#the way he looked at Amy behind before he launches the attack?

[randomanimaticse]

SHATTERED - Sonic Prime x reader

Chapter 1 | INCEPTION I

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As an explosion went off in a mountain in the distance, Sonic ran through green hill collecting some rings, hurrying to the mountain, where his friends are fighting robotnik, he ran past big and froggy making him spin around.

Sonic went back and stopped Big from spinning, "Sorry, Big! Sorry, Froggy! Can't chat-- gotta go help our friends!" Sonic said running in place and ran off.

"No problem, Sonic!" Big said as froggy croaked.

"Home is where your friends are, as they say" It cuts to a memory of Sonic and his friends having a picnic, "And that's green hill!" Then of Sonic watching Amy admire a palm tree. "Where the best beaches," then of Tails flying next to a coconut. "Palm trees," Then of big holding a bunch of chili dogs making Sonic happy "And chili dogs, are just the tip of the iceberg!"

Then it cuts to Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Malachite flying on the Tornado. "We've saved this place a million times, from this doofus." Then to Robotnik turning around to face the camera doing his evil laugh.

It cuts to shadow destroying a rock seemingly looking for something. "And then there's Shadow, it's complicated. More on him later."

Then to Sonic and his friend looking into the distance. "The fact is, we never lose. 'Cause when you've got a crew like mine," Sonic says as he runs up the mountain. "There's nothing that can stop you!"

"HEY GUYS! I MADE IT!"

"You're late!"

The team of mobians glared at the speedy blue hedgehog at his tardiness, said blue hedgehog shrugging his shoulders sheepishly with a grin and short chuckle.

"Sonic!?"

Dr. Eggman spun away from the shiny crystal embedded into the rock at the annoying voice of his enemy, the surrounding Badniks also following his gaze.

"Eggman!" Sonic smirked.

"Just in time to watch me claim the Paradox Prism and transform your disgustingly green world into something more... me." his hands lifted up to his side in an evil stance, staring at the mobian team, or sonic more specifically, through the glass prism, letting out his infamous cackle.

Dropping from the entrance of the cave, Sonic landed with a bored expression, his hand cupping his mouth as he gave an overly faked...

"Yaawwn..."

The mobian team dropped behind him as they all, Sonic included, settled into a fighting position.

"Yep, I yawned you, egghead!"

At the mockery, Eggman growled in a fit of rage, ordering his Badniks to attack the team with a pointed finger.

Both sides got into action, the mobian team easily overpowering and defeating each of Eggman's robots as they came their way.

Sonic destroyed a few bots before spin dashing at a Caterkiller, resulting in the worm bashing him away, the hedgehog losing a few rings and soaring back through the air with a "Whoa!"

"Sonic!" 

A furry orange fox with two tails, using them to helicopter through the air, quickly caught him by his wrists, staring down at Sonic with a frown, clearly still upset at his delayed entrance.

"Yo, Tails!"

Sonic replied with a grin, swinging his legs back as Tails launched him forward in the air, spin attacking at two Buzz Bombers and speeding beside a red echidna with large, spiky gloves, the echidna eyeing the hedgehog with a scowl.

"Knuckles!" Sonic cheered, kicking away a Badnik, the echidna rolling his eyes and turning away from him, "You okay, buddy?"

"Nothing flusters me, Sonic," Knuckles grabbed a Buzz Bomber as it flew into him, throwing it into another incoming Badnik without so much as a sweat, both he and Sonic watching as both robots exploded.

"Except when you're late."

Sonic only shook his head with a hand on his hip at Knuckles as he ran off, not noticing the same Caterkiller from before coming up behind him, quickly getting saved by a flying white bat as she came up behind him and kicked the worm away.

"Oh, thanks Rouge!" he waved at her.

"Don't mention it... literally."

From another end of the cave, a pink hedgehog drove her hammer into a Burrobot, shoving it off as the head landed elsewhere, hopping from the ledge to the head, smiling as a flock of Flickies flew out from inside the bot.

"Amy!" Sonic leaned against the head with a smirk as he greeted her.

"Sonic! Where have you been?"

"You know, the usual... got a little side tracked."

Amy playfully rolled her eyes at his response as Sonic spins up a wall and destroys a few Buzz Bombers, striking one in the direction of a (F/C) lynx of the incoming badnik, slashing the robot in half with their claws.

"Malachite!" he ran in their direction, throwing a loose arm over their shoulders and pulling their faces close.

They huffed out at the sudden half embrace, their enhanced hearing is never well enough to catch when the speedy hedgehog comes their way, letting a small smile pass.

"Sonic," they countered, "What is this? A role call?"

"What? Can't call out my friends' names mid-battle?" he poked at them, standing back to back with them as a swarm of Badniks surrounded them.

Sonic punched and kicked at them while Malachite cut and slit through them, the bots exploding. 

"Get that rock out of the ground!" 

Dr. Eggman furiously shouted out, the Burrobots retreating from fighting to the rock that held the paradox prism in place, drilling at it as fast as they could despite the electric shocks that would knock them back, really getting nothing done regardless.

"Want something done..." Eggman grumbled, climbing up into his mech, "Do it yourself."

"Sonic, we don't know what the prism is capable of!" Tails warned his hedgehog friend as he rolled his way, beating the Badniks, "Be careful."

Sonic rolled his eyes and darted off, Tails groaning at his carelessness.

"If Eggman wants it, it can't be good!"

"Yup, got it." Sonic replied casually as he ran Eggman's way.

The villain controlled his giant robot from inside, its claws taking hold of the prism and pulling up, Eggman letting out another of his evil laughs.

"Sonic, seriously!"

"Step away from the rock, Eggman."

"Huh, not this time, you fool!"

Narrowing his eyes, anger and the desperate need to defeat the villain overcoming his senses more than anything, Sonic sped up faster towards the prism as Eggman began pulling it out of its rock, rolling up in a ball.

"Sonic, wait!" Tails called out.

"Sonic, no!"

The groups cries fell on deaf ears as Sonic collided with the prism, the force of the breaking pushing them all back, flying in the air.

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"One day I'll destroy that hedgehog, and the world will be a brighter place for it, lit by neon."

"As long as I'm around, you'll always have a wingman!"

"The forest is the most beautiful place on Earth."

"I don't need the details, just tell me who to smash."

"You may not like the way I do things, but I get things done!"

"Don't worry, I've always got your back!"

"Hey I may be the one who can bring everyone together, but there's only one one hedgehog they'll follow into battle."

"Heh heh! I don't need an army when I got a friend like you, Sonic!"

"Listen to your friends, you might need it one day."

"I will rule the world, and no rodents are going to stop me!"

"We'd follow you anywhere, Sonic."

"Nothing could break our friendship, Sonic."

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Sonic stands up and groans "That's a sonic boom of a headache." He starts walking forward "Wh-Where am I? Huh?" There was a truck coming straight for him. "Aah!" He yelled before getting hit in the face by the truck.

As he climbed on top of the truck he looked around confused, "Uh" when he heard something behind of him, he turned around to see what it was, it was presumably a train and he ducked before he got hit in the face again. "Close one."

The truck shook and Sonic fell off of it onto a conveyor belt, he got up looking around still confused, but then he fell off of the conveyor belt before he could say anything. Before Sonic could get up again, he got swept up by a broom machine before getting thrown to the side.

"Why can't I remember how I got here?" Sonic said as he got back on his feet. "Think, Sonic, think, whoa what is up with my shoes?" He said examining them "Huh, I haven't seen anything like this since I ate truck stop chili dogs."

"Tails? Amy? Malachite? Heck, I'll even take Knuckles at this point" He said walking towards a mobian on one of the conveyor belts. "Uh, pardon me, what do you call this place?" He asked the mobian who was ignoring him. "Are you ignoring me? You're ignoring me. Why are you ignoring me? Why is everyone ignoring me?" He asked flailing his arms around.

"Can anybody give me a straight answer around here? And you're busy staring at nothing. Okay"

Sonic covered his ears because of a loud blaring sound "Welcome to New Yoke City. You're welcome. Never heard of it. Must be far from home."

"Where are the mountains, the beaches, the palm trees?" He looked to the side and saw a familiar purple cat. "Big! Froggy!" Sonic said as he hugged big. "Whoa, uh."

"Am I glad to see familiar faces! I thought I was losing my rings, if you know what I mean." He said while big was looking around for any robots. "What is going on here? Are you wearing pants?"

"Unidentified citizen. Alert! Alert!" A robotic voice said.

"Big! Don't go!"

"You are in violation of city ordinance 27 B/6"

"Sorry, I don't speak robot."

"By the authority of the Chaos Council, stand down or be disassembled."

"Chaos Council, sounds important. Give me directions, and I'll take it from there." Sonic said as he tried to run. "Wha-? Whoaa!" He exclaimed unable to control his running.

Sonic turned to an alley pressed up against the wall, trying to take sharp turns, "Whoa! what is up with my shoes?" He said before crashing into a wall. "Ugh! I'm not used to all these walls, and where are my rings?" He said checking for his rings, before almost getting hit by laser bullets.

He dodged the lasers that were being shot at him and spin dashed the robots "Robots without flickies? Now that's new." Sonic said before dodging more laser bullets and speeding away.

Running into the streets almost hitting a truck and then another truck, and then another and it was coming straight for him, but he ducked underneath it. "This is not working. I gotta get off the ground!" He said wall jumping onto a train.

Still trying to dodge the laser bullets while on the train, he notices a building being contructed and gets an idea. Sonic threw himself over to where the building was being constructed and slid through the building. Stopping on the edge trying to dodge the bullets. When the floor was close enough, he jumped off the ledge. Destroying the robots that were chasing him.

He landed on his feet panting not knowing he was being watched. "Smog, concrete, evil robots, it's like everything I hate in one place!" Sonic said looking around "Where am I?"

"Oh, no!" He gasps, looking at something familiar and speeding to the right. "Please be wrong. Please be wrong!" He stammered running up a building into the sky turning to look at the place he was in.

Sonic looked right, "the Loop-de-Loop." Then left "Hedgehog's Pass." Then right again, "and that should be Tails' lab! Aw, tails, what happened?"

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BEFORE PRISM SHATTER

Tails is in the Tornado, turning to where the fight is. "Come on Egghead, show me what you got!" Sonic shouted.

Dr. Robotnik laughs "That's the spirit, rodent -- the spirit of a loser!"

"Takes one to know one. Ha!"

"Why do I feel like Eggman's keeping us off the main stage?" Amy asked.

"Eggman's got us fighting the badniks so he can have Sonic all to him self." Knuckles replied.

"Come on! Let's crash his show!" Malachite responded, cutting and slicing through the robots.

"One scrambled egg, coming up!" Sonic said spin dashing the robot.

"Hmm I don't like this, Dr. Eggman's too smart not to realize how terribly positioned he is." Tails said looking at his gadget "It's like he's --" tails sharply gasps. "He's not in there."

"Quaking in your tiny shoes at the might of my Eggcrusher? It's understandable I'm rather astounding."

"In your dreams! You bring it, I break it, Eggman. That's the game, and I'm still the undefeated numero uno." Sonic said doing a lot of poses.

"Then put your quills where your mouth is, unless you're scared!"

Tails shot some laser bullets at the robot "It's a trap, Sonic! It's a trap!"

"I don't see a trap, though I guess by definition I wouldn't see a trap if there was one."

Dr. Robotnik laughs

"Something funny egghead?"

"You are! Watching you try to think with that two-cent brain of yours is hilarious!"

"Sonic! You gotta listen! It's a trap!" Tails yelled.

"You're as stupid as your mutant, two-tail fox friend is ugly"

"Oh, you're really asking for it." Sonic barked

"Yes.. I am!" Robotnik marveled.

"You can mess with me, Eggman, but no one messes with my best friend." Sonic said running towards the robot.

"Sonic, no!" Tails yelled.

Sonic spin dashed the robot making a huge explosion once it hit the ground. Some mobians fall back due to the pressure. Big drops his fishing rod and catches froggy. The mountain cracks and reveals more cracked rock.

"Whoa! Didn't know I had that in me. That's what you get for messing with my friends, Egghead" Sonic said as he looked in the robot, but Robotnik wasn't there. "Huh? where's Eggman? He must have ejected. Well, looks like we win again. Tails! He's not even in here. Lame right?" He exclaimed to his two-tailed fox friend.

"Too chicken to face in us in person. Whatevs! Couldn't have done it without ya, buddy!" Sonic yelled, watching tails fly away in his plane. "Huh."

"Whoa, Tails looks upset" Knuckles stated.

"And tails never gets upset." Amy said with worry.

Malachite nodded in agreement

Robotnik laughs evilly from far away "It worked! Without the power of that blue buffoon, we would've had to dig for months! Thank you for the earthquake Sonic, and thank me for my plan, which went off spectacularly!"

"And it worked too!" Cubot added.

"Of course it worked I just said that!" Robotnik yelled. "Ugh, let's go papa wants his prism" He ordered, throwing his walkie-talkie to Orbot. As he walked away Orbot and Cubot fist bumped.

Sonic ran over to tails' lab putting in the code '1992' before opening and walking the lab. "Yo! How's my genius friend?" He asked tails. "Hey Sonic," Tails sighed. "I brought you some comics." Sonic stated. "Thanks Sonic you can put them over there"

Sonic chuckles, "How about a little break from the big brain stuff?"

"I can't. Something's not right. I gotta figure out what Eggman is up to."

Sonic frowns and walks over to Tails, and turns his chair around to face him. "Sorry, Tails. I didn't mean to upset you. In fact, I've never seen you so upset. I just kinda got into the moment and.."

"Sonic, it's cool. Really. But thanks. I appreciate it." There was a moment of silence before Tails started speaking again. "Don't you think that Eggman wasn't in the Eggcrusher?"

"Uh, not really. I mean, he is a total chicken. But I did find a hunk of junk in the cockpit where his big butt shoulda been."

"Hunk of junk, huh? Wonder if that was all part of the trap? Tell me you didn't toss it in the barge of badnik parts."

"Uh." Sonic speeds away and comes back with it in his hands "Junk speedy delivery! You smash it, we dash it" Sonic beamed "Whoa, lemme see that! It wasn't a trap, it was a trick. You've never created a blast that destructive. I think that this device was some sort of speed amplifier. Long story short, he used your speed against you!" Tails explained.

"The fox is on to something."

"Huh?"

"Rouge?" Both Sonic and Tails asked.

"How did you get in here?" Sonic inquired.

"He played you for a fool, Blue." She remarked

"Pfft! Please!" Sonic replied putting a hand on his hip.

"What would he need a massive explosion in that area for?"

"Well.. I have a hunch" Rouge said as she spread her wings and jumped down off of the ledge she was sitting on to fly. "You see, I've been searching for years for a super rare and shiny gem called the paradox prism." She explained flying towards tails' tool board stopping a few inches away from it.

"Paradox Prism?" Sonic ask

"Legend speaks of an untold power, and it's buried deep within the Green Hill bedrock. My guess is that he used your power against you to try to find it." She replied.

"Fascinating. But what I really want to know is, how did you get in here?" Sonic inquired.

Rouge looked at him in disbelief. "You left the door open." She said pointing to a wide open garage door. Gather your crew and meet me at the top of the Loop-de-Loop. Let's find out what Eggman is up to."

At the top of the mountain, Robotnik was there "At last. The Paradox Prism! So close. It was only a rumor for so long, and now inches from my grasp. Countless times I have tried to modernize this hunk of earth only to be defied by that simpleton Sonic." Robotnik hissed

"Now, it's finally going to happen. And it's all the sweeter because the blue baboon handed me this prize.." He clapped his hands "without realizing it. So, thank you, Sonic. For now I stand at the summit of--"

"Of the mountain." Orbot interrupted.

"..of a new age! The age of--"

"Pretty lights?" Cubot asked interrupting Robotnik.

"..the age of the Eggman Empire!"

"Ooh, fancy!" Both Orbot and Cubot said.

"And now.." Robotnik screamed as he fell into the entrance he made. "Why didn't you idiots tell me how big that first step was?" He shouted before getting back in his robot.

"Sorry, boss" Orbot replied.

Robotnik began to walk down the path. "Where is it? I know you're in here somewhere." He said as his flashlight made the prism shine bright and reflect throughout the cave. He chuckled when he saw it, but then it turned into wicked laughter.

"I think Rouge is right. Eggman picked that spot for a reason. Why else would he hide a power amplifier in his own Eggcrusher?" Tails spoke.

"So, we start at the scene of the crime." Knuckles stated

"Exactly. Lets go investigate and see if anything might lead us to this Paradox Prism you guys are talking about" Amy added.

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NOW

"Paradox Prism. Right. That's what Eggman was after. How?" Sonic asked falling on his face. "No, no, no. I didn't leave Green Hill. This is Green Hill. He did it. I don't know how he did it, but he did it. Eggman won."

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This took a long time, oh my gosh. But the first chapter is out! (Finally)

I like calling Robotnik by his actual last name for some reason, don't ask me why.

I had to rewrite from the part where Sonic asks "Paradox Prism?" To when Knuckles said "So, we start at the scene of the crime." That was such a hassle.

Also since this chapter is done, I will now focus more on requests, and the next chapter will take a while since i'm only 17 minutes into the episode.

[dorkwalf]

what if I’d just randomly send infected ocean depths to them? What would be the reaction?

Infected ocean depths looks like this

Ignore syntax at the bottom

Thank you so much for your request!! I hope you like it and sorry if its short.

warning; blood, panic attacks

SONIC didn't know what happened his heart hammering in his chest as soon as he realized he was in the water. He attempted to go to the surface only to pause when something swam around the rocks near him. He might be afraid of the water, but he wasn't stupid enough to act with a possible predator watching him. He waited his oxygen getting low. He slowly started to swim to the surface only for the creature to lash out. sonics green eyes widen as the blue and green creature swam at him. He panicked unable to use his speed in the water. The creature dashing at him and grabs sonic with its sharp claws digging into his belly. Sonic gasps curling into a ball and using all his energy to spin dash cutting into the creature and freeing himself from its grip before diving into the tall coral. Sonic takes Shakey breathes as he finds a brain coral to fill his tank up and he hides nearby waiting for the creature to leave or help to arrive.

KNUCKLES looks around gathering materials for tail's project. He watches the sand sharks around him closely only pausing when he starts noticing fewer and fewer swimming around him. He lowers himself so he's blending himself in with the grass. Glancing up he tenses as his purple eyes lock on to Green and black ones. He huffs as the beast launches at him and quickly shove off the ground so has over the creature. grabbing onto the back of beast before getting a good look at it and scanning it. His purple eyes widen as it takes in the creature's features. it was like nothing he's ever seen. He flinched as he felt a stinging sensation on his hand when he brushed against the infection. He pulled away and hissed in pain before jumping off of it and swimming towards a cave beardly getting in it before the beast crashed into the entrances and growled. Knuckles pants softly sitting down and looking at his hand. he swam deeper find a brain coral to sit by as he pulls up his PDA to find a way to distract the creature and escape.

AMY looked around in fear she pulled out her hammer when suddenly realized how slow it made her. Her jade eyes widen as the creature before her slowly came closer. She swam backwards taking in the features of the huge beast before her. Her back hit the cave wall and her breathe hitch as she grips the rocks behind her and braces herself. She opens her eyes again after a few minutes of nothing happening only to see black and green eyes staring at her a few feet away. Her breathe caught in her throat in terror. A loud roar sounds in the distance, Amy flinched and in a blink of an eye the beast was gone almost as if it was never there.

TAILS fumbled around with the cords on his tank. He didn't know where he was or how he got there. He panicked as he looks around pulling out a scanning and emergency flotation device before pausing when spotting the black and green eyes staring him down from the coral below. Before Tails even blinked the creature charged at him. He gasped and spined his name sakes propelling him threw the water. He raced against the waves looking back and seeing the creature chasing after him. He moves to the left barely avoiding death before activating his flotation device flying up to the surface. Tails gasps and climbs on top shivering as he watches the creature circle around him.

[catboyklug]

Characters: Sonic [ he / it ] ; Tails [ they / them ] ; Dr. Eggman [ he / him ] ; Infinite the Jackal [ ??? ]

Warnings: Vaguely described blood/injury ; Sonic Loses Lol

Notes: dividers by @rookthornesartistry !! ; this is the first in a series i'm making where i just. rewrite forces from the ground up. very excited about it

Word Count: 1.9k

As always, Sonic did what he did best - race through the track he was given.

Eggman had been leading frequent attacks against the more urban areas dotting the planet Earth, and now he had finally decided to reveal his master plan - a plan for war.

Apparently, he had built a new Death Egg, and was launching it near one of the most densely-populated cities on the planet. Though nobody was sure about the finer details of this new model, one thing was for certain...

Things were about to get messy.

So Sonic ran, past every second-rate badnik and "deadly" lazer, closer to the Death Egg Mark...

"Hey, Tails," Sonic called through his communicator - a handy-dandy wristwatch that Tails was still thinking of a more sci-fi name for, "Which version of the Death Egg are we on, now?"

"I think we should be on--well, technically we're on Mark III..." Tails's voice crackled due to nearby interference - weird, but not unheard of.

"Technically?" Sonic hummed.

"There was that first one you destroyed with Knuckles, then the second that we raced on," he started explaining, "Then the one we all fought to blow up, the... one with Emerl... and then the one he sent at us on the anniversary of you and Amy meeting!"

"But, two of those were considered the Death Egg Mk.II, and the other three just the Death Egg, so I have no idea what Eggman thinks of this one."

"Looks like Eggman's as good at naming things as he is planning ahead," Sonic remarked, audibly grinning.

Even though it was absolutely nothing as quick quips go, Tails bursted out laughing, which prompted a smile from their brother.

"I'll talk to you later, little bro, think I'm almost there," Sonic says, "You keep up the good work over there!"

"Oh, thanks, Sonic-" Tails flushes, "I mean! Good luck to you, too, big bro!"

With an encouraging smile, Sonic ends the call, picking up the pace as he nears the Death Egg launch site.

Now at the city's edge, Sonic noticed the sheer amount of Badniks in the area, and how weirdly placid they were.

Sure, they took a swipe at him if he got too close, but otherwise none of them even bothered turning his way.

Not to mention, they're at the edge of the city. Eggman's only been attacking the most populated areas for a while...

Just as he tries to figure out a reason for these oddities, though, he notices a massive blockade in front of him.

With his depth perception, he can't tell how big they are, but he figures he can just jump over them if there's a ramp nearby.

He notices, almost too late, that there isn't.

Skidding to a halt right before he crashes into them, he prepares to run the opposite direction to look for a building to run up instead, but...

He's surrounded.

It was a trap.

He tries to spindash underneath them, but their legs are too tight together. He can't burrow, since the ground under him is concrete...

Even bashing them seems to be out of the question - they're harder than bricks, and he can't even make the slightest of dents or scratches on them.

At least they aren't trying to attack him back...?

If he had more room, he could build up some speed and make shrapnel of this new plating. But this weird arena's barely big enough for him to jog in, and every time he starts gaining speed he ends up just smacking against one of the drones.

Just as he tries formulating a plan, he hears a familiar, annoying laugh behind him.

He turns, crossing his arms and tapping his foot at the new arrival.

"Sonic, you're just in time to meet my newest pet project," Eggman grins, "Meet Infinite Mechanism - the greatest weapon I've had the pleasure of working with."

This "Infinite" is tall, towering above Eggman. Long and lanky, and Sonic thinks he can see bones through the thin fur and skin.

Or... maybe not bones. They look sharp. He notices a metallic sheen coming from a particularly papery part of skin.

Creepy...

Oh well.

"Infinite Mechanism, huh?" Sonic grins, keeping his confidence close and arrogance closer, "Guess it's better than Monkey Dude..."

Despite how weak the 'insult' was, his enemy seems to immediately deflate upon hearing it. For a moment, his stance changes, and his height makes him look less terrifying and more like a stretched-out piece of plastic about to collapse in on itself.

"Come on, Infinite! You're one of my greatest creations yet!" the doctor roars, apparently offended, "Defeat this blue brat! Put him in his place as punishment for insulting you!"

And there he goes, right back up to pompousness.

No big deal! Sonic's faced off with tons of uppity jerks before, and each time it's been their self-assured swinehood that was their biggest weakness.

There's no doubt that this Infinite guy was briefed for hours about each of Sonic's offensive moves, so he decides to make fun of 'em by keeping it simple.

A light kick there, a weak punch here... He doesn't even spindash, keeping his moves entirely to running around and occassionally taking potshots at his new rival.

When Infinite gets more aggressive, Sonic responds by zipping around the arena as well as he can - not a tactic that could help him get out, sadly, but more than good enough to tease.

He dodges a punch by speed-walking to the other side of the arena and avoids a spinning kick by just... leaning out of the way.

Absolutely enraged at this point, Infinite picks up the speed, trying to reach Sonic, and Sonic takes the opportunity to bait him, tripping him up in mid-air and sending him crashing into one of the badniks making up the arena.

"You're supposed to be Eggman's greatest weapon? Seriously?" he huffs, "This fight's so boring it's making me miss Metal."

"INFINITE!"

Both the combatants turn to Eggman, one absolutely less amused than the other.

"IGNORE THE RAT, FOCUS ON ME!"

"You're more powerful than he could ever dream of being!" the doctor barks, "You have him in the palm of your hand, now - CRUSH HIM!!"

"Talk about ignoring the truth, huh!" Sonic chuckles, crossing his arms.

Before he can finish the quip, though, Infinite barrels him over, grabbing his arms and forcing him to the ground.

He draws a massive, red sword from his belt, raising it above Sonic's neck -

"WHOA!"

Panicking, Sonic kicks him in the stomach and runs to the other side of the arena - wait, is it getting smaller?

No time for that - to take this bigshot down, Sonic needs an opening...

"So you've got a fancy weapon, big deal!" Sonic yells, "I don't need weapons to take anyone down, especially not a loser like you!"

It seems Eggman's 'speech' really got through to him, and Infinite is now completely ignoring Sonic. Drat.

"Keep going, Infinite!" Eggman cheers, "Put that rat in his place!"

With each word Eggman says, Infinite seems to only grow stronger. He fights quicker, harder, and smarter - still no match for Sonic, but... he's getting there.

To prove this point, he makes a sniper rifle appear out of thin air, and aims it at Sonic, pulling the trigger the second its sight meets his head.

Only having dodged because he was dashing when Infinite fired, Sonic's definitely getting a little shaken up now.

For his own sake, and to not power Infinite up even further, he keeps a cool head - and sticks his tongue out when Infinite turns to see if their shot hit.

Outraged, they throw away the now useless rifle and supplant a sword for it.

Infinite can't hear him, but he sure can see him...

Sonic looks, extremely disappointedly, at the sword. Shaking his head to truly convey how upset he feels at Infinite trying to use the same trick twice in one battle. He knows Infinite can do better!

This tomfoolery, albeit nonverbal, seems to get Infinite back to that deflated state. In fact, he seems positively depressed as he halfheartedly swings at Sonic, rendering the sword practically useless.

Well, it would be useless, if it wasn't still incredibly sharp!

Too worried about what'd happen if he tried jumping over a sword in such a tiny arena, Sonic gets backed into a corner, and the realization of this seems to reinvigorate his enemy.

He raises the sword, not too dissimilar from earlier,

Swings it down,

And Sonic kicks it away.

High on adrenaline, he rushes behind Infinite, kicking him down.

"One..." he breathes, "Two... three..."

"Four, five...!"

But before he can call it a knock-out, Infinite shakily pushes himself off the ground.

For a moment, he simply stands facing away from Sonic, and the air stills.

He starts shaking, but with his mouth hidden in a mask, Sonic can't tell if he's laughing or crying.

Thankfully, the awkwardness of the moment is shattered when Infinite swings a new weapon his way - a ridiculously oversized flail, with huge spikes to match.

Starting to get bored of how often he has to quickly dodge out of the way instead of just pummeling the dude, Sonic sighs as he runs away again, keeping his distance.

Deciding not to try his luck against something twice as big and three times as pointy as he is, Sonic uses his new 'running away' position to see if there are any other weaknesses he could make use of. Then notices-

Every time Infinite attempts to draw a new weapon, he has to take several seconds to fish something out of a satchel on his belt.

Great! Now if Sonic could just catch him unawares when he-

Throws the flail, and grabs several daggers.

Sonic might be tired of dodging, but he's absolutely not tired of speed. Or showing off.

A dropdash into a kick off the ground into a frontflip and he sticks the landing!

He gives a joking bow to several of the eggpawns surrounding the arena, making sure to sprint to each one individually and in random order, throwing off Infinite's aim.

Or maybe not.

He realizes, a little too late, the flow of wind as another dagger is thrown at him - and it hits his waving arm.

Shocked by the pain, and the blood, Sonic staggers.

That's... bad.

He grips his arm, trying to slow the flow of blood, but it's hopeless - the blade hit at an odd angle, and the wound is too wide.

It hurts too much to do anything but grip it, however, and the sight of the blood pooling at his feet makes him feel dizzy.

While he's preoccupied with his injury, Eggman lets his egg carrier float into the arena, taking in the sight with glee.

"Each picture is worth a thousand words," he grins, "But I believe this scene only requires three..."

"Good boy, Infinite."

With the praise, Infinite practically glows.

He advances on Sonic, a dark gleam coming from his mask.

Gently, he puts his hands on the sides of Sonic's arms,

Sonic hears a sickening crunch,

And everything goes black.

"Sonic! You there?"

"I managed to drive off all the badniks! Something really strange happened, though... seems like they all turned heel and ran off."

"I guess Robotnik must have called them back..."

"Wait, that means they're headed for the Death Egg!"

"If I'm right, do you need any help over there? None of my 'drones are any worse for wear, so we're all here if you need us!"

"I bet you could handle anything Eggman threw at you, though, big bro!"

"..."

"...Sonic?"

[thewatcher727]

Sonic X: Gotta Go Fast Again - Chapter 14: Fateful Misstep

Sonic X: Gotta Go Fast again is a thrilling continuation of the beloved anime, promising action-packed escapades and heartwarming moments as our heroes embark on their next chapter! Available for Reading on AO3 & FF!

FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14344080/14/Sonic-X-Gotta-Go-Fast-Again

Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54991219/chapters/145392910

Preview:

Amy's fists collided with the metal door of her cell with a resounding fury. Each blow reverberated through the confined space, echoing her frustration and anger. She longed for the comforting weight of her trusty Piko Piko Hammer, imagining the satisfying impact it would make against Eggman's fortress walls.

"Let me out of here!" she shouted, but the only response was the hollow echo of her own words bouncing off the sterile walls.

With a sigh of resignation, Amy slumped onto the narrow bed in her cell. The adrenaline of her initial outburst faded, leaving behind a sense of helplessness. She knew she shouldn't let herself get so worked up. Sonic would come for her, she was sure of it. After all, he was her hero, her knight in shining sneakers.

As she sat there, the minutes ticking by in agonizing slowness, Amy's mind drifted into a familiar daydream. She imagined Sonic bursting through the walls with a dramatic flourish, his emerald eyes sparkling with determination. In her fantasy, he effortlessly dispatched Eggman's robotic minions, his trademark smirk never leaving his face. With a swift flick of his wrist, he would shatter the lock on her cell door, sweeping her into his arms before speeding off into the sunset.

"Excuse me, ma'am? I'm afraid you've been booked in the wrong room."

The unexpected voice shattered the stillness of the cell, pulling Amy from the depths of her daydreams. With a gasp of delight, she looked up to see him—her hero, Sonic—peering through the window of her cell door. His presence alone was enough to set her heart racing with excitement.

In an instant, Sonic's trademark grin lit up his face. Without hesitation, he launched into action, his movements a blur as he executed his signature homing attack. The metal door groaned and protested under the force of his assault, before finally giving way with a resounding clang.

Amy's heart soared as Sonic stepped into her cell. Without a second thought, she threw herself into his arms, enveloping him in a tight embrace. Words tumbled from her lips in a torrent of excitement and relief, a million thoughts and emotions fighting for expression all at once.

"Sonic, you're here! How did you find me? I knew you'd save me, but I didn't expect it to be so soon! Did you see Eggman? And Metal Sonic, don't even get me started! Oh, and we should totally go on a date after this, just you and me, no evil robots or mad scientists, just us and maybe a picnic or a romantic sunset or—wait, do you hear that? Is that the sound of more bad guys? We should probably go, but not before I thank you properly, because you're my hero and I—"

Meanwhile, Sonic, ever aware of their audience, cast a quick glance towards the invisible fourth wall with a bemused expression. It was a subtle acknowledgment of the absurdity of their situation, a playful nod to the audience who had been following their adventures every step of the way. Sonic gently placed his gloved hands on Amy's arms, carefully prying himself free from her tight embrace. Despite her excitement, he maintained his composure, his focus shifting to ensuring her safety. With a swift glance, he scanned her for any signs of harm, relief flooding him as he found her unscathed. Not a single scratch or mark marred her fur.

"They didn't hurt you, did they?" Sonic's voice was filled with genuine concern as he met Amy's eyes, searching for any hint of distress.

Amy shook her head fervently, clasping her hands together in a gesture of gratitude. "Oh, you're so sweet to ask! I knew you cared!"

Sonic fought the urge to roll his eyes at Amy's melodramatic response, a bemused smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Crossing his arms over his chest, he watched as Amy retrieved her trusty hammer, which the robots had inexplicably left unguarded on a nearby table. With a swift motion, she hoisted the weapon onto her shoulder.

The heavy metal door to the cell area groaned open, and Sonic and Amy turned their attention towards the sudden intrusion. Before them stood a horde of Egg Pawns, their mechanical forms bristling with weapons. Sonic's gaze flickered with determination, while Amy's narrowed eyes sparkled with anticipation. This was the moment she had been waiting for—a chance for payback against Eggman's minions.

With a fierce cry, Amy charged forward, her trusty hammer raised high above her head. "This is for ignoring me!"

The Egg Pawns, caught off guard by Amy's sudden assault, had no time to react as she unleashed a relentless barrage of blows upon them. With each swing of her hammer, metal clashed against metal, the force of her strikes sending sparks flying in every direction.

Sonic watched with a grin, impressed by Amy's ferocity and skill. He leaned casually against the wall, arms crossed and one foot propped up against the cold metal surface. There was no need for him to intervene—Amy had this under control. With a sense of satisfaction, he allowed himself to relax, content to let Amy have her moment of triumph. After all, there was nothing quite like watching her in action.

He approached her slowly, mindful of the residual energy radiating from her after the confrontation with the Egg Pawns. With a gentle tap on her shoulder, he sought to break through the intensity of the moment.

"I know I wouldn't wanna be on the other end of that hammer," Sonic remarked, a playful grin tugging at the corners of his lips.

[okayxairen]

The Purrfect Post

A Honey the Cat One-Shot

It was a quiet autumn evening when Honey paced about her room, mumbling something to herself. In front of her stood a tripod attached to a ring light, with her phone carefully balanced in the middle. Honey ceased pacing and turned toward the camera. She studied herself carefully, adjusting her dress and making sure she didn’t have a whisker out of place. After a few moments, she started the recording. “Hey gUys-” She suddenly stopped and covered her mouth. The voice crack caused the dead silence in the room to feel even quieter. She stopped the recording and cleared her throat. “It’s okay, you’ll get it this time.” She quietly repeated to herself. Stopping once again to smooth her fur, she restarted the recording. “Hey guys! It’s Honey here! Today I am showing..” She paused and brought her hand to her chin. “Do I need to say “it’s Honey?” I mean.. they’re on my page right? They would obviously know it’s me.. Maybe I can mention something later.. Those first few seconds are so important for retention..” She mumbled a couple more things, slowly sinking her head into her hands. “Ok.. 3 takes.. That’s all you need. You got this.” “Hey guys.. So today..” She paused yet again. “Too soft? I mean.. Most people would probably just scroll right past it, who am I kidding.” She took a deep breath. “HEY GUYS!!” She suddenly jumped back, startled by her own yell. Dead silence filled the air yet again as she reached to end the recording, then took the phone off the stand. “Should.. Probably check my notifications..”

Her eyes widened. Staring at her phone screen, she saw multiple missed texts and calls from Amy. She hastily called back, almost dropping her phone. “Honey! Where were you?! Badniks are attacking the city! They’re after your emerald!” Amy shouted, with sounds of ricocheting Motobugs and hammer swings echoing in the background. “Oh.. shit- Right! I’m- I-” Honey paused for a second, then took a breath. “I’m on my way.. Save some of those hunks a’ junk for me!” Honey charged out of her building and ran toward the town centre.

Amy panted heavily as she swung her hammer through yet another Buzz Bomber. “How many of these things did he MAKE?!” She exclaimed, before suddenly feeling a sharp pain from a Crabmeat behind her. “Ow!” She swung her hammer, yet again, missing this time, which gave another Buzz Bomber the opportunity to fire a shot into her right shoulder. “Agh! This.. does not look good.” “HEY!!” A loud sound echoed from above, grabbing both Amy and the Badniks attention. “That’s my top designer!!” Honey stood atop a house, peering at the badniks. “But you wouldn’t know fashion if it-” She leaped forward, slamming her foot right into the head of a Buzz Bomber. “KICKED YOU IN THE FACE!!” The Buzz Bomber flew back into a wall and collapsed, while Honey landed gracefully right next to Amy. “Nice.” Amy spoke. “I know.” Honey gave a smug smile and reached her hand out to help Amy back to her feet. Amy grabbed her hand, rising to her feet and readying her hammer.

“Let’s kick some metal butt.” Honey growled, while Amy scoffed.

Charging forward, Honey threw a fierce jab, shattering a Motobug’s faceplate, causing it to spin in circles. She jumped off it’s back onto the wall, crushing a Newton’s skull and launching from that into a spinning kick, which sent a Caterkiller flying. The battlefield became a cacophony of smoke, fierce attacks and one-liners (mostly on Honey’s part), but when the smoke cleared, Amy and Honey stood back to back in a field of metal scrap. “That’s what happens when you mess with the best!! Woo…” She let out a breath and turned toward Amy. “Been a while since I felt like that, thanks.” “Technically.. You should thank the Badniks, but I don’t know why you’d want to do that. And.. you’re welcome! You know.. This is kinda what things are like all the time with the resistance..” Amy slyly interjected.

Honey paused for a moment. “..The resistance.. Yeah! You know, actually-” Her attention suddenly snapped toward a person on the sidelines, holding their phone up. “You there!! Did you record all that?”

The fox looked slightly worried. “Y-yeah? You guys are.. Really cool..”

A huge smile spread across Honey’s face. “Oh.. my.. GOSH. That’s PERFECT!! That’ll TOTALLY do numbers, people LOVE action!!” She turned toward Amy. “Hey, have you ever thought about doing a resistance-based clothing line? Maybe some.. Post-apocalyptic influence, something goth, who knows..” Honey trailed off as the sun set, her mind full of big ideas.

[izdatazn]

S.U.I.T.S - Outbreak

CALLISTO 4 - S.O.S

"Kumiko, where are you off to?" a male voice inquired. "We have a meeting in thirty minutes."

"Just need to get some exercise, Hideki," Kumiko replied. "I'll be there soon."

Kumiko swiftly navigated through a crowd of people, her sports bag slung over her shoulder. She was in a hurry to work out before receiving her assignment. Upon entering the women's locker room, she was startled to find Amy undressing completely.

Kumiko shielded her eyes, saying, “Oh, sorry." She walked past Amy.

Amy chuckled and remarked, "We're in the girls' locker room. Besides, you've seen Taishi fully naked in bed countless times." She playfully teased.

Confused, Kumiko stuttered, "What does Taishi have to do with this?" She briefly stole a glance at Amy's well-toned physique before quickly looking away to focus on undressing. "And no, I haven't seen him naked."

Surprised, Amy tiptoed closer to Kumiko and questioned, "Wait, you're telling me you're still a virgin after being together for two years?"

Kumiko continued to stutter, replying, "We're not dating."

"Oh," Amy continued teasingly, glaring at Kumiko as she stripped down to her bra and panties. "So, can I be the one to take your virginity then?" Amy playfully and unexpectedly slapped Kumiko's butt. "That behind does look well-defined, Kumi." Amy whispered, "Why don't you play with my voluptuous breasts?" She reached for Kumiko's hand, but Kumiko withdrew quickly. Amy strolled away, gracefully swaying her hips, while Kumiko discreetly glanced at her and slowly began putting on her gym attire. “You have fun working out, Kumi.” She continued teasing.

With confusion evident in her gaze, Kumiko departed the girls' locker room. A sudden slap from Amy caused her heart rate to rise slightly. When she cast a glance into the gym, she noticed the sparse population, except for a familiar figure situated in the corner. Taishi had immersed himself in his stretches. Curiously, Asuka looked over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of Amy mischievously concealing herself behind the wall, only to hurriedly retreat back into the locker room. Kumiko stood there, observing Taishi's stretches until he caught sight of her when he turned around.

“When did you arrive?” Taishi asked. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“You’re assigned to the mission with me as as well.” Kumiko answered. “I just need a small workout of the day.” 

“Then let’s make it quick.” Taishi answered.

Taishi's charge towards Kumiko kept her on her toes. As she swiftly evaded his attacks, she also retreated as fast as possible. However, Taishi managed to maintain his pace alongside her as they continued their hand to hand combat.

Taishi skillfully approached and gracefully pulled her arm, smoothly drawing her closer, and delivering a formidable palm strike directly to her chest. Kumiko stumbled backward but swiftly regained her balance with the assistance of Earth stumps emerging beneath her. After regaining her footing, the stumps entwined around her arms as she launched her attack against him. Her strikes were swift, yet his evasive maneuvers were even swifter. Two additional tail stumps emerged from the ground beneath her, aiming to secure an advantage in the fight, but it had the opposite effect of what she intended.

An ice weapon took shape in Taishi's hand as he clashed with Kumiko's weapon. The movements were swift, with the ice weapon subtly enveloping his hand. Despite feeling overwhelmed, he remained calm and confident, swiftly regaining the advantage within a matter of seconds. He pressed forward, pushing Kumiko back until she was forced against the wall.

Kumiko regained her balance, retracted her fist, and thrust it forward. Taishi reacted in the same way as their fists collided, but he ultimately emerged victorious from the encounter. The elements shattered when Kumiko's arm was forcefully thrown back. Taishi advanced, striking her hand and subsequently the wall with his hand. 

Kumiko stood motionless, her gaze fixed on him as they both panted heavily, their bodies drenched in sweat. Taishi moved closer, causing Kumiko to feel his breath against her skin. Suddenly, Taishi began gently touching her bare stomach with his index finger.

"You're not resisting?" Taishi whispered softly. "You're wet, Kumi."

"Stop it," Kumiko stammered. Taishi then guided her hand to her abdomen, sensing her heartbeat and breath. Slowly, he trailed his hand down her body until he reached her sports thong. Taishi carefully slipped his hand beneath her sports thong and panties.

"Wait, Tai," Kumiko gasped softly, their eyes still locked. "Not here."

"You're wet here too," Taishi whispered in her ear, leaning closer. "You're not resisting, Kumi." Taishi tightly held her hand against the wall. "Tell me, Kumi. We can skip our mission and have a risqué fun time here in public." Taishi whispered. He suddenly kissed her neck, but their moment was abruptly interrupted.

"What are you guys doing?" Nanako shouted from across the room. "Find a room or you'll be late for the meeting!”

Kumiko and Nanako managed to arrive on time to join Hideki, Ren, Sho, and Daisuke in their scheduled meeting room. They joined them in the circle.

"You made it on time, Kumiko," Daisuke said. "Were you satisfied with the assigned workout?" She remained silent, not answering his question. He continued, "Issei's successful assault on the blockade on the planet Bisonet, and Asuka's arrival at Xas's tavern, provide a small morale boost. Every bit of hope counts, despite it being propaganda videos.” 

Daisuke proceeded, “Yesterday, we received an S.O.S distress signal from the joint research facility on the moon, Callisto. They have been completely silent since we attempted to establish contact. I am dispatching your team and Taishi's team for a search and rescue mission. I will give you the layout of the facility and your own personal stealth starship. Please be cautious and vigilant in this mission.”

"We are still in search of the Deck of Shadow Clubs," he mentioned. "We have nicknamed them the Chameleon group because of their strategic and discreet approach to operations. Over the past two years, they have been actively disrupting The Establishment's subjective rulings and attempting assassinations of global leaders. They differ significantly from the previous deck of clubs."

The stealth starship, called the Osprey by Kumiko, emerged from slip space and arrived at Callisto, Jupiter's second-largest moon.

"What day is it?" Kumiko inquired.

"It is January 25th, 2082, according to Earth Time," Taishi replied.

The Osprey gracefully touched down on the icy terrain of Callisto and continued its mission until it reached the designated spot pinpointed on the map. Hovering just above the landing zone near the facility's entrance, the starship eventually landed without any issues. The crew members then equipped themselves with the cutting-edge Atlas Armor, a state-of-the-art ensemble they had recently acquired over their body suit composed of several different layers and materials. As part of their gear, they wore a special helmet, unlike the previous generation, that lacked a visor but instead featured two discreet transparent pills. These pills were embedded with sensors and cameras, enabling positional tracking, mixed reality functionality, and depth sensing capabilities. They gathered in a circle at the hangar bay, surrounding a holographic 3D model of the research station displayed at the center.

"What we have here," explained Kumiko, "is a model of the research station. I will be sending each of you a map." She gestured towards the model and continued, "As you can see, the main floor serves as a recreational center for basic necessities. The second floor consists of the living quarters, and there are five underground levels dedicated to conducting classified research on extraterrestrial organisms of an extreme nature. The specifics of their research are beyond my pay grade. There are two hundred employees, including human and SUITs researchers, working on this station."

Kumiko then continued, "Our mission is to extract as many survivors as possible. Since there are ten of us, we will go in as a team but split up into three to four-man squads. Squad one will search the first floor, Squad two will search the second floor. Amy and Taishi will be with me, and we will be searching the underground labs one by one.”

The hangar bay swung open as they trudged through the snow towards the entrance of the station. Luckily, their suits were equipped to endure the severe surroundings, granting them warmth amidst the freezing temperatures. Approaching the front door of the station, Asuka observed the door latch slightly ajar.

"Why did you halt?" Sho inquired.

"These door latches are intentionally heavy. The fact that it moved..." She vocalized.

As her team dispersed, positioning themselves around the door, they took direct aim at it. Asuka bravely stepped forward and reached for the manual release, which was located at the corner of the door. With determination, she successfully accomplished the task and firmly grasped the latch, effortlessly lowering it to unlock the door. Kumiko paused briefly, glancing at her team before effortlessly swinging open the weighty door. A chilling sight awaited them - a pile of lifeless corpses spilled out, stacked upon each other, causing her team to be spooked. 

"I understand now why they didn't respond to our call," Kumiko whispered. She carefully checked the vital signs of each individual, utilizing her helmet's heads up display. "Every single one of them has passed away since the distress call.” She paused.

"January 23rd, 2082, 9:13:56 AM Earth Time marks the time of death," Taishi solemnly announced. "Kumiko, what shall we do next?"

Kumiko decisively replied, "Let's remove the bodies and proceed with our search of the station. Afterwards, we should ensure their proper disposal through burning. Whatever unfolded here took their lives. We must not risk bringing the deceased back to Earth, as they could potentially carry hazardous elements capable of extinguishing our entire population.”

In the freezing cold, they carefully extracted the lifeless body and cautiously entered the station. Leading the way, Kumiko and Taishi held their guns up, while Amy closed the door and trailed behind the team. Their night vision helmets illuminated the pitch-black hallway, revealing not only the corpses strewn on the ground but also the blood splattered across the walls. Additionally, the helmets displayed the real-time temperature inside the station, which indicated a significantly lower level than reported, along with dangerously low oxygen levels that would pose a risk if the team were to remove their masks. They abruptly come to a halt at an intersection, where the corridors divide into two hallways and a specialized elevator that goes down to the lower levels.

Nanako, being curious, asks, "What is our plan now, Kumiko?"

Kumiko responds, "There has been a change of plans. We will separate into two groups and search the first and second floors. Afterward, we will proceed together to the lower levels."

“I have a better plan than that.” Sho interjects. “How about we just go home instead.”

Kumiko ignored him and explained, "My team is upstairs. Amy is with Taishi, and they will search the main floor. I suggest we keep our helmets on, as you might have noticed from your helmet readings that there are microscopic particles floating in the air. These particles suggest that they might have caused the deaths of the residents here.

Kumiko's team proceeded down the hallway, leading to the stairs that would take them to the upper floor. Meanwhile, Taishi's team continued on towards the recreational area. Kumiko led her team up to the second floor, determined to continue their search in the living quarters. As they reached a point where the hallway split into two, they paused. Quietly, Kumiko motioned for Sho, Nanako, and Ren to proceed down the left hallway, while she and Hideki ventured down the right hallway.

As she painstakingly inspected each room before moving on to the next, she maintained constant communication with her teams. The doors displayed bloody smears, suggesting that they had been violently dented or forcefully broken into. The living quarters exhibited the same horrifying sight as the hallways, with lone occupants either fighting for their lives or having succumbed to death in their sleep, torn to shreds by something.

"What do you think caused this?" Nanako inquired.

"It's best to remain ignorant and not know," Hideki replied.

"The quicker we search, the sooner we can leave," Kumiko stated.

Kumiko and Hideki found themselves in the hallway, with only a few rooms remaining at the end. While moving towards the next room, Kumiko caught a faint sound emanating from the room at the far end of the hallway. Curious, she paused outside the room, remaining hushed as she anticipated the return of the faint noise. Meanwhile, Hideki completed his inspection of the room and joined Kumiko in the hallway.

They stood still for a minute, with their helmets catching another faint sound from the room down the hallway. Additionally, Kumiko's radar detected signs of life. She carefully raised her gun, with Hideki beside her. The door, like the others, showed dents but remained unbroken. Kumiko firmly gripped the door handle while Hideki positioned himself with his gun aimed forward. 

As she opened the door, Hideki entered the dimly lit room and immediately noticed a woman seated in the corner wearing a breathable mask over her face. Kumiko promptly joined him. It became evident to her that the woman’s clothes were torn and stained with blood, suggesting that she had barely managed to escape from whatever had been pursuing her.

“We found a survivor.” Kumiko answered.

“The left wing is clear.” Nanako answered. “We’re heading to you.

Hideki took a step closer to the woman, moving cautiously and deliberately. He gently kneeled down in front of her and extended his hand slowly towards her. However, the woman did not reciprocate the gesture. Undeterred, Hideki patiently held out his hand, waiting for her response. Meanwhile, Kumiko scanned the room, her eyes catching sight of blood drops both on the floor and in the bathroom. She gradually lowered her weapon and briefly glanced out of the transparent oval window, where she was met with the sight of an unending blizzard raging outside.

"We received an S.O.S call from this station," Hideki whispered. "Are you the one who activated the distress call?"

She shook her head and stuttered, "S.U.I.T.S Lead Director Wilbert Sylvain."

"And where is Director Wilbert Sylvain?" Hideki asked. She slowly pointed to something across the room. Kumiko followed her gaze, and her helmet illuminated a radio device next to the shelf. She picked it up and pressed the button multiple times.

"Director Sylvain is on the last level of the research station," she stuttered.

Nanako and the rest entered the room all of a sudden, joining Hideki and Kumiko. At that moment, Nanako heard a faint sound coming from the radio, and it was emitting morse code. Kumiko listened to it as it repeated every few seconds, but then she got distracted by another call.

"Kumiko, you should come and see this," Taishi suddenly spoke through their communications.

"Let's retrieve our survivor," Kumiko commanded, insisting, "Bring her back to the ship." She exited the room and made her way through the hallway, descending the stairs, eventually entering the main recreation room. Tracking the trail of blood, Kumiko reached the living room where Taishi's group had gathered. Upon the coffee table lay a bloodied creature with numerous arms and tentacles, impaled by multiple poles. Not only that but scattered decapitated station guards around the creature as well.

"What exactly are we witnessing?" Kumiko asked. "Is this the creature that killed the residents?"

"My scans can't determine the identity or species of this creature," Amy replied. “The guards put up a fight on whatever this thing is.”

Kumiko once again heard a faint sound of morse code coming from the radio in her hand. "Isn't that morse code for S.O.S?" Taishi asked. She listened to it again and believed he was correct.

"We have another potential survivor five levels down. Taishi, Amy, you're coming with me," commanded Kumiko. "Taishi's team will collect tissue samples from that creature. We will need to study it.” 

They left the area and headed towards the central part of the station, where they entered the elevator. Their nervousness made them silent as they descended to the lower levels, causing them to be cautious of their surroundings due to the ongoing events. The only sounds that could be heard were the machine cogs coming from the elevator.

They sensed the elevator abruptly stopping as it arrived at level five, causing the doors to slide open. Amy swiftly raised her gun and entered the dim hallway, with Kumiko and Taishi following closely behind. Upon exiting the elevator, they paused briefly. Despite the darkness, their visors depicted the hallway identical to the main floor. The floor was covered in pooled blood, the walls were splattered with blood, and lifeless bodies lay strewn across the ground.

“What the fuck happened here?” Kumiko whispered.

"The temperature on level five is considerably colder than the levels above," Taishi explained.

Their radar indicated their destination, an S.O.S. signal from across the hallway on the right side of the map. They proceeded slowly and cautiously through the hallway. The rooms on their left and right mirrored the hallway's gruesome scene. They saw shattered tubes, dead bodies piled on tables, and heavy blood smears on the walls. As they moved forward, they even noticed a corpse impaled on the wall with a sharp object.

They reached the end of the hallway, which divided into two paths. Amy pointed her gun down the left corridor, Taishi aimed his gun towards the hallway they came from, and Kumiko directed her gun down the right corridor. The radar's S.O.S signal urged them to continue along the right corridor.

"We're nearly there," Kumiko said.

Amy gasped. "This is a trap."

Kumiko hesitated for a moment and then replied, “I know.”

Kumiko, accompanied by Taishi and Amy, maneuvered to the right side of the hallway while maintaining their vigilant gaze on the left corridor. Surprisingly, Taishi abruptly diverted his attention to the right and swiftly pointed his gun towards the hallway they were traversing before refocusing on his initial objective. Eventually, they arrived at the conclusion of the hallway and made a left turn. Taking a brief pause, Kumiko directed her firearm towards the hallway that led to the room where the S.O.S signal emanated.

What caught her attention on the floor, pointing towards the signal, was a bloody handprint being dragged into the hallway. Her breath quivered as she took a deep inhale and continued forward. Her team walked past the three rooms on their left, with flickering lights caused by the inflicted damage, each room adorned with a single letter written in blood on the wall. At the end of the hallway, the last letter completed a word once they reached the end of the hallway.

“Run.” Kumiko whispered, her voice shook.

Distracted by the word, she turned around and faced another room which had the same impact as the previous ones. Inside, two station guards were pinned on the wall, while another guard lay against a locker. They proceeded into the room while Taishi stayed guard outside.

Kumiko inspected the motionless guard slumped against the locker. She extended her hand towards the dog tag encircling the guard's lifeless neck. "S.U.I.T.S Captain Adi Tora," she read aloud. With determination, she yanked the dog tag off his neck. "Deceased," she murmured. Rising to her feet, she fixed her gaze upon the locker for a fleeting moment. Kumiko detected that the signal was emanating from within the locker. “Amy.”

Kumiko grabbed Adi's lifeless body and dragged her away from the locker. Amy positioned herself in front of the locker as Kumiko reached for the handle and firmly gripped it. She hesitated for a few seconds, waiting for Amy to give her the signal. Finally, Kumiko pressed down on the handle and pulled open the locker door.

A body dropped out of the locker with a loud thud, startling both Kumiko and Amy. Their heads-up display detected a faint heartbeat emanating from the body. Kumiko noticed that the body was tightly gripping a walkie-talkie and reached for the badge hanging around its neck. Kumiko then heard faint sounds coming from the body.

"Grace Allen, are you okay?" Kumiko inquired anxiously. "Please respond if you're okay." She waited a few seconds before hearing a faint noise as Grace responded. "Taishi, come over here."

Urgently, Kumiko declared, "Grace Allen is alive and in urgent need of medical attention." Taishi promptly wrapped Grace's arm around his neck and assisted her to stand up. "I insist, we have found the survivor Grace Allen, who urgently requires immediate medical assistance. Unfortunately, we have been unsuccessful in locating Director Wilbert Sylvain on level five. Therefore, we will be heading back to the ship."

As they left the room, they came to an abrupt stop upon hearing shrieking noises echoing through the hallway. A chilling sensation ran down Kumiko's neck, prompting her to exclaim, "Quick, let's go!" They rushed towards the elevator, desperate to escape the eerie and incessant shrieks resounding in the hallway. Upon entering the elevator, they glanced back and witnessed the door firmly shutting, revealing the unsettling sight of red-highlighted unknown creatures gathering in the dark hallway.

The elevator rose to the main floor, and they promptly disembarked as soon as it halted. Their radar indicated the presence of something dangerous in their vicinity, just like the lower level they had been in. They quickly made their way towards the hallway that led to the door they had previously entered. The sounds from the lower level reverberated throughout the main floor.

They quickly departed from the station and stepped into the freezing cold of Callisto's harsh weather. Kumiko and Amy hurried to Grace, aiding her as they made their way towards the ship. Taishi skillfully manipulated the snow around him, molding it into solid ice. He then removed the ice from beneath and forcefully struck the entrance of the station, effectively sealing it shut to prevent anything from escaping. They boarded the stealth starship individually. The Osprey rose from the ground and ascended into space, leaving Callisto behind.

The Osprey reentered Terran-controlled territory after warping through space. Due to potential threats, the vessel was unable to dock at a space station and was instead directed to a quarantine station located a short distance away in South Africa.

"What are your plans for Grace Allen and S.U.I.T.S scientist Ella Dall?" Asuka inquired.

"Welcome back, team," Daisuke responded. "They will be placed in quarantine for a month. We cannot allow them or your teams to return to Earth until we are confident that you are free from infection," he added. "We will gather the content you received from the research station and collaborate with others to investigate what happened. Since there is a lot to comprehend, it will take time to understand the situation," he explained. "Your teams have been assigned to another mission, this time to Mars."

Taishi questioned, “What's at Mars?"

"There exists another organization that existed before the establishment of S.U.I.T.S., and we wish to forge an alliance with them. Unfortunately, we do not possess the exact location of the Inner Circle. Consequently, we intend to approach one of the Outer Circle Groups called the Alloy Metalheads to gain entry into their inner circle," Daisuke clarified. "Your team will rendezvous with them on Mars."

Asuka followed up, "And who are the Alloy Metalheads aligned with?"

"Blooming Society," Daisuke replied.

[p-receh]

Frontiers weirdest theory?

This is just a continuation theory from my last post.

This time, I just want to talk about this photo

In my own selfishness, it will be played first before this scene happens.

Why? Because I still have my question unanswered. Why the heck does he have access to cyberspace? Is he supposed to be stranded and finding the emerald in the first place? saving his friends? Therefore, it should make sense for Sage to imply Sonic doesn't belong there ... right?

But maybe his 'digitalized right hand' does have the access.

And from the looks of it, Sonic's right hand was being cursed...or infected from Sage. His hand could be redeemed and returned to its state after a while ... even though it pains him. :'(

Some people are reminded of botw2 trailer, yet somehow it kinda reminds me of the secret rings. you know...the fire at his chest as a sacrifice.

Instead of embracing it as a curse, Sonic uses it as an advantage, a new power within him.

Maybe we get something similar in this game? (And had a painful moment when his time was almost up?) i dunno ^^'

So many things that are still missing and I don't think this theory is true since it's full of holes and it's just a basic thesis with no backup.

Still, it is nice to become a headcanon tho

Coincidentally, someone has the same opinion as me! XD

[sardonic-the-writer]

━"Guest Appearance"

━Tw: None

━Notes: A very cute idea I had reminiscing about the time Unus Annus did a wax video with Sean

━Song: "Twin Sized Matress" By The Front Bottoms

Ethan and Mark were staring to regret their choice in friends.

Or at least the kind of ideas they came up for this goddamn channels videos.

It was fucking loud. I mean, honestly what did they expect when offering two of the goofiest people they knew to fly out for a video and shutting them in a room with a camera. There wasn’t going to be a bit of content without yelling after all. Especially when it came down to the four idiots playing around right now with how tightly knit they were.

Maybe it was the full on wax war that wasn’t predicted.

The rapidly cooling substance was flinging nearly everywhere, clinging to the surface of the walls like sticky soda and some even being propelled on the ceiling fan above (which in turn splattered it every which way like a modern age art project).

Paintbrushes with cream colored bristles—that had previously been used for spreading wax across bare skin—were now being dipped in the milky white substance. Before the wax could harden completely it was launched at a respective person, who got a face full of it to enjoy.

Honestly (Y/n) was having the time of their fucking life.

They didn’t give a shit whether or not the camera couldn’t even see them properly right now. All they were focused on was ducking up and down between the protection of a scrappy desk, trying their best not to get smacked in the mouth with the slimy wax as they fired their own ammo at Sean.

Ethan was on the other side of them, the team of two having mischievously grabbed half a bucket of hot wax halfway through the scheduled video and attacking the other people in the room.

The war had only been officially waged after Mark had grabbed a handful from his own bucket without a second thought, nailing Ethan directly in the scalp with it as a ‘thank you’ gift.

”Surrender losers!” A girlish squeal came from Ethan as he narrowly avoided another fire ball of wax, sticking his tongue out at Mark. His brown hair was plastered to the front of his forehead with a mix of sweat and wax, mimicking the look of everyone else. He had even almost knocked their cover over as he squatted down.

”Nhever!” Determination poked its head through Sean’s thick Irish accent. (Y/n) paused to clutch at their rib cage in a fit of laughter as they witnessed the man stand up and pose like a superhero, only to slip on a puddle of wax and land straight on his ass.

”Oh ye think tha’s funny (Y/n)?” He said quickly getting back up and making devilish eye contact. They let out a sudden yell as Sean grew closer and fully left the protection of his pathetic looking plastic table, formerly having hid behind it with Marks bulky figure.

They attempted to scramble up and out of the room, a complete disregard for the camera recording all of this as this point. All that they were worried about right now was escaping the ghoulish grin and bucket of wax coming their way.

”Wait no please!”

Their pleas were met with a tirade of evil laughter, managing to just barely close their eyes before warm wax slid down every available surface of their face.

Even Ethan and Mark had stopped in their ferocious battle to watch the buckets contents get emptied onto their head. Now instead of (Y/n) rolling on the ground belly laughing it was them, completely ignoring the mess sticking to their clothes like wallpaper in exchange for playfully howling at the fellow content creator.

”You guys fucking suck!” They spat, already feeling their face start to freeze up with the wax. While their words might be venomous their tone was not, breaking up with an amused wheeze halfway through.

“I’m telling Amy and Gab that you three were pushing me around!”

”Oooooh I’m so scared of Sean and Marks girlfriends!”

”Dont think I forgot about you either Mr. Crankgameplays. You act like I won’t go get your mother on the phone right this second.”

The other boys made oohing sounds at Ethan like a fifth grader who just watched their classmate get in trouble. He simply blew a raspberry at them in response.

It was only then that Sean backed up slightly, bumping into the forgotten camera and startling himself

(Y/n) laughed as much as they could with a temporarily paralyzed face, watching as the boys discussed jokingly in front of the camera if attacking each other with discolored crayon wax was enough content to satiate their gremlin viewers. Spoiler alert: They determined it was.

”Not exactly the normal content of Unus Annus. But then again we wouldn’t have invited you and Sean if we had wanted that. Congrats on being the first and last special guest to hijack our original plan for a video.” Mark grinned with teeth, now holding an arm out so (Y/n) could help themself up. They took it with as much of a smile they could manage, attempting to mumble a jovial ‘thank you dumbass’ back at him.

”Mark wipe their face off I can’t understand jack shit coming out of their mouth.”

”Awhh bu’ I was enjoyin ta silence.”

(Y/n) simply made a slitting gesture across their throat at Sean, cussing him out with their eyes. The motion just received more snickers.

“You know what? Sure. Let’s get Chica in here to wipe that wax off their face.” Mark rubbed his hand together in a comically evil motion. “Or should I say lick it off?”

Their eyes widened as they chased after the laughing boys, yelling from the back of their throat desperately with a smile.

Totally worth the trip.

[amythedvdhoarder]

A request for some soft!Ransom with a summer fun activity and maybe he holds reader’s hand with ‘it’s busy here… I don’t want to lose you in this crowd’ 🥺♥️

Thanks, Amy! Love all your fluff so much and I’m just in the mood for some fluffy grumpy Ransom 🥰

Oh Carly, yes!!! Thank you so much for sending me this and actually making me want to write again. Ilysm hun 😘 Hope this is ok for you!

Mr Sunshine

Pairing: Ransom x Reader

Word Count: ~770

Warnings: language

Not beta read, all mistakes are my own!

Gif is not mine, credit to the creator

~~~

The sun was beating down, soaking into the skin of your back. For a second you could almost imagine you were laying on the beach reading your book, instead of the on the soft green grass in Boston Park.

Kids were running around playing catch and couples cuddles up to each other on picnic blankets, sneaking kisses and whispering sweet nothings. You glanced up for a second to peek at your boyfriend. He looked uncomfortable and he all but confirmed this by grumbling when a tennis ball landed by his feet.

“Sorry mister,” the kid panted, as he came to fetch the rogue ball.

“This is why we should have stayed at home,” he muttered.

You rolled onto your side and lifted your sunglasses up so you could roll your eyes at him.

“Because a kid missed a catch? Lighten up. I’m having a nice time. This is what most people consider a normal thing to do in summer, Ransom. I told you to bring a book.”

Ransom scowled briefly then shook his head as if you were one the one being ridiculous. He was still wearing slacks in the summer heat. When you had questioned him about his wardrobe choice, he just said he wouldn’t become 'one of those pricks wearing shorts and loafers'. To be honest you were a little shocked he had opted for a short-sleeved linen shirt instead of one of his trusty sweaters.

Slowly, you sat up and placed your book back in your straw bag, deciding you had made him suffer for long enough.

“How about we walk down the river on the way back to the car?” You suggested, hoping that the promise of going home soon would help lift his mood.

“Fine,” he shrugged, getting to his feet quickly.

He waited impatiently, looking around bored, as you folded up the blanket into your bag.

When you were finished the two of you walked down to the river. The weather had brought everyone out today and you found yourself having to weave in and out of people on the pavement. Just as you were about to move away from Ransom to let another couple through, he grabbed hold of your hand and you stopped to look at him, frowning.

“Why have you stopped?” He asked, pulling you closer to prevent someone bumping into you.

You looked at your joined hands then back at him. “You never hold my hand. In fact, you shun every form of affection in public. Hell, even at home.”

Ransom blushed and awkwardly looked at his feet before muttering. “It’s busy, I didn’t want us to get separated.”

If it were possible for your heart to melt, it would have right then and there. This class A asshole actually did something sweet. There was an opportunity here to take the absolute piss, but you decided against it. Instead, you raised yourself onto your tiptoes and kissed his cheek before interlocking your fingers with his.

You smiled brightly at him and started walking again. Both of you fell into easy conversation; Ransom commenting on the stupidity of every other human being within a metre radius and you about the book you were reading.

A little further ahead there was a large group of people all huddled around a vehicle and you could feel Ransom pulling you closer. When you got a little nearer you realised what the vehicle was and turned to Ransom excitedly.

“Fine but if we have to wait more than five minutes then we’re leaving,” he huffed.

“That 'grumpy' act doesn’t work on me now,” you teased, squeezing his hand.

He led you over to the ice cream truck and stood behind you so your back was flush to his chest, his hands on your hips.

You looked at your watch when five minutes had passed and glanced over your shoulder at him, smirking when he showed no indication he wanted to leave.

“I knew you were just a big man-baby really,” you chuckled.

“Hmmm,” he hummed thoughtfully, “maybe I will prove to you just how wrong you are when we get home.”

You pressed your ass back against him. “I’m going hold you to that Mr Sunshine.”

“Don’t call me that,” he growled in your ear.

“Why not? I think it suits you. Very ironic,” you giggled.

Ransom pinched your sides and you squealed, making him burst out laughing. It wasn’t a sound you heard very often but it was one of the best. You were about to launch your own attack when a voice interrupted you.

“Excuse me, did you want some ice-cream?”

[4ragon]

oh can we please hear the magatama essay??

Oh boy oh boy, let’s go

Ahem

How to Lie to the Magatama

An essay by JJsADragon

Unlocking Psyche-Locks with the Magatama is a really fun mechanic throughout the Ace Attorney series. It’s introduced in Justice for All when Pearl charges the Magatama Maya gifts to Phoenix with spiritual energy. She describes it thusly: “This is the power of the Magatama. Only you can see these "Psyche-Locks", Mr. Nick… The more someone wants to hide their secret, the more locks you will see. If it's only one, I think you can easily unlock it.” 

Basically: If someone has a secret they don’t want to share, you have to present in-game evidence and break the locks. Things get a little more complicated with the introduction of Black Psyche-Locks, but the general gist of it stays the same. Someone has a secret they don’t want to tell you, and you can unlock that secret with evidence.

This, I believe, is fundamentally wrong.

Why do I think that? Well, I always really like picking apart these mechanics, both as in-game mechanics and how they would work in the real world. In particular, I think the most interesting way to see how something works is to figure out its shortcomings. What does and doesn’t set off Apollo’s bracelet? Why doesn’t Athena notice The Phantom’s whole deal? And, more to the point, when does the Magatama straight up get things wrong?

There are several moments I want to focus on. We have seen the Magatama fail several times throughout the series. Or, to clarify, we have seen at least one time when locks should have appeared where they did not, and several times where the chains did appear and the answers uncovered were either incomplete or just straight-up incorrect.

So, let’s find out how and why the Magatama fails us. First up: 

The False Negative: Farewell, My Turnabout

Fortunately, I think this one is the easiest one to understand. The Magatama has one very clear false negative in Justice for All: Farewell, My Turnabout. Phoenix asks Matt Engarde if he murdered Juan Corrida, and he replies, “Just so we're clear, dude, I didn't kill anyone, and that includes Juan Corrida, OK?” And he’s correct. He didn’t kill anyone. He did not actively commit any murders. And on that technicality, the Magatama does not go off. He did not kill anyone, and he knows it. He believes it. He feels no residual guilt over it. His hands are clean. Hell, he seems kind of gleeful about the fact that he was ‘technically right’ when the truth comes out later.

So, why didn’t a Psyche-Lock appear? As I said, it was a technicality. He wasn’t trying to hide it from Phoenix, he just truly felt no responsibility for what happened. He felt no guilt about it. The Psyche-Locks don’t appear until Matt’s secrets come up. 

This, of course, lines up neatly with our understanding of the Magatama. This instance very clearly falls within what we know about Psyche-Locks. If you’re not trying to hide it, if you truly believe what you’re saying, it’s not a secret the Magatama will alert you to. So, what about these other instances? Do these line up as neatly in the rules of the Psyche-Locks?

The Half Truth: The Cosmic Turnabout

This one is a little strange so I’m just going to touch on this.

In day one of your investigations for The Cosmic Turnabout, you run into a conflicted Bobby Fulbright. When pressed, two Psyche-Locks appear, and unlocking them leads you to three conversations: 1) The bomb threat before the launch, 2) Why Simon Blackquill was given permission to prosecute, and 3) The mysterious Phantom.

So why do I call this a false positive? After all, he is technically hiding all these things. And yet, a lot of how this Psyche-Unlocking goes down doesn’t really make as much sense when you consider that Bobby Fulbright is The Phantom. It really doesn’t make much sense how much information he’s feeding them about the situation, unlocked Psyche-Locks or not. Especially the way he goes about the whole thing. 

We know in hindsight that The Phantom doesn’t actually care about Simon Blackquill or solving the crime that he committed. Every display of emotion is an act. So why does he make a big show of feeling conflicted? Why does the bomb threat that he made lead him to divulging all of these worries about Simon going after the Phantom? Was him revealing this information part of his game? Since we know he was trying to cover his tracks, was he feeding us half truths for a reason? Did he want to feed us this information?

If that’s the case, that leads us to a new problem. Since the question asked was “Why Are You Being Cooperative”, why wouldn’t the fact that he was the Phantom ping the Magatama? He was being cooperative so that he could feed you information, not because he cared about any of the things he was ‘troubled’ by. So why does the Magatama only pick up on half the truth? After all, the Phantom wasn’t knowingly tricking the Magatama.

(Also if you haven’t read this comic I thought it was a super interesting theory. Not sure I ascribe to it 100% but it was a really interesting take.)

I think it’s important to note in this example that, no matter how you interpret The Phantom’s actions, all signs point to him wanting to divulge this information for one reason or another. There was an intent about it. He may not have known a thing about the Psyche-Locks, but he very clearly was baiting the protagonists with an intent. And technically, without knowing it, he was also baiting the Magatama. 

This means that, in the end, the information he actually revealed to the protagonists was not a closely guarded secret of the heart. Yes, you still needed to present evidence and draw it out of him, but I think The Phantom wanted the characters to draw it out of him. It’s not a secret that a bumbling detective was having trouble hiding, it was information that a spy wanted planted. There was intent here, no matter how you look at it. And that leads us to our third example.

The False Positive: The Stolen Turnabout

Unlike the previous two cases, this is the first time that someone has straight up lied to the Magatama. Trials and Tribulations: The Stolen Turnabout. I always get so mixed up by this case. It took me three playthroughs to finally get the hang of who was doing what where and when. And do you know why that was? It was because of one lie that Luke Atmey told us early in the investigation.

Phoenix: Detective Atmey... You were knocked unconscious by the thief, weren't you!?

Atmey: Ha ha ha! Surely you must be joking... You think that I, Luke Atmey, could be knocked unconscious so easily!?

Phoenix: This sword proves it!

Atmey: ...! Th-That's...

Phoenix: Before the theft, this sword was in the hand of the statue of Ami Fey. Furthermore... at that time, it was not bent.

Atmey: Aaah... Err...

Phoenix: ...There's only one explanation. You were struck on the head and knocked unconscious by this sword! Well, Detective!? What about it!?

Atmey: ...I'm impressed. You truly are an "Ace Attorney"...

Unlock Successful

Unlike every other instance, this is just a straight-up lie. This is not a technicality, like with Matt Engarde. This is not pieces of the truth, like The Phantom. This is just factually incorrect. Luke Atmey was not knocked unconscious by Mask☆Demasque. In fact, this not only is a lie, it’s a calculated lie. Without knowing about the Magatama or its capabilities, Luke Atmey used it to convince us that he was knocked unconscious by Mask☆Demasque at the scene of the crime to disguise the fact that he was Mask☆Demasque, which is even wilder when you realize later that even that was a lie! He was covering up a lie with another lie with another lie. It was not just a ploy to fool you into thinking he was attacked my Mask☆Demasque, it was also a part of him convincing you that he was Mask☆Demasque when he wasn’t.

So why the FUCK does the Magatama go off?!

There’s of course a meta answer. The writers weren’t thinking that hard about it. They just wanted to use the Psyche-Locks to make the story more interesting. But that’s boring. I want to go deeper.

Luke Atmey, like The Phantom later on, wanted information planted. But he couldn’t simply tell everyone he was attacked by Mask☆Demasque. After all, he knew admitting to it would put his credentials under scrutiny. So he needed someone to organically draw it out of him. Again, he wanted this information out there. Otherwise, him agreeing to Phoenix’s conclusions, hell, him setting up this scenario with the Shichishito wouldn’t make any sense. Plus, it was only behind one Psyche-Lock and led to him revealing a photo of the crime, one that he was very meticulous about taking to create an alibi.

So. What does this all mean? How are people confusing the Magatama? How are people lying? I think that the element that Pearl got wrong in her initial explanation is that the Magatama reacts to secrets that, deep down, a person wants to divulge. After all, with enough evidence, you can eventually draw all sorts of information out of a person. Some are certainly more closely guarded secrets than others, but in the end, I think the Magatama reacts to secrets that a character wants to share but is not willing to do so without that prompting. It doesn’t have to be real, it just has to be something the person is keeping secret with the intent of finding a way to plant the information.

This can even apply to Black Psyche-Locks. Unconscious secrets that are hidden even from the person hiding them? Those are deep hurts that I think drive a lot about these characters’ personalities and motivations, and I think things like that are the kinds of stuff that a character wants to confront but is unable to do so out of fear, so they push it from their minds.

Let’s look at a few more examples. In Bridge to the Turnabout, Miles demands info from Larry, and he’s able to completely circumvent the Psyche-Locks by divulging something completely irrelevant about his crush on Iris. When Miles realizes his mistake, he discovers a completely new set of Psyche-Locks. Or when Phoenix confronts “Iris” about the presence of another Iris at the crime, “Iris” (cough Dahlia cough) uses that to start planting these ideas about Iris as the original betrayer, as the one who had wronged Dahlia in the first place. I feel these are both things that the characters did want to share, despite not wanting to do it unprompted.

Anyway, uh, that’s most of what I got. Perhaps there’s a stronger answer out there for why the Magatama may react in places it shouldn’t. Maybe there’s some other hidden rule they haven’t mentioned. Or maybe it is just as simple as “The writers didn’t think that hard about it.” But hey, I think I like this interpretation better.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO “The Best Outcome.”

Just wrapping up a few loose ends from the past few months stories. I hope you all like it. And feel free to give me some ideas on what you want to see, or who you want to see more of. I will try to do my best :) 

Breaking News tonight from the Apollo 11 memorial landing site as Admiral Adam Vr and Captains Warren Richarards and Mary Chavez were rescued  from the Pacific Ocean following a journey that was supposed to be historical, turned harrowing. Amy Grey comes to us this morning with the story.

Thank you Julie, it was only a week ago here on the historic Cape Canaveral launch site, that the reconstructed Saturn V rocket was launched by the UNSC International Space and Aeronautics Division on the two thousand and fifty first anniversary of the original Apollo 11 mission. On board The reconstructed rocket were astronauts Fleet Admiral Adam Vir head of the UNSC deep space exploration division, Captain Warren Richards five year veteran and historical aeronautics expert, and Mary Chavez six year shuttle pilot veteran, and communications specialist. 

The reconstructed Saturn V rocket took off thirty minutes behind schedule at 10:03 GMTJuly 16 after delays attributed to engineering standbys. However, reports by UNSC investigation early this morning indicate that the delays were called for by engineering head Jade Clein who noticed something strange during her final checks of the Saturn V recreated rocket. In an interview early today, flight director, Aaliyah Seif of the Apollo re-creation mission informed outlets that there was evidence of attempted tampering on the hull of the Saturn V rocket. The tampering case in the shape of these small silver tape strips covering loosened bolts along one of the Saturn V side panels. Engineers stated that the tape was not heat resistant and would have burned off in time to rattle the bolts loose and, likely, cause a devastating spin that would destroy the rocket.

While this attempted tampering was thwarted, the mission would only become more dire. A sudden and shocking report by Mericanda News 5 showed an uncut image of an unknown alien hybrid woman claiming that the UN President had ordered th attempted assassination of Admiral Vir, in conjuncton with an audio recording by Admiral Colter Massie, Head of the Galactic intelligence division an known isolationist, that admitted to the attempted assasination of Admiral Vir, and the acquisition of twenty thunderhawks which were used to harry the Satern V on it’s way to the moon. Admiral Kelly, long time friend of Admiral Vir, corroborated the story, saying she caught General Massie just after he ordered the deployment of the twenty thunderhawks. During their conversion he attempted to kill her before being detained by two members of Admiral Vir’s crew, and was later seen being escorted into custody by Military Police.

Indeed footage has been captured from the hull of the Saturn V showing approximately twenty thunderhawks attempting to destroy the rocket while Rundi remote piloted drones and an unknown group of what appear to be racing jets, fought back to delay the attack while word was sent to the UNSC to deploy F-90 darkfire pilots to assist. This all after communications between Houston and the rocket were sabotaged shortly after leaving orbit. The  F-90 darkfire pilots were able to arrive on time to rescue the rocket, though a hole was reportedly torn in the hull sucking Admiral Vir out into space, though he was later recovered and returned to his ship without any injuries. Patch teams were then able to repair the torn hull and the astronauts completed their mission landing to crowds on the moon and returning to earth on time on time landing in the Pacific ocean only nine miles away from the waiting ship.

All three astronauts were recovered and are reported to be in good health. 

The investigation into the UN president’s involvement is still ongoing at this time, however preliminary reports from the Global Bureau of Investigation suggest evidence is both staggering and damning to the current UN president, who earlier today, attempted to cut all ties to the sabotage efforts saying she was framed. Political experts report that, even assuming her innocence, she will likely not last to the end of her term.

International News Network was able to interview Admiral Vir shortly after his landing while still on board the rescuing ship UNSS Victory.

Here is what the Admiral had to say.

“I find it…. Really very disheartening that someone we all trusted, and someone that we all should have looked up to could do something like this. It really is a heinous demonstration of what political corruption can lead people to do.”

“And how do you feel, personally about all of this.”

“Personally, I…. well to be honest I am hurt and appalled. Not to mention that I fear for the safety of my family and my friends. Every day I wonder if my involvement with them is going to get someone I love killed…. The thought haunts me, but I hope after all of this is over I… and all of us can breathe a little easier.”

“Were you scared?”

“I don’t think that even needs to be a question. Of course I was scared, getting sucked out of your spaceship isn’t ideal.”

“What do you hope will happen now?”

“I hope that justice can be upheld  to those who deserve it.”

“What do you have to say to the UN president.”

…

“I have nothing to say. Wouldn’t want to waste the air.

****

What followed would be one of the largest scandals in recent political history. At some point an unknown number of classified government documents was leaked onto the internet, and after that it was all over for the Presidency. Thousands of enterprising humans, and aliens alike, viewed the documents to discover all the underhanded and dirty things which had been going on in the UN governmental body over the past few years. Forensic accounting experts (mostly Tesrtaki) uncovered plenty of fiscal tampering  which shed light on plenty of isolationist related projects and bank accounts. There was even evidence that they had something to do with the original assassination attempt against Admiral Vir so many months ago. The drama had even managed to capture the attention of Rundi political experts and Vrul computer science geniuses, and together they unearthed a world of unfathomable, but not unexpected corruption. The process to remove the UN president from office was probably one of the fastest movements of human government ever seen by UN congressional leaders, who were likely trying their very best tro distance themselves from association with the president, who despite not being the only one involved, had become the political scapegoat for everyone else that had a supposed link with isolationism.

Even the VP fell under suspicion and was watched closely for the rest of his term.

Admiral Massie and the UN President were placed under arrest and set up for court dates in the nearing future, though everyone saw a long and arduous litigation process ahead. Even Ramirez’s family had filed for damages against the government after the news came to light confirming that their son had been shot as collateral in one of the UN presidents plans to assassinate Admiral Vir. They settled out of court to the tune of an unknown, but impressive sum of money.

No one really knew how much, but a couple months later Ramirez’s younger sister was seen training at one of the most prestigious olympic academies on earth.

Ramirez himself was suddenly able to afford housing on the moon in a condo just next door to his best friend, though no one else inquired further.

The Rundi chairwoman came forward with her own investigation admitting to being suspicious for a long time though she feared accusations without proper proof. Admiral Vir was seen having lunch with her not so many months after the events took place, suggesting that the trust between the two of them had not been completely dissolved. With much of the isolationist element gone from government, public policy began to lean heavily towards integration with the alliance. The occasional isolationist demonstration or protest was held, but none of them managed to gain traction.

Admiral Vir was finding himself more important than ever, though it was to his chagrin that his ship was grounded for the intervening months while the investigation continued.

No one was entirely sure what the future held.

***

Admiral Vir stepped into Admiral Kelly’s office. The last time he had actually visited her here had been over a few years ago before his promotion to captain of the Harbinger. It seemed so distant now, and he never expected to walk into her office with a star on his shoulder. She stood as he entered, and the two of them shook hands, ignoring all the stuffy formalities that usually come with the meeting of two military officers.

The wall behind her was decorated with a myriad of metals and awards she had received over her career, and he couldn't help but note the slight tinge of grey he could see forming in her hair. He knew that feeling, he was going prematurely white much to his chagrin. She stood and the two of them shook hands.

“Vir.”

“Kelly.”

She motioned him to sit and he sat sighing lightly as he had been on his feet all day consulting with political figures and other members of the UNSC.

“A strange couple months wouldn’t you say.”

“Tell me about it.”{

Kelly reached under her desk and withdrew an amber bottle which she placed between them, “I always forget; Do you drink?”

“On occasion.”

“Well consider this an occasion.” She said popping off the top and pouring two glasses for them. She handed his across the desk and he leaned back in his seat cupping the cool glass in both hands.

She swirled the amber liquid around in her glass, “So what are your plans after all this.”

He took a sip of water warmed by the burning liquid, “Hoping things will go back to normal and I can go back to traveling the galaxy.”

Kelly grunted, “A simple man with simple motivations.”

He laughed , “Sometimes I think a stupid man with simple motivations.”

She chuckled then grew serious, “A lot of people make the mistake of assuming simple people don’[t have the intelligence to match. Some people assume that trusting means gullible means dumb. Just because we are trusting and expect others to do the right thing is not necessarily a fault. I believe there is a kind of beauty in assuming the fundamental goodness of humanity.”

\Admiral Vir shook his head, “How can you after seeing what we have seen.”

“How can you not?” She shrugged, “We always knew that politicians were corrupt, but think about everything else we have seen.”

Admiral Vir nodded slowly, “The enthusiasm for the Apollo 11 recreation mission, the people who flew up to help us. All of those people who went digging through years of information just to uncover the truth.”

SHe raised her glass, “Precisely. Goodness in humanity is all around us, but we tend to overlook the good in favor of the bad.” She placed her hat on the desk and sighed, “It is up to good people to keep their goodness going even when it might seem easier to give into the bad. I I have and will always believe in the fundamental good of humanity. Some may call it naeve, or even stupid. Others have said I have a romanticized view of a species that is fundamentally broken.” She turned her head to look out the window a contemplative expression on her face before turning back to look at Adam.

“You understand me, I think.”

He nodded slowly.

“People need to be believed in. You tell someone for long enough that they are fundamentally bad at their core and they will begin to believe you. For thousands of years pessimists have gotten it into our heads that we are no better than animals, worse even since animals don’t fight in wars. But I believe that is wrong, I have seen people, I have met people, and I have interacted with people who prove to me that humanity cannot just be fundamentally bad or else these people wouldn’t exist.” She tapped her nails against the glass, “I think it is easier to corrupt purity than wash away a stain,”

He listened quietly as she continued.

“Humans are born good, Adam, and life stains us. We aren’t born stained while some of us are wiped clean. “ She shook her head, “Doesn't make sense to me.” She caught him with a look pinning him to the spot with her intense stare, “People like you convince me of this every day.”

“Me….”

She held up a hand. “Adam Vir, I am convinced that the best outcome this universe ever had, was when a happy go lucky science fiction freak was lucky enough to be the first man to meet aliens. Any other way things would have gone horribly wrong.” She leaned across her desk, “The universe needs men and women like you, and not only that but the universe needs people who are going to support men and women like you.” She sat back, “Which is why I have made a decision.”

He raised an eyebrow in curiosity not entirely sure where this could be going.

She smiled, “I have decided to run for President.”

He nearly spit his mouthful of expensive scotch onto the table but managed to choke it mostly down.

Eyes wide he set his glass down, “Are you serious.”

She smiled, “Seriously serious.”

“Well shit, you have my vote for sure.” He raised his glass to her, “I couldn’t think of a better outcome.”

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

May I have a scenario/imagine, whichever makes more sense, of Trey, Rook, and Crewel trying to tame some sort of wild, magical invasive species of Poison Ivy that has taken over the greenhouse?

Crewel gives me perpetually disappointed wine aunt father vibes. This piece also lowkey turned out to be Trey x Rook, but you didn’t read that from me.

This imagine’s longer than my usual 1k word self-imposed limit, since it goes out to a friend of mine that’s been supporting me through final projects and exams. I’m not sure if they’d want me tagging them so publicly, but they know who they are.

Imagine this...

To Professor Crewel’s chagrin, members of the Science Club had never had strong academic intent. In actuality, the club was a thinly veiled excuse to bake cakes (just to find the perfect ratio of leaveners and sweeteners!) and to stalk watch students in their natural habitats (nothing wrong with an impromptu observational study, right?). Instead of test tubes and beakers, the lab benches were littered with cake pans and photographs of unsuspecting Savanaclaw students.

“I do wish you two would take this club more seriously,” Crewel would often gripe, fingers massaging his temples. “Science is not a play thing, it is a powerful tool with which we can use to redefine and reshape the world around us.”

Such were the woes of an instructor--but today, he had no time to lament.

Crewel’s jaw tightened as he gazed upon a sprawling mess--the shattered glass panes of the Botanical Garden, with massive stalks of ivy reaching for the skies. Casualties lined the ground--plants and flowers drained dry of their life, all withered and decayed. The ivy writhed in glee.

(He shouldn’t have been surprised that the headmaster summoned him and the Science Club to resolve the issue instead of hiring a real exterminator.)

“How unseemly,” Crewel noted, clicking his tongue. “Running amok and ruining so many of the specimens we’ve carefully cultivated... This shall not go unpunished.”

He glanced over his shoulder.

“Clover.”

“Yes.” Trey stepped forward, his magical pen ready.

“Hunt.”

“Oui.” Rook followed suit, smoothly drawing forth his own pen.

“The time has come to prove your mettle,” Crewel announced, rapping his pointer against his palm. His onyx eyes seethed with a quiet, controlled rage. “Show this overgrown weed what the Science Club is truly capable of.”

At his command, the boys nodded and tore off toward the Botanical Garden.

Crewel held his ground. The corners of his mouth curled into a condescending smirk as he addressed the poison ivy. “Come here.”

An arm of ivy flew at him, so fast that it was but a blur.

An alive, but livid, blur.

“Heel!”

A column of fire erupted from Crewel’s pointer. His attack slammed against the plant, settings its leaves awash in embers. The rogue plant let out a sky-splitting roar.

The battle had just begun.

Trey ducked under an arc of burning ivy and threw open the door to the Botanical Garden. Tucking his limbs in, he barreled through right as more ivy snaked in to seal off the entrance once more.

He could feel the heat upon his back, the earth quaking under his feet, and Rook close behind him--yet he willed himself to keep his eyes glued ahead, even as he launched across the threshold and into a terrifying new realm.

The inside of the greenhouse now glistened with ivy--covering the glass panes, slowly strangling what few plants remained. The Botanical Garden had always been warm before, but it was unusually so today. Sweltering, and almost so humid that the floors and walls seem to eerily pulsate with life.

“Keep your wits about you, and don’t look back, boys,” Crewel had instructed them. “Just get in there, and cut it off at its source--at the heart.”

Trey’s eyes darted this way and that. Green, green, green. It all looked the same to him. Where in the world was the point of origin?

“Got any ideas?!” He glanced over his shoulder at his partner--and his protective goggles nearly went askew.

Rook had dropped to one knee, pressing a gloved hand against the floor--now a carpet of vines. “Hoooh! What a fascinating specimen!” he marveled. “Such destructive power, and yet it also sports this emerald sheen... Très manifique!”

“H-Hey... No offense, but I don’t think now’s the time to stop and sniff the roses. Or, well. I guess it would be ivy in this case.”

“Non, non! There is always time for beauty--even in dire situations!” Rook insisted, his hands continuing to grope around. His eyes suddenly creased, and his smile turned sly. “Ah, te voilà.”

“Even if you say that, that’s not going to help us fix this...!!”

“Calm yourself, Chevalier des Roses,” Rook advised with an airy laugh. He cupped a hand to his ear and beamed. “Listen closely! Surely even your own heart beckons you to still your worries.”

“Heart?” Trey straightened, adamant as he folded his arms. “Sorry, but I just don’t believe in stuff like that. Come on, Rook. We need to focus--Crewel-sensei’s trusting us with this task.”

He cast a concerned glance at the doorway, ensnared in vines. They’d have to blast their way through later--but if they stayed in this space for too long, they, too, would soon be drained of all their life force. “We can’t just mess around!”

“Ah--but you must put your faith in me as well, Chevalier des Roses!” Rook insisted, pointing to the patch of floor that he had been not-too-subtly groping earlier. “I implore you to lend me your strength!”

“You want me to attack the gr--?!” Trey froze mid-sentence. He had become vaguely aware of a gentle sensation creeping around his ankles.

In an instant, he was yanked into the air, dangling upside down like a useless rag doll. Blood rushed to his head, and his surroundings spun.

“Chevalier des Roses!!”

“I’m fine!! I-I’m fine!” Trey called--though he clearly wasn’t. “I can just--” He waved his magical pen, the air growing tense as a small ball of fire collected at his command.

“Non!” Rook warned, startling his classmate. “There is nothing to cushion your descent, mon amie! You will surely break a leg--and certainly not in the theatrical sense!”

He’s right. Trey’s fire extinguished itself, replaced by a chill crawling down his spine.

“A little help then?!”

Rook’s eyes widened. “You would give me your trust?”

“Not exactly like I have any other choice.” Trey would shrug, but it was a rather difficult motion to pull off while suspended midair--and far more troublesome, his veins ran cold. It was a sure sign of the ivy sapping his energy.

“Have no fear! Today, it shall be my turn to be the chevalier.” The hunter grinned from ear to ear, magical pen in hand.

“Please, Rook! Any day now--before I become plant food!” Trey’s voice was hoarse--from exasperation, or from the magical ivy, he wasn’t quite sure. Perhaps both.

“Just for today, I shall be your Chevalier D’amour.”

And with a confident wink, Rook plunged the ivy-covered floor into a sea of flames.

The accursed plant wailed as it shriveled to ash upon a backdrop of billowing smoke. Embers flickered and danced in the afternoon, the Botanical Garden set ablaze. Crewel took a step back, grimacing at the growing fire.

A figure emerged from the greenhouse, carrying another. The professor squinted into the smoke, pinpointing the familiar outline of his Science Club members--Rook, cradling a pale-looking Trey in his strong arms.

“Puppies.” Crewel pinched his temples.

“C’est chose faite--it is now done.” The brim of Rook’s hat eclipsed his eyes, making the typically cheery hunter appear dark to match his tone. Then he lifted his head, basking in the sunshine, and that somber moment was over. “All is well and good again, as it should be!”

“I... I thought I was going to die,” Trey groaned. “... And Rook, I appreciate you catching my fall, but you didn’t need to carry me out like you’re an action hero in a movie or something.”

“Are you able to still stand after an attack from that heinous plant?”

“Yeah. Just put me down.”

“Oui.”

Trey stood on shaky legs--and instinctively leaned on Rook’s shoulder.

“Well, boys. You’ve exterminated the ivy--as well as just about every other plant in the Botanical Garden. How exactly do you intend to atone for this?!” Crewel snapped, whipping his pointer at his students. “I believe my instructions were quite clear--destroy only the heart of the ivy.”

“The fault lies with me, Monsieur,” Rook declared, dipping into a bow. “We dallied for longer than was necessary, and in a moment of panic, I unleashed my magic.”

“Always one with a flair for the dramatic. Unfortunately, that will not serve you well in detention, Hunt.”

“Wait. Crewel-sensei, that’s not the whole story,” Trey interrupted. “Rook got me out of a pinch--and he deserves credit for that. He’s also the one that found out where the ivy’s heart was--buried in the floor itself. I didn’t realize until it was too late.”

The professor’s lips pursed into a straight line. “Clover, are you confessing to your own negligence?”

“I am.” He nodded firmly. “I’m the one that deserves the detention.”

“Trey-kun is not responsible!” Rook protested. “He is the one that attempted to set us on the right path. I refused to heed his advice, which led to events escalating.”

“I didn’t listen to Rook when he tried to tell me about what I needed to do.”

“I should have phrased it more concisely.”

“You--”

“Trey-kun--”

“Enough. It is clear to me that both of you contributed to this chaos.” Crewel sighed. “... Hunt, take Clover to the infirmary. I will put out the fire myself.

“... Are you letting us go?”

“Of course not. Once you’ve recovered, Clover... you boys will be restoring plants in the Botanical Garden for the remainder of the semester as punishment.”

“Ahhh, I should’ve known. Riddle’s not gonna like this at all.”

“Chin up, Chevalier des Roses! At the very least, we shall have each other’s company!” Rook laughs, smacking Trey on the back and sending his peer nearly doubling over.

Crewel sighed once more--he was disappointed, but not surprised.

His Science Club puppies still had a long way to go.

[cutegirlmayra]

Hello Mayra! Hope you're doing well, perhaps a prompt to make you feel better? This is canon adjacent but also kind of AUish. Weresonamy but it takes place in the Storybook world (you knows those games). Sonic is now the big bad wolf and Amy is little red riding hood. At first she's afraid of him which hurts Sonic but there's a bigger threat and he jumps into action protecting little red. So the werehog saves the day and earns little reds trust and he realizes how much important Amy's support is

<3 I could always feel better lol But I’m doing great, thanks for asking! :Db

Also, still not sure if Canon Adjacent means Semi-Canon..? Eh? -help please I’m old and I don’t read fanfiction anymore lolol-

PROMPTS ARE ON SHUTDOWN. You know the drill, don’t send any more prompts until they’re announced to be reopen again! :Db

My response and first impression of this prompt: Pajama Blogs - Prompt Requests Ep. 1 (x - 41:05)

Prompt:

I was told to immediately head to Miss Vanilla’s house with Cream and I’s cookies. I was holding her hand as the path grew dark and strange noises kept crushing the leaves that blew in the full moon night.

I heard grunting at different intervals, and as Cream clung close to me, I stroked her head but couldn’t find the strength inside myself to open my mouth and give her encouragement. Comfort... I greatly needed that too.

“M-Miss Riding Amy?”

She was a kind girl, Cream. A small rabbit, that any predator would make a gruesome snack out of. I was a traveling adventurer who just happened to be fortune telling when she asked me for this favor.

Her mother lived so far out into the enchanted woods... doesn’t she know the stories and rumors? Even in all my travels... I’ve never heard of a forest this dense with evil magic!

“What is it, Little Cream?” I asked, moving the basket from her arm and switching it to my other side, cradling her once burdened arm now tightly within my own.

Escorting was the easy part, but monsters were at the forefront of my worries.

“D-do you think mother is safe living so far from town?” She asked me.

‘How the heck would I know, kid?’ I made a sour face, but kept my slurring suspicions to myself. “She’s your mother, Cream.” I finished my thought out loud, even with the tone of my voice being rather foul. “Which means she’s got to be twice as strong and brave as you! Right?” I bounced her arm in mine, smiling down to her from my red hood with a white rim that coupled nicely with my dress. It was tied tightly around my neck and even looked good with my corset, something I had picked up along my travels. “Now then, stay close, and everything will be alright, okay?” I manipulated my voice to sound assured, the only comfort I had waited for my lips to speak seemed more for myself than anything else.

Still,... I wasn’t going to leave a helpless little bunny to the hands of these deadly forest.

I glared at them, as though warning them that at any wrong move, I’d hammer them!

We continued down the dark path before I couldn’t tell dirt from moss anymore, and the colors dulled into deep blues and blacks, the moonlight no longer helping from the shadow of the trees above...

“Hmm...” I frowned, trying to gauge by the wind if a storm was coming... I squinted my eyes through the cold and thought I saw a shadow turn and inch closer to a tree.

I took Cream’s hand tighter, “Let’s keep moving...” and continued my brisk steps towards where the compass pointed us too.

I didn’t see it till later... but scratch marks revealed the sign had been tampered with, and with the compass pointing north, but the sign saying that her Mother’s cabin was another way... I took the other path.

I shook the compass when it was clear we were walking on grass, with no more trodden down carriage routes, and then...

We heard the howl.

“Miss Riding Amy!” Cream jumped into an embrace at my waist, as I put an arm protectively to her back and looked around. I could hear soft, misty voices as creatures that looked like chameleons began to materialize as though invisible this whole time! Tracking us?! They crawled down the trees with hooks for feet, sharp bluish and purple bodies with horns, and their tongues flung out and wiggled themselves in front of us before they jumped to attack.

I summoned my hammer and threw Cream back behind me, and as my first powerful swing locked onto one of the nightly creatures, my hoodie flung off.

I also didn’t know... that a beast within the forest’s eyes dilated at seeing my face, who had secretly followed us in the hopes of guiding us back on the correct path... hidden this whole time as well, when he saw my face, he immediately disregarded his own reservations at staying out of sight, and used the cover of darkness to swing his massive fists, stretching far and wide, to make it look like my hammer throws were hitting them all.

I didn’t see through his illusion, instead, I thought I was whipping my hammer around so fast that the monsters couldn’t keep up, till one ducked and dodged both our tactics and walloped me right in the chin. I was flung back, with poor Cream’s basket getting thrown in the impact and landed with her cookies that we had spent so long making.

This quest was harder than I thought.

I scooted back on the ground as Cream cried out to me, but the monster tried to ready his tongue to lasso Cream, when an even larger beast finally sprung out into our sights, and began to throw a gorilla-like tantrum with his arms, banging the ground and causing it to shake.

He roared fiercely and grabbed the chameleon by it’s ankles, swinging him wildly as it looked like an unwanted carnival ride, round and round.

His fur shuffled in the wind as he finally released the foul terror and it slammed against a tree, twitching... before it’s misty hide disintegrated back into the forest’s magic power...

I quickly pulled myself up and gripped Cream in fright, but held my hammer out with harsh pants, still not fully quitting without a good struggle first.

The beast relaxed it’s shoulders... then slightly turned its head to us.

I continued to hold my hammer out, before shifting it behind my shoulder, ready to swing at any given notice.

He slowly reached his hand out, letting its true length be known and lifted it above my hammer as I swung to defend ourselves, but we were both surprised when he picked up the basket.

He then swiftly gathered up the cookies with precision in his claws and lengthy fingers, before withdrawing his arm back to it’s normal, monstrous-still size and presented it at our feet.

We were still both laying upon the ground, except my torso raised slightly, before he nodded and was about to walk away when we heard a woman’s voice shriek out in fright.

“Mother!” Cream called, looking behind me and taking off.

“Cream! Wait!” I didn’t even think about the basket, and took off after her. Dust in our wake, I suddenly looked back to see the blue, hairy monster carrying the basket in his mouth, and lowering his head, scooped me up and onto his back. “W-wo-AHH!!” I gripped his back like a baby monkey, just trying to not get jostled off as he raced on all fours with such velocity.

‘He doesn’t look to be hunting Cream.’ I surmised, and then for a moment, actually thought riding this beast was my calling... it was fun, it felt like I was meant to trust him... I only had this feeling when drawing tarot cards, and seeing the fortune of ‘Destined Love’ written upon it...

“I don’t know who you are-!” I immediately shouted out, positioning myself more comfortably upon his back as he dipped his head and was about to scoop up Cream to his back as well, “But let’s save this family!” before another even more frightening beast that looked like a phoenix swooped down and clamped its claws to her. “Ah!” I cried out in shock, it happening so fast.

“Oh no!” The burly voice of the monster had thrown the basket back up to me and I caught it instinctively, before seeing him reach out his hand to extend it again beyond normal means, and grab a branch.

Like a springboard, we were slingshotted to that branch as I let out another yelp of shock.

This... was surprisingly fun! If it didn’t mean my little friend and her mother were in danger.

“Can you go faster!?” I encouraged, and suddenly, the beast seemed to take offense to that.

“Hold on!” he called out, a harsh grumble in his voice he may have not meant to make, and immediately we began swinging and launching ourselves closer and closer to the flying bird creature, when I noticed another--adult--rabbit in it’s other talon.

“It’s got her mother!” I cried out, and his eyes seemed to bleed with the necessity to save them as well. 

“Do you trust a monster?” He asked, dropping to the ground after each failed jumped couldn’t get us close enough to reach them.

I held my hammer at the ready, looking to the strange beasts as though the term ‘monster’ didn’t suit how heroic he was being in trying to help us.

“N-no.” I stated, and he looked down a moment, as though disappointed. “I trust you.” I stated, boldly and point-blankly. “You’re willing to risk life and limb just for a couple of girls... I wouldn’t know a monster that noble, but I do know heroes that stalwart and true.”

His head rose and for the first time, I could see his full face. He looked touched by my words... before nodding with a narrowing of his eyes. “Alright then, Miss Rose Rider. Prepare to ride to wind!”

“W-what?”

He shot his arms out and pulled himself back, just like a slingshot position!

“Ho, boy!” I bit on my hammer and kept it between my teeth, realizing I needed to hold onto this ride with both hands....

He strained, before finally whiplashing us both into the air.

“Now, go!” He reached back to grip me, as best he could without injuring me with his brute strength, and threw me like an arrow across the night sky to the belly of the beast.

“HHHAAAAA!!!!” I slammed my hammer into it’s gut and had it coughing up a storm, dropping it’s prey as the woman and her child screamed upon their descent.

“Hero!” I called out, deciding never to use the term ‘beast’ or ‘monster’ again for such a kind soul.

The Hero seemed to understand I was addressing him, and threw out his arms to grab the girls and tucked them into his chest... falling down... Oh no...

“NOO!!” He was taking the plunge for them!

I wasn’t able to think about it long though, as the dark phoenix cried out and came for me, but I whammed it’s beak away from devouring me and grabbed a talon, using its body to take the hit for me on the ground while I remained safe at the underbelly of it’s feathers.

Spitting out said feathers, I then frantically backed tracked further into the forest, before seeing Vanilla and her daughter crouched over the Hero, tears of regret in their eyes.

“He... He took the fall for us. All of it.” Vanilla admitted, seeing that I was the one with Cream.

“Oh, Miss Riding Amy...” Cream wiped her tears, holding her mother’s hand and pulling themselves away from him. “He was the bravest, nicest wolf I’ve ever known!” She then pulled me into that said hug, but my eyes never left the body of the Hero.

His fur swiveled in the breeze... and the forest moaned as if losing something precious.

“N-...No...” My cards never predicted this... I moved the grieving girl and mother apart from me,... crawling to the Hero’s fallen form. “Please... I still want to... I still want to know you... I want to thank you...” My voice began to break, gripping his fur in my white gloves. “I didn’t even know your name...” I sobbed more than I ever thought I could have...

“I... I love you... Mr. Wolf, sir.” Cream began, “Thank you... for saving both me, my mother... and my friend.”

I shook my head, “You and I... we fought like a supersonic comet... that bird didn’t know what hit’em.”

Then...

While the sun began to rise... his form twitched and rumbled as though something was happening.

I pulled away only when a bright light flashed and yellow streams of golden ribbons flew around him.

He was lifted into the air and the golden streams wrapped around him before revealing a handsome--more beautiful hedgehog man than I’ve ever seen in all my life--slowly floating down to the ground before blinking his eyes open.

“Who...” he began, rubbing his head and shaking it as he got upright, spooking us all as we were jaw struck. “Who said my name..? And that they... could love a beast?”

We had a big party that night at Vanilla and Cream’s home. Cream explained her mother didn’t like her walking the path at night, due to the trickery of the forest dwelling monsters, but that she always knew a kind, mysterious figure protected her and her daughter every time they crossed.

On this particular day, Cream was attending the Chao Kindergarten in the village and had played so long with the Chao, had forgotten the time. Vanilla was so worried she went in search of Cream, finding the wolf and asking if he was the one that kept them safe all those many years they lived there.

He agreed to go on ahead before finding Riding Amy with Cream, and stalked them to make sure they got to safety, but was too afraid to reveal his cursed form.

The curse could only be broken by someone speaking his name after a declaration of admiration and love. 

“That’s... amazing.” I was still in awe at how handsome the young hedgehog man looked. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, but when he looked at me, my heart raced and I had to look away, pulling up my hood so he couldn’t see my blushing cheeks. “You should-! Ehem.” I was getting too excited... “You should come with me on my travels. I’m sure you could do a lot of good now that you’re not so afraid of what others may think of you.” I explained.

Though, in my heart, no matter what box this beautiful man came in... he was still a hero... just... more dashing in this form!

He smiled to me, and I felt my soul withdraw into his arms at such a sunny-disposition.

“I’ve always wanted to see the world, so that sounds great! But...” He looked to Vanilla.

“We’ll be fine.” She patted his arm. “You’ve been watching over us all in the village for far too long, time we took precautions for ourselves!”

We both didn’t realize that the Chao were formidable fighters... and ended up joining with each villager to protect them come night time, where their little forms could judo slam any monster that tried to trick in the night!

Sonic and I... We... hehe!

Well... The cards are never wrong.

I was destined to ride alongside the spirit of the wind!

[whumpforthewin]

The Answer - 5

Jack looked up at the huge building. He felt too underdressed to even be outside the building. But he was here for a reason. He wasn’t going to chicken out now. He had the card in his hand. The doorman looked like he was going to say something but Jack held up the card and the doorman just nodded and opened the door for him. No one else tried to stop him. Apparently if he got through the doorman people considered he needed to be here. 

He went up to the elevator and got in. Of course this prick was in the penthouse suite of the apartments. He rode up feeling more and more rage build up. He hoped it was Mark he saw first because he was going to deck him.

Apparently luck was on his side. The doors opened and there was a much more casual, but still well dressed Mark. 

Jack didn’t stop to think. He just stalked over to Mark and drilled him in the nose with all his might. He felt it crack beneath his hand. 

Mark stumbled back. “Yes, ow, Amy said she spoke with you.” Mark didn’t seem surprised and that honestly pissed Jack off more. He went for another blow but it seemed Mark was having none of it. He stopped Jack’s hand mid punch as if it were nothing. 

“Let’s have a chat before you hit me again, okay? Can I offer you a drink perhaps?” Jack didn’t say anything as he wrenched his hand out of Dark’s. “Alright, no drinks then.” He turned and led Jack into the suite. 

“I sent the others away for the next few days so we have this all to ourselves. Meaning you can speak freely and so can I.” Mark explained. 

“You were fucking there.” Jack was barely keeping it together as it was. 

“Right to the point then.” Mark started making himself a drink. “You are, mostly right. I found you that night. But that’s all. I didn’t know about you or the operations until about a week before we attacked.”

“That’s not what Amy said.”

Mark’s lip curled into almost a snarl. “I had heard rumors, nothing more. Nothing concrete.” 

“Then you kept tabs on me. You dropped me off to Amy.” Jack hissed.

“Amy is one of my top generals. I trusted her to look after you. You were free to leave-“

“I was sixteen where the fuck was I gonna go?” Jack roared. 

Mark set down the drink. “I looked for your family.” Jack scoffed but Mark continued. “And I found them.”

“Then you just know all about me don’t you?” Jack demanded. Mark was lucky he’d put the island in between them or Jack would’ve hit him again. 

“I know enough.” 

“Well fuck off!” Jack snarled. He gripped the edge of the island to stop himself from launching over it. 

“No.” Mark went back to making his drink, seemingly unconcerned. 

“You have done nothing but manipulate me the entire time I’ve known you,” Jack scoffed. 

“I have not. I nudged you in the direction, but you were free to choose what you wanted to do. We’ve had no direct contact until last year when Amy called me in to rescue you from that john with the spreader bar.” Mark finished making his drink and finally looked at him. 

“I have to know, did you know what happened to me?” 

“I had a hunch. You are not the first I’ve looked into. But you are the first in a while I was able to get out alive,” Mark said as he took a sip from his drink. “That group is large and dangerous and we make it a habit of keeping tabs on those that survive.”

“Why? Did you want to use me for your own gain? Cause I hate to break it to you it didn’t fucking work. I’m no use to you.” Jack didn’t know why a smile crept onto his face. Maybe it was the fact that all of Mark’s planning and manipulations had come to nothing. Sure Mark had fucked him, but that was definitely mutual so he didn’t feel like Mark was getting more out of it. 

Now it was Mark’s turn to laugh. It was deep and emotionless. It seemed to reverberate throughout the apartment. Jack was suddenly very unsure of himself. More unsure than he’d ever been in Mark’s presence. 

“Mark?” He whispered the name and his breath came out in a puff. It was suddenly freezing in there. “Wha-“ he was cut off by his own shivers. 

“No, call me Dark. Like I told you to. And You aren’t the only one to have gone through that process,” Dark said calmly. 

“What are you talking about?” Jack was shaking and he wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or fear. 

“The little tests.” Dark twitched. “The torture.” He put his hand on the table as if to steady himself. “I recommend you leave and we will continue this another time.” He let out another laugh though this one sounded a bit more pained. 

The lights started to dim and Jack searched the room, he realized shadows were growing to cover the windows. 

“What tests? Those, those weren’t tests?” Jack no longer felt confident about the two worst years of his life. “They were just torture.”

“Believe what you want. But they were, and it worked.” Dark straightened and something was very wrong. “If it didn’t work, you wouldn’t still be alive.”

Jack shrunk on himself. What the fuck was he in for. The shadows seemed to be coming from Mark, or Dark. But, that, that wasn’t possible.  

“It’s possible your powers haven’t manifested. Yet. Amy’s had to be triggered. Ethan can’t control his.” The weight of Dark’s gaze fell on him. It was like the void looking at him, soulless black eyes that held no pity. 

“If you couldn’t tell, I control shadows. Some other more in depth things than that as well but it’s the basics. It’s  clear you didn’t know the extent of their goals. You were taken by a fairly small faction. It makes sense you wouldn’t know all the details that came along with it.” Dark made a move and suddenly he was right next to Jack. 

Jack yelped and jerked away from him, falling to the floor in his haste. 

“There are drawbacks to using these powers of course.” Dark took a step towards him and Jack scrambled away from him. The shadows seemed to grip and claw at him. “My drawback is the darkness is difficult to control and makes it a bit more all consuming. Makes it very hard to stop.” His voice was almost a pur. 

“Dark, I think you should come back to yourself now,” Jack said shakily, scooting away from him. 

“Hmm, no.” Dark had what Jack could only describe as a sadistic smile on his face. “You see I’ve been nice, I’ve been kind, I’ve been patient with you Jack. But you have done nothing but turn around and ignore me, insult me, and all over piss me off.”

Jack scrambled out of the way as a shadow tried to grab his leg. 

“Tell me more about these experiments!” Jack yelped. His heart was pounding in his chest as he tried to maneuver the unfamiliar space. 

He saw and heard Dark crack his neck. “You don’t want to know about them, you experienced them. You want to know about how they affect you. Right?” 

He wasn’t really wrong. But Jack was too busy dodging a shadow to respond. 

“They affect all people differently. The ones that survive at least. You seemed like a fighter. I had to let them finish one last one before I stepped in.” Dark said casually. 

“What!” Jack stopped short. And there was the opportunity Dark must’ve been waiting for. Shadows clung to his legs holding him in place. When he realized and tried to pull at them his arms were locked as well. He was trapped. 

“The final week is the most important.” Dark slowly made his way over to Jack. “It’s the week you may die but it’s the week that unlocks your powers. Amy was confident you would survive. But it was my call to wait on the rescue.” He stopped directly in front of Jack. 

“You son of a bitch!” Jack growled. 

“Now, now, calm down. Aren’t you glad it all meant something. Imagine going through that and it meaning nothing more than the suffering of others for nothing. This gave you something. We just have to unlock it now.” Dark raised his hand and a tentacle-like shadow wrapped around his throat. 

There was a bang on the door that caused Jack to jump and Dark to pause. 

“I thought it would take them longer,” Dark muttered. 

The door burst open with Tyler crashing through it. Dark sighed and put his hands up before stepping back. Tyler didn’t appear to care that Dark was in a “non-threatening” position. He stormed over to Dark and forced his hands behind him and kept them there with enough force to make Dark wince. 

“Jack, close your eyes, Ethan, could really use some light about now,” Tyler said in a harsh tone. 

“Working on it!” Ethan snapped. 

Jack didn’t need to be told twice. He squeezed his eyes shut and not a moment too soon. He felt more than saw a giant ball light up the room.

The shadows melted away and he heard Dark hiss. 

“It’s okay to open your eyes,” Ethan said, much closer than he had been a moment before. “Tyler, deal with Dark, I’ll be right there.” Jack opened his eyes to see Ethan glance over at Tyler as he forced a very resistant Dark out of the room. 

“Sorry, we got back as soon as my alerts went off that someone was using their powers in the house. And since Dark was the only one here, we figured it wasn’t good,” Ethan explained. 

“I can manipulate light, usually to make illusions. Tyler basically becomes a god, he’s super strong and can’t feel pain. We also think there’s a healing factor but we can’t know for sure.” Ethan continued when Jack just looked at him. “Amy can manipulate emotions. Her own and others. Usually she’s the one to deal with him like this but she’s too far out to deal with this so we’ll bring him back. You should probably go though. It can get pretty hard to watch.” 

Jack nodded somewhat numbly. 

“Talk to Amy, I’m calling you a cab. It’ll take you back,” Ethan said pulling up the Uber app. 

“I’ll see ya later Jack.” Ethan pressed a kiss to his cheek and Jack had to wonder what it meant. They’d all done it before. 

Tagging:

@whumper-in-training

[tenshiscientia]

This is part of a story that I'm writing, but it's going to be a long ass time before I can get the full thing posted on here, so I thought I'd put a tease of a fight scene out. (Due to this being a dream of one of the characters, certain people are TOTALLY NOT acting like they should be.) Also a number of trigger warnings. Character death, mention of torture, violence, slightly graphic violence (we're gonna call this R rated peeps)

Also imo I suck at fight scenes, but hey read at your own risk!

Genesis opened his eyes to find himself in a large, well lit room. His azure eyes scanned around and noted Hojo standing in front of several people talking to them. 

'That's not right, Hojo's dead...' he thought to himself.

He then realized who he was talking to. It was his two best friends Angeal and Sephiroth, along with Zack. Although there were others Genesis didn't know, but they all had silver hair just like Sephiroth. Perhaps they were related to him in some way...

'No that's not possible, Sephiroth has no family relations. He's all alone.' Genesis told himself.

Hojo turned around and noticed Genesis.

"Well, well, Rhapsodos. It's so nice of you to join us. We all were waiting for you, weren't we, gentlemen?" Hojo sneered at him.

"Angeal, Sephiroth, Zack...why are you working with him?" Genesis asked, greatly confused.

Hojo laughed a high, annoying, nasally laugh.

"They've told me that they are tired of your constant complaining, and I told them that I could help stop that. By the way what do you think of my newest creations?" Hojo asked, waving his hand at the three silver haired boys.

Genesis looked over at them. The youngest looked at him and flicked some hair out from in front of his eyes.

"Names Kadaj." he said flatly, then looked away, obviously bored.

The second oldest turned around from playing with something and flicked shoulder-blade length silver hair over his black clad shoulder.

"Yazoo." he purred silkily.

The oldest and most burly looked up from sitting on the floor and chuckled deeply.

"Loz." was all he said.

Hojo cackled madly.

"Very good. You see Rhapsodos, to come up with these creations of mine, I had to do a lot of work. Genetically modifying cells to match and become compatible with a certain others. For you see, these creations are clones of Sephiroth!" he said triumphantly, madness glittering in his eyes.

A shocked look firmly settled itself into place on Genesis' face as he looked over at Sephiroth.

"Sephiroth, why did you let him do that to you? I know for a fact you would never willingly allow that to happen. Did he drug you to coerce you into allowing him to do it?" Genesis asked, appalled at what he had just heard.

"No drugs, Genesis..." Sephiroth replied, "...I've always wanted a sparring partner that could challenge me. And while you and Angeal do push me slightly, it's not enough. So Hojo told me that he could create a sparring partner that would keep me working if I helped him. And low and behold, he delivers three sparring partners that can keep me busy when we spar."

Hurt crossed Genesis' face as he heard those words.

"Poor Rhapsodos. No longer needed. But wait! She might need you..." Hojo cackled, gesturing over to where Yazoo was standing.

The young teen looked over his shoulder then stepped to the side, revealing someone chained up, hanging against the wall. Taking a better look at the person, he realized who it was.

"Ami!" he yelled, then rounded on back on Hojo, "Why do you have her chained up like that?"

Yazoo laughed and Genesis' attention was drawn back to him and Amaterasu. Taking better notice of Amaterasu's state, he realized her clothes were shredded and barely hanging on her body. She was also riddled with cuts and horrible bruises. They had obviously been torturing her. Her usual bright auburn hair was dark with the blood that saturated it.

Yazoo moved back over to Amaterasu and lifted her head so Genesis could see her face and he noted that not even that had been spared from the beatings. Then with sadistic pleasure on his face, Yazoo wrenched Amaterasu's head towards him and crashed his lips hard against hers in a brutal kiss. Amaterasu didn't fight against him, didn't move at all, as if she had given up on getting away. Yazoo pulled away from Amaterasu with satisfaction plastered on his face. Sephiroth looked up from his place a little ways away and smiled.

"Excellent Yazoo. She's not fighting back anymore. You've finally broken her spirit. Very impressive." he laughed.

Yazoo smiled and threw a "thank you" in his direction. Hot rage coursed through Genesis' veins and he called Rapier to his hand and flew forward at all of them. Suddenly, there was a loud crack, and Genesis stopped in his tracks, a bullet hole where his next footstep would have been. Genesis studied the bullet in the ground for a second then looked up to see where it had come from. He noticed the one named Yazoo with a gun in his hand.

Yazoo waved the gun back and forth in the air carelessly for a moment, teasing Genesis. Then he lowered the gun to the side of Amaterasu's head.

"Now if I were you, Rhapsodos, I wouldn't come any closer, or I'll blow her brains out all over the wall." he threatened.

Genesis held his ground and glared at Yazoo. Everyone else laughed at him. Zack then decided to come forward and fight him.

"If you can beat me, You will be one step closer to saving Amaterasu. Although it's not like you''re going to make it." he said, raising the training sword all SOLDIERs were given when they joined, in a threatening manner.

"I don't want to fight you, Zack. We don't need to fight." Genesis replied.

Zack laughed, "Oh yes we do!"

He then charged at Genesis his sword held high, and brought it down in a overhead strike. Genesis brought up Rapier to block it, then kicked Zack in the stomach, sending him flying backwards. Genesis perused him, but Zack was back up onto his feet in seconds and met Genesis' strike and tried to sweep Genesis' feet out from under him by dropping to the ground and swiping his leg towards Genesis' feet. Genesis saw what he was doing and jumped over his leg and landed. Zack used the momentum to spin himself back up so he was standing again.

He brought his sword up in the air in a lower slash and Genesis leaned backwards to avoid it and charged a fireball in his hand. Releasing it, the fireball engulfed Zack's hand and he quickly dropped his sword with a loud cry. Genesis saw his opening and even though he didn't want to do it, he knew he had to. Genesis lunged forward and slashed his sword, and a large gash appeared in Zack's throat. Zack's eyes grew wide as the burn on his hand was forgotten and his hands rose to his throat.

He tried in vain to stem the bleeding, but it was no use and he quickly bled out, the life leaving his eyes as his body bonelessly hit the ground. Genesis slowly walked to him and kneeled down. He ran his hand over Zack's face, gently closing his wide open eyes before picking the boy up and walking him over to the wall far away from the others. Gently propping him up against the wall, Genesis ruffled his black spikes softly.

"Sorry, pup..." he whispered softly, "...I didn't want to do it, but you left me little choice, I have to save Amaterasu..."

Sea foam green swirls began to surround Zack's body.

"May the Goddess keep you safe pup..." Genesis whispered softly.

He watched Zack's body disappear and noticed a single tear run down the boys cheek just before he fully disappeared. The hand not holding Rapier clenched into a fist. That boy still had so much more to live for, so much more of a life to live. And he had been forced to cut it short. Genesis stood and turned back to the others.

Angeal stood and gave a large stretch, before reaching over beside him and picking up the large and heavy Buster sword. Propping it on his shoulder, he walked out in front of the others and raised his hand palm up then made a "come here" sign with two of his finger. That has always been the motion that he and Genesis had used to mark the start of their fights. However Genesis did not return the gesture and charge toward him. He simply shook his head and lowered Rapier, showing he wasn't going to fight him.

Angeal made a annoyed noise, then chuckled darkly, "Fine, if you won't come for me, then I'll come for you."

He shot forward, surprisingly fast and agile for a man of his size and stature as well as the weapon he carried with him. Once Angeal reached Genesis, he brought the Buster sword up over his head, like it weighed no more than a feather, and brought it down hard. Not wanting to face the brute force and power behind that attack, Genesis dodged to the side, quickly dancing out of the way of the heavy blade.

"Angeal, stop this. I don't want to fight you. I need your help to get Ami out of here. Hojo has poisoned Sephiroth's mind. I know I killed the puppy, and I'm sorry about that. But he gave me no choice. Hojo must have poisoned his mind too..." Genesis dove onto the ground and rolled to the left then back up onto his feet.

"Zackery doesn't matter to me. If he was a true SOLDIER, he would have been able to hold his own against you. He was 1st class material, he just hadn't been promoted or gotten the Mako yet. He's better off dead." Angeal growled, making another slash at Genesis.

This one Genesis blocked. It was one thing to say that a SOLDIER was weak or inexperienced. But to say they were better off dead because of that inexperience was unacceptable. This was not his friend Angeal, and Genesis knew that now. He no longer had any qualms about fighting him.

Pulling Rapier back, he lashed it forward with as much power as he could. Angeal was not expecting the strength of the retaliation and was momentarily stunned. After stumbling back a couple of steps, he grinned and lept back into the battle. He swung the Buster sword at Genesis' stomach, and Genesis launched himself into the air, landed with his hand firmly on the Buster sword, then launched himself even higher. As he came down, Genesis swung Rapier in a two handed strike and Angeal's head was cut cleanly from his shoulders.

Genesis landed in a crouch on the ground and not a second later, Angeal's head landed behind him. Genesis turned and looked at the head.

"You always spoke of honor, dreams, and pride Angeal. It was Zack's dream to become a 1st like his mentor, like you. And you always spoke of him with such pride because he was your best student. But then you go and dishonor him by saying that he was so weak that he was better off dead. Where is your honor, Angeal?

I certainly don't see it. Zack was a hard working young man. Yes, he had a bad tendency to get in trouble and play some bad pranks. But when Ami entered into our lives, he took top her like an older brother would to a sister. She never would have been able to learn how to get around the halls of the ShinRa building without him. Don't you remember.

She's been working hard and he asked to help out and that's what she wanted help with. Zack was an honorable young man, and you threw that away along with his life." he hissed.

There was clapping from over where Amaterasu was chained and Genesis looked there. Sephiroth was clapping his gloved hands together with a mocking smile on his face.

"A beautiful speech Genesis. Too bad he couldn't hear it. You already killed him and he's halfway to the Life Stream now." he laughed, pointing at Angeal's body.

Genesis looked down at where Angeal's body was to see the last swirls of sea foam fading away.

"Shut it Sephiroth. You have no more honor than he did..." Genesis snapped, his gaze locking on him once more.

"Oh, ho, so now you're the one preaching about honor. Please, spare me. I don't need a lesson in honor from you." Sephiroth chuckled.

"Maybe you do, considering you're letting Hojo control you. All because of the promise for a better sparring partner. You know you could have asked me to try and push you harder. How do you know that I haven't holding back. That I don't have something that could have challenged you more?" Genesis spat back.

Sephiroth shook his head as he pushed off the wall and summoned Masumune to his hand.

"I know you Genesis. I know how you fight. You always go all out and you never hold back. That's why I know you haven't been holding back." Sephiroth practically grinned, "Now come and let me kill you so that I can start sparring with some actual adversaries."

Sephiroth raised Masumune over his left shoulder and darted forward. Genesis barely blocked the thrust, then twirled to the side.

'Sephiroth is faster than he normally is. Did Hojo give him something to help him fight?' Genesis asked himself, blocking another stab from Masumune.

Dashing to the left, he tried to get behind Sephiroth to attack him, but at the last second, Sephiroth spun around and blocked the attack and launched one of his own. Genesis dodged to the side, but was unable to fully get away from the attack. He lifted his hand to his upper arm and checked it. The leather had been split open and a line of blood rested just under the cut leather.

"First blood Genesis, just like always." Sephiroth laughed.

Genesis just glared at him darkly.

"My coat, you ass!" Genesis hissed.

"Oh so what, your precious leather duster got a cut in it. Whatever shall we do?" Sephiroth taunted him, trying to get him to lose his cool.

A warrior who doesn't keep their cool while they fight will make mistakes, and mistakes can cost a warrior their life. Genesis realized what Sephiroth was trying to do and pushed the fact that that his duster got cut out of his mind. His first priority was to defeat and kill Sephiroth, as it seemed it was the only way to win. Then to get past Sephiroth's three clones. Then get past Hojo.

Then get Ami and himself out of here. Turning his thoughts back to Sephiroth, he twisted away just before Masumune would have sliced into his throat. Dropping down, Genesis kicked Sephiroth in the stomach, then rolled backwards as Masumune stabbed down where he had just been crouching. Stumbling a little from the momentum he created he created when he rolled backwards, Genesis made it back to his feet and slashed at Sephiroth. A chunk of silver hair fluttered to the ground between them as Genesis pulled Rapier back.

Sephiroth reached up and fingered the shortened the chunk of hair then glared at Genesis.

"Low blow, Genesis, low blow." he growled at him.

"Aw, the Great Silver Demon of Wutai lost a piece of his precious, pretty silver hair! Oh no, the world is going to end!" Genesis mocked him, trying to use the same tactic Sephiroth had used on him.

It seemed to work as Sephiroth let out a yell and charged him. Dodging nimbly out of the way, Genesis smiled at the job he had done. It was Sephiroth himself that always said to keep a level head in battle. However, when it came to Sephiroth's hair, everything went out the door. Sephiroth was not a vain man by any means, but his hair meant a lot to him.

It was his only way to rebel against the control that Hojo had over him. Genesis dodged another sloppy lunge from Sephiroth. This time, Genesis stuck his foot out and tripped Sephiroth as he went by. Sephiroth's foot caught Genesis' and he went down face first into the floor, his hair fanning out around him. Genesis knew better than to laugh at him.

Sephiroth was well enough pissed as it was, he didn't need to do anything more. He prepared himself for Sephiroth's next attack. Genesis knew when Sephiroth became angry he also fought irrationally. Sephiroth levered himself off the floor and turned to face Genesis.

"You're going to regret that!" he growled raising Masumune again and charging him once more.

Sephiroth must have been beyond furious to have left the openings that Genesis noticed. He charged a powerful fireball, considering Sephiroth had a high tolerance to magic and fired it at his right hip. Masumune dipped down to block it and diffuse it and then Rapier lashed out and the right shoulder guard to Sephiroth's coat was missing and he had a deep gash in that shoulder, rendering that arm useless. Sephiroth jumped back away from the battle hissing and holding his shoulder.

"Nice hit, Rhapsodos. It's been a while since anyone has been able to wound me. Maybe you are a bit more of a challenge than I thought you were." he laughed.

Genesis gave a hollow laugh.

"I told you that I've been holding back. I didn't want to truly hurt you or Angeal, so I've been stopping myself." he said.

Sephiroth released his shoulder.

"Well then, no more holding back. Doesn't matter that I've been injured. Come at me full force. Even if it kills me, Rhapsodos. I want to see what you're made of. What you can really do." Sephiroth laughed loudly.

Genesis hung his head and whispered something.

"What was that, Rhapsodos?" Sephiroth asked.

"I said, if I do that then I'll end up killing you. But it seems I have no choice. If I want to get Ami out of here, I have to get rid of all of you..." Genesis clarified, "...Then so be it. I'll kill all of you. Even if it means Ami might not be happy with me for it. At least she'll be out of here and away from Hojo's clutches once more. She'll be free once more, like she deserves to be."

Genesis brought Rapier up in front of him so that the blade was flat in front of his face, the blue piece of Materia even with his eyes.

"I'm sorry Sephiroth..." he whispered.

Lowering the blade, he charged forward. Sephiroth readied himself for the coming assault, but just as Genesis reached him and Sephiroth brought Masumune down on his head, Genesis disappeared, leaving only his leather duster behind. Sephiroth looked around in confusion, trying to figure out where Genesis had gone. Turning around, Sephiroth was about to call out a taunt when Genesis appeared in front of him. Genesis grabbed the hilt of Masumune and yanked it out of Sephiroth's hands.

This put him off balance, pitching him forward. Genesis dropped Masumune and slashed with Rapier. Blood sprayed on the ground in front of him from Sephiroth's throat. Genesis sent Rapier away and caught Sephiroth as he fell. He gently turned Sephiroth over on his back and laid him on the ground.

Genesis watched the light leave Sephiroth's eyes, then the sea foam green swirls encase his body till nothing was left.

"Sorry Seph. It had to be done. You're my best friend, but I will do anything I have to to keep Ami safe. And if my friends turn against me and force me to fight them. Then I will cut them down to get to her." he whispered softly.

Genesis heard a scoff from the corner of the room. Genesis stood up and spun around, his eyes zeroing in on where the scoff had come from. It had been Kadaj.

"You think this is funny, you brat? Funny that I've been forced to kill the only friends I've had all my life. Sure, I said I had to do it, but that doesn't mean that I liked it. Those three men are all I've had since I joined SOLDIER. More like my family than the actual family I had back where I come from." he yelled.

Kadaj stood and scoffed again.

"Like I care. I never had any family except for my two older brothers. And even then, we're not that close. Who cares that you had to kill those guys. The point is that you're still alive.

That is the only point of battle. It doesn't matter who your opponent is so long as you defeat and kill them. That is all that matters in battle. Who cares if they're your friends or family. They are your enemy and need to be destroyed." the young man proclaimed, walking forward.

Hot anger coursed through Genesis' veins, but he forced it down. He couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

"I'm fighting you now, right? Then get your ass out here and lets fight. I'm tired of you already, and I don't want to hear any more of your mouth." Genesis snapped.

Kadaj gave a sharp laugh then reached behind him.

"Fine but remember, you asked for it."

Pulling out a double-bladed katana, he held it so the blade was facing backwards. Genesis studied how the boy held his weapon and figured out a plan to take him down. With how young he was, there was no way that he had properly mastered how to wield his blade in the way he was holding it. Kadaj shot forward and swung his katana swiftly. Genesis was not ready for the speed that the boy had.

Though he shouldn't have been surprised, seeing as how small the boy was. Genesis brought Rapier up to block the attack and was immediately assaulted with a second attack. Kadaj pushed away a little and kicked Genesis in the stomach, sending him flying back into the wall far across the other side of the room. Kadaj followed quickly with another strike and Genesis was barely able to bring Rapier up to block it. He then activated a piece of Materia and directed a gust of wind at Kadaj blowing him away from him and back across the room.

Kadaj landed on the ground a few meters away and cracked his head against it. It stunned him for the precious few seconds that Genesis needed to right himself and send a fireball in Kadaj' direction. As Genesis launched himself behind the fireball, the fireball was extinguished in front of him and Kadaj' katana was being slashed in front of his face.

Rapier came up and blocked the slash, but Genesis felt a small boot plant itself firmly in his sternum and kick upwards, knocking the air out of him. Genesis swung an arm down and wrapped it around the foot and twisted as he gasped for air. There was a sicking crack and Genesis let go of the boys foot. That was assuredly a broken ankle if not a leg. It was a step in the right direction to getting rid of the boy.

Genesis rolled to the side, trying to get air back into his lungs as he watched Kadaj clutch at his leg.

'It's a start.' Genesis thought to himself.

As Genesis was finally able to get air back into his lungs and stand up, Kadaj was able to stand up on his uninjured leg as well.

"That was a dirty trick, Rhapsodos." he hissed.

Genesis shrugged.

"Sephiroth always taught his SOLDIERs that nothing is a "dirty trick" when you are trying to survive. You best be ready for worse than that if you keep fighting me." Genesis sighed.

Kadaj growled loudly and threw his sword at Genesis. He easily dodged it and followed it as it lodged itself into the wall. Genesis stared at it for a moment then slowly looked back at Kadaj.

"Is this you surrendering to me or what?" he asked.

Kadaj just looked at the ground and closed his eyes, then looked back up at him with a glare that rivaled Sephiroth's.

"Never!" he yelled, launching himself forward on his one good leg.

Genesis swiftly moved out of the way. Kadaj' hands hit the wall to stop himself, then he pulled his katana out of the wall then turned to face Genesis.

"I never surrender!" he cried, launching himself forward again.

His blade clashed with Genesis' and even though Kadaj had a broken leg, there was still power behind his strike. Genesis shoved him back again and Kadaj stumbled back onto his broken leg. It collapsed under his weight, and Kadaj dropped his katana and held onto his knee. Seeing the only chance he knew he would get with this kid, he charged a powerful fireball and launched it at him. The flames engulfed him and Kadaj cried out.

Before Kadaj could do anything to defend himself, Genesis shot forward and lashed out with Rapier. Mint green eyes shot open wide as their owners head flew off its shoulders and landed on the ground. Kadaj' head rolled away as Genesis watched it. It was sad. Another young life lost before it was properly lived.

Didn't matter that the boy had been in Hojo's clutches. If he had been freed from Hojo, Kadaj probably could have learned so much, and may have had a different outlook on life. But now was not the time to be worried about that anymore. The silverette named Loz stood up in a rage, trying to stifle a couple of sobs as a few tears streaked down his face.

"H-how dare you kill my b-brother. We m-may not have been very close, b-but he was still my brother, you big meanie!" he yelled, pulling out his weapon, which looked to be a fancy arm shield of some sort.

Genesis took a step back from this show of emotion. All of the others hadn't cared one shit about what happened to the one before them. Where was this show of anger and concern for his so called "brother" coming from. However, Genesis couldn't concentrate on that. He had to get to Amaterasu.

There was only this teen, the gunner named Yazoo, and Hojo in his way. He was so close!

"It seems strange that you would care about your so called "brother", but it doesn't matter to me. You are all in my way of getting to Ami, that includes you Hojo." Genesis yelled, pointing Rapier at Hojo threateningly, "And I will slay you all to get to her if I have to."

Loz' stance wavered a little then strengthened once more.

"You won't kill me Rhapsodos!" he yelled, all signs of the previous tears gone.

Loz shot forward, leaving traces of blue light in his wake. Before Genesis knew it, Loz was in front of him. He let lose with a sharp, swift punch to the ground. The ground underneath his fist cracked and broke, sending huge pieces of it flying up into the air, along with Genesis. This surprised him for a moment but he quickly righted himself and began to lightly jump from rock to rock to rock, flitting back and forth almost like he was a butterfly, his foot never touching the rock for more than a second until he reached the ground.

Genesis had to admit, that move was impressive. However, right after Genesis had landed, Loz was right on top of him with another devastating punch to the ground, once again sending chunks of the ground flying up into the air. This time as Genesis tried to make his way back to the ground, Loz met him in mid air and tried to land a hit. Thanks to quick reflexes on Genesis' part, he missed. Landing on the ground again, Genesis turned and charged a fireball and searched for Loz but he was no where to be found.

Suddenly a falling piece of the floor in front of him shattered and Loz came flying at him through the debris and cloud of dust that was left. Genesis did the first thing that his body thought of: launch the fireball. Loz lifted his arm and the contraption on it flared to life and electricity appeared around it. The fireball hit it and fought with the electricity for a second then the fireball was redirected and smashed into the wall across on the other side of the room. Shock was clearly written all over Genesis' face.

Loz grinned, "Do you like Duel Hound's power. Your magic is useless against me Rhapsodos."

Genesis looked down at his bangle. Almost all of the Materia in his bangle were magic Materia. He only had a few pieces that weren't. Genesis then looked down at Rapier. His sword mostly relied on magic to do its heaviest amount of damage.

Genesis, shrugged, he would be at a huge disadvantage this way, but if he couldn't win with magic, he would use brute force. Genesis sent Rapier away and slammed a fist into an open palm.

"Well..." Genesis grimaced, "...if I can't use my magic, then I guess it's hand to hand combat. I'm not very good at this and considering your size, I'll be at a disadvantage, but I used to hand to hand spar with both Sephiroth and Angeal. I don't think fighting with you will be too different from fighting Angeal, but I know you won't give me the chance to recover if you get a good hit in. Though you must realize, the same goes for you. I'm not going to hold back on your ass.

You will go down."

Loz laughed as he cracked his knuckles then pulled off Duel Hound.

"Well Rhapsodos, I didn't think you had the balls to throw away your precious magic. After all, you depend on it so much. Oh well, if you say you've done hand to hand before, this should be interesting. But realize this, by the end of this fight, you'll be in a ShinRa body bag, headed back to your hometown for your parents to cry over your dead body. Or perhaps Hojo will take your body and make it useful, stranger things have happened in that lab of his." Loz sneered.

Genesis just shook his head and fell into his favorite hand to hand fighting stance.

"Let's just get this over with." he hissed.

"My pleasure." replied Loz, launching himself forward.

Loz made the first offensive move to hit Genesis' shoulder and Genesis brought up his hand and simply guided it away lashing in with his other hand and striking Loz squarely in the chest. The air was forced out of Loz' lungs and he stumbled back. Genesis didn't give him a chance to recover and shot forward to hit Loz in the shoulder. There was a loud pop and Loz cried out. He jumped back and away from Genesis holding his shoulder and glaring at him.

Tenderly feeling his shoulder, Loz pulled on his lower arm sharply, and there was another loud pop.

"Damn, one hit and you dislocated my shoulder. And you said you weren't good at this. I call bull shit, Rhapsodos." Loz huffed, still holding his arm and gently massaging it.

"I never said how good I was. It's just my opinion that I'm not very good. Others have told me I'm good. Now can we continue?" Genesis shrugged.

Launching himself forward, Genesis swung a kick at Loz' chest, but Loz caught his foot. Loz was about to twist his foot to break Genesis' leg, when Genesis swung his other leg up and scored a kick across the side of Loz' head. Managing to land from the kick, Genesis crouched down and swung his leg out again connecting with Loz' knee. There was a loud crack, and Genesis knew that leg was now useless.

If he could do the same thing to the other leg, Loz wouldn't be able to fight anymore. Loz lurched up on his one good leg and swung a fist at Genesis' face and Genesis leaned back to avoid it then grabbed his forearm and yanked him forward. Dodging around him so that Loz was in front of him, Genesis wrapped one arm around Loz' throat and used his other hand to grip Loz' chin.

"Never had to use this move on someone, and I don't like it, not my style. But to get rid of you, I'll use it." Genesis growled in Loz' ear.

Genesis pulled with his hands and Loz' head snapped to the side severing his spinal cord. Genesis opened his arms and allowed Loz' body to fall away from his own.

"Sorry man..." Genesis whispered, another life cut short in his eyes.

Genesis then turned and looked at what seemed to be the only threat left. He didn't see Hojo as a threat.

"You're the last one left. I suggest you give up and spare yourself from being killed." Genesis hissed at Yazoo.

Yazoo took a step back and closer to Amaterasu. Genesis knew that movement. That was wariness and a desire to keep what doesn't belong to you. Yazoo looked over to Hojo and Hojo became irate.

"You lose that girl you rat, and I'll kill you, not him!" he screeched.

Yazoo paled and looked back over at Amaterasu. Then confidence poured itself back into his body and he gave one last sneer at Amaterasu and lifted her face for one last kiss, before sauntering forward. Yazoo raised his gun and took aim at Genesis. He took three quick shots then flashed out of sight. There were three high pitched pings as the bullets were deflected off of Rapier, which had been re-summoned after the battle with Loz, and Genesis tracked Yazoo as he ran.

Yazoo was fast, however he was not as fast as Sephiroth so he was having an easy time tracking him. Yazoo fired off two more bullets before leaping in the air over Genesis and firing off four more. Genesis blocked all six and waited for Yazoo to land. Once he did, Genesis charged him and lashed out with Rapier. Yazoo ducked under Rapier, came up and kicked Genesis in the chest hard.

However just before the kick hit, Genesis threw up a shield which reduced some of the impact but he was still sent flying back. Flipping backwards, Genesis touching his hand to the ground to slow himself down, then regained his footing.

Two bullets came flying Genesis' way and he ducked under them, not bothering to block them with Rapier. Raising Rapier to eye level, Genesis ran his hand down it, activating the runes on it.

With the red runes glowing on it like molten fire, Genesis shot forward and before Yazoo could react, his gun was cut to pieces and rendered useless.

Yazoo leapt back, putting some distance between them.

"Damn it, Rhapsodos! You destroyed my Velvet Nightmare!" he yelled.

Genesis shrugged.

"So does that mean this fight is over? Probably not, but I can always hope." Genesis asked.

"Far from it!" Yazoo yelled, sinking into a fighting stance. '

Damn it, I don't have time for this. I have to get to Ami.' Genesis thought to himself.

He sighed then raised Rapier.

"Sorry 'bout this..." he whispered.

Disappearing seemingly into thin air, Genesis reappeared behind Yazoo with his sword to his throat, "...But you never should have touched Ami..." he hissed in Yazoo's ear dangerously, "...You never should have touched what is mine."

Pulling Rapier back sharply, the razor sharp edge of the sword slashed into Yazoo's throat and sliced it open. Blood sprayed out of the fatal wound as Yazoo fell to the ground, however Genesis felt no remorse for this kill. Yazoo had touched Amaterasu, and only he was allowed to do that. Genesis almost felt a sort of sick satisfaction as he watched the blood pour from Yazoo's throat.

'He deserved it...' he told himself.

Genesis then turned his attention to Hojo. As soon as Yazoo had been killed, Hojo had started to back away from Amaterasu, realizing there was no one to protect him from Genesis anymore. Dark hatred fueled Genesis on as he approached Hojo. He raised Rapier high above his head and an angry growl left his lips.

"This is for Ami, you bastard!" he hissed, before bringing Rapier down as hard as he could.

With the runes burning brightly on the blade, it cut through Hojo's body like a hot knife through butter. His body was split in half and blood sprayed all over, soaking Genesis' front and splattering all over his face. Though it should have disgusted him, Genesis made no move to wipe the blood away. Turning away from the fading body, Genesis walked to Amaterasu then sent Rapier away.

"Ami?" he asked softly, reaching out and gently touching an arm.

She made no reaction at his touch or voice. Genesis slowly and gently lifted her face so he could look at it, but as he did, sea foam green swirls began to surround her body. Realizing what was happening, tears began flowing down his face. He was too late...

"Goddess...please, please no...not this. Anything but this..." he begged, "Don't take her away...from me. Don't take away...what I love...so much. Please Goddess...please, don't take her. I beg of you...Don't take her from me..."

But the Goddess was not listening to him as the sea foam green continued to swirl around Amaterasu's body.

"Goddess please...no..." Genesis begged again in a whisper, kissing Amaterasu's lips softly.

Then the last swirls of sea foam took over Amaterasu's body and a few seconds later she was gone. Genesis fell to his knees crying, then threw his head back and screamed a soul-wrenching cry to the heavens.

"Minerva, how could you do this to me? How could you take away my heart, my soul, my life? Goddess, how could you take away the one thing that helps me live in this forsaken life of mine?!" he yelled to the skies above.

Then the room around him began to grow darker and darker. Genesis looked around frantically, putting his hands to the sides of his head and squeezing his eyes shut.

"No please...no darkness...I hate the darkness...please no..." he yelled curling in on himself.

[chaosworthyarchive]

                                                             8.26.3227                                                                                                                                Location ¦ Starlight

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

     How much time had passed, even Sonic didn't know. Turns out it really was easy to lose track of time, not only in the throes of fun but in a place that had no clock, or windows for that matter. He had no idea what time it was when last call was announced, nor when the music started to die down and people filed out of the building in droves. All he knew was that it was late and he, like the rest of his team it seemed, was exhausted. In good spirits, but drained. 

     Which made the next notable event of the night a tad troublesome. 

     Stepping out into the dark streets of the city, the first thing the hero noticed was the quiet. Being some of the last to leave, The Freedom Fighters were met with nearly empty streets, minus a few groups chatting along the sidewalk. Perhaps it was for the best. It made it easier to spot the small group who had been on their tails all evening as they walked along the deserted street, Sonic and Johnny exchanging a glance before ducking into an alleyway, goading the rest of the team along. It didn't take long for questions to come, but one look from the hedgehog seemed to be enough for the others to realize something was up. 

     And, sure enough, once they had gotten mostly down the dead-end alley, the hero turned to face the four almost silhouetted figures who had followed them inside. And they were...an odd bunch, to say the least. A female wolverine with long orange hair covering half of her face and donning a masquerade style mask, a grey bat with half their face obscured by another style of mask, a skink with a black full bodysuit and...well, Sonic couldn't place the last one but he didn't need to in order to know that the last member had them all beat when it came to height and sheer size. They were colossal. 

     Moreover none of them looked familiar, not in the slightest, and yet there was a heavy feeling in the hero's stomach. One he couldn't place but spoke of ill tidings as the two groups stood there for a few moments, staring at one another. By this point the rest of The Freedom Fighters seemed alert, cautious. Tense. 

     It was Sonic who broke the silence, eyes shifting between the four strangers, unsure whose idea he had to blame for this meeting but clearly unimpressed. “I don’t suppose you want t' do this the easy way, do you? It would save us all a lot of trouble.”

     It had been a test, an attempt to see what the foursome wanted and the hero did not like the way they all seemed to sneer in perfect unison. It was the female who replied, her boots clicking on the pavement as she stepped forward, ruby eyes boring into the hedgehog. There was confidence in her stance, a self-assuredness that was as telling as it was troublesome. 

     “Your wish is my command, handsome.” The last word was sickeningly sweet (and Sonic was pretty sure he heard the faintest growl from Mina at his side) and came with a narrowing of her one visible eye. Her entire demeanor spoke of trouble. “I’d say it’s an honor to meet you all, but I wasn’t raised to be a liar.”

     “Who are you?” Johnny was far less polite with the matter, and no one blamed him for it. 

     It was the bat who scoffed, wings twitching almost anxiously behind them. “We're the Fundamental Four, and unless you give us what we want we’re going to be the worst people you’ve ever met.”

     The Freedom Fighters exchanged looks, each as clueless as the next. None of them had heard of the foursome, much less what they wanted, and Amy was the next to respond in less than friendly tones. “At the risk of sounding cliche, what do you want?”

     The female, again, smiled, her tone deep and with purpose. “The Chaos Emeralds.”

     This time, Sonic was certain he heard his partner growl and it was a frightening sound indeed. “How...?”

     There was a shift in the air as it grew heavy with strain, one side agitated and the other giving off a boldness that seemed far too certain. Sonic could see his team bracing, ready for what had to be an inevitable confrontation. Johnny was already subtly reaching for his pocket, Amy had tensed with Tekno right beside her. Mina had shifted her stance ever so slightly and Porker...had actually taken a step back towards the rabbit. Along with everything else, the pig had never been a fighter either.

     The skink scoffing only made those actions stick out tenfold to the hero, and emerald eyes would meet beady black ones with a dangerous spark. “It doesn’t matter. Give them to us, or else.”

    “Fat chance. You don’t know who you’re messin’ with, do you?” Johnny’s words were punctuated by an all too familiar metal rod making a very public appearance, one click of a button bringing the rod to its full length and already sparks danced along its ends. The first die was cast, and the foursome looked pleased.

     “Oh, we have a pretty good idea,” the female seemed unimpressed, but eager. Her eyes were dead set on the blue hedgehog and him alone as her teammates stirred behind her with hostile intentions. “Too bad it won’t help you.”

     The next few seconds were nothing but chaos, in the most literal sense. Had things not turned so dire in the blink of an eye Sonic would have reprimanded the rabbit for forcing open that door, though he had to wonder if it even mattered. Nonetheless, it didn’t change that they were vastly unprepared for what they were met with. The female had rushed forward so fast that even the hedgehog was startled, which meant there was little to no time for Mina to react to the very solid ball of fire that had been launched in her direction thanks to the wolverine. 

     Fire teeming with an all too familiar energy, a tainted power.

     Whatmore, her teammates offered more of the same. Too preoccupied with not meeting a wall of flames head-on, Sonic wasn’t entirely sure what was happening beyond that. He saw smoke, stones and water all making a straightaway for his team out of the corner of his eye, all originating from the mysterious trio and all with lethal intent. The only relief came when he saw his partner, singed but otherwise looking unharmed, joining the fight. Which left him alone with the female and the fire surrounding the two of them like a menacing snake. 

     Ignoring the swelling nausea in his stomach, the hero turned his attention to his opponent for the time being, his eyes sharp and tone even colder. His team would be fine, he knew. She had gotten him alone for a reason, and he wanted answers. 

     “Who are you?”

     “We’re the new kids in town, so you better get used to us, Blue.”

     It was all she offered, moving again with a speed that betrayed her appearance. Unfortunately for her, the hero had already seen her trick and met her head-on. She was easy to read, he could tell her speed wasn’t natural that it came from her apparent ability to manipulate fire. It was sluggish, but still dangerous because of those flames that served as an offense and defense. It was a problem, took away the possibility of a real physical attack. Luckily, the hero had the wind on his side.

     It was obvious she hadn’t expected the burst of air that erupted between them, giving a much-needed distance to the hero. The shock was only temporary, her composure regained as her hands lit with bright red flames. Sonic didn’t know whether to count himself lucky that the next few fireballs aimed in his direction were smaller than the initial one, smaller even than the ones he was used to dodging from his brother, but they were rapid. Where he dodged one, he had to slice through another with razor-sharp wind or risk getting burned and then repeat the process, all in a matter of seconds. It would have been an easy task any other day but the excess of negative energy was making the hero dizzy, causing his body to shake, and he mentally cursed. 

     He was vaguely aware that things seemed better for his team on the other side of the walls of fire, but how much was something he wasn’t certain of. Nor did he have time to even think of breaching the wall to regroup. The fire-wielder was determined, not letting up for a moment before rushing him again, covered from head to toe in flames that never seemed to hurt her. A Mobian torch.

     It was a mistake. 

     There was a common rule in science that fire, when exposed to air, had a habit of expanding, growing uncontrollably, and that was what the hedgehog had been banking on. 

     Fire met wind with a timely explosion, though the hero had easily gotten a good portion of it all. Momentarily blinded by embers and smoke, eyes and lungs burning, he coughed as he wisped the grey fog away. It was just in time to see the female, clothes burned and expression outraged, mere inches from his face. It wasn’t enough to stop the oncoming, flame-covered kick, nor the white-hot pain that erupted in his side. In spite of himself, the hero cried out. 

     Be it the blinding pain or a sense of urgency, even as he fell to his knees, the hero raised glowing green eyes to the wolverine. The rage in them seemed to jar her, more so than the shift in the air. In one fell blast, a wave of energy and wind washed over the alleyway. It was violent, a galeforce, that sent the elemental foursome slamming into the nearest walls with audible cracks. Yet, it never touched The Freedom Fighters, all of whom had paused at the sudden show of intensity, only to turn towards the source a second later. 

     “Sonic!” Seeing their leader on the ground was enough to kick them into gear and they all rushed over. Again, there was relief felt on Sonic's part seeing that they all seemed okay, battered and a little bruised (and damp, oddly enough) but alright. The same couldn't be said for himself, or the Four. 

     Yet the bat on the opposite end of the alley had gotten to their feet, dazed but not as wounded as the rest of his team, unfortunately. One look at The Freedom Fighters, one look at the blue hedgehog nearly baring his teeth in pain, and they were quick to gather their teammates and pull out a golden ring. A warp ring, and one that was soon activated where the bat stood, where he gave the heroes one last, seething look. 

     “We'll be seeing you all again real soon.” And with that, the other prostrate three were unceremoniously dragged through the ring, and they were gone. Like a bad nightmare; and no one went after them. Had it not been for the state of the alley, fractured, burned and soaked, it almost would have been easy to believe it was just a dream. Almost, if not for the sound of discomfort that came from Sonic just a moment later. 

     Mina wasted no time kneeling at his side, her expression just as worried as his own as he looked her and the other’s over. “Are you okay?”

     It was a dumb question, everyone there could see as much, but the hero still held up a hand to signify that was the case. It wasn't fooling anyone, not between the blue one's heavy breathing and pained expression, not to mention the coughing that came every few seconds, but there was another pressing question. 

     “Who were those guys? And what the hell did they do to you?”

     A slightly better question by Johnny, and one Sonic would have loved to have the answer to. He had undoubtedly gotten hit, his side was in too much pain to suggest otherwise, but that was the problem. It was in too much pain. The hero had been burned before, had been shot, stabbed and a great number of other things, but this? It didn't feel...right, and he didn't know how else to explain it. And maybe that was why he felt the compulsion to move his hand and look at the damage. 

     He regretted it the moment he did.

     He had expected the charred fur and skin, expected the black and red dots that came with it. What he hadn't been prepared for was the sickly ashen color around it all, nor the unnatural black spider-like veins that clashed terribly against the parlor, creeping up his side a few more inches until they were obstructed by kempt blue fur and the remains of his shirt. It all hurt, burned, terribly so. It almost looked dead.

     Looking between his teammates, the hero could see the same confusion and wariness in their eyes as they looked from it back to him. With the question hanging in the air, he could only think of two words. 

      “Nothing good."