Sonic Runaways

"MOM! Don't tell me you're going to Casino Park again," a boy with glasses too large for his head exclaimed. "Don't you know gambling losses are through the roof there? It's not worth my allowance!"

"It'll be okay, Milos," an ordinary woman named Saffina said, appearing nervous as she stepped towards the open doors of the Grand Metropolis train. Her son, Milos, tugged at her purse. She couldn't tell if he was just trying to keep her in place or confiscate her gambling money. She pulled her purse away just in case. "When I hit the jackpot, I'll pay you back!"

"This is ridiculous! We don't have money to blow on these worthless games, don't-you-know?" Milos shouted, grabbing the purse and tugging it in every direction with tears spilling from his eyes. "What would dad say?!" The look in his mom's eyes changed. They even turned a little more purple.

She tugged the purse away, violently this time. "Go back home, 'Mr. Know It All'. If you know what's good for you. THIS is what's good for you… We need to make it through the month," she stepped onto the train, leaving Milos all alone as the train departed to Casino Park.

With every light that went out in the city outside of the train, with every mile they crossed, Saffina grew taller and a little bit less like herself. With her head down, she transformed from ordinary to monstrous over the course of an hour. Purple eyes, pale skin, a black bodysuit, and sharp high-heels, she had turned into her Dark Gaia alternate persona. Rouletta, the Dark Dicer.

She stepped out of the train, people clearing a path for her like she was royalty. In the context of her fellow gamblers and this form, she may as well have been. Rouletta was a bit of a celebrity here. The hot tingling all over her body, the sense of being watched, almost stalked… she had a good feeling about this one. Even when she left the crowd, she felt eyes on her. Eyes everywhere. Digging into her darkened tarnished soul with their endless gaze. Her head hurt.

She rushed into the bathroom, the Dark Eyes following, and vomited pitch black tar and blood into the toilet. Little chunks of guilt. She sighed heavily, gagging as she flushed. Every bit of reason and remorse for what she had done to get here went down the drain. "Urgh… hate when that happens," Rouletta groaned, washing her face and walking back out into the neon light.

A blur of miscellaneous shapes and a sharp sound like a film reel was all she could see clearly. Everything else was blurred beyond recognition. Rouletta's heart almost stopped beating as a jackpot symbol appeared on the first slot. Then the second. Then an Eggman face on the third. A hole opened on the machine, acting like a tennis ball machine as it shot out a bunch of spiked metallic balls that collided with and sent her sprawling out on the floor. Her money flew out everywhere, caught by the pincers of Crawl Badniks supplied by Chun-Nan's ally nation, the Eggman Empire. Rouletta drowsily got up. "What happened? Did I win?" Rouletta asked, holding a gash on her forehead. "Oh, won't somebody help me up?" She cried, spraying green blood everywhere. "I can make it worth your while!" Everybody backed away, until two people rushed forward out of the crowd to her aid.

"Oh God, are you okay?" Tails asked, reaching into his first-aid kit and wrapping her head in bandages. Just to spite them, another spiked ball shot out of the machine. "Aah!" Knuckles merely punched it back at the machine. It shot right through the third slot, making a hole in the Eggman face's eye. Everybody else stepped further back.

"My, what a strong man!" Rouletta sighed, getting to her feet with Tails' help. "Just the type of guy I need to protect me around this city." She eyed Knuckles.

"I do not have time to be a bodyguard," Knuckles spat. "Sonic's counting on his best friend to find him."

"You really think so?" Tails asked, wonder in his eyes. "Sonic's always running around… he doesn't need me to help bring him back."

"Oh, I meant myself," Knuckles argued. Tails grumbled. Rouletta crossed her arms.

"Knuckles, be serious. Just look at her. She's being used as a vessel for ridiculous amounts of Dark Gaia Force!" Tails whispered to Knuckles, shaking him by the shoulders with both hands. "She's a danger to everybody here…" While Tails and Knuckles weren't looking, Rouletta began to approach a man who had collected way less money from a slot machine than he had put into it. Still a decent amount all things considered.

"Hello there, little man," Rouletta giggled, breathing down the man's neck. "You wouldn't mind giving all that easy cash to a… single mother… like me, right?" The man turned around. He seemed offended, bewildered even at first, until Rouletta grabbed him by the face and breathed some Dark Gaia Force down his throat. Purple tadpole-like apparitions started swimming up from his head.

"Anything for the great Rouletta!" The man exclaimed drowsily, handing Rouletta the money. She pocketed it and walked off, only to collapse to her knee. Tails and Knuckles noticed and stepped back. Rouletta's head felt like it was cracking open.

"Don't disappoint us, Dark Dicer," the voices whispered. "You're overdoing it. Transfer any more power, and you'll run out of any Dark Gaia Force to sustain your form. Then what will that leave you as? A nobody. Get more from one of our fallen carriers." Rouletta got up, and shambled towards an unknown beacon of darkness. Tails and Knuckles looked to each other, and then shrugged.

…

"What a worthless city," Shadow muttered, hardly glancing at any of the glitzy attractions or shops. "Why would any of these losers come here at all?" Shadow glared at a sign of a scantily-clad cowgirl. "So… many of them too."

"Don't forget that you're here too. What makes you so different?" Rouge laughed drunkenly, slinging an arm over Shadow's shoulder. Shadow nudged her away slightly.

"I am only visiting this trash heap in order to help Aeshleigh," Shadow grumbled, Aeshleigh's Silhouette mindlessly pawing at his face. "There's bound to be a game flashy enough to cleanse her Persona." He looked to the Persona that Cherry held. It was still swirling with purple energy, it hadn't even gone away during the day. Aeshleigh's Silhouette then poked him in the eye. "Gah! What is it, you… little human?!" Aeshleigh rolled out of his arms and fell to the floor. She got up and wobbled towards a Slate's restaurant. It seemed bigger than the dozens of other Slate's Burger and Shakes places they had passed on the way there. "Sustenance… of course… Rouge, Omega, Cherry. We're going in there to get Aeshleigh dinner."

Shadow quickly realized Aeshleigh wasn't heading for the door, but instead, the restaurant's mascot statue. She fell to his feet, and curled up. "D-dad…" she moaned soullessly, wrapping a cold dead arm around the statue's squeaky clean shoes. "Dad! Dad!" She cried.

"Peculiar," Shadow mumbled. Cherry placed a hand atop Aeshleigh's Persona and began to rub it like a crystal ball. "Cherry, what's it looking like?"

"Personas are hard to get reliable memories out of, but… that burger man statue looks an awful lot like her dad," Cherry said. She sniffled. "I'm surprised. I've never seen somebody power through a case of the Grays. Silhouettes often completely shut down mentally when their personalities are taken. Now I'm just wondering if I did a bad job taking her heart." Shadow walked over to Aeshleigh to pick her up, when he noticed Rouletta sneaking up behind Cherry.

"Cherry, look—!" Shadow shouted as Rouletta tried snatching Aeshleigh's Persona. Cherry then turned to sludge and slid behind Rouletta, reforming and kicking her away with Aeshleigh's Persona still safe in her hands. "Very impressive." Shadow smirked and walked over to Rouletta.

"You almost stole this from me. Nobody steals things from me," Cherry told Rouletta, grabbing Rouge's hand as the bat tried to swipe her hat. Rouletta's hair rose, utterly flustered. She screamed through closed lips.

"Did not! You're imagining things," Rouletta retorted. She backed up into Omega. "Eeeyah!" She screeched.

"Dark presence detected," Omega droned. He gripped his fist, and the panel on his wrist opened to make way for a circle of evenly-spaced blazing flamethrowers. He slammed Rouletta against his chest plate into a chokehold with her throat between two of the blades of flame. "Commencing exorcism, vessel safety not a concern." Cherry began to stare into Rouletta's eyes…

… And saw pure unfiltered Greed staring back at her. Cherry recoiled, looking away and covering her eyes. There was no way she'd let that thing into her mind again. "What did you do to the pretty little ladybug?!" Omega shouted. "Tell me!"

"Nothing!" Rouletta choked. Omega pressed on her throat tighter. "H-hey! No need to get… brutish!" Rouletta laughed, beginning to sweat. She looked down and scowled. She couldn't afford to transfer any more Dark Gaia Force, so it didn't look like she could manipulate her way out of this one.

Unless…?

"State your purpose," Shadow growled, stepping towards Rouletta with Aeshleigh in his arms. Rouletta donned an airheaded smirk. "I'm not playing games with you. You tried to steal from us. Wipe that stupid grin off your face and give me a straight answer." Rouletta looked around at the crowd. And started to sob.

"Oh, help me! Help me! These hooligans are muggin' meeee!" She screamed. Rouge and Cherry stopped bickering. Omega fell silent. Shadow rolled his eyes. "Won't somebody help me? Oh no!"

Not a second later, the crowd began to stampede towards them. The entirety of Team Dark jumped to higher ground, climbing atop the roof of the Slate's. "The way they all rushed in to help her at the same time…" Rouge mumbled, aghast.

"It's like they're being controlled…" Shadow muttered, squinting and setting Aeshleigh down on the roof.

"I was gonna say nobody does that when I get mugged," Rouge sighed jealously. Omega readied his arm-guns. "But that toO-OHH, WHOA STOP!" Rouge screamed, as the rest of the team got in Omega's way.

"Make way, voluntary meat shields!" Omega demanded. "Big mortar down the lane!"

"Omega, they're possessed!" Rouge shouted, gesturing to the tadpole apparitions practically flooding out of the crowd below.

"Good," Omega said.

"They're not Eggman robots, so settle down," Shadow sighed.

"I was also programmed to destroy ALL Dark Gaia Vessels," Omega said, reaching over and shooting a man in the foot. He began to snipe wildly at the floor below, but couldn't hit anybody else as Shadow and Rouge pushed him onto his back. Cherry tackled Aeshleigh as she attempted to dive off the roof to reunite with the burger guy statue, however, she dropped the Persona off the roof in doing so.

"OHHHH-ho-ho-ho! You're all so against each other that you can't even stand as one to face me?" Rouletta cackled, being lifted into the air atop a tower formed by her mind-controlled slaves. She reached her hand out and caught the Persona. "Since you've already tapped out, I'll be taking this." She opened her mouth, and inhaled all the Dark Gaia Force plaguing Aeshleigh's heart. It glistened and gleamed under the starlight with renewed purity. "Gah! Spicy!" Rouletta began to rub her throbbing tongue. "What is this?!"

"Could this be the power of the 16 secret spices?" Shadow asked. "We have an opening, so let's take advantage of it." Omega shoved Rouge off of him, she caught herself midair to link with him and Shadow in order to fly towards Rouletta. She tossed Omega at the tip of the tower, knocking Rouletta off-balance. Shadow jumped away on his own accord, surprising Rouge and slashing away at Rouletta. He finished with a blazing kick from his Rocket Skates. As Rouletta fell, her face melting into a mess of green, Shadow grabbed Aeshleigh's Persona and stomped down in the middle of the crowd. "As for you all… stay out of this, if you know what's good for you." The horde all collapsed in nearly perfect unison, some knocking each other over like dominoes. "Hah! I'm a natural!" Shadow smirked a little bit as Rouletta crash-landed behind him. Rouge landed light as a feather with Aeshleigh in her arms, Cherry arrived with Aeshleigh's Persona, and Omega arrived with a half-eaten Sizzlin' Slate Rib.

"Oh, wow. I don't think there's any Dark Gaia Force left in here," Cherry gasped, rubbing all over the Persona.

"Is it safe to return it to Aeshleigh?" Shadow asked.

"Should be," Cherry replied. She held the Persona over Aeshleigh, and it slowly phased into her body. Aeshleigh's colors returned, but she didn't get up. "How do you feel?"

"Colonel!" Aeshleigh cried, rushing over to the burger man statue. However, before she could reach him, Rouletta pulled her face off the ground and grabbed Aeshleigh's foot. Shadow formed a Chaos Spear and held it in the air as a warning. "Ah… mom?! Let me go!" Shadow's spear fizzled.

"You're not going anywhere, young lady," Rouletta grunted, pulling Aeshleigh's ankle. "What are you doing here? You were SUPPOSED to keep your baby brother entertained so he didn't pester me." Aeshleigh tried to pull away, but instead she fell to the ground. Rouletta got up and held her daughter upside-down by the tip of her shoe. "He got in my way. I had to leave him at the train station. Ohhh, and he's gonna whine and complain and have nightmares about it. And you know what? Every time he does, it'll be on YOU."

"Shadow, should we… do something?" Rouge whispered in Shadow's ear. Shadow seemed upset, but for once, he wasn't immediately acting on his violent impulse. Moreover, he looked confused.

"How did you get here all alone?" Rouletta asked, shaking Aeshleigh. Aeshleigh looked at Shadow and Cherry. She then glared at Omega, hatred in her stare.

"They took me here," Aeshleigh growled. She pointed at Team Dark. Rouletta eyed them sharply. "I didn't want to! I was just out with the Colonel, and…!"

"You guys aren't cops, right?" Rouletta asked, a certain coldness in her voice. Shadow opened his mouth to speak. "You can have her as long as you don't get me in trouble for giving her away. I do not want her here anymore."

"Logical error: you are her mother," Omega stated.

"Not anymore," Rouletta chuckled, dropping Aeshleigh on her head. "Every day it's the same. I wake up with the door wide open. The fridge ransacked. Mr. Know It All crying about something mean she said to him." Rouletta broke out into a cackling fit as she walked off, taking her hat off as she departed. "Now she's your problem! Your demon child! She will crush your lives and everything good you have going for you under her spoiled heel. So tell me…" Rouletta turned to Omega with a huge smile. "Who really won today?" Rouletta walked away deeper into Casino Park.

"Aeshleigh?" Shadow asked, cautiously approaching her as she curled up at the burger guy statue's feet.

"What do you want from me?" Aeshleigh sobbed. Shadow sighed.

"Nothing. I just want you to be safe," Shadow grumbled. He crossed his arms and looked away. "How could your own mother be so cruel to you? It doesn't make sense… Some of you humans are truly disgusting." Shadow grunted in pain as his ears began to ring. For a second, he thought he could hear a voice.

"Sh-Shadow— THEM ALL, Shadow… My ultimate—"

He looked all around, before his eyes landed back on Aeshleigh. "Do you hear something? It sounded like an old man."

"The Colonel talks now, I suppose," Aeshleigh said.

"This guy talks?" Rouge asked, walking up next to Shadow. Shadow got into a staring contest with the statue. "What does he say?" Aeshleigh glanced to the two of them.

"He tells me to hurt people," Aeshleigh replied. Rouge froze up. Omega approached.

"That is so cool," Omega droned, spinning his hands around to express ecstasy. "Join us. We shall 'hurt' Eggman robots in the burger man's name." Aeshleigh's eyes widened. She crawled up Omega's back and allowed him to carry her.

"Eggman robots… I would enjoy that, I think," Aeshleigh sighed. Omega paraded off, smashing a Batbot into the ground under his heel and causing an overall ruckus. Aeshleigh hopped off his head to kick over some Guard Badniks.

"Shadow, are we really doing this?" Rouge asked. "It was hard enough to get rid of those spirits possessing her, now we have to keep her safe while we fight Eggman? That kid could slow us down."

"No more than you," Shadow replied with a smirk. Rouge held her breath. "She'll be fine if Omega looks after her." Shadow skated towards Omega and Aeshleigh.

"That's not really reassuring!" Rouge argued. She turned to Cherry. "Are ALL hedgehogs just born to be eternally frustrating?" Rouge sighed. Cherry tipped her hat over her mask.

"Perhaps," Cherry sighed, looking ahead. She and Rouge followed Shadow.

…

Saffina awoke to find herself inside the Bingo Bar. The first thing she could hear was a sour piano song coming from the corner. She could smell rotting meat. As her vision cleared, she saw Charmy Bee in front of her, shining a flashlight in her eyes. "What the hell? Where am I?!" Saffina asked. She looked around. "The bar…? Oh no, how late is it?"

"Rise and shine, Dark Dicer," Vector yawned, sitting across from her at the table. Espio slid a drink over to her. "You were being quite the party animal last night."

"... Last night?" Saffina asked. It hurt to remember. She gazed around at the spires of morning sunlight reflecting off of the artificial stars of Casino Park, into the bar like laser pointers. She then looked to the bottle of Aurora Oil in front of her. "That's one nasty hangover…" She put her hands on her lap as her anxiety kicked in. "Who are you… gentlemen? You all seem sober enough."

"We're the Chaotix, baby!" Charmy exclaimed, flying all over the place in a manic frenzy.

"Ehhh… on second thought," Saffina mumbled, holding in a tired chuckle.

"We've been protecting you for hours now," Espio explained. His stare pierced her, darting from her eyes over to the Aurora Oil. "Drink up."

"Yeah, you wouldn't believe how many weirdos we had to fend off. This sure is a park full of pervs!" Vector almost shouted. Saffina shifted over to the back of the chair. "What are you doing here, all alone? You could've gotten hurt."

"I was just trying to get some easy cash," Saffina groaned. "The Egg is trying to get my family and I evicted. It's been so hard since my husband was executed. Speaking of which, I really oughta get home. Milos and Aeshleigh must be scared." She held her purse, only to find it wasn't on her. She patted herself down, then looked at the Chaotix. "Did you…?" Vector smirked.

"In exchange for us protecting you, we wanted to ask you a few questions," Vector said. Saffina got up, and ran for the door. Only to be cornered by Ata, Professor Pickle, and Zik. She screamed. "Ah-ah, Rouletta. Don't try to weasel away from justice. Nobody's nice enough here to care about your situation, anyways." Charmy and Espio were glaring at her, nobody else at the bar seemed to care. If anything some of them seemed annoyed.

"Rouletta…?" Saffina asked, devastated. She sat down. "Tell me everything you know." Vector and Espio exchanged glances.

"You've been seen all across the park forcing that Dark Gaia crap down people's throats, making transactions with some fishy folks, and abandoning your own daughter with no option but to run off with what you yourself described as 'hooligans'… We found you at the end of the trail of green blood, so you're also a suspect in an earlier string of impersonation, attempted murder, stalking, and theft," Vector sighed, shaking his head and smacking his lips. The color drained from Saffina's face. "Look, we understand. You got possessed by Dark Gaia, so you can't be held wholly accountable. But we'll help find your kid. It's what we do. If you cooperate, we'll also give good word to the suits about your limited agency. Hopefully they'll let you off easy."

"Very well," Saffina agreed. "I'll tell you everything I can."

Hours later, Saffina arrived back at her apartment. She glared at the vacate notice on her door, underneath a letter from Milos. "Mom, I'm going to school. I've got to know it all! I'll be back soon," the letter read. Saffina walked in, and stumbled onto the couch. The eyes were gone. The glamor had disappeared. Leaving her alone in her dark and dirty home. She looked at a photo nailed to the ugly, soggy yellow wallpaper. Everyone in it was smiling.

"I'm sorry, Benjamin… I did something bad," Saffina squeaked, her tears staining the filthy mattress as she looked at the man in the photo. "I know you loved Aeshleigh more than anything. More than Milos. More than me…" She sniffled. "I know I've been chasing money and thrills over all else. I know I've compromised my morals, I've broken my promises as a wife and a mother. Just know that, no matter what…"

"I hope I'm still your Saffina Slate."