An Extra Life [Open]

[mach_n_roll]

| SUBJECT 73207, RETRACE INITIALIZING...
| EVERETT FULCRUM FOUND, PHYSICAL EXTRACTION COMMENCING IN 3... 2... 1...
| EXTRACTION COMPLETE, RETRACING VITAL QUINTESSENCE DEPARTURE POINT...
| FINAL SYNCHRONICITY READY.

| PRESS START.

[The last thing Sonic remembers is poison. He'd felt poisoned, sick, something... His head throbbed, he was sick to his stomach, stumbling, and staring down the twitching, reanimating bodies of his little friends in the square. Now oversized green eyes squint open against clinical, bright lights.]

[What happened? Where WAS he? Thanks to the method of reanimation the Initiative used, he had no notion of what had happened to him after that. In a way that was a merciful thing, but someone will eventually have to tell him, as paces in the observation room of the medical ward. They're not letting him go just yet. Just in case they pulled him too late, and he's still a carrier.]

[Video]

[The backdrop behind Sonic a glowing blue wall, a forcefield that wraps a corner. Looks like he's in some sort of confinement field.]

Oh man... I dunno what those guys did to me, but my head's a mess... hey, is everyone all right? What happened after the animals went berzerk? I don't really remember... it's all fuzzy...

[Action]

[Certainly those who know him, would have found out that he'd been various iterations of dead in the past twenty-four hours. And of them, certainly those who wanted to can see him now. They'll just have to talk to him through the false glass of a forcefield.]

Comments

[mach_n_roll]

I WAS bitten, yeah. But they didn't hurt me that bad! Not bad enough to keep me in here... [He grumps. Impatient hedgehog is impatient. He really really wants to get out of that box.]

They were falling sick. I dunno, maybe I caught it then. I don't remember much before blacking out.

[shortcaptain]

So it was some sort of disease?

[mach_n_roll]

Yeah. They all got sick and just... kind of lost the will to live.

[His ears fold back, remembering the little critters' listless bodies on the cold stone floor.]

But it didn't... I don't think it worked that way with me.

[shortcaptain]

It must act differently between species. [ That being said, she still didn't know what to make of this talking ... hedgehog? ] Mind if I ask you a personal question?

[mach_n_roll]

Huh...? Oh yeah, sure, shoot.

[shortcaptain]

What's your race called?

[mach_n_roll]

I'm a hedgehog. [The reply lacks its usual enthusiasm because, well... Not really feelin' it today.]

What about you?

[shortcaptain]

[ A slight pause; it would be easy enough to lie, considering there's no video feed or anything, but fair's fair, and at least this guy isn't a human. ]

Elf.

You know, we didn't have your type where I'm from.

[ There'd been hedgehogs, all right, but not talking ones. ]

I bet you get that a lot.

[mach_n_roll]

Usually I make people guess. It's hilarious. I've been called everything from a weasel to a cactus!

[shortcaptain]

[ There's now a tone of amusement to her voice? ]

Really? A cactus? Were they blind?

[mach_n_roll]

I guess they couldn't get around these things. [He lifts and lets fall his top spike with a soft rattle of quills.] But a blue cactus? Really?

[shortcaptain]

Yeah, really. That's why I asked. I mean, I think it's pretty obvious. [ That you're not a cactus, at least. She's not sure she would've got 'hedgehog' straight away. ]