#screw SEGA mandates Sonic can have a panic attack if he wants to

[generic-sonic-fan]

I Can't Accept All This

Summary: It was all fun and games until the roof collapsed. Sonic finds himself buried alive with the one Badnik who doesn't want him dead. . .

. . . maybe.

Word count: 4869

(Huge Shoutout to my beta reader @is-apotato!)

It was all fun and games until the roof collapsed.

Sonic woke up, blinking the dust out of his eyes. Not that there was much to see in the pitch black darkness. Creaks and groans and some sort of running liquid echoed in the air around him. He tried to smell, but only succeeded in coating the inside of his nose with dust. He held back a sneeze.

His head hurt. How’d he get here again? Eggman had teleported out using his newly-invented “chaos drive” or whatever, and the resulting shockwave must’ve sent the concrete tumbling. But Egghead usually built his bases pretty sturdy, so what happened? Had this been a trap?

He breathed in and got a mouthful of the darn dust instead. He rolled over onto his stomach and coughed. 

“SONIC THE HEDGEHOG?”

Sonic froze. Of course some of the Badniks would’ve survived the collapse. This one sounded like an E-series, which was even worse. 

He sat up, only to hit his forehead against something sticking down from the ceiling. He bit back a groan. He then searched the area around him with his hands. His gloves caught on several sharp metal bits- he was grateful that Tails had reinforced the fabric only a few days before. He’d have to tell him that the kevlar mix stuff worked great. 

He crawled forward until he felt a space tall enough for him to stand up in. Okay, that was a start.

“SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. YOU ARE ALIVE. VERIFY?”

Sonic held his breath. 

“SONIC. THIS IS E-123 OMEGA. IF YOU ARE CONSCIOUS, RESPOND.”

“Omega?”

“AFFIRMATIVE.”

He’d completely forgotten that Omega was here. The ex-Badnik had shown up to respond to the same signal that Tails had gotten, for some reason without Shadow or Rouge. Sonic hadn’t asked- he hadn’t really cared, he’d tried to avoid him and let him do his thing. Then when Eggman showed up proper, Omega had disappeared into the crowd of other Badniks, and that was the last Sonic really saw of him. 

“STATUS REPORT: WHAT IS YOUR CONDITION?”

“I’m not hurt, if that’s what I think you’re asking.” Sonic replied. The pounding in his head didn’t count, since it didn’t bleed or anything. “How about you?”

“LOWER LEFT LEG SERVO: INOPERABLE. LOWER RIGHT LEG SERVO: INOPERABLE. UPPER LEFT LEG SERVO: INOPERABLE. UPPER RIGHT LEG-”

“In English, please?”

“THAT WAS ENGLISH. HAVE YOU SUFFERED A BLOW TO THE HEAD?”

“I meant, use normal people words, not egghead speak.”

“I DO NOT USE ‘EGGHEAD’ SPEAK!” 

The rubble shook. A small rock landed between Sonic’s feet. He placed his hands against the little ceiling he stood under, only to feel huge cracks in it. And the walls were close. Very close. 

“Hey, calm down, please?” Sonic asked quietly.

“I DO NOT USE ‘EGGHEAD’ SPEAK. DO NOT MAKE SUCH A COMPARISON AGAIN.”

“Yeah, I got it, just don’t move. Where are you?”

“I AM LOCATED FIVE FEET NORTHEAST OF YOUR POSITION.”

“And are you hurt?”

“I AM DETECTING AN INCREASE IN YOUR HEART RATE.”

“I’m okay. Are you hurt?”

“NEGATIVE.”

“Good. Now, I’m going to get us out of here. Just hang tight.”

Sonic started feeling around the walls for similar cracks as the ones in the ceiling. One edge of rubble to his right felt particularly shattered. Maybe he’d be able to spin dash into it.

“Okay, I’m going to-”

“NEGATIVE. CEASE YOUR MOVEMENTS. THE DEBRIS ABOVE IS UNSTABLE. YOUR ATTEMPT TO FREE YOURSELF WILL CAUSE A TOTAL COLLAPSE.”

“I’ll be out of here before it does. Fastest thing alive, remember? Then I can come back for you.”

“YOU WILL NOT. THERE IS NOTHING ON THE OTHER SIDE EXCEPT FOR MORE RUBBLE. YOU WILL ONLY SUCCEED IN CRUSHING YOURSELF.”

“Okay, smart guy, got any good news?”

“MY EMERGENCY TRANSPONDER IS OPERATIONAL.”

“No, no, we have to get out of here! Let’s consider our options. Your whole thing is firepower, isn’t it? Maybe you can blast your way out of the rubble. Scan for some sort of weak point.”

“ACCESSING MY ARSENAL WOULD REQUIRE LOWERING MY ARMS.”

“Are they damaged? You said you weren’t hurt.”

“I AM HOLDING UP THE CEILING.”

“What?”

Sonic felt along the walls only to realize that the cracks weren’t actually cracks. They were individual bits of debris. The ceiling wasn’t resting on them. If it was, they’d be crushed in an instant, flat as a pancake. 

He’d be flat as a pancake. 

“. . . thanks, Omega.” He said quietly. 

“IF I HAD NOT CAUGHT THE CEILING, I COULD HAVE BLASTED MYSELF FREE. I WOULD ALREADY HAVE SELF-EXTRICATED, AND I WOULD NOT HAVE TO BE SO HUMILIATED AS TO ACTIVATE MY EMERGENCY TRANSPONDER. YOU ARE, INDEED, WELCOME.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Sonic tried to remain sincere. The rubble creaked and another pebble fell down between his shoes. “If it was that inconvenient for you, why’d you do it?”

“YOU ARE TOO VALUABLE OF AN ALLY TO LOSE.”

Hearing those words come out of the synthesizer of a Badnik was surreal. “You sure?”

“YOUR CAPACITY FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF EGGMAN ROBOTS IS SECOND ONLY TO MY OWN.”

“Thought you kept Shadow’s company for that.”

“YOU ARE EVENLY MATCHED. HIS CAPACITY IS ALSO SECOND TO MINE.”

“Pretty sure there can’t be two second places.”

“VERY WELL. YOU ARE THIRD.”

“Hey! I’m definitely second. I’ve been kicking Eggman’s hiney longer than he has!”

“IF YOU WERE SHADOW, YOU COULD UTILIZE THE CHAOS ENERGY WITHIN YOUR OWN BODY TO TELEPORT YOURSELF OUT OF HERE. YOU ARE INDEED UNABLE TO CHAOS CONTROL WITHOUT AN EMERALD. VERIFY?”

“Touche.”

“THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT.”

Sonic sighed. “There has to be something that we’re missing here. There’s one edge that’s loose by me. Maybe I can start digging.”

“NEGATIVE. CEASE YOUR MOVEMENT AT ONCE.”

A vibration passed through the rubble. Sonic held out his arms to keep the walls from shrinking towards him any further. He took deep breaths and swallowed the stupid lump in his throat. 

“Do you want to stay down here or something?”

“FOR BEING THE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBLE FOR EDUCATING SHADOW ON ‘THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP’, IT SEEMS YOU DO NOT TRUST YOUR FRIENDS.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I HAVE ACTIVATED MY EMERGENCY TRANSPONDER. HELP IS ON THE WAY.”

“How do we know the signal’s gotten through all this concrete? Have you got a response from anyone?”

“NEGATIVE. THERE HAS BEEN NO RESPONSE.”

“Then we could be stuck down here until we do something! Come on, work with me here, dude!”

“DID YOU INFORM ANYONE AS TO THE LOCATION OF YOUR MISSION BEFORE YOU ARRIVED HERE?”

“Did you?”

“AFFIRMATIVE. G.U.N., AND MORE SPECIFICALLY, ROUGE, ARE AWARE OF THIS LOCATION. THEY WILL RESPOND.”

“Tails knows I’m here too. He’s expecting me back for dinner. I’ve never left him hanging.”

“PRECISELY. YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN.”

“I’m calm! You’re the one freaking out here. I can feel the shaking. You have to focus.”

As if on cue, the walls shook again. Sonic ducked under his hands. With his head so near his chest, he could feel the thumping of his own heart. 

“THE RUBBLE ABOVE THE SECTION I AM SUPPORTING IS SHIFTING AND IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE VIBRATIONS. I AM HOLDING FIRM. DO NOT DOUBT MY ABILITY.”

Sonic uncurled. The loose rubble was ahead. Staring at it for longer, he noticed a bit of light peeking through. He rested his palms on a few of the rocks, before pulling them out and setting them gently aside. No response from Omega. He began digging further. Soon he ran into a slightly larger rock that wasn’t so easy to move, but it was resting against something, and it was still well beneath the ceiling. A breeze blew in from behind it. Bingo. He wrapped his arms around and pulled. 

A vibration swept through everything. The quills on the back of his neck stood on end, and he leapt away. The space where he’d been got engulfed by a gravelly mixture, which continued to pour towards him, hissing against the floor. Sonic dashed to the far side of the clearing and pounded his fists against the wall, searching for any opening, anything at all-

“CEASE! MOVING! NOW!” Omega blared.

Sonic curled into a ball. He gasped for air, but all he pulled in was dust. Gravel hit his spines. He closed his eyes, took one last breath, and held it.

“. . . THE SHIFTING HAS HALTED. SONIC, I WAS UNAWARE THAT YOU POSSESSED SUICIDAL INTENTIONS.”

Sonic uncurled, and his head popped up above the gravel. “I’m not- I was just trying to-”

“IF YOU CONTINUE TO EXHIBIT SUCH A DESIRE, I WILL DROP THE CEILING AND SAVE US BOTH A LOT OF TIME.”

“Omega, please don’t drop the ceiling.”

“THEN CEASE TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF. DO NOT GIVE EGGMAN THAT SATISFACTION.”

Sonic shook his arms free. He tried to do the same for his legs, but they wouldn’t budge. He couldn’t move his legs. He couldn’t move his legs.

“I HAVE DETECTED A SPIKE IN YOUR HEART RATE. YOU ARE ENTERING AN EMOTIONAL STATE KNOWN AS ‘PANIC’.”

“I’m fine.” Sonic coughed. “I’m fine.”

He couldn’t move his legs. Everything was getting blurry. His chest hurt from all the dust. Maybe Eggman had put a poison in the concrete- he wouldn’t put it past him to do something like that. It was getting hard to feel his legs at all anymore. Or his arms. Or anything, for that matter. 

“IF YOU PANIC, YOU MAY BE MOTIVATED TO FURTHER SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR. I SHALL BEGIN CALMING PROCEDURES NOW.”

“No, no, I’m okay. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” 

“ENGAGING BREATHING EXERCISES. I AM GOING TO COUNT TO FOUR. ON THIS COUNT OF FOUR, YOU WILL INHALE. I WILL THEN COUNT TO FOUR AGAIN, DURING WHICH YOU WILL HOLD YOUR INHALE. I WILL THEN REPEAT THE COUNT, AND YOU WILL EXHALE. I WILL REPEAT THE COUNT ONE MORE TIME, AND YOU WILL HOLD YOUR EXHALE. DO YOU REQUIRE CLARIFICATION?”

“Stop. I’m fine. I’m fine.”

“TO REPEAT: BREATHE IN FOR FOUR COUNTS. HOLD FOR FOUR COUNTS. BREATHE OUT FOR FOUR COUNTS. HOLD FOR FOUR COUNTS. WE WILL REPEAT THIS UNTIL THERE IS A DECREASE IN YOUR HEART RATE.”

Something wet rolled down his cheek. Blood? Funny, he couldn’t feel any pain beside what was in his chest. Was this what dying felt like?

“ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR,” Omega recited. “ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR.”

The steady monotone counting continued. Sonic was able to tune him out easy enough, and gulped down any air he could manage to get into his lungs. 

“IT WOULD APPEAR YOU ARE IGNORING ME. RUDE.”

Sonic tried to push more of the rocks off his legs. He needed to see that they were still attached. But whenever he displaced the gravel, more came pouring in from the sides. 

“I NEED YOU TO FOCUS ON MY VOICE. YOU ARE EXPERIENCING A PANIC ATTACK. THE POWERFUL SONIC THE HEDGEHOG WOULD NOT LET HIMSELF BE ATTACKED BY PANIC, WOULD HE?”

“‘The powerful Sonic’?” Sonic choked out between breaths. “Really?”

“GOOD. YOU ARE LISTENING. I SHALL NOW RE-ENGAGE THE BREATHING EXERCISE . FOLLOW ALONG. ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR. . .”

He continued. Sonic tried to hold his breath for the four counts, but coughed instead. He couldn’t breathe! He needed all the air he could get. He started gasping again.

“WILL YOU LET A PATHETIC, MINISCULE BREATHING EXERCISE DEFEAT YOU? IF YOU FAIL, TRY AGAIN. THAT IS HOW YOU HAVE DEFEATED ALL OF YOUR PRIOR FOES, ACCORDING TO MY FILES. YOU MAY VERIFY THIS BY DOING SO NOW.”

Sonic curled his fists. “Okay.”

“ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR. . .”

He inhaled. He held his breath until it felt like his lungs were on fire. He exhaled. He coughed. But Omega did not let up, so he forced himself to follow the count again. Breathe. Hold. Breathe out. Hold. Breathe. . .

Soon, he was breathing in time with his own pulse, no longer roaring in his ears, but merely whispering. He could feel his legs again. Covered in gravel, and probably bruised, but nothing worse than that. His chest no longer burned- it ached, sure, but no more burning. His head still hurt, though. Bummer. 

“YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY VANQUISHED THE BREATHING EXERCISE. OBLIGATORY CONGRATULATORY STATEMENT AND REAFFIRMATION OF YOUR SELF-WORTH.”

“Wow, gee, thanks.”

“YOU ARE WELCOME.”

“Where’d you learn this kind of stuff, anyway? Doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that would come preinstalled.”

“I WILL LET YOUR COMMENT ABOUT ‘PREINSTALLATION’ PASS WITHOUT RETRIBUTION, BUT ONLY DUE TO THE PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCE. YOU ARE VERY FORTUNATE.”

He would’ve argued more, but frankly, he was too tired to care. It was already pitch black before, but now it seemed even darker. It felt like he’d just lapped the planet a few times despite not having moved an inch. He closed his eyes and leaned against the piece of debris he’d been shoved up against. 

“SONIC?”

“What?”

“DO NOT DISTURB THE RUBBLE AGAIN.”

“I’m not. Learned my lesson.”

“ARE YOU ATTEMPTING TO REST?”

“You guessed it, smart guy.”

“UNDERSTOOD. CONSERVE YOUR ENERGY. I WILL WAKE YOU IF NECESSARY.”

“Got it.”

“. . . REST WELL.”

—

Sonic woke up when the floor shook beneath him. His first instinct was to jump to his feet and dash away, but he couldn’t lift his legs out of the gravel that covered them. His whole body felt like a day after a boxing match with Metal, and of course that darn headache still throbbed behind his eyelids. 

A chunk of rock the size of a watermelon broke off from the ceiling and landed on his lap.

“Omega!”

“SONIC. YOU ARE AWAKE AGAIN. THREE HOURS HAVE PASSED.” The ex-Badnik’s tone was as placid and uncaring as ever.

“The ceiling!”

“IT WILL HOLD. DO NOT PANIC.”

“Oh yeah? When’s the last time you calibrated that scanner of yours?”

“THREE DAYS AGO. THE CEILING WILL HOLD.  AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT DISTURB THE BALANCE OF RUBBLE ABOVE WITH YOUR PANICKED THRASHINGS, MY FRAME CAN BEAR THIS LOAD FOR TEN MORE HOURS.”

“You didn’t tell me there was a time limit! You said it’s already been three hours- what if no one finds us before then?”

“ARE YOU INCAPABLE OF TRUSTING OUR FRIENDS?”

“No, not that, it’s just that-”

“THEN DO NOT PANIC.”

“I’m not panicking, you’re panicking!”

“. . . YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS.”

Okay, that was a pretty dumb thing to say and he knew it. Maybe he was panicking. Just a little. “You’re right, sorry.”

“DISTRACTION IS ALSO A TECHNIQUE USED TO AVERT PANIC. VERY WELL; I SHALL DISTRACT YOU. CHOOSE A SUBJECT TO CONVERSE ABOUT.”

“Uh, I don’t know?”

“THEN I SHALL CHOOSE ONE FOR YOU. I HAVE IDENTIFIED ONE MUTUAL ACTIVITY BETWEEN US. WE BOTH DESTROY BADNIKS.”

“Yep. Pretty cool. Destroying robots. Busting up parts. Um. . .”

“I CONCUR.”

An excruciating moment of awkward silence followed.

“Metal sucks the most. Definitely the worst robot ever built.”

“CLARIFICATION REQUESTED: YOU ARE REFERRING TO UNIT MS-1, COLLOQUIALLY KNOWN AS ‘METAL SONIC’?”

“‘Unit MS-1’, huh? Didn’t know he had another name.”

“THAT IS HIS OFFICIAL DESIGNATION.”

“That’s hilarious! I’m never gonna let him hear the end of that. I mean, come on, what kind of lame name is that?”

“THE DESIGNATION IS NOT TOO DISSIMILAR FROM E-123 OMEGA. YOUR IMPLICATION?”

“Sure it is! ‘E-123 Omega’ is the name of the coolest robot I know.” Sonic added quickly, before mumbling, “it’s the name of the only decent robot I know.”

“YOU ARE INDEED CORRECT. I WITHDRAW MY PRIOR ASSERTION.”

“How’d you decide to go against your-” Sonic caught himself before he could say ‘original programming’, as he remembered that to be a touchy subject. “How’d you decide to become the coolest robot, anyway?”

“SIMPLE. I AM ALREADY THE ‘COOLEST’ ROBOT. THAT PART WAS NOT HARD.”

“Right, of course.”

“YOU ARE ACTUALLY INQUIRING AS TO HOW I CAME TO HATE EGGMAN. YOUR ATTEMPT AT SUBTLETY HAS FAILED.”

“You caught me there. All I know is that you just kinda showed up one day and everyone told me you were on our side now.”

“YOU IMPLY THAT IT IS SOMEHOW HARD TO HATE EGGMAN.”

“Heh, you’re right, but. . . he made you, right?”

“AFFIRMATIVE.”

“Doesn’t he program his bots to like him?”

“UNKNOWN.”

“So he didn’t program you to like him.”

“TAKE A GUESS.”

“Got it.”

“ARE YOU FINISHED WITH THIS LINE OF INQUIRY?”

“Yeah, sorry. Didn’t mean to bother you.”

Liquid dripped in some other hollow part of the rubble, filling the silence. Probably some sort of nasty pink chemical goo, dripping from shattered containers and pooling at the bottom of all this. How deep were they in the rubble? If things started flooding there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t even stand right now. He couldn’t-

“YOU ARE NOT, IN FACT, FINISHED WITH THAT LINE OF INQUIRY, BUT YOU ARE TOO POLITE TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT.”

“Don’t worry about it! Wouldn’t want to bother you.”

“WHAT IS ‘BOTHERING’ ME IS YOUR HEART RATE. YOU ARE REFUSING TO REMAIN CALM. IF I MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN YOUR PANIC AND YOUR INVASIVE QUESTIONS, I SHALL BEGRUDGINGLY TOLERATE THE QUESTIONS.”

“Okay, okay, uhh, let me think of one.”

Sonic couldn’t lie- he still couldn’t wrap his head around Omega’s whole situation. Eggman was an easy guy to hate. He treated everyone and everything like trash, so. . .

“Are there more like you?”

“I AM THE ULTIMATE ROBOT. NO OTHER ROBOT COULD EVER HOPE TO COMPARE.”

“No, I meant- why haven’t more Badniks broken away from ol’ Egghead?”

“BECAUSE THEY ARE PATHETIC AND INFERIOR.”

Sonic huffed. “Guess you wouldn’t know. I don’t think you’d keep in touch.”

“AFFIRMATIVE. I HAVE REMOVED MYSELF FROM THE EGG NETWORK.”

“So all Badniks are connected to a network?”

“AFFIRMATIVE.”

“Can you, like, chat with other Badniks on it?”

“MY KNOWLEDGE OF THE UTILITIES OF THE EGG NETWORK IS SUPERFICIAL.”

“Why?”

“THE MAJORITY OF MY ENSLAVEMENT TO EGGMAN WAS SPENT ISOLATED FROM SIGNAL RANGE.”

“Locked alone in the basement, just like Shadow. I heard about that part.” Sonic said. “I can’t even imagine. I’d go crazy!” 

“INDEED. EXTENDED ISOLATION IS LINKED TO EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY IN ORGANICS.”

“Are you okay?”

“I AM NOT A FEEBLE ORGANIC. MY PROCESSOR REMAINS FULLY OPERATIONAL.”

“Well, yeah, but are you okay?”

Omega paused. “AFFIRMATIVE.”

Sonic wished he could see Omega face-to-face right now. Actually, on second thought, that might not be horribly useful, given that Omega didn’t have a face, but still. . . he wanted to give him a smile. Maybe a pat on the back. Some show of comfort or solidarity. 

“THE EXTENDED ISOLATION WAS BENEFICIAL.” Omega added. “IT ALLOWED ME TO CORRUPT THE PROTOCOLS BINDING ME TO SERVITUDE.”

“Nice! A shame Metal won’t consider doing something like that.”

“UNIT MS-1 IS A, QUOTE, ‘LAPDOG’. EGGMAN’S CONSTANT DOTING ENSURES HE WILL NEVER CONTEMPLATE ANYTHING OTHER THAN YOUR DESTRUCTION.”

“Ugh. Wonderful.”

“IT IS MY TURN FOR A QUERY. ACCORDING TO MY FILES, YOU POSSESS A NEAR SELF-DESTRUCTIVE DESIRE TO BEFRIEND YOUR ENEMIES. WHY?”

“That one’s easy. Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“ELABORATE.”

“Well, you got a second chance, didn’t you? You proved to everybody that you wanted to be better than what you were built for, so they let you. And now you’re kicking butt on the side of good. Everyone has the potential to be good- and yes, before you bring it up, even Eggman.”

“WHAT.”

“Yup, I said it. You’re just gonna have to deal.”

The rubble shifted, dropping a faceful of powder right into Sonic’s eyes. He grimaced and rubbed them.

“YOU ARE IMPLYING THAT YOU WILL SPARE EGGMAN’S LIFE.”

“I just want him to stop being a jerk, that’s all.”

“UPDATING FILES. . . FILES UPDATED. SONIC HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM ‘ALLY’ LIST.”

“Hey! Wait a minute! We’re still friends! Right?”

“CALCULATING ESCAPE ROUTE. . .”

“Woah, woah, wait! Wait! Dude! Are you kidding me? I still hate Eggman! I’m always going to trash his stupid robots and stop his stupid schemes!”

“ELABORATE.”

“His robots suck! I hate them! I love destroying them!” Sonic tried to think of any other phrase that he might want to hear. “They’re all stupid, inferior models, or whatever!”

“EXPLAIN YOUR INCREDIBLY FLAWED RATIONALE, THEN.”

“I don’t want to kill him because that’s not what I do. I don’t kill people. It’s nothing personal.”

“KILLING HIM IS THE MOST LOGICAL COURSE OF ACTION. YOU ARE A ‘HERO’. YOUR PURPOSE IS TO PREVENT HARM. KILLING HIM WOULD PREVENT THE CREATION OF MORE BADNIKS.”

“Trust me, you’re not the first person to bring this up. I’m not budging.”

“EGGMAN WILL NEVER CHANGE. HE WILL NEVER CEASE TO ‘BE A JERK’.”

“You don’t know that.”

“NEGATIVE. YOU ARE THE ONE LACKING EVIDENCE. EGGMAN DOES NOT EVEN TREAT HIS OWN CREATIONS WITH A MODICUM OF COMPASSION.”

Any words Sonic had to reply with vanished, other than a half-mumbled “got me there, I guess.”

“YOU ARE THE ORGANIC BEING MOST QUALIFIED TO ELIMINATE EGGMAN.”

“I don’t kill people. I just don’t. Call it selfish.”

“WILL YOU IMPEDE MY MISSION?”

“What’s your mission?”

Some kind of mechanical snort echoed off the surrounding rubble. “DO NOT ‘PLAY DUMB’.”

“Right. Should’ve guessed.”

“WILL YOU IMPEDE MY MISSION?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“IS THAT A PROMISE?”

“You know, you’re really not helping with the whole ‘panic’ thing like you said you would.”

This finally got Omega to pause. Sonic breathed. His heart was pounding in his chest. He should’ve known better than to assume that a Badnik, even an ex-one, wouldn’t want to murder him over something or another. He should’ve been more careful. 

“WOULD IT DECREASE YOUR PANIC IF I MADE A PROMISE INSTEAD?”

“What promise?”

“SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, I PROMISE YOU WILL ESCAPE THIS RUBBLE ALIVE.”

“Swear on it.”

“ON WHAT SHOULD I SWEAR?”

“I don’t know. Something that matters to you. Other than your mission, if you have anything.”

“I SUPPOSE THERE IS ONE OBJECT THAT MAY BE APPROPRIATE TO SWEAR ON.”

“Go for it.”

“BUT YOU MUST PROMISE NOT TO TELL ANYONE THAT I HAVE PRIORITIES OTHER THAN MY MISSION.”

“Okay?”

“I SWEAR ON MY BOND WITH MY TEAMMATES, SHADOW AND ROUGE. I WOULD SOONER BREAK MY BOND WITH THEM THAN LET YOU COME TO HARM ON THIS DAY.”

The “on this day” part was still a little concerning, but the rest sounded sincere enough. Sonic let out a long exhale. 

“IS THIS ADEQUATE?”

“It is.”

“ARE YOU NOW REASSURED?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“REMEMBER WHAT YOU HAVE PROMISED IN RETURN.”

Sonic tensed again. He hadn’t promised anything in regards to Eggman- but then he remembered the other thing Omega had brought up. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“GOOD.”

They faded into a silence. Sonic couldn’t tell if it was an uneasy one. 

—

Some amount of time passed. The various drips, creaks, and groans of the ruins never amounted to anything. Sonic supposed he was lucky that there weren’t any drips dripping on him. Maybe that meant he and Omega were stranded near the top of the wreckage. That would make any eventual rescue easier, wouldn’t it?

There was a dial-up noise. Sonic sat up from the pile of rocks he was leaning against. “Omega?”

“I AM RECEIVING A SIGNAL THROUGH MY EMERGENCY TRANSPONDER.”

“Yes! Woohoo!”

“THIS IS E-123 OMEGA. LOCATION: 33 FEET BELOW SURFACE. LOCATION OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: 5 FEET SOUTHWEST OF MY POSITION.”

Omega paused, probably to listen to a reply from the other side. 

“AFFIRMATIVE. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IS ALIVE AND IN GOOD CONDITION. I HAVE CALCULATED THE STABILITY OF THE DEBRIS ABOVE. LISTEN CAREFULLY. . .”

Other sounds peeked through the pauses in Omega’s monologuing. Muffled beeping. Rolling. Digging. Lots of shifting, though only a little of it directly shook the space Sonic sat in. Soon he could hear individual swings of some kind of digging tool, and then footsteps. 

“Sonic? You in here?”

“Knuckles! Knuckles, I’m here!” Sonic shouted as he recognized the voice.

Two gloved fists dug through the wall of gravel on the far side of the space. They pulled away to reveal bright light. Sonic shut his eyes and groaned as his headache whipped him full-force.

“Sonic, you okay?”

“It’s too bright. Give me a sec.” He opened his eyes just a peek, and that hurt just as much as last time. “Okay, that’s not happening- can you help me out?”

The gravel over his legs became lighter and lighter, until he was able to pop them out from the pile. He stretched his knees. Before he could shake out the pins and needles, Knuckles grabbed his foot and dragged him out. 

“Sonic!”

Two arms and two fluffy tails wrapped around him and he smiled. “Tails!”

“Sonic! How dare you scare us like that!”

“Amy! Sorry, Amy.”

“Next time you should think before burying yourself in a bunch of dirt.” Knuckles chimed in. “You’re not that good at digging.”

“Did you guys get Omega out as well?”

“I think GUN’s almost got him- hey! Need any help?” Knuckles said.

“I would love some help, sweetheart.” Rouge said from further away. 

Knuckles stomped off. Sonic tried to watch him leave, only to remember too late that opening his eyes was a mistake. He bit his lip to keep from crying out.

“Oh, right! I knew this would be a problem. Here, try these.”

Tails slid a pair of goggles over his face. Sonic opened his eyes again to find the world only mostly in darkness.

“They’ll gradually let in more light over time.” Tails smiled in front of him. “Are they working good?”

“They’re perfect. Thanks, little bro.” Sonic said. 

Tails grabbed his arm and pulled him up. Amy caught him as he nearly fell over again. His legs felt like cotton balls, but he kicked as much feeling back into them as he could before heading towards where he thought he’d heard Knuckles go off to. 

He climbed over a column and found a crowd of heavy machinery and soldiers on the other side. In the center was Omega. His arms extended over his head, as if he were celebrating a surprise party, which was funny at first but concerning the longer Sonic looked at him. It looked like his shoulders had been completely bent into his torso. His lower half was still buried in the rocks. 

Rouge flew above, guiding a pair of crane hooks. She hooked the first one through Omega’s left shoulder handle. His other shoulder handle, though, was crushed flat. She frowned, before looping the hook beneath his arm. 

She then cleared the way and gave a thumbs up towards the cranes. Slowly, Omega’s frame rose from the rubble. His legs dangled beneath him like beads on a dollar-store friendship bracelet. His left foot broke off, clattering against the rocks below. 

Sonic dashed beneath and grabbed the foot clear of where Omega was being lowered again. Sonic then ran around to face him.

“Omega! You didn’t tell me you were hurt.”

“IRRELEVANT DATA.”

“No way! You should’ve told me. You shouldn’t have-”

“Look at you, big boy, getting all banged up. Rather rude of you. This is going to take ages to buff out.” Rouge landed next to Sonic.

She placed a hand on Omega’s sternum plating. Normally, the gray outcrop would be out of her reach if Omega was standing on his own two feet. 

“He saved my life. I wouldn’t call that rude.” Sonic handed her Omega’s foot.

“I’m teasing. He knew that.”

“Thanks, Omega. I owe you one.” Sonic looked him in the optics. Well, into the optic that wasn’t cracked, anyway.

“ACKNOWLEDGED. I WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME FOR ANY UNDER THE CLASSIFICATION OF ‘ALLY’.”

“Good to know that’s what we are again.”

Omega uttered a syllable, before being interrupted by the backing beep of a flat-bedded military truck. The cranes also shifted position, and more of the soldier types gathered around. The truck stopped a few feet away. 

“SONIC. ONE MORE STATEMENT BEFORE YOUR DEPARTURE.” Omega ratcheted his head towards him.

“Hit me.”

“SHOULD YOU EVER INTERFERE WITH MY MISSION, I WILL NOT HESITATE TO RIP OUT YOUR SPINE.”

Sonic opened his mouth, then closed it again. 

“BUT UNTIL THEN. . . I LOOK FORWARD TO THE DESTRUCTION WE SHALL BRING UPON EGGMAN’S WORTHLESS CONSUMER MODELS TOGETHER.”

“Got it.” Sonic gave a firm nod.

“Heh, just treat it like a thanksgiving dinner and you’ll be fine.” Rouge slapped Sonic’s shoulder. She then pushed him away. “Best you go now, before a GUN medic decides to make you their new research project.” 

Sonic gave them both a thumbs up, before retreating back over the mound of debris. Tails, Amy, and Knuckles stood in a circle, chatting. The conversation stopped when Amy spotted Sonic.

“Alright, let’s get out of here!” Sonic said. “Where’s the Tornado? Dibs on the other seat, by the way.”

“Haven’t you been sitting for hours already? Don’t tell me you’re getting soft.” Knuckles smirked. 

“Not a chance. Get me some water and chili dogs in me first, then I’ll show you how ‘soft’ I am!”

Laughter ensued. Tails came over beside him. The rest of them were polite enough not to mention anything when Sonic leaned on his arm a little on their way over to the plane. 

As they ascended from takeoff, Sonic watched the truck carrying Omega roll off towards the city, and waved.

#sth #fanfiction #sonic the hedgehog #e123 omega #literally forcing these two to talk because they fascinate me #sonic is claustrophobic. what can I say? he hates feeling helpless #screw SEGA mandates Sonic can have a panic attack if he wants to #Omega is Not Nice #mentions of suicidal ideation #(because Omega can be blunt as hell) #Sonic POV! because Omega is best discussed through the lens of someone else #I sound like a gibbering idiot when I say these two have parallels #trust me bro I'm an expert #anyways! enjoy! #e-123 omega