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Poison the Well
Topic Started: Feb 9 2012, 11:13 PM (10 Views)
Sonic
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Played by Fallyn
Posted by: Knuckles Aug 3 2011, 01:00 AM
Knuckles didn't remember his dreams, but he would wake up with a terrible sense of urgency and fear still gripping his heart, like he was missing something. Some nights, he'd close his eyes when the moons rose up and when he opened them next, the sun was rising, as if time had passed but he'd not been able to rest at all. Didn't feel like rest, either. He ached all over, his head pounded, and it was hard to focus.

He decided quickly that he did not like the Black Marshes. The damp never lifted, mud seeped into his socks and quills, there were bitebugs the size of fists. His fists. Even the metal soldiers seemed to avoid this place more than they had the mountains, leaving the land to the natural dangers of quicksand and rot. The map he'd gotten from the Black Ridge Fighters wasn't too helpful either, though the terrain seemed unstable enough that even if the map used to be accurate, much could have changed in a few years.

Knuckles felt empty, even as left the swamp to try searching elsewhere. He didn't sense any Chaos, no tug or hunch. To be honest, he didn't sense anything, but he wasn't ready to be quite that honest. His head had never felt so clouded, and it got worse with every dreamless night. He had to find the Master Emerald, and fast.

Leaving the Marshes behind, the echidna climbed into the gentle hills of Green Hill Zone. He knew this was supposed to be an agricultural area, little villages scattered around, and maybe he could look for a new lead. The ground underfoot was wonderfully solid, but it was also cracked and dead, smog hugging the hilltops and staining even the daytime sky a dirty brown. That metal army had probably been through here, too, the echidna realized. He just hoped the mobians weren't too busy fighting off robots to give him a hand. Knuckles could offer some help if he needed to, if they needed it, like he had with Tom, though he hoped he'd be of more use than on that fruitless search for Tom's missing Fighters.

No villages, not even any roads or signs of life yet. Knuckles climbed the side of one of the oddly shaped hollow-hills to take a better look around. A bunch of them clustered together here, breaking the land up into tiers of once-green steps and curves, and so high up he'd be able to see quite a ways away. More hills looped along in the distance, but there were no particular features visible. Just the smog seemed thicker directly east. It might be a factory, like Robotnik used to make, rather than a village, giving off plumes of smoke like that. If it was anything at all. The smoke was thick, very thick, almost like a second darker cloud beneath the smog. It was growing bigger. Nope, it was growing closer.

A bright dash of energy lanced towards him and he realized it wasn't a cloud at all, but a small flock of machines. He'd mistaken their buzzing for the buzzing in his ears, and now they'd managed to catch him off guard. They weren't very accurate shots at this range, at least, and Knuckles slid down the far side of the hill, deciding to outrun them if he could avoid a fight.

They had looked a bit like buzzbombers, but their tails were all wrong, and they looked a lot more serious than the bots Robotnik used to make. Like all these new metal monsters he'd been running into. He knew he shouldn't take them lightly, but he wanted to be done with this and get moving again.

The machines were fast, diving through the loop in the hill to follow him. He timed a punch and broke the base from the loop, causing it to crash down on top of most of the machines. Two were agile enough to fly out of the way, and he ran towards the next hill. They didn't seem willing to fall for the same trick twice, and flew around to the far side instead. When they came around, however, he wasn't where they were aiming their guns.

Knuckles had already climbed to the top of the hill, kicking loose a large rock and then punching it downward. The boulder shattered and rained down almost as quickly as a shower of bullets, tearing into the wingless robots, damaging them enough to knock them out of the air and leave them twitching and sparking on the ground. The echidna watched for a moment, to make sure that whatever had been keeping them aloft was damaged enough to keep them on the ground. "Heh," was all he said, turning and leaping off the hilltop to begin a long glide further into the Zone.

Although grounded, one of the two broken bots still had a weapon functional, and took a parting shot at the airborne mobian. The laser nicked him, burning narrowly past his right arm and knocking him out of the air as well. He began a clumsy tumble, bouncing off of the next hill and then the ledge below that, cartwheeling back out into open air away from the stepped hills, over a plain.

He should have been able to catch himself back in a glide easily, but was too disoriented and dizzy now to manage more than a slow, spinning fall. He had time to glimpse a quilled-figure below him before landing heavily at the stranger's feet, narrowly avoiding landing on top of him. Knuckles was immediately reminded of how much less comfortable the ground was to land on than Sonic; if it had been Sonic's blue quills, he would have landed on him, for sure. It was like the law of gravity or something. The less-giving ground, even more than the lack of blue, made him painfully aware that Sonic wasn't here. None of his friends were.

Knuckles took longer than he wanted, stumbling back onto his feet, brushing the dust off. "Sorry, I-" he began to apologize, when he got a better look at the stranger he'd almost crashed into. The mobian was wrapped in a heavy black cloak that obscured most of him, but his dreadlocked quills and fur were white, riddled with black markings that resembled cracks but must have been tattoos. He wore small, golden glasses perched on the end of his muzzle, and the mark on his forehead seemed to move and glow so that Knuckles had to look away before it made him sick. Trick of the light, eyes don't glow like that.

But even that wasn't the most disorienting thing. Apart from the coloration and markings, the stranger looked a lot like Knuckles.

He shook his head and looked back at the other. "I... I'm Knuckles," he said finally, pointing a thumb at himself and starting with the question that threatened to overwhelm what focus he still had. "Who are you? You aren't a hedgehog." It was an obvious statement, but one he still had to hear said aloud, not trusting just his eyes. Maybe he'd hit his head harder than he thought, during the fall.

Posted by: Dr. Finitevus Aug 8 2011, 06:21 PM
His cape fluttered around him, snapping at the wind. It clung to its master as though alive, a protective shroud of living evil, darker than midnight. Finitevus smiled, a shark's smile. He took in the view with unnatural black eyes, the devastated wasteland known as Green Hill Zone sprawling around him for miles.

He hadn't been to this place in decades. Then, the name was all the description anyone would ever need; green grass, hills, and not much else. For whatever reason, the enigma of the Metal Horde had decided to set up production here, of all places. As a Guardian, he felt anger. As a scientist, however, he felt curiosity, intrigue. He'd intended to come here for some time, but only now – that he had left the dark sanctuary of his home – could he truly begin to answer his questions about the Horde. Their industrial presence in Green Hill Zone, however, was not what he had come to decipher.

The doctor was gathering information. Before the big questions could be answered, the little ones had to be met, first. Before the greatest answer could be discovered – “why are the Horde here?”, he had to learn, first, about the subject of his curiosity. He had come to survey death.

Like a shadowy Grim Reaper, Finitevus had come to this place for no reason other than death itself – the presence of the Horde in Green Hill was a constant, something he could rely on. Variables were so tedious. The smallest of the metal creatures, the “Generation One”, had set themselves upon one of the few surviving settlements. The white shadow that was Finitevus watched as the futile victims attempted to flee, as they were rent apart by silvered talons and superheated projectiles. Utter chaos was the very fabric of the moment, until the tides turned. The settlers had holed up in the largest building with the doors and windows barricaded, save for a few. They had taken a fortified position and fired upon the attacking machines, the flying machines picked apart by plasma fire in scant seconds.

It almost looked as though the village would survive, before the real attack began.

They were drawn, perhaps, by either communication or simply through noticing the commotion. Three robotic horrors - each easily twice the height of a man – strode in formation onto the scene. Each held an enormous tower shield, fused to their right arm, obscuring most of their form, three burning red optics were inset in their featureless, almost skull-like faceplates. Each synchronised footstep shook the ground with their weight, all three of the enormous machines working in perfect unison. Taking brief pause at the crest of the hill, the mechanical soldiers quickly determined their course of action. They walked toward what had to be the town hall, and were met with a flurry of automatic plasma fire from the windows. Unaffected, they each took aim, raising their shieldless left arms and fired with purpose, taking fresh aim with every shot. Soon it was over. Their purpose fulfilled, they departed from the settlement, leaving only destruction and death in their wake.

Finitevus had greatly enjoyed the display, his own private little horror show. It had been useful, and extremely interesting – to finally see the Horde in action! Every second of the event had been recorded by his own devices, linked to the scene via warp rings. He would review all the data in detail, later. They had been glorious, beautiful. So flawless in their execution of what seemed to be their ultimate purpose; to kill. A purpose that shone with crystalline marvel, so simple and devoid of complication. Finitevus loved it. It was a purpose so simple that the reasoning behind it became so much more elusive. What was their motivation? As a man of science and understanding, he loved it. The machines themselves were so elegant in their design, fit for their purpose in every way. No discernible sentient AI. No flags, or makings. They were not machines of war. They were, quite simply, death. Death embodied into metal shells, with burning red eyes and shrouded in so much mystery...

Finitevus raised a hand. His work here was done. Before he could summon a warp ring, however, there was a loud thud from behind him. He turned, and saw that destiny had landed, literally, at his feet.

He made a sort of bemused sound, at how convenient this was. A smirk crossed his lips, as he put on a very concerned face. “Are you alright, friend?” he asked, his voice as smooth as honey, full of genuine-sounding emotion. Pretending to be a little confused, he paused. “My name is, uh, Finitevus. Dr Finitevus.” he replied, his cloak parting as he offered Knuckles his hand, deliberately showing the other echidna his similarly spiked knuckles. “No, I am not a hedgehog. Good to see your powers of observation weren't damaged. That was a quite a nasty fall you had, there.”

Oh, how fortunate!

Posted by: Knuckles Aug 11 2011, 12:05 AM
Looks could be deceiving, in many ways. Despite the white fur and spectacles, and the odd metallic bandages wrapped around his fingers, his grip was firm as Knuckles took the offered hand. He was younger than he first seemed, and if the bandages were there to cover some sort of injury, it didn't effect him at all. Young or not, there was something reassuring about the stranger being a doctor.

The red echidna let go slowly, still staring at the other's spikes. Realizing how long he'd been staring, he rubbed the back of his head and shrugged as Finitevus worried kindly about the fall. "Yeah, I guess." He wanted to believe that the mental fog was just a side effect of the fall, rolling with that idea, and ignored how long it had been bothering him even before that. This was a lot more important. "But you can't be what you..."

'What you are'? Even with the pounding in his head, Knuckles couldn't say something that stupid. He stared at the back of Finitevus's hand again, fallen back into the shadow of the long cloak but still half visible. "Sorry, Doctor. See, I grew up alone on Angel Island, the last of my tribe. Of my kind! I've never heard that there were any other echidnas left! Where did you come from? Why are you here, now?"

Knuckles took a wild look at the broken scenery around them, not knowing that the wavering haze of smog beyond the next hill was rising from the remains of the most recently destroyed village. Even not knowing that, this land was hostile enough, and Finitevus was here alone. The idea that other echidnas might be hiding in the ravaged remains of such a once-familiar Zone was outrageous, but Knuckles wasn't sure of anything now. If the doctor had told him that echidnas had lived in hiding all this time disguised as fish in the rivers of Green Hill, he might have even believed that.

An entire legacy that had been lost to him but through the mute murals and carvings of the Island's ruins, only a scarce few bits and pieces of half-understood tradition surviving as the rest died with his kin before he was even old enough to remember them, had sharpened his sense of pride but also hollowed the constant sense of loneliness that he'd simply made a part of himself. He'd never mourned it, he'd simply accepted that it was the way things were. Except that now, they weren't. "Are there others? How did I never hear about them? Did-" Knuckles made himself stop with an effort that made him grimace; the stream of questions would be harder to halt the longer he let himself go, but there were so many questions! His face hid nothing of his shock and confusion and a tentative hope that even he did not know was there.

Posted by: Dr. Finitevus Aug 31 2011, 01:25 AM
If he hadn't been hiding behind a veil of lies, Finitevus would have smiled, and he would have smiled more with every word Knuckles spoke. It was... excellent. The Guardian was so... so... ignorant. Fresh. Naïve.

Corruptible.

As it was, Fin put on an extremely convincing look of sympathy, acting like Knuckles' past was entirely new to him. “Oh, you poor child...” he said quietly, appearing shocked by this tragedy, lost for words. “I cannot begin to imagine how hard your life must have been. How... lonely. I feel for you, brother.” he said sadly, shaking his head a little before a spark of glee ignited in his eyes. “I must have given you quite the shock, then! I'm sure you have many, many questions, and it will be my pleasure to answer them all.” he beamed, smiling warmly. “I come from many places. Like you, I was born on Angel Island... a long time ago. But that is a tale for another day. Why I am here, you ask? Well...”

Finitevus adjusted his glasses, looking away from Knuckles, closing his eyes in pained regret. “There... was a village. I study the Horde, you see. I'm no hero, but what I am is a scientist. I hope that my work will uncover something we can use... their weaknesses, or a way to stop them forever. Even if I could simply find a way to better protect against them... could you imagine how many lives would be saved? But, I digress. I was studying Horde movement in this area, and I discovered that a patrol was going to pass straight through this area. I came to warn them, but...” Finitevus sighed again. “It was too late.” he muttered finally, a tint of self-directed anger in his voice.

When he opened his eyes to give Knux a sad look, Finitevus took in a short breath, his gaze briefly catching on Knuckles' white crescent marking before meeting his eye. “My transport malfunctioned.” he said weakly, as though it was the only thing keeping him from just dying of guilt. “What... what brings you here, may I ask?”

Posted by: Knuckles Sep 5 2011, 01:28 PM
Born on the Island? Could they be of the same tribe? Knuckles looked the other echidna up and down again, wondering how old Finitevus really was. Maybe his first impression had been right, and the doctor was older than he seemed. It was hard to tell, so Knuckles just accepted that 'a long time ago' meant 'a long time ago' and knew he'd better respect his elders. Had this echidna known the Old Man, or his parents? But Knuckles had put all that behind him, even the memories lost, and this wasn't the time to ask.

Finitevus seemed heartbroken to admit his failure. "It's not your fault!!" Knuckles argued, pained to see such a good man so distraught. "You did the best you could, this Horde is too powerful to stop alone!" The Black Ridge Freedom Fighters had been fighting a long time as well, and the village the doctor mentioned just wasn't as lucky as Sanctuary was, or so the echidna thought. The explanation was more than enough for Knuckles. If Finitevus' transportation was broken, he might have a harder time getting out of Green Hill than he'd gotten in, and there were still enemies like those buzzbomber-like machines around. He was about to offer his help to the old doc.

“What... what brings you here, may I ask?”

"I... You were born on Angel Island, you know about the Master Emerald?" Knuckles said, not seeing any reason to hide anything from an echidna who had already called him 'brother'. He only hesitated because it was embarrassing to admit to having lost his charge, especially to someone who might understand its significance. "I'm its Guardian, and I'm taking it home where it belongs. It was already stolen and taken to another world, but I got it back to Mobius. There was a problem at the last minute, and I'm not sure yet where on Mobius it is now, but I will find it."

Even thinking about Chaos made his head pound harder, but the way his face twisted could have been at the thought of the danger the Emerald was in and not because of the pain. He wasn't going to acknowledge this weakness, he had too much to do. If he was sick, he was sick with worry, and he'd get over it. Worry wouldn't find the Master Emerald, or help Finitevus. "Look, you've lived to fight another day. We'll pay the Horde back for everything they've done! Neither of us can give up! That village, I think it might be the same one I was looking for, if it's nearby. Where'd the survivors run to? They might still need help. I ran into some bots in the area myself. It's not safe yet."

Posted by: Dr. Finitevus Sep 11 2011, 11:11 PM
“I know.” Finitevus said sadly, nodding. “I know.” With a sigh, the ivory scientist idly fixed his cape, looking out over the scarred land. Really, it was a shame. The planet endured so much pain, and the Horde-torn bones of Green Hill Zone were only scratching of the surface of what it had yet to endure. The pain had begun long before the Horde, and it would end long after.

Finitevus sighed to himself. Some days, his struggle felt so futile. Could he really save the world, all by himself? So lonely he was, wandering solemnly through a dark world populated only by pale shadows and putrid vermin. So much hung on Knuckles – not just for Finitevus' plans, but for his resolve. Would Knuckles turn out to be another one of the countless sick, or would he prove himself worthy of his title, a man to make Finitevus proud to call 'Guardian'? Only time would tell, and Finitevus had to tread softly. Perhaps Knuckles did not even know the answer to that question. Maybe he was a true Guardian, yet had filled his mind with the lies and evil of the world around him. In that case, it would take time to bring him into the light, to craft from him a brother-in-arms who could bring his own skills to the fight of fights.

It would be such a shame, to have to kill him.

“Oh, my apologies,” Finitevus laughed. “I appear to have gotten lost in my own mind.” The Master Emerald, the Master Emerald. Good, that this Guardian knew the importance of that ancient stone. “Yes, Guardian, I noticed that. You really have no idea how much it pleases me to see that crest in times like these.” He laughed a quiet laugh, a teasing grin on his lips. “I know a great deal about the Master Emerald. Perhaps I will tell you, some day.”

How... informative. The doctor was grateful for Knuckles' forthcoming attitude, giving him vital information on the precious Master Emerald like that. He had been searching for it himself, and after all these years, it was good to finally make some progress. How amusing, should they find it together? It brought him back centuries, so many pleasant memories of his journies as Guardian, his innumerable quests to find the Emerald after it shattered or got stolen as it often did. The companions he'd had, all dead of course. The joys of youth...

“Not to worry!” Finitevus added, suddenly cheerful. “I'm sure you're well-qualified for the job. Good luck, I suppose.” his tone darkened, as he looked in the direction of the village. “I'm afraid the Horde are probably still there, which is why I have not left yet, myself. I may have failed to save them, but I can at least use their deaths as an opportunity for study.”

It was a half-truth. All of his research was concluded, and (had Knuckles not turned up), Finitevus would have likely stayed only a short time to watch the aftermath. He'd seen it, many times. The place was probably being sacked by Stalkers by now, or overrun with Mimics. Nothing of any scientific use or importance.

Posted by: Knuckles Sep 21 2011, 12:26 AM
Use their...?

It hadn't yet registered with Knuckles that an entire village could be dead. But it seemed there were no survivors to speak of, save for the observant doctor himself. Knuckles followed Finitevus' gaze into the hills, eyes widening as he realized the smear in the air was smoke, not smog, and that the village must be that close after all. Nestled in between the looping hills, hidden from easy view, still a decent distance from the pollution-spewing regions where nothing could grow at all anymore. "There?"

Knuckles turned back and met the doctor's eyes, his own stern with resolve and denial. "There might still be people there! Not long if the robots have them." He glared at the hills beyond them and narrowed his eyes. "You get to safety, Doctor. I'm going."

The Guardian sprinted away, leaving Finitevus in the relative safety of the empty landscape. Better there than going back to a village he'd just fled from, but Knuckles was sure he could do more than the old doctor. If he hurried!

Climbing a last bluff, he looked down at the tangle of trees and buildings below. Seemed like a small wood had grown here, the houses hiding beneath the leaves, and it was those trees that had been stripped of their branches, many trees pulled out at the roots and left to fall haphazardly, despite their massive size. Apart from the bit of smoke, the only things moving were the shining bodies of machines, large and armored, bumbling around clumsily. Smaller machines on wheels zipped in and out, but those seemed to be leaving, rolling out into the hills all around, looking for new targets.

Little was burning, but a few houses had fallen in, their thatched roofs smoldering darkly and sending up all the smoke. The rest was just, rubble. Like something, or a whole lot of somethings, big enough to uproot whole trees, had trampled through, scattering walls and furnishings and belongings.

It took another minute after starting to run down the hill to realize some of those twisted shapes were bodies.

Knuckles picked up speed. The robots had spotted him as soon as he came into view, but he didn't pause or divert from his straight line charge. He collided against the first with his fist. The bumbling machine snapped a pair of sword-like arms open at an unexpected speed to meet him, but he let the edge slice over his glove as his punch pounded first through the arm and then deep into the hull, the sturdy armor caving in around the blow with a few pathetic sparks. He quickly levered the bot off the ground and drove it into the next one like a club. Knuckles knew how fast they could move in close combat now, but he still took more cuts to his fists and arms and a few glancing blows across his sides and head, using his already bleeding fist to block rather than dodge, deepening the wound, anything that he thought he could survive if it let him get in another hit with his good fist. And there were plenty of targets to hit. He seemed to have gotten their attention.

His vision collapsed to a red haze, not so unlike the haze that had been clouding his mind. His blood felt like it boiled, and he continued to fight more recklessly than he'd ever let himself before, letting that haze close around him completely.

((ooc Navigation: from here, Knux makes his way to the Metal Menace thread))

Posted by: Dr. Finitevus Oct 9 2011, 01:30 AM
Knuckles was gone, leaving Fin alone. And slightly bewildered. How rude! Running out in the middle of a conversation. Just when he was getting to enjoy it, too! Oh, well.

The silence came like thunder, covering all except for the whistle of the melancholy wind. After a moment, Finitevus smiled.

And then he laughed.

A deep, dark, evil laugh. “You get to safety, Doctor”, Knuckles had said, before he'd run off. Finitevus had not been so amused in a very, very long time.

The ivory echidna took a moment to survey the broken landscape. It was beautiful in its own, destroyed sort of way. But not a place he needed to stay in, any longer. The trouble was... what now? Perhaps he could finally take a stroll into Knothole? No, not yet. He would wait until Knuckles got there, at least. All of his other schemes were currently cooking, requiring absolutely no maintenance, yet. How very boring!

He felt in a Nautilan ruin sort of mood. Perhaps he would visit a ruin, one he hadn't seen in a while.

With a wave of his hand and a flash of light, a Warp Ring opened itself in the air, the impossible device tearing open reality itself, just for travel convenience. “Get to safety, doctor!” Finitevus chuckled to himself, before vanishing through the portal.
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