Elias had established a temporary "Forward Operating Base" in a forgotten subterranean maintenance hub beneath the Gotham subway lines. It was damp, smelled of ozone and old copper, and was illuminated by a series of stolen halogen work lights powered by a generator he'd rigged up.
In the center of the room, Elias sat in a meditative pose, floating two feet off the concrete floor. He wasn't in Super form; he was using a low-level telekinetic hover to keep himself centered.
"Okay," Elias muttered, his eyes closed. "Base form is solid. Super form is the nuclear option. But Sonic had a wardrobe for every occasion. If I'm going to survive in a world with Kryptonians and New Gods, I need the niche builds."
He accessed the mental interface. It hovered in the dark void of his mind, a skill tree vast and intimidating.
Select Sub-Routine.
He mentally scrolled past the golden icon of the Chaos Emeralds.
Experiment 1: Dark Sonic
Requirement: Negative Chaos Energy Valence. Emotional Trigger: Rage/Grief.
"Right," Elias whispered. "The edgy phase."
In Sonic X, this form appeared when Sonic saw his friends being tortured. It was raw, unrefined speed and aggression.
Elias didn't have friends here yet to be tortured. But he had memories. He remembered the truck hitting him. He remembered the cold indifference of the universe. He remembered the fear of the thugs in the alley—not his fear, but their fear.
He focused on the Emeralds in his chest. Usually, he drew from their warmth—the positive energy. Now, he pushed deeper, looking for the shadows between the light.
He found a cold, jagged current. He pulled.
Warning: Emotional dampeners disengaging.
"Do it," Elias growled.
His eyes snapped open. The green irises vanished, replaced by a milky, glowing white void.
His deep blue fur darkened, shifting rapidly to a matte, light-absorbing black. The playful blue aura was gone, replaced by a smokey, violent violet haze that rolled off him like dry ice.
Elias stood up. He didn't float; he stalked.
He looked at a rusted metal locker in the corner. He didn't want to open it. He wanted to destroy it. The urge was overwhelming. Pure, unadulterated aggression.
"Too angry," Elias hissed through grit teeth. His voice was distorted, layered with a demonic echo. "Fast... but sloppy."
He moved. He didn't run; he tore through space. He slashed the locker. The metal was shredded instantly, not by force, but by the sheer hostility of the energy.
Elias gasped, clutching his chest. He mentally shoved the dark energy back into the box.
The black fur faded back to blue. His eyes returned to green. He fell to his knees, panting.
"Okay," he wheezed. "Dark form is a go. But only if I want to stop holding back. It's a berserker mode. Dangerous."
Experiment 2: The Werehog
Requirement: Dark Gaia Resonance. Solar Cycle: Night.
Elias stood up and shook off the lingering rage. "Let's try something heavier. The tank build."
Sonic the Werehog was slow, stretchy, and strong. It came from Sonic Unleashed.
"System, activate Night of the Werehog simulation."
Initiating partial genetic rewrite.
This one hurt.
Elias groaned as his bones audibly cracked. His spine elongated. His shoulders broadened, tearing the seams of the Queen Industries hoodie he was wearing.
His hands swelled, his fingers thickening and tipping with razor-sharp claws. His sleek blue quills grew shaggy, tipped with white.
He looked at his reflection in a puddle. He was a beast. A wolf-hedgehog hybrid with fangs and muscle density that rivaled Bane on Venom.
"Ugly," Elias grunted. His voice was deeper, guttural.
He tested the elasticity. He threw a punch at the far wall, twenty feet away.
His arm stretched. The limb elongated like rubber, his fist slamming into the concrete wall with the force of a wrecking ball. CRUNCH. The wall caved in.
Elias retracted the arm. It snapped back with a wet thud.
"Durability is up 500%," he noted. "Speed is down to... well, normal human athlete levels. I can't run on water like this. But if I need to grapple with Doomsday or Solomon Grundy? This is the form."
He deactivated it. The transformation back was just as painful, leaving him sore and stretching his neck.
Experiment 3: Darkspine Sonic
Requirement: World Rings (Rage, Hatred, Sadness).
"The Genie of the Lamp stuff," Elias mused. "This one is... magic."
He focused on the three World Rings in his inventory. They burned with a different kind of fire than the Chaos Emeralds. This wasn't sci-fi energy; this was fantasy energy.
He channeled it.
Whoosh.
No explosion. Just a sudden, intense heat.
Elias's body turned a deep indigo. His spines smoothed out, hanging down. Two white lines appeared on his head, and his hands and feet were engulfed in flaming rings of fire.
He didn't feel fast. He felt... authoritative.
He held out a hand. "Pyrokinesis."
A ball of soul-fire erupted in his palm. It wasn't orange; it was a swirling vortex of purple and red.
"Reality warping," Elias whispered. "In Secret Rings, Sonic rewrote the ending of a story. In this universe... that could mean altering probability."
He looked at a broken lightbulb on the floor. He focused the Darkspine energy on it.
"Restore."
The glass shards trembled. They flew back together, fusing seamlessly. The bulb was whole again.
"Matter manipulation," Elias realized, shivering. "This is high-level stuff. Dr. Fate level stuff. I need to be careful with this one. It drains my soul, not my calories."
Experiment 4: Excalibur Sonic
Requirement: The Sacred Swords.
He tried to activate the golden armor of the Knight.
Error: Conduit Missing.
A hologram of the sword Caliburn appeared, flashing red.
"Right," Elias sighed. "I can't become the Knight without the sword. The armor is bound to the weapon. I need a magical blade."
He thought about the DC Universe. There were plenty of swords. The Soultaker. The God Killer. Maybe he could steal one from Deathstroke or Ra's al Ghul?
"Put a pin in that one. Quest for later."
Experiment 5: Hyper Sonic
He hesitated.
This was the endgame. The form that made Super Sonic look like a AA battery. It required the Super Emeralds—the heavy, cold stones he felt in his gut.
"Just a taste," Elias whispered. "Just to see the ceiling."
He reached for the power.
It wasn't a stream. It was an ocean.
The moment he touched the Super Emerald energy, the room didn't just shake; the dimensions shook. The walls flickered in and out of existence.
White light began to bleed from his eyes and mouth. He felt his body beginning to flash through the color spectrum—Silver, Pink, Cyan, Gold.
It was agonizing. His physical body wasn't ready. It felt like trying to channel the entire Niagara Falls through a garden hose.
WARNING: VESSEL INTEGRITY CRITICAL.
RISK OF MOLECULAR DISASSOCIATION: 90%.
"Abort!" Elias screamed.
He slammed the door on the power.
He collapsed face-first onto the concrete, gasping for air, his heart hammering so fast it sounded like a buzzsaw.
"Okay..." he wheezed, coughing. "Hyper form is... too much. I need to level up. I need more Rings. I need my body to adapt to the Chaos energy for a few months before I try that again. If I do that now, I'll vaporize myself and half the Eastern Seaboard."
The Loadout
Elias rolled onto his back, staring at the damp ceiling.
He had a toolkit.
Base: Speed and Exploration.
Super: Invincibility and Flight (Time Limit).
Dark: Berserker DPS.
Werehog: Tank/Grappler.
Darkspine: Mage/Reality Warper.
He grinned, despite the exhaustion.
"I'm a one-man Justice League," he whispered.
He sat up and reached for his bag of snacks. He pulled out a bag of chili cheese Fritos.
"But right now," Elias crunched on a chip, "I'm just a guy in a sewer who needs to hack into the Bat-Computer to see what they know about me."
He moved to his laptop, cracking his knuckles.
"Let's see if the World's Greatest Detective has figured out my IP address yet."