ROULETTE
A Sonic the Hedgehog AU/SI fic
I set down on an isolated rooftop that was most likely clear of any surveillance sightlines used by the Council with any regularity. They were, if the outsider's memories proved to be a valid representation of what was going on (and I had no reason to doubt them yet) only five individuals and they didn't really trust enough people outside of their tiny group to actually maintain
effective surveillance coverage over an entire city as large as New Yolk.
Really, they had to pave over
all of Westside Island for a city that would be
barely populated by everyone that was already there?
But that was neither here nor there at the moment. For now, I had to check Whisper's injuries and make sure that they were cleaned and properly treated.
"
Why'd we stop here?" the exhausted wolf asked me as I unwrapped her wounds and started to apply disinfectant from an emergency kit I carried (hey, I worked in a
workshop, so it would be stupid of me not to carry one on my person if I could).
"Because I need to check your injuries before we go any further. I'd have done it on the spot, but the sound of an anti-material rifle isn't something that the badnik patrols will just ignore," I explain gently as I continued to clean her wounds.
"
I'm Silent. Thanks for the save."
"Don't thank me yet. These wounds need stitches and I'm not about to trust the hospitals here to not just turn you over to the badniks. I'm Roulette, by the way. I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but considering the circumstances…"
"
Yeah…"
"Anyway, do you know if there's any of your group left? I
might have enough supplies on me to do
something if they are still alive…"
"
N-no… I'm the last one," Silent told me as she teared up again. "
Th-they're all dead…"
"I'm very sorry to hear that." And I genuinely was. Which was good, because that meant that the emotional numbness that I felt from killing the homicidal traitor was wearing off, at least in a general sense. Not so hot to be happening right this very moment because now I had to hurry in case I became an emotional wreck again, and this was
not the time. "Once I'm done cleaning and disinfecting your wounds, I'm going to have to stitch them up myself. Are you okay with this?"
"
You're a field medic?"
"Not in the slightest," I admitted readily. "I have the
technical knowledge, but no direct practical experience whatsoever." I really don't think that memories should count in this case, although I actually did have a solid base for first aid from most of my component personalities, and a surprising amount of actual medical and veterinary knowledge from Bad Dad. Well, actually I really shouldn't be surprised by that considering…
And I'm distracting myself when I
should be paying attention to my patient. Fortunately, I had apparently stayed on task during my little mental detour.
"
Your bedside manner sucks," Silent told me.
"Yeah, well, in the interest of brutal honesty, I've never killed anyone before and I'm trying to stave off a panic attack right now so I can get this done before curling up into a little ball of trauma, okay?"
Did I sound hysterical? I hope I didn't sound hysterical just then.
Silent put a hand on my shoulder. "
Do it."
"Are you sure? I don't have any anesthetic…"
"
Just do it already, before my adrenalin wears off. I trust you."
And I saw in her eyes that she did indeed trust me, so with a growing sense of resolve, I got to work…
O o O o O
Dr. Robotnik chose to put off his current project to directly supervise the team of badniks that had brought in an astoundingly large chunk of phase quartz. The remarkable mineral had transdimensional properties that would make even a small amount extremely valuable for certain types of research and practical applications, and a random patrol had found a piece the size of a car, in an area that had not had any phase quartz at all the previous times they had patrolled along that particular route.
Any chunk of phase quartz larger than a grapefruit needed to be handled carefully, so of course the badnik patrol, who had
no mining experience and were supposed to be
patrolling, had brought the thing straight to his current bunker!
Granted, the reason he went with personality cores for
all of his badniks instead of just using central processing units was so that even the basic ones would actually be capable of using their own initiative if something unexpected happened. Which mostly worked just fine for his advanced and elite units, but occasionally produced counterproductive results in basic units when something totally out of the blue happened.
Something like coming across an unexpected deposit of an extremely rare mineral when patrolling an area where the mineral in question had not been the last time they had passed through.
Okay, fine. He could deal with this. Just make sure that the phase quartz is stowed
safely and without incident, bump up moving on to the next bunker start-up to immediately instead of in a few days. And then carefully go over the instructions his badnik patrols had lest they do something stupid like this again, such as bringing back an explosively unstable material or a small child…
Same difference in his experience, really.
O o O o O
It was fully dark out by the time Dr. Robotnik came across the small community that Zane had directed him towards before satisfying his appetite. Not that he needed nearly as much sleep as he used to prior to being partially roboticized, a process that had left him stronger and far more fit than his impressively massive girth would otherwise imply.
He had no current interest in tormenting the young rabbit's family with their son's grizzly fate just yet.
That was something he could plan for to enjoy more properly later, once he actually has a position of power and could afford to indulge in his cruel hobbies.
No, what he was after was a vehicle. And Zane had mentioned a friend named Bruin, which was a fairly common name used among bear-like Mobians, who tended to be large. Because there was no way that he was going to be able to fit in a
normal sized Mobian car.
Ah, there
was a house with larger than average Mobian proportions! And a choice between a car and a truck in the driveway!
He'd take the truck, of course. It might prove useful later.
O o O o O
"Okay, first off, Roulette is probably still alive," Tails explained as he and Rouge tried to calm down both Shadow and Amy Rose (who were equally upset in different ways). "This is phase quartz, so she's either trapped safely inside, in which case I can carefully extract her, or she's in another dimension, in which case we can go there and retrieve her after some careful preparations."
"What do we need to do?" Shadow asked, having calmed down considerably in just a few moments.
"First off, could you go back to my workshop in Green Hills and retrieve the scanner from locker 2-B? It should be on the third shelf down. Here's the keys."
"Got it. I'll be back soon." And, with that, Shadow skated off into the night.
"Rouge?"
"Yes?"
"See if you can find a loose piece of phase quartz within about three to five hundred yards of this big shard. Anything between the size of your palm and a watermelon will do, but palm-sized would be better."
"On it, Foxboy!"
"Is… Is there anything I can do?"
"How many of your Piko Hammers do you have on you?"
"Umm… Three, I think? A small one for utility and self-defense against minor threats, and two other more powerful ones."
"That should be enough. Go home and pack enough food for five Mobians for maybe three days and grab a couple of emergency kits as well. If Roulette was sent to another dimension and hasn't come back yet, then she's either hurt, there's no phase quartz on that end, or she's too busy to come back."
"Right. And those supplies will be needed no matter which one of those it is!"
As Amy rushed off to her house, Tails was left alone to his thoughts.
He wasn't too worried about Roulette, as she could take care of herself. His more immediate concern was for Pachinko, who (if he understood Roulette's explanation about personality cores correctly) was practically alive.
But was she alive enough to be unharmed by the phase quartz, or was Roulette even now mourning the loss of her technological daughter?
He had back-ups of her design and a blank personality core stowed away in a few other workshops just in case, but would Pachinko even be the same person if they had to be used?
He just didn't know.
O o O o O
"DISCORD!" Princess Twilight Sparkle yelled even as she summoned the Draconequus with a spell.
"What?" Discord asked, honestly surprised to be summoned.
"What did you do!?"
"What makes you think I did anything?"
Twilight pointed a hoof towards the large shard of purple crystal where the dais her throne had been on once was (both it and her throne were now splintered and shattered fragments, while Twilight herself had merely blinked and walked out of the strange rock that had suddenly enveloped her).
"Ooh! Phase quartz! And a nice sized chunk of it too!" the draconequus reached over to snap a small piece off and nibbled on it. "Hmmm… one of the iterations of Mobius I think, with a hint of paradox prism…"
"And what does that mean in Equish?"
"For a piece this size to have reached
us from so far away? It means a dimension
died, Princess. Not something I would ever participate in, so I don't appreciate the insinuation."
"Died?" Princess Twilight recoiled in horror. "Are you sure? Is there anything we can do?"
"Well, I can't be
sure, no. Nor can I help either. If a shatterverse formed, something might be done to either restore the original dimension or stabilize the new dimensions that formed as a result, but even in a region of the multiverse so saturated with chaos energy as any iteration of Mobius tends to be, I'm far too chaotic to help stabilize a shatterverse," Discord explained.
"And, before you ask, you aren't going there
without my help. That shiny rock will only get you so far on its own if you hit it. One of the Earths near those iterations of Mobius. Or maybe Cybertron. I don't know. It's hard to say from just a nibble."
O o O o O
"Where are we going to find another piece of phase quartz!?" Rivet languished as she gathered up the broken shards that the malfunctioning drill had destroyed. "It's not like one is just going to drop into our hands from nowhere!"
There was an actinic flash of purple light, and after Rivet's vision had recovered, she found herself holding another piece of the super rare material.
"Huh. A piece of phase quartz just dropped into my hands."
"I find that it is sometimes best to not question these things," Clank commented from the female Lombax' back.
O o O o O
"What's that?" Tony Stark asked as he saw the Hulk examining a large purple crystal in his hands.
"Hulk find shiny rock."
Thor took one look at it and backed a respectable distance away from the Hulk. "Perhaps it would be best if you set that down gently, my friend…"
"You know what it is?" Steve Rodgers asked.
"It is phase quartz," Thor replied grimly. "And a piece this large most likely means that a Realm has died. Come, Hulk, set that down and let us be off to drink to the passing of an entire reality…"
O o O o O
"And that's done," I commented calmly as I finished up rewrapping Silent's wounds with clean dressing. "Those bandages should be changed at least once a day for the next week or so if at all possible, so we're probably going to have to raid a medical facility if we can't reach your friends."
"I don't think that will be an issue," a far too familiar voice spoke up from at least a few steps behind me. It couldn't be Mom, so it had to be Rebel, Mom's local analogue and leader of the Resistance in New Yolk City if the outsider's memories were accurate. "Thank you for taking care of one of my soldiers. The Resistance could use a field medic like y… Why do you have my face!?"
"I'm a chaos generated clone of a version of you from another iteration of Mobius," I replied with blunt honesty. Really, whether this was before or after she encountered the blue idiot, the sooner Rebel is on board with at least acknowledging the existence of other dimensions the better. We'd both avoid more headaches that way.
"A version of me that happens to be heavily into silicone, I see."
Okay,
that was just rude!
"I'll have you know that
these," I pop my top aggressively to showcase my now free boobs for her and Renegade Knucks to see in their full glory, "are just as natural as the rest of me!"
"WILL YOU PUT YOUR TOP BACK ON!?"
Wow. Rebel really
does sound just like Mom!
