Sonic Dimensions (ON HIATUS)

Chapter 2

Mephiles had been waiting for so long, if he had arms he could probably play Solitare without using the auto-complete button. But his wait was cut short, because the void split open to show a world drenched in red. It looked devastated, a perfect world to arrive in. If he could smirk, he would, and his darkness slowly began to seep into the new dimension.

A fight had taken place in front of this rift, a black hedgehog fallen to the floor in front of a masked jackal.
"For someone they call the Ultimate Lifeform," their voice echoed around them, "your power is very limited. It's pathetic." The hedgehog growled, but said nothing. While the one-sided exchange took place, Mephiles had snuck into the hedgehog's shadow, manifesting into a new form. He now towered over them. The jackal looked upon him in curiosity.
"What are you supposed to be?" they asked. Mephiles looked at them, his reptilian green eyes looking into their yellow one. He felt odd, but he liked it.
"An ally."

{~-~}{~-~}{~-~}{~-~}

"Ugh..." Sonic woke up after hitting the ground hard. But he was shocked into being fully awake after spotting someone in a knight's attire standing over him. "Ah! Don't hurt me!" The knight looked at them silently, then lowered to their knee and bowed their head.
"King Arthur..." they spoke, their voice sounding familiar, "We have been searching for you. Where is your armour?"
"Um... King Arthur? I think you have the wrong guy, buddy," Sonic responded awkwardly, lifting the knight to their feet. They looked at him, blush covering their cheeks underneath their helmet. But Sonic didn't know that, obviously.
"But then..."

"Look, I fell through this weird rift and now I'm here on this..." he looked around, gesturing, "grassy hill. With you," he gestured to the knight, "You... um..."
"Lancelot, sir"
"You Lancelot. Some guy opened them up and I don't know if I'm the only guy who's experiencing them." The knight seemed understanding.
"One of those rifts opened near us. You— I mean, King Arthur, got pulled into it. We've been looking for him."
"So there's a king version of me here?"
"It appears so.."

Both of them were equally as confused. But Sonic never laid his finger on one specific thing about this weird knight guy.
"You sound like someone I know." Sonic told them, "Someone I'm um... rivals with. He's alright but we've always had this competitiveness about us. I'm not sure why we've kept it up."

"Isn't that what fellow warriors do?" Lancelot asked, looking at Sonic, "They fight to get stronger, their bond is strong so they trust each other to fight fairly. Isn't it a form of respect?" The blue hedgehog looked at Lancelot in consideration. Well, Shadow did seem to respect him in a way, but he barely ever showed it. He slowly raised a hand to the knight's visor, but they pulled away almost out of instinct.

"Sorry, do you not want me to see you?" he asked. Lancelot shook their head. "Alright... take your time." The hedgehog eyed the castle on the horizon, and squinted his eyes to get a better look. "But first, could you get me something to eat? I'm starving."

{~-~}{~-~}{~-~}{~-~}

Speakers in the base turned up. A song played, one with synth instruments. Doctor Starline was celebrating his victory in getting what he wanted, and much quicker than Eggman ever would. His maniacal happiness coursed through his veins as he danced around the lair, waltzing himself around the cowering Elise, who showed no enjoyment in this celebration whatsoever.

"Come on, princess," Starline smiled, holding a webbed hand out, "Why don't you come and dance with me?" Elise moved her hand away, scared to even open her mouth. Starline laughed, grabbing her hand anyway and pulling her to her feet. She had no choice but to let him guide her through his twisted waltz, him humming contently to the song while she couldn't help but stare at him. Whatever good was in that mind of his was long gone, along with almost all his sanity. In its place was pure malice. Pure evil. Pure hatred for humanity and life itself. He seemed to have room for each word of the song however. Yet now he reached the chorus, he seemed a lot more... deranged.

"Evil grows in the dark..." he quietly sung to himself, and Elise felt a searing pain in one of her fingers, one that caused a SNAP and made her cry out in pain. It only made Starline's smile widen.
"Where the sun it never shines..." SNAP! Another one of her fingers broke, and she screamed again, her eyes stinging from her tears.
"Evil grows in cracks and holes..." Another SNAP!
"And lives in people's minds..." SNAP! The fingers on her right hand were gone, leaving Elise crying and sobbing in pain. Starline kept dancing with her, the tugging on her right hand only making her hurt more.

"Evil grew, it's part of you..." The grip he had on Elise's hand was tightening slowly...
"And now it seems to be..." Slowly...
"That everytime I look at you..." CRUNCH! Elise's throat was most likely bleeding now, as her ear-piercing screech even made Starline flinch. But he grinned even more.
"Evil grows in me..." He threw his head back and laughed, dropping Elise and letting her cripple to the floor, her hand eventually leading her to pass out from the loss of blood.