(Originally Published February 13th, 2023)
This is kind of a long chapter, but I have a lot to write about and I thought I would get started on it all here.
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Scourge watched Honest disappear and the warp ring close and fall to the ground with a clink. He bent down to collect it and return it to Zonest at her desk. When he dropped it in Honest's twin's outstretched hand, he looked up and noticed her expression. She was smiling from ear-to-ear. "What is it?" he asked.
"The great king of nothingness and empty space, Scourge the Hedgehog," the Zone officer said, closing her hand slowly around the ring.
"That's my name, yeah," Scourge confirmed, lowering his brows in a cautious glare. "Though, there's no way I can be 'great' if I rule over nothing," he pointed out. It felt redundant to say it now, after he had been ignored so much by Honest whenever he had pointed it out in the past, especially to say it to her twin Zonest, who, based on what had been brought up earlier, apparently felt the same way she did.
"Fair point," Zonest said, following it up with a "hmph" of phony nonchalance as she tossed the ring back in her drawer. Exactly what he had suspected. Zonest also thought Scourge was selling himself short. She just didn't want to argue with him right now, but that didn't excuse the fact that she didn't agree with him. "Anyway, don't you think you should head home now?" That sounded like she was in a hurry to make him leave, but perhaps he was just imagining that. "It's around 8 PM in your world... er, Honest's world."
"Where's Hearts at?" he asked. "Zonic took her away to talk with her."
"He probably wants to send her back to Moebius. He doesn't know about the 900, so don't worry about it." Zonest picked up a pen and tapped it to her chin before jotting something down on a small notepad she had handy. "I need to talk to the Warden." She picked up the notepad and arose from her desk. She left the room and Scourge behind, rushing through the door and leaving it to close softly behind her.
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"Silver, you ready?" Honest shouted. She was standing at the front door to Snow's house, waiting for the troop to assemble. Shadow was standing beside her, resembling his namesake pretty well as he just kind of hung there and melted away into the shadow of the door.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" the timetraveling hedgy exclaimed, running in slow motion towards them. Was that slowdown?
"Do you have your homework?" Shadow asked.
"No, no, no!" Silver exclaimed, turning around and running in slow motion in the opposite direction.
"We're gonna be late," Honest told Shadow, huffing in annoyance.
"How did Blaze ever get him to school on time?" Shadow asked. He was genuinely confused. What sort of superpower did Blaze possess that they didn't? Other than, you know, fire powers.
"I'm going ahead," Honest announced, picking up her yellow and white polka-dotted backpack and slinging it over her shoulder. "I'll wave down a bus or something."
Shadow sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine." He cupped his hands over his mouth. "Silver, if you don't hurry, I'll... take away your PS3!"
Suddenly, Silver shot across the room in a light blue flash and the three started out the door.
Once at the school, the three found that no one was standing around outside, so they assumed the first bell had already rung and began to hurry. Silver ran, still with awful slowdown, down the hallway. Shadow already had his binder for English since he had homework from before the Derby to complete. However, Honest needed to get her folder for Business Management, so she skidded to a stop in front of her locker. It was the top locker and had light spilling out from the slats... wait. That wasn't right.
"Um, Shadow? Why is my locker glowing?" Honest asked in an apprehensive tone.
"Why is it 'growing'?" Shadow asked, stopping beside her.
"No, glow-"
Bump, bump. Two bumps appeared in the middle of the door. Bam! The door swung open and out flew two familiar faces. Shadow caught the person flying at him as if he had prepared for it. At the same time, the person flying at Honest just kind of engulfed her, and they both fell to the ground in a heap.
"Hearts? Why are you here?" Shadow asked his catch.
"Put me down and I'll tell you," she growled.
Honest opened her eyes to see who had fallen on her. "Infy! Long time no see!"
"Not long enough," Infinite said, pushing himself up from the linoleum and straightening his mask.
Once Hearts was back on the ground, she did a twirl resembling the one Mephiles did in Sonic '06, the green and white striped backpack behind her swinging in slow-motion.
(I drew this back in October of 2022, so that should put into perspective just how long I've been planning this stupid arc.)
"Zonest is amazing, you know that, Honest?" Hearts said, narrowing her eyes mischievously at her Mobius equivalent. She grinned and held up a finger for emphasis. "Things were going pretty south when Zonic pulled me aside and was lecturing me on leaving my home zone. However, when Big Sis showed up, before I knew it, not just me, but this guy also, were on our way to Mobius!" She pointed to Infinite with a thumb. She then started looking around frantically. "Now, where's that utopian blue sky I've heard so much about?!"
Honest and Shadow just kind of watched Hearts wander off in the direction of the front doors in utter silence. Meanwhile, Infinite was faced in the opposite direction and seemed to be looking for something.
The bell rang and no one even tried to move. Honest turned to Shadow after a few seconds. "Well, we're late now. Might as well embrace it."
"You guys are skipping?" Honest and Shadow both jumped when Scourge stuck his head between them. What, was Scourge the patron Saint of skipping class or something??
Infinite turned to hide his face as if he thought he could hide from Scourge that way. Wasn't that what his mask was for, hiding his face?
"I-I'm not, I'm going to class," Infinite said. However, he wasn't making any attempt to leave. "Um, where are the six hundreds?"
"Like, locker numbers?" Honest asked. Infinite nodded. "They're in the Eng-"
"We don't know. I don't think I've ever seen a six hundred locker number. Are you sure they exist?" Scourge asked, speaking rather loudly to cut Honest off. His eyes were throwing a barrage of apologies her way.
"Well... It said it on my schedule, so. Locker number 616?" Honest's eyes grew. That's why Scourge was so scared.
"You've been going to school here for how long now, and yet you still don't know where your locker is?" Honest asked, laughing. Truthfully, she was more intrigued than entertained, but it was a nervous response of hers to laugh whenever she was scared. Infinite, though, took it as an insult.
"I never needed it until now! And I still don't, I guess. I've just been storing my things in Ms. Vanilla's." He looked between Scourge and Honest and then over at Shadow. "I don't care to be around any of you, so I would rather be late to class." He spun around and began to stomp off.
"That dude was a threat in Forces?" Honest whispered to Shadow, who then promptly rolled his eyes. To be Honest, Honest didn't hate Infinite as a Sonic villain. She didn't hate him in any way, shape, or form actually. If she truly did hate Infinite, he wouldn't be in her story. She would've simply left him out like she tended to leave out most other characters she didn't want to mess with, like a certain overrated chipmunk for instance.
As for ranking Infinite as a villain... He wasn't Lyric, he would probably be a D, but he wasn't Mephiles, either, and Honest would rate him an S-tier villain right up there with Eggman. However, Honest did think Infinite was better than the Time Eater, and she would probably rate them as a C, so Infinite would fall in as a good "B".
Honest's tier list: https://mytierlist.com/poll/best-sonic-villains-jby5f2
A-Anyway, after Infinite left, Honest immediately turned to Scourge. "We need to move the teleporter."
"There's no harm in moving it. I don't think so anyway. Maybe we can put it in the club building somewhere..." the green one replied, thinking aloud.
Meanwhile, Shadow looked confused. "Why would it be bad if Infinite knew where it was?"
"Because he'll tell Sonic," Honest retorted as if it were obvious. "He's not working with Sonic, but he won't hesitate to run to him if he finds even one piece of evidence that might suggest we're doing something that can be used against us to give us a hard time." Honest sighed, looking disappointed. "He already had a vendetta against you due to the events of Forces. He didn't need another reason to hate us." She gestured to Scourge, who was rifling around in his pockets. "And, now that he hates Scourge, we have even more to look out for. It's not just you and me that can't do anything to give him fuel for his fire, Scourge can't either. And, frankly, Infinite having it out for Scourge is far more dangerous." Honest looked to the doors at the far end of the hallway. "Anyway, we need to track down Hearts."
Scourge found what he was looking for in his left pocket, a cigarette, and stuck it in his mouth while he continued to rifle through his right pocket for something else. Shadow started down the hallway. "Yeah, if she's anything like you, she'll surely get into some sort of trouble if we don't keep close tabs on her."
"No," Honest said, following him. "I mean yeah, it's important to keep an eye on her, but right now we need to get her to Mephiles so she can get a schedule." The cat and the hedgehog ran into the double doors and threw them open in sync. The bright light of day stung their eyes. A short distance ahead of them was Hearts, head back and mouth open in awe.
"Hearts, you need to go get a schedule," Honest exclaimed. Her Moebian counterpart turned around, her mouth still slightly agape. The smell of smoke drifted towards the group as Scourge emerged from the building behind them, holding a red lighter in his right hand.
"Is Mephiles the demon Scream and her mom summoned back in Moebius?" Hearts asked as Honest and Shadow led her down the dark hallway towards the principal's office.
"Yup," Honest confirmed. "He's the principal here." She turned around to see Scourge standing beyond the glass door, hands in his pockets and watching Honest, Shadow, and Hearts make their way down the hall.
"I like him," Hearts said. Honest jumped.
"Wh-What did you say?"
Hearts shrugged. "He seemed nice back at the inn. I don't know, I like him."
Honest looked at Hearts with absolute disbelief. Meanwhile, Shadow started laughing. "Boy, are you in for some disappointment."
"D-Disappointment?" Hearts echoed.
"He's the embodiment of darkness, the personification of the absence of light, the manifestation of murkiness-- he's not a good dude," Honest told her. "You'll... You'll understand what we mean soon enough."
No one was in the main office at this time, so Honest, Hearts, and Shadow just walked up to Mephiles's door and attempted to let themselves in. Honest knocked on the door first, though, so as not to be rude.
No exclamation of "come on in" resulted, but something else did. The door parted slightly with a creak and a slimy black tentacle emerged and started feeling around, looking for something. Hearts jumped and swerved away from the writhing dark appendage before it could hit her, instead allowing it to make contact with Shadow's arm. Before he knew it, the Ultimate Lifeform was pulled into the room and disappeared into the darkness within.
Honest gave Hearts a worried glance, and the two of them raced in after their friend.
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I'm not saying you have to, but I personally would consider reading {Limited Edition} along with this story. It's my other story that gets updated alongside this one. It'll give some much-needed exposition as to what's up-and-coming in {Comic Edition}. Anyway, see you soon (or not soon, don't rush me).