A quick left jab, a strong right jab, both attacks followed by a mean left elbow.
Sonic fell hard once again to the thick mat onto his back as his attacker loomed over him with his usual scowl that seems to be plastered to his face. Sonic could taste a little bit of blood this time. This has got to be the fifth time he has been knocked down in this practice bout.
"Oh get up already Sonic…" Shadow said as he gently kicked at Sonic's foot, he unfolded his arms and repositioned as Sonic shook his head and finally stood back up, wiping his mouth with his thumb and putting his dukes back up. He knew he had to keep fighting, he can't let up, especially not now. Sonic bounced lightly on his feet and went in for another attack to which Shadow easily dodged.
"Oh come on, you're not even trying anymore." Shadow said, disappointed in his mock opponent. Shadow grabbed his arm and twisted it behind Sonic's back before forcing him to the ground with Shadow's bare foot on his back. Shadow sighed disapprovingly and released him, Sonic laid there for a second just keeping his eyes closed, why am I not strong enough; he knew that Master,the head teacher in martial arts, was watching him, probably just as disappointed in him as Shadow was.
And he was right to be nervous, this is the third week in a row he haven't shown any growth in combat skill, contrary to Shadow who have exceeded his class and is expected to soon graduate and spar against the middle level students.
This is the School of Extraordinary Students branch of the G.U.N (Guardian Units of Nations) organization of the mighty, military dictatorship that is the land named Mobius. The imperial land is the largest in power of the lands adjacent to it: Arch City and Rodzaj, each having their own Schools of Extraordinary Students.
Mobius is ruled over by a single general, General Robotnik, and is considered to be the most ruthless general in history of the lands, conquering small nations on its borders and annexing new cities from other nations using bribes and sometimes force; the bribes usually work since no nation wants to tangle with Mobius. General Robotnik has lightened his monthly threat of annexing a new nation into its already massive land to much peaceful means; be it a ruse or not, the other surrounding nations were happy to hear that.
The School of Extraordinary Students was established when General Robotnik realized that with their abnormally high rate of chaos related, genetic mutants that were being born they could be put to use as super Soldiers against the other nations if needed; the Arch City and Rodzaj Generals; Nega and Kintobor respectfully, copied Mobius and started their own schools.
The school registers and enrolls children or teenagers that possess supernatural abilities such as super speed; which is dominate in the genetic mutations, super strength; of which ranges from minor super strength to major super strength, and other powers like telekinesis, pyrokinesis, etc- whatever power that can get Mobius ahead on top. Albeit the students and parents of this generation of Extraordinary Students don't know the true incentive of the Government considering the students of the school, everyone thinks this is just for the students to learn and enhance their powers, no one expects them to be used in actual military affairs.
The school is split up in three main levels: Elemental, Median, and Great. The Elemental students are usually children ages 10-13, Median are ages 14-16, and finally Great class students are usually ages 17-18. However despite the average ages, any student can excel into the class over them if they show the physical and mental prowess to advance to the next level. Shadow right now is 14 years old but his level coefficient is Median level which means he graduates. At the end of each school year there is a ceremony that promotes students that are advance enough to be put into a higher class, the skills that you've learned can either promote you or you can fail and be retained if you didn't improve at all or by little.
Sonic on the other hand lay on the mat with apprehension and nervousness clouding his heart along with sadness that he lost yet another practice battle. He could hear the sound of bare feet walking across the mat towards him at a slow pace. The person finally reached Sonic and he was prodded softly by a wooden stick on his leg. Sonic slowly looked up to see Master was standing above him with a displeased look upon his face.
"Get up Sonic." The old man said curtly, to which Sonic obeyed without him having to tell him twice. Sonic stood up and looked at him before casting his eyes back to his feet.
"Master Waizu… I'm trying the best I can…" Sonic started shyly, ashamed of himself, he peeked to the side at the students who were all looking at him, of the bunch he can pick out Shadow, Knuckles, and Silver; to name a few, were looking at him. Suddenly Sonic felt the uncomfortable heat of embarrassment crawl up his spine and rested in his face. His ears dropped as a red blush covered his peach colored muzzle.
Master Waizu is an elder monkey who teaches the students of his dojo. All students must go through physical training and combat training as well as rudimentary math and reading comprehension skills and science knowledge as a student of the School of Extraordinary Students.
The master said nothing and only stared down at Sonic with disappointment in his eyes and a tight, wrinkled frown upon his face.
Sonic knew what that look meant; Sonic felt frustration build up inside of him but of course he couldn't do anything about it. Sonic respectfully bowed and kept his low as he walked briskly and shyly towards the students that sat on the floor to pick up his stuff then he quickly walked out of the dojo as fast he could. As soon as he left the wooden stairs of the big, traditional looking building he took off as fast as he could towards home, tears streaming the whole time.
Sonic ran through the streets at top speed, alarming pedestrians and billowing up lady's skirts up with the blazing fast wind he stirred up; usually he'll be tempted to do it to just catch a quick peek at some panties but today, he wasn't in the mood. Sonic continued to run with his gifted speed until he reached a small neighborhood in the hills that overlooked the massive city.
Sonic approached a small traditional house and blazed through the door then blared down straight into his room on the far end of the house. He slammed closed then locked his door before diving into his pillow to let his emotions out into the soft safe haven that is his pillow.
Not too long after there was a small knock on the wooden door. "Sonic? Honey?" Sonic turned over clutching the pillow to his face, ignoring the knock and his mother's calm voice.
"Please open up Sonic… What's going on?" he heard his mother call out through the door to which Sonic again ignored her polite coaxing. Through the door he heard her sigh in worry until then some heavy footsteps along with the mechanical whirring of hydraulics approached the door.
"Jules, the door please." His mother requested politely. A soft whirling sound followed immediately by a series of clicking actuators was heard. Really pops? Can't I get some peace without you guys worrying your heads off? Just then the door was yanked out of the doorway leaving only the hinges.
Sonic huffed in frustration and tried to speed past them but his mother caught him with agile hands. She spun with him from his momentum and then landed sitting down on his bed. Sonic held a pouting face and tried to ignore his mom looking down at him and his robot father looking at him worriedly from the doorway with the door knob still in hand.
"Huh? How you catch me?" Sonic said surprised.
She smiled, "How you think I caught your father?" She looked over to him and Jules chuckled heartily. She then looked back down at her child with sympathetic, soft blue eyes. Her motherly vibe soothed Sonic's frustrated mind and loosened him up a little.
"Sonic, what's going on…" His mother held him tighter in her arms.
"Nothing…" he said stubbornly, trying to stop the tears coming back.
"Sonic do you want to be tickled…?" She threatened him then lightly tickling his plump, exposed belly trying to get him to smile, which it worked, but only for a second for his frown returned to his muzzle.
"I suck fighting, I suck at mental balance and Master Waizu keeps pairing me with Shadow and he keeps beating me and…" Sonic whined, "I just wanna go back to normal school!"
"Oh is this all the pouty faces are about? Sonic, you're only 13, give it time and you'll be the absolute best out of them all!" She said confidently, trying to raise his spirits.
"But Shadow is advancing already! No doubt he's going to middle level already; I can see how Master Waizu looks at him! We were supposed to go together…"
"Your brother is just an early bloomer is all, just practice, practice, practice and you'll win, win, win every time honey." She smiled at him and booped him playfully on the nose.
Sonic smiled briefly; "Will I even becomes as good as dad?" he smiled towards his father with a challenging smirk. His dad returned the smirk and put the door down.
"Oh so you want some of this, huh son?" he grabbed Sonic from his wife's hands and grappled him on the floor and the two tussled playfully, knocking down toys and collectives from shelves and toppling a trashcan.
After a couple of minutes Sonic had his dad pinned down with a triumphant look on his young face. "Ugh! I don't know Bernadette, he just might be stronger than me already!" he said smiling up proudly at her to which she beamed at them both. She loves her two strong boys very much and it showed as plain as day on her face.
/-/ Later that night/-/
Sonic and Shadow lay in their respective sides of their rooms; Sonic's side was painted blue while Shadow's was red, both were suppose to be asleep for they have class early in the morning. But Sonic can't get a wink of sleep, he was thinking too hard on how to improve, how to get better, sure he will have to do it alone but… wait, what if he gets someone to help him?
Sonic laid on his side looking out the window to the full moon that rode the sky to the top. His eyes reflected the bright moon's rays as he thought about everything that had happened today. He wanted to become better, stronger, faster; the best in the class as his mother had said today, and he has an idea on how to accomplish that.
"Hey Shadow…"
A few seconds later a tired voice of Shadow's rang out from his side of the room. "Yeah?"
Sonic pushed through his pride and in a few seconds he spoke again. "Congrats on your promotion, bro. I heard that Master was gonna promote you early…"
Shadow rolled his eyes, he kind of knew where this was heading; more tears.
"Thanks. You know you'll get there too, soon."
"Yeah… hey, do you think you can train me… you know when you're all Median level… you know." Sonic asked sort of bashfully, he scratched behind his head nervously as he awaited his brother's response.
Shadow was taken aback from his proposal. He thought for a minute or two about it then he peeked over his shoulder at Sonic who was now looking at him with a determined sparkle in his eyes. Sonic patiently awaited his brother's answer with tensed nerves and clinched, determined fists.
"Sure, no problem bro." Shadow said, then turning back to the wall to go back to sleep.
Sonic didn't reply back for he heard all he wanted to hear. He smiled, thinking of how much further he's gonna get now that Shadow is gonna teach him all he knew. Sonic beamed while again looking out at the beautiful, shining moon above. His eyes finally succumbed to the sleepiness that slowly gripped him.
/-/-/Later that year at the promotion ceremonies/-/-/
"Shade the Echidna" the announcer stated as the female in question rose up from her seat cushion on the floor and walked up to the raised floor platform where a large array of beautiful flowers, foreign and native decorated the stage along with small plants and small trees arranged neatly on the stage. Important official figures and teachers stood in a line on the stage with General Robotnik at the center.
Shade has long, light orange dreadlocks with a mysterious air about her. She had on a tight fitting, all black tactical uniform on. Rumor has it that she is one of the strongest students in the elemental class.
"Level Median; you are now promoted to level Great for your impeccable spy and martial art skills."
Master Waizu was standing beside the announcer and smiled proudly at Shade and she bowed in respect to her master and again at the rest of the teachers including General Robotnik before returning to her seat with pride.
"Knuckles the Echidna," the announcer stated again.
Sonic and Shadow were sitting side by side both had been training hard for his day, both worked their hardest to improve their skills and physical power. Shadow has been watched very closely by General Robotnik and other high officials, all of which who have been watching his improvement with high interest. Everyone noticed it and honestly wasn't very surprised for Shadow is a very exceptional fighter for his young age.
Sonic on the other hand has also improved somewhat in the year but ever since his whole month of no growth he has been put on a list of students who may be purged…
The announcer has called up several more names before he gotten to the hedgehogs.
Sonic couldn't concentrate now, he knew he's gonna be promoted! He awaited this for such a long time now and his mind was locked into improvement mode. He wanted to get better, he wanted to get smarter, he wanted to become faster and guess what, he accomplished all it all! He strides for the best and he did the best he could.
"Shadow the Hedgehog…"
Shadow rose from his seat and walked with importance and his head up in pride as he approached the stage. On the stage every important figure smiled big interested smiles as they watched him approach. Shadow noticed this and held his head higher just a bit as his pride overflowed.
As Shadow stepped upon the stage the announcer began to speak again.
"Level Elemental; your skills has improved exponentially within the few years you've been here. You have completely surpassed every goal and expectation of you. So we, Master Waizu and the school board including the great General Robotnik himself are promoting you to level Great. Furthermore you will be attending private lessons soon to further develop your powers."
Sonic and everyone within the dojo mouths could be heard hitting the floor. Not a sound was uttered as shock and awe asphyxiated everyone in the room; even Shadow himself.
Promoted STRAIGHT to level Great!? That is so rare; he's only 10 years old! Sonic's mom and dad were absolutely flabbergasted and had no words as they looked on to their adopted son with absolute awe. Sonic did too; he wanted to just do all types of somersaults from hearing that. His hearing must be off; his brother has General Robotnik as a personal advocate for him to promote straight to level Great. Only a few other students have ever done that, one of which lives in the neighboring land of Arch City, and a few select others in other lands.
Shadow basked in the glory while staring down his peers, something changed in him that day.
Shadow nodded to the announcer once he finished then bowed his head to every important figure until General Robotnik whispered something in his ear to which Shadow nodded in confirmation to. Shadow walked back to his seat with Sonic's astonished, emerald green eyes glued on him the whole way.
"No way dude, how did you get promoted to such a high level so young?" Sonic said in a hushed tone. Shadow just shrugged his shoulders but couldn't hide his proud smirk.
Sonic knew it was his turn next so he got excited again.
"Memphiles the Hedgehog..."
Sonic's heart sank straight through the beautiful oak floor below. Wait, wait, he forgot me!
Sonic started to sweat; he can feel the other students staring at him from all sides. Sonic kept his eyes straight as he felt the all too usual build up of heat in his face and embarrassed tears started to well up again. He fought with all his will to control his tears, he can't cry now, he have to stay strong, there's obviously a problem, an accident; yeah that's it! There's been an accident.
Although deep down he felt that that wasn't the case…
Sonic continued to listen to the rest of the ceremony with his hands gripping his legs that were crisscrossed. His muzzle and ears glowed with embarrassment and stress. His breathing grew short and shallow and heat and cold shivers racked his body. He wouldn't even dare look at Shadow now, he felt so insignificant beside him now.
The announcer called out at least 20 more progressing students before it was all over, much to Sonic's dismay. Sonic can't stand it anymore, he wanted to cry- one of the most important life events for him as a child was a total bust, he was suppose to advance, was all that "improvement" for nothing?
The announcer shuffled his index cards into a nice stack on his podium and then put them into a box and then into a carrying case. Master Waizu looked out into the large crowd of students and teachers and officials alike with a wise smile. He slowly made his way to the podium just as the announcer was about to dismiss everyone. He stood in front of the microphone; much to everyone's surprise and stared straight at Sonic.
"Sonic the Hedgehog, no, don't stand up…Today you will not be receiving a promotion to the next level, but I do want to congratulate you for all your efforts to become a better student. Maybe next year this time you'll promote to the next level.
Your efforts was good, Sonic, but they were not good enough."
As Master finished his comment everyone's attention was drawn to the young, blue hedgehog that sat in the 3rd row to the stage. Sonic kept a proud face although he wanted, so badly, to run out of the dojo and never come back. He hesitantly and sheepishly nodded his head in acknowledgement. His peach colored cheeks were burning red right now; threatening to change the color of the surrounding blue fur to red also. He breathed deeply and shakily as if he was holding down the sheer sobs that wanted to come out.
After the ceremony teachers, officials and General Robotnik himself walked around to talk to the students and parents exchanging information and suggestions. Sonic sat alone in the corner with his knees up to his chest with an absolutely disgruntled, resenting look upon his face. Sonic looked at his brother being praised exclusively by General Robotnik and other officials that surrounded his brother and parents, all of whom were expressing their pride to their highly accomplished son. Sonic glared at them through red, envious eyes; red for he was crying previously.
No matter how much he worked for something it always seemed as though he was always out of reach of his goals. However, he has a whole year to pull up his grades, his fighting skills and mental and physical coefficient. He just has to work harder than before, besides he has Shadow to help him out and train him. At that thought he felt a sense of hope again, and wiped his eyes and let out a tiny smile.
Shadow was smiling up at General Robotnik and nodding his head as the leader of the great land was telling him some information; Sonic couldn't hear since he was so far away. Shadow turned his head towards his mother as she started talking and rested a hand on Shadow's shoulder as did his father. Shadow smiled gingerly then he turned his head straight to Sonic and shot a smug smile towards him. Sonic didn't know why, but his ears slowly drooped lower on his head and he turned away.
/-/-/ Elsewhere a few hours later in a secluded room /-/-/
"How is the progress to infiltrate Arch City going? Are we coming to a resolution?" General Robotnik's commanding voice rang out as he entered to what looks like a War strategy room.
There was a large, flat glass table that projected a 3d holographic map of the massive land that consists of Arch City, Mobius, and Rodzaj- each fiercely strong and a force to be reckoned with.
One thing though; each leader of the massive lands are all brothers and they all are, to some extent, power hungry leaders. General Robotnik is the military leader of Mobius, General Nega is the military leader of Arch City; General Nega is arguably the smartest of the three and is in the middle of the power hungry spectrum of the three brothers. General Robotnik takes up the extreme side while the third brother, General Kintobor took up the other far side of the spectrum meaning he was the most peaceful out of the three.
In the room there were government military officials standing stiffly in their decorated uniforms looming over the large hologram projection table. The officials were talking about their secret infiltration project that they were planning to do. General Robotnik stood at the head of the table and grasped the sides of the table as he looked at the map of Arch City.
One official raised his head from looking at the map and looked towards their General, the official's name is Lt. Marshal the Raccoon. "Sir, I think that it would be quite beneficiary to us for the infiltration to be done by a couple of our highest ranking Extraordinary Students of spying and stealth to carry out the mission to sneak into Arch City, gather information and sabotage their key resources." A couple of officials nodded their head in agreement to Lt. Marshal's notion.
"Shadow and Shade; those are the students you're referring to right?" Another official beside Lt. Marshal spoke up, his name is Major Miles.
"Indeed, they scored the highest in multiple fields for being Elemental Level students." Lt. Marshal replied back.
From across the table another official spoke up. "Yes, and with a few more years of close guidance they'll be ready to perform the mission. We should host some extracurricular activities for the Extraordinary Students from both Arch City and Rodzaj to come to Mobius to compete in some rudimentary tests and fighting skills from the Elementals to the Greats to gain some trust and companionship. Then when the chance is right we can actually infiltrate not only Arch City, but Rodzaj as well." A quite beautiful Cheetah with a foreign accent spoke up, her notion carried well in the room for all the officials and even General Robotnik nodded in agreement and satisfaction.
Beside her another female official, a short tiger, turned to her. "That is an absolutely ambitious plan you have, Captain Azulus. I'm afraid that that's gonna take even more years of planning and trust gathering for the rival cities to hold even the slightest suspicion that we had children imported into their land to act as spies and cause silent detriment to them." The short tiger spoke her worries about Captain Azulus plan.
General Robotnik stared in thought at the two females then he rubbed his famously bushy mustache. He smirked and looked around the table. "Come on guys! You guys just lost face to these ladies, why can't you think of great ideas like that." The guys frowned then narrowed their eyes at the two ladies that are now smiling triumphantly. "That's that plan I want to go with, let's initiate the plan Captain Azulus motioned." General Robotnik is smiling evilly since he now has a diabolical plan to take over his brother's massive cities.
Just as the now jubilant Robotnik was about to take his leave he looked around the table once more. "I expect Shadow and shade to be ready to carry out this plan without a hiccup by the time he's 18; Shade too. I have an important find to make; you fools ever heard of the Chaos Emeralds?" General Robotnik said with a large toothy grin spread across his face.
Robotnik was greeted with wide eyes as each official looked at him with shock.
Captain Azulus blinked, "Sir… The powerful artifacts…?"
Beside her the short female tiger official covered her mouth thinking what everyone else was thinking in the room.
"Sir, are you planning to do what I think you're planning to do?" Lt. Marshal called out nervously.
"Why of course!" General Robotnik said still smiling, obviously still happy that a totally evil plan is in progress.
The majorly mustachioed general opened the heavy, metal door to the room he looked back with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "Shadow is to become infused with the chaos emerald's power." And with that the general left the room with a hearty chuckle.
The rest of the officials that were left made a worried face; anything can go wrong with the procedure of infusing the chaos emerald's power into a body. The body can either accept it or the body will reject it. Although both are very painful possible outcomes the latter is plainly direr as it can lead to death.
The direr outcome has happened to the best of solders in the past, usually after they spent a large amount of energy or if the energy is being withheld for a long periods of time. This had happened to Sonic's father, Jules Hedgehog, when Mobius was with war many, many years ago with a once neighboring nation named Zoe. Jules was on the frontlines of the battlefield and had transformed into his super form which was a very risky move. Super forms are heavily controversial because the bearer of the emeralds becomes so powerful that they could possibly ruin and destroy a whole nation by themselves. The super forms is highly unstable and since Jules went on a total tear on the nation of Zoe he tapped in so much power that his body couldn't bear it and he exploded in midair as he was flying to attack the capital.
That is why Jules is now a robot… he had to be fully robotisized; it was his only hope of survival.
So, for the sake of Shadow the procedure have better work for him, hopefully his body will accept the chaotic powers. Or it will be lights out for him for sure. The officials shared a grim look for a second before they all exited the room.