WEEK 4 EVENT

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Between the mysteries of last weekend, the increasing number of visions and unexplained phenomena, and the attack on Vakama yesterday, everyone is likely on edge. When Tails calls you into his lab around noon, you all are likely already aware of how this is going to go.

Once again, a surge of Chaos Energy in the city is what draws you in, though this time it is a much larger burst than before. Sonic and Knuckles are here with you as usual, with Tails remaining behind to look after Vakama and the base. Unlike before, you aren't met with robots or destruction. In fact, this city block looks remarkably peaceful, aside from where Eggman's chroma has overtaken most of the buildings.

"So good of you all to finally arrive."

The voice comes from up above. You recognize it as the one you heard last week, through that gemstone the Tails Doll had. Perched on one of the buildings is a... fox? No, he's larger than Tails, and wearing a large silver mask that obscures most of his features. In one hand he holds Vakama's missing mask; his other is extended with six gemstones floating around it, a soft teal glow from beneath his black glove marking the seventh. There's a different gemstone on the center of his chest as well, though it doesn't look like the fake Chaos Emeralds you've seen before.

"You all have the pleasure of fighting me, Infinite. I am the Doctor's trusted ally... and I have been watching you all. Your struggles with my nightmares and illusions were so... delicious. You have my thanks for the show."

He kicks off the building, floating towards you all and the ground, though stopping high enough up, still out of reach. And for those of you getting any bright ideas, a deep red begins to fill your vision, tinting the corners of it as the very world itself begins to warp around you - this isn't exactly Chicago anymore, you see. The buildings still exist, wrapped in white chroma, though they bend and twist in ways they shouldn't, making it hard to tell what's real and what isn't.

"I'll snuff out your lives here and now for the Doctor's ambitions! Let's see what you're made of!"

NAVIGATION

Comments

METAPHOR SPOILERS probably, just assume them for this whole thread to be safe

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[More returns to the warped version of Chicago, and Allice follows him. She's sporting burns, and her movement is slow and halting, as though each step causes her pain. The exact changes to her person in this nightmare version of her, I leave to you!

Regardless of her difficulties moving, she's fast when she moves to stab More - where exactly did she get a knife from? Well, it hardly matters, since she's trying to acquaint it with More's ribcage.]

METAPHOR SPOILERS / SUICIDE-BY-PROXY ATTEMPTS...

[akademise]

[ That's more like it. The woman he's known and loved in a past barely-remembered is already dead and gone. His own inaction and incompetence killed her. This woman who was so willful, who shared his ideals, who rushed through the forest like she was one with her sword and one with the wind. More has loved many people in his life, but he tells himself he'd never loved anybody the way he'd loved her. They were never married, not on paper, but she was his wife. The one he'd chosen, the one he'd wanted to build a world with.

Dead, gone, burned, incinerated, forgotten.

The way she looks now is more like it. If Allice were to come meet him at all, she'd be a vengeful specter, ready to condemn his failures. Though they spoke to each other of building bridges, of miraculous understanding, he'd brought nothing but misfortune to her and hers.

A happy version of her ready to pamper him with her endless affection? More could not have accepted it, not as he is now. But this? This charred husk of a former queen? That's a fitting wife for a failed king.

More doesn't attempt to dodge at all. Her judgement is judgement he'll accept, gladly.



... someone should probably intervene here before he actually dies. ]