once again, we'll start our story anew;

Nine had seen a lot in a relatively short space of time. Ever since a blue hedgehog appeared in his lab that time, his life had been turned upside down in ways he never would have predicted. He had been captured by the Chaos Council, confirmed multiverse theory, travelled beyond New Yoke to assemble the paradox prism, constructed robots to battle what remained of life in the shatterverse as it crumbled around them, witnessed the end of the world, been sucked inside the void, had his face and body transformed, and flown through clouds to escape an alien race intent on attacking him unprovoked – all in the space of a few days.

(No wonder he was tired.)

But just because he had seen a lot, that didn’t mean nothing could faze him anymore. The hairs pricked on the back of his neck and a jolt of electricity ran up his spine as the human, who had seemed apparently normal a moment before, underwent a transformation of his own. Shadows seeped across the whites, stopping short of gleaming silver irises. Nine watched them with hypervigilance, his own eyes narrowed. If this was the precursor to an attack, he had no defence. His tails were out of commission and his energy and mind were spent.

No attack came, but Nine’s expression remained guarded as the man spoke again. Even in his state of exhaustion, he filed away information to follow up on later. UECH. Anomalies. If he could get at another computer, primitive as they were, he would still be able to –

Kaison finished his sentence in a lower rumble, and his words took a second for Nine to process. The precise moment he did process them was clearly visible on his face. His blue eyes widened, his jack slackened and his mouth downturned cartoonishly in an appropriately horrified expression as the truth of what had happened, what would happen, what he’d done, sank in.

“No.” Nine growled through gritted teeth, not hearing the exchange between Kaison and Maruui or what Kaison said next. “No. No. No.”

He shivered as though an ice bucket had been poured over his head. His hands and feet felt numb. He didn’t immediately feel it when his mechanical tails began twitching, sparking and writhing with more electricity than before. He did, however, feel it when they started going completely beserk. Two tails reached up to snatch at random items on the workbench behind him; two more slammed into the ground with such force that it cracked the flooring, pushing him up onto his feet; two flapped around like flags in the wind; and the final one pointed at Kaison, lit up and began to spin its end piece menacingly.

“What – ?” Nine started to say, but yelped as one of the tails embedded into the floor pulled itself up and to the left to grab at something he couldn’t see, since the sudden movement had made him lurch sideways.

The two tails which had grabbed items off the workbench threw them at a wall and started reaching for new things to snatch up. This was ludicrous. Nine’s tails had never been this out of control before, not even when he was initially testing them. This needed to stop. Now.

Nine’s gloved hands curled into fists and his forehead creased as he concentrated. His organic tails spun – slowly at first, and then within enough speed to lift him off the ground. He manoeuvred himself carefully to be equidistant between the floor and the ceiling and away from the walls, so his robotic tails were out of reach of anything they could grab at. They sparked and flapped and spun angrily, stretching towards items beyond their grasp. Nine had to strain and fight to hold his position while the tails tried to drag him in every direction.

“I can shut them down!” He yelled down at Kaison. “Throw me a paperclip!”