#the Archive is underground so no light beside lightbulbs

[thatninjacat27]

The Beginning Of The End (at least for Sonic)

-Part 1 of a series

-takes place in an alternate universe where I ignore a lot of canon, slight cursing, heroes to villains, manipulation(a little bit?), threatening, and I can’t think of anything else at the moment.

(Ao3 link above and below is basically the same thing)

Sonic unlocked the door to his house. It was late and he had just finished saying goodbye to Shadow. They went out racing again and time flew by faster then either one had expected. It always did when the two of them were together. And while the blue hedgehog was having a blast and wanted to stay longer, he knew that he had to return home to check on his brother.

After locking the door and putting the keys away, Sonic made his way to Tails’s room or what he liked to call it, the workshop. The door was closed but the light were on inside as he could see the gaps of the door illuminated. But there was no sound to be heard behind the door.

The blue hedgehog thought nothing of it. Tails must have stayed up late again to work on an invention and fallen asleep on his desk again. That would make it the fifth time this week for that to have happened.

Sonic sighed. Once his little brother had his mind set on building an invention there was no stopping him from doing so. Tails would spend every moment he could to complete it. And while that dedication was something Sonic could respect, it often led to Tails not taking better care of himself. So the blue hedgehog had to help out a bit like making sure that the fox ate food, slept on a warm bed instead of the cool steel desk, and took breaks.

Sonic opens the door. He would make sure that Tails was sleeping on his bed and then turn off the lights. “Tails?”, the blue hedgehog called out. He walked inside the workshop. The room was much bigger than it would seem from the outside as it was partially underground.

As Sonic made his way deeper inside, the lightning seemed to get darker and darker. The room began to feel like it was closing in with the silhouettes of all the machinery. The blue hedgehog kept going despite a weird feeling in his gut. He didn’t really think about it as he saw a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, shining above Tails as he seemed to have his head on the side, lying on the work desk.

Approaching closer to the desk, Sonic saw two things that freaked him out. One was Tails’s face. The fox’s eyes were wide open almost in terror, not blinking at all. It was like he wasn’t completely there. The second thing a figure in the dark leaning back against the desk right next to his brother. Sonic didn’t know how he missed seeing them when he first spotted Tails.

“Hello Sonic.”, the figure said as walked closer to the light to reveal someone who eerily looked like Shadow but with grayish blue stripes instead of red, and ghostly green snake eyes. “I’ve been waiting to talk with you.”

“Who are you?”Sonic questioned.the blue hedgehog was in a fighting stance. He didn’t know who in the hell this guy was but he could feel in his bones that whoever he was, he was incredibly dangerous. “Get away from my brother!”

”Sonic, calm down. I know your brother can be a pretty heavy sleeper but you wouldn’t want to wake him up right now, do you?” 

”What did you do to him?”, Sonic asked suspicious. Something was weird about this hedgehog and there was something unsettling about him and familiar with him besides him looking like his rival.

”Nothing. He fell asleep like that.”, Mephiles replied. He didn’t seem all that concerned about the fox.

”Bullshit.” Sonic called out even though he knew that there was a 80% chance Tails would sleep with his eyes open and make weird faces as he dreamed. While it was a possibility, his guy told him he couldn’t trust this guy.

”Call it out however you like but it still doesn’t change the situation.”

“Okay wise guy,”, Sonic was starting to get a little angry and afraid for some reason. He pushed it down. It wasn’t the time for it. “I’m going to ask you again since you didn’t answer the first time. Who are you? And what are you here in my house?”

My name is Mephiles,”, he introduced. “and I simply want you to work for me.

”What?”, Sonic asked. Work for him? This random stranger who looks like a bad clone of Shadow wanted him to work for him. He didn’t know him and there was something dark and dangerous hidden in those eyes. This guy just felt like bad news and the blue hedgehog wasn’t about that.

“I have plans to take over the world as you mortals might say.”, Mephiles lied. He didn’t actually want to take over the world. The demigod wanted to destroy it and all of reality. But now really wasn’t the time to try and announce it while he was attempting to convince the hero to join his side. “And you are going to help me achieve them.”

”Like hell I would.”, Sonic said immediately. He had called it. He sometime was off about this guy and world domination seemed up his alley. “I will never work for you or help you take over the world.”

“I see.”, the other hedgehog said slowly. “Perhaps you need a little bit of persuasion.”, Mephiles said as one of his hands became crystallized.

“If you choose to not cooperate with me,” the demigod lifted Tails’s head with his non-crystallized hands. “Then I’ll kill your precious little brother.”, Mephiles lightly drags his crystallized hand over Tail’s neck. Sonic sees just how sharp the crystals look under the light. And even though they are barely touching the fox’s neck, Tails involuntarily shudders.

“Work with me and then no one you care about will have to necessarily suffer.”, the crystal hand moves away from his brother’s neck and the other one set his head back on the desk. 

”Do we have a deal?” Mephiles asks, extending his crystallized hand. Sonic looks at the hand. He knew this was probably a terrible decision but he would make a deal with the devil if it meant keeping his family safe. 

”Yes we do.”, and then the hero shook the hand. The crystals made various sharp cuts on his gloves and pricked his skin underneath. Sonic knew from that point that there was no turning back.

”Glad to see we are in agreement then.” Mephiles said as he let go to leave.

”Just one question.” Sonic asked. He needed to know something before the demigod left.

Shadow’s doppelgänger stopped. “What is it?”

“Why not pick someone who would be more willing to do this? Why choose me?”

Mephiles stared at the blue hedgehog. The reasons why were actually pretty simple. Earlier in this week, the demigod had tried to convince Shadow to join him but his doppelgänger rejected him. Mephiles let him be and managed to convince the black and red hedgehog that it was all a dream.

It was actually during one of his observations of Shadow that led him to Sonic. It was one of their little sparring battles. While it was slightly light hearted, the two hedgehogs were really working each other.

Those fights were interesting and useful to study so Mephiles did that and began to notice a few things. The demigod noticed how much chaos energy each of them were using, how skilled they were at fight and planning their moves, and how Sonic was more often than not, winning against the other hedgehog, even if they almost always end up in ties.

Sonic might have been rough around the edges but the blue hedgehog was something special. He had a spark that would be much more powerful than Shadow’s if he learned how to harness it even better.

Sonic needed polish and that’s what Mephiles was going to provide. The power that would come from it would be enough to help the demigod achieve the destruction of reality. He wanted that power. He needed it. Even if Mephiles was a powerful being, this hedgehog would be much better as an asset to his plans instead of a thorn on his side.

But to tell Sonic any of that would be a horrible mistake. Even if this was a better alternative to Shadow and much more manageable, he couldn’t underestimate the blue hedgehog. So as the smart guy that Mephiles is he, said something else.

“Because I could. Nothing really to it.” The demigod wouldn’t show his hand until it was the right moment. And with that, Mephiles chaos controlled out of there.

Confused but his concern pushing it away, Sonic speeds to Tails. “Tails, wake up!”, the blue hedgehog said as he shakes his brother around until he’s awake enough to respond.

“Mmhh Sonic?” Tails sleeply asks confused as his eyes close. “What is it?”, the fox stretches and turns in Sonic’s hold and yawns. “Is everything okay?”

Sonic hugs his brother tightly. “Yeah, everything’s okay, little buddy.”, he says as he pets Tails’s head. The fox doesn’t notice how the blue hedgehog’s voice cracked a little bit and just continues to sleep.

Sonic carries Tails to his bed and tucks him in. After kissing his forehead, the hero goes to the kitchen to heat up some leftover chili dogs that Amy had made for him.

While his food gets warmed up, Sonic wonders about the potential consequences of his decision. This was going to crash and burn horrible and he would only have himself to blame. The blue hedgehog takes out his chili dog from the microwave and takes a bite of his food. Yep, he was fucked six ways from Sunday.

[bernardnotbarry]

Intellectual Discussion

Good part about working in the Archive is that there was relatively calm place. People rarely came here to bother him. The only people he had to really deal with were the guards and interns. 

He even developed a habit of checking his char, desk and coffee for every prank possible, these people had endless imagination.

Bernard dusted his hands from the dust after placing some documents back where they belonged and went to the general area. The intern that worked with him today just skipped off somewhere, probably to make gooey eyes at her significant other. That girl had no sense of responsibility.

Upon entering he saw another person. 

"May I help you?" he walked up to the counter raising an eyebrow at the woman.