Over in Mobius-FN, there was a call for help from the people of Furville regarding some robots threatening the local gym, and since Detective Sonic was already busy with a Mercian mission with the rest of his Freedom Fighters, Queen Sally sent the team's resident wild card Scourge to help out saying that it was an excuse for him to smash some robots. After all, unlike Sonic, he didn't care if the cause he was fighting for was really minor as long as he got to cause some destruction. The same went for Fiona for the most part, but she soon became busy and distracted by something else and had to let him go there alone. He ran to the village at the speed of sound in a green blur, and viciously destroyed the various gray robots as a spinning green buzzsaw. He uncurled among the wreckage of the robots looking proud of himself in front of the watching crowd, and asked, " Ready to applaud? "

However, it took him a second to recognize the familiar looks of apprehension and disgust on their faces as if he was back on Moebius, and he quickly got annoyed, complaining, " Hey, I just saved your LIVES, you jerks, don't you care? " One of the gym-goer civilians, a fox Mobian in the appropriately gym-wear gray T-shirt and shorts, pointed out, " I-I would've felt safer being saved by Sonic, actually, " and the skunk girl beside him added, " Yeah, and not a punk who wishes he could smash us, too. " Scourge knew she was right, glaring with his arms crossed, and a bear Mobian pointed out, " You may have done something good, but you just did it to destroy. Who knows how long before you get your hands on something that could let you destroy even more, and go crazy with it? You can't blame us for not trusting you! "

" I took down Robotnik, ya ungrateful- " Scourge complained, and the final person in the circle around him, a bear woman with a pink bow and purple clothes, replied, " You just like killing. And you did it to brag about it, not to help people out. Once a criminal, always a criminal. You can tell by the leather! "

Then the last of the robots revealed themselves, breaking down the wall in another room, and it was a large one with a flamethrower attached to it. With Scourge at the breaking point, he exclaimed, " Screw you haters! You know what?! " and spindashed to slice the robot apart, grabbed the flamethrower and yelled, " Here! " Fortunately for them, they didn't get hurt by the resulting flames, since his action was so obviously telegraphed, and he set fire to the room, exclaiming, " They'll all think the robots did it! " and took off continuing to do the same thing to the other parts of the building, smirking all the while at standing up for himself.

That all changed the minute he heard a little girl's scream. " Phoebe?! " he called out turning his head towards the building he had run out of. Of course, it wasn't really his and Fiona's daughter that he heard, but merely the voice of a girl who had to be brought with her parent to the gym on a school PA day. This immediately put him in a state of panic, making him feel as if he was threatening the life of his own little girl, and it frustrated him because he knew how illogical he was being and didn't want to care, but out of his control, he did. So he growled and hissed under his breath, " Oh goddamit! " humiliated as the fear started to overwhelm him and show in his expression, when he was trying to hide it by acting annoyed. He found himself running back into the burning building he had caused the state of it in the first place.

So in seconds, Scourge had gone from trying to burn down a building returning to his old ways, to getting a fire extinguisher and heroically saving it, putting out the fire in a green and black blur of sonic wind, and with every fire he put out, he felt like he accomplished something. In all the adrenaline, it never occurred to him to simply save the girl and her parent by taking them out of the building and letting it burn, and he had to rationalize his behavior away later as doing the smart thing; he would've never gotten away with letting it burn down, especially with witnesses left standing.

Just when he had gotten most of the fire extinguished and given everyone ample time to escape while fully aware of what he was doing to save them, some tiles from the ceiling broke off, and while most of them avoided hitting his head, one of them didn't, and the rest of them smacked into his arms while he was putting out a fire. He cried out in pain and fell before he even knew what hit him, fortunately just missing the fire itself and hitting the floor instead, and a part of him felt stupid for even trying to help, wondering if he had made a mistake. Everything faded to black in an instant.

Before he knew it, a second later from his perspective, he woke up in front of the gym with a headache and some firefighters nearby, who had picked up the slack and saved him. Lying on something flat on the grass, he growled in embarrassment at the very idea, grumbling, " I can't BELIEVE I had to be saved by someone. Why? " but when he tried to sit up, he groaned at the sharp pain in his right arm, grimacing at what happened.

" It's okay, it'll heal! " a familiar-sounding voice said, which belonged to the skunk Mobian who was suspicious of him before. He was completely stunned and confused, seeing some of the people he had threatened earlier looking sympathetic to him, including the little girl from earlier. They were calling him a hero, turning around on him because he proved them wrong in the end. His confusion was lessened when one of the bear Mobians said something that implied that, thanks to him putting out the fire, everyone had assumed that he never really intended to hurt them, and only gave them a scare to teach them a lesson, a lesson that they should appreciate him for his heroism after all.

" That was amazing! " Fiona called out to him getting his attention right away. Scourge was confused as she ran up to him and stopped in front of him, and he soon remembered that she had implied she wanted to come along earlier and must have gotten held up by something. With her wearing a purple and black bodysuit in the same style as her old one, she kissed him three times in a row, once on the cheek, and exclaimed, " You were so brave! " and hugged him after he finally sat up, slowly starting to enjoy the treatment. " Braver than Sonic? " he asked her, and she agreed with his arms around him, " Of course! " slightly just to humor him since she wasn't sure if bravery could be quantified. He would've been a lot more confused if she hadn't made it clear that she was impressed with his gutsiness, and not just liked that he had done something good.

Then she scolded him with her finger pointed to his face, " Don't get yourself hurt like that again! " despite being self-aware of the fact that she couldn't prevent that kind of thing from happening to him again with his dangerous lifestyle and lack of forethought. Scourge rolled his eyes at how she was nagging him like Alicia did, but with a smile because she still wasn't her, and was about as much of a gutsy thrill-seeker as he was rather than not understanding his lifestyle, and said,

" Why don't 'cha take me to the hospital? QUICKLY, so no one sees me needing help? I wanna look like a blur to these people! " and reluctantly let her take him into her arms bridal style, trying to keep smiling in spite of the pain and how a part of him was seething at the idea that he would look vulnerable for even the slightest second. He told her in annoyance, " Make sure to let ME carry YOU a couple times, " making things more clear to her as she took off in a red and purple blur, all thanks to Scourge infusing chaos energy into her in the first place. She reassured him as she started running up to full speed, " Don't worry, hun, people are so impressed by what you did there that they won't even notice this. If anything, the fact that you put out the fire and got hurt just makes it even more awesome, 'cause it shows what a risk to yourself your action was. "

It was fortunate for the two of them that as a required secondary power, Fiona and Scourge could hear each other perfectly fine in the roaring sonic wind of Fiona running with him in her arms. As she ran along the sidewalks of the alternate Furville to avoid the cars, Scourge told her, " It was just an impulse. I didn't PLAN on it. " " You didn't? " she said in confusion. He explained, " These guys were being ungrateful jerks after I saved them from some robots because of how I look and stuff, so I wanted to just let 'em burn. But then the MINUTE I heard some screaming little girl, she reminded me of Pheebs. And I just, snapped. I-I, logically I could've just saved her, but I guess I got carried away, I guess. Once I started putting the fires out, I couldn't stop. Maybe it was addictive, 'cause it was like one at a time accomplishing something. It feels weird being called a hero so much when that was the exact opposite of my plan. "

Fiona snarked, " I guess I shouldn't be so surprised that Sonic's evil twin tried to burn down a building, especially after what Anti-Knuckles had to deal with. Or whatever his new name is now. " She stopped in front of the doors to the hospital and carefully put him down so he was standing up, and he complained, " Hey, what's wrong? Those guys were total snobs! They thought just because I wear black leather and like smashing stuff, that they shouldn't respect me at all. I thought you knew better. " " I do! It's just that, ugh, well, I dunno, Scourge, I guess I just forgot how sensitive you can be to criticism. Who cares if they don't like you? You're an evil twin, that's what you live for, wasn't it? " Fiona responded in frustration feeling like he was immature, partially intimidated and worried.

" I'm more than just an evil knock-off, and you know it. Or I hope you do! Just because I'm from Moebius doesn't mean I won't want some appreciation and respect when I do something great! " he complained. " I know, I know! " Fiona replied backpedaling, getting irrationally scared of him some more with her abandonment issues and trust issues. That, and it was Scourge. She continued, " It's just confusing because, people all hated you in your own zone. And that didn't make you burn stuff. Right? Or at least do things besides burn stuff, was that why you did so many evil things, out of spite? But the only reason they'd hate you in the first place was if you were a criminal FIRST, it's the chicken and the egg I guess. "

Scourge clarified in annoyance, " It's because they're being ungrateful for something they should be thanking me more. That's all. And they turned around on me apparently, so whatever. It's not like I care what people think, it's just annoying to hear when they're jerks. " " Alright, I get it. But seriously, what came first? " Fiona replied, relieved to have ended the argument. Scourge sighed, and Fiona said awkwardly, " You just never talk about your childhood, so I was curious… " wary of him getting mad again. Intellectually, she knew he'd never hurt her, and if he ever did, he'd feel bad about it and wildly overcompensate for it, but there was still that feeling. To their surprise, Frost, the Film Noir Zone Tails, showed up flying towards them on an ice crystal, saying, " There you are! I expected you to come here, I heard what just happened on the news. " He landed and asked awkwardly, " Um, what are you guys talking about? "

Fiona replied, " How he got his start as a bad guy and how he feels about that reputation. If that's okay… " Seeing Fiona as having earned it for being his girlfriend long enough and proving her loyalty, Scourge reluctantly explained, " Well, thinking back to it… I got my start as a rebel by taking out the bullies back in grade school. I'd just jump at 'em and start whaling on 'em, one by one. So if you wanna hear a start to my ' antisocial behavior ' as they called it, it's there. They deserved it, obviously, and I was doing the right thing, giving bullies what they deserve. I wasn't beating up innocent kids for lunch money! I beat up the NOT innocent kids for that, instead. But people didn't respect me for that, and just saw me as this insanely violent jerk with a hair trigger temper, who'd fly into a rage at the mere mention of Father's Day, and I guess that's what led to me dropping out. Not only was school work and tests sucking, but I was unappreciated, people just acted like I was the new top bully and avoided me like the plague no matter what I said. " Scourge started to look and sound progressively more depressed and melancholic as time went on as he described how his reputation started. Fiona was fascinated, her eyes directly focused on him in curiosity, and she tried to hide her sympathy for him, since he was already defensive about being hurt.

He continued with calm unhappiness and bitterness, " Sure, I didn't like the pathetic geeks, but that didn't mean I wanted them to be scared of me. I was just a kid, of course, it's not like things are the same today. I mean, I didn't do anything to THEM! Unless they were jerks. So since I became a pariah over there, I dropped out. " He just avoided admitting to her that it had gotten to the point where the school was even trying to get him to see its school therapist, and give him anger management lessons and try to pry out of him why he was acting the way he was. The school was naturally suspicious of why he would come there with bruises and black eyes, but couldn't do anything against the world dictator that was his father, and he refused the supposed humiliation of getting any help. He would've never trusted a stranger wanting to learn about how he ticked.

He continued to complain, " And since my parents never bought me anything and I didn't wanna bust my ass at a job if I could even get one at my age, I started stealing, and I mainly targeted what looked like the biggest jerks. No one appreciated me for that, either. So if I couldn't shake the villain reputation, I might as well embrace it. Gets me a sort of respect that way, people are less likely to try to mess with me, or at least attack me outright, and I even got some free stuff! But here, when people actually respect me and think I'm a hero, they're never gonna do the stuff that my haters did like insult me behind my back or spit in my food. There are drawbacks to being seen as a ' bad guy, ' and I can't ignore that. And don't tell anyone I told you all this, okay? Especially not Sonic. "

Fiona smiled and said, " I promise, " thankful that he finally opened up to her, and they walked into the hospital at last. Frost surprised him and slightly embarrassed him by telling him, " I think you were trying to do the right thing, by fighting bullies. You were trying to be a hero to be badass and make some meaning out of your life, find a good way to get your frustration at your parents out. But since bullies and criminals were too small of a target compared to a guy like Robotnik, you went unappreciated. But you've got appreciation now! A lot of people respect you for what you're doing, regardless of why you're doing it. " Not sure how to respond to that, since he knew he couldn't get away with yelling at him and was too soft on him to do it, he simply said, " Yeah, yeah, fine. Don't tell anyone, " and thought, " At least it's less humiliating than ' I'm only me because my dad was a dick. ' "