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dennythemenace · 25 days ago

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Sonic Prime fic sneak preview!

Okay, so it's been a year... holy crap... since I posted my I-need-more-closure-for-Nine-dammit fic, and I'm still blown away by the positive reception it's gotten. And as I've mentioned before, I am working on a follow-up, but it's been very slow-going and I don't have any prediction when it'll be done... But I have a lot already written and I reeeeeeaally want to share it with people already, so in honor of the one-year anniversary of "Three or More Foxes Form a 'Skulk'", SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW!

(Also, I feel like actually posting some of my progress might help keep my motivation up.)

Anyway, you can read it here or on AO3. This scene takes place during the timeskip, about a month and a half after everyone has returned to their worlds from the Grim.

Sticks didn’t respond immediately, but her face scrunched up in annoyance and Knucks could practically see her brain whirring stubbornly as it tried to parse out any possible point of contention with Nine’s explanation.

Finally though, she let out a growl of reluctant acceptance.

“Alright, fine, I guess those’re decent anti-robo-uprising precautions. An’ I s’pose makin’ the machines undo everythin’ the machines did is kinda poetic justice.”

She stomped forward to stand directly in front of Nine, glaring down at him darkly and jabbing a finger in his face.

“But if I see any a’ those mechanical monstrosities – and that category includes you, robot-boy – anywhere near my new burrow, I will NOT be responsible for my actions.”

Knucks tensed as Sticks got up in Nine’s space. His fists clenched, every sense focused intently on the fox, waiting on a hairpin trigger for the slightest sign of imminent violence…

He relaxed only marginally when Nine barely reacted, his expression as he looked up at the badger perfectly calm, almost bored.

“Understood.”

Sticks stared him down for a long moment. Nine met her gaze evenly. Her eyes never softened, but eventually she seemed mollified with his response, nodding stiffly and turning to leave. She did however cast the fox one last suspicious glare, holding two fingers to her eyes then turning them around to point warningly in the universal ‘I’m watching you’ gesture… except it wasn’t directed at Nine himself, but behind him.

Specifically, at the mechanical appendages encasing his real ones.

Knucks resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Her warning delivered, Sticks turned and sauntered off into the building, not paying the fox any more mind at all.

“See ya in the meeting, Knucks.”

“Uh, yeah,” he replied, still side-eyeing a somewhat confused-looking Nine.

Neither of them said anything for a moment after Sticks left, then:

“...Does she think my tails are sentient?”

Knucks sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose again.

“Yeah, probably. At least… well, let’s just say that’d be in-character.”

“...Huh,” Nine grunted. “That’s a new one.”

He didn’tsay it quite like an insult, but it was skirting the line enough for Knucks to feel his hackles rising instinctively in defense of his friend. He frowned, giving the fox a stern look. “Ya can’t blame folks who went through everythin’ the eggheads did to ’em for not exactly havin’ positive feelings about crazy-advanced tech.”

Nine just shrugged lazily.

“Don’t worry, I’m not feeling particularly judgmental – since I noticed you were all clenched up ready to take me out if I attacked her,” he added with a knowing little half-smirk that Knucks did not deign to give him a reaction to. “Honestly it’s kind of an… interesting change of pace, someone suspicious of me for reasons completely unbound to reality.”

He frowned slightly, looking in the direction Sticks had gone.

“Was she in your resistance?” he asked with a vaguely curious lilt. “I don’t remember seeing her before.”

“You wouldn’t’ve,” Knucks replied. “She’s new on the committee, just got selected to represent the folks who’ve moved out of the city since the deconstruction and terraforming’s been makin’ headway. And nah, she never joined the resistance.”

Nine raised an eyebrow. “Really. I wouldn’t have guessed, she seems pretty much exactly the type.”

“Yeah, well… the city affected different people in different ways,” Knucks muttered, pursing his lips as he debated how much he wanted to share with Nine. It really wasn’t any of the fox’s business, but he wasn’t detecting any malice in the question, so…

“...She an’ I were friends back before,” Knucks began softly, “but we were separated when the Chaos Council invaded. And… by the time I ran into her again, once Rebel an’ I had started gettin’ the resistance goin’, she… wasn’t the same.”

He grimaced as the memory played out unbidden in his mind’s eye: In the middle of a routine supply run, suddenly spotting Sticks standing in a line of denizens on one of the moving sidewalks… The elation bursting in his chest after so long fearing the worst,barely able to force himself to wait for a gap in the Eggforcer patrols before darting out to embrace his old friend… Noticing the missing arm, of course (a sad development to be sure, but nothing Knucks could see any version of Sticks ever wanting any sort of pity or coddling over), but far more concerning, her eyes as she turned to look at him – blank,dead, devoid of any trace of the zest for life that had been her trademark for as long as he’d known her.

And perhaps the worst part: receiving nothing in response to his desperate entreaties beyond a quiet, broken voice reciting, “I am Denizen Two-Zero-One-Four. I am a good egg. Egg is perfect.”

He’d been too shocked to put up much of a fight against Rebel yanking him back into hiding just seconds before another Eggforcer came by, and he’d helplessly watched Sticks disappear as the sidewalk moved ever onward according to the implacable will of the Chaos Council’s gears of industry, his stomach churning with a sickening blend of cold, despairing emptiness and simmering rage toward those responsible… and his own powerlessness to do anything about it.

She hadn’t alerted the patrols, though. He had chosen to cling to that, the tiniest bit of hope that his friend was still in there somewhere.

And, well, as things had turned out...

“Sticks… she’d grown up in the wild, a free spirit,” he continued, shaking off the memory and accompanying emotions, “but between the urbanization and the Council brainwashing… It was like she’d buried a part of her true self deep down to protect it. An’ now that nature’s startin’ to come back, that part’s felt safe enough to come out, an’ she’s… finally more like her old self again.”

He couldn’t help the warm smile that came to his face. The hug he had received from Sticks – no less rib-crushing for being her first foray at doing it one-armed – not long after the first buildings had been torn down and actual soil dug up and prepared for planting was second in his memory only to the sight of a tentative passion and hope gleaming in her eyes.

And not just her; the population in general seemed to be healing, slowly but surely, from the oppressive yoke of the Chaos Council’s regime, mirroring the world around them as sunlight shown through the thinning smog for the first time in years and green life tentatively poked its way out of the ground. Even within the steadily-shrinking city borders, once relentlessly scoured clean of even the tiniest of weeds – anything that had the gall to break up the Council’s strict mechanized order – grasses and dandelions had been asserting themselves all over as cracks spread throughout the ruins, and the people were taking inspiration from that resilience, further fueling their motivation to rebuild and reclaim their world.

And thankfully, the work had been going pretty fast so far, in no small part due to Rebel’s decision to recruit…

The smile on Knucks’ face slipped, twisting into a grimace. Nine looked back at him, his own face inscrutably blank.

Knucks cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, I mean… what with all you’ve been, uh, contributin’… to the rebuildin’ an’ all, that folks like Sticks are respondin’ to… Just, whatever else, guess you’re… y’know, puttin’ some good into the world. For some people.”

If that even matters to ya, he almost said, but managed to hold his tongue; he was supposed to be trying not to unnecessarily antagonize the fox, after all.

For a long moment Nine just held Knucks’ gaze. He didn’t look happy, but didn’t look angry either; his brow furrowed as though trying to figure out a confusing puzzle.

Then his eyes went half-lidded and one end of his mouth quirked up in a well-worn patronizing smirk.

“Don’t hurt yourself trying to pay me a compliment, echidna.”

And with that and a dismissive flick of an ear, he turned and headed into the building without a glance back.

Knucks scowled and power-walked after Nine until he caught up, matching his gait as they passed through the entryway.

“Just statin’ a fact, fox. Take it however ya want.”

For the next few moments the two walked down the long hallway, keeping just far enough apart so as to not be within reach of each other, in a silence that was not so much “comfortable” as “mutual disinterest in further engagement”. Knucks pointedly kept his gaze forward while still making sure to keep Nine – particularly the most dangerous part of him, the tails – in the corner of his eye at all times (and knew full well that Nine was doing the same to him).

In other words, basically the norm the two of them had settled into over the past month-and-a-half. Knucks didn’t like or trust Nine, Nine didn’t like or trust him, they were both fully aware of this, it was almost certainly never going to change, but Nine was ostensibly an ally now so they tolerated each other when they had to and otherwise avoided interacting as much as possible.

Which suited Knucks just fine.

Frankly, in the immediate aftermath of the final battle in the Grim, he had been fully on board with just leaving Nine to the empty, desolate world he’d wanted so badly. Karmic punishment and all that. Even after he’d begrudgingly softened on that stance – condemning someone to a slow death by starvation, especially when the fox had seemed to be expressing genuine remorse, was just a tad disproportionate even by his standards – he had still strongly argued for alternatives to bringing Nine back to their home and giving him access to the technology that had devastated it.

When Rebel had gone ahead with the deal after he’d failed to convince her otherwise, Knucks had reluctantly acquiesced and found an upside to focus on – they would at least know where Nine was and be able to keep close tabs on his activities, be directly on hand to hold him to his promise or to take him down if he ever decided to break it. Or when, more likely, Knucks had confidently presumed – no matter what Sonic had said or how sincere Nine may have seemed in the moment, Knucks had only to summon up the memory of the fox’s first betrayal – and the cold, dismissive look in his eyes as he’d abandoned them without a second thought – to re-cement his view that this was a person fundamentally dishonest and untrustworthy.

Whether he still felt that way… varied from day to day.

“Um…” Nine’s voice tentatively and unexpectedly broke the silence. “I noticed that she, uh, th-the badger, I mean… Sticks, she’s missing an…” He broke off, cleared his throat and continued with a struggling attempt at nonchalance. “I mean, if… I don’t know if she’s in the market for, you know, a prosthetic or something, but I could definitely put one together if…”

Case in point, these instances when Nine’s face would scrunch up awkwardly and he avoided eye contact and stammered with uncharacteristic hesitation as he took a stab at the whole empathizing-with-other-people concept.

And despite himself, Knucks hadn’t yet been able to detect any signs of duplicity in these moments.

Urgh.

Things had just been so much simpler back before the fox had started demonstrating these frustrating bits of evidence that there was more going on between those pointy ears than just mwa-ha-ha-ha burn ruin destroy oh how I LOVE betraying everyone for my own selfish ends mwa-ha-ha-ha-HA!

Ah well. At least he could get a bit of a laugh out of this particular one.

“Oh, yeah, for sure, you should totally ask her if she wants a robot arm,” Knucks replied, not quite able to hold back a snicker. “That definitely won’t get her ramblin’ about, I dunno, nanomachines or a metal virus or somethin’ infectin’ her brain and stealin’ her free will. An’ she’d just love the suggestion comin’ from one a’ the city’s resident cyborgs. Only one I think she’d trust more is Rusty. Wouldn’t be suspicious of your intentions at all.”

Nine’s face morphed into a more familiar scowl, and he huffed in annoyance, metal tails clicking against each other irately.

“It wouldn’t be like- that’s- I’m not a- These aren’t surgically-fused to my body like Rose’s cybernetics. I’m not an amateur,” he growled, sounding deeply offended at the very notion his work could be seen in the same category as the Chaos Council’s. “There’s just a minute insertion to give myself a neural link. It’s a bit of a process but I can detach and reattach them if I need to. And a regular limb would be even less invasive, but whatever. Never mind, then. Forget I said anything.”

And with a dismissive sniff he crossed his arms and slightly picked up his walking pace, very pointedly staring straight ahead.

Knucks chuckled at the kid’s petulant reaction… but was surprised to find it coming out a bit forced. His smile dropped a bit.

The feeling… it wasn’t guilt, per se. That definitely wasn’t warranted here – the fox had almost caused reality to collapse, he could suck up having a few jokes made at his expense. And the thought of someone being foolish enough to offer Sticks any sort of cybernetic enhancement was just objectively hilarious in and of itself.

But… well okay, maybe Knucks felt a little bad.Nine had offered. And unprompted, at that.

Okay, fine, I can throw the kid a bone.

“Y’know,” he said, trying for a casual tone, “Sticks aside… lotta other folks’ve lost limbs and the like, and… well, I imagine a lot of ’em probably wouldn’t mind at least havin’ the option.”

He was half-expecting Nine to continue ignoring him out of spite, and for a few long moments the fox indeed continued walking with no indication he was going to deign to give a response.

Then with a soft hum and still not looking at him: “I could make time in my schedule to put together some prototypes.”

“Oh. Uh… sounds good,” Knucks grunted, trying not to sound too thrown by Nine actually taking the olive branch. “We can bring it up with Rebel after the meeting, talk details.”

“Fine.”

Around this point they reached a sign set up in the middle of the hallway, with an arrow pointing to a door that led to another hallway, and the message “RECONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE MEETING THIS WAY! YOU’RE ALMOST THERE! :)” Knucks held back a growl before taking the turn alongside Nine, taking a moment to mentally relive punching Mr. Dr. Eggman through the portal into the void – and then a couple more times to him and the rest of the Chaos Council for good measure.

There had been – thankfully – no sign of any of the mad doctors since the battle in the Grim, but every time he had to navigate the needlessly labyrinthine hallways in one of their pointlessly huge buildings, Knucks felt like they were somehow projecting their will through the Shatterspace for some petty revenge. The idea of just deconstructing the entire thing and setting up the committee chamber in a more easily-accessible and aesthetically-pleasing space had been brought up at every meeting, but they had yet to come to an agreement of where to move, and there were unfortunately just too many higher priorities taking up their efforts in the immediate future.

(Not that Knucks hadn’t spent some of the more boring meetings fantasizing about single-handedly demolishing the building with his bare fists.)

More minutes passed with the two returned to their usual uncommunicative dynamic, the only sound their footsteps echoing in the long metal hallway.

Except that for some reason, Knucks felt that their silence was now sliding toward a less-familiar “awkward” territory.

Without really thinking about it, he cast his eyes around, looking for something to fill the space, and noticed again the covered basket Nine was still carrying. He indicated it with a nod.

“So, whatcha got in there? Some new gizmo?”

Nine started a little in surprise at being addressed again, but he recovered quickly; his face melted into a scowl as he realized what Knucks was referring to… except by this point Knucks had enough experience with the fox’s facial expressions to note that there was something a bit forced about this one; almost like he was putting it on to hide other emotions.

“It’s nothing. Just… just food from that rabbit lady and her kid again,” he muttered, dropping his eyes to a spot on the floor in front of him. “They accosted me when I was passing through their neighborhood on my way here. It’s the most direct route from my lab, but I’ll have to change it up if I’m getting too predictable… Anyway, they insisted I take this. As though I haven’t been getting enough food on my own just fine my whole life.”

He shook his head at the audacity of concern for his physical well-being.

Knucks couldn’t help the smirk that came to his face as he recalled the fox’s first encounter with the friendly rabbit family a few weeks ago, which he had been fortunate enough to be present for. “Wish I coulda got a picture of your face this time.”

Nine shot him a quick glare before rolling his eyes disdainfully, then picked up his pace slightly in a clear message that he was done with the conversation.

They were finally almost at the meeting room by this point; Knucks could hear a mix of muted voices coming from an open doorway on the far left side of the hall.

He easily picked out Sticks’ voice among the jumble, ever loudly and insistently making its owner’s feelings clearly known.

“–thing good ever came from this filthy city! If you wanna keep livin’ like that, that’s your damage, but if you’re expectin’ us to roll over an’ move outta our new homes just so you an’ your fellow grime-loverscan keep exploitin’ the land,then we’re gonna have a problem.”

Another voice, male and reedy with a slight lisp, spoke up. “Look, I know that the city was hard and upended the old status quo, and of course it’s overall good that it’s under new leadership… but you have to admit, the city infrastructure brought a lot of stability and growth, and now that the Chaos Council is gone, we have the opportunity to make it work for us–”

There was a sudden sharp intake of breath, and all of a sudden Knucks had overtaken Nine.

Instantly wary of a potential hostile at his back, he whipped his head around to get the fox back in his sight – but got only the briefest of glimpses before Nine had resumed his stride, marching straight ahead as though nothing had happened. He passed by Knucks and kept walking, not even glancing at him; it took Knucks a second before he shook himself and hurried after him to catch up.

Knucks had always had a finely-tuned sense for danger. Years of guerrilla fighting had only sharpened it further.

And right now, a sense of imminent threat was already curdling in Knucks’ gut.

The fox had done a very quick, thorough job of schooling his features. But in the split second Knucks had caught before that, with his eyes blown wide, ears sharply pulled back...

For just that one instant, Nine had looked utterly terrified.

Knucks followed Nine the last few paces into the meeting room. Wartime instincts still flaring, he quickly swept the room with his eyes, taking note in an instant of everything and everyone present. The focal point of the space was the large rectangular conference table set up in the middle, with a variety of chairs spread somewhat haphazardly around it. Either already sitting or milling about around the room were the beings comprising the reconstruction committee. Knucks quickly counted off the usual faces – former squad commander Red; Rusty Rose; Victor the Crocodile; Spy the Chameleon; Fink the Mouse; the crimson-furred quokka secretary whose name hadn’t stuck in his head yet; a couple others – along with several newcomers like Sticks, folks recently-selected to represent the various civilian interests both in and – more recently – outside the city.

It was one of the latter – indeed, the current target of Sticks’ ire, whose voice Knucks immediately recognized as the one they’d heard from the hallway – whom Nine seemed to be intently focused on.

He was another fox, though older, about Knucks’ height and with only one tail. His scraggly fur was brown with peach on his chest and muzzle, and he wore an old denizen jumpsuit that looked deliberately torn in places to individualize it. Noticeably, he was missing his right canine tooth, and had two prominent facial scars: one across his muzzle starting from where his tooth should have been, and a crescent-shaped one beneath his right eye.

Between this new fox and Sticks, looking immensely done with everything, stood Rebel. She brightened slightly upon noticing Knucks’ and Nine’s arrival, grinning and waving the two of them forward.

“Oh, good, that’s everyone, we can get started,” she announced, raising her voice to cut off Sticks’ rebuttal to whatever her conversation partner had just said. The badger scowled, but turned to take her seat with one last warning snarl in his direction.

The other fox, for his part, turned to see who Rebel had greeted, and...

Well. Where the fear on Nine’s face had been there and gone in an instant, so fast someone less perceptive than Knucks might have missed it… this fox transparently projected his shocked terror at the sight of Nine with every fiber of his being. He stumbled backwards into the table, a hand shooting up to touch his scars as his eyes widened in dread.

Not having yet noticed anything amiss, Rebel waved to get the room’s attention. “Alright everyone, let’s take our seats and get the meeting–”

“Scratch.”

Ignoring Rebel entirely, Nine had strode forward to stand a few paces in front of the other fox, tilting his head up to meet his eyes. His tone was just as even and unbothered as when he’d been facing down Sticks not ten minutes earlier.

And yet Knucks knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this situation was very, very different.

“Been a while.”

#OMG THE UPDATE OF ALL UPDATES IS HERE #foaming at the mouth/pos #sonic prime #nine the fox #renegade knucks #sticks the badger #fanfic

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