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Three days in here, and Sonic was tired—tired of this cell, tired of these dumb handcuffs, tired of Edgy McCreep the Wolf’s music. Especially the music, because while it had been all right for the first few plays, it played all the time like it was the guy’s theme song, and now it was digging knives into his brain.
Sonic had half a mind to bust out now and give Infinite a few tips on writing music.
He wasn’t sure what time it was when the two-way intercom crackled to life again—without sunlight, it was hard to orient himself. Sonic sighed in relief. “Thank C—”
“Sonic the Hedgehog,” Infinite’s voice rumbled over the com.
Sonic rolled his eyes. “Yo, Finny, you know you can just call me Sonic, right? I don’t need to be reminded of my species every time you address me.”
Infinite either didn’t hear Sonic or chose to ignore him. “I have a treat for you today—”
“Is it chilidogs?”
“Is it—no, it’s not chilidogs, you idiot.” For a moment, Infinite dropped the silky tone. “Chilidogs are disgusting. They’ll be the first thing to go when I remake this world.”
Sonic made an affronted noise, but again, Infinite ignored him. “No, you’ll be receiving a visitor shortly.”
“You mean, we don’t have a date today? Aww, I thought we had something special.”
Infinite growled. “I’m not the only one who holds a grudge against you.” His voice became smooth again, and Sonic imagined that if the guy had a beard, he’d be stroking it. “I hear you’re not too fond of water.”
Before Sonic could snark back, the com cut off and the music returned.
“I am the darkest of days—”
Sonic sighed, settling back to pick at the rust on his chains.
Sonic had actually started humming Infinite’s theme song, and it was starting to scare him.
This “visitor” sure is taking their sweet time in getting here…
He’d run through the possible candidates, but he’d drawn a blank. Amazingly, in all his years of the hero-ing schtick, he’d encountered surprisingly few people who still hated him and could be connected to water. Fire-based, sure, there were lots of those. But water—
“I’m coming at’cha like a tidal wave…”
As if on cue— probably ordered by Infinite, the weirdo , Sonic thought—there was a rumbling coming from the tiny faucet in the far right corner. He eyed the faucet warily.
The rumbling continued, growing louder, and the faucet started quivering. Sonic could still hear the strains of Infinite’s music, but his stomach started flipping as he heard strains of chimes and the crackling of energy—
Sonic was eighty percent sure he screamed when the faucet exploded.
Only once the flood of water had ended did Sonic dare open his eyes. “Okay, Infinite, you got me, nice joke—”
But Infinite wasn’t there. Well, not in person, as he was too busy having a fit of hysterics over the intercom. Rather, in front of Sonic was a large puddle of water. And a rather familiar one at that.
“ Chaos? ”
Upon being addressed, the puddle morphed into a see-through, humanoid creature. Though it didn’t have much of a face, Sonic thought it would have been laughing.
“Ya big drip! ” Sonic shook his soaked shoe at the water god, making a splashing sound that didn’t sound at all menacing. “I thought I neutralized you and all that.”
Chaos made a gurgling noise.
“He promised to give you a Chao Garden? ”
Chaos’s eyes flashed, and Sonic put his hands up in a placating gesture. “Okay, okay, sorry. He said he’d let you take care of all the Chao Gardens.” Sonic then quirked an eyebrow. “Hate to break it to ya, bud, but what I heard was that he intended to take over the entire world and remake it in his image. Y’know. No more Chao, probably.”
Chaos stared at Sonic for an entire minute. Well, technically it was always staring, since it didn’t have eyelids, but whatever.
The intercom crackled again. “Chaos, he’s lying. Don’t lis—”
Infinite didn’t say any more, because Chaos had extended its arm and punched the com right off the wall.
Chaos turned back to Sonic, and it sliced off Sonic’s chains with a swipe of its hand. Sonic grinned, rubbing his wrists where the cuffs had been chafing. “Now this is more like it.”
The door fell with a pitiful-sounding clang after one homing attack. “Geez, for having the name ‘Infinite,’ the guy’s budget is quite… finite,” Sonic said, pretending to dust himself off. It wasn’t a good impression since he was still sopping wet.
Chaos burbled again, and Sonic groaned. “You’re kidding. Shadow is here too? Lemme guess, mind control?”
Chaos had already turned into a puddle and begun gliding away, presumably toward where Shadow and whatever misguided allies of Infinite’s were gathered. Sonic shook his head and laughed before following, shoes squelching with every step.
“For Shadow’s next birthday, I’m giving him a tin foil hat…”