Dark Genesis: Guardian Falling
a Moritori Rex story

"Tobor!" A panicked voice called out into thick, musty silence. "Tobor! TOBOR!"

The faint patter of soft shoes could be heard scrabbling over broken bricks and rubble in quick irregular steps, as Hawking called out - growing louder and more desperate with every call.

Deo had warned him, Hawking remembered regretfully, that it would be unwise to leave Tobor in charge for the first time without any back-up standing by ready. But Hawking wanted to teach Tobor the old Guardian value of self-reliance, never imagining the Dark Legion of all things could be his first threat to face.
'Oh, Tobor, if you've paid the price for my lack of foresight… what could I tell the girls?'
Hawking stumbled on, not daring stopping to rest, knowing only too well that his son's chances were dropping with every wasted second.

"TOBOR! For the love Aurora, answer me, son! TOBOR!"

Hawking's footsteps stopped, as another voice moaned softly, silenced by agony.

"Tobor?" Hawking held his breath, and rushed towards the noise, tripping over bricks and boulders as he ran, but never slowing down. Not for anything. Not while there was a chance his son could still be alive.

"Tobor! Tobor!" Hawking called out again. His heart began pounding a drum-roll in his chest, as he caught sight of a mangled, red arm and head sticking up out of the rubble, next to an old hat he knew well.

"Oh, Tobor! What did they do to you, son?" Hawking gasped and fell to his knees, as he began moving away the rocks that lay on top of the unmoving body.
He was drenched in cold sweat and weak with worry, but he didn't stop to recover until the last of the boulders had been moved.
Hawking looked sadly down at the motionless body. Barely any skin was visible through the blood and bruises and his clothes were ripped to blood-soaked shreds. He caught the hint of white across the torso, which erased any doubt in Hawking's mind.
He was a mess. He was unconscious. But he was still alive. That was all that mattered.

In one swift movement, Hawking whipped the hat onto his head and then scooped up the beaten young echidna into his arms, holding him tight.
"Hang in there, son." Hawking said in a low voice, barely more than a whisper. "I'll get you some help."

And as Hawking carried the ragged body away, somewhere nearby, still trapped beneath the debris, silent tears streamed piteously down a heartbroken face, as the realization sunk in.

Moritori Rex had won.

"-- BEEP ------ BEEP ------ BEEP ------ BEEP --"

With a start, Moritori Rex awoke.

For a few seconds, he simply lay with his eyes closed, and his body still. It felt as though every square inch of it was on fire. His breathing became short and sharp, in effort to suppress the intense pain that filled every layer of his body. He snapped open his eyes, only to quickly close them again. Harsh light poured glaringly into the room from a large window, and everything seemed to glow an intense bright white.

"-- BEEP ------ BEEP ------ BEEP ------ BEEP ------ BEEP--"

Tentatively, he opened them again, squinting against the light that was making his head ache worse than it already did. His vision slid in and out of focus, which with a shock, he suddenly realised was only in black-and-white. With his head spinning and his vision so blurry, he could scarcely read a clipboard that was being held on front of his face by a metal frame.
Giving himself a moment, he could finally read:

IF YOU CAN READ!
Your name is TOBOR
You are 20 years old
It is the year 3052
You have been in a serious accident
You are now in Echidnaopolis Mercy Hospital

"Uhnn…" Rex groaned, trying to process this information. He reached for his aching head, but found that he couldn't move his left arm. The room was still spinning, and he was felt like he was going to hurl.

Tobor… Tobor… that sounded familiar, but it didn't sound like his own name…

Of course not, his name was Moritori Rex. He was the Grandmaster of the Dark Legion, loyal followers dedicated to continue his Grandfather Dimitri's noble work!

As for Tobor, he was a descendant of that traitorous Edmund, whom had sunk so low as to betray his own brother, and become a pawn in the Councils backward plans. What's more, Tobor was also a descendant of that Guardian brat that killed his father! Where was he? He'd rip that insolent wretch into many painful, uncountable pieces….

"Ah, you're awake, Guardian" A nurse said brightly, reaching for her clipboard. Rex winced at the sudden sharp noise. "I'll go alert the doctor." The nurse took a few notes, then rushed out of the doors.

'….Guardian? What? Where?' Rex thought in panic, trying to sit up, but finding it extremely painful to do so.
But the sign above his bed said that he was the guardian. Why had the nurse made the same mistake? Where was his proper sign?
Slowly, Moritori's aching head put two and two together.
'It worked?' Moritori thought. 'They really think I'm Tobor? He couldn't help but grin. All those doors of opportunity that have now been opened up! But things didn't go completely according to plan… This will require some seriously quick thinking if I'm going to pull this off successfully. If only my head would stop throbbing…'

The plan was simple. Invade Echidnaopolis, attract the attention of the current guardian, engage in battle, transport the both of them to the outskirts of the floating island, and end the battle there. Steal the clothes of Guardian, then emerge victorious as Tobor, a hero, then proceed to infiltrate the Brotherhood of Guardians.

Of course, as simple as it sounded, it had taken many months of preparations and careful planning.

He would firstly need to find a means of opening a gateway between the Twilight Zone and Echidnaopolis. In one of the many failed attempts, he and his Legion had accidentally, but by no means regretfully, found a means of watching the Floating Island undetectably. It was useful for finding out about Tobor and his mannerisms in what would be Prime Zone years leading up to his attack. Not to mention, it was also amusing to watch their lives race by at four times the speed of his own.

Secondly, he would need a device to transport him and the Guardian away from the scene. Something small that could be hand held, something durable, that could survive their initial fight, yet powerful enough to transport both of them to another location.

Thirdly, he would need to wait until the Twilight Zone and the Floating Island's time streams lined up Tobor's age with his own. Moritori Rex had been born long before Tobor had, but Hawking was already older than he was. Although time was on his side, He didn't want to wait until Tobor's son had grown, not when Tobor was such a perfect match. So he had decided that now was the time to attack!

Fourthly, and perhaps the most crucial of them all, he would need to make sure he physically looked like Tobor. He was fortunate in that he already looked uncannily like him (then again, who two echidnas didn't?) but there posed a problem. A problem he would face if he tried to impersonate anyone from the Line of Edmund.
The Guardian Ring.
Quite a spanner in the works.
The Ring was found to be a side affect of Chaos radiation from the prolonged contact and constant channeling of the Master Emeralds energies the Guardians were entitled to. Without the Master Emerald to provide Moritori Rex with a ring of his own, he had to develop his own methods of producing Chaos energy. A team of techno-scientists produced the solution – a golden ring. A Power Ring. A BETA Warp Ring of sorts.

Its effects would only be temporary, but it should be long enough to gain the trust of the Brotherhood, then get sufficiently close to the Master Emerald and get the real thing.

After slipping his head through the ring, and resting it on his bare torso like a necklace, Moritori Rex wiped his mind of any doubts or uncertainties that were plaguing his mind, absorbed the ring and felt its raw, prickling power surge through his body. A brilliant white arc glowed across his chest, before settling as the Guardian Ring it was intended to be.
Success!
The added power it gave him would be a great help in his showdown against the Guardian. With his heart and mind on his goal, Moritori put on his clothing, and marched his forces out of the Twilight Zone, and into Zone beyond.

But somewhere in the execution of his master plan, something he had not anticipated happened. The location to which he had teleported himself and the Guardian had been unstable, and collapsed on the two of them - severely injuring him, and hopefully killing Tobor. Fortunately, the Power Ring he had absorbed earlier had protected his body somewhat. No matter, however, as it seemed the ends justified the means. He'd managed to pass himself of as Tobor, regardless of a few hiccups…

Suddenly, startling Rex out of his thoughts, the doors swung open as the doctor came rushing in.

"Good morning, Sir. Or should I say afternoon? I'm Doctor Gordon. Perhaps it would be best if you lay back down. You've been through the wars, that's for sure." The doctor said kindly, peering at Moritori Rex over his reading glasses.

Moritori did as he was advised, and leaned back into his bed. He would remain silent until he found out just what's what.

"I'll just run some basic checkups first. If you could please follow the light with your eyes?"
Once again, Moritori did as he was asked, and followed Dr. Gordon's light in a figure-8 pattern. The doctor then proceeded to make several other similar tests, such as checking his breathing, and tapping his knee with a small mallet to make sure the leg rebounded as it should.

"Well, you're in about as good a shape as we can hope for, considering you've been out cold for almost two whole days." The doctor said with a satisfied smile. "Better, infact. You've recovered remarkably well. They must make you Guardians tough, eh? But you haven't said a word, son. Is there anything you need?"

"Hurts…." Rex croaked without hesitation. By the Walkers, he was going to do something about the pain. "Everything. My head sore… Fix it…"

The Doctor smiled again.
"I'll get the nurse to check if we can give you another cocktail of pain killers. Anything else?"

"Black-and-white?" Moritori asked, his head too groggy to link his brain to his tongue, and string a coherent sentence together. "Everything – you – the room – why?"

The doctor frowned this time.
"Your eyes," The doctor said gravely "were badly damaged in the accident. We had to implant artificial optic sensors. Unfortunately, all that were available for the time being were Monochromatic ones. After your condition improves, we can look at ordering in some Technicolor ones for you. For now, I'd just be thankful you can see anything at all."

Moritori did his best to hide his inward scowl. Of course, this was a hospital in a society that renounced technology. They wouldn't have state-of-the-art optic implants like they would back in the Legion. The Legion is bounds ahead of Echidnaopolis in the technological department. That tedious check up the doctor would take the Dark Legion mere seconds to make an accurate diagnosis with a brain scan. When he stopped to think about it, Moritori Rex wasn't sure he was in the safest of hands here in Echidnaopolis Mercy Hospital.

On another note, he supposed he was lucky his eyes were damaged. His Legionnaire cybernetic implants on the sides of his eyes must have ripped off, and would be a dead give-away as to his true identity.

"Your left arm is broken, and you have badly sprained your right hand. So those will take some time to heal. Though, you seem to be made of tougher stuff that the rest of us." Dr Gordon continued. "You're a very lucky young man."

"Yes – very lucky." Moritori repeated with a nod – then a wince. The muscles in his neck were stiff and sore.

Only you don't know how lucky I truly am! Moritori thought. That idiot Hawking rescued me, and left his own son for dead! If I can just hold on to my disguise, this will be a perfect chance for revenge…

"Well, if there's nothing else you need, Guardian, I'm sure your family will be dying to speak to you. I'll send them in, shall I?"

Moritori Rex closed his eyes to think. He would rather not face those most likely to catch him out just yet, but there wasn't really any saying no. This would be a true test of his wits. While he frantically searched his memory for every scrap of information he learnt while he watched Tobor and his family from the Twilight Zone, he said quietly to the Doctor,

"Y-yes - I'd like to see them…Send them in."