#SHADOW SAW THIS LIKE VISION OF SONIC SORT OF

[tsubomiiiii]

OK BUT WHAT IF….WHAT IFFFF…..

[virune]

If you still want prompt ideas, I’ve got one:

Shadow comes home from a really long G.U.N. Mission and expects Sonic to be right at the door, really excited to see him, but goes into the house to find the blue blur cuddling a lavender-scented pillow on the couch, fast asleep

Based on a post of yours I saw a while back

The apartment was dark and quiet when Shadow stepped inside.

A year ago, this would not have struck him as odd. He used to live alone, after all. But even as exhaustion seeped into his bones, worn and weary from his long, arduous mission, Shadow found himself waiting in the hall for Sonic to greet him like he always did.

The absence of his… well, Shadow supposed they were boyfriends now, as Sonic had insisted on it just before Shadow left a few months ago. The thought made his chest flutter, even now. He still wasn't used to it.

Shadow realised then that he'd forgotten to tell Sonic when he'd be back. Of course, then, it could only be expected that his apartment was empty. Sonic must be sleeping at Miles' workshop. With a yawn, Shadow ambled forward tiredly, wanting nothing more than to sleep. He'd get some rest and contact Sonic in the morning.

If it weren't for his night vision, Shadow would have missed the fuzzy blue head of relaxed quills visible from behind the couch. Shadow rounded into the living room with muted surprise. Green eyes shut, a tan muzzle was squashed against the pillow that Sonic was cuddling with both his arms and legs, much in the same way he would cuddle Shadow whenever they slept.

Shadow allowed himself a moment to appreciate his boyfriend's sleeping form. Rarely was Sonic so calm and still. He looked peaceful, as though comforted greatly by the pillow's plushness against him. He did not stir, not even as Shadow knelt down on the carpet beside him and carded fingers through his short fur.

A familiar scent caught Shadow's nose. The pillow was coated in his favourite lavender cologne to an almost nauseating degree. But he'd been away long enough for his scent to fade. Did that mean that Sonic had sprayed the pillow in his absence?

And did that mean… Sonic had missed him? Enough to stay, to sleep in his apartment, even while he'd been gone for so long?

A strange, new sort of fondness soared up from Shadow's chest and he leaned in to place a kiss on Sonic's forehead. Carefully as he could, he gently snaked his hands beneath Sonic's body to pick him up, leaving the cologne-scented pillow behind. Sonic still did not wake, but he seemed to lean into Shadow's warmth as he was carried to bed.

Forget the pillow, Shadow thought, I'm here now, and I missed you terribly.

[nagichi-boop]

My Thoughts Prior to Sonic x Shadow Generations (mostly Dark Beginnings)

This won’t have much rhyme of reason to it, but I want to go over my thoughts of the episodes and some related information released prior to the game’s release. So this is sort of a mix of a review for Dark Beginnings and predictions based on that and the promotional information for the game? I may reblog this after playing the game to expand my thoughts, or I may just make a new post and reference this one if it’s relevant. Well, assuming I make a post about my thoughts on the game, anyways.

Since this will likely be rambly, I will put my thoughts under a cut so as not to clog your feed. I’ll try to organise my thoughts as cohesively as possible. I’ll start with the Dark Beginning episodes as they give the most story information, then I’ll go over a few thoughts from the promotional material.

Warning - Spoilers! (But also…this is a really long post lol)

Episode 1: Shadow and Maria

The first thing that stands out is, of course, Shadow and Maria’s relationship. Shadow is certainly more the anxious type, perhaps in part to Gerald informing him on Maria’s condition. But they have such a cute sibling relationship! It was also nice getting a glimpse into Maria’s sickness and how Shadow handles it, and how Maria shows concern for his insecurities and such. They look out for each other. And you can see just how deeply he cares about Maria. The fact he went out of his way to view the aurora borealis in the present day shows just how deeply he cared about her love of nature and how he carries that with him.

We learn a little bit more about Maria’s backstory. Not only is it confirmed that she has in fact been earth prior to living on the ARK (some people thought maybe she was born on the ARK or smth?), but we also learn that the reason being in space helps is because the gravity keeps her condition in remission. As a side note, I love seeing characters with invisible disabilities in media. Maria has the capacity to run if she wants, but it comes with consequences. As someone with an invisible chronic illness, I appreciate the representation! And it’s nice to see Shadow being gentle yet firm with her when he reminds her not to exert herself. And when he holds her hand before running off, you can see him gently squeezing her hand. He is so careful and caring with her.

I haven’t played Battle, but it was also nice to see them referencing older games by including Emerl. I get that Generations is all about revising the past, but it’s nice to see them bringing stuff all together.

After the glass shatters (which I interpret as time/space shattering?), we see Shadow fall into the cell Gerald is in. I can only imagine how Shadow felt being there with him in this vision, especially because he saw the firing squad shoot him. He almost seems pained by it with how he grabs his head. And then he of course falls into some void space after reaching out for Gerald. Again, I see this as the timeline breaking, especially because we see Maria’s death portrayed in the cloud/mist. Then we get that brief glimpse of Black Doom reaching out and grabbing Shadow, which leads him to believe Black Doom is back.

It’s also clear just how often Shadow thinks about and has nightmares about what happens, to the point he more or less knows the timelines of events. We really get to see how much his trauma affects him. I’ll touch on this a bit more later, but this feels like a really good depiction of PTSD and trauma. In the past few games, he hasn’t really seemed as affected by the events on the ARK, as if he has moved on. But that’s just it - he can’t completely move on from his trauma. Sure, he appears to have a better understanding and is better at coping with it (again, I’ll expand more on this as I go), but him relapsing feels like an accurate depiction of how someone with PTSD, CPTSD, or really any mental illness will go through ups and downs with their disorder.

You could argue that this wasn’t a nightmare and was a vision of sorts because of the timeline distorting, but he speaks as though he does get frequent nightmares. He is able to differentiate this situation from a nightmare presumably because he gets nightmares so frequently. He also mentions it happening in view of the ARK. I interpret this to mean he didn't fall asleep (especially given he is standing when he snaps out of it), but more like a trance-like state. Maybe he looked at the ARK while admiring the aurora and it started the vision?

It’s also pretty interesting that he seemed scared at the idea of Black Doom being back. When he had amnesia in ShTH, I guess he didn't have much of a reason to be scared of Black Doom. But he knows how powerful he is, and with his memories back, he knows fully what Black Doom’s influence is on his past - sharing his DNA and making an agreement with Gerald that Shadow would later collect the Chaos Emeralds for him. We know from the next episode that Shadow isn’t the most fond of his Black Arms DNA, so it makes sense that he is worried he will have to confront that part of himself…I’ll come back to this thought later. Even without that, it would be pretty disconcerting to think about a foe you defeated coming back, especially after a vision like that.

Episode 2: Finding the Way

We get another wonderful glimpse into Shadow’s past. It’s a bit more speculation, but it’s somewhat reasonable to assume that Maria is the only one who has a friendly relationship with him. Abe calls him a freak, and though Gerald created him, Maria is the one who gave a deeper meaning to his name. Maria and Abe were also friends, so I imagine that she at least tried to get him to like Shadow, but it obviously didn't work. Maybe because Maria was the only one saying nice things about Shadow? Given what he went on to do with Shadow’s memory following Maria’s death, I can’t imagine even Gerald had the closest relationship with Shadow. Correct me if I’m wrong, but we don’t really have anything canon to show that he cares much for Shadow as an individual versus as his science project. It makes sense that Shadow is so weary of others and why Maria’s death hurt him so much - she was the only one among many who cared about him personally.

We see more of Shadow’s insecurity and his struggles with his identity. He seems genuinely afraid because of his alien DNA. This once again makes me think that Gerald was very clear to Shadow about what his origins were and his purpose, but perhaps not much more than that. After all, Shadow doesn’t believe he has a place on earth. If Gerald really cared, I figure he would have talked to Shadow about going home with himself and Maria about going home together, and he would have dispelled Shadow’s fears about being a monster because of his DNA. Besides, Shadow’s negative perception of the Black Arms had to come from somewhere, right? This is speculation, of course, but I can’t find much to suggest Gerald cared much for him. It’s heartbreaking to think that because Gerald messed with his memories, he could have used the ARK to destroy all life on earth - not too dissimilar to what Black Doom wanted. Can you imagine the guilt Shadow feels by almost becoming the thing he feared so much?

In the midst of Shadow’s worry, we get to see Maria being a sisterly figure to him. I love this scene so much - I genuinely teared up when I first watched it. Anyways, we see that Shadow clearly struggles with his origins, but Maria doesn’t view him the way he does - he’s not the heartless monster he thinks he is. She genuinely listens to his concerns, and when she sees him become depressed over his origins, she immediately comforts him She sees that he genuinely cares, even if he struggles to express it. Autistic Shadow, yay! To her, it’s what Shadow does, not what he is, that makes him a good person. She was perhaps the only person to view him as more than just a science project. And despite him being viewed poorly by others, Maria sees that he cares for others. This is supported by a scene later as well as one in the third episode, but I’ll get to that.

Fast forward to modern day and yay, Team Dark! It’s interesting that their introduction comes after Maria says that Shadow will find more people he can trust, aka Rouge and Omega. (I’d also argue Sonic is someone Shadow trusts and maybe Amy too, but we ain’t talking about them right now.) We get to see Shadow and Rouge’s friendly relationship with one another. They may not be partners per se, but she greets him like a close friend that she’s comfortable with. He, in turn, shows curiosity about why she’s there without a hint of malice. They both openly share why they’re there, which is a testament to their trust in one another. He was listening but also making sure to watch out for dangers and saves her, much like he does for Maria in the first episode when she collapses. It’s in his nature to look out for others.

We then get to see a glimpse of his leadership. Sure, I don’t know if you can really say they’re strictly a team. As much as I love Team Dark, they seem to mostly team up due to convenience and circumstance, but he directly but respectfully gives them an order and they follow without hesitation because they trust and respect him. When they’re together, they work as one unit. It’s also nice to see all three of them being more than competent fighters.

The way Rouge teases Shadow about him going to Sonic’s birthday party in return for her help adds to the idea that they’re familiar with one another. You wouldn’t really speak that way, nor call a platonic friend “handsome”, unless you had a degree of familiarity and closeness with one another. If they weren’t friends, Shadow would have gotten mad at her multiple times throughout this scene. Instead, he sighs in a way that is interpreted as a reluctant yes (again, he doesn’t deny this, so it is more or less confirmed that he was agreeing to go).

We also get more confirmation that Rouge is a free/double agent. She doesn’t work for GUN, but she still works with them occasionally. She will team up with whoever it’s convenient to team up with. Of course, I like to think that her teaming up with Shadow in this instance is more her being a friend doing another friend a favour. She doesn’t really have a reason to help Shadow, and her request doesn’t personally benefit her. She’s helping Shadow because she cares about him. You quite literally see her eyes light up when she notices Shadow is there. This went from a boring intel mission to something more interesting to her.

Episode 3: To the ARK

This episode hurt me so much and made me lowkey worried that I’m gonna cry when playing Sonic x Shadow Generations.

First thing I noticed - Shadow smiling? I love that for him. I do appreciate we are seeing more of that with Shadow. He isn’t constantly brooding and miserable - he has a more casual and fun-loving side too. We also see that he has a somewhat similar view of GUN as Rouge does. They have both worked on behalf of GUN in the past in varying capacities, but whether or not they are on GUN’s side fluctuates depending on their goal. It’s what separates them from Team Sonic - they act according to their best interests and what their mission is.

I don’t have much to say about the fight. It’s epic of course, but I’ll talk about production and such later. I will say it’s funny to see they’re continuing to show how destruction-hungry Omega is. I also mentioned earlier that this episode has a scene where Shadow shows compassion for others - I was referring to him saving the GUN agent. Strictly speaking, this guy was in Shadow’s way and was attacking him, so he could’ve left him. But he saved him, possibly because he recognised that he wasn’t attacking out of a vendetta, but that it was his job to protect GUN’s machinery and assets. That and we get to see that Shadow can teleport small distances as a natural ability, not because of a Chaos Emerald.

When Shadow is under threat of the spacecraft he’s in being shot down, you can see the panic in Rouge’s face. Thankfully Abe comes in and tells the GUN forces to stand down, but it’s nice seeing how much she cares about Shadow. We know she cares of course, but she definitely has a soft spot for Shadow. There’s the scene in Heroes where she worries about Shadow not being the real one, which also showcases Omega’s wisdom and own compassion. Then in 06 we get to see her assuring Shadow that she’ll be on his side, even if the world turns against him. And now in this episode and the previous one, you see that she gently pushes him out of his comfort zone, has a genuine comradery with Shadow and Omega. Not just that though, she clearly understands Shadow very deeply as evidenced by her conversation with Abe.

From Abe’s point of view, it’s nice to see him genuinely wanting to connect with Shadow. He is remorseful for the way he treated Shadow in the past and wants to be trusted by him. And he clearly has implicit trust in him - he did let Shadow fly off in the spacecraft without even knowing what he was doing.

I will say one minor nitpick I have with this scene is what Rouge said. When Abe scolds Rouge for not talking Shadow down, she says that only one person who do that - Maria. You could argue that Sonic and Amy can both talk Shadow down, though. Amy was the one who convinced Shadow to help everyone steer the ARK away from earth. And in the IDW, Sonic talked Shadow out of hurting Mr Tinker (Eggman), even though his worries came true later on. I assume what Rouge meant though was the Maria is the only one he will trust wholeheartedly and follow unwaveringly. With Amy, he backed down because she reminded him of Maria’s true promise. With Sonic, his past was leveraged against him, and seeing how hard Shadow is on himself regarding his past mistakes, you could argue he backed off out of guilt rather than agreeing with Sonic.

And then…that scene plays. Shadow daydreams about what could have been if Maria was alive, and the vocal track clearly highlights that he blames himself for her death. This causes him to get anxious until he snaps himself out of his daydream. The way he says “stop that” so softly breaks my heart. This is one of the first times we have seen Shadow be so emotional, and it makes sense. He had a vision that made him relive his most traumatic memory, and he was going back to the very place it all happened. Not only that, but there was the possibility of Black Doom being back - what would he do if he was there? Of course he was thinking about Maria!

I know some people don’t like that Shadow is going back to his old memories because they think he should be over it, but as I’ve already said in another post, PTSD doesn’t work like that. Even ignoring the situation at hand - the vision he had and having to return to the ARK with the possibility of facing Black Doom again - recovery isn’t linear. Of course he is going to fluctuate in how affected he is by his past. What happened to him was incredibly traumatic. We have now seen how Maria was perhaps the only person who cared about him and the only friend she had. His job was to cure and protect her and, by his definition, he failed to do the one thing he was created for - saving her. Not only that, but his memories then got screwed with, and his relationship with Maria was manipulated by the very person he was created by, causing him to do the very thing Maria didn't want him to do. He then had to struggle with his amnesia, deal with identity issues surrounding potentially being an android, and facing against Black Doom, who like Gerald tried to use his past to manipulate him. Those things aren’t just something you “get over”. Sure, he seems to be better at managing his symptoms, but he can’t ever really forget or get over what happened.

The song lyrics also reveals a lot about Shadow’s thought process in this scene. Him referring to his situation as a never-ending nightmare once again highlights his PTSD. It’s a memory that will likely haunt him for a long time. I would say for the rest of his life, but he’s immortal - I believe eventually he will come to focus more on the positive parts of his memories with Maria, but that will take time. Or maybe just Sonic x Shadow Generations? Who knows. He also talks about pretending to see Maria again and imagining a world where he saved Maria, which we see him doing in the episode. But we clearly see he blamed himself - he says he “failed” to save Maria and how he “can’t forgive the wrongs” he’s done to Maria. And the final line about him remaining alone? Obviously he has people he trusts and cares about now, but being lonely and feeling alone are two different things. He has people like Rouge, Omega, Sonic - but ultimately he feels alone because he struggles to get close to them emotionally. Think about it - this is perhaps the only time we have seen Shadow so emotional, but he does this when he’s alone. He struggles to be vulnerable with others, I assume in large part because those close to him have used and manipulated him in the past. Plus he holds on dearly to the title of Ultimate Lifeform - perhaps he views that it’s a weakness to be vulnerable. Or given how much self-blame he has, maybe he feels he isn’t allowed to receive help. Either way, it’s really sad that he feels so alone. I hope someday he opens up to someone.

Okay, so before I move on to my general thoughts and predictions for the new game, I just want to quickly talk about…

✨ The Production ✨

…because man, these episodes slap!! The animation is absolutely gorgeous. It’s 3D but it almost looks 2D? The lighting is amazing, especially when showing energy sources like Shadow’s chaos energy or the glowing tubes in the first episode. It’s so incredibly striking. And the choreography? Amazing!! The music is also so incredibly emotional. The ones that stand out is the one that plays when Maria grabs Shadow’s hand in the first episode, and of course the vocal track Without You in the third episode. I honestly don’t have the words to properly describe everything, it’s just so incredible.

SxS Gens — Promotional Material (Trailers/Interviews)

I won’t go super in depth, but I’ll briefly mention some of my thoughts about what we have seen so far. I’ll probably miss stuff out, but the game is two weeks away, so all will be revealed properly soon enough.

A lot of Shadow’s character so far has been him moving on from his past, but this game seems to be him confronting it. The two biggest hints for this is the Doom Powers and the return of Maria and Gerald. With the Doom Powers, Shadow is having to fully embrace his Black Arms DNA. We see how insecure he is about his origins in Dark Beginnings, but now he is going to have to confront that part of himself, face it head on and make it his own. With regards to Maria and Gerald, perhaps he will talk to Gerald and ask more questions? Not sure exactly what they’d talk about, but I hope they talk in some capacity.

I assume the biggest thing will be Shadow deciding between keeping Maria around or restoring the timeline. I’ve seen some people want a Life is Strange type decision where you get to choose which you want, but I highly doubt it. I would also argue that’s a regression in Shadow’s character. Not only would he be disregarding Maria’s wishes, but it would also be him backtracking on his growth in finding himself outside of his history with Maria. Also, I know he cares about Maria, but to think he’d sacrifice everything just to stay with her? It goes against his resolve to sacrifice himself for humanity and his desire to fulfil Maria’s wish to protect humanity. And it would also mean he screws over all his new friends. Sure, I reckon he’ll struggle with the choice, but ultimately it makes more sense for him to sacrifice her again, both in terms of honouring Maria’s wishes and to develop him as a character to show he is genuinely moving on. There’s also the chance they bring Maria back somehow while restoring the timeline, but I personally don’t think it’ll happen and don’t want it to happen. I love Maria, but it’ll be more impactful to have Shadow decide to restore the timeline instead of sacrificing it to save Maria.

A few points from the Developer Interview I’d like to talk about quickly. It’s mentioned that Shadow’s story will be “dramatic” and that we will be “emotionally moved by it.” Given the response from the just 10-15 minutes of animation in the Dark Beginnings, I can definitely see this game being emotional, and it seems that’s what they're trying to accomplish. They mention portraying him being in pain, which we have definitely seen the physical sides of in the trailers. But I assume he’s also going to suffer emotionally, both because of Black Doom and seeing Maria again.

They bring up Sonic’s birthday party and that Shadow isn’t there. Obviously we know that he was invited by Rouge, but my assumption is that he doesn’t show because he is already wrapped up with the Time Eater and/or Black Doom and so can’t make the party. Perhaps he is even taken to White Space before the Time Eater crashes Sonic’s birthday party?

From a gameplay perspective, it seems the Doom Powers are intended to let you traverse the levels in different ways. To quote the video: “We needed to make sure when we’re designing the levels that the player could find a different path if you use Chaos Control, or if you’re using the Doom Powers in a certain way or in certain locations and that those powers could create new ways of getting through the game.” This links up with the Famitsu interview where they state that “you can complete the game without using Doom Power.” It seems these powers are there to make revisiting the levels more viable by creating shortcuts and helping you reach different locations. It’ll be interesting to see just how much exploration the levels have!

It’s clear as well that they want this game to be a love letter to old fans and an introduction to new ones. That makes sense - being a new fan is likely intimidating given all the spinoff games and such. I haven’t played all of them and I’ve been a fan of Sonic since I was a kid! And bear in mind, as much as it feels aging to hear, Shadow was introduced in 2001 - over 20 years ago. Although my friends aren’t as intensely interested in Sonic as I perhaps am, they are aware of Shadow’s existence. But they definitely don’t know his backstory. It’s completely valid to not know the full extent of Shadow’s backstory - whether or not you’re a new - especially given it’s scattered across 20+ years worth of spinoff games spanning a variety of consoles. If you’re one of those people, you’re completely valid. It doesn’t make you more or less of a fan because you don’t know every little detail of the Sonic lore.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be honest, when I initially saw the game advertised, I wasn’t really hyped for it. I think I was nervous because if you ignore The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Prime, Shadow’s writing has been a bit mixed. (My thoughts on Shadow’s writing in TMOSTH can be found here if you’re curious!) There’s the infamous Boom characterisation, which I think is universally disliked. And even in the IDW, Shadow’s writing can be a bit iffy. I had lost faith in Shadow’s modern characterisation until TMOSTH and Prime came out, so I was desperately hoping they took the positive feedback from that and continued it. I was worried though, given that one was a short April Fool’s game and the other was a TV series.

Thankfully, it seems they are continuing to do Shadow justice!

Dark Beginnings has done most of the heavy lifting when it comes to my excitement for the game. Not only is it beautifully animated with gorgeous music, but the writing is incredibly emotional. It really feels like the writers poured a lot of love into it, and I’m so incredibly happy to see Shadow being more than just “Sonic’s edgy antagonistic rival”

Sonic x Shadow Generations seems like a good format to introduce new fans to Shadow’s lore. They’re clearly taking it all into account given how much they referenced in Dark Beginnings. Generations is about celebrating and exploring the past again, which feels like a brilliant opportunity to explain Shadow’s lore and how it affects to his future.

I’m sure I’m missing some thoughts and maybe I’ll sneakily edit this post as new thoughts and revisions come to me, but I feel like I’ve already said a lot. To anyone who read this far, thank you! I hope my thoughts were…interesting to read? Who knows! This was mostly just my way of infodumping in the absence of friends to talk to.

I can’t wait for October 25th!

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

My favorite funny thing on occasion is to imagine sugar baby/daddy dynamics with Tails ships

Something so comical about the fact that Sonic the hedgehog (hedgehog without a home) would be sugar baby to Tails (fox who has so many labs. Like who needs to worry about money when your little buddy pays for stuff heroing doesn't and keeps his bases fully stocked with ingredients for your favorite food

Or like, Tails, who basically ended up being Sonic's sugar daddy, accidentally gaining more sugar babies by virtue of making sure certain characters don't inconvenience people (basically playing damage control)

While I think it's Rouge mainly who would probably suppliment the money for Omega and Shadow (if need be) and play this sort of role for them, it's still funny to imagine Tails insisting on setting them up in hotel rooms because Shadow was just about to sleep outside and saw no problem with that (and because Tails can't very well just let Shadow do that)

A friend of mine also moved that, under this framework, after the idw issues where the Chaotix took a job helping Knuckles get an artifact back, Tails would just silently patch them rent money as an apology for the whole thing.

Rich inventor Tails accidentally gaining bfs out of the main cast as his sugar babies because he's assumed responsibility for their antics and cares about them too much to just let them live life the way they have been. Do you see my vision?

[sonichaunt]

Coloured an older AU sketch, when I did a lot of the redesigning for my AU I was really into the sonic movie style so that's why all the eyes are separated in these older sketches xD

This AU was meant to explore my personal headcanon that Sonic is one of the "miracles" created by the 7 chaos emeralds to serve as a guardian. The AU was meant as a SA3, that connected all the lore from the games (+ a little from the movies etc.) prior to forces (which I have still not played xD) with each other into one final story. The character you see here is Zephyr, Shadow and Sonic in this drawing are seeing a vision of the past, because long story short Zephyr and Sonic are sort of the same entity in a long convoluted way, so they don't exist at the same time. Zephyr's design is based on the mural from angel island and Sonic, Shadow & Silver. Zephyr is very chaotic, not necessarily a force of "good", his fur becomes a lighter and a darker colour depending on his emotional state. Zephyr's chaos energy takes the form of wind and lightning. He usually wears a red long skirt around his middle and 2 long white ribbons around his upper arms, but I didn't draw those here. Zephyr is NOT on good therms with the black arms, Black doom found it very ironic and took satisfaction in how Gerald based Shadow on his old foe, seeing as Shadow was gonna help him do what Zephyr and the other chaos guardians prevented. Black doom also absolutely had a heart attack when he first saw Sonic. On the flip side, if Zephyr had met Shadow, it is very likely he would have treated Shadow as a case of: kill on sight.

You can view Zephyr as similar to chaos 0, this AU also had a Solaris 0, which actually became something I used for the 06 rewrite I also did later, Solaris having been a guardian of the sol emeralds, more on that eventually.

[caffeine-clouds]

Chapter 40 Discussion...

I feel like doing a bit of a director's commentary, if you will, for Chapter 40 of The Butterfly Effect - so, I guess spoilers if you haven't gotten the chance to read it yet teehee

Is it obvious that I love mind fucks? Probably. With the amount of nightmares I've given Sonic - of course I do.

When Sonic and Shadow made it into the crystal cavern - they learned that 14 chaos emeralds are needed to be placed upon the pillars. So essentially - they need both sets of emeralds from both timelines, which is of course is going to be very easy to find (not).

But when Shadow decides to run off ahead because he's a professional dummy - Sonic and Shadow find themselves plagued with their own unique visions that are essentially a personification of their fears - and I wanted to talk about those.

----

Sonic's obvious major concern is the safety of his true friends - he wants them back, but he's having doubts about the whole situation - mainly due to the fact that it's very likely the new timeline will disappear as a result. But those are the doubts at the back of HIS mind, he can ignore that as he sets off to fix the world.

But you know what he can't ignore? His friendssss. He has visions of their reflections and they are the ones voicing his doubts back to him. So Sonic starts to listen to them more, as much as he'd rather not hear it. His friends are basically all telling him some sort of variation of "Just quit it, accept the existence of the new timeline - trying to fix everything is just going to cause more problems".

And with Shadow, we got to see that the visions were a sort of trap - because as he lost himself to them - his body was getting trapped in crystals.

Whatever was trying to influence him, whether Sonic's theory of it being Pachacamac was right or not - it was definitely trying to make Sonic turn back - even if he didn't end up getting trapped down tere. There is obviously something they don't want happening - but obviously, they very clearly understimated Sonic. Even with all the confusion - there's no way he's going to give up on saving the world, that much is certain.

----

Shadow, unfortunately, was a lot easier to manipulate. For him, he really didn't lose Maria that long ago - he's still grieving her tremendously. He has not gone through the same growth as OG Shadow has - he's defining himself by Maria's wish, he's still fueled by hurt, and he's going to do a lot of actively pushing people away. So essentially - it was no surprise he got so affected.

Since Sonic showed him glimpses of the new timeline, Shadow just can't wrap his head around the idea that there's a life where he seems to have moved on from Maria completely - to him, it's like he's neglecting her wishes and shoving her aside for his own selfish wants. He saw himself smiling with Rouge and Omega and he's like "No! What are you doing? You should be fighting, doing something other than indulging yourself! Why do you have new friends? Did you forget all about her?"

So ALT Shadow is already making assumptions about OG Shadow - ALT thinks he must be selfish and borderline crazy if he found himself able to move on from her (hence, Shadow giving all those creepy smiles and being just a tad deranged). And that disregard for Maria was shown quite plainly when OG Shadow broke the Maria crystal.

Obviously, that isn't OG Shadow - it's a vision, but - ALT Shadow doesn't know what the true OG Shadow is like.

ALT envies OG for being able to have a happier life, but at the same time resents him - because after all, as he screams at him - he doesn't believe he deserves to move on because he thinks everything that happened on the ARK was his fault. He screams this at himself - both figuratively and literally. He believes he just doesn't have the right to live his life for himself - not after everything he's responsible for.

Now Shadow's gotta grapple with the question of whether he wants to help bring back this supposed timeline - where that Shadow, supposedly, isn't even honouring her wishes - and is instead living selfishly, rather than devoting his all time to protecting humanity. Does ALT Shadow... want to bring back that world?

Guess we'll have to find outttt~ Hope you enjoyed my rambles, I just wanted to talk about these scenes pfft.

[the-era-of-shadow]

The Same As I (A Distorted Reflection)

Written by Ash Rose Red

Summary:

As Eclipse leaves to go run a quick errand, one of the wisps that they had taken from Whisper awakens, that wisp being Blue. They strike up a conversation with Blurk, who was nearby, and quickly, it becomes clear that despite his form, Blurk is just about the same as them, but not exactly. He's like a distorted mirror image, or perhaps, a premonition of a dismal future? By the way, what is this strange sensation they've been feeling?

Notes:

CW/TW for body horror of a sort. Also just like. horror in general

Cold, heavy wind, quick in its journey across the skies.

That is what woke Blue up.

For a split second, they wondered if it was them once again crossing paths with the world renowned Sonic Hogpine, but as their vision adjusted to the sunlight, it would seem that there was no such heroic blue hedgehog in sight.

But there was someone.

That doctor, Doctor Ezrieal Clysdale, the one that Blue and their friends had been with for a good few days now - perhaps even longer. They stood just somewhat beyond the room that Blue was in, looking at who-knows-what, or perhaps looking for who-knows-what. They were in that strange form again, the one that they had been in since that battle at their clinic took place. Was this their true form? It didn't feel like such to Blue, who had met them as a fox mobian. They were supposed to only stay with that fox for a day or so, they were meant to be returned to their caretaker, Whisper. But Whisper attacked Doctor Clysdale, and then left without a trace, leaving Blue and the other wisps behind with the Doctor, now in that strange form.

Blue didn't understand why she would do such a thing, Doctor Clysdale was very kind to Blue and the others, so why attack them? What did they do wrong? Maybe it was because of Blue's aversion to violence, but they just couldn't wrap their head around it.

Even though the doctor was at a distance, Blue had the inclination to ask questions. Where were they? Why are they here? When will Whisper come back? Why did Whisper attack you? 

But none of those questions actually left their head, too scared to say them and then not be heard, or not understood. Doctor Clysdale didn't have one of those masks that Whisper and the others used to understand them. But they are a wisp doctor, so perhaps they had some other way of understanding them?

A shadow began to loom over from the side of Blue. They turned around to see that it was one of those young attendants of the doctor that Blue would see from time to time around the clinic, before the battle. 

This person, too, was once a fox, but he too was now in that strange appearance. Mobian, but also not quite? Maybe not mobian.

He looked so much like Doctor Clysdale, but also so much like Blue themself, like the middle ground of a two-toned gradient. His eyes had black irises that had pupils that were box-like and were a vibrant shade of cerulean blue, like a simplification of Blue's reflection, which matched the accent color of the young boy's… hair? Fur? Neither term seemed right. Whatever it was, it was very angular, just like his pupils.

"First one awake? Can't relate, honestly." He said, seemingly directly to Blue.

"I'm not usually the first one up, just a light sleeper, that's all." Blue responded impulsively.

"Ah. Again, can't relate. My siblings will tell ya, I sleep like a rock." 

Did… did the boy just… understand them??

"Anyways, did that lady like, give you an actual name or what?" He spoke again.

"Uhm… The Diamond Cutters always called me "Blue", and Whisper never saw a reason to call me anything different…" Blue explained.

"So no, then." The boy replied bluntly, "Is that just in your case or are all of you like that?"

"... All of us, I guess?"

"Figures. I'm sure Ma will think of somethin' for y'all." The boy noted vaguely. Blue wondered why it was that this "Ma", who they assumed to be referring to Doctor Clysdale, would have to think of new names for them and the others. But there was a matter that was far more pressing in their opinion that they wanted to get out the way first and foremost.

"How… How are you able to understand me?" Blue asked, their voice shaking ever so slightly.

"Oh yeah. Should probably change out of my bodysuit or whatever." The boy said with a chuckle, seemingly dodging the question. But his statement caught Blue off guard regardless.

"Y-your what-?!" They exclaimed in confusion. The boy did not answer, walking towards and eventually onto some sort of platform. The platform was ever so slightly raised from the floor itself, and contrasted in its high-tech appearance, being completely ebony aside from a strip of what looked like neon lights to Blue, glowing in the same hue as the boy's pupils. Or at least, in the same hue that his pupils once glowed, as when the boy stepped onto the platform, the color faded out, leaving an empty gray in its wake. 

From behind the boy's now completely blank face, a creature flew out into Blue's view, and approached the very confused wisp. The creature certainly looked like a blue cube wisp, but still, things were a little off. The skin tone wasn't nearly as vibrant as Blue's was. The eyes looked completely different, having completely black slits for irises that had no pupils, and not just that, but the eyes themselves were completely misplaced. While Blue's three eyes were all on their face, the creature only had one eye on his face, while the other two were on the sides of his head, one each. Lastly, the creature had a visible mouth, which was jagged and sharp, while Blue had no visible mouth at all. It was a sight that sickened Blue to see, but the creature's facial expression would suggest that nothing was wrong at all.

"Okay, cool. So is the answer clear to you now or what?" The boy's voice came from the creature, implying that the creature was the boy.

"... A-Are you… also a wisp??" Blue asked, their voice shaking as they did, not wanting to consider that this contorted form truly was a variation of their own self.

"Yep. Name's Blurk by the way. Sorry that I didn't lead off with that." Despite his apology, his tone did not waver for even a minute, it was as flat and monotone as ever, which seemed to only add to the unnerving aura this "Blurk" had in the eyes of Blue.

"... Why do you look so…?" Blue attempted to question, but was lost for the word they needed.

"Strange? Contorted? Corrupted? Yeah, that's a fair ask, I guess. Can't remember all the details but Ma's had us since we were still in eggs, and they, like, messed around with our genetics and stuff to maximize our potential and make us more Black Arms-like and stuff. Oh yeah, Ma's a Black Arms by the way. It's fine if you don't know what that is just yet, but I guess I should let ya know." Blurk explained in a rambling sort of way.

"...And that caused all… that…?" 

"Yep. Came out of the egg lookin' like this. Makes me wonder what it'll be like for you lot, having lived the most of your lives as just regular ol' wisps and all." Blurk began to speculate.

"What… it'll be like… for us…?" Blue echoed fearfully, suddenly feeling a strange pain surge through them.

"Yeah. Sorry 'bout the short notice, but since that lady decided to book it from the clinic, Ma decided to assimilate y'all into the hivemind. I'd rather you not make a fuss about it, I'm sure it means a lot to them to have the chance to go back to where their whole science shtick began, ya know?" Blurk revealed.

Blue was shocked, that's for certain, and still very, very confused. Assimilate? Hivemind? Black Arms? What does it all even mean?? It seemed like they weren't going to get much explanation on those fronts from Blurk.

"I don't really know how most of this stuff works, but I've listened to Ma and Rhy go off about it enough to have part of their scripts practically memorized. Basically, Ma did most of the heavy work last night while you all were asleep, and there's gonna be some neuro gas stuff coming out in like, a couple of minutes, to chill y'all out and numb your bodies while the whole mutation thing happens, so it doesn't hurt." Blurk continued to monologue.

"Mutation?!" Blue gasped, feeling the pain from before begin to return.

"Mhm. You lot are gonna look like us, now isn't that exciting?" Blurk responded, still as monotone as ever. "I wonder if you'll look like a clone of me or if you'll look a bit different. Both of those thoughts excite me, personally, but if you don't like what you end up with, there's always the bodysuits. Gonna have to talk to Rhy 'bout that stuff though. She won't mind, of course. In fact, I bet she'll be really happy to talk that sorta thing with you. Surprised she ain't here as we speak." He continued.

"B-But what if Whisper comes back for us?? Then what will you do, huh?!" Blue suddenly blurted out in a sudden fit of fury.

"I hope she does. That would mean Ma could assimilate her too. Wouldn't you want that as well?" Blurk surmised, his resolve not faltering for not even a single moment.

"NO?? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU??" Blue yelled, giving into their anger.

"I was created to be a vessel for chaos. For that which orderly society fears the most. I know that such a concept is foreign to you. I can tell that you remain tied to your dimension of origin. You were born there, perhaps even raised there to a certain extent before being brought into this dimension by those "Diamond Cutters" you speak of. But you will come to understand the importance of chaos. Your mind and body will become a distorted reflection of the you that lingers in this moment. You will become one of us, and I will watch the process with the utmost excitement." 

Blue wanted to say something back, something, anything, but they came to realize that they could not. A mental fog took control of their brain's processes and stopped them dead in their tracks, and before they could try to fight it, the stench of anesthetics filled their senses, and blurred their sight.

"It is time. You must rest now…

Blarjikære*…"

*Translation Note: Close friend within the Black Arms

[darkjanet2]

Sonic Adventure 2: Sonadow

Chapter 12: Road to Space Colony ARK

The Sonic Team flew to Egypt as fast as they could. They needed to find a hidden base as soon as possible before Eggman could activate the Ark. They needed to find a way to travel to the Ark before it became too late.

In this desert area, Rouge stood there using binoculars. She was searching carefully for any sign of life, hoping to find someone who could point him in the right direction towards the place where Sonic had said he knew a safe landing spot. But there were no life forms around that seemed like it belonged here. Not even animals. There was nothing but sand and rocks everywhere.

Then a blue biplane approached across the sky coming from the north direction. Its outline was unmistakable: a young fox carrying Sonic crew members on board. Rouge spoke to the walkie-talkie.

"Shadow! They're in that blue plane, spotted at 11 o'clock!" said Rouge.

"Copy that. I'm in pursuit," said Shadow through the walkie-talkie.

Then he headed off in the direction where the plane was leading, there was a pyramid at the distance that looked like it would lead them to the destination. He stopped there and watched the plane go down into the desert area. He spoke to Dr. Eggman through the walkie-talkie.

"Doctor, they're heading directly towards us. What should we do?" asked Shadow.

"Just sit tight. I've got them on my radar. There's no way they can get away. I don't know what they're planning, but I'll be sure to give them a warm welcome," said Eggman, smirking evilly.

*Meanwhile*

The Sonic team arrived at the desert area where the plane landed. The sun beat against their bodies, making it harder to breathe. They dismounted the plane and looked around at the surroundings. It appeared to be completely deserted.

"Here we are at Egypy. Boy, it is hot out here!" said Tails as he looked up at the hot sun.

"Yeah, that doesn't look promising. We'd better start looking quickly for something that might hide us in a cave nearby," said Sonic.

He shielded his hand over his eyes scanning around the area. Suddenly his vision was interrupted by a triangular building, it was a pyramid from the distance.

"Inside that pyramid?" asked Sonic.

"I saw Eggman go inside that pyramid and more importantly, I saw that bat girl go inside with him. as well. You saw them, too, right?" asked Knuckles.

Amy nodded, "Yes, I did. That's where we have to head. Let's try to find an entrance to the secret base."

"She's right. We should be able to get into outer space from there. I have no idea what this space colony is all about, but I'll find and destroy that cannon, and then kick their asses!" said Sonic.

"Alright!" said Knuckles.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles led the way while Amy was left behind.

"Wait for me, guys!" Amy shouted as unpacked her bag to pick out her big, pink water jug. She drank water that she had to stay hydrated before running in the hot sun.

"Ah, good thing I bring water with me," she said as she ran after them.

After that, they were inside that pyramid building, finding stairs going underground, and following the voices echoing through the pyramid walls, until they reached an intersection, which led to a large room. At the opposite end of the room was another pyramid with another corridor leading up. It was dark, the torches lit only by orange light.

"Whoa, this place is huge. Maybe we found something important?" asked Amy. She looked around cautiously, waiting for some sort of danger or trap to pop out at her. Then she looked at the walls, trying to read the symbols engraved along them.

"What are these?" she asked.

"They look Egyptian," answered Sonic. He studied them for a little bit and then turned to his friends. "These are hieroglyphics, from ancient Egypt.''

"Ancient Egypt? Is this an old tomb or something?" asked Tails.

"I learned them from school. Apparently, there used to be an ancient race called Egyptians, but now they disappeared, so we probably aren't talking about them anymore. Now, come on. Let's look further," said Sonic as he led the way deeper into the maze of tunnels. They walked and walked and still didn't find anything useful. Finally, Sonic stopped abruptly at the door, there was the Eggman logo engraved on it.

"Looks like we're heading toward the center of the base," said Tails.

"That egghead sure loves mechanical things, doesn't he? I bet he has one or two spaceships lying around here somewhere," said Sonic.

"The door is locked. We need a key to get in there," said Tails.

"Not a problem, we can find it, right, Knuckles?" asked Sonic.

"Huh? Me? Why do I have to find a key?" asked Knuckles, clearly confused.

"Because we're counting on you, buddy! The world's greatest treasure hunter!" exclaimed Sonic. He smiled and gave Knuckles a thumbs up.

"Well, alright! I'm going to find it," said Knuckles.

*15 minutes later*

Knuckles came back to his friends and he had found the key underground. After unlocking the door, Knuckles opened it wide enough for them to pass in front of him. "All right! Come on, let's see if there's anything valuable here," said Knuckles as they all went deeper into the room. There was a rocket in the hidden base, they were astounded at its size, and the power of its energy system. Amy and Tails smiled and laughed in excitement.

"This is it! We found the rocket!" exclaimed Amy happily.

"Amy, we did it!" exclaimed Tails.

Amy and Tails hugged each other and jumped up and down with joy. "We're going to Space Colony!" screamed Amy as she hugged Tails tighter. Sonic chuckled and Knuckles crossed his arms with a smile.

"You little thieves! Do you really think you can get out of here alive?" They turned around where the voice came from. It was Eggman.

"EGGMAN!" they all yelled in unison.

"This time, I'll take your lives as well as Chaos Emerald. I call on you to destroy these pests. Come out, my servant!" Eggman ordered. A ground rumbled underneath their feet, making the Sonic team stumbled. A rocky giant hand came out of the hole.

Sonic gasped in horror. Then the rock body came out of the hole entirely. He stared at a monster as big as a mountain, it opened its eyes glow red in anger, as if ready to attack.

"What the hell is that?!" screamed Knuckles.

"Oh, crap! This is not good! You guys ahead go to the spaceship! I'll take care of that rock guy!" yelled Sonic.

"No! You will not take care of that thing by yourself!" shouted Amy.

"Amy, you've gotta trust me! You have to leave! You won't make it out alive!" replied Sonic.

"Are you sure?" asked Tails, who was frightened by what he was seeing.

"I'll be okay. Don't worry about me. Just go!" yelled Sonic as he charged at the golem.

"SONIC!!!" screamed Amy, her hand reaching out.

"C'mon! We gotta go!!" yelled Knuckles, grabbing Amy's arm and pulling her away. As Amy was leaving, she glanced over her shoulder at Sonic who was facing the rock monster alone.

"Hey, rock guy! If you wanna fight, then fight! But let me warn ya, I am the greatest hero the universe has ever known!" Sonic bellowed with a loud battle cry.

The golem raised its fist and slammed on the center, but Sonic dodged it in the nick of time by leaping away to the side. As he moved forward, he was trying to find a weak spot on the golem's body when he saw something shining on the top of its head. With lightning speed, he ran up to the creature and grabbed ahold of the red pearl with both hands. In his grip, the creature lifted upward and threw him backward into the floor where it crashed hard. Once again he was sent flying in the air and landed heavily on the floor on his stomach. His breath was knocked out of his lungs.

"Son of a... Bitch!" groaned painfully Sonic.

Sonic weakly stood up holding his broken ribs. He took a deep breath in and breathed out loudly. Slowly, he regained his composer and began to concentrate his power. He slowly closed his eyes as his body glowed blue, the sound of buzzing and crackling, and the electricity surged through his body. His eyes widened open, and his irises glowed blue.

The golem slammed the azure hedgehog, but with lightning speed, Sonic dodged easily out of the way and ran in the direction the golem had just been thrown. Once he got there, Sonic launched himself at the beast and landed hard on its head breaking the red pearl. The golem staggered backward and fell on its face, unmoving, and completely immobilized.

Sonic rose to his feet. He panted, breathing deeply, his chest rising and falling rapidly. His whole body ached, and he collapsed to the ground all four, exhausted. His blue aura glowed down to his normal state.

He cracked one eye open and glared hatefully at the unconscious giant golem.

"Now that wasn't so difficult…" he whispered.

Inside the rocket, Tails began to activate the rocket's engines while Amy sat next to him, her face filled with worry that Sonic was going to come back.

"Is Sonic going to be okay?" asked Amy, anxiously.

"He'll be fine. He said he will catch up to us soon," said Tails.

"I hope he hurries up and defeats that monster," said Amy.

Tails started the engine, the fire began to ablaze from the nozzles preparing to liftoff. Knuckles fastened his seatbelt and looked over at Amy.

"Don't worry. Sonic will be here," said Knuckles.

Amy was about to say something, she turned her head to the window that the blue figure coming to the rocket. It was Sonic!

"You guys, it's Sonic! Sonic is here!" exclaimed Amy, happily.

"So he is!" exclaimed Tails.

The computer's male voice began the countdown.

"Prepare to liftoff. 10... 9... 8..."

Sonic hurried through the rocket door, ignoring the pain in his body. He had to go Tails quickly before the rocket departed.

"7... 6... 5..."

Sonic made it to the rocket and quickly sat down in his seat and fastened his seatbelt.

"4... 3... 2... 1... 0."

Suddenly, the rocket ignited and lifted off the ground, soaring into the sky above the Eggman base, high above the city, and then disappearing into the blackness of space. Sonic gazed upon the moon that shone brightly in the night sky. He felt content and happy. He closed his eyes for a brief moment until his eyes slowly opened.

"You okay, Sonic? Did you beat that rock guy?" asked Tails.

"Yeah, totally," answered Sonic.

"Well, that's good. Now, we don't have to worry about Eggman anymore," said Tails.

"Yeah, I guess that's true," replied Sonic. He sighed quietly. "Look, I know this sounds cheesy, but thank you for waiting for me. Without you guys, I would've missed the rocket launch and wouldn't have gotten back here in time to stop the ship from taking off," said Sonic, giving Tails a warm smile.

"It's nothing," answered Tails.

"You're awfully hurt, Sonic. Are you okay?" asked Amy.

"Yeah, just got thrown against a wall," lied Sonic, trying to convince them.

"I can mend your wound if you want," offered Amy.

"Uhh, sure," answered Sonic. "But don't do anything crazy."

[power-rings]

Shadow embraced the tall blonde human even tighter, afraid it was a dream, and she'd disappear like so many times before. As he peeled his eyes open, he realized that this was not a dream. When he met her eyes, however, she appeared to be confused by the embrace. Maria opened her mouth, and then shut it again, patting his back, before pulling away. "There, there, buddy. Uh...do I need to take you to the doctor?" Her blue eyes searched for any noticeable injuries after his fall.

Shadow felt his heart sink. Did he really travel to a timeline where Maria didn't know him? He gave her some space, and cleared his throat. "I'm fine." His crimson eyes searched his surroundings. Behind them stood a two story home, which he assumed belonged to Maria. Wherever they were it was quiet here. So quiet that he could hear the busy city a couple miles away. "...I didn't mean to scare you.. I-" His ear twitched, at the sound of the front door opening. He noticed a familiar outline of the figure standing at the door. Could it really be his creator? He didn't even think. Once he came fully in his vision, instead of his creator standing before him, it was actually his grandson... Ivo. Robotnik. Or, as his timeline knows him as Dr.Eggman. He felt nausea. Was she sharing a home with him?

"Ah, there you are my dear." His voice rough, and annoying just like 'his' Eggman.  Shadow watched Maria greet her cousin (he still couldn't over the two being related). While Maria talked to Eggman, the dark hedgehog just watched the taller human lift his goggles and his brows suddenly raise in surprise. Eggman didn't acknowledge his presence, instead, "we've got to get going." He addressed to Maria.

"I still think we should get him checked out, Ivo. He took a bad fall.." Her soft eyes watching Shadow. 

His expression was unreadable, "he looks fine to me. Let's head out, Maria." He walked towards the end of their driveway. Hesitating only for a moment for her to catch up.  Maria looked back at Shadow, as she walked to catch up to her cousin. 

--

Miles away...

"Maria, where did he come from?" Ivo's voice echoed across the room. He spun around in his chair, facing his young cousin. 

"The hedgehog back at home?" Maria looked up from her notebook, "there was some sort of flash and then all of sudden he appeared..." The blonde girl returned her attention to her notebook. "He seemed harmless, honestly."

"Hm." Robotnik grunted. "I'd stay clear of him." He turned his chair around to watch one of his many security cameras. 

Maria glanced over, and bit her bottom lip. "He acted as if he knew me? I don't-" The young human couldn't shake the thought that maybe her cousin was hiding something.

"Don't worry about him, let's finish our upgrades, Maria." He turned his back to her, as he unscrewed an electrical panel underneath. "Hm. Figures. This piece of crap is shot." Some of the wiring were fried, and the motherboard looked damaged. Nothing Ivo couldn't handle. Maria didn't pry anymore when it concerned the dark hedgehog, and helped her cousin around the base. Several computers were needing a new upgrade, which weren't too bad. At least his base was still standing, right? 

--

At Home

Maria couldn't sleep, she kept thinking about the stranger she met earlier that afternoon. How odd her cousin acted towards him. Where did he come from? Was she suppose to remember him? After hours of no luck getting any shut-eye, Maria walked downstairs to grab a late snack. As she entered the kitchen, she saw her cousin's computer was on in his room, but her cousin was nowhere to be seen. Quietly, she tiptoed further in the room, and looked at the open tabs displaying on the computer. Most of which didn't catch her eye, until she saw an article that displayed a familiar hedgehog. Behind the hedgehog stood a haunting creature with two horns. She quickly scanned over the article, before she would get caught. Of what she could make out of the article, it read:

"Project Shadow: An Experiment Gone Wrong

 .... alien blood...

Created for war...?

Prof.Gerald Robotnik had planned for his experiment to bring healing, and hope to the world, but was unprepared for the power.... it wielded. The government wanted his creation to aid in the war... it was proven to be too deadly... they ordered for it to be shut down... Funding was cancelled...

His choice to keep the experiment costed him his life..."

Maria felt like her heart jumped out of her chest when she felt a hand on her shoulder, "Shouldn't you be asleep, by now? Instead your prying on your favorite cousin's computer?" The blonde smiled back at him innocently. 

"Hey, you left it on." She shrugged. He frowned, disappointment on his features. Ivo scanned over the article she was reading. "... Was that him? The one... I met earlier."

"...The thing is... it shouldn't be. Project Shadow was shutdown." Robotnik encouraged her to exit his room, and led her into the living room. "That's why you need to keep your distance from it. Like stated in that article, Project Shadow was powerful."

"... But he hugged me..."She didn't realize her thought was spoken out loud, until Robotnik paused at the entrance to the kitchen. She rubbed the back of her head, "yeah, it was odd." Maria dropped on the couch, resting on the cushion. "I almost feel like I should know this guy?"

Ivo seemed like he was frozen in time, then he walked towards the fridge to retrieve a bottle of water. "Maria, if this was Project Shadow that you ran into, it... is just an experiment. Nothing more." He took a big gulp of water, "it could be possible that this experiment met you while you were with Grandfather. You were awfully young then. Perhaps it does have a memory of you." He shrugged his shoulders. "Let me do more research..." He muttered, before giving her a warning. "Do not go near it." He walked towards his room, and shut the door. From inside his room, she heard him wish her a goodnight. 

Maria lifted her body, and gave a deep sigh. She figured at almost 18 years of age, Ivo Robotnik wouldn't be so... protective towards her. It was annoying. She wasn't allowed to go out past 10PM. Unless she had to work late. She didn't mind him, but there were things that she didn't approve of. Like attacking a well-known hedgehog named Sonic, and his friends. He had a hatred for his kind for some reason. But, she kept her space. She had to give him credit... her cousin stopped building robots to attack Sonic, and his companions. After years and years of failing to beat him, perhaps he got bored? She wasn't quite sure. At least he kept himself busy with other projects. 

Finally, Maria's body gave in to sleep around 3AM that morning. She was grateful that she wouldn't have to work tomorrow. She slept peacefully knowing that she didn't need to set an alarm. Deep in her slumber, she kept thinking about that hedgehog she met. Was he really dangerous like Robotnik warned? Or perhaps he was someone totally different than the "failed experiment" as the article described. If she was to run into him again, which she kind of hoped, whether or not her cousin would approve... she had so many questions. ' I am a Robotnik... I can take care of myself.'  She constantly told herself. 

--

She woke up to the sound of Ivo Robotnik leaving the house, and then the piercing sunlight through her windows disturbing her from her slumber... she rolled over, her face buried into the coolness of her pillow. Maria ended up sleeping for another two hours. When she woke up around 10AM that morning, she felt so awful. Thoughts of "Project Shadow" still on her mind. Oh, great her cousin also drunk all the coffee. Peachy. Before leaving the house, Maria made a quick breakfast, showered, and got dressed. She wore her favorite pair of blue jeans, and an old cola shirt. When she stepped outside, she walked around perhaps wondering if the strange hedgehog had stayed hidden in their yard. Something told her she'd see him again. Giving up, she took off to the city. She preferred taking her bicycle over her car that sat in the garage. Sure, she was grateful that Ivo bought it for her, and upgraded it with all the bells and whistles, her bike provided plenty of exercise and that was the excuse she stuck with.

Before she got too deep in the city, she suddenly felt a sharp pain just near her shoulder blade. Perhaps she had laid wrong last night? Who knew? The pain seemed to intensified as she continued on. Everything around her grew blurry, she barely even noticed getting off her bike, and it falling to the side of the road. Gradually she made her way to the sidewalk, while her world continued to spin around her. She shut her eyes, and laid her head on the concrete sidewalk. When she opened her eyes again, she swore she saw blood on her hands. It was coming from her chest! She heard a voice... somehow familiar but also foreign to her ears. Trying not to focus on the blood, she just stared at the clear blue sky. Then two crimson eyes met her startled gaze. Those eyes from the other day... the hedgehog... ? Her vision flashed, and all of a sudden she saw a version of her on the floor, bleeding out, unfamiliar voices ringing in her ears. What was this image she was seeing? Was this a nightmare? She felt two strong arms holding against his furry chest. "Please make it stop... get ... help.." She begged. 

[atangledfate]

Jewel seemed distant when he mentioned her strength and it was true, but she hated it. Using her strength was like admitting she needed her father to protect her. She hated the idea that he was still there trying to push her to be something she wasn't. She was half goliath beetle, which meant physically she was capable of lifting quite alot if she chose to. But she always hid that side of herself, she liked being pretty, and soft and sweet! Maybe its why she and Amy got along so well. She was never gonna match someone like knuckles but she was still way stronger then people thought.

" I... know.... But i won't use it if i can help it... "

She whispered in a soft dejected tone.

" ... I will if it comes down to it ... but i'd prefer to just use the stun baton... "

She didn't expect him to understand as she buzzed down the hall to the shaft so they could easily get to the next level. It was her choice to try and avoid using her fathers gift. But one she made a long time ago! and one she wasn't about to start using now if she could avoid it. She just turned to the flames and looked more determined then before, as she had to be a leader Amy was right now!

" Don't worry about me i'll do my part... we all have a role to play and i know mine... let's make this happen..."

She darted down the shaft to the next level, almost instantly confronted by security. Though a quick thrust of her baton saw the poor guard getting a nice dose of his own medicine! dropping him to the floor before she turned waiting for the Flaming clone.

" Ok... do your thing and i'll do mine... after this is over--- in case i don't see your other half again. Thank you... "

================================================

Miles Darted into the lower levels of the fortress as he stepped over a couple of groaning security guards. several of them had jumped him the moment he stepped out of the elevator but he was no slouch in hand to hand. As a child he'd learned to deal with bots and all sorts of tough opponents. He regularly sparred against Sonic, and even Amy and compared to them these chumps were not even a work out. One of the guards was crawling toward his baton but Miles Tails lashed out smashing him in the back casually as he kicked the baton away and left the guard in a heap.

Miles and Sonic differed in many ways, one of those was Miles tendency to not play around with a fight. He struck hard, fast and ended it instantly where as Sonic liked to draw it out and have fun. Miles hated fighting and so he preferred to end it as fast as he could. The other way was his tactics, as he'd approach every battle with a strategy in mind. He gripped his wrist mounted miles electric and killed the lights on this level and placed his goggles over his eyes flipping on night vision.

He'd dash down the hall slipping past most of the security--- he'd be at the engine room soon, and the less he had to fight the better. Luckily the lights going out were restrained to his level only.

================================================

The Security all stopped cold seeing there batons sliced in half and were two seconds from fleeing! But when they saw metal come out of the shaft! that was it, they were done! dropping what weapons they had and turning tail and running! Clearing Clutch did not pay them enough to die for him!

Metal tossed a little disc on the floor as he exited the shaft, and in a little flash of green light Eggman appeared. Since he wouldn't fit in the shaft he just warped himself down to the lower floor using a bit of Eggtech. He looked at the mess left behind and tilted his head at the stranger still curious who he was. At first he thought Shadow but the flames might suggest blaze yet, clearly not. Oh he did like mysteries! He was a big clumbo fan after all!

" Hmm... Clutch should be in the Hanger ahead, probably planning a quick escape. I took the liberty to lock the hanger door... he'll try and hack through it i imagine... but he's likely finding it quite troublesome... shall we go say hello? "

================================================

Within the adjoining room looked admitted that the door to the hanger wasn't opening. His techs were stumped, he was getting quite worried that Eggman was getting to close. He turned hearing a commotion as several of his people ran in weaponless and pointing to the room they just came from. Clutch realized he was out of time and quickly jumped up into the old Egg Carrier he'd retrofitted for just a situation! Flicking his fingers across the console and pressing a key it fired up and rose into the air!

" Looks like i ain't got no choice... time to bring down the house... "

He slid a keycard into the carrier, and flipped a few switches and pressed the big red button. Flashing red lights began to shine throughout the carrier as Clutch activated the Self Destruction system! The airship would go down in flames! destroy restoration and he'd escape with all the assets! all he had to do was blast a hole in the hanger door! and he was home free!

" Time for a Tactical Retreat..."

"Seriously? You just saw me punch a solid steel door hard enough to smash into another guy and think a bunch of useless stun batons can stop me?" A chain with symbols would fall from the sleeves of the cloak, him swinging them once and cutting all of them in half as they were clearly giving off intense heat and cut through the batons like butter. "That's what these do to your batons. Anyone wish to see what it does to the body?" He asked, retracting the chains back into the sleeves.

In truth this was a simple scare method, though one he was sure would work quite well as he doubts any of them would be stupid or brave enough to test that theory. "And before you assume I'm bluffing I already tossed one guard down into the depths of the engine room. You won't get so lucky as I'll just punch of right off the airship."

===========================================================

"Well, I was going to say he can forget introductions since I don't have a name, at least to me I don't." He would then turn to Jewel. "I was simply going to start smashing my way down, though guess we'll have to go down one more floor before I can do that." Hard to ignore a flaming smashing his way to the engine room after all.

"I don't think you'll need that to be honest. You may not know how to fight, though if my guess about your natural strength is spot on then you can knock most people out with a good punch. Not to mention I'm sure most will be too busy trying to find a way to stop me than focus on you., though if you want the baton then take it. So, lead the way."

He was a bit surprised security hadn't come this way already, though if Tails gave access to this Belle there's a chance they've already taken notice to Clean Sweep no longer having any money. That's the problem with hired help. The second you can't pay they're gone and leave whoever their employer is to the wolves.

[detectiveriley]

oh, because i love you (Geraskier Mini-Fic for Witcher Bog Exchange)

This is a mini-exchange gift for @stinastar​! I hope you like it lovely!

Archive link here

Rating: Teen and up audiences Fandom: The Witcher (all media types) Relationship: Geralt/Jaskier Additional Tags: Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Feelings, Getting Together, Sleepy Cuddles, Canon-Typical Violence

Description: It was incredibly stupid, Jaskier realizes belatedly, to go wandering around the abandoned ruins, at night, alone. To his relief, Geralt comes to his rescue. Jaskier hasn't seen Geralt in full witcher mode before, but it's Geralt. He'll get used to it. But he's not sure what to make of the conversation that follows.

Story under the cut!

 All of the air left Jaskier’s body as the sonic shriek threw him all the way across the stone circle. He slammed into the wall before tumbling to the ground. Pain radiated from everywhere, and he was pretty sure he was bleeding. It had been incredibly stupid, Jaskier realized belatedly, to wander out near the abandoned ruins, at night, alone.

 It hadn’t been his plan, originally. They had just made camp near the town where there was supposed to be work. But Geralt had been busy doing his witcher-ing, and Jaskier had gotten bored. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy watching Geralt working. On the contrary, Jaskier enjoyed the way Geralt carefully sharpened his swords, and sorted his potions with calloused fingers. But Jaskier could imagine plenty of other things Geralt could be doing with his hands. Things that Geralt probably wouldn’t approve of. So that night, before his trousers got any tighter, Jaskier excused himself to go on a walk and clear his head. He didn’t think Geralt had even noticed.

 That was how Jaskier had ended up all alone, facing off against a monster. He had nothing with which to defend himself, not even his lute. The thing, which looked like a young woman but wasn’t, had caught him off-guard.

 She was watching him now, with a bone-chilling smile and hungry eyes. Jaskier struggled to prop himself up. His ribs, along with the rest of him, twinged in protest. The collision with the crumbling stone wall hadn’t finished him off, but it seemed likely that the she-beast would. His vision swam and he groaned, blinking.

 When his eyes focused again, there was a shadow above him. Craning his neck, he saw a black mass, underneath a halo of white. Then it turned, and Jaskier’s heart skipped.

 “Ge-r-ralt,” he managed, his lips curling into a bloody smile, maybe Jaskier should have been frightened. He’d never seen Geralt like this before- eyes pitch black, dark veins reaching out around them across his pale, mottled skin. He could see now where the rumors came from- that witchers were monsters, half-breeds of some dark magic that bound the flesh of beasts to human bone. If he did not know Geralt, perhaps he would have been petrified. Perhaps he would have screamed.

 But Jaskier had never been more relieved.

 Now that he was no longer facing certain death, Jaskier faded in and out of consciousness. Dimly, he heard the sounds of fierce combat, the monster shrieking and Geralt grunting with effort. His eyes flew open when Geralt landed next to  him, shouting in pain and anger.

 “G’ralt?” he slurred, even as darkness crept in around the edges of his vision.

 “M’fine,” the witcher growled, shaking his head and crouching to strike again. “Stay down.”

 Jaskier obeyed gladly. Geralt was there now, he was safe. Probably. He sent a quick prayer up to Melitele with his last conscious thought before darkness claimed him.

 ~

 When Jaskier awoke again, he was no longer splayed against the cold, hard rock or the ruin’s floor. He was in bed. He was still in pain, but marginally less so. And he wasn’t alone.

 Geralt was watching him like a hawk. He looked… not great. His potions, whatever they were, had since worn off, and he looked like himself again. But he looked like he hadn’t slept.

 Jaskier tried to speak, but all that came out was a hoarse cough. Wordlessly, Geralt handed him a glass of water from the bedside table. He waited as Jaskier downed it greedily. He didn’t remember being so thirsty at the ruins.

 “How long was I out?” he wondered aloud.

 “A day and a half,” Geralt answered, “You went down pretty hard.”

 Wincing, Jaskier nodded. “I was there, I remember.”

 “How do you feel?”

 Geralt’s brow was furrowed with concern. Jaskier straightened and assured him, “I feel fine. Could be worse. But we’re both alive! And safe.”

 Geralt tensed at that, and Jaskier held his breath.      Here it comes    , he thought. The dreaded lecture about himself in harm’s way, and how he couldn’t always rely on Geralt to rescue him.

 Instead, Geralt simply said, “You didn’t look afraid.”

 Jaskier tilted his head. “Well, I      was,     but when you showed up… then I knew I’d be alright.”

 “No.” Geralt’s voice was abnormally soft, and he was looking down at his hands. “I meant that you didn’t look like you were afraid of me.”

 Jaskier blinked. Then he laughed. “Why would I- I’ve never been afraid of you, why would I have been afraid?”

 Geralt seemed to shrink. “The way I looked that night, at the ruins…” He trailed off. After a long moment, Geralt added, “I’m a monster.”

 Jaskier scoffed. “Are not.”

 “Jaskier…”

 “You are not! The only monster there that night was the thing that actively tried to kill me, and you saved me. That makes you a hero.”

 “That’s not what everyone else thinks.”

 Jaskier furrowed his brow. “I don’t give a flying fuck what everyone else thinks.”

 Geralt actually laughed at that. Jaskier smiled back. He knew that the witcher could be hard on himself, and it broke Jaskier’s heart. The idea that Geralt thought Jaskier should be afraid of him was unbearable.

 The bard hesitated. Perhaps he was still bleary from sleep, perhaps it was a concussion. He wasn’t sure he should say what he wanted to say next. But he’d be damned if he said nothing.

 “I hope you know that, no matter what- black, witcher-y eyes, covered in monster guts or blood- that you’ll always be Geralt to me.” He reached out to take Geralt’s hand in his own. “      My    Geralt. Do you understand?”

 The witcher nodded curtly. “I think so.” After a moment, he continued. “Witchers… don’t get happy endings,” he said, his voice low and tender, “We age, we slow, and we die, in combat usually. I don’t know what end awaits me, but… I didn’t think I’d make any friends between now and then.”

 Jaskier swallowed. Right.      Friends    . He moved to pull away, but Geralt’s grip on his hand tightened. Geralt turned it over so their palms were pressed together. “I used to think… Hmm. Fuck.”

 Jaskier smiled gently. There was that gruff but earnest spirit that had endeared the witcher so closely to Jaskier’s heart. He stroked the back of Geralt’s hand with his thumb. “Take your time.”

 After another few minutes, Geralt spoke again. “I thought once that you just followed me for inspiration, and stayed for coin. And I let you, because… well, you didn’t leave me much choice.” They both chuckled at that. “But… you’ve given me more than I deserve.”

 Tilting his head, Jaskier asked, “How so?”

 “You’ve become… someone I care for,” Geralt offered quietly, “which most witcher’s don’t have the luxury of. But… you seem to care for me, too. More than I’ve earned. In equal measure.”

 “Oh, Geralt,” Jaskier sighed, leaning forward to cup Geralt’s cheek with his free hand. “I care for you quite a bit more than that.”

 Geralt’s eyes fluttered shut, and he leaned into Jaskier’s touch, humming. It was closer than they’d ever been, and Jaskier’s heart quickened at the thought of it.

 Geralt noticed immediately. Gingerly, he placed Jaskier’s hand back at his side. “Get some rest. We can continue this when you’re better.”

 “You should, too,” Jaskier admonished, “I adore you, dear heart, but you look like shit.”

 Geralt smirked, chuckling in response. “That’s nothing new.”

 Jaskier’s eyes softened. “But really, when was the last time you slept?” When Geralt didn’t answer for a few moments, Jaskier sighed and adjusted himself, scooting to the far side of the bed, before patting the space beside him. “All right, come on then.” Geralt hesitated, and Jaskier added, “It doesn't have to mean anything. Just rest. You very obviously need it.”

 Geralt sighed before relenting, laying down next to Jaskier with care so as not to aggravate the bard’s injuries. To Jaskier’s surprise, Geralt threw an arm around Jaskier’s shoulders and pulled him in. When Jaskier gave him a look, Geralt sighed.

 “I almost lost you back there,” he murmured, “so I’ve gotta keep an eye on you. Keep you out of trouble.”

 Jaskier laughed. “Obviously. You’ll stay with me then?”

 “Always.”

fin  

[blazehedgehog]

People say that Sonic is inconsistent, but ironically that's the only thing the series is consistent with. Sega/ Sonic lacked focus and never had a clear vision on what the franchise should be and should not be, and this has been an issue even during it's infant years. Sega likely planned the series to be a long runner, but instead of building a solid foundation first THEN start experimenting on the status quo they hastily did the complete opposite, hence Sonic's "identity crisis" problem.

See, I'm not so sure about this. There was a time where I would agree with you, but I also wonder about, just, like, the language barrier, right. And the distance barrier. There are things we're only just learning now here in America because websites like Shmupulations (and elsewhere) are translating Japanese magazine articles.

Like how the Sonic Adventure era of games were inspired by American action movie cinema. We knew Shadow was, but apparently even Sonic Adventure 2 shares common inspirational ground, from what I've heard people talking about. In retrospect, the hammy vibe makes a lot more sense if they are trying to ape the tone of mid-to-late 90's action movies like True Lies, The Rock, and Goldeneye or whatever.

I'm starting to think Sonic Team was a lot more reactionary than we used to think, it's just they weren't openly divulging their plans to the American press like they were in Japan. There's a whole side to this company that most of us are totally unaware of because all we ever saw was what came out of the American branch.

That's not to say they are secret geniuses or whatever. Those games still have problems. But I also think that regional disconnect explains a lot. Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow might've all been made at a special "Sonic Team USA" branch in San Francisco, but that was also the era of things like Sonic X, which to me seem targeted at widening Sonic's appeal in Japan first. No matter what Sonic Team USA was doing, the rest of Sega seemed to be beefing up Sonic's presence at home (in Japan), rather than abroad.

Which is where the inconsistency probably comes from, really. I think Takashi Iizuka probably realizes that Sonic needs the west, but he's not the only person with hands on this ball. Other people can, and will, and do steer the direction of this franchise. And not just licensors like Archie, but people within Sega. And different people want different things.

Which has less to do with Sega "planning" on this being "long running" and more to do with basic corporate culture. Mega Man X5 was written to be the final game in the X series, but Capcom upper-management went over the original development team's heads and made Mega Man X6 with completely different people. Konami did the same thing -- fired Hideo Kojima, but made Metal Gear Survive anyway. Sonic Team works for Sega, so if Sonic Team is unavailable, or unwilling, Sega can just find someone else to do it instead. Sega owns Sonic. That's a power they have.

That's how we end up with things like Sonic 1 Genesis on the GBA, right? Nobody who actually cares about Sonic signed off on that. That was a bunch of suits in a board room saying "we could hire someone to make an extremely cheap port of Sonic 1 to the GBA and get an easy 5000% return on investment." Some of the people making decisions like that might not even actively play games, or have ever created games, or anything of that sort. Their careers are in business. Which is fine, we need business sometimes, but clearly the wrong people were making the wrong decisions.

The points of failure on something like this are vast and complex and without someone from the inside specifically having proof on where to point the fingers, it's hard to make accurate assumptions.

[dustedmagazine]

John Vanderslice — I can't believe civilization is still going here in 2021! Congratulations to all of us, Love, DCB (self-released)

Photo by Andrea DeSouto

I get a strange kind of pleasure from just hanging on by John Vanderslice

John Vanderslice has never been a regular songwriter. The indie-rocker's earlier albums featured strange characters, Romantic poetry, narrative possibilities. He somehow recorded the songs with a meticulous recklessness. Anything he released on his own immediately sounded like a Vanderslice record, even while his production work for other bands (like Death Cab for Cutie or the Mountain Goats) brought out their best. In 2014, after almost flipping a tour van, he decided to step away from recording his own music. He continued his production work at his studio, but for about five years, he was done.

He couldn't stay away, though, and when he returned with Cedars in 2019, it marked a shift in his sound, as he moved away from his rock work toward something more abrasive and experimental. The changes had more to do with developing certain elements of his art rather than jumping into a new genre. Vanderslice didn't come back from retirement reborn, but he did seem more confident in embracing the more irregular aspects of his work. 

That album might not have been a full departure, but what followed largely has been (making a revisit to Cedars worthwhile). Having moved on from Tiny Telephone and its analog equipment, Vanderslice has embraced synthesizes and stranger effects. He's cited some odd hip-hop influences, but his recent releases have also touched on glitch-pop and broadly considered electronica, all while maintaining an idiosyncratic vision. The last few releases (Eeeeeeep! and Dollar Hits) saw Vanderslice finding his way, but new EP I can't believe civilization is still going here in 2021! Congratulations to all of us, Love, DCB shows the maturation of his aesthetic movement. 

The DCB of the title is David Berman, a friend of Vanderslice's, and the title comes from a postcard that the Silver Jews frontman sent to his pal. The EP carries a dark undercurrent, as it comes in tribute to Berman but in the shadow of that artist's death. Vanderslice's own mental health issues come into play, too, and a record described as an “anti-suicide pact” that came out of the COVID lockdown can't exactly be chipper. 

Even so, there's hope here. Single "I Get A Strange Kind Of Pleasure From Just Hanging On" comes closest to pop and, for all its strange sonics, it connects more cleanly to Vanderslice's past records. Lyrically, he encourages listeners (and, presumably, himself) to get out of their own heads and do what they need to do to preserve their emotional well-being. The chords and structures make sense here even as the instructions are a little ambiguous. Vanderslice wants to escape desire and escape dark thoughts, but he knows we're “hanging by a thread” and can't fully relax. 

In that sense, the song relieves some of the darkness of the rest of the EP, but, early in the record, it also suggests the nearness of the abyss. The other songs experiment considerably more, rare moments of pop being undercut by glitch or structural surprises (“Don't Forget About Me” does this interplay the best). When “White Chalk” brings the record to a close, we've both simulated and escaped a bleak psychological time. 

As a bonus, Vanderslice looks back as he pushes forward, including a second disc. Ethical Jute Mouse compiles rarities from 2001-2020. The set includes all sorts of materials, most of it fairly random, like the set of “8 second songs” he did for Kickstarter supporters (they're longer than eight seconds but still very short). Fans will find plenty to dig here, with the need to play archaeologist relieved. The quality varies, of course, but it's a highly listenable disc of outtakes and oddities. A cover of Jason Molina's “Long Dark Blues” works particularly well, as does Vanderslice's take on “Karma Police” (particularly fitting given the way the new EP would fit in with the music Radiohead would make immediately after OK Computer). To no surprise, the high point comes with “Time Travel Is Lonely,” performed here with Spoon, with the memorable opening drum part switched to a guitar part. 

The rarities comp feels a little like Vanderslice deliberately closing the door on a personal era. As he does that, he takes an important step forward in the new one. The EP might not be the full realization of what he's heading toward, but it's a noteworthy release in its own right as well as a visible part of the process. It's nice to see he's still going in 2021, and – all things considered – it does feel like congratulations are in order.  

Justin Cober-Lake

[writingsbychlo]

feels like loneliness (12)

word count; 8976

summary; you make a last minute decision to save your friend, even f it means risking your own life, and thomas can’t accept it.

notes; I sobbed while writing this, y’all don’t stand a chance.

warnings; character death, injury, gore, violence, explosions, gun use, bombs, near-death experience, angst.

“this is the last time I play this game”

You had barely made it three streets over before the screaming of the kids caught your ear, stonework crumbling and metal screeching behind you and you shook your head, a small smile on your lips as you watched the bus roll awkwardly along the side of a building as it gained more and more height. “I’m so glad that’s not me.”

It was soon lifted over your head, and you stopped your movements for a second in order to watch it go, the crane twisting as it made it safely over the wall, and you squeezed your eyes shut, your heart lifting a little at knowing at least the busload of kids were safe, as was Brenda. Now, you only had to worry about the rest of your friends.

Spinning, you ran forward through the cities you knew, being careful to stick to shadows as you navigated the buildings, more and more guards flying past on foot and in cars, but they were all too preoccupied to notice your lonesome presence sneaking back towards the tower. After all, why would anyone still be trying to sneak in?

You were almost there, you could see the building before you, the entrance to it, the pool at the bottom, and the guards still laying unconscious on the floor. Before you could take another step, the ground shook, an explosion booming loudly and your eyes tore to the suddenly formed hole in the wall, the glass on the building shattering from the sonic boom and you stumbled from the impact.

You weren’t sure what had happened, you were staring at the gap, before suddenly it had clicked with you.

The group beyond the wall, the freedom fighters who had been determined to take down WCKD, now with their defences down as you all fought to save Minho, they had the chance to fight, and they’d taken it. The sweeping realisation of why Lawrence hadn’t wanted anything in return for the equipment you had needed came flooding over you like a tidal wave and you gripped at your stomach as crushing emotions poured in.

The man had never needed time to get more cure, he had needed time to take down the organisation that took everything from him, and unknowingly, you had given him just that. With a small smile, you nodded your thanks towards the explosion, knowing he may be out there somewhere, or perhaps already dead, but he wouldn’t make it to the end of the night no matter what. 

After taking a moment, you were quickly on your feet again, bolting across the roads to stand outside of the building, peering up at it carefully, just to realise how high up you were going to have to go. At your feet, a guard lay unconscious, twitching and jumping as electricity still jumped over his body occasionally and you grimaced, leaning down to pluck the keycard from him carefully, before making your way cautiously towards the entrance. 

Lawrence’s distractions had surprisingly done wonders for you, with the level of people fleeing and darting around the building in pure terror, you were able to navigate your way through the lobby easily, nobody even casting you a second glance as you walked right through the crowd, shouldering past people aggressively. 

Kicking your way into a stairwell, you panted as the door shut behind you, the muffled sounds of continued explosions and gunfire picking up outside as the city was raided and reclaimed by the outsiders. Your breath was the only thing you could hear clearly, the sharp and crisp sounds as you tried to pull breath into your lungs rung out and echoed loudly as you began dashing up the steps, checking the signs at each level for ones that read labs. 

Your body was aching, muscles sore and you were you had climbed so high that you could no longer see the floor at the bottom of the winding staircase when you looked down, your vision blurring as you dizzied and you had to drag your feet up to the next level.

You checked the sign, reading it twice as the likelihood of finding the words you were looking for had felt like they had become impossible, but there they were, written clear as day on a sign and you dropped your head back for a second, a small cheer leaving your lips as you found the level you were looking for. 

With a renewed sense of hope, you could finally enter the corridor, and the second you opened it, the peaceful silence of the staircase was blasted away, your eyes widening and adrenaline flooding your system as alarms blared and workers screamed while they ran, the fight outside much louder now as broken windows allowed the amplified sounds to travel into the building with ease. 

Dropping your bag at your feet, you rifled through it, pulling out your notebook and gripping it tightly as you swung the pack back up onto your arm, only bothering with the one strap, your fingers drumming against the worn leather as you stepped from the gentle ease of the staircase and into the panicked ess of the corridors.

You followed along, your body constantly being shoved and rammed by those who were desperately fleeing but you pushed on, checking inside each window for the room you were looking for along the vacating floor, and you beamed when you found it. Sliding the card through the scanner on the door, the light flashed from red to green in a split second, and you quickly made your way into the room, stopping in your tracks as you saw who was still sitting at the desk, her head lifting to look at you and shock covered her own features when she registered your presence.

Her gaze flicked from your eyes, to the notebook clenched in your hands, and she was still for a moment as the cogs turned in her head before she gasped loudly, spinning in her chair to face you. “You know, don’t you? You worked it out, you know how to make the cure!” You licked over your lips, your hand flying to the gun on your thigh and she held her hands up quickly, shaking her head as her jaw hung open. “No! No, wait! I can help you!”

“And why the fuck would I trust you, Teresa?” 

“I can get you access to the equipment you need, to save Newt. To save everyone!” You hesitated, before swallowing thickly, your head dipping in a nod. 

“I see one dodgy thing I don’t like, I will shoot you, with zero hesitation, you got that?” She kept her lips pursed shut, nodding her head as she stood up and you made your way towards her, placing your book down on the desk and flicking through it to find the pages you needed. 

You yelled out equipment to her, and she dashed around the room, setting up your workspace as you grabbed at the different chemicals, your hands shaking with your nerves as your heart raced in your ear, so fast you thought you may hyperventilate, and you pushed down the panic attack you could feel beginning to rear its head.

The door hissed open as you were stirring chemicals and you froze as you looked at the woman who had walked in, your hand flying to your thigh as she looked between you both in shock. “Teresa, and.. (Y/N)?” Your eyes narrowed as she said your name, and she was almost taken aback by seeing your presence. “What are you doing here? You need to leave!”

The war around you continued to rage on, the lights in the room flickering as the screaming and fighting outside never ceased, the situation only growing more dangerous every second you were here, and you flashed her the dirtiest look you could muster, a growl on your lips as you did. “Not without my goddamn cure!”

“Cure? Wh- No, the city is falling apart! It’s too late for that!”

“No!” You snapped your gaze to her, leaving the work you were doing alone and she flinched at the volume of your voice, you were seething, and you were sure she could see the fire in your eyes as you glared at her. “It’s not! Look, just look!” You dripped some of the blue mixture you had made onto the slide carefully, placing it under the microscope as the tentatively made her way across the room, cautious of your borderline hysterical state. 

Looking around the room, you caught sight of the cabinet you were looking for, and you had given up bothering with scanners and keys, instead, you used your elbow to smash the glass on the door, cold air and mist seeping out into the room from the chilled cabinet as you scanned your fingers over the vials, only to curse when they weren’t sorted by name, but by code.

“What serial code was Thomas?” You waited a few seconds as you looked at the samples, before spinning on your heel as you looked at the two confused women behind you, Ava Paige with her fingers brushing against the pages of your book, her jaw dropped. “Serial code! Which damn serial code was Thomas?”

She snapped out of it, fumbling over her words as she tried to string them together; “H-He was.. was.. A-Two! Thomas is subject A-Two!”

“He was A-Two.” You muttered to her, quickly plucking his blood sample from where it was stored as you made your way across the room. She glanced down at your slide, brows raised at the liquid sitting on it.

“What is that?”

“The Flare virus.” She stepped back suddenly, eyes wide and you smirked slightly, taking seat before it uncaringly, knowing you were immune. You lifted the vial carefully, using a needle to extract some of the blood from Thomas’ sample and drip it gently onto the slide, before peering through the lens and adjusting it, a loud and happy cry leaving your lips in shock that it had worked. “Holy shit!”

You backed away, your hand flying up to cover your mouth suddenly and Teresa moved forward, peering through the lens to look, a gasp leaving her own lips as she checked, checking again before pulling back to look at you. “It’s not just slowing down the virus, it’s destroying it.” The woman who was the source of all your torture stepped forwards, curiously looking into the microscope as she took in the sight before her, and you shot back up, searching the shelf, snatching a few others before you searched for clean slides. “What are you doing?”

“Seeing who else has the genes. Who else is the cure, not just an immune.” You began mixing at the vials, turning to look at her carefully. “We need Thomas back here, we need more blood if we’re going to save Newt.” She paused, before nodding her head carefully, taking off with Doctor Paige as the two ran to find him and you only hoped you could trust her to come back.

Alone, you began to work on all of the vials. You would test and note who else was immune, as you began mixing for a cure quickly. You were stopped, however, when the door hissed open, and Jansen stood before you, a wicked grin on his lips and your hand flew to your thigh, but the barrel was pointed on you before you could and you dropped the vial in your hands, blood spilling across the floor and ruining the cure-sample as you stood, hands raised in the air.

He advanced into the room, tutting quietly as he looked around, mumbling insults about how you should never have returned. Upon his instructions, you were backed into the wall, pressed to it as you held your hands above your head, and before you knew it, the base of his gun was colliding with the front of your skull, the world around you going back as you dropped from consciousness.

Newt slumped against the wall, his body weight becoming too much for them all to run with and Thomas panicked as the had to stop, leaning him down gently. The second he was on the floor, he keeled over, coughing up thick mouthfuls of black blood onto the floor beside him, the residue dribbling down along his skin as he was too weak to even wipe it away. 

Thomas had no idea what to say to his friend, his eyes finding Minho’s and clearly the other runner had no idea either, because the look on his face was certainly reflected in his own, Thomas was sure of it, utter hopelessness seeping in. Light suddenly seemed to find them as Thomas looked up at the humming sound he recognised overhead, and like a lightbulb going off, Brenda’s words made sense as he watched the Berg they had used barely two weeks ago in an attempt to save Minho showed up again, cruising slowly over the skies towards the tunnels they had designated as their meeting point.

The second he tried to pull the infected blond to his feet, the wheezing and rasping in his lungs only picked up, increasing tenfold as he could barely catch a breath, coughing up more of the black substance as it filled his lungs and his body slumped down even further.

“Minho, you gotta run ahead and grab the serum, get back to us as soon as you can.” Minho looked at Thomas lie he was insane, but from the reaction to simply trying to stand up, Newt was definitely not going to be able to make it himself.

“He’s right! I can cover.” Before he could leave fully, Newt grasped onto his arm, meaningful thank you’s falling from his lips to his friend and Thomas’ heart broke as he heard the emotion in them, knowing he wasn’t just referring to the serum, but to their entire friendship altogether. 

He watched the two go, monitoring them to make sure they made it through, and the second he looked back down, fear spiked in his system as he looked at his friend’s head, lolled to the side as he rasped for breath. “Newt! Hey, Newt!” Grabbing the edges of the boy’s jacket, Thomas shook him roughly. If they were going to make it, they needed to meet Minho half-way, because Newt was quickly running out of time, the virus catching up to him quicker than expected. “We’re gonna try this, okay? We gotta move, now. Let’s get you up, come on! Let’s go, come on.”

“No Thomas..” He seemed to become coherent again, all his strength going into tugging at the string sitting around his neck as Thomas tried to scoop him up, and Newt wriggled in his grasp, holding it out to him. “Take it!”

He held the bundle out to him, and Thomas shook his head, “Later! Really got to go, right now! Come on!” This only caused Newt to struggle more, pushing against him as he pushed the necklace in his direction once again.

“Take it!” He had never heard Newt scream in such a way, and Thomas stilled, nodding his head and wrapping his hand around the charm on the end of the string, the metal cylinder sitting in his closed fist. “Please. Please Tommy, please.”

“Alright.” He shoved it into his pocket securely, watching as the life seemed to drain from his friend even more. It was like everything in Newt had given up, and Thomas realised if he was doing this, he was doing it alone now. “I need you to give me everything you got you hear me? One, two, three!” On the final number, he hauled the boy to his feet, receiving very little assistance and he grunted as he lifted him up, Newt’s arm settling over his shoulder as he grasped at Thomas weakly for support, his feet dragging in what could barely be classed as steps and the two stumbled their way out into the crossfire, following the trail Minho and Gally had just taken moments ago.

They had stumbled across the road, dodging bullets and explosions as Thomas tried to take the fastest route, no longer taking the roads, just weaving through broken buildings to get there as fast as possible, and the fight was soon fading away behind them. 

The tunnels were in sight, he could see the Berg sitting across the building and it was only a few more streets to go, but as Newt’s legs finally gave out, his toes caught on the edge of the concrete, dragging him backwards as the pair tumbled to the floor. Sprawling out, Newt jerked violently, his eyes fading out as he lost focus, staring over Thomas’ shoulder and into the sky as he gurgled and coughed on his own blood the substance spattering out with each breath.

Gripping at his side, Thomas tried to pull his jacket out from under him where it had gotten trapped under the boy’s body, grabbing handfuls of the material to pull him back to his feet and a sharp sensation stabbed at his hand, and he was quick to recoil in shock. He couldn't see anything, but as Newt twitched and jerked, Thomas felt around on the inner pocket, finding the weapon that had injured him as he pulled out the exposed and empty needle.

His eyebrows were furrowed for a second, before realisation flooded him and he plunged his hand back into the storage flap, feeling around before his fingers found the little container he was looking for. Pulling it out, he lifted it to his eyes, the clear liquid you had given Newt being revealed and he dropped his head in relief, a tired grin on his lips as he looked at his almost unconscious friend.

Lifting it with shaky hands, he turned towards the flickering lights of the streetlamps around him, leaving Newt unattended for only a moment, as he tipped the liquid gently into the needle, watching what he was doing. “Thomas?” 

His head snapped up as Teresa’s voice rang out over the com-system, his eyebrows furrowing as she called out to him, and he momentarily forgot about the serum he held in his confusion. 

“Can you hear me?” She paused again as he spoke, his head whipping around as if he would find any answers, anywhere. “I need you to listen to me. I know you have no reason to trust me, but you can trust (Y/N), and the work she did. I need you to come back.” He reeled at the sound of your name on her lips, his head spinning. “You can save Newt, there’s still time for him!” He glanced back at his friend, laying unconscious on the floor where he had been dropped, and his thoughts were racing, head too busy to be able to do anything as he tried to think straight. “There’s a reason Brenda isn’t sick anymore, it’s your blood! You cured her! She doesn’t have to be the only one, all you have to do is come back, and this will all finally be over. Just come back to us, I know you’ll do the right-”

She was suddenly cut off, and Thomas’ stomach twisted at the word us, his brows furrowing and he shook it off, trying to think about his options, trying to decide what needed to be done. When he turned around, Newt was stood back to his feet, head tipped to the side as his body twitched and spasmed, no recognition showing on his face as he stared at Thomas. “Newt?” 

The boy growled, lunging for him and Thomas dropped the needle in his hand, pushing his friend to the floor in shock as the boy tried to attack him. “Newt! It’s me, it’s me!” He reached down to find the needle, before Newt’s arms wrapped around his middle, tackling him to the ground and the two rolled across the floor as Newt scratched and bit, trying to tear at Thomas, and he barely kicked the half-crank off him 

Rolling onto his knees the boy gasped for breath, holding himself up shakily before looking at Thomas. “Tommy, kill me!” As fast as the recognition had come about, it had gone, the infection taking over his mind once again and he snarled, rasping and growling as he threw himself against Thomas again, taking him to the floor. Newt’s hands wrapped around his throat, choking him as his body was straddled and he fought to try and push the blond boy off from on top of him, oxygen no longer making it into his lungs and he reached out to his side, searching, but the needle was too far away, laying idly on the concrete. Again, his friend peeked back through the haze, his eyes widening as his hands left Thomas’ neck “I’m sorry, Tommy!”

“It’s okay..” He took ragged breaths, panicking as Newt’s hand fell to his thigh, lifting the gun from its holster and pressing it to his temple. Swinging his hand forward, Thomas screamed as he knocked the weapon from his friend’s hand, and he pushed the boy off of him, crawling rapidly towards the needle lying on the floor and grasping it between his fingers, lifting it up triumphantly. “Just let me give yo-”

A laboured scream cut him off and Newt was lost to them once again, but he now had a knife clutched in his hands as the crank version of his friend stared him down menacingly. Swinging the blade at him, it sliced through the air as the boy advanced on him and Thomas backed away desperately. There was no rhythm or flow to his swings, he was just chopping madly at the air as he ran forward, gaining on Thomas quickly. With a deep breath, Thomas stopped backing away, raising the hand with the needle as Newt aimed the blade towards him once again. Plunging the needle into his neck, he pushed the serum into his skin, feeling the boy go limp in his grasp and relief flooded his body. 

The feeling was quickly pushed away when a hot and sticky substance began to leak out against his fingers, no pain following it and Thomas knew it wasn’t his own blood. Pulling back in fear, he found the blade buried deep in Newt’s own flesh, fondness once again showing in his eyes as he looked up to meet his friend’s glance and Thomas panicked as the boy collapsed to the floor.

Cupping his head softly, Thomas laid him down, tears filling his eyes as he looked at his friend, blood dripping along his shoulder and beginning to pool on the concrete below, and Thomas assessed the severity of the wound, his hands holding down around the knife to put pressure on it as he mumbled to his friend to hold on.

He held the boy with fondness as he watched his consciousness begin to drip away from his eyes, before his head snapped up at the sound of footsteps approaching, Minho and Brenda slowing to a rapid halt as they took in the scene before them, Thomas on his knees sniffling as he held a bloodied Newt, and his mouth dropped open to speak.

“I-It’s okay! It's his shoulder! Just get him t-to the ship, put the serum in him! H-He’ll be okay!” His words were shaky as he spoke, and Minho approached carefully, hiking his unconscious friend up into his arms as the boy’s chest rose and fell slowly and weakly, but the breaths were still being sucked into his lungs, and the veins on his neck were already beginning to recede.

Looking around, Brenda offered a hand to a weak Thomas to pull him from his knees, and he followed her gaze as she looked out at the empty space. “Where’s (Y/N)?”

“..With you?” Thomas questioned, the plan having been that the two of them would go together, get a bus, get the kids, get safely outside the wall. He felt bile rise in his throat as he watched Brenda shake her head, his heart skipping a beat as her worried eyes found his. 

“No, she left the bus. She came back. She said she had to save Newt a-”

“She what?”

Thomas’ body physically wretched with dry-heaves as he tried to calm the pure terror swimming in his veins at knowing you weren’t safe, and suddenly, the plurals Teresa had used made sense, he knew exactly where you were, and both of them turned to look at the building in the centre of the city, the crowds already making their way toward the main base of operations to take it down.

“She went back to make a damn cure.” He shook his head, the fight or flight instinct kicking in so hard that Thomas was sure in this moment he could’ve wrestled a griever and won, the spikes of adrenaline in his system powered by his crushing fear were overwhelming. “I have to go and get her!”

“You’ll never make it back in time!” He turned to look at Minho, who shook his head aggressively at Thomas’ actions in order tot alk him down form the path he was about to take. 

“I have to try! I-”

“She wouldn’t want you to risk your shucking life! There’s a reason she didn’t tell you she was doing this! She’d want you to live!” Minho insisted, and Thomas bit his lip, bouncing on the balls of his feet at the newfound energy drowning everything else out.

“I don’t want to live without her! Not again!” His friend opened his mouth to speak, but Thomas wasn’t having any of it, and both Brenda and Minho knew it. There was nothing for him if there wasn’t you. “Get back, take Newt. I’ll be okay!”

Before either could protest, he was bursting out in a sprint, heading back toward you as his eyes fixed on the upper levels, knowing exactly where he would find you now.

When you finally came to, your head was throbbing, and you could feel the cool air in the room and the breeze that was carrying through smashed windows catching on the exposed wound on the back of your head, sticky blood still dripping along your neck. Your vision was blurry, the lights above you making it hard to open your eyes but when you finally did, you realised you were still inside the WCKD labs, staring up at the ceiling. 

It took a second, before suddenly, the recollections of what had happened came crashing back down on you and you tried to sit up, your arms and legs bound to the surgical chair you were in as pure fear flooded your system. Whipping your head to the side, you caught sight of Thomas, his worried eyes on you in the same position as you were, fists clenched as Teresa drew blood from his arm slowly. 

Your eyes narrowed on her as you looked up to her, and her sights were already set on you, eyes wide as she ducked her head to cover herself slightly, nodding further into the corner. Tipping your head back, you strained against the seat, a hiss falling from you as the cut on your skull throbbed, but then you remembered what had happened; Jansen. 

Teresa had gone to call out for Thomas with Ava Paige, and then Jansen had found you.

Looking around for the other woman, you found her nowhere to be seen, your brows furrowing and you let your gaze roam back to Thomas’, his eyes looking over your face carefully. Jansen was watching out of the window, and even from your restrained position, you could see the orange glows of the fires that had taken over, the darkness the smoke was causing in the sky, and you could hear the tremendous crashing of buildings crumbling and falling to rubble on the ground, as they always should have been.

“Do you know what this place is?” His voice was eerily calm, more at ease than you had ever heard Jansen speak before, and you tipped your head to look at him, watching as he finally turned to face you both, directing his attention from the scene outside to instead assess Teresa’s work with the two of you. “It’s a lifeboat. The whole world might be sinking, but that doesn’t mean we have to go down with it.”

You struggled in your restraints, your arms thrashing as you tried to sit up, and the man merely chuckled at your futile attempts, making his way between the chairs to lean over you. He raised a hand, smirking as you flinched, before he gently brought his fingers up to brush some hair away from your face, and Thomas thrashed in his own seat the second Jansen had touched you, shouting threats behind him, to which the man simply ignored. 

“How much longer?” He waited for Teresa’s answer, the girl mumbling as steadily as possible that it wouldn’t be much longer, and with his back turned to her, he missed watching her slowly packing your back with equipment, your eyes focusing on it as she tucked needles and syringes into your pack and hid them. “It’s some good work you did there, (Y/N). You were so close to a cure before, that little notebook you had always had on you, who knew the secrets to saving the world would be in there. You were days away, perhaps even less had you just shared your work, and instead, you let your emotions get in the way. You had yourself sent up into the trials instead.” 

You scoffed at his words, trying to lean away from his touch on your face and he tutted, shaking his head, before slipping his hand to your head, pressing down on the cut from the gun he had hit you with as you cried out, sharp pains shooting through you from the injured patch on your scalp. “Get your fucking hands away from her!” Thomas screamed, thrashing in the surgical bed beside you and his hands retracted, your whimpers sounding lowly as the stinging began to subside. 

“Why don’t you just kill us?” You mumbled, and he grinned, turning to walk away from you as he headed over to check on Teresa’s progress. 

“Kill you? No, no, we couldn't do that.” He seemed to stop, contemplating his words as his head tipped to the side. “Well, we can now we have your notes. You are going to die, but Thomas here, we have to take special care of him.” Jansen promised, and you fell still in your bed, your eyes darting over to your notebook. “You are just here to break his will. Once he’s watched you die before his eyes, he’ll have nothing left to fight for, and I will have a living, breathing, cure.”

“So, do it, you fucking coward! You’ll never be able to read those notes! You’ll never understand them!” He grinned at your bravery, unholstering the handgun sitting on his hip and nodding in agreement with your words.

“You’re right, I was never much one for science, I’ve always had stronger passions, made the hard choices, not the difficult theories, but Teresa here, she understands them perfectly.” He hummed, and your eyes flicked to look at the girl behind him, in her hands, a dark blue swilling in the needle as the injected it into tubes for safety, and your eyes found hers, a subtle nod being cast in your direction as she placed them down silently. 

Your eyes moved to the side, Thomas shaking his head rapidly as his he looked at you, fighting and tugging on the restraints, his skin red and raw as he tried to wiggle out of their tight hold, tears lining his eyes and spilling down his cheeks as he looked at you. Giving him a soft smile, you nodded, swallowing thickly as the barrel of the gun pressed to your temple. “Don’t let them break you, Tommy.”

“He’s already broken.” Jansen scoffed his thumb flicking the safety off as he curled his finger around the trigger, and your eyes closed tightly, your breath held and Thomas’ pleading and shouting fell silent, everything drowning away as the sound of your own steady heart rate filled your eyes, relaxing you and easing your mind to go.

The sound of shattering glass filled your ears, a grunt, followed by a thud and your eyes snapped open, finding Jansen laying on the floor as Teresa held the bottom of a large glass container, dropping it to the floor as she dived forward, fingers shaking as she tried to undo the straps on your hand and you took deep breaths, your head practically spinning as nothing but complete relief flooded your system, the joy making you feel high as you collapsed back into the chair, bringing your wrists up to rub at the raw skin as soon as they were free. 

She had barely freed one of your feet, when you looked back up at her, your eyes opening in a scream as Jansen rose from the ground and Thomas shouted out to warn her, but before she could move, the man had a fistful of her hair and a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back and throwing her into the table she’d been operating at. Her body flew right over it as she knocked everything with her, glass shattering as liquid spilt out across the floor, your notebook sliding towards the window as it left the table and you shot up, struggling to free your other foot. 

He followed her, a tube ready to use for the injection in his hand and she crawled under tables, trying to escape, and Thomas called out her name frantically, trying to tear himself from the chair as you stood over him. You pulled at the leather locked around his wrists, freeing one of his hands and he immediately moved to free his other as you worked on free the straps around his feet.

The second he was no longer bound, he was rolling from the chair, leaving your side as he dashed to help her, and Jansen held onto her head tightly, slamming it down against the edge of a metal table and her body fell limp. Pushing one of the cartridges of blue liquid into the device, he rolled up his sleeve, exposing his own Flare covered arm, but before he could administer the injection, Thomas’ arms wrapped around his waist, tackling the man straight through one of the glass walls. You were stopped for a second, the complete catastrophe of what had happened in the last few hours just beginning to hit you. The two were fighting, and you snapped away from the scene outside, glancing between your bag on the other side of the room and Teresa laying unconscious on the other, a curse falling from your lips as you dashed towards her and dropped to your knees. 

Casting a glance out into the corridor, you watched the two men fight, punches being thrown and grunts sounding out as the swung at one another and you held the girls face gently, tapping her cheeks as you mumbled her name, eventually just resorting to shaking her roughly. She stirred in your arms and you cried out in relief, turning to watch as Thomas landed blow after blow on the man attacking you, before his fist was blocked, worry replacing how proud you felt and you turned away as you watched Thomas be thrown to the floor, your hands grabbing onto Teresa’s as you helped her get to her feet shakily. 

When the two of you stumbled to the doorway, your eyes widened, a scream falling from your lips as the same gun that had been aimed at you was now aimed at Thomas pointed directly at him and you shook, Teresa now being the one to hold you upright as you desperately tried to find a way out of this, to figure something out, to be able to save the man you loved. 

Before you could process it, the corridor lit up so brightly you could barely see and a second later, the building shook, metal support beams and walls crumbling at the impact as your body launched forwards, the glass along the entire side of the building shattering, but it gave you enough time for a distraction as Jansen hit the floor, the gun sliding away from him. 

It soon sounded again, more chunks of building falling and Thomas dashed over to you, his hands finding your face as he cupped your cheeks, his hands trembling so violently in fear he could barely hold on and his body was sagging. “Let’s go, come one, let’s go!”

He began to drag you away, Teresa swiping the device Jansen had been planning to use to inject himself from the floor and you hesitated, the villain groaning as he pushed himself out from under the rubble. “Wait! I have to get the bag! Go!” Thomas looked like he was ready to argue and you pushed him away from you, nodding your head as your eyes stayed locked with his. “I’ll be there, just go!”

With a moment's pause, he left, bolting away from you with Teresa as Jansen began to free himself and you ducked back into the room quietly, the building wobbling as fire took over the lab, plumes of smoke filling the air, dust causing you to cough loudly. Gunshots sounded behind you, the shadow of the man chasing your friends retreating down the corridor and you waved a hand in front of your face, you pushed around in broken furniture and equipment, before spotting the strap of your bag, layered with dust but it was there. 

Lifting up the table that had fallen over it, you smiled victoriously, searching about on the floor until your fingers brushed the worn leather of your notebook, the keys to the cure sealed safely inside and you pushed it into the heavy pack, sealing it tightly and securing it on your back. As you made to stand, more missiles and bombs hit against the side of the building and it jerked violently, beginning to tip heavily to one side and the room around you began to collapse in on itself, the corridor falling in as debris, concrete and rubble blocked off any chance you had of leaving.

Your eyes narrowed and you stared at it, a loud scream falling from your lips in anger. Your throat was raw as you let out the sound, your own ears aching as you cursed and screamed. “No! No fucking way!” You stood up, fists clenched so tightly by your sides that you were sure your nails would draw blood from your palms and you stared at the blocked exit, the room sealed around you as it began to crumble. “I have not come this fucking far! I will not die at a goddamn WCKD facility!”

You heaved in ragged breaths searching the room. There was no way you were going to be able to move all the chunks of concrete and metal blocking the doors. Looking above yourself, you found no access to vents, the support beams giving way in the roof anyway, and you were left with the open window. As you peered out, you found nothing but concrete below, the flames of the lower floors twisting up and roaring in the air, the heat reaching you simply from looking down and you took a moment to calm yourself.

You watched the Berg in the distance, seeing its rotors slowly begin to move as it prepared to lift itself off the ground and you dropped your head with a smile, cheering to yourself among the burning building. “Okay, guess we’re going up.” Peering out, you plotted your route carefully. You were close to the top of the building, and it was only five floors. You could do this. 

Your hand shot out, grabbing onto rolls of bandages as you wrapped up your hands as much as possible, covering your palms and your knuckles, tightening the laces on your boots and tucking them in as you prepared yourself, shaking your body down and hoping it would help dissipate the fear filling every inch of you. Leaning out of the tilted building, you grasped onto a chunk of loose rock, tugging on it to check it was still secure before holding onto it tightly. 

Your foot followed, finding a gap in the framework and with a deep breath, you swung your body out from the relative safety of the floor you had been stood on, your free hand reaching out to grab onto the rock, fingers digging into cracks as your toes did the same, and you huffed out an unbelieving laugh as you successfully clung to the side of the building. 

Lifting one hand, as far as it could reach, you grasped onto a metal support beam, testing its stability before raising a foot, pushing off as you climbed higher. You had soon set a rhythm, your eyes searching for things to grab onto and stand on, and before you knew it, the room you had left was now pouring with fire, two floors behind as the edge of the roof only got closer and closer to you. 

Your head was throbbing, the cut at your hairline was spewing blood from your exertion, and you could feel the trail of it trickling own your temple and along your cheek, blood dripping from your jaw but you couldn’t waste time focusing on it now. Ash, dust and crumbled building covered your sweaty skin, sticking to you, and as it burned, it made it easier to climb, your dirtied skin making your grip dry and strong, and you panted, looking up at the distance you still had to go.

“This is the last time I climb a broken building for the rest of my life, I swear to shuck.” You whispered, taking a laboured breath and groaning as you pushed yourself further up. “Damn tunnels and damn skyscrapers, never again will I go near either. I refuse it.” You huffed, your own audible complaining being the only thing keeping you going.

Three floors up, and you found a hole in the side of the building, dragging yourself into it carefully as your exhausted body lay out on the concrete, your legs still hanging over the ledge as you secure yourself on the floor for a few seconds breather. You could hear the Berg now, getting closer and closer to you, only minutes away and you heaved yourself up into a sitting position, a cry on your lips as your muscles screamed out in agony. 

Looking around yourself, you identified the broken and partially collapsed stairs before you. The sign reading ‘roof access’ was barely hanging onto the wall and you looked between the outside of the building you had been climbing and the broken stairs. Both were dangerous, and both would probably result in your death, but as you looked down at your hands, you made your decision. 

Your nails were ripped and torn short, the tips of your fingers burned, scraped and bleeding from all the hot debris and jagged rock you had needed to cling to in order to climb, you made your decision. Using the metal railing to pull yourself to your feet, your body leaned heavily against the quickly warming metal for support as you inched your way up the stairs. 

You had narrowly avoided holes and gaps, the rock simply crumbling beneath your feet in patches as your foot pushed straight through and you had to catch yourself from dropping, but soon, you were finding the door that read ‘roof’, already gaping and flapping in the wind as you pulled it open. 

Tears lined your eyes as you coughed, the smoke thicker up here, as the fire reached where you were, and you waved a hand in front of your face, stepping out onto the shaky metal platforms as you stumbled forwards. By the time you could see straight, you made out the forms on the floor, Thomas sprawled out on the ground as Teresa sat behind him, supporting him as much as he could and his hand was gripped to his stomach, blood pumping between his fingers violently each time he coughed and spluttered.

You moved forward, stumbling as quickly as you could before dropping to your knees before the boy on the floor, the hot tears in your eyes beginning spill down your cheeks as you sobbed on a sore throat. His free hand rose, wiping the blood away from your cheeks carefully as your tears mixed with the dirt smeared across your skin. “I told you to drop your hero-complex, look at you.” He wheezed, his hand settled over your cheek delicately as his thumb stroked at your face, his eyes locked with yours as he stared at you, like you were the only thing in the world that mattered. 

You let out a choked laugh at his words, more tears spilling down your cheeks as you brushed hair away from his forehead carefully, your hands resting over his on his stomach and his blood spilled out and covered your own fingers, as his separated slightly, yours sliding between them as together the two of you held pressure on his wound with your linked hands. “What? And let you have all the fun?”

He shook his head with a smile, his eyes closing gently as he clung onto you, and you looked up to Teresa, trying to blink away your tears as she cried desperately herself. “I-I’m sorry, I tried!” She whimpered, her shaky hand holding out the last vial of the cure and you took it, wiping as your eyes and tucking the blue vial into the pocket of your bag, because it didn’t matter now. 

“I know, T.” You took a hand away from Thomas’ face to hold hers, squeezing it reassuringly before letting it return to Thomas’ face, holding him in a soft grip. “I forgive you.” As soon as you said those words, she seemed to break, a loud cry leaving her as she leaned over and you looked down at Thomas, a small smile on his face as he watched you.

“I need to tell you something.” You shook your head, biting on your lip as you pressed a tender kiss to his forehead and he whined, insisting you listen to him. “I have to say it now, so you can remember hearing it at least once!” He groaned, and a fresh set of tears began to find a place along your eyes as they glazed over and you willed them back as you looked at him. “You need to know! You need to know just how much I care, how much I truly, irrevocably, lov-”

He was cut off as a wind swept over you all, violent coughs leaving you and you looked up to the source, the Berg skimming up the side of the building just in time, lights shining into your eyes brightly and you covered them, the machine spinning around to face away from you and the back dropped open as it swayed, trying to hold itself steady next to the building. 

With a happy cry, you looked down at him, both of your hands coming to cup his cheeks as you looked at him intently, neither of you caring about the blood smearing across his skin as you stared at one another. 

“You’re not telling me here. Okay?” He nodded weakly as he looked at you. “You’re going to get up, and you’re going to fight, you hear me? One last time, and then you can tell me when we’re safe, and happy.”

“When we’re safe and happy.” He confirmed, his words wheezed as both you and Teresa reached under his arms, pulling him to his feet as he cried out in pain, but you ignored it, dragging him towards the ledge. The gap was too far, and no matter how many times Teresa shouted at them to get closer, you knew they couldn't, the building was teetering dangerously as it began to give way under its own weight, not to mention the flames that were rising higher and higher around the edge of the building, and you knew you’d have to throw him. 

Putting all his weight on Teresa, you took off your bag, placing the straps around his dropped head to hand from his neck as you lopped your fingers into his belt, motioning for Teresa to do the same. The building beside you collapsed, the entire front side of it falling away as a loud explosion sounded and your eyes widened. The metal on the opposite side began to buckle under the weight of the top chunk, and in only a few seconds, it would be falling towards you, and it would take out the rest of the platform you stood on with it. 

There was only once chance to save Thomas’ life, and you knew you had to take it, now.

You nodded to her, counting down carefully before you both put all your effort into it, your muscles aching under his weight but he flew forwards, just enough across the gap for his torso to land roughly on the lowered platform and immediately Vince was able to pull him inside. The second they had him inside, they were reaching out again to the two of you, but the deafening and crashing sounds of the building beside finally giving out were ringing out and all of your attention snapped towards it as it fell. 

It hit the roof of the building you were on, jolting it to aggressively that you stumbled in place, but your eyes turned to Thomas, the building trembling beneath your feet and his eyes were wide as you gave him a small smile, nodding to him. “(Y/N)! Teresa!” His voice was laboured and you shook your head with a smile, choking back the tears you wanted to release as you raised a hand, gripping at the charm that hung around your neck. 

“Happy and safe, Tommy.” You whispered, and he shook his head, his hand stretching out to you as the building fell away, and with it, the platform you were beginning to crumble beneath your feet as it’s support was lost. The ground beneath your feet slipped away, your body falling as your eyes stayed locked on Thomas’, a scream leaving his lips as you began to fall away from him. 

Your shoulder jolted, the skin of your wrist stinging as nails scraped at your skin, your body swinging in the air and Minho peered down at you, shaking his head from where he hung from the aircraft, his hands wrapped tightly around a rope, a grimace on his lips as Gally held the other end, pulling it taut as he supported both you and Minho hanging from the craft. Looking down, you watched as Teresa’s body fell away into the smoke, the floors collapsing around her as debris and shrapnel flew up, sarks and flames filling the air. 

You were limp in his grasp, your body being slowly pulled back up towards the edge as Gally and Vince pulled Minho inside, all three men tugging you into the craft as the ramp finally slid shit and Minho swept you up into his arms, holding onto you tightly. “I’m not losing any more friends to WCKD.” He whispered, mumbled by your hair and your legs gave way beneath you as you collapsed, and he slowly sunk the two of you down to your knees. 

The second you were released, you struggled for air, the panic attack you had been pushing off had finally had its chance to shine and you clawed at your throat, Tears falling down your face and the only sound was that of your shaking sobs and the humming of the engine. Brenda placed a hand on your back, pulling your hair out of your face as you fell forward, your hands holding you up as your body wracked with dry heaves. Your heart was pounding, and Vince fell to the floor before you, his hands finding your shoulders as he rolled you to the side, sitting carefully on the floor. “You’re okay, kid. You did good, you can rest now.” 

You nodded at his words, the fatigue in every inch of you was taking over, and you slumped back against the wall. “Where’s my bag?” Your voice was croaky and hoarse, and Brenda rushed to lift it from Thomas’ head, ringing it over to you carefully as you dug into the pocket, holding the vial of blue liquid between your fingers and you pressed it into her palm. “Make sure Newt gets his cure, Bren.”

Her eyes were wide and teary as she looked at you, gripping onto it tightly and you gave her the strongest smile your tired body would allow. You could feel everything in your body beginning to shut down from the stress and exhaustion, and you rolled to the side, Thomas’ head lolled towards you, eyes closed as Minho and Gally worked on patching up his bullet wound, fresh bandages being pressed to it and you reached over, your fingers lacing through his limply.

With a final nod at your friend, you let your eyes slide closed, calmness and serenity taking over your body as you slipped away into the peaceful darkness, smiling as you drifted off, safe and happy, among your friends.

[mistarcat]

Tabletop Tuesday- 10/15/2019

With the permission of the group playing in this campaign, I will be chronicling our pathfinder journey through the viewpoint of my character, Dimas. It is based on the Wrath of the Righteous campaign. Pathfinder and its campaigns are owned by Paizo, and I claim no ownership of the story or its non-playing characters [NPCs]. I’m just doing this as a writing exercise and for the entertainment of others, not for any kind of monetary gain. And without further adieu, please enjoy the first installment of Tabletop Tuesday!

The bells were going to ring at any second, and Lord Hulrun was about to give the blessing. Dimas could feel the vibration of excitement throughout Clydewell Plaza. The silence that fell over the crowd was almost unnerving- he folded his wings in tighter and shifted closer to his brother, Dion. As the inquisitor was about to speak, Dimas noticed a reflective glare in his shining armor and many of the heads around him turned to the west. Before he could look, a sonic boom shook the plaza and his ears began to ring. The air was now buzzing with electricity rather than the excitement from a few moments ago. Dimas nodded to Dion and attempted to maneuver through the panicked crowd. Faces of frightened festival goers were everywhere he looked. Lord Hulrun had such a look.

“It’s gone!”

“Not the Kite!”

“The Wardstone!”

All of the different calls pierced his ringing ears, and he didn’t want to believe them. If the Wardstone of Kenabres fell, that would invite demons into the city he called home. Those cries were suddenly drowned out by a thunderous roar, and Dimas felt himself cast into a shadow. It was a sight to behold, the dragon Tendelev flew above him, his silver scales glittering as his wings flapped.

A line of flames whipped into view, and Dimas traced it back to another enormous presence in the sky. Flames and bolts of lightning covered the being's skin as his fiery whip cracked again, this time hitting the great guardian of Kenabres. The storm king Khorramzadeh had arrived on Dimas’ doorstep, a vision even his greatest nightmares could never conjure. Dimas turned away from the battle above, trying again to venture toward the stage, to make sure Lord Hulrun was safe when the ground started to shake again. He hit the plaza’s cobblestones as the tremor knocked him off balance, his arms failing to brace his fall.

Before he could try and stand back up, Dimas saw a building crumble down as a demon emerged. Despite living in a city so close to the Worldwound, he had only heard about them. He had seen two this day, and he would never forget the destruction he saw right before the ground beneath him gave way. As he began to plunge into the chasm that formed beneath him, he unfurled his black feathery wings. Using the momentum, he flipped over to look at the sky one last time. An argent talon jutted into the rift as metallic runes spiraled around him. The sensation of magic radiated through his veins. Dimas’s descent slowed as he looked up and saw the Storm King raise his sword. The sword swung toward Tendelev and Dimas turned his head away from witnessing the inevitable demise of the guardian dragon.

The fissure was closing, and soon Dimas knew only darkness as he continued to fall. His darkvision was no good to him among the flying dust and falling debris.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When he met solid ground with a thud, he heard echoes of moaning and cries of mourning. There was nothing but darkness- Dimas silently thanked his obscure heritage for his ability to see in the lightlessness. He turned and saw unmistakable white leathery wings.

“Dion, are you okay?” he called out as he moved to stand up.

He heard in reply, “Y-yeah, I think so.”

Dimas sighed in relief and looked around. His violet eyes confirmed sight of his brother, along with a crowd of other figures amongst the fallen rubble. One of the figures was a man Dimas recognized as Horgus Gwerm, a minor noble of Kenabres. The familiar woman next to him was pinned by her leg under a rock. Before Dimas could react, a peculiar figure with hair as platinum as his own lifted the boulder. A cry of pain rang through the cavern.

“Who’s there?”

Squinting as the cavern became illuminated, Dimas witnessed a blonde aasimar wielding a morningstar approach the injured woman. 

“Does anyone need healing?” His voice echoed. Dimas furrowed his brow at the question. The man’s question would do little to alleviate the anxiety that was palpable in the air.

“Thank you for the light,” Dimas could see the questions still illuminated on her face as she spoke, “now that I can see we are all in this situation together--” her voice trailed off. She pushed herself to sit up and look around, “yes. I do need some healing. My leg appears to be broken.”

Dimas watched as the man scoured the cave for supplies and began to splint her leg. Having no training in any kind of healing, he felt useless. He looked to his brother, who he knew had to be feeling the same. Reaching out his hand, he felt his brother squeeze his hand in reassurance.

“My name is Anevia Tirabade,” the injured woman introduced herself. Dimas glanced at Dion in recognition. Tirabade was the surname of the leader of the Eagle Watch, one of their mother’s boss. “It is nice to meet you. Do any of you have any form of healing potion?”

Dion smoothed his dark hair back over his white horns. Dimas sensed his discomfort, “We sadly do not have any such potions, milady.”

As the aasimar began to answer for himself, Dimas was struck by a curious site. A halfling with plant-like features sitting atop a tumble pig. Dimas figured that he must be some sort of fey, as was the bark-skinned blond who moved the stone. He could also discern a quiet clacking sound but was unsure of its origin.

When Anevia confirmed that she could walk with the make-shift crutch, another voice piped in, “I am Aravashnial.” his voice was distinguished and patronizing, “It seems I am no longer able to see. The balor’s whip caught me across the face”

Dimas winced at the thought.

“Thankfully it was nothing more than a glancing blow. Though now I seem to be in need of healing. Who am I currently with, and what is your experience battling demons or other fearsome creatures?”

It was unsurprising to Dimas that the aasimar answered first, “I am Mikael, and I have very little experience. I had come to Kenabres to begin taking on such matters.”

Dimas couldn’t help but wonder what this group would make of himself and Dion and their demonic ancestry. It had always been strange to grow up in a town with an aversion to demons.

The haughty elf said, “I see, well I suppose one must start somewhere.”

Before any other could answer the elf’s question, the noble Dimas recognized spoke up, “Yes, yes, whatever. How are you going to get me out of here?”

Dimas rolled his eyes toward Dion, who whispered at him, “Do you know where you are?”

Horgus continued, “If you do, I promise I’ll give you a total of a thousand gold!”

“I have no idea,” he shook his head at his brother, “some sort of cave below the city, I guess.”

As he shook his head, he noticed the pair of fey looking disinterested at the prospect of gold. He was unsure of their reasoning, but instead focused on the amplifying ticking noise.

Across the cavernous room, among the rubble, a pair of giant maggots crawled out from a corpse of a large black spider.

“Little prince, get behind me!” the fey halfling declared from atop his pig.

“No!” Before anyone else could act, the silver skinned fey lept into action, wielding his strange looking spear.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In part two, Dimas, Dion and their new found compatriots fight the maggots. Will they succeed? And what lies further in this cavern? Will they be able to find a way out? And what became of Kenabres? Find out next time on Tabletop Tuesday.

[chemicalmagecraft]

The Gamer Hero, Deku Chapter 19

"So the cavalry battle's about to start," Mic-sensei said, "and I've just gotta say..." I strapped myself into the harness Hatsume had thoughtfully made for me so that I wouldn't fall while I was Meditating, because I really needed to use Meditation for my crazy plan to work. "IS THAT ONE OF THE ROBOTS FROM EARLIER!?" The two-pointer that I'd stowed in my inventory during the obstacle race. I was sitting on the center of the robot's torso, which thankfully acted a bit like a platform, Uraraka and Hatsume were by the front of the robot, with Hatsume arm-deep in the robot's guts still. Our final teammate, Tokoyami, was by the back of the robot due to its size. While I was the only one with a harness, my teammates had bits of scrap metal that Uraraka had magnetized that let them stick to the robot but still allowed them to move if they needed to.

"Too loud, Mic," Aizawa complained. "And yes, that is one of the robots from earlier. The problem child argued that if his teammate, Hatsume, modified and hacked the robot, then it would be her creation and therefore, as she is a support student, her team would be allowed to use it." He sighed. "And apparently the principal specifically wrote into the rules that hacking the robots is okay, so it's not even technically a loophole. When I asked Nedzu about it, he just maniacally laughed."

"To be honest I probably should've seen that coming."

"Probably. And by the way, the cavalry battle begins in about one minute, so get ready."

I took a deep breath and focused on my mana. A ball of faintly glowing light blue mana appeared on my chest, and three tendrils of mana extended from it. The tendrils touched my teammates on the chest, forming balls of mana on their chests like mine. Bestow, a spell I thought of that allowed me to share my mana with others, though there was a bit of mana lost. "So interesting!" Hatsume shouted as she poked the ball of mana on her chest, her eyes glowing. She was actually pretty good with magic, judging from how quickly she'd picked up Eye For Magic.

Tokoyami put a hand up to his mana ball. "I feel power flowing through me," he muttered.

I nodded. "Just remember that even with Meditation, I have a limited amount of mana. And there's three of you, which means that my mana will be split between you. We should be fine if only one person does something big at a time, so coordinate your spells."

"On three!" Midnight shouted.

"And finally snap me out of it if we need something big and I'll use Limit Break," I said quickly, then activated Mana Dome and Meditation.

"Begin!" Midnight shouted.

I couldn't really see much of what was happening at first because of how I was meditating and in the center of the robot. However, after a few moments, it seemed like Bestow started to synergize with Open Mind and possibly even Meditate, Tactician, and the party we'd made, because I was able to see through my teammate's eyes. I mostly focused on Uraraka because Tokoyami was watching the rear and Hatsume was piloting the robot. I kept a bit of an 'eye' on Hatsume, though, because I hoped to absorb some of her mechanical expertise. Uraraka saw that a lot of the teams made a beeline straight for us. One of the teams used some sort of ground-softening Quirk. "I'm gonna lower gravity!" Uraraka shouted. "Hit the jets, Hatsume!" I felt a sudden drain on my mana coming from Uraraka. A pink glow spread from her body, engulfing the entire robot. Hatsume activated the robot's jets, and despite its weight it flew. Tokoyami deflected a few shots that came after us with Dark Shadow.

When we touched down, the robot sank a bit. Hatsume looked down at the legs and saw some mud, using Eye For Magic. "Someone's attacking my new baby with water magic!" she shouted.

Uraraka looked around and saw Tsu and someone from gen ed that I didn't know very well riding on Shoji's back. "Tsu-chan!" she shouted.

Tsu spat out a glob of water, which shaped itself like a buzzsaw. "Ochako-chan, I'm sorry to do this, but-"

"Well I'm not at all!" Hatsume shouted, then laid her hands on the robot. She stared at her hands with Eye For Magic as she poured mana into the robot. She, and therefore I, could see how the mana interacted with the technology. I heard a text box open as I learned the skill from her. Blue lines spread across the robot, and Hatsume's vision changed to the robot's camera. She shot a net at Tsu's team, entangling them, and made the robot carefully step out of the mud.

"DEKU! YOUR FUCKING ROBOT WON'T SAVE YOU NOW!" All three of my teammates turned in unison to see Kacchan's team. Kacchan jumped off of Kirishima, his front horse, and started flying at us with Fire Dash. Tokoyami had Dark Shadow curl around me protectively.

"He's going after my baby!" Hatsume screeched.

"I've got this!" Uraraka shouted. She slapped her hands on the robot, blue sparks springing into existence and traveling over to the leg Kacchan was aiming for. When Kacchan tried to explode the leg, it just... compressed a bit before springing back with a wave of energy. Kacchan was knocked back, but another one of his horses, Sero, grabbed him with his tape. "Get us out of here, Hatsume!"

"What did you do to my baby?" Hatsume demanded as the robot ran.

"I temporarily messed with the strength and stuff of the armor using particle magic. I can do that to my skin, too. It feels really weird." If I wasn't drawing in the energy of the world or however Meditation worked I'd have asked how that worked. It sounded interesting.

A few teams moved to intercept us. "I'll be taking your headband, Midoriya," Todoroki said. "Kaminari!" His teammates were Yaoyorozu and Kaminari in the back, on roller skates that I assumed Yaoyorozu made, and Iida in the front.

Yaoyorozu made a sheet and a grounding rod while Kaminari started to build up lightning. "I believe my power will be the most useful in this situation," Tokoyami said. "My comrades, please allow me to complete access Midoriya's font of power." Tokoyami drained my MP even faster than Meditation could bring it back. In return, a shroud of near-total darkness engulfed the world. "Primordial Void!" he intoned. Through Hatsume's enhanced eyes, I could just barely see Corvo and Dark Shadow emerge, though Dark Shadow was so big that it dwarfed our robot. I remembered what he said, about how Dark Shadow got stronger but harder to control the darker it was. "Now, my minions of shadow, let us have a true revelry in the dark." Dark Shadow rushed forward, with Corvo riding him and seemingly controlling him, or at least directing him.

Kaminari shot most of his lightning at Dark Shadow, or at least I think that's what happened in the gloom. It wasn't very effective with such poor light, and it seemed that the dark magic was dampening the lightning itself somehow. Dark Shadow raged, knocking back all of the teams. The drain on my MP abated, and the black shroud started to fade away. "Run, Hatsume!" Tokoyami shouted. "Away from Todoroki's team!"

"I can see!" she shouted as the robot started running away. Tokoyami saw Todoroki freeze out the other teams in the confusion and then Iida shouting something. Todoroki made a ramp of ice and Iida shot off faster than I'd ever seen him run before. Tokoyami made to intercept with Dark Shadow, but Todoroki's team sped up even more as the ice at the tip of the ramp exploded, and then Kaminari shot a bolt of lightning at Dark Shadow that stunned it. Yaoyorozu shot a miniature cannon past Tokoyami. I opened my eyes just in time to get hit in the back of my head with the cannonball that shattered my Mana Dome. It didn't hurt, but it was really jarring! Because I'd flinched from the hit, I wasn't able to react in time to stop Todoroki from snatching my headband. Their team landed on a platform of ice, then slid down the slide that Todoroki turned it into.

I took stock. The two skills that I'd learned, Sight Sharing and Technomancy, wouldn't be very useful. However, we already had everything we needed to get that headband back.

"Ditch the robot and go after them, guys!" I shouted. Luckily, Todoroki didn't think to melt the slide. Actually, I couldn't remember him ever using his fire in battle. That probably wasn't a good sign... My teammates jumped into the formation that we'd discussed on the slide, and I used Sonic Embodiment to take my place as the rider. Tokoyami used Dark Shadow to push us down and I used Speed Up on my teammates. Now that I wasn't using Meditate, which didn't let me use Observe while I was using it, Tactician told me that Iida's engines were stalled by whatever special move he'd used. "That move wiped out Iida's Quirk for the rest of the game, so we have a chance! Get me close!"

Uraraka lowered our gravity, letting us run faster. I noticed that the robot was tailing behind us, but I didn't give it much thought. We got within range, and Todoroki's eyes widened as his left arm caught fire, a knee-jerk reaction. I slashed my arm at him with wind mana, blowing his defenses away, then used a light amount of One For All to grab the golden headband. They'd flipped the headbands around and mixed up their order to try and trick us, but with Observe and Tactician that meant nothing to me. "We're flying away!" I shouted, activating the jetpack I hadn't had to use yet in the cavalry battle. Uraraka used a mixture of her Quirk and gravity magic to lift us out of there. Apparently the reason why she got such bad nausea when she used her Quirk on herself was because she was resistant to it, but she didn't have as much of a problem with gravity magic.

"DEKU!" Kacchan screamed at me, flying toward us. It looked like he was back to attacking us...

"Uraraka! My baby!" Hatsume shouted. Uraraka got what she meant immediately and pointed at the two-pointer, which jumped and started using its jets. Uraraka pulled on Bestow again, causing the robot to glow pink and start flying. It intercepted Kacchan, but it looked like Uraraka did the strengthening spell again. This time, though, well...whatever the spell did, it didn't completely solve the problem of Newton's third law of motion. The robot absorbed all of the force, yes, but when it rebounded the force... It was weightless. "MY BABY!" Hatsume shrieked as the robot was repulsed away from Kacchan. I didn't want a giant robot, even a giant robot with the weight of a beach ball, crashing into the stands or even worse the stalls outside, so I grabbed it with Mana Rope and braced myself on an air platform. I swung the robot down to try to take some of the motion off.

"Get on the robot!" I shouted after getting the robot to only be slowly falling. We landed on it and I started meditating again to help with keeping us lightly falling.

"And Team Midoriya are back just in time for the end of the cavalry battle!" Mic-sensei shouted when we touched down. "The game was totally crazy, but now it's OOOOVEEEER!"

"In first place, we have Team Midoriya, clearly," Aizawa-sensei said. "Second place is Team Todoroki, third is Bakugou, and fourth is... it looks like Team Shinsou snatched a few last-minute points. Impressive."

"We'l be taking a lunch break, but we'll move on to the final games after the break, folks! Stay tuned!"

I dropped off of the robot, not waiting for Hatsume to lower it. "Are you okay, Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu asked me, rubbing her elbow.

"O-oh, I'm fine," I reassured her. "I can fall from higher than that without any problem."

"No, I mean from when I shot you. That looked like it hurt..."

I shook my head. "No, no, it was more surprising than anything! My Mana Dome probably took most of the hit, and my Quirk is really overpowered. I think I wouldn't be too hurt if All Might were to punch me in the face."

She nodded. "That's impressive. I still apologize, though. I was aiming to just pop your barrier, but we were going very fast, so..."

"It's fine!"

xoxoxo

After we left to get lunch, Todoroki stopped me and rather forcefully asked to meet me alone. I saw no reason not to, so I followed him to an abandoned hallway. "What did you need me for?" I asked. "Did you get hurt in the caval-"

"I was overwhelmed." He glared at me. "Your power. I only saw it once, but it reminded me of All Might."

"I'm pretty sure All Might doesn't use wind magic. He just punches the air hard enough that it looks like he does."

"I don't mean your magic. You did... something that wasn't magic."

"How did you know?"

"I can sense magic. And that sudden movement you did, it was more like All Might's Quirk than magic."

I blinked. "I'm sorry, did you just say you can sense magic?"

"And considering how All Might seems to be supporting you, I have to ask one thing." I gulped. I didn't know what he was going to say, but he was getting pretty close to the truth... "Are you All Might's secret love child or something?"

I spluttered. "Wow, I wish I was All Might's secret love child! All I know about my dad is that he had some kind of firebreathing Quirk and curly white hair. And that he owes us a lot in child support."

"Regardless, you clearly have some kind of connection to All Might. Just know that I must beat you. You see, my father is an ambitious man. He wanted to be the number one hero, and wasn't even satisfied with second place." His voice became ice cold. "And so he made me to carry out his ambitions."

"What do you mean, 'made you?'" His Quirk involved two separate powers, even stated in Observe to be two Quirks in one body. It reminded me of that Nomu thing...

"Are you aware of Quirk marriages?" Oh. In hindsight that was the more likely conclusion. Probably worse, though. He snarled. "My father used his influence to put pressure on my mother's family, forcing an arranged marriage. It took the bastard four tries, but he finally made me, his masterpiece, and trained me relentlessly. My mother hated my left side. I don't blame her. It's his." I'm not a psychologist or a Quirk counselor... yet... but that seriously did not sound like a good sign, psychologically speaking. "I remember one time, she was talking to someone on the phone, about my left half." Seriously, I could tell Tokoyami was joking whenever he called his power a curse, but it seemed that Todoroki genuinely felt that the entire left half of his body and the power it gave him was some sort of... well, curse. "She saw me, and threw boiling hot water at me face, as you can see. As you've probably noticed by now, my left side is heat-resistant, but not fireproof."

"Yeah, I may not have a fire Quirk, but I still have some weak fire resistance from my dad. Speaking of which, I suddenly feel very grateful my jackass firebreather dad was an absent jackass firebreather father."

"I envy you for your absent parent."

"You know, if you want I could try to heal that scar? It's obviously tied to some serious trauma, and I figure not seeing it in the mirror would ease some of the pain?"

He shook his head. "No. My purpose was to tell you this: I plan to deny my father the satisfaction of using his fire. I'll defeat you without ever using my left side again, this I can promise you." He started to walk off, leaving me in thought.

I Flash Stepped behind him a moment later and put my hand on his right shoulder. "You do realize I'm going to have to report this, right?"

His head whipped back. "What?"

"One of the stipulations of Shuzenji-sensei's training program. If I find evidence of any of my classmates being abused, I'm to report it to her or another teacher, with or without their permission. Even if I wasn't, though, I wouldn't just take that and say nothing. What kind of hero would I be if I learned my classmate was being abused and didn't say anything?"

"I appreciate the offer, but Endeavor's influence is too much. He always boasts how, if we did do anything, he'd have his people on it." He shuddered. "And then he'd punish us."

"Have you ever actually done anything?" I asked.

"I just said-"

"You said what he told you," I corrected. "A few years before Endeavor's debut, there was, obviously, another hero in the number two spot. Undertow. He had a flashy, powerful water Quirk that let him shoot water from any part of his body, and lots of it. To be honest, it'd be pretty funny how similar he was to Endeavor if it didn't extend to the point of abusing his daughter in the form of 'training.' Apparently, he even married a telekinetic so he could get a child with hydrokinesis, much like with your situation."

"What happened?"

"It took a while, but Undertow's sister reported him. She'd known for a while, but he'd threatened to... do something to his daughter if she did." I wiped a giant tear from my eye and sniffed. "It wasn't publicized much, because people were afraid that a pro of that ranking turning out to have done something like that could've triggered massive unrest, but Undertow was arrested and some of his charges were released, enough that nobody would question the arrest. He's still behind bars today." I smiled. "And at the same time I'm sure All Might would be willing to help you if he heard what happened, and I doubt that the influence of the number two hero outstrips that of the symbol of peace."

Todoroki nodded. "I'll take your word for it. Though, how do you know about Undertow if, as you said, the whole story was suppressed?"

"My grandmother told me about it." I used some magic on my tear ducts, causing a massive amount of water to pour from them. Then I wiped off my face and shirt because I didn't put any pressure into it, making the water dribble all over me. "She didn't want me to repeat her mistake."

Todoroki blinked. "Wait, so are you saying-"

"Undertow is my great uncle, yes. We don't talk about him much, though, because of the whole, ah..."

"I see. You have my condolences. If I may ask, would it be possible for you to get me in contact with Undertow's daughter?"

I rubbed the back of my head. "Ah... that won't be possible, unfortunately. For one, she kind of hated my grandmother? Okay, not exactly hate per se but, well... Grandma didn't blame her, what with how she didn't say anything about the abuse for a while. And I think Undertow made it worse somehow..."

"When was the last time I talked to my siblings..." Todoroki muttered.

"Yeah, child abuse is pretty awful," I said. "Anyway, I think she reached out to my mom a few times, but... well... Then she died..."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

I shrugged. "I didn't even know her. Well, I didn't know her personally. I knew a lot about her. She was actually a pro hero."

"Was that... how she..?"

I gave him a small nod. "The hero duo Water Hose. A husband-and-wife pair. About two years ago, they sacrificed themselves to take out a dangerous villain with a powerful enhancement Quirk. But enough about my messed up family. I won't force you to go to Shuzenji-sensei now, but when the sports festival is over we are talking to him, even if I have to drag you there myself."

He grunted. "Fine. If it will really destroy my father, then I'll happily talk to Shuzenji-sensei."

"That's probably not quite the healthiest thing to say, but it's better than not telling anyone about the abuse, so I'll let it slide," I muttered. Todoroki shrugged and started to walk off. This time I let him.

xoxoxo

A/N: Okay, so originally Undertow wasn't going to be related to Deku, but then I remembered that I said that his grandmother had a water Quirk and decided that he'd probably have reason to know about this guy if grandmother dearest told him about her evil twin. I mean, hero-nerd Izuku would probably know about the guy even without being related to him, but there's the reason for him to know the censored bits.