Chapter 29: Plucking Narcissus, Part 1
weredrago2
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Ruby Haze
Chapter 29: Plucking Narcissus, Part 1
It'd been quite a while since I'd had to deal with performance anxiety. Usually, it kicked up something fierce before I was about to run a session of one of my regular campaigns, if I knew the stakes that night were going to be particularly spicy. It didn't matter how much planning I did in advance, when I did happen to plan how that night was going to go instead of playing it by ear, the anxiety that crept up in the leadup game time could ratchet up to nigh-intolerable levels. If I could get past that uncomfortable experience, then the game itself could proceed smoothly. Usually, my players didn't notice a piece out of place.
The reason this relatively inane worry came rushing back to my mind was that it was flaring up all over again, when the stakes couldn't possibly be higher. My scheme was explained to them all a couple of times over, so that everyone knew the parts they had to play. Simple in nature, difficult in execution, and it wouldn't survive contact with a stiff breeze, let alone Enerjak. I was expecting something to go wrong, but even if it didn't, I'd have to scrap the rest and improvise when he took to the stage anyway. I let myself get comfortable with the powers the Phantom Ruby gave me, and I knew for a fact that he outclassed them in every direction.
Just wait for the signal and go.
The forest floor of the Mushroom Hills were littered with dry, autumnal leaves, shed from tall trees that competed for space with colorful toadstools as tall as redwoods. I wished I had time to ask Knuckles about how the ecosystem adapted to the constant movement of the island, but the answer was probably magic. Between the gigantic mushrooms were more humble ones the size of houses, complete with doors and windows. I couldn't tell if the huts were made out of hollowed-out mushrooms, or were wooden constructions made to resemble fungi in case Robotnik's spy bots came snooping around. The robots that were sent by Enerjak weren't on the topmost shelf of intellect, but they had enough processing power to knock and ask the terrified civilians if they heard the bad news at gunpoint.
Like the Mushroom Hills, Charmy Bee was also an uncannily familiar sight. He was small, about two feet in height, wearing a yellow and black shirt with short sleeves the same shade of red as his sneakers. The determined-looking bug had his signature black helmet with holes for his antennas, complemented by round goggles brought down over his eyes to keep out dust. The young bug's thoughts were clouded in an aura of green, bright glints of Enerjak's influence poking out his eyes. Expanding my awareness beyond that first layer, I could perceive the enchantment as a dark, winding chord, coiling and twisting around the bee's natural thought patterns until one end bit the other.
This'll be better than what Knux and Vector are gonna do to get Espio back to his old self.
⟁ ♦ 90
I was almost grateful when Metal Sonic ran out of patience and started his rampage a few minutes earlier than he was supposed to. The echoing roar, heard for miles and carried down the mountain, was our starting gun. Figment gave me the visual confirmation that the super badnik was engaging with the concentration of bots at the Ice Cap mountain, while my familiar kept an eye out for when Mighty the Armadillo came out to fight him. That left Fiona with the Mechanix at Carnival Night, Vector and Knuckles in the Rainbow Valley, and finally myself over the Mushroom Hills.
The bee switched to high alert when he heard the sound, flying straight up, above the forest, to get a better view of the disturbance happening miles away.
"Huh? What the heck was that--?" I discarded the invisibility I'd been maintaining and enveloped the bee in a wave of ruby energy! "HEY!"
I ignored his plea and grabbed him, snatching the bee out of the air so he wouldn't go anywhere while I disabled the mind hex.
"I'm freeing your mind!" I shouted at him. "Think liberating thoughts!"
⟁ ♦ 88
Trying to defuse Enerjak's magic with finesse was a different experience than when I smashed it with brute force. The spell was a slippery and sinuous thing, guarded by large mental blocks that let it wriggle out of reach. Once I had its number, the Enerjak's rough handiwork would unravel at the pull of the Phantom Ruby.
Shoddy. Amateur.
Fix now, complain later.
Fine. Watch and learn how the master unweaves a mislaid spell.
Waves of magenta fog leaked into Charmy's mind, smothering and consuming Enerjak's magic like white blood cells on bacteria. Or a virulent disease out-competing a weaker infection. I double-checked the Ars Ixia for instructions on how to do this kind of procedure "correctly", reducing the amount of damage I did on my target, and one of the things I had to do was locate the part of Charmy that wanted this glamor to break.
"Espio, help me!" Charmy cried out, the young bee helplessly wriggling in my hands and beating his wings in a vain attempt to free himself.
I felt my grip on Charmy slip as the Phantom Ruby snatched the exposed hex by the tail. One rip, and it'd come apart. Unfortunately, if there was one thing I'd figured out, it was that the effect my magic had on people wasn't pleasant.
How did I think this was more humane? He's only a kid!
Am I so certain of that? Look closer.
Perturbed by that intrusive comment, I looked at Charmy deeper. When I grasped onto the mind control spell, a few memories shook free. I wasn't trying to pry, already seeing what I was doing as a significant trespass, but I automatically read the fragments of Charmy's life as they were presented to me.
A golden kingdom of domes, spires, and hexagons. A golden kingdom whose beauty is never tarnished, even as the rest of the world crumbles around what was once the honey-yellow jewel of the west. There goes West Mobotropolis. There goes the Wolf Pack Nation. There goes Sand Blast City. They all fall, and the Colony of the Golden Hive remains. A golden kingdom of peace, stagnancy, and--
--Expectations for me to stop playing around and grow up already, when I haven't even had the chance to see the world! Smell all of the flowers that Mobius has to offer! Live my own life! I like Saffron, sure, but thirteen is way too young for me to tie the knot and spend the rest of my life as a do-nothing king!
"Wait, you're thirteen?" I said incredulously, having automatically snapped back to the Mushroom Hills when I heard that.
I had to mentally skip over the bit about Charmy being a prince or something. That was odd, but it was already a thing in the British comic. Him being a teen was much stranger.
"How old did you think I was?" Charmy said, having been distracted from his attempt at escape. "You were gonna say I looked older, right? Right?"
How was I supposed to know this Charmy was closer to his age in the old Chaotix manual than not? He still looks like a child!
"…Younger," I answered hesitantly.
He frowned.
"Tell me it was at least eleven." I was quiet, trying to hold on to Enerjak's hex before it went anywhere. "Ten?"
"I'm gonna go ahead and focus on breaking this hex, okay?"
Suddenly, Charmy shrunk down to the size of a real bee and began whizzing around my head! With his escape, my grip on the hex came loose!
"Mom says I'm a late bloomer!" Charmy buzzed angrily. Then he flew away!
He can size shift?!
My enhanced eyes were just enough to keep up with where the minimized bee was going. Charmy dove down, and when I followed, I was buffeted with lasers from Enerjak's robots!
"You're making it a lot harder for me not to hurt you!" I said as I tried to ensnare Charmy in a net of crystal threads.
⟁ ♦ 85
Charmy flew around the net, which fell on a troop of robots instead. I flew down and swung my arms wide, battering more of the robots before they could react. When my eyes were off Charmy, he switched directions on a dime and darted towards me at full size!
"Then I'll hurt you instead!" Charmy shouted, and he turned and aimed his giant stinger!
"Charmy, no!"
He jabbed me in the chest with his dagger-sized organ!
⟁ ♦ 80
Charmy's stab went straight past the ribs, through a lung, and stopped close to the heart. The attack was a level of sheer viciousness I'd never expect out of Charmy on a good day. Then again, this wasn't a good day for anyone present.
The wound went a lot deeper than when I was shot with mere arrows, and venomous compounds were liquidating my nerve tissue.
⟁ ♦ 77
I collapsed to the ground, forcing Charmy's resolve to quaver. He got some distance from me and waved off the robots that were closing in.
"I'm sorry!" Charmy said, shocked by what he'd been forced to do to me. "Surrender now, and I'll ask Enerjak to fix you! How's that sound?"
I shrugged off the illusion of a crippling blow, which was only a little painful. I then honed in on the exposed part of Charmy that was rebelling against his violent compulsion, and stretched my hand forward until it locked onto his helmet.
"Hey! Let go of me!"
Crystal outgrowths formed from my hand across the surface of Charmy's helmet and goggles. The soft approach was only doing me so many favors, so I yanked the headgear off and smacked him. Hard.
"WAKE UP!"
⟁ ♦ 75
The hex shattered as Charmy spun, and the fight went out of him instantly. I got closer and held the woozy bee in one hand. He was free to take a rest, at the same time I was being encircled by Enerjak's mechanical goons. I attached Charmy to my back with a safety bubble and used my spare hand to whip out a machine gun from Null Space.
⟁ ♦ 70
It was a Frankenstein-style heavy weapon, cobbled together as a custom order from the hyenas. The shortened barrel and pistol grip were intended for someone whose hand wouldn't snap off from the insane recoil, making it easy for me to grind down the horde before they could return the favor.
Switching one eye to Figment's vision, I could see that the super-sized Metal Sonic was running into trouble. An avalanche of debris came tumbling down on the super badnik from the nearby village, slowing down his rate of attack.
Figment? What's going on over there?
My familiar got closer, focusing his vision towards a red dot next to a windmill. The foundation of the windmill quaked and crumbled, before falling onto Titan Metal Sonic as a heavy mass of rubble!
"Face me for real, you dust mite!" Metal Sonic bellowed.
The red sphere catapulted off the ledge, dropping like a hammer on Metal Sonic's head! Uncurling from his ball form, the black and red armadillo banged on Metal Sonic's hull with his fists and rattled the super badnik's entire body against the base of Ice Cap. Out of the brawl's participants, it seemed like the mountain would be the first to crack.
"Is this real enough!?" Mighty the Armadillo shouted.
Metal Sonic grabbed Mighty with his large manipulators and flung him into the snowdrift.
"You were holding out against me last time, weren't you?"
Mighty popped out of the snow, cracking his knuckles with enough force to carry an echo.
"I don't like to go all-out, in case the wrong person gets caught up in it, but Master Enerjak is commanding me to rip you apart!"
Metal Sonic fired up his thrusters and rammed towards him, claws bared!
"Feeling mighty confident, huh? Time to remind you why you needed a whole team to BRING THIS GIANT DOWN!"
Mighty rolled downhill to meet him in a clash. I stopped my split remote viewing when my machine gun was obstructed by another flying bee!
"Be cool, man!" the frightened bug cried out.
This new bee's attire was markedly different from Charmy's. He was wearing a blue helmet with aviator goggles, a long, red scarf, and a bee-striped bomber jacket.
"Outta the way!" I shouted at him, shooting down what looked like the last of the enemy robots. "It's dangerous out here!"
"Not without my best bud! Let 'em go, ya big lug!"
I stopped, lowering my weapon.
"You mean him?" I lifted up the snoozing Chaotix member. He was already out like a light.
The newcomer flew up in my face, waving his arms and pointing.
"Yeah, him!" I put Charmy in his hands. "Woah!"
"Please get him out of here. I'm trying to fix this whole thing and I'm on a time budget!"
The bee held Charmy by the wrists and flew upwards.
"You with the--"
"Chaotix and yes! Now move it!"
"Uh, sure! I'll take him back to his place in the Strawberry Fields while this blows over!"
"You do that."
"Thanks, dude! You're pretty alright for a--"
I warped to the garden settlement on the other side of the mountain range.
⟁ ♦ 65
In contrast to the rest of the island, which was undergoing (if not moving through) a winter season, the glass-roofed greenhouses of this iridescent region kept it nice and warm for its reptilian residents. Over half of what was commonly referred to as the Rainbow Valley was covered in this way, making its status as just another forest an impressively detailed façade. The geodesic domes were impossible to recognize as such from the ground or by looking at them from the sky, providing little glare as sunlight passed right through the strange, invisible materials that composed them.
It was obvious that the chameleons didn't want to advertise how much fine control they had over their secluded enclave on the island; all of that would've remained unseen if I didn't have the Phantom Ruby to tell me what was there and what wasn't. Including a pink chameleon girl with long hair, white gloves, and yellow boots. She was curled up in a bush. Eyes shut, breathing shallow, trying to be as silent as possible until the danger passed.
The chameleon hadn't noticed me yet. I walked forward, to ask her where the others were, when I realized that she was already too terrified to give me a straight answer.
I shifted my form, taking on the shape of a magenta chameleon. My disguise was closer to Espio as I knew him in the games than what I saw of him when we fought. This one didn't have his metal bracers, and his shoes were still green rather than purple.
"Are you okay?" I said gently, approaching the chameleon with a medical kit in my hands.
The young woman jumped up with a frightened yelp. Once she'd identified me as a fellow chameleon, her body relaxed, and her eyes went to my accessories.
"You're from the homeland!" she said, relief clear in her voice. "Like Espio and Valdez!"
The homeland? Was it because I copied Espio's ninja gear? I wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about, but I didn't have time to disagree.
"What happened here?"
She grabbed onto me like a life preserver.
"You have to help us! Espio betrayed the Rainbow Valley to invaders!"
Seemed like Espio had, under Enerjak's orders, revealed where the rest of his people were hiding. With the Rainbow Valley's proximity to Nekronopolis, devoting his forces here for the specific purpose of rounding up the stealth-inclined chameleons made sense.
"Espio isn't in control of his actions," I explained, as I checked her over for injuries.
"I-I don't understand."
She doesn't have anything useful. Move on.
Not. Yet.
"His mind's been taken over by dark magic," I answered. "Don't worry. I'm here to help."
"Who are you?" the pink chameleon asked, taking a step back. She let out a wince of pain, then shifted her weight more on one leg than the other.
Espio, Valdez. Noticing a pattern.
"My name is Inigo. What's yours?"
"L-Liza," she stammered out.
"Liza. Can you walk?"
One of her legs was injured. Probably caused by her running, losing her balance, and falling.
"I don't know."
"Try this."
I went to my medical bag and pulled out a crutch that wasn't there before. Having a couple of staves in Null Space, it only took a mote of magic for me to adjust one of them into something she could use to get out of here.
⟁ ♦ 64
"T-Thank you, Inigo."
I looked her in the eyes, to make sure she was still with me.
"Liza, I need you to take cover in the outskirts of the Rainbow Valley. The robots can't see you without another chameleon pointing you out. Tell the same to any other chameleons you run into that they need to make themselves scarce. Do you understand?"
"Yes. I… understand."
"Did you see where Espio went? Or the Chaotix?"
Liza gestured in the direction of the largest camouflaged domes. From that direction, I could hear the muffled shouts and other sounds of active combat.
"They're all at the Botanic Base! Please! You have to hurry!"
I broke into a run towards the dome, leaving Liza to handle getting to safety on her own. Breaking through one of the large, triangular windows of the greenhouse with a shoulder barge, I discarded my chameleon cover and rammed into the nearest robot I could.
"What took you so long?" Vector called out over the cacophony of the fight.
The crocodile took off his headphones, aimed the peripheral at the robots, and hit 'play'. The result was a sonic blast that knocked a line of them off their feet!
How has he not deafened himself by accident?
How should I know?
I wasn't asking you!
In the Botanic Base, a multileveled complex where living spaces were much more compact and densely populated, using any of my firearms was completely out of the question. I grabbed one of them by the neck and slammed them into the next, hard enough that I was left holding little more than an aluminum skeleton.
"Charmy was trickier than he looked!"
"But you got him back, right?"
One of Enerjak's bots fell atop the yellow plunger of a large, cylindrical capsule, like the kind that Eggman used to hold animals in the games. Several of them had been strewn about the inside of the greenhouse village. When the button was pressed, the capsule ruptured open, and several panicked chameleons went running out.
"Yeah, he's taking a rest in the Strawberry Fields! What're those containers?"
"The mechanauts are using Robotnik's leftover Prison Eggs!" Vector stated. "Hit the button on top and they crack!"
I tossed the metal frame and stretched my arm and hammered another one of the Prison Eggs open with my fist, freeing the chameleons inside them. They scrambled out of the Botanic Base, through the exit doors and up the walls towards the vents in the roof.
"Did you stop Espio yet?" I asked.
"Have you seen the new moves he's--!" Vector ran towards me! "LOOK OUT!"
"Your life is forfeit to his will!" Espio cried.
I looked up and got a kunai lodged in my jugular!
⟁ ♦ 60
Ow. Honestly, Charmy's stinger was worse. I removed the knife from my neck and cleared my throat. Looking upwards for a second time, I could see Espio the Chameleon was spinning like a top midair, throwing shurikens and other sharpened implements as he jumped from treetop to treetop. Knuckles was in hot pursuit right behind his friend, trying to catch him from the air and punching through any mechanauts that got in his way.
It beats calling them "robots" all the time.
I need to wrap this up and move on to the last one. Then I take care of Enerjak.
"FREEZE!" I shouted at Espio, a command followed by the sensation of a frigid wind that caused him to lose his concentration and drop!
⟁ ♦ 58
"You have no command over me!" Espio proclaimed.
Espio performed a ukemi, landing on his hands to zero the damage from his fall and converting the rest of his momentum into a spinning roundhouse kick to my jaw!
⟁ ♦ 55
I cast my hand out and put a portal on the wall where Espio was about to land after his counter, causing him to go from sticking on a nearby wall to falling from the ceiling.
⟁ ♦ 52
"Knuckles! Hold him still so I can--!"
"I've got it!" Knuckles shouted. He glided upwards and punched his friend in the stomach.
"Oof!"
Being exhausted by Knuckles and Vector chasing him before I got here, Espio was done. I ran to the chameleon, putting my hands to his head. The spell was identical to the one on Charmy, scrambling Espio's priorities so that he valued the word of Enerjak above all. His friends were a disorganized mess of feelings cast into second place, which meant they'd normally be near the top. I didn't have time to pry further, even if I wanted to.
"Let's try that again." I drowned out the fighting to swifty deprogram Espio while Knuckles and Vector covered me. "SNAP OUT OF IT!"
Since it worked last time, I smacked Espio to make the counterspell stick.
⟁ ♦ 50
The Phantom Ruby destroyed the hex, purging the most blatant and odious elements of Enerjak's influence from Espio's mind. His body went slack when I was done, by which point the Botanic Base had gone still.
"Is he back with us?" Knuckles asked.
I set Espio down on the ground, as gently as I could.
"Yes and no. He's back to normal, but he's not gonna be up again for a couple hours."
"We will keep guard over him," a new, more mature voice said.
Turning around, I saw a blue chameleon with red gloves and a matching red beret. He looked old enough to be Espio's older brother, or maybe his father. I could see flat-out invisible things, including the other chameleons, and I didn't notice this one at all.
"He's safe!" Knuckles said, noticing my guard was raised. "That's Valdez. Espio's mentor."
"I'll explain to the others what has happened," Valdez continued.
Vector put his headset back on once the last of the Prison Eggs were smashed open.
"Thanks Valdez! Think you guys can take things from here?"
He gave the crocodile a curt nod.
"The invaders have left enough weapons lying around that we can take care of the stragglers. Go now. You have other places to protect."
"He's got that right," I replied.
I snapped up another portal, this one going to what remained of Carnival Night's Hall of Mirrors exhibit.
⟁ ♦ 45
"You'd make a killing delivering pizzas with these!" Vector joked.
"Vector…" Knuckles started.
"Just trying to lighten the mood," Vector said, less enthusiastically than before. He walked towards the portal. "Things are getting pretty intense, you know?"
"Don't sweat it, Vec. We'll beat this guy."
Vector turned around to give Knuckles a high-five.
"You know it, Red! See ya on the other side!"
Vector stepped through the vortex. I turned to Knuckles.
"Do you remember what to do?" I asked him. "In case this doesn't go as planned, or… in case Enerjak gets the best of me."
I had just enough time to write down a short list of stuff he needed to deal with after beating Enerjak, in case I didn't make it. Once that was done, I gave it to Figment and made a secondary one for the Freedom Fighters to receive.
If I died, or turned into something else, then I wouldn't leave them all empty-handed.
"Of course I do!" he shouted. "Now go save Mighty like you said you would!"
Figment sent me another update on how Mighty and Metal Sonic were doing. The mountain village was damaged by their duel, looking like an avalanche or two had blown through. The mountain itself had taken more than its fair share of bumps and scrapes. Mighty was covered in bruises, but still standing. Metal Sonic's mecha state was down an arm, and his eyes had gone from red to green.
"Will do!"
Figment, fall back to Carnival Night!
My familiar bobbed his head and took off for the staging ground for the trap. I exited the Botanic Base through one of the broken windows and took to the air, heading northwest towards the snowy mountain. Which gave me a short-lived view of Nekronopolis.
It was plain to see that Enerjak was a big fan of the classics. The buildings were dark and brooding, hewn out of slate, pumice, and granite by magic. Several towers spat out plumes of noxious smoke, if for no other reason than to add texture to the atmosphere. Zipping past the evil fortress, but not so close that I would be in range of the mechanauts manning the laser cannons, I transmitted a psychic message directly to Metal Sonic.
"Hey Metal! Need some help over there?"
I gave him the power-up. Ergo, I was free to patch myself into his senses. Same as with Figment. I switched one of my eyes to what the badnik's cameras were looking at, which was Mighty, partially blocked by a 'LOW POWER' warning.
Metal Sonic sluggishly swiped his remaining arm at the armadillo.
"Wrapping up my end of the deal!" Mighty caught the arm, which became a liquid metal enveloping his body! "This organic still needs air! If he suffocates, then I win!!"
I flew faster, preparing to make another portal and save Mighty if he didn't back down.
"Killing wasn't in the deal, Metal! You're supposed to knock him out at the most!"
"You're really cramping my style, man!"
The metal mass reshaped itself around the armadillo, solidifying into a long cylinder that Metal Sonic braced against the nearest rock. Mighty went tumbling down the shute, as the super badnik's HUD pulled up a rangefinder widget. His targeting computer skimmed over the nearby peaks, then stopped at the lava-spewing Red Mountain at my back.
"Metal, what're you doing!?"
"It's Metal Sonic 2.5! Not to be abbreviated! And I'm out of juice! If you want him knocked out, then you take care of him yourself!"
Metal Sonic fired the cannon before I could object, launching Mighty high into the sky! The force of the shot caused the cannon and the rest of his transformed state to liquify into inert metal. The super badnik climbed out of the remains, his new body the Mechanix made for him and a scrap-eating grin being all that remained.
"You guys gave me a repair job, I played the distraction! You shot at me with a missile, I shoot at you with a missile! We're even, and I'm out of here!"
Metal Sonic rocketed away from the island, leaving us to whatever fate had in store.
"METAL!" I called out, to little avail.
"One last thing!" Metal Sonic shouted in my head. "CATCH!"
"Catch? What the hell is he--?!"
I was cut off by Mighty barreling into my chest as a dense ball of pain!
⟁ ♦ 40
The ground became the sky, and vice versa, over and over again, as we both went spinning into the base of the volcano! The ground became all-encompassing when we drilled through the slope on impact, the sky replaced with the luminous reds of the lava reefs!
⟁ ♦ 30
Mighty landed on a rocky cliff inside of the mountain's hollow, spacious interior, but I didn't stop rolling until I was falling over a shallow pool of magma!
"Fire shield!" I cried out! "Fire shield!"
⟁ ♦ !!
I breached the molten rock with a hot splash and a tremor of force from the impact. By the time I'd clawed myself out of the thick, viscous fluid, I was over a foot taller and over a hundred pounds heavier than I was moments before.
"Not now!" I growled. The intense geothermal activity mixed with the lack of sunlight down here were the perfect catalysts for me to become a dragon once more.
Mighty rose to his feet, staring down at me.
"You again?" Mighty said, putting up his dukes. "Raring to go another round already?"
"We can do this the easy way, but I have a feeling it'll be done the hard way!"
Mighty leapt off the cliff, driving his fist into the ground hard enough to cause another quake! All around us, the floor spurted out even more geysers of magma!
"Same here! I'm finishing the fight you started! And this time, I want you to stay down! PERMANENTLY!"
- - -
Did you know I have a Patreon and Ko-Fi? You would have earlier, but I only now realized I forgot to put them in my signature! My bad!
I've made a new boilerplate message to go at the end of each chapter, and it'll look like this:
This chapter has been brought to you by the following patrons and beta readers: Captain Nameless, C-Moon, Dr.doom360, Hellatrix, Justquestin2004, and N'Oni!
Thank you all for the continuing support!
Chapter 29: Plucking Narcissus, Part 1
It'd been quite a while since I'd had to deal with performance anxiety. Usually, it kicked up something fierce before I was about to run a session of one of my regular campaigns, if I knew the stakes that night were going to be particularly spicy. It didn't matter how much planning I did in advance, when I did happen to plan how that night was going to go instead of playing it by ear, the anxiety that crept up in the leadup game time could ratchet up to nigh-intolerable levels. If I could get past that uncomfortable experience, then the game itself could proceed smoothly. Usually, my players didn't notice a piece out of place.
The reason this relatively inane worry came rushing back to my mind was that it was flaring up all over again, when the stakes couldn't possibly be higher. My scheme was explained to them all a couple of times over, so that everyone knew the parts they had to play. Simple in nature, difficult in execution, and it wouldn't survive contact with a stiff breeze, let alone Enerjak. I was expecting something to go wrong, but even if it didn't, I'd have to scrap the rest and improvise when he took to the stage anyway. I let myself get comfortable with the powers the Phantom Ruby gave me, and I knew for a fact that he outclassed them in every direction.
Just wait for the signal and go.
The forest floor of the Mushroom Hills were littered with dry, autumnal leaves, shed from tall trees that competed for space with colorful toadstools as tall as redwoods. I wished I had time to ask Knuckles about how the ecosystem adapted to the constant movement of the island, but the answer was probably magic. Between the gigantic mushrooms were more humble ones the size of houses, complete with doors and windows. I couldn't tell if the huts were made out of hollowed-out mushrooms, or were wooden constructions made to resemble fungi in case Robotnik's spy bots came snooping around. The robots that were sent by Enerjak weren't on the topmost shelf of intellect, but they had enough processing power to knock and ask the terrified civilians if they heard the bad news at gunpoint.
Like the Mushroom Hills, Charmy Bee was also an uncannily familiar sight. He was small, about two feet in height, wearing a yellow and black shirt with short sleeves the same shade of red as his sneakers. The determined-looking bug had his signature black helmet with holes for his antennas, complemented by round goggles brought down over his eyes to keep out dust. The young bug's thoughts were clouded in an aura of green, bright glints of Enerjak's influence poking out his eyes. Expanding my awareness beyond that first layer, I could perceive the enchantment as a dark, winding chord, coiling and twisting around the bee's natural thought patterns until one end bit the other.
This'll be better than what Knux and Vector are gonna do to get Espio back to his old self.
⟁ ♦ 90
I was almost grateful when Metal Sonic ran out of patience and started his rampage a few minutes earlier than he was supposed to. The echoing roar, heard for miles and carried down the mountain, was our starting gun. Figment gave me the visual confirmation that the super badnik was engaging with the concentration of bots at the Ice Cap mountain, while my familiar kept an eye out for when Mighty the Armadillo came out to fight him. That left Fiona with the Mechanix at Carnival Night, Vector and Knuckles in the Rainbow Valley, and finally myself over the Mushroom Hills.
The bee switched to high alert when he heard the sound, flying straight up, above the forest, to get a better view of the disturbance happening miles away.
"Huh? What the heck was that--?" I discarded the invisibility I'd been maintaining and enveloped the bee in a wave of ruby energy! "HEY!"
I ignored his plea and grabbed him, snatching the bee out of the air so he wouldn't go anywhere while I disabled the mind hex.
"I'm freeing your mind!" I shouted at him. "Think liberating thoughts!"
⟁ ♦ 88
Trying to defuse Enerjak's magic with finesse was a different experience than when I smashed it with brute force. The spell was a slippery and sinuous thing, guarded by large mental blocks that let it wriggle out of reach. Once I had its number, the Enerjak's rough handiwork would unravel at the pull of the Phantom Ruby.
Shoddy. Amateur.
Fix now, complain later.
Fine. Watch and learn how the master unweaves a mislaid spell.
Waves of magenta fog leaked into Charmy's mind, smothering and consuming Enerjak's magic like white blood cells on bacteria. Or a virulent disease out-competing a weaker infection. I double-checked the Ars Ixia for instructions on how to do this kind of procedure "correctly", reducing the amount of damage I did on my target, and one of the things I had to do was locate the part of Charmy that wanted this glamor to break.
"Espio, help me!" Charmy cried out, the young bee helplessly wriggling in my hands and beating his wings in a vain attempt to free himself.
I felt my grip on Charmy slip as the Phantom Ruby snatched the exposed hex by the tail. One rip, and it'd come apart. Unfortunately, if there was one thing I'd figured out, it was that the effect my magic had on people wasn't pleasant.
How did I think this was more humane? He's only a kid!
Am I so certain of that? Look closer.
Perturbed by that intrusive comment, I looked at Charmy deeper. When I grasped onto the mind control spell, a few memories shook free. I wasn't trying to pry, already seeing what I was doing as a significant trespass, but I automatically read the fragments of Charmy's life as they were presented to me.
A golden kingdom of domes, spires, and hexagons. A golden kingdom whose beauty is never tarnished, even as the rest of the world crumbles around what was once the honey-yellow jewel of the west. There goes West Mobotropolis. There goes the Wolf Pack Nation. There goes Sand Blast City. They all fall, and the Colony of the Golden Hive remains. A golden kingdom of peace, stagnancy, and--
--Expectations for me to stop playing around and grow up already, when I haven't even had the chance to see the world! Smell all of the flowers that Mobius has to offer! Live my own life! I like Saffron, sure, but thirteen is way too young for me to tie the knot and spend the rest of my life as a do-nothing king!
"Wait, you're thirteen?" I said incredulously, having automatically snapped back to the Mushroom Hills when I heard that.
I had to mentally skip over the bit about Charmy being a prince or something. That was odd, but it was already a thing in the British comic. Him being a teen was much stranger.
"How old did you think I was?" Charmy said, having been distracted from his attempt at escape. "You were gonna say I looked older, right? Right?"
How was I supposed to know this Charmy was closer to his age in the old Chaotix manual than not? He still looks like a child!
"…Younger," I answered hesitantly.
He frowned.
"Tell me it was at least eleven." I was quiet, trying to hold on to Enerjak's hex before it went anywhere. "Ten?"
"I'm gonna go ahead and focus on breaking this hex, okay?"
Suddenly, Charmy shrunk down to the size of a real bee and began whizzing around my head! With his escape, my grip on the hex came loose!
"Mom says I'm a late bloomer!" Charmy buzzed angrily. Then he flew away!
He can size shift?!
My enhanced eyes were just enough to keep up with where the minimized bee was going. Charmy dove down, and when I followed, I was buffeted with lasers from Enerjak's robots!
"You're making it a lot harder for me not to hurt you!" I said as I tried to ensnare Charmy in a net of crystal threads.
⟁ ♦ 85
Charmy flew around the net, which fell on a troop of robots instead. I flew down and swung my arms wide, battering more of the robots before they could react. When my eyes were off Charmy, he switched directions on a dime and darted towards me at full size!
"Then I'll hurt you instead!" Charmy shouted, and he turned and aimed his giant stinger!
"Charmy, no!"
He jabbed me in the chest with his dagger-sized organ!
⟁ ♦ 80
Charmy's stab went straight past the ribs, through a lung, and stopped close to the heart. The attack was a level of sheer viciousness I'd never expect out of Charmy on a good day. Then again, this wasn't a good day for anyone present.
The wound went a lot deeper than when I was shot with mere arrows, and venomous compounds were liquidating my nerve tissue.
⟁ ♦ 77
I collapsed to the ground, forcing Charmy's resolve to quaver. He got some distance from me and waved off the robots that were closing in.
"I'm sorry!" Charmy said, shocked by what he'd been forced to do to me. "Surrender now, and I'll ask Enerjak to fix you! How's that sound?"
I shrugged off the illusion of a crippling blow, which was only a little painful. I then honed in on the exposed part of Charmy that was rebelling against his violent compulsion, and stretched my hand forward until it locked onto his helmet.
"Hey! Let go of me!"
Crystal outgrowths formed from my hand across the surface of Charmy's helmet and goggles. The soft approach was only doing me so many favors, so I yanked the headgear off and smacked him. Hard.
"WAKE UP!"
⟁ ♦ 75
The hex shattered as Charmy spun, and the fight went out of him instantly. I got closer and held the woozy bee in one hand. He was free to take a rest, at the same time I was being encircled by Enerjak's mechanical goons. I attached Charmy to my back with a safety bubble and used my spare hand to whip out a machine gun from Null Space.
⟁ ♦ 70
It was a Frankenstein-style heavy weapon, cobbled together as a custom order from the hyenas. The shortened barrel and pistol grip were intended for someone whose hand wouldn't snap off from the insane recoil, making it easy for me to grind down the horde before they could return the favor.
Switching one eye to Figment's vision, I could see that the super-sized Metal Sonic was running into trouble. An avalanche of debris came tumbling down on the super badnik from the nearby village, slowing down his rate of attack.
Figment? What's going on over there?
My familiar got closer, focusing his vision towards a red dot next to a windmill. The foundation of the windmill quaked and crumbled, before falling onto Titan Metal Sonic as a heavy mass of rubble!
"Face me for real, you dust mite!" Metal Sonic bellowed.
The red sphere catapulted off the ledge, dropping like a hammer on Metal Sonic's head! Uncurling from his ball form, the black and red armadillo banged on Metal Sonic's hull with his fists and rattled the super badnik's entire body against the base of Ice Cap. Out of the brawl's participants, it seemed like the mountain would be the first to crack.
"Is this real enough!?" Mighty the Armadillo shouted.
Metal Sonic grabbed Mighty with his large manipulators and flung him into the snowdrift.
"You were holding out against me last time, weren't you?"
Mighty popped out of the snow, cracking his knuckles with enough force to carry an echo.
"I don't like to go all-out, in case the wrong person gets caught up in it, but Master Enerjak is commanding me to rip you apart!"
Metal Sonic fired up his thrusters and rammed towards him, claws bared!
"Feeling mighty confident, huh? Time to remind you why you needed a whole team to BRING THIS GIANT DOWN!"
Mighty rolled downhill to meet him in a clash. I stopped my split remote viewing when my machine gun was obstructed by another flying bee!
"Be cool, man!" the frightened bug cried out.
This new bee's attire was markedly different from Charmy's. He was wearing a blue helmet with aviator goggles, a long, red scarf, and a bee-striped bomber jacket.
"Outta the way!" I shouted at him, shooting down what looked like the last of the enemy robots. "It's dangerous out here!"
"Not without my best bud! Let 'em go, ya big lug!"
I stopped, lowering my weapon.
"You mean him?" I lifted up the snoozing Chaotix member. He was already out like a light.
The newcomer flew up in my face, waving his arms and pointing.
"Yeah, him!" I put Charmy in his hands. "Woah!"
"Please get him out of here. I'm trying to fix this whole thing and I'm on a time budget!"
The bee held Charmy by the wrists and flew upwards.
"You with the--"
"Chaotix and yes! Now move it!"
"Uh, sure! I'll take him back to his place in the Strawberry Fields while this blows over!"
"You do that."
"Thanks, dude! You're pretty alright for a--"
I warped to the garden settlement on the other side of the mountain range.
⟁ ♦ 65
In contrast to the rest of the island, which was undergoing (if not moving through) a winter season, the glass-roofed greenhouses of this iridescent region kept it nice and warm for its reptilian residents. Over half of what was commonly referred to as the Rainbow Valley was covered in this way, making its status as just another forest an impressively detailed façade. The geodesic domes were impossible to recognize as such from the ground or by looking at them from the sky, providing little glare as sunlight passed right through the strange, invisible materials that composed them.
It was obvious that the chameleons didn't want to advertise how much fine control they had over their secluded enclave on the island; all of that would've remained unseen if I didn't have the Phantom Ruby to tell me what was there and what wasn't. Including a pink chameleon girl with long hair, white gloves, and yellow boots. She was curled up in a bush. Eyes shut, breathing shallow, trying to be as silent as possible until the danger passed.
The chameleon hadn't noticed me yet. I walked forward, to ask her where the others were, when I realized that she was already too terrified to give me a straight answer.
I shifted my form, taking on the shape of a magenta chameleon. My disguise was closer to Espio as I knew him in the games than what I saw of him when we fought. This one didn't have his metal bracers, and his shoes were still green rather than purple.
"Are you okay?" I said gently, approaching the chameleon with a medical kit in my hands.
The young woman jumped up with a frightened yelp. Once she'd identified me as a fellow chameleon, her body relaxed, and her eyes went to my accessories.
"You're from the homeland!" she said, relief clear in her voice. "Like Espio and Valdez!"
The homeland? Was it because I copied Espio's ninja gear? I wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about, but I didn't have time to disagree.
"What happened here?"
She grabbed onto me like a life preserver.
"You have to help us! Espio betrayed the Rainbow Valley to invaders!"
Seemed like Espio had, under Enerjak's orders, revealed where the rest of his people were hiding. With the Rainbow Valley's proximity to Nekronopolis, devoting his forces here for the specific purpose of rounding up the stealth-inclined chameleons made sense.
"Espio isn't in control of his actions," I explained, as I checked her over for injuries.
"I-I don't understand."
She doesn't have anything useful. Move on.
Not. Yet.
"His mind's been taken over by dark magic," I answered. "Don't worry. I'm here to help."
"Who are you?" the pink chameleon asked, taking a step back. She let out a wince of pain, then shifted her weight more on one leg than the other.
Espio, Valdez. Noticing a pattern.
"My name is Inigo. What's yours?"
"L-Liza," she stammered out.
"Liza. Can you walk?"
One of her legs was injured. Probably caused by her running, losing her balance, and falling.
"I don't know."
"Try this."
I went to my medical bag and pulled out a crutch that wasn't there before. Having a couple of staves in Null Space, it only took a mote of magic for me to adjust one of them into something she could use to get out of here.
⟁ ♦ 64
"T-Thank you, Inigo."
I looked her in the eyes, to make sure she was still with me.
"Liza, I need you to take cover in the outskirts of the Rainbow Valley. The robots can't see you without another chameleon pointing you out. Tell the same to any other chameleons you run into that they need to make themselves scarce. Do you understand?"
"Yes. I… understand."
"Did you see where Espio went? Or the Chaotix?"
Liza gestured in the direction of the largest camouflaged domes. From that direction, I could hear the muffled shouts and other sounds of active combat.
"They're all at the Botanic Base! Please! You have to hurry!"
I broke into a run towards the dome, leaving Liza to handle getting to safety on her own. Breaking through one of the large, triangular windows of the greenhouse with a shoulder barge, I discarded my chameleon cover and rammed into the nearest robot I could.
"What took you so long?" Vector called out over the cacophony of the fight.
The crocodile took off his headphones, aimed the peripheral at the robots, and hit 'play'. The result was a sonic blast that knocked a line of them off their feet!
How has he not deafened himself by accident?
How should I know?
I wasn't asking you!
In the Botanic Base, a multileveled complex where living spaces were much more compact and densely populated, using any of my firearms was completely out of the question. I grabbed one of them by the neck and slammed them into the next, hard enough that I was left holding little more than an aluminum skeleton.
"Charmy was trickier than he looked!"
"But you got him back, right?"
One of Enerjak's bots fell atop the yellow plunger of a large, cylindrical capsule, like the kind that Eggman used to hold animals in the games. Several of them had been strewn about the inside of the greenhouse village. When the button was pressed, the capsule ruptured open, and several panicked chameleons went running out.
"Yeah, he's taking a rest in the Strawberry Fields! What're those containers?"
"The mechanauts are using Robotnik's leftover Prison Eggs!" Vector stated. "Hit the button on top and they crack!"
I tossed the metal frame and stretched my arm and hammered another one of the Prison Eggs open with my fist, freeing the chameleons inside them. They scrambled out of the Botanic Base, through the exit doors and up the walls towards the vents in the roof.
"Did you stop Espio yet?" I asked.
"Have you seen the new moves he's--!" Vector ran towards me! "LOOK OUT!"
"Your life is forfeit to his will!" Espio cried.
I looked up and got a kunai lodged in my jugular!
⟁ ♦ 60
Ow. Honestly, Charmy's stinger was worse. I removed the knife from my neck and cleared my throat. Looking upwards for a second time, I could see Espio the Chameleon was spinning like a top midair, throwing shurikens and other sharpened implements as he jumped from treetop to treetop. Knuckles was in hot pursuit right behind his friend, trying to catch him from the air and punching through any mechanauts that got in his way.
It beats calling them "robots" all the time.
I need to wrap this up and move on to the last one. Then I take care of Enerjak.
"FREEZE!" I shouted at Espio, a command followed by the sensation of a frigid wind that caused him to lose his concentration and drop!
⟁ ♦ 58
"You have no command over me!" Espio proclaimed.
Espio performed a ukemi, landing on his hands to zero the damage from his fall and converting the rest of his momentum into a spinning roundhouse kick to my jaw!
⟁ ♦ 55
I cast my hand out and put a portal on the wall where Espio was about to land after his counter, causing him to go from sticking on a nearby wall to falling from the ceiling.
⟁ ♦ 52
"Knuckles! Hold him still so I can--!"
"I've got it!" Knuckles shouted. He glided upwards and punched his friend in the stomach.
"Oof!"
Being exhausted by Knuckles and Vector chasing him before I got here, Espio was done. I ran to the chameleon, putting my hands to his head. The spell was identical to the one on Charmy, scrambling Espio's priorities so that he valued the word of Enerjak above all. His friends were a disorganized mess of feelings cast into second place, which meant they'd normally be near the top. I didn't have time to pry further, even if I wanted to.
"Let's try that again." I drowned out the fighting to swifty deprogram Espio while Knuckles and Vector covered me. "SNAP OUT OF IT!"
Since it worked last time, I smacked Espio to make the counterspell stick.
⟁ ♦ 50
The Phantom Ruby destroyed the hex, purging the most blatant and odious elements of Enerjak's influence from Espio's mind. His body went slack when I was done, by which point the Botanic Base had gone still.
"Is he back with us?" Knuckles asked.
I set Espio down on the ground, as gently as I could.
"Yes and no. He's back to normal, but he's not gonna be up again for a couple hours."
"We will keep guard over him," a new, more mature voice said.
Turning around, I saw a blue chameleon with red gloves and a matching red beret. He looked old enough to be Espio's older brother, or maybe his father. I could see flat-out invisible things, including the other chameleons, and I didn't notice this one at all.
"He's safe!" Knuckles said, noticing my guard was raised. "That's Valdez. Espio's mentor."
"I'll explain to the others what has happened," Valdez continued.
Vector put his headset back on once the last of the Prison Eggs were smashed open.
"Thanks Valdez! Think you guys can take things from here?"
He gave the crocodile a curt nod.
"The invaders have left enough weapons lying around that we can take care of the stragglers. Go now. You have other places to protect."
"He's got that right," I replied.
I snapped up another portal, this one going to what remained of Carnival Night's Hall of Mirrors exhibit.
⟁ ♦ 45
"You'd make a killing delivering pizzas with these!" Vector joked.
"Vector…" Knuckles started.
"Just trying to lighten the mood," Vector said, less enthusiastically than before. He walked towards the portal. "Things are getting pretty intense, you know?"
"Don't sweat it, Vec. We'll beat this guy."
Vector turned around to give Knuckles a high-five.
"You know it, Red! See ya on the other side!"
Vector stepped through the vortex. I turned to Knuckles.
"Do you remember what to do?" I asked him. "In case this doesn't go as planned, or… in case Enerjak gets the best of me."
I had just enough time to write down a short list of stuff he needed to deal with after beating Enerjak, in case I didn't make it. Once that was done, I gave it to Figment and made a secondary one for the Freedom Fighters to receive.
If I died, or turned into something else, then I wouldn't leave them all empty-handed.
"Of course I do!" he shouted. "Now go save Mighty like you said you would!"
Figment sent me another update on how Mighty and Metal Sonic were doing. The mountain village was damaged by their duel, looking like an avalanche or two had blown through. The mountain itself had taken more than its fair share of bumps and scrapes. Mighty was covered in bruises, but still standing. Metal Sonic's mecha state was down an arm, and his eyes had gone from red to green.
"Will do!"
Figment, fall back to Carnival Night!
My familiar bobbed his head and took off for the staging ground for the trap. I exited the Botanic Base through one of the broken windows and took to the air, heading northwest towards the snowy mountain. Which gave me a short-lived view of Nekronopolis.
It was plain to see that Enerjak was a big fan of the classics. The buildings were dark and brooding, hewn out of slate, pumice, and granite by magic. Several towers spat out plumes of noxious smoke, if for no other reason than to add texture to the atmosphere. Zipping past the evil fortress, but not so close that I would be in range of the mechanauts manning the laser cannons, I transmitted a psychic message directly to Metal Sonic.
"Hey Metal! Need some help over there?"
I gave him the power-up. Ergo, I was free to patch myself into his senses. Same as with Figment. I switched one of my eyes to what the badnik's cameras were looking at, which was Mighty, partially blocked by a 'LOW POWER' warning.
Metal Sonic sluggishly swiped his remaining arm at the armadillo.
"Wrapping up my end of the deal!" Mighty caught the arm, which became a liquid metal enveloping his body! "This organic still needs air! If he suffocates, then I win!!"
I flew faster, preparing to make another portal and save Mighty if he didn't back down.
"Killing wasn't in the deal, Metal! You're supposed to knock him out at the most!"
"You're really cramping my style, man!"
The metal mass reshaped itself around the armadillo, solidifying into a long cylinder that Metal Sonic braced against the nearest rock. Mighty went tumbling down the shute, as the super badnik's HUD pulled up a rangefinder widget. His targeting computer skimmed over the nearby peaks, then stopped at the lava-spewing Red Mountain at my back.
"Metal, what're you doing!?"
"It's Metal Sonic 2.5! Not to be abbreviated! And I'm out of juice! If you want him knocked out, then you take care of him yourself!"
Metal Sonic fired the cannon before I could object, launching Mighty high into the sky! The force of the shot caused the cannon and the rest of his transformed state to liquify into inert metal. The super badnik climbed out of the remains, his new body the Mechanix made for him and a scrap-eating grin being all that remained.
"You guys gave me a repair job, I played the distraction! You shot at me with a missile, I shoot at you with a missile! We're even, and I'm out of here!"
Metal Sonic rocketed away from the island, leaving us to whatever fate had in store.
"METAL!" I called out, to little avail.
"One last thing!" Metal Sonic shouted in my head. "CATCH!"
"Catch? What the hell is he--?!"
I was cut off by Mighty barreling into my chest as a dense ball of pain!
⟁ ♦ 40
The ground became the sky, and vice versa, over and over again, as we both went spinning into the base of the volcano! The ground became all-encompassing when we drilled through the slope on impact, the sky replaced with the luminous reds of the lava reefs!
⟁ ♦ 30
Mighty landed on a rocky cliff inside of the mountain's hollow, spacious interior, but I didn't stop rolling until I was falling over a shallow pool of magma!
"Fire shield!" I cried out! "Fire shield!"
⟁ ♦ !!
I breached the molten rock with a hot splash and a tremor of force from the impact. By the time I'd clawed myself out of the thick, viscous fluid, I was over a foot taller and over a hundred pounds heavier than I was moments before.
"Not now!" I growled. The intense geothermal activity mixed with the lack of sunlight down here were the perfect catalysts for me to become a dragon once more.
Mighty rose to his feet, staring down at me.
"You again?" Mighty said, putting up his dukes. "Raring to go another round already?"
"We can do this the easy way, but I have a feeling it'll be done the hard way!"
Mighty leapt off the cliff, driving his fist into the ground hard enough to cause another quake! All around us, the floor spurted out even more geysers of magma!
"Same here! I'm finishing the fight you started! And this time, I want you to stay down! PERMANENTLY!"
- - -
This is the fic's two-parter! I know folks were expecting the Enerjak fight to happen this chapter, and to be honest, so was I! However, I didn't want to speed through the Chaotix boss rush when there was so much action to cover! So I split them in two, and the next chapter will be the second half of Plucking Narcissus!
All of these areas on Angel Island are locations that more or less exist on Archie's treatment of the place, but weren't quite getting their fair shake. Some of these aspects (such as the Rainbow Valley and Botanic Base being the same) were very late additions from Super Sonic Digest #2. It's generally understood that the name changes were done for legal reasons, but I took advantage of them to make the story more exciting!
I'll try not to drag-on with the next chapter. See you then!
All of these areas on Angel Island are locations that more or less exist on Archie's treatment of the place, but weren't quite getting their fair shake. Some of these aspects (such as the Rainbow Valley and Botanic Base being the same) were very late additions from Super Sonic Digest #2. It's generally understood that the name changes were done for legal reasons, but I took advantage of them to make the story more exciting!
I'll try not to drag-on with the next chapter. See you then!
Did you know I have a Patreon and Ko-Fi? You would have earlier, but I only now realized I forgot to put them in my signature! My bad!
I've made a new boilerplate message to go at the end of each chapter, and it'll look like this:
♦ Want to support my work? ♦
PATREON | KO-FI
♦ Join the W2 Workshop Zone for previews and updates! ♦
W2 Workshop Zone Discord
PATREON | KO-FI
♦ Join the W2 Workshop Zone for previews and updates! ♦
W2 Workshop Zone Discord
This chapter has been brought to you by the following patrons and beta readers: Captain Nameless, C-Moon, Dr.doom360, Hellatrix, Justquestin2004, and N'Oni!
Thank you all for the continuing support!
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- In space!
❞