be a hedgehog breed. Thinking it was the robotic clone from a previous dream, it did not have any sharp edges nor odd body portions. Feeling mixed feelings, he tried calling out to the figure. Only hearing his voice be heavily muffled, the person seemed to crouch a little as if to jump.

'#$%(*&$^' it said with undistinguishable noise. Seeing it hop, it went over the edge of a cliff that materialized to their right. Startled and backing up a couple of steps from seeing the massive drop a foot away from his right boot, the orphan watched the dark figure go down. Once its outline was no longer seen, a voice of dark laughter materialized.

'...!?' Sonic reacted with a start.

Darting around himself, he couldn't find the source. Sounding like an adult male with mirth, it had a persona of mockery. At the same time, there seemed to be music playing in the background. Feeling his eyes widen, he quickly searched all directions from his position. Still not finding anything as the emitter of either one, it was not a pleasant melody.

The sounds of a synthesized organ played diminished and clashing chords twice before a short pause. Playing the notes to the rhythm of a heartbeat, it made the evil humored sounded man scarier. Another male started laughing as well. Sounding a bit higher than the first one, it was going on off beats to the music. Beginning to give more distortion, the music changed to a lower key.

'W-Why are they laughing?' the boy asked in his mind.

A third individual began to chuckle that was not in time of the other two. Giving an ominous feeling, suspension was making the air seem thick. Hearing a woman begin to giggle, it was not calming or innocent. The four voices seemed to create a presence of chaos from failing to do something. Perking his ears up, another sound was flurrying in the background. It seemed to be random noises of computer sounds as if it was processing something then got scrambled.

'...I...I don't get it...what's so funny about the guy jumping off the cliff-!?' the child wondered feeling a small amount of dread. Seeing something in his peripheral vision, he looked up. Flinching from seeing something fade into existence in the sky, it appeared to be large letters of some sorts. Blinking and tilting his head a little, he read it out loud.

"...game...over...?" he muttered to himself. Understanding what the words meant together, there was no context of what it was referring to.

As if triggering something, the dark music and evil amusement voices in the background amplified. Cringing from it sounding creepy and loud, the boy began looking around to figure a way out. Turning around, he froze with fear. The robotic version of himself was standing a couple yards away from him. The two crimson ring eyes stared at him with its stoic expression.

[...you...lost...faker...] the mechanical being stated.

Moving its limbs, Sonic reacted defensively and waited for what it was going to do. Seeing it shift from standing straight to putting weight on its right leg, it placed a closed fist on its hip joint. Leaning a little forward, it brought up its left hand and closed its fingers. Extending the pointer digit out, it began to wag it at him. Tensing up in the aspects of the machine to hunt him down again, the droid continued with its pose.

'...?' the child reacted with confused anxiety. '...what the heck is it doing? A winning pose?'

[...] the metal version of himself said. It still continued to be in its locked position and mock him with his finger.

'...that looks...lame...' the boy thought with a small frown and tad look of distaste. Getting defensive again, the non-organic creature reset itself to its previous pose.

[...now...you...lost...there...can...only...be...one...] it stated.

Without warning, it levitated and began to hover towards him. Not even waiting to see what happens, Sonic turned around and bolted the other way. Feeling relieved, he was getting faster and faster like he did in the last dream of something similar. Hearing a high pitched wind up of a jet, the child knew what it was from. Pushing harder, the environment started to blur as he rushed through. Weirdly but relieving, the music and demented laughter faded away into nothing.

Taking a quick glance back, his clone was chasing him with one hand stretched out to grab him. Looking back forward and avoiding colliding with a massive boulder that came up quick, the orphan thought of who could help to stop him. At the exact moment that he thought of the one arm hedgehog, something appeared in front of him. Seeing it was the cloaked figure, a single crimson ring appeared and gazed unwelcomely back. Relieved and scared from seeing him, the blue boy's body abruptly stopped in front of the man.

'...!?' Sonic spoke feeling the continuing affects of puesdo running while standing.

Confused then becoming extremely alarmed, he looked behind him to see that his counterpart was just about to spear him. With blinding quickness, the amputee thrusted his hand forward over the child's head. Catching the robot's head with one hand, the engine propelling the android stopped without winding down. About to comment, the stranger shoved the machine's face into the dirt. Getting out of the way to the right and turning around, the orphan opened his mouth to speak when the adult creature attacked.

Punching the back of the metal being's head, two things happened. A damaged mark appeared from the impact causing indentations and bends. It was accompanied not by a metallic sound, but a flesh thud. At the same time, the entire environment became tinted with red. To the child, it was as if he was living through getting attacked. The sudden change made him scared.

Seeing the cloaked figure cock back a fist and hammered down again, another rush haze of red appeared everywhere. Obscuring the sight of everything, the fleshy pound was heard again. Shaking his head to rid of the vision, it only slowly began to fade away. Hearing another attack, the sound seemed to be a little more wet. The red haze flurried again followed by something flowing from the top of his vision.

Moving his hand in front of his face, Sonic could barely see it. Seeing the crimson streak into small streams down his vision, the sight was disturbing. About to ask the stranger to stop, something heavy and savagely hit the back of the robot's head again. The streams of blood flowed even more and everything became muffled. It was as if the sensation was of getting stomped on.

Without warning or restraint, the stomping continued. It started off at the same rate as the punches, but slowly got faster. At the same time, each foot slam became more heavy, more violent, and more brutal. All that Sonic could hear was the far away sound of muddy, wet marching over and over again. The hazed vision was now just a constant pulsating of crimson.

It matched the stomping and made everything nauseatingly hypnotic. Black spots rapidly appeared around the peripheral. Becoming terrified from not able to do anything in the dream, he tried waking up. Unsuccessful, he tried other tricks that the orphanage kids stated to him once or twice. Closing his eyes and wishing for everything to go away, he committed himself to push through a small countdown from three.

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP ON 3!" Sonic shouted in a panic. Unable to feeling his body, he ignored the chills it gave him as the savage beatdown continued around him.

"...3!...2!...1!..." the boy yelled. Feeling his eyes open, he was about to scream when he became petrified.

Standing in front of him was the stranger without his cloak on. Covered in blood and body parts, he was dripping the iron liquid excessively off his body. Looking at his face, it looked not like a cold-blooded killer. The adult hedgehog looked at him with extreme wrath. The slits of his eyes were narrow as an angry grin was seen from his mouth. Without warning, he reached out his blood coated hand towards him. Opening its mouth as well, sharp teeth and a flood of iron scented thick liquid came out.

'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!'

"NOOO!" Sonic shouted still trapped in his dream. Thrashing around and moving his head side to side, he sat up and covered his head.

"DON'T EAT ME! I'M SORRY!" he yelled.

Opening up his eyes and breathing deeply, cold sweat was dripping down his body. Feeling his hands and moving them slowly, there was no blood on them. About to sigh in relief, a grotesque bodily rip was heard nearby. A painful cry and squeal came after making the boy's fur stand on end. Seeing figures moving quickly around in his right peripheral, the child remained still and breathed faster.

Hearing sounds of people fighting, it was like predators trying to maul down their prey. Hearing snarls and fast foot movements, he turned his head towards them. Blinking in surprise, it was the stranger fighting against 4 dark colored primal panthers. Watching the adult hedgehog move, his agility in moving around and dodging all their attacks was captivating. Even with him missing pieces of himself from old wounds, it didn't seem to restrict him.

Feeling drawn into the battle, he got on his hands and knees to keep low. Seeing three of the animals lunge at him at once, the amputee did an after image. The beasts rammed into each other while the 4th looked confused. Appearing within a blink of an eye next to the creature's left side, the crimson ring bore down at it. Snatching at the being's neck with his left arm and hand, he gripped it hard.

The large feline tried to snarl in surprise, but only an airy squeak came out. Alerting the other animals, they saw the ash gray hedgehog clench his teeth and tensed his muscles hard. Digging his fingers into the beast's head and grabbing hold of its skin, he pulled and rotated his arm back violently. Seeing the panther's head rotate left and upward quickly, it went passed its normal ability. Going 180 degrees, a gruesome popping crunch emitted from its neck.

The amputee let go and the beast dropped dead to the ground. Hearing the remaining three roar, they rushed him. Seeing him glare at them, he zipped over them. Sliding on the ground to a stop, he picked up a softball sized rock. Doing a fast sprint and launching the object, it rocketed out of his hand like an air cannon. Aiming at the middle beast, it smacked brutally in the side of its head.

Seeing it flopped to the ground backwards, specks of red flung into the air. The duo animals had fully turned around and unleashed a barbaric tirade of shouting. It was short lived as another rock was fast balled toward the right panther. Smacking the beast hard in the nozzle, it became very dazed. Blood flowed out of its nostrils as it began crying in pain.

The remaining animal saw its brethren get injured and sprinted after the sole enemy. Seeing it rush at him as well, the two darted toward each other. Seeing it within striking distance, the large feline pounced. The stranger did a hard slide to get under the beast. Seeing predator miss its mark, the stranger dug his feet in the ground to stop abruptly. Getting up quickly and getting near the animal's neck, he opened his mouth wide.

"...!?" Sonic veered back feeling his eyes widen.

In a swift movement from stopping and getting under, the amputee chomped on the underside of the quad-pedal's neck. Throwing his body to the right and rotating the left, he pulled the predator down. From the sheer rotational force and the strength of his teeth and bite, it tore out a large chunk from its neck. The animal immediately gasped for air as flows of crimson came out of its new windpipe. Flopping to the ground with no strength, gargling sounds emitted from it.

Hearing someone spit something, the boy turned his eyes to the lone standing person. Seeing him stare at the fatally beaten predators for a couple of moments, he turned around. Heading toward his direction, goosebumps flared all over him. The child saw a lesser horrifying version of the stranger with the bloody mouth and crimson stained gloves and boots. Stopping outside of the child's personal space, the appearance of him without the cloaked changed from being dark and unnerving to savagely primal and gruesome looking.