before it felt like a sin, ch. 3
ch.1, ch.2
pairing: Sebastian Sallow x f!MC
word count: 2300
summary: Eloise never wanted to be different.
And yet, her differences are what have defined her life up until this point: growing up as a squib in one of the most prominent wizarding families, being exiled to muggle society, and then attending Hogwarts at the age of sixteen.
She finds herself thrust into the life she should have been prepared for from birth but was denied. As she navigates this new life and her new precarious position in her family, she must come to terms with the fact that maybe what she dreamed of her whole life isn't turning out how she ever expected it would.
a/n: this is how I wish the duel could have gone in the game...😇🙏
I also want to reiterate that this fic is REALLY CANON DIVERGENT!!!!! I will NOT be following the game’s plot at all really with this (it really starts to diverge around chapter 6/7 maybe I don’t remember), and I don’t see Eloise as the game’s MC either.
Eloise was being woken up altogether too soon for her tastes. Something soft was hit her face, and she sat up groggily, pushing it away. She blinked as she looked around, not recognizing her surroundings. It was disorienting not knowing where she was, although, as she rubbed her eyes, it was slowly starting to come back to her…Something happened yesterday, she thought. I…
“Come on, sleepyhead!” exclaimed Imelda, throwing more clothes on top of Eloise. “The house elves left these last night at the foot of your bed while we were sleeping. If you don’t hurry up, there won’t be any more food left for breakfast. And, you know that the first day of classes is the most important…”
As she continued rambling on, Eloise got up and started putting on her school robes. A dark grey tartan skirt with dark green and silver stripes, a cream button-up with puffy sleeves that she tucked into the skirt, a black ribbon to tie around her neck, and her Slytherin robes on top. She didn’t know how to feel about the day that was ahead of her; she felt a strange mixture of elation and apprehension.
“…you’re taking too long. I’ll wait for you in the common room,” Imelda concluded, giving Eloise one last look before striding out of their dormitory. All of the other girls had already gotten ready and left for the morning, which wasn’t really a surprise to Eloise. As soon as her head hit the pillow the second time, she had fallen into a deep sleep and hadn’t heard the bustle of the girls preparing themselves for the day.
She finished lacing up her boots, and after one last glance in the mirror to make sure nothing was out of place, headed out to find Imelda.
When Eloise walked into the atrium, she was struck by how different it felt in the morning. It was truly as beautiful now as it had been eerily peaceful the night before. Once again, light piano music playing in the background - Eloise smiled to herself, recognizing the Gymnopédies by Satie. Her piano lessons had been the only bearable classes at the muggle school, and she had excelled at the instrument, often practicing during her free time.
The piano music blended in with the murmurs of students standing or sitting in small groups around various tables filled with breakfast foods and scrolls of parchment. The greens and blues coming through the windows felt refreshing, and the whole room was glimmering under the reflections of the water playing across various surfaces. She could see plants swaying under the water, with schools of fish weaving between them. It felt…magical.
Eloise’s eyes were drawn to Ominis and she started walking to him, standing by the same window where they had been sitting earlier. Instead of being in shadow, however, he was now illuminated by the rays of sun shining through the water. He was smirking to himself as he listened to the two first-years next to him. As she got closer to them, Eloise heard them speculating about the possibility that they would get to see a mermaid.
“Oh! I think I just saw one!” one shouted at his friend, pointing out the window. “Oh, wait…it was just algae.”
Eloise walked up to Ominis, smiling despite herself.
“Is this your idea of a good time?” she asked him, while he was simultaneously asking her how she had slept. They both paused as soon as they heard the other start talking, and then both started speaking at the same time after an awkward pause.
“Oh…I’m sorry. I…I slept well,” Eloise said, blushing. “And you?”
“As well as I ever do,” he replied. She noticed that the dark circles under his eyes were still very prominent, although they didn’t look eerie in the morning light. He indicated the first-years with a jerk of his head, changing the topic. “I doubt mermaids find us that interesting. I rather think they purposefully avoid our common room so as to not be treated like creatures in an aquarium.”
Eloise laughed at that and tilted her head playfully. “And just where did those two even get the idea that they might see a mermaid?”
“That, my dear, is a mystery. I surely have never seen one before,” Ominis said, standing up straight and taking his wand out. “I have been hearing a lot of chatter about you this morning, you know. It seems like reality has been mixed with fantasy in the tales of your journey here, and nobody knows the full truth.”
“Except for you,” Eloise pointed out, stepping into place next to him as they walked through the common room. She spotted Imelda, supervising some students playing chess and instructing them on the moves they should be doing. Imelda looked up and saw Eloise, and interrupted her own advice mid sentence.
“Eloise!!” Imelda bellowed as she practically ran across the room. Was this girl ever not purposeful in everything she did? The students around them looked up from what they were doing to watch her, and maybe get the chance to hear a first-hand account of what actually happened to Eloise. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were attacked by a dragon last night?”
“Oh, er…” Eloise couldn’t figure out how to respond to the other girl. Imelda didn’t seem worried or scared about what Eloise had gone through the previous day; rather, she seemed indignant that she hadn’t been told about the attack. Beside them, Ominis was laughing.
“It must have been terribly exciting,” Imelda went on, ignoring any response Eloise may have started giving. “A real dragon and all. I wish I was with you guys, I’ve actually prepared for what I would do in that very situation. I would definitely have diverted its attention away from you on my broomstick, and actually the best strategy would have been to…”
“I doubt you really would have been able to do anything,” Eloise interrupted. “It was terribly frightening, but at the same time the whole thing was over so quickly that I haven’t had time to process it yet.”
“Well, you can tell me about it on the way to breakfast. Maybe once you learn how to ride a broom, we can practice what to do together. You have first-hand experience, after all!” Imelda looped her arm through Eloise’s. She shot a look to Ominis. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m taking her now. We have a long day ahead of us, lots to do you know. The usual. Anyway, Sebastian’s coming over so it’s not like I’m leaving you completely alone.”
Before Eloise could even react, she was being marched up the spiral staircase that led out of the Slytherin common room and they were off to breakfast.
“Duelists, take your mark,” Professor Hecat said to the two students standing on top of the platform in the middle of the room. The duelists in question looked at each other warily, steadying their wands. Eloise was exhilarated. This was the type of class she had been daydreaming about while she sat wasting her time embroidering landscapes.
Professor Hecat hadn’t wasted any time putting the students to work. Although at first, many of them had scoffed at the thought of Leviosa being a useful spell in combat, Eloise listened attentively and focused on the correct wand movements. Maybe it didn’t actually matter, but she was determined to make sure that nobody would think that she didn’t deserve to be there. She had a lot of catching up to do, but between the books Professor Fig had given her and the knowledge she retained from reading from her family’s library as a child, she already knew a lot. She was quite pleased when the feather levitated as soon as she said the incantation, as there were other students who struggled to get theirs to even twitch in an upward direction.
Now, Eloise gripped her wand tightly in her hand, shifting a bit as she stared Sebastian in the eyes. He had said that she would get ‘a proper Hogwarts welcome’ and she was looking forward to it.
If the rumors she had heard before class were true, Sebastian was the best duelist in their year, and quite possibly at Hogwarts. Although she felt a little apprehensive at the thought of facing him, she hoped that he wouldn’t hold back on her just because she was new. Even if she had fought the guardians yesterday in Gringotts, she wanted to prove to herself that she could keep her wits about her in the heat of battle.
Maybe her stance was a little too stiff, her movements too by the book. But that could only be changed with experience.
Sebastian smirked slightly to himself, no doubt thinking that this would be an easy victory. In the background, Eloise heard Professor Hecat say they could begin, but she was more focused on her opponent’s face. As soon as she saw him raise his wand and begin to open his mouth, she shouted “Protego!” and the shield blocked the spell he attempted to send shooting her way. His eyebrows raised in surprise - apparently he hadn’t been expecting her fast reflexes.
Quick as a whip, she shouted out “Levioso” and Sebastian was in the air. She hit him with a few more curses before he fell to the ground, breathing heavily. He pushed himself up quickly and went back into position. Wand out, now more wary of her capabilities. He blocked her next attack and went in for one of his own, which hit her shoulder. Eloise hissed in pain and immediately shot out a volley of quick jabs in his direction, a few hitting their mark before he put up a shield.
Sebastian was grinning as they circled each other, looking for an opening. The rest of the class surrounded the platform they were on, cheering them on. Both continued to attack and put up shields, without any clear winner in sight. It was obvious that they were very evenly matched.
“I’m pleasantly surprised,” he said as they were catching their breath between attacks. “I haven’t had a fight this good in a long time.”
Eloise just grinned in response, before shooting off another spell in his direction. It was expertly blocked with a flick of Sebastian’s wrist; in response he volleyed off a jinx towards her.
Eloise crumpled to the ground, yelping as she grabbed her ankle. Sebastian was immediately at her side, crouching down and looking at her with concern.
“Eloise? Are you okay?” He looked down at her ankle and then abruptly looked up and back at her face, a faint pink redness dusting his cheeks. He may have been dueling her, but it was distinctly different to be so close to her like this.
In response, Eloise grinned mischievously and quickly levitated him off the ground, getting to her feet at the same time. With a few quick curses sent his way, soon Sebastian was lying sprawled on the ground outside of the little arena Professor Hecat had erected.
“Not fair,” Sebastian exclaimed, rushing to his feet. He looked at Professor Hecat, who was looking between the two with a pleased smile.
Eloise smirked at him, only responding with, “Slytherin.”
Sebastian laughed and ran his fingers through his hair, making his brown curls even unrulier than they had become in their duel. He held his hand out to her and she shook it formally. “Good duel. You can definitely hold your own and I won’t underestimate you again.”
Professor Hecat clapped her hands together to get the attention of the class. “I hope you all paid attention to these two. Ten points to Slytherin for an excellent demonstration of what we learned today. On Wednesday, we will continue with practical application of the techniques learned during this class. I expect to see flawless wand work and concentration. I demand excellence from my students as I know you are all capable of achieving it. Class dismissed.”
As Eloise was gathering up her things, Sebastian sidled up to her. “Really, that was quite impressive. You seemed stiff at first, but it would seem you have fought before. You definitely give as good as you get.”
Eloise blushed and tucked some strands of hair that had come undone behind her ear. “Well, really, I had only read about the techniques before. Haven’t really had much time to put all of that theory to use yet.” She smiled shyly ad Sebastian, who was looking at her with his jaw open. “You fight really well, too. I had to use all of my focus. It’s kind of exhausting, actually.”
“But exhilarating, right?” Sebastian asked eagerly. The two of them started to head out of the classroom together, dwindling behind the rest of the students. Entirely absorbed by their conversation. “Everything else goes out of focus and the only thing in the world is you and your opponent.”
“Yes! Exactly that,” exclaimed Eloise. “I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
“Well,” Sebastian said slowly, dragging the word out as he thought. “You know, there might be a way. To continue. I normally would never do this, but…you know…”
“Know what?” Eloise prompted as Sebastian trailed off.
“You’re a really good duelist. Intuitive. There’s a certain exclusive club of sorts, one that may or may not be unsanctioned, where you can continue to hone your dueling abilities.”
“Exclusive and unsanctioned?” Eloise asked with a smirk. “You can count me in.”
“Excellent,” Sebastian replied, smiling broadly. “Sometimes, to make the most out of your experience at Hogwarts, you need to bend certain rules. They’re more like guidelines, anyway.”
“Merlin, Sebastian,” said Imelda, walking up to them and crossing her arms. “Don’t let yourself fall into any of his schemes. That boy is in detention practically every other day.”
“Or maybe,” Eloise said, “he’s just not good enough at avoiding getting caught. I, on the other hand… Come on, Imelda. Let’s go to lunch.”
She laughed as they walked away, leaving behind a dumbstruck Sebastian. He shook his head in disbelief and headed off to his next class.
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Sonic Boom - S3E11
Episode title: Having A Mecha Good Time
Summary: Sonic's testing out his mech, but is struggling to keep it charged up. Shadow has something that might help, but unfortunately, Eggman interferes (as always) and messes things up.
AO3 Link
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[Episode opens on Shadow in his cave. The camera follows him as he walks farther back, to the same shelves where he stored the grey sheep in episode five. The sheep is visible in the background as he searches the shelves and the stacks of boxes below them for something else.]
“Ugh, where is it…” he muttered, digging through the old cardboard boxes one by one. Many of them were filled with strange and mostly broken machinery, some more organized than others.
[Camera shows a few pieces of metal and crystal with odd carvings clattering to the floor as he looks.]
Suddenly, his fingers closed on a gleaming diamond-shaped crystal, etched with a variety of complex patterns. He studied it carefully for a moment, making sure that it emanated a clear blue light and nothing else.
Once he was satisfied, he stowed the crystal in his quills. “Alright,” he sighed, “let’s just hope this is compatible…”
…
[The same intro sequence plays as last time, but Shadow is slightly less irritated. He still refuses to play along with the others, but is no longer outright angry.]
[Eggman’s villain reveal follows the usual green screen sequence…except it doesn’t malfunction, and the outline of his mech from Og Man Out appears behind him in red as well.]
[The intro then continues on, before ending with the title of this week’s episode.]
…
Shadow appeared at the entrance to Tails’s workshop, sliding open the door right as a laser beam shot above his head. He immediately dropped into a battle stance, prepared to fight—only to see that it was just Sonic messing around in his mech, like he’d been doing all day long.
“Hey Shadow!” the fox called, sitting at his computer station (which was currently protected by a reinforced blast shield). “You here to see how long it takes for the mech’s battery to wear down again?”
Sonic groaned. “It just died. It’s barely gonna last me one battle like this!”
Shadow glanced over at him. “That’s probably because you’re trying to power it with the energy from this workshop.”
“Yeah, and?” the hero asked. “We gave it some juice before and it worked just fine when Eggman made his mech—it’s only now that it won’t take right!”
Shadow began to walk over to Tails, rolling his eyes. “You forget, I had this thing for quite some time before you and your friends ‘discovered’ it, so I know more about how it works.” he said, complete with air quotes around the word ‘discovered’. “The only reason the mech functioned for as long as it did then is because it had leftover power from the symbiote chip in addition to your attempts to recharge it. Now that you’re trying to run its systems on solely ordinary electricity, it won’t last nearly as long. The amount of power required to keep it active is immense.”
Tails shrugged. “So I’ll jack up the power then. I have enough electricity stored to boost it.”
“You absolutely should not do that.” Shadow replied, shaking his head. “You’ll fry the circuitry in that thing. It’s designed to respond to energy from Chaos Shards and neural networks, not crude electricity.”
“And, uh, also don’t do that with me inside the mech, please?” Sonic added.
“So what do you think we should do then, oh all-knowing Ancient expert?” Tails shot back, smirking.
“Ooh, burn!” Sonic laughed.
Shadow resisted the urge to facepalm. “If you would listen to me, then you would know that I think you should use one of these.” With that, he reached into his quills and handed over the symbiote chip he’d found in his cave earlier.
Tails promptly shrieked and dropped it as though it had burned him.
The striped hedgehog snatched it out of the air, his eyes wide. “What was that for? These things aren’t weak, but they can still break, you know!”
Sonic winced. “Uh…the last one of those we found kinda turned me into an evil jerk.”
“Was it red?” Shadow asked. “Do you still have it?”
Tails smiled awkwardly. “It was red, but we don’t have it anymore. Amy…kinda smashed it with her hammer.”
“To be fair, from what I was told, I was being a full-on villain by the time the others got me outta there.” Sonic explained, leaping out of the mech.
Shadow frowned, confused. “There should have been a display that told you the status of the chip, though.”
“There wasn’t…but hang on, how do you know that much about it?” Sonic asked.
Shadow froze. “I found schematics for the mech in its control seat, but an animal stole them one night.” he said quickly, looking away.
Sonic snickered. “Forest: one, Shadow: zero.”
The other hedgehog let out a long sigh. “Ugh. Here, let me show you how this thing is supposed to work.” He stalked over to the mech and shoved the symbiote chip into its proper place, making the entire thing light up with cyan lines.
“There.” Shadow said, folding his arms triumphantly. “One perfectly safe mech, all ready to go.”
Sonic inched towards it cautiously. “And if I start being weird again, you’ll pull me out, right?”
“Of course.” Shadow replied, softening his voice slightly. “I promise.”
That seemed to be more than enough for the hero, as he jumped right in, powering the mech on. “Whoa!” he gasped, seeing the full display for the first time ever. It showed the time, date, current weather, and his exact longitude and latitude, as well as a tiny map.
(While he didn’t notice this, the map was significantly incorrect, as it showed Seaside Island mostly covered by a giant city instead of sparsely populated…)
The machine scanned both of his friends, labeling Tails as “Age: appx. 11 yrs - Species: unknown - Threat: Minimal—High” and Shadow as “Age: appx. 17.5 years - Species: unknown - Threat: Moderate—High”.
Sonic glanced around a bit nervously. “Uh, guys, I think it just targeted both of you or something?”
Shadow stepped forward. “There should be some sort of switch you can press. It’s currently in attack mode, but I think you can switch it to a more defensive mode or even a pacifist setting.”
The hero fiddled around with the controls for a minute, making the mech cycle through colors rapidly by accident…which then gave him two problems to fix. (Even if he didn’t really think that second one qualified as a “problem” but instead “really cool”.) Thankfully, he eventually managed to solve both of them with some guidance from his friends, leaving the mech in a more relaxed position.
“Hey, this says ‘full motion test’.” Sonic said, getting more and more excited now that he was assured the mech was safe and under his control. “I wonder what happens if I—”
“Wait, maybe you shouldn’t—” Shadow began, but it was already too late. The mech had begun to run its full range of motion, including windmilling its arms, balancing on one foot, both at once, and (for whatever reason) doing the Macarena, complete with music.
By the end, Sonic and Tails were both crying with laughter, while Shadow was sitting down with his face buried in his hands.
“C’mon, Shads, wasn’t it funny?” Sonic asked teasingly.
“The…only other thing that I managed to make out on those schematics was that this was intended for serious fighting.” Shadow explained, still looking like he was fighting the urge to cringe. “You just made a deadly machine do the Macarena.”
“Well, technically, whoever programmed it made it do the Macarena…” Tails said, fighting off giggles.
Shadow shook his head, taking a deep breath. “Fine.” he said, but there was a hint of a smile on his face. “Just try not to blow anything up.”
…
Soon enough, the rest of the team appeared to check out this second attempt at using the mech, though some were more skeptical than others. Knuckles jumped right in, challenging Sonic to a no-holds-barred wrestling match (that the former was somehow currently winning).
Amy, on the other hand, had multiple questions for Shadow. “How do you know it’s safe?” she asked him.
“I read the schematics I found with it, but they eventually went missing.” he explained.
“He said an animal stole them!” Tails called from his position as both referee and commentator, making Amy laugh and Shadow huff.
“It was probably working for the government.” Sticks whispered.
“No, but really, how do you know it’s safe?” Amy insisted.
“You see how the chip is glowing blue?” Shadow pointed out. “If you see any red—or even a hint of purple—that means it’s broken or corrupted. If that happens, you should absolutely rip it out and break it as soon as possible.”
Amy nodded. “That’s good enough for now. The other question I have is: why did you think it would be a good idea to give Sonic more weapons?”
Shadow blinked. “Oh. Good point.”
“So what you’re saying is, you didn’t think.” Amy said, smirking.
“Shut. Up.” he grumbled unhappily.
“I still think it’s part of a plan by the robots to trick us into thinking they’re our friends.” Sticks explained. “And just when our society begins to rely on them…boom! They’ll turn us all into robots too!”
Shadow’s expression flattened abruptly at that.
“Sticks, I’m feeling fine.” Sonic called, having just lost the match. “This new chip is actually really great!”
“Sure, you’re feeling fine now…but you might not forever.” Sticks said ominously.
Sonic shrugged, making the mech’s shoulders move up and down as well. “I trust Shadow.”
The hedgehog in question looked away quickly, his arms tightly folded against his chest. “Well.” he said, his voice strained and small. “You trust plenty of people. Too many, in my opinion.”
“Yeah, but you’re my friend. That’s different.” Sonic insisted.
Unseen, Shadow smiled quietly as the hero turned back to round three of his fighting match.
…
As Sonic continued to stomp around the workshop area excitably, two robots watched from the bushes outside. They were supposed to be sneaking around, but considering that they were, well, Orbot and Cubot, that wasn’t going so well.
“Hey, what’s he doing now?” Cubot asked loudly.
“Shh! Keep your voice down!” Orbot hissed, dragging him back down. “We are supposed to be spying on Sonic!”
“Can we go home yet?” the yellow robot whined. “These bushes are making me itchy.”
“How does that even—oh, never mind.” Orbot sighed. “I think we’ve learned enough now, let’s go home.”
…
“Oh ho ho, so that’s what Sonic’s been up to!” Eggman chuckled. “Well, two can play at that game.”
“I heard them talking about something…they called it a ‘symbiote chip’?” Orbot added nervously.
“No, I heard them say ‘antidote dip’.” Cubot interjected.
“I see…a symbiote chip, hm?” The doctor stroked his mustache thoughtfully, completely ignoring Cubot in the process. “Well, there’s no technology I can’t surpass with enough time—so I suppose I should start working!”
[A montage ensues, alternating between images of Eggman working hard in his lab and the team (now including Shadow) messing around with the mech. Eggman does a variety of tasks involving complex equipment…including downloading some pieces of software designed to emulate Ancient technology into a custom-built disk.]
[Meanwhile, Sonic is delighted to discover that he can now pick up all of his friends with ease, and they use this new ability to take a variety of funny pictures. Shadow is a little hesitant at first, but as time goes on he seems to accept this silliness and even begins to enjoy it.]
[The montage ends with Eggman inserting a disk with pieces of glowing red machinery into his mech, complete with ominous music in the background.]
…
Sonic and his friends were careful not to take the machine anywhere near the village, considering how much damage it had caused last time. He did, however, give each of them a chance to ride in it as well, though Sticks and Shadow both ended up turning it down.
Knuckles was currently doing his best to lift the mech and carry it around, while Sonic and Sticks cheered him on and the three others all flinched every time his hands slipped.
“Why are we messing around with this again?” Amy asked, sick of wincing so often.
“Hey, you were ready to hop in the driver’s seat when I offered!” Sonic said.
She sighed. “That’s different. It’s meant to be driven, not to be used for weightlifting!”
Knuckles peered out from behind the machine. “Anything can be used for weightlifting if you try hard enough!”
Shadow, Amy and Tails all gave him flat looks at that.
Suddenly, however, a loud explosion pulled them out of their argument. The ground shook beneath the team (and Knuckles just barely managed to set the mech down before crashing into it) as they tried to get their bearings.
“What’s going on?!” Tails cried.
“It’s the robots! They’re invading!” Sticks shrieked.
A loud, booming laugh echoed throughout the forest. It sounded a lot like Eggman, but also…different. Eggman’s usual laugh straddled a careful line between menace and delight, and gave the impression that he most certainly had not practiced it for hours in the mirror during his early days of villainy.
This laugh, on the other hand, sounded downright deadly.
Seconds later, a giant mech burst through the trees, glowing a bright, terrifying red. Sonic paled considerably. “Oh, no…” he whispered.
Shadow froze. “Another corrupted crystal? How many of these are there?”
Tails held up his Miles Electric, blanching at the readings it showed. “This says it’s not a crystal…it’s a piece of his own tech that he’s downloaded Ancient code on!”
“Is that worse or better?” Knuckles asked.
“Worse.” Shadow and Tails said simultaneously.
And that was when the mech’s fist came crashing down.
The entire team scattered. Sonic scrambled for his own machine, while everyone else began to throw everything they had at Eggman. The doctor growled, a red glow emanating from behind his glasses.
Furious, he swatted Knuckles and Tails aside, the echidna just barely managing to shield his friend with his own body before they hit the ground. Sticks and Shadow at least managed to land a couple of hits with boomerangs and Chaos Spears before suffering the same fate.
Screaming, Amy charged the mech, leaping from branch to branch until she gained enough height to whack its cockpit, sending Eggman stumbling backwards. Fortunately for her (as she fell back to solid ground), it was practically a rule in this universe that nobody ever takes fall damage.
By now, Sonic had gotten his machine up and running, immediately firing twin lasers at his opponent. They fought back and forth for a few tense moments, nearly blasting Sonic’s friends once or twice, even after they’d scrambled for cover.
“Come on, Eggman!” Sonic cried. “You’re smarter than this thing, you can fight it!”
Sadly, Eggman did not, as a matter of fact, fight it. Instead, he quite predictably continued fighting Sonic, using enough weaponry to destroy the village at least twice over in his single-minded pursuit of his greatest nemesis.
Thankfully, the hero’s machine soon began to predict the doctor’s moves well enough that it could provide Sonic with actual advice on how to fight him in this state. With that, he managed to get in a calculated blast that sent the doctor toppling, completely off balance.
Knuckles and Sticks had gotten into position by this point with Amy’s direction, perfectly poised to tear the disk out and hurl it to the ground. The moment the metal hit the grass, Amy and Shadow proceeded to hit it with a combined amount of firepower that could have destroyed the entire island, let alone one small disk.
When they were done, even the pieces were shattered into pieces.
Meanwhile, Tails pulled a heavily disoriented Eggman out of his mech, saving him from any further injury (he’d gotten a little banged up in the fight) and carrying him to the ground. “Ugh…” he groaned, sitting up slowly. “What happened? I feel like I got run over by a Motobug…”
Shadow stormed over, folding his arms irritably. “You made a truly absurd mistake, that’s what. Your fake symbiote chip corrupted your morality until you became even more of a madman than usual. You’re lucky we managed to get you out of there, otherwise this whole island would have been in great danger.”
Eggman sighed, getting to his feet. “I guess I’ll just have to make some improvements to it so that this doesn’t happen again.”
“No you won’t!” Amy cried, brandishing her hammer. “We’ve had enough of disks that turn our friends evil for one lifetime! Or Fuzzy Puppy Buddies, in your case.”
The doctor scoffed. “I’d like to think that I was evil without the help of some disk, thank you very much!”
Sonic cringed. “Yeah, but didn’t you hear? You were, like, really evil this time. Like full-on terrifying supervillain stuff.”
“…how terrifying, exactly?” Eggman asked cautiously.
Sticks shrugged. “Eh, you probably would’ve blasted us all to bits without a shred of remorse if we hadn’t stopped you.”
Everyone stared at her. “What?!” she cried. “I’m just telling it like it is!”
The doctor thought for a moment, frowning. “Well, maybe I’ll get to work on some of my other evil schemes instead. Clear out the old files, see if anything’s in there that I can update.”
The entire team relaxed marginally at that. “Sounds like a good idea to me.” Sonic said, clearly relieved.
“But what about your mech, Sonic?” Eggman asked. “It won’t be a fair fight if I give up my machine and you don’t!” The doctor nearly whined that last part, attempting to give Sonic puppy-dog eyes despite the fact that his glasses were very much in the way.
“Fiiiine, I promise not to use it in our fights.” the hero muttered.
“Pinky promise?” Eggman said suspiciously.
“Pinky promise.” Sonic sighed, linking his little finger with Eggman’s. (The doctor had to reach down quite a lot to make it work.)
“Now then! Robots!” he cried, making all of the others jump into defensive positions. Then, however, he smirked, and simply said “Clean up this mess! I’m certainly not dragging it all home.”
Much rolling of eyes and facepalming ensued.
While Eggman’s various robots skittered around the fallen machine and began to carry it back to his evil lair, Sonic leapt back into his own mech. “So what do you wanna do now, guys?” he asked excitedly.
When he turned around to face them, though, he saw that they were all beat up from the battle with Eggman, and hesitated. “Anyone want a ride home?” he said, a little more gently.
“Oh, yes please.” Amy sighed, leaping onto one of the mech’s shoulders. Tails perched on the other, while Knuckles sat down on one of its hands. Even Sticks overcame their aversion to technology long enough to hitch a ride.
“Shadow? Don’t you wanna hop on too?” Sonic asked.
“I’ll be fine.” Shadow muttered. “I heal quickly.”
But nobody could miss the way he held his arm close to his body, or the way he winced with every step. “Knux, can you help me out here?” Sonic sighed.
The echidna promptly picked Shadow up, making him yelp and writhe in surprise. Before he could muster up the ability to teleport, he was placed at the very top of the mech and then immediately held in place by Tails and Amy.
“I don’t need help.” he said weakly, feeling his touch-starved body jolt at the sudden contact.
Nobody seemed to notice except for Amy, who leaned against him and glanced up to make sure he was alright with that. Shadow rolled his eyes, but allowed her to remain for the whole ride back. By the end, he was alternating rapidly between tension and relaxation, striving not to let his contentment be shown and failing miserably at it.
Thankfully, he was also mostly healed by then, and so was able to leap off the mech with no problems. The others weren’t so fortunate, and only climbed off with a bit of help and lots of complaining about stiff muscles.
“Maybe we should put this thing away for a while.” Tails said. “It’s caused us a bunch of problems and hasn’t helped all that much.”
Sonic sighed. “Yeah, probably. I guess I can’t go as fast in it as I can by myself either.”
“I’m sure we can still bring it out if we ever have a serious problem.” Tails added reassuringly.
“How are we gonna move this thing into storage, though?” the hero asked.
Tails stared at him for a moment. “Sonic. You can literally just walk it into storage and then get out.”
“Oh. Right.” Sonic said sheepishly.
[Iris out ending in which he smiles awkwardly at the camera, before the entire screen goes black.]
[roll credits]
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