Chapter Text
Over the calm cerulean sea, a helicopter could be seen flying high and towards a shining casino. It moved out to park on one of the rooftops while the crowded interiors of the building began panicking. A shadowy figure hopped across the pillars around the room while a few people in the crowd managed to spot it. A dark cloak flowing behind that individual, who instilled uneasiness and worry onto their souls.
"The contract has been sealed." A voice rang on the back of the individual's mind as they maneuvered through the lamps around the room. Men in black began to walk inside of the place, only furthering the public's descent into pure panic. "The world is not as it should be. It's filled with distortion, and ruin can no longer be avoided." It continued speaking, as the boy's red hand reached over to accomodate his mask.
"Those who oppose fate and desire to change destiny are called tricksters." And once he fixed it in place, his eyes glowed yellow. "You are the trickster. Now is the time to rise from the abyss of distortion." It went quiet after that, which made him smirk. "It's showtime." Once he came out of the shadows, it was easily regonizable as a young blue quilled masked hedgehog with a large black coat that had small patches of cloth ripped in the arms, black boots and red gloves.
From the crowd, a woman alerted that he was standing over one of the lamps, holding a briefcase within his arm as he waved with the other hand. "Thief, get down from there!" One of the men yelled, while he covered his mouth with a hand to gasp. "Awh, y'all came here just for me? You're a sweet talker.." Only to wink and shake his finger as he began to run with the briefcase, dodging incoming bullets from their guns. "But sorry, the trigger happy ones aren't my type!"
The annoyed men kept firing until he noticed they stopped to reload, jumping off the platform with a flip and onto the ground, creating a shock wave with his bounce as he quickly stepped on their heads to make himself a ladder. Right at the top of it, a grappling hook came from his wrist to help launch him up and onto the platform above.
"Big J here, I'm on my way out." The hedgehog reported to a small device on his ear as he began to move through the platforms rapidly. Multiple voices responded one after the other.
"Alright, don't stop running!"
"This is our one chance.."
"I got it the first time around but thanks for the extra lecture, bird brain!" That same voice sighed.
"We'll get the briefcase on our end, focus on escaping."
The boy smiled. "Sweet, I'll step on the gas the--" He was interrupted by a strange transmition that intercepted their line. "... Suspects... Not... Confirmed. Hold.. Your... Positions." They all remained in a collective silence while the cloaked hedgehog jumped through the lamps. One of the familiar voices broke the ice and talked once more.
"Well, ANYWAY. We'll keep quiet, and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
Don't fuck this up." The azure rogue shrugged right as a few guards spotted him. "Don't worry about them, RUN!" The voice screamed the second they shot at him but he jumped onto the platforms to the side, turning into a ball and homing himself towards the decorations around the room's walls to stay midair until he reached the other side.
He landed on a balconny with a staircase in front of it. Two guards stood there, but turned into deformed creatures, with another one landing behind him. "Show 'em what's good, Jester!" A devilish smile appeared across his face as he backflipped off the attack from one of the guards, ripping the mask of the one behind him to then kick him into the other two, taking them down and leaving the one he kicked to reveal its true form: A strange chimera looking beast.
The trickster held his knife tightly while one of the voices talked again. "Hmm... Comparing power levels, I've got to say. Your pinky finger alone can body this guy, wreck 'em!" The boy nodded and then switched to his gun, jumping over a swipe from the creature's tail to shoot it. It didn't take that much damage but it was enough of a distraction for him to pull off a spinning maneuver with his pistol to ram into it and shoot before he kicked the beast far back.
"Grant me your power, Arsene!" He yelled, while clutching his fist. For a brief moment, his mask turned to blue flames that formed around him in a larger figure. "You got it, buddy!" It threw a slash of its own while the hedgehog jumped over it to throw a rising slash with his dagger and a finishing blow by pointing his gun inside of its head, shooting through it as he hopped all the way over to the stairs to continue his escape.
"Wow, even on your own, you're a force of nature.." One of the voices said, with another commenting right after. "Hey, wait up! There's backup incoming!" The two beings he knocked out earlier started to slam down their clubs at him, with an electrified nearly hitting him. He gracefully kicked it up and landed it back down with a homing attack as he ran through the door right behind. Within the panic, someone began to run through the doors of the lower levels right as they spotted a red light coming from above, alongside the sound of chains.
"Keep moving this way and you'll be out in no time!"
"Oh really? I'm glad we just get to skiddadle the hell outta here." He replied, though his nose snoozed as an adudible gasp came from the device.
"I detect two unidentified suspects approaching rapidly, stay on guar-" A new voice said right as he got hit by a flying door that smacked him across the room. A small grunt left the boy as he got up. "My precious door! I opened it just a few seconds ago and you took her from me!" The melodramatic hedgehog saw a bunch of cages stacked on top of each other by his side and grappled his hook into it as he dodged an incoming shot from the robot's large pistols, and two hits from his chains. "You'll feel the weight of your actions!" He pulled on the hook and had the cages fall over the robot as he began to rush down the path.
"W-What the hell!? this robot.. It looks like Jester!" One of the voices asked, while he had to open a door right to his side to avoid an incoming attack by the doppleganger, who sent himself flying towards him and initially missed, but he made a cloud of smoke dense enough for the hedgehog to run through it and onto the next room, where Metal got its revenge by grabbing him by the head and dragging him through the ground before he threw the hedgehog through a glass window.
On that side of the window, a man had gotten suspicious of the sound coming from it and the trickster figured a plan. He grabbed one of the robot's chains and threw a couple of cuts towards it to send him through the wall, conjuring an Eigaon for it to distract them and start running back into the main path. " Careful, hide behind the boxes before they can see you!" The object spoke right as he spotted a man from afar, speaking to his boss. As he approached, he heard the metalic beast preparing another attack, so he waited out for the timer Metal had already used with his last attack and moved out of the way at the last second.
"You sure they are he-" The man was knocked out by the raw energy from the robot's attack. It kept on chasing him as he sped up the ladders. "Look, I know you're a fan, but you can ask for an autograph like a decent person, y'know!" The machine grabbed him with one of its chains and began to spun around before slamming the male into the ground. Though, the hedgehog bounced back up quickly.
Quite literally, he went into a ball and slammed into the android's chest to send it up, grapple hook onto it and then kick it straight on the face to send the steel bastard into the wall, though he once again followed the hedgehog, shooting down at his shoes but he managed to jump out in time through the wall that Metal's shots had already weakened to start running through the rooftop of the casino, with the doppleganger rapidly firing not only shots from his pistols, but he then stopped for a moment. "Oh what, do robots take yoga classes no-" And then it opened them back up to have blue colored explosions rain from above: Charged up Megiadolaons.
Sonic barely dodged it and then saw it go for an ice attack, which he burnt down with a different mask to then hit a rising slash with his dagger that comboed into the creature's flames to send the robot flying back. "That thing seems relentless.. You've got to move forth, but stay weary of it. It's far stronger than the rest of the palace's shadows." The hedgehog nodded and he swung over from the building to the garage not too far away.
The robot had flown and grabbed him with the chains to slam him through the walls, only for it to come down and claw at him before shooting him in the chest at point blank. He went flying back with a huge bullet wound, but nothing major aside from that. "You're putting me in a bad mood, rust bucket.. Come n' get this smoke!" He grabbed the chains and pulled 'em in for his mask to change back to the original one, laying a rapid horde of punches to then start running up the circular parking building. He did so by using his speed to drift up the levels, just as a fiery pillar emerged from the middle.
He dodged said pillar and just as he summoned a thunderbolt right down to send the metalic beast down into the depths of the building. He was then interrupted by something coming from behind. A large horde of the policemen had arrived and surrounded him. "Even if you've been kicking ass this whole time, this many of them will just kill you.." One of the voices said, only for another to interrupt it. "Halt. That person I sensed earlier.. It's different from that of the android's, look out!"
He turned to see a gunshot fly right before him, hitting the guard behind him. A black and purple catgirl walked into the room, wearing a mask and a similar outfit to his own. A black cloak that still had its arms intact, a ballerina styled outfit underneath with long black boots that ended in a purple-esque pair of boots with fur at the top and magenta gloves with fur cuffs to match the boot's.
"This must end.. Now." She drew a blade from her side and looked at him with a nod, She launched her blade right towards a guard's chest, and while they tried to rush her, he cut one of the guard's legs using that same sword, throwing it back at her when she shot a guard behind her with remarkable flexibility, right before doing a small cartwheel forward to kick the sword into another one's head. She hopped over the last one and the hedgehog knocked it out of its feet with a spindash, right in time for both of them to shoot it from both sides with her shotgun and his pistol.
He then held her hand right as she fell to leave a small kiss on it, winking. "Long time no see, it's odd seein' ya around these parts.." The cat had a slight blush on her face, but shook her head. "I had to. My weak self relied too hard on you back then, but that ends today. WIth me returning the favor." She kicked the sword out of the dead shadow's face to pick it up aiming it towards the reinforcements alongside the trickster's dagger.
"Let us dance, senpai." She gave him a small smile. "If you let me have this piece, mademoiselle." Both of them chuckled before their enemies turned into two cheetah men and a bird right in the middle. The bird attempted to launch a wind attack towards the cat, who dodged out of the way and held the male's hand to swing back and shoot it in the face in retalliation.
"It's been a while since we've last fought this way. Yet, I don't plan on being a liability no longer. Let me demonstrate that I too can save you." He would nod with a smirk, He threw a dark spell towards the middle bird to further weaken it, only to grab his pistol and gun it down, just so all three of them would be on range for the cat's attack. She hit all three with a lucky critical that sent them down into the ground.
"Go get 'em!" The squeaky voice in the small device said, as the pair's eyes turned blue and purple respectively, launching the enemies up to bombard them with attacks until she jumped down, spinning in one of her toes with a small blue whip that she danced with to finish them off.
ALL OUT ATTACK: BEAUTY IS DEVOTION.
"I think that was the last of them.." She mentioned, but the male shook his head. "We've got one big, stubborn problem that I think is coming this way." To support his claim, the voice spoke again. "YEAH, the terminator with the chains and guns, it's coming. Book it, NOW!" The cat heard of that and sighed, holding his hand. "I will remain here. Just to buy you time, arlight? I will keep it occupied." Sonic would nod and his eyes closed, handing her over the briefcase as their foreheads remained close. "Just.. Make sure you come out in one piece, got it? I don't really care if I get caught or not, but I want you and the rest to make it out."
The feline merely chuckled, poking his nose. "Have you forgotten I'm on your level? And I'm not a phantom thief." She pouted playfully. "I can at least delay it for some time, but for now.. Go already, you romeo. And don't forget our promise either."
The male would give her a thumbs up as he began to run outside of the room, while the cat looked back to see the machine approaching from the shadows, creating fire out of her hands as she looked at it. "It's only us two now, freak. Come at me!" She challenged it, and the robot flew towards her. Meanwhile, the blue thief had made it to a series of corridors, one of which contained an entire investigation team, seemingly the ones directing the opperation. "He's not alone. Find them and kill them all." He slid underneath the glass to avoid being seen, and rushed up the stairs as the agents were on hot pursuit.
At last, he had reached another balconny, looking over to check his surroundings. "Is something wrong? The exit's right there! Though the lower floors got closed off after the comnotion.." He pointed at the giant glass before him. "You sure that doesn't have a wall behind it?" The voice sighed. "It doesn't, idiot. That's why I called it the exit, just-" Another voice interrupted her. "GET THE EFF OUTTA THERE." The hedgehog snickered silently, though the officers caught up to him. "Over there! There's nowhere to run!" He raised his hands, looking at them. Bold of you to assume I'm running."
After saying that, they looked at him in confusion but he jumped off and grappled onto the roof to launch himself up and wave goodbye as he flew towards the glass. "See ya~" Was the last thing he said before breaking through, spinning midair as if he was REALLY enjoying himself while doing this. "Pft.. Showoff. You're too reckless at times." The voice said, but as soon as he landed..
Strong lights covered his face. The policemen had been waiting there for a good while and had securely cornered him against the wall.
"Enemies here!? Oh god damn it.."
"Forgive me.. Something interfered with my signal."
"What happened?!"
"An ambush.."
"You fool, don't stand there and find a way out!"
"I agree, still.. Be careful."
"Jester, can you handle it?"
The hedgehog just began to run to the side, kicking a few policemen on his way as he avoided gunfire from all of them. For a while, he just beat them around, using both his persona powers and the other abilities it gave him. However, from the building that he had just come out of.. A bullet was shot and it pierced his leg. "GRAH!" He fell to the ground while grabbing his injured leg, breathing heavily. His hands helped him curl into a ball and attempt to go up a nearby ladder, but it was all for naught. He failed to grab onto it and the police swarmed him as he heard something in his head while a cyan butterfly flew around.
"This is truly an unjust game... Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you... ...I beg you. Please overcome this game... and save the world... The key to victory lies within the memories of your bonds—the truth that you and your friends grasped. It all began that day... when the game was started half a year ago... For the sake of your world's future...-"
"JESTER!" The voices collectively said as he was handcuffed, with the hedgehog's attire vanishing as one of the policemen approached. "Well, I wouldn't have guessed that a mere kid was behind all of that..You've got a teammate to thank for that, you got sold out." His eyes widened upon hearing that, and finally.. The phantom thief had fallen.
He came to his senses in a room, sitting on a chair while his hands were cuffed. He felt a bit of pain through his body as he managed to see a few bruises on his legs and his broken glasses on the ground. His head hurt as he remembered being kicked and basically assaulted by the man who came in to sign his sentence. (Was it really necessary?.. My whole body hurts like when..) He closed his hand tightly, shaking his head. (They said I was.. Guilty of a lot of things. Obstruction of justice, defamation, blackmail, possession of weapons and.. Manslaughter, were those really our doing?)
Outside of the room, a woman arrived, much more formal looking and in this case, it was a chipmunk-squirrel hybrid. "Excuse me, but this area's off limi-" The guard was interrupted by the chipmunk holding up her badge. "I am Nijima, from the public prosecutor's office. I need to get through to ask something to the suspect." The guard shook his head in denial. "The case is no longer in your jurisdiction, Nijima-san. Besides-" Another man walked in. "Are you prossecutor Minako Nijima? I just got off the phone with your director, get in there and get it done quickly. You're being a hindrance more than an asset at the moment." Minako got a call from his director and picked it up. "I thought I ordered you to stand by."
She sighed, rolling her eyes a little. "This is my case, and I am not even allowed to have an interrogation?" The squirrel replied. "I called because I knew you'd bring that up, but then again.. You are the stubborn type." Minako crossed her free arm while clutching the phone with the other. "I won't be convinced until I confirm it by myself. This is case is mine to solve." The old man sighed as well. "Good luck to you then, but don't expect too much of it." She hung up the phone, looking back at the guards. "Ah, prosecutor. One last thing, your time with him won't be long, so use it wisely to get as much as you can." She remained quiet.
"His methods are a mystery even to us, it's unknown if even speaking with him is safe at all." The chipmunk simply nodded and walked into the room, seeing the boy in the chair. The woman sat down before him and looked at the young male. "I didn't expect it to be you, Nick Amamiya. You'll have to answer my questions this time." She looked away from him for a moment to look at the empty syringe in the floor and the beaten up look of the boy. ".. Those bastards.. Nick, are you willing to talk? I understand if you don't but it'd be best for both of us if you did." He would silently nod.
"I need you to answer my questions with full hearted honesty. Otherwise, those bastards can get to you first and we both know how that would end. I didn't think it was a prank from the getgo, but I couldn't assamble a case for prosecution, just because I couldn't figure the method behind it. "She put her hands over the desk and looked at him with a serious gaze.
"Why would you cause such a major incident? How is it even possible for you to change someone's heart? All those reports of "another world" seemed so outlandish that I couldn't believe them when I read the reports and I still don't, so you will have to tell me all that you know of this reality, since you seem coherent. So please, start from the beggining and go from there."
Nick closed his eyes and sighed.
He opened them within a train, full of people and with the seeming destination of Shibuya as depicted by the screen above. His mind was trying to remember something, a woman screaming.. A car's alarm blaring, the police approaching and an angry man yelling "Damn brat.. I'll sue!" at him. He was snapped out of that when he heard a few people around him whispering. "It's him, isn't it? The boy with a criminal record.." One girl whispered to the other.
"Yeah.. You think he'll continue his little spree here? Eww! I don't want to be a part of that.." She shook her head. "Why would he? The police is just gonna gun him down if he ever tries that again, he can't do crap!" They both giggled, but amongst the crowd, one girl walked close, looking for a seat. A purple cat with black hair, red accesories such as ribbons and a sporty outfit. Upon seeing that, the boy got up to let the girl take his own seat.
She hesitated for a moment, having heard the other girl's talk about him, but she bowed to thank him and then took a seat, opening a book. ".. Umh, I'm Nick.. Nice to meet you." He was clearly nervous, but the girl remained stoic. "I'm sorry, but I don't feel like speaking right now." She pointed at the book, to which he nodded quietly. ".. But I will ask, why did you do it?" The hedgehog looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" She closed the book for a moment, looking up at him with a worried expression. "If those rumors are true.. What drove you to do that? You seem like a calm person and a part of me just can't buy what they are saying."" Despite giving him the benefit of the doubt, she felt untrusting of him still. "Well.. I don't think you would believe me if I told you the truth. So if you want, you can just pretend I'm scum like the rest of them." She quietly stared at him, wondering about the validity of those claims. "I'm no one to judge. But I do want to understand what really happ-" Before she could finish, they both felt the train shake a bit.
"Did you feel that?" She asked him, and the boy looked around. "Yeah, I just hope it's nothing bad.." He didn't know the gravity of the situation, at all. The people in the train started to panic as they saw it nearly derrailing from the traintracks. A bit of sparks came from the wall when it started to hog onto it, and the boy started to rush towards the main cabbin. "A-Ah, hold on!" While she didn't want to be seen with him, a part of her told her to run after the delinquent.
The crowded train was hard to traverse, even more so with the panicking public. Someone in the crowd shouted about a "mental shutdown", which caught his attention. "Uh, do you know what that is?" He asked to the girl. "Y-Yes, I doubt that this is the same but we must hurry, something could be going o-" The train was now doing the same thing, but against the other wall, making everyone in the train stumble towards the right, while he was the only one that remained on the left from grabbing onto a Straphanger. The girl soon followed Nick after deattaching herself from the crowd, with both of them eventuall reaching the main cabin, knocking on the door.
"Hey! The train's crashing into the walls, get it together!" He tried getting through to the man but he wasn't answering. The girl too knocked on the door with him, trying to get the conductor's attention and they both succeeded, but as it turns out.
Their eyes were rolled back all the way, and black liquid came out of said eyes. Nick stepped back and fell to the ground, agitated and nearly crying, but to his surprise, the cat seemed equally distraught by what she was watching. Though that moment dind't last for long, as he managed to hear the screams of the people outside and jumped over to guard the girl.
SHRRAAAACK!!
The train crashed it's way onto the station, where a few people had sadly been hit and murdered by the train's crash. Nick ended up nearly limp on the ground, a few bones broken and a hard bleed in a few parts of his body, while the girl came out with only a few minor injuries from him guarding her. The survivors of the crash came out to see the bloodshed and, as expected, the blame was inmediately thrown at the boy. "Ughh... What did I tell you! He got away with another crime just now, the psycho!" He could barely stay conscious like that, so it wasn't like he could defend himself from the allegations. Even a man from the crowd came out to kick him in the stomach for it. "You sick shit.. When is it gonna be enough for you!?" Though thankfully, the gymnast had come to her senses by then, blocking another attempt by the man to attack him.
"Stop. All of you, stop." The young woman walked over to the blue quilled hedgehog and helped him up, looking at his bloodied face. The crowd started to shit talk the cat for merely helping him, but she didn't care one bit. They both went up the stairs and she asked in a soothing voice. "I'm Hitomi, and for this once.. I'll help you, can you tell me where you were going?" She asked, while he pointed at a sign saying "Yonjen Yaga", and the gymnast would nod to help carry him there. Though, as he was going there, time seemingly stopped, even Hitomi had stopped moving.
A fiery being stared from a far, waving it's finger, as if it was challenging him. It's wings sprouted and for a second, he saw a pair of blue eyes similar to his own in his glasses. He only shrugged at it, while his phone rang with the apparition of a strange new app. One fully red with a single watching eye.
".. Hey, Hitomi?" She looked over at him. "Thanks. I'm sorry for causing that." A shake of her head was given. "No no. it's alright, Nick-san. I just hope that won't affect my career.." He giggled a bit at that, though coughing out a bit of blood. "Ah, are you alright?" She looked concerned, but he shook his head to dismiss her worries.
"Yeah, but... Career? Whatever it is, don't let that stop you, mhm?" Hitomi looked puzzled. "Huh?" He talked again. "If it's too much of a problem, theen.. I promise to be there for your career from afar. Even if people start hating you, maybe I could be a fan? As a sign of gratitude for not leaving me to die back there. I'll stay away from you but- I at least want to help.." She sighed, looking to the side. "Remember what I told you. This is a one time thing, if anything.. I'd just like for this to have never happened to begin with, I'm done here and I'm gone, understood?" The hedgehog quietly nodded. "I get it.. Still, thanks a lot."
She nodded to that and simply walked until the hedgehog passed out from blood loss. Thankfully, it seemed like they reached a small backdoor clinic and she was able to get help from the local doctor to take care of Nick, waiting for him to wake up.