DISCLAIMER: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ MY STORY, "THE SONIC PROJECT," BEFORE COMING HERE, PLEASE READ THAT STORY FIRST. THERE ARE STORY ELEMENTS AND PLOT DEVICES THAT TIE DIRECTLY BACK INTO THIS STORY. YOU MAY FIND YOURSELF LOST AND CONFUSED AS TO HOW THINGS WORK IN THIS A.U. IF YOU DO NOT READ THE SONIC PROJECT FIRST. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD, 2016
"Come on…! Hurry up!"
Sonic was about to blow a gasket. He hated whenever he had to stay put before something big was gonna go down. Like a child, he couldn't stay still. He was itching to get this over with. One more crime boss. He was gonna catch her in the act, and Rouge's team would make the arrests. Bing, bang, boom. What made his waiting worse was that Tails's newest piece of ingenuity was all but ready for a test drive. And the fact that the bust-to-be was a little better than 24 hours away. Until then, Sonic was stuck playing guinea pig in the fox's laboratory as he tinkered.
"Aren't you finished yet?!" Sonic asked with a healthy dose of annoyance. "I want this done and over—!"
RING! RING!
"That'd be Rouge," said Sonic.
"Try again," CREAM said.
Sonic turned around to see that it wasn't the commissioner on the line. It was Amy from her AMG office. She was in the process of getting her equipment ready by the looks of it. Seems like another field story was ready to be reported on.
"Are you still fiddling around with that suit?" Amy asked.
"Almost done with it," Tails said. "Just need S to give it a test run."
"T, I don't know why you're pushing this now. Can't it wait until later?"
"It's ready now, and Sonic needs take his mind off tomorrow's op." Amy rolled her eyes at her brother's insistence. He always acted like this whenever he invented another game-changing gadget.
"At least you're not the one testing it, A," Sonic huffed.
"Sonic, I've heard 25 years of your moaning," CREAM said. "Suck it up. For Tails's sake." Sonic rolled his eyes. "Don't you roll your eyes at me, young man!"
Sonic blushed out of embarrassment, much to the delight of Amy and Tails. "I hate all of you," the speedster said with noticeable contempt.
"You love us, and you know it," Tails said. His tone rattled Sonic's cage.
"Tails," CREAM began, "I don't want to hear any lip from you either since this was your idea." Sonic immediately smiled as the fox's face soured a bit. "To a degree, I agree with Sonic in saying that I'm not 100% onboard with this flight suit business. Doubly so when he's still recovering from his injuries from Halloween."
"No worries, CREAM," he defended. "You're just being the over-protective parent."
"Maybe so, but this contraption you've been slaving over for weeks is sounding more like a toy than a necessity. And if it weren't for that, I might be in a new body by now." There was a little venom in her tone that hit struck a nerve with Tails, like it hurt him to hear that. She was admittedly jealous of how much time he spent tinkering on the suit over the last few weeks than fulfilling his promise to her. Her new body (chassis?) was almost done, but it had been put on the backburner for Sonic's suit. She much rather preferred him to be intimate with her body's delicate inner-workings. Wow, that sounded wrong.
RING! RING!
"Now, that would be Rouge," CREAM said as a camera feed from the commissioner's office lit up to show the head cop. "Good evening, R."
"T tells me that S is supposedly testing something tonight," the bat said.
Sonic groaned again. "T, just give me the damn thing. I want this done and over with."
"Are you sure about this?" CREAM asked.
"No, but we're doing it anyway." Then he zipped to Tails who had just finished it. On Amy's and Rouge's screens, they were each given a better view of Sonic's movements as he slapped on the apparatus.
The getup looked like a backpack with carbon fiber on the exterior, especially the back, that contoured to Sonic's trimmed torso. The rest of the suit was a harness which Tails helped strap and buckle to Sonic's sides, shoulders and front. The buckles were made from a nigh unbreakable plastic while the harness loops around his shoulders, waist, and chest had a padded layer for comfort. Finally, Sonic was given a pair of gauntlets, one for each hand, to which there were the usual wrist grapples built into them. When his dress-up was complete, Sonic looked somewhat intimidating, but you couldn't take him seriously when it looked like he was rocking a turtle shell strap-on. Not the kinkiest item ever invented.
Tails and Sonic then walked so that they were front and center for the small audience to see. Just as Tails opened his mouth, Amy's office door opened up, and in stepped Sally Acorn. The shock of someone walking in on their business—literally—made the lot of them stop, but they immediately relaxed when they saw whose blue eyes came on screen.
"Hey, Amy?" Sally asked. "You wanna—?" Then she saw the screen with Tails and a dressed-up Sonic. "Oh, I didn't realize I was interrupting something. And Sonic, what are you wearing? You look ridiculous! If I knew you'd look so stupid, I'd get my parents over here to take pictures of you."
Sonic shot her an unimpressed look as Sally had a good chuckle.
"Well, Sally," Tails started, "if you have a minute, I'll show you what I've got cooked up for Sonic."
The news anchor smiled and shook her head. "I was going to ask Amy if she wanted a coffee before she left, but I guess I can stay for this."
"In that case, welcome." Tails then cleared his throat and collected his thoughts before looking back at the camera. "When Sonic said that he would help wipe out Mobotropolis's crime, we all agreed that we would help him. In that past four months, crime has gone down due to Sonic's heroics and the joint effort that everyone here has put forward. As we all know, Sonic is the most versatile person in this group if not the most important. He's taken on his fair share of crazy people, but as we've seen, criminals have evolved. We saw that with Eggman when he wanted to take his city-wide grip on Mobotropolis to a global scale with the clones, not to mention what happened a few nights ago on Halloween. With such powerplays, it's important that the city's most capable hero—no offense, commissioner—needs to be equipped to combat any conceivable situation. It's with that in mind that I'm proud to show off the first working prototype of the Winged Flight Suit."
With a nod to the hero, Sonic pressed a button on his chest. His backpack began to whir and sprout wings spreading opposite directions, perfectly contouring to Sonic's arms. As the small crowd looked in astonishment, the wings then clamped onto Sonic's gauntlets and spread out about a foot longer than the ends of his fingers with small handles next to his fists. The wings themselves were slim, but strong. The ends were metal-tipped and sharp, looking like the world's biggest and deadliest knife. The hero tried to take in the incredible sight around him, barely comprehending how CREAM and Tails were able to make this a reality.
"Not bad," Rouge said.
"Glad you think so, R," Tails replied. "The wings are made of high-resistance carbon fiber. In other words, these babies are bullet-resistant against everything from 9mm rounds to the heaviest sniper fire. At the tips of the wings, you'll notice the steel-titanium alloy. Obviously, the wings retract using this rigging, but the wing tips are sharpened to point where they can cut through a 3-foot-thick tree like a hot knife through butter. While it does have melee properties, the sharp tips are meant to ward off potential attackers. However, should Sonic not want to slice anyone, he would need to do is ball up his fists to access the suit's primary melee mode."
On cue, Sonic grabbed the handles and jerked his wrists down twice. Looking to the tips, Sonic saw how the sharp ends folded down and then began to wrap around his fists, locking on the wing with a CLICK! His hands weren't damaged in any way. They were safely inside the small, metal-encased areas. What Sonic also noticed was that he felt more limber than expected in this state. He was able to move freely since the metal joints on the tips were able to move in various directions.
"As you can see, Sonic's hands are now enclosed. When Sonic has to engage in combat, his punches will have more weight behind them, allowing him to hit harder. Imagine getting hit by steel-titanium boxing gloves. And don't worry, the suit can keep up with how fast Sonic can move his arms. That's why the wings are carbon fiber to begin with. Also, there are grips inside for Sonic to hold so that when he throws a punch, his fists don't smash against the metal."
"It's an impressive piece of tech, T," Sally said in an amazed tone.
"Thank you, but there is a small catch. With how much work the suit will need to do to keep up with Sonic, the wings have a chance of wearing down. That doesn't mean that they're fragile—far from it—but overusing the melee mode can compromise the durability of the wings and potentially lead to them being broken. Considering the wiring in the things, it could lead to electrocution."
Amy groaned and said, "Long story short, Sonic shouldn't use them? Doesn't exactly seem practical when he uses his hands on a very regular basis on the streets. And because, oh yeah, the suit could falter and KILL HIM!"
"Sonic would have to put those wings through a war to get to that point!" Tails defended. "Besides, CREAM and I are developing a Mark II suit with stronger, sturdier wings that can handle more abuse."
"Tails, I'm still not sure about this," Sonic said with concern.
"Sonic, don't worry. Like I said, you'd have to put those things through hell to really damage them."
"T, you're putting too much faith in these things, especially for a prototype," Rouge said, echoing Sonic's unsure tone. "The last thing we need is your ego leading to something bad, and Sonic does that enough."
"Thanks," Sonic said. Then he finally got what she was saying. "HEY!" he defended.
Tails took offense to her concerns. "They won't fail, R. You have my word. Now, if we're done complaining… Sonic, activate 'Flight Mode.'"
"Got it," the unsure hero replied as he jerked his wrists up to disengage the metal fists and unfurl the wings to their initial spread state. He then pressed the ends of his handles where a big, red button rested on each of them.
CLICK!
Sonic's suit started to vibrate. While it tickled a bit, Sonic was more interested in how he was now LEVITATING IN THE AIR. The onlookers' eyes went buggy as they saw Sonic the Hedgehog rise a meter off the ground with his wings keeping his steady.
"Sonic, raise your arms."
The hero nodded and did so. The gauntlets then magnetically bonded to the wings again as the hero regripped the wings' handles and started to turn around. Sonic groaned as he was feeling akin to a supermodel rather than a superhero. The only reason for this was because he had to show off the backpack to the captivated audience.
"The backpack has a pair of small jet engines that allow Sonic to propel himself forward. He can turn on and off Flight Mode by pressing both buttons on the end of his grips. The grips can also rotate forward and back with simple motions so that he can control his flying speed and direction. Obviously, practice is needed to—."
Sadly, Sonic's curiosity got the better of him. He gripped the hoops and only moved his hands forward barely, but Sonic then took off straight up, much to the horror and shock of everyone. Sonic was rapidly approaching the ceiling with no way to go but through it, gripping harder than before from the shock, unable to slow down.
"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA!"
By instinct alone, he turned to the right at the last second to avoid a painful crash. Now he had a new problem: the next wall. Getting the idea (or so he hoped), Sonic turned his grips to pull off a hard left and to see the lab from his aerial viewpoint. CREAM was able to keep a bead on Sonic the whole time.
"SONIC!" Amy screamed. "GET DOWN FROM THERE!"
Sonic chuckled. That didn't sound good.
With a wry smile, Sonic instantly divebombed and pulled up, flying a foot off the floor. Now it was time to have some fun at Tails's expense. He gunned it, flying straight at the fox, watching him try to run out of the way. But Sonic had no interest in spearing his friend, so he pulled up and circled around Tails's large lab as he got used to the machine. He stopped and restarted his flight on a dime, did figure eights, and loop-de-loops among other neat air tricks all within a few minutes.
After looking back at the stunned faces of his cohorts, Sonic decided enough was enough. He gently glided to the ground and beside to a mortified Tails. It wasn't because the fox was afraid that Sonic was going to kill himself accidentally (that was part of it, though), but it was because the quick-study that was Sonic properly flew and used his new flight suit to effectively and epically steal Miles Prower's thunder.
Sonic let loose of the hoops and jerked his arms forward to disengage the gauntlet magnets. He quickly got out of the suit by pressing the button of the suit's front and unstrapping himself, handing the contraption back to the stunned inventor and smiling at his equally stunned face. He took one last look at his friends' bewildered gawking and started to laugh. Looking back to Tails one last time, Sonic said, "I think it works just fine, buddy," before giving him a pat on the back and leaving the lab.
Amy starred at the video feed in shear awe of Sonic's actions, completely captivated by how he was able to move so valiantly through the air despite it happening by complete fucking accident. Without realizing at first, her feelings for him coupled with his actions caused her heart to pound and her face to blush madly.
"Amy?" a concerned Sally asked after just finally noticing the state of her friend. "Are you okay?"
The pink hedgehog instinctively cut the feed from her office, leaving the two of them alone. Suddenly, Amy's stunned face morphed into a lovesick smile as her eyes were halfway shut. The chipmunk immediately shot up an eyebrow. Then it hit Sally that Amy's heart had swooned… big-time. Sally couldn't help but chuckle and grin like a schoolgirl.
Amy sighed happily. "Even on accident, he's amazing."
"No, he's just amazing," Sally said as she patted Amy's shoulder and began to walk out. "It was my brother that was the accident."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I know it's been a while. I know you're probably thinking it's been forever since I uploaded anything. And you're right. It's also taking a while for SP2 to formally arrive. Well, until I'm finished, this should hold you over. It's only a small part of what will be shown off when SP2 is published. And when SP2 does arrive, this teaser will be deleted, so relish in it.
Besides that, it's good to be back. I haven't left or lost interest in my writing, but it's taken a back seat considering what I've been dealing with. Y'know, life. Trying to save money for a new car lease next May, dealing with a new position where I work, other professional obligations, and most recently a bitter cold that's kept me out of work for nearly a week. I would normally work through it, but my new job deals with food prep, and I don't want people to get sick because of me (that, and it's a potentially fireable offense). Yeah, fall is my busy season. Oh, and my Milwaukee Brewers are in the playoffs at the time of this teaser goes live. Minor details.
Now let's talk about SP2. It's set about 4 months after SP1 as you can tell from the dateline up top. As of 10/12/2018, I am abut 2/3 of the way done with it. I just started penning the third and final act a day or two ago. I would like to have SP2 ready by Christmas or New Year's. I am also announcing that in preparation for SP2, SP1 will be fully re-edited. The main reasons for this are because it's been something I've wanted to for a while and because recent reviews of SP1 with Zoggerific have pointed out boneheaded mistakes that I made (it may sound weird, but I appreciated the brutal honesty in the reviews). Again, before SP2 goes live, SP1 will be given a grammatical re-edit. Before I forget, a thanks goes out to Heat Salamance for leaving a review recently as well, though I will say that it wasn't Manic that became Scourge in SP1. Elements of Sonic Underground, at this point, will only be teased like an easter egg.
Alright, I have to go away and finish the story. Until next time, leave a review. As always, the characters used in this story are the property of SEGA, Sonic Team, and Archie Comics. Everything in the story is being used strictly for entertainment purposes. And as always, I will talk to y'all later.