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Narcissism

Chapter 3

Sanity and Scourge had never been close friends. At most they could be described as casual acquaintances. But after the betrayal of the Suppression Squad, being incarcerated, the systematic abuse from Smalls the Cat, and prolonged exposure to the corrosive entity known as Mephiles, Scourge and sanity were like the kids who had a class together one term and now awkwardly said 'hi' in the hallways.

To put it in a metaphor free, easy to understand way, Scourge was basically batshit.

This became painfully apparent to the remaining members of the Suppression Squad when the green hedgehog stepped out of the portal Mephiles had opened with a pistol in one hand and a switch blade knife in the other.

"Ah, home sweet home, Castle Acorn," Scourge drawled. Ice blue eyes looked around the dining room slowly and a crazy smile stretched his face, baring sharp teeth. The Suppression Squad leapt up from their chairs, almost identical looks of shock adorning their features.

"Scourge! How the he—"

"Sit down and shut the fuck up you stupid fucking squirrel," Scourge spat viciously, he backhanded the approaching squirrel with the hand holding the knife. The force of the slap knocked her off of her feet and with a surprised cry of pain she hit the ground.

"GET THE HELL UP!"

The green hedgehog swung out his foot in a short vicious arc that hit her in the side, keeping his gun trained on the shocked onlookers. Alicia gasped in pain and scrambled away from him. The green hedgehog fired a bullet into the ground next to her and screamed at her again to get up. When she didn't move fast enough for him he stepped forward, seized her by the collar (either ignoring or not caring that his knife came dangerously close to cutting her.) and threw her into a chair.

Scourge sneered at her for a moment and then began to look around again, "Miles!," he crowed, "Where are you buddy? Come on out, let's talk!"

The yellow fox stepped to the front. He looked remarkably well-composed, the only signs he was nervous were his slightly messy hair and slightly too-wide eyes.

"Scourge, what are you doing here?" he asked his voice shaking slightly with repressed fear.

Scourge's smile widened and he lifted the gun up to shoulder level, "Nothing you need to worry about"

The fox's eyes widened in understanding and he opened his mouth to protest.

*CRACK*

The top of Miles head disappeared in a cloud of blood, bone, and brain matter. His body dropped bonelessly to the floor. Several members of the Suppression Squad cried out in horror and Scourge let the gun drop casually back to his side.

"Now then," he looked around, eyes twinkling in cold amusement, "we've got business to discuss."

The green hedgehog cocked the hammer of the pistol again and the remaining members of the Suppression Squad shuddered collectively.

Manik Acorn, son of King Sonic and Queen Sally, was racing through the streets of the Kingdom of Acorn on his way to get something to eat. Well, to be completely honest he was running away from his mom who wanted him to do…well, something. He hadn't really been listening. But, in any case, he was avoiding his mom AND getting something to eat.

The preteen snorted, 'and Sonia says I can't multitask'.

He turned a sharp corner and crashed into a solid body with enough force to throw the boy off his feet.

"Hey watch where you're going jerk" he muttered.

He looked up and promptly regretted his words. Standing in front of him were two of the largest men he had ever seen. Both of them wore orange prison jumpsuits that rippled with the movements of their muscles. Neither of the men acknowledged Manik's statement but the large white wolf turned to his companion.

"That him?" he asked gruffly.

The brown dog with mismatched eyes nodded.

"hehe…yeah,well…I'm just gonna go…sorry about bumping into you" Manik began to back away, his heart fluttering a mile-a-minute. Something was wrong here, his gut was telling him so, something was very, very wrong. The feeling of wrongness spiked as he took another step back and bumped against another solid body. He gasped in pain as he felt a needle being stuck into him. What felt like ice-cold fire was being pushed into his veins and the world began to grow fuzzy almost immediately. He turned to see a dark-grey echidna smiling at him, an empty syringe held aloft in one hand.

"Sorry," he drawled amusedly, "Couldn't have you running off now could we?"

The world seemed to be slowing down, spinning and darkening. Manik tried to take a step with shoes that felt like they were filled with concrete and began to fall. The street rushed up to meet him.

"Who the hell is this kid?"

Scourge nudged the small blue hedgehog with the toe of his shoe. The kid stirred fitfully but didn't wake up.

Mephiles eyed the green hedgehog speculatively, he didn't much care what happened to the child but it wouldn't do for Scourge to snap and destroy one of his toys. The mortal seemed to be much calmer and more levelheaded since returning from Castle Acorn but the dark hedgehog took a step closer so that he could restrain the other man if need be.

"That is Manik Acorn, the son of Sonic the Hedgehog."

Scourge whistled incredulously, "Blue has a kid?"

"In the very distant future, yes. I trust things went well with the Suppression Squad?"

Mephiles answer came in the form of a psychotic grin and a happy nod. Satisfied, the immortal turned to leave. He was almost out the door when Scourge spoke again.

"Hey, how can Blue's future kid be here if we're gonna kill his dad?"

"I don't have the time to explain the intricacy of both Zone and Time travel to you. Let us say that it is far beyond your level of understanding and leave it at that."

Scourge growled and reached for his gun, but a shaky voice stopped him.

"D…Dad?"

A/N: UGH I AM SO SORRY! This chapter took forever and I couldn't even get it to a state where I considered it anything other than passable (writers block is, without a doubt, one of the biggest bitches I know) sorry again, I'll do my best to update more often (and with longer chapters; a chapter this short is just a onetime thing I promise)

Sorry once more,

trancepanda