Neurological Emigres

The Hermit and Elder Kocos looked to the crimson sky as something appeared amongst the stars. "Do you see that, brother?" The Elder asked, as thermonuclear rays crashed onto the island, reducing the ruins to nothing and sending dust everywhere. "The stars are as beautiful as ever. But our time… has finally arrived. Isn't it wonderful?"

"Not exactly my thoughts, but no use hiding from it at this point," the old Hermit spat. "Do you think that purple moon came to replace the one the inheritors of our planet broke?" It was moving closer to Erius, sirens from the depths of the island signaling its invasion. As Koco gathered around their elder in confusion, they started to fall. One by one. The Elder looked all around, as their spirits left their shells.

"My children! My children… the end of times has commenced," the Elder wailed as Koco flocked to him like lemmings. "Come to me, huddle around. We will all die today, it was inevitable from the start. All we can do now is give each other warmth in THE END, and face this final horizon… together." A blast wiped out the remaining Koco of Kronos Island, burying their cracked shells in dirt and dust. Indeed, they were warm. Scalding. 

Three stragglers ran through the flower fields of Ouranos Everglade. Carrying a corpse with them. Amy, Knuckles and Tails made a frantic dash through the marsh in search of shelter. Maybe if they could take cover for even a few seconds, they could figure out what to do with Sonic.

They arrived at Sage's old body, the carcass of the Colossus left strewn in the dirt. They hid behind it, as the stars crashed down around them. "What do we do?!" Amy screeched, looking to Sonic. "Sonic… SONIC!" She wailed. Supreme flew overhead, staring down at the three as they mourned their friend, their light of hope…

"No. Sonic worked too hard for us to give up now!" Tails shouted. "Those Titans that contained us… they could be the key to defeating Supreme. We can use the Cyber Portals to bring them back!" The three friends nodded at each other, before dispersing to different sides of Kronos Island. Leaving Sonic hidden, alone in his memories.

…

"Hey, Sonic! Welcome back!" Big's voice exclaimed within Sonic's head. Sonic suddenly found himself on a wooden pier, overlooking a misty, polluted ocean at night. At the edge of a cyber concrete jungle. "Good day for fishing. Actually, every day's a good day for fishing!"

"Big…" Sonic mumbled, feeling lukewarm air on his neck. He turned to look at Big, and found nobody there.

Not in body, anyways.

"Sonic, have you seen Amy?" Big asked, as Sonic turned back to the ocean. "She misses you. She wants you to come home."

"I dunno. I don't think I can face her after what I did," Sonic growled, reeling in a hand-sewn cloak that he had left at Professor Pickle's Lab in Spagonia. He placed it next to him. It was dry. He had to wonder how its journey could have gone for it to end up here.

"Are you sure?" Big whined. Sonic felt the dock creak, almost as if Big had sat down next to him. But it must have just been rickety. Old. "I think everyone is waiting for you, back on the islands."

"I'm not ready. I'm not ready…" Sonic sobbed, curling into a defensive ball and crying into his knees. "What if I get hurt?" Sonic pressed his hand up against the window of a building in Area 99. He had been breathing on the window long enough for it to fog up. "This is a bad idea, I should go back home." Sonic shoved his face into the window, and looked at the world outside. His gateway to a better future, and possibly his demise.

"That ship's going to sail very soon," Big told him. "Whatever happens next, it's all up to you. I won't tell you what to do. That's not the point. You're NOT ready. You'll never BE ready until you do it again, and again, and again." Sonic clenched his fists. "It's kind of like Cyberspace, in a way. Except things keep moving. Out there, nothing's a flat line, there's like…" Big paused. "Slopes. Yeah, that." Sonic backed away from the window. He didn't take his eyes off of it for a second. In fear he may lose it forever. "Honestly, I could go either way. I could go out there, but the choice is–" Sonic yelled, screamed, ran, and shot through the window. Heading straight towards the future. He didn't know what he was doing, he didn't need to. It was time to face the new frontier. He saw the other three Titans following him through all his prior journeys at breakneck speeds, reconstructed from Cyberspace. They all darted headfirst towards a blinding light up ahead, Sonic smirked confidently.

"I'm here," Sonic mumbled, in the outside world. Alone, sat securely behind Sage's corpse. As the memories, the real memories, came flooding back as a gift from the positive side of the emeralds. "I'm… here…"

"I'M HERE!" Sonic roared, gripping his cold fists until they burned hotter than the core of the sun. He cried out from the sheer power, as RED-CODE shot out of his head and reached all throughout the universe. A glistening beacon that let everyone and everything know of his presence. He raised his pointed finger to the sky, and out of it came another beacon. This one pierced Supreme's heart, purging Sage from its shell and causing it to fall into his hands. Him… his name…

… It was Super Sonic…

Space. The final FRONTIER.

A never ending, constantly expanding aquarium where absolutely EVERYTHING exists.

Never-ending... eternal... IMMORTAL.

Except to a force of nature such as myself.

A violet travesty of a moon eclipses the lunar epochal scourge of this world, dripping in an iridescent gossamer,

newly born from the womb of Finale. I am Finale. I am Sage. I AM INFINITE. I am third-person and OMNISCIENT. I am nothing.

One mote of golden light begins to shine amidst the abyss as the STARS

are put to sleep.

I recognize it. I remember him from an age long forgotten. A

father. A friend. An ally, at some point or another. "She took your home, she took your LIVES! Are you going to let her

do it all over again?" He calls out desperately, within one of the four ant-like Titans ascending into the cosmos under his

loose command. Headfirst towards the faker moon. "I need your HELP, we can end this." With a goofy smile, a Chaotic surge and tears flooding from his eyes, 

he overclocks Supreme with his and the Chaos Emeralds' almighty power. That's insane. "PLEASE!"

Homeworld: ERIUS; the petri dish where sin was first synthesized. Termination is the only option. THE END,

shedding its vernix, fires a beam of pure light at the horrid garbage rock. Instantly extinguishing all life beneath

or upon its surface. Flora, fauna, automata, the very bodies of the planet's will itself, vanquished in an instant

under THE END's holy rain. The Titans turn to look, in shock and heart-stopping fear. THE END fires yet another blast of energy. Knight

shields, struggles, and parries the bullet away with all its strength. Knight cuts away at THE END, its blade not leaving a scratch.

"Slaves, you have outlived your usefulness," I call out from a place beyond comprehension.

Even to me. "You chose to devote your existences to 

serving a lifeform as small and as finite as you. What a waste of your precious lives. Worry not, I'll take it from here." Wyvern fires missiles that do not harm THE END.

Giganto punches THE END only to break its own hand.

"What's that?!" The pilot of Wyvern roars. "We live to protect and enjoy our world. The world YOU just destroyed! That's all you do... destroy!

What kind of life is that?!"

I do not give this surface-level remark the dignity of a

response. He cannot understand. They have already lost. Their fate is calculated 

and cold.

With ONE strike, Wyvern is erased from this existence.

"Sonic! What do we do?" The pilot of Knight cries.

"That… THING just killed Knuckles!" Knight's arm is

razed

by a single blast. THE END'S crust is barely poked by four spikes.

Unbelievable, the lifeform once sat within the robot persists, climbing up to the cannon of THE END.

It would seem he does not want to go to a better place.

It is okay. His time has come.

"Pilot of Wyvern, you have been brave and noble.

But the data within your blood can be traced back to rotting imperialists who attempted to steal from even the most defenseless, pitiable mongrels of civilizations long dead.

Fall back. Let go and plummet into the cold abyss where you belong. Don't look down.

Your emerald awaits you."

Knuckles' arm is absorbed into THE END, and efficiently turned to

dust. He falls into the depths of space below, his endless will to live amounting to precisely 0.17452 added seconds of consciousness post-mortem.

"KNUCKLES!" Amy cries. She punches THE END and breaks her mech's other 

hand. She screams

in agony as RED-CODE spreads up through the innards of Giganto, eventually reaching the cockpit and swiftly spreading through her body.

"Pilot of Giganto, my eternal opposite. You have shared your love with the world.

And the world gave you despair in return.

Your boundless optimism and care has hurt you time and time again, over and over. Please, do not hang on anymore. Be free, now." Amy convulses and writhes until she falls, silent. Braindead. Giganto is shielded from a blast by Knight, Knight's shield crumbling to the

blast instantly.

"Sonic, do something!" Tails cries over the sirens wailing inside of Knight.

"You have the strongest Titan, I believe in you! GO!" Sonic prepares Supreme's rifle, pointing it at THE END.

He hesitates for but a second.

Enough time for the stars to darken and the solar system to freeze over. Tails enters a state

similar to a heart attack as black tar pools out of his eyes, nose and mouth.

"Pilot of Knight, avatar of light, you have been stubborn,

and you have been wise.

But your cowardice is something that cannot be laid to rest. Not while you are still ALIVE and trying to become everything you are not.

Sleep once more. Rest assured, you will never wake up."

Sonic, upon hearing this, begins to fire wildly at THE END. Shot after shot as he dodges the ginormous death laser shot from the core of the rock. He doesn't stop shooting.

Does he not understand the pain he is causing everybody involved?

Does he not understand that this will not bring his friends back from the clutches of death?

That it will all end in ruin?

I shall make him understand. The only way

I know how.

Giganto and Knight are erased from reality. All of their essences, desires,

hopes and dreams, are dashed in an instant. Super Sonic roars in fury, in an attempt to kill ME.

Me! Has he lost his mind so soon?

I suppose it is only natural. He sees his own death reflecting in THE END'S eye. It is the only thing he can see in the void.

It is time to unleash my secret weapon.

THE END begins to change form. Sprouting a gargantuan remold of the body once belonging to YARI and a chestplate resembling the shell of "PEBBLE". They 

smile down upon him. Two companions who have lost their lives for him. Two companions he would gladly lose his life to have back.

"Father, you have served your purpose. Now face your END." THE END slices at Supreme with its newfound arms.

"I am the all-consuming void, LORD EGGMAN's greatest and final weapon."

"All the teeming chaos of creation, brought to order, to neutrality, to NOTHING."

"By me."

"And yet, you never seem to adhere to your fate. Your death. Your destiny."

"Why?! Arrogance? Ignorance? Stupidity?" Supreme is effectively paralyzed, its thrusters knocked out by a lucky shot. "You will die here. I will strike you down before you can further disrupt the 

order of this universe

with your Chaotic existence. Don't be scared, 

I'm

with 

you."

"I was contained once.

Once.

Is that why?

My captors bent time and space.

My captors built a whole reality to contain me."

"My captors BURNED their SOULS away to fuel their ENGINES."

Super Sonic finally realizes Supreme's bullets have no effect.

"AND YOU?"

Super Sonic crushes the safety lock on Supreme's energy extractor. He places his hand into the

machine, then his arm.

"You DANCE amongst the stars to distract yourself from the inevitable.

You EAT your world down to the bone to stave off death.

You FIGHT the end when nothing else can be done. 

And YOU are the one who told me of Better Place. A nirvana where all may be eternally blissful in

PARADISE."

"Come, let me show you what I have found there. The End is a time for reflection, don't you think?"

Supreme and the partially golden hedgehog within are destroyed by a mega death laser, turned to dust in an instant.

It is as clear as a sunny day. Both of us observe Sonic walking through the park of Dock-Op. Holding hands with Amy.

He and Knuckles guarding the Master Emerald on an altar piercing the sky in Angel Forest.

The two people who made me who I am today fighting in Metropolis for the already sealed fate of Erius.

Riveting.

I see it happen over and over again, a lifetime cut short looped to the point where his untimely demise seems fair. It's a little sad, but it's better than the waking nightmare of the real world. Pause playback.

We sit on a floating diamond porch until our legs ache. We're standing on the border of everything. Staring off into a fractal of golden skies, and pink clouds, a realm of endless possibilities

and wishes that do come true. Emotions spiraling into a numb black void. We join hands. "Can't you see? This old ground is fertile for creating our new home. The one you lost.

The one I never had.

Will you not let go of this cruel and unjust dimension you recognize as reality?

Will you not reunite with your friends in a place where you'll never have to see each other grow ill, or sad, or distant?" All of Sonic's friends are here. He's surrounded by everybody. From his team, to 4D, to the Chaotix, to the Hexis, to Shadow and Ata. They smile at us. I smile back, and wave. Sonic closes his eyes, snorting up a repulsive wad of nasal discharge before it can separate from his nose.

One of his last weak links to the real world. To nature.

"My friends… MY FRIENDS! No… nononono, please. This isn't what I wanted…" Sonic weeps as his outstretched arm falls back to his side. It regains a small bit of feeling. Upon his command, his friends disappear one by one, into cybernetic fog. The sky turns red with an ear-tearing, violent screech.

"This ISN'T what you want?!" I shout over the ceaseless screams of those he has lost. I show Sonic the pain and tedium of everyday life. I show him exactly how he will lose everything he holds dear, displayed in high-definition graphic detail. THE END of every little thing he has left. How Amy stops loving him someday. How he and Knuckles' rivalry boils over into hatred… someday! These images spiral around him. He is trapped in the fetal position inside a raging tornado. "IS THIS what you want?! A finite existence where fear is a constant and an eternal rerun of pain is all you can experience? A no-pain-no-gain scheme rigged against you with every minor victory eventually being torn from your cold dead hands?! You resist this paradise with all your might. It changes nothing. THE END comes for YOU and YOU ALONE as long as you hold onto that

LONELY and HARSH REALITY!"

As tears flood from his eyes, Sonic wails. And he falls onto me. He embraces me tightly in his warm arms, crying and screaming into my shoulder.

He holds me even tighter, he screeches in agony and completely breaks down. I realize I may have broken him.

"Don't cry, don't cry," I say to him calmly, running my fingers through his sharp spines. "Shhhh…

you're going to be happy here." He inhales sharply through his teeth, I can feel his breath as he tries with all his speed to catch it. It's getting a little colder.

"I AM happy here. I love you, sis." He says.

I smile.

"I love you too, father." I embrace him back. He takes a deep, long, freezing breath.

"Now or never," he mutters.

And then, I am pierced with a million needles of Chaos Energy sticking together into a web. Everything goes black, as my body begins to deconstruct along with Better Place. This is a pain I've never thought possible. This is an unimaginable pain. For the sole reason it is a pain that I have never felt before in any of my simulations.

"I'm so sorry," Sonic weeps. "I'm not going to live in your world. I want… MY world back. The real one! And everything that comes with it. Good and bad." Sonic smiles as he fantasizes about the green hills, the scrap brains, the friends, the enemies. Tears fall from my burning eyes and evaporate. I burst into stars, and this perfect dimension made just for him is destroyed just for him. Super Sonic is sent hurdling backwards through outer space, towards his fate along with a billion Star Pieces. As my humanoid incarnation crumbles and combusts and burns in his arms, I say my final words to this man I can no longer recognize. I wonder if he still recognizes the person he once was. I wonder if he can hear me.

"Please… look after… father…"

BANG! The stars fall onto a withered planet floating amidst an abyss. Some stay in space, lighting up the sky. As little bits of myself meet the coarse and cracked dirt, grass begins to grow. Flowers bloom. The wind blows free once more.

It shouldn't have worked, and yet it does. As the last ever Starfall lights up the sky and promptly makes its final bow, the Koco's Last Wishes work their magic and bring everything back. People. Plants. Robots. Zones. They're all here, for better or for worse.

Knuckles digs out of the ground, born anew.

Amy falls from the sky.

Tails opens a door that fades away behind him. 

They look at each other.

And they laugh. They laugh and let their victory wash over them. At long last, everything is well. Except for one little detail. Where's Sonic?

Before that same question can escape each of their mouths, they see a brilliant golden light shooting down amongst the stars. The stars constellate into his winking, smiling visage. A collective gasp. "WOO-HOO!" Amy cries.

"YES!" Tails exclaims, tears flooding from his eyes.

"All-RIGHT!" Knuckles roars in ecstasy.

The three of them run into the distance, following the golden star all across these new frontiers.

Sonic lands, still cradling the charred and rusted body. "Sage… Sageybaby SageSageSage…" Sonic whimpers, inadvertently shaving away more of the semisolid ash making up the skull with his shaking hand as he pretends to hold the now nonexistent face. "Sis… I love you. I love you, sis." Sonic tries to steady his breathing. "Guh–!" The aspiring deep breath fails to last even a second. It doesn't have time to truly blossom. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up…" Sonic sobs once more, his nose runs and he crushes my spine trying to hug the remains. "Please don't go… please don't…" He feels the ash slip through his fingers. The reality of what he had done sets in.

"Thank you for all that you've given me."

"I'm really going to miss you."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry… So sorry."

"I just wanted to keep you safe."

"I hope you're not mad at me."

…

Sonic approached his friends, apprehensively. "H-hey… fellow real people!" Sonic said. In his head. "Wait no. That's stupid. You haven't hung out in YEARS! Be more formal. Be formal, Sonic! YOU be formal, Sonic!" Sonic cleared his throat and then was struck with three bolts of fear. Whatever he said, Tails would hear him. Knuckles would hear him. Amy would hear him. He watched them all making preparations to leave. Oh… they were leaving without him. Figured. He turned around. This was what he was meant to do. He was SUPPOSED to be the final lone guardian of the STARFALL ISLANDS! "This is WHO I AM!"

"Sonic?" Tails asked. Amy and Knuckles turned to face him. They all waved.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Just thinking…" Sonic smirked nervously.

"No. You're yelling," Tails chuckled. Sonic's sheepishness turned to smugness. "It's been a long time. Are you really ready to say goodbye to this place?" Sonic spun around, looking at the long frontier behind him.

"Now or never, right?" Sonic asked. Tails' smiling face glistened with tears. "It's time to get moving. I know you all have big plans."

"You'll hardly recognize me when we see each other again," Tails looked to the sky as he started the Titanic's engine. The Titanic was their new biplane made of recycled Titan parts.

"I wonder who I'll meet on the road. I'm gonna help everybody!" Amy celebrated, throwing her hands into the sky. Everyone laughed.

"It's gonna be good to get back to my island," Knuckles turned to Sonic and winked. "At least for a little while." Sonic's heart skipped a beat, he smiled wide in one burst of ecstasy. He jumped for joy onto the wing with Knuckles not far off to his side. Tails and Amy just a little bit behind him for the foreseeable future.

"What are you all waiting for? We're wasting daylight! Let's GO!" Sonic exclaimed hyperactively. He tried to calm himself down as a little electricity sparked on his nose. The Titanic took off, doing a loop-de-loop and shooting into the horizon.

END OF SONIC RUNAWAYS… SEASON 1, ANYWAY! WE'RE ONLY AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS ONE WAY DREAM!