Storm the Albatross Vs Knuckles the Echidna
Storm the Albatross Vs Knuckles the Echidna
In another zone, far removed from the other timelines connected to the Super Sonic Hero, is a much stranger and more unified zone known simply as the Calamitous Zone.
High atop the clouds reside a floating island. An island that held much prideful history that has been struggling to stay alive in the recent years. The last bloodline of this history kept to himself on this island, guarding it and the sacred treasure it held. Far away from modern civilization, not bothering anybody and not wishing to be bothered. This was the deal he had struck with the rest of civilization and this was the deal they were going to abide by whether they agreed to it or not. Or even knew about the deal in the first place. This day, however, our dear guardian friend was about to receive an unexpected guest.
"Chief? Why am I here again?"
The question arose from an Albatross, riding along the Island's surface on this Extreme Gear. Gliding on the board came natural to him. To become an Extreme Gear master you had to become one with the wind. This is something his chief was known for saying, and Storm, the Albatross we're following here, controlled the very wind itself. So it was easy to see how he had naturally become the best boarder around. Of course, he keeps this fact to himself and works to make sure his beloved boss thinks he's the best rider out of the three of them, even going so far as to overcompensate and act as if he were the worse boarder of the three. Chief did have a lot of pride in him. Speaking of the chief, weren't we awaiting a response from him?
"I told you already, Storm. You're on a scouting mission."
"But what am I scouting for? Exactly?"
"Oh for the love of- okay Storm. Let me break this down for you. Our people crafted a technology that causes things to float in the air. You are currently riding around on an island, that floats in the air."
Storm was beginning to understand now.
"Oooooh. So you're saying Babylonians might have had their hands in the tech that cause this island to float?"
"Exactly."
"But Chief. Wasn't this island inhabited by a tribe of Echidnas?"
This is when their technician, Wave, popped into the conversation.
"Just because this Island was inhabited by Echidnas, it doesn't mean Babylonians weren't around to lend a hand. It's possible we helped them out a bit. Our people were very generous with this tech after all. At least when there were a lot more of us around to spread the wealth anyway."
"Ah. So I'm looking for evidence of that fact?"
This realization came with a resounding "Exactly!" From both of his pals over the communicator.
" Ya know, we could have talked about this before I le-"
Storm came to a halt.
"Wait. You guys hear that?
"Hear what? Are you doing that weird, wind sense thing again? Gah, you always zone out and get this really dumb look on your face-… dumber look on your face when you do that."
But Storm felt something was off. The wind around him felt different. Disrupted. Compensating it's movements for something traveling amongst it. Not moving with, but against it. In other words, something was all up in the wind's grill so it couldn't do its flowing thang.
"Someone is following me."
This is when Jet had to chime in with his snarky self.
"No one wants to follow you, Storm. People would have to be interested in you for that to happen."
Always quick with the slick wit he is.
Storm decided that the best course of action would probably be to coax his pursuer out.
"Hellooooo. Come on ouuuut."
"Don't call him butt muncher. What if he's hostile?"
"Well Jet, if he is hostile. Storm would probably have a better chance of fighting him if he did come out into the open." Wave replied back.
"What I meant was, he shouldn't be letting on that he knows he's being followed. That only lowers the upper hand that Storm had on him."
"Lowers the upper hand? Really?"
"… No. That made sense. I'm standing by that o-"
Leeeeeaaaaave. Noooooow.
Jet forgot his bickering with Wave for a moment to comment on the ominous warning his buddy had just been given.
"Awwwww shit! There be ghost up on this island!"
"Ghost aren't scientific."
"… Your face isn't scientific!"
"… It is so!"
Storm was so busy listening to his two friends bicker over the communicator that he forgot to actually respond to the very warning that started their argument. Of course the guardian took this as arrogance and decided to show the intruder that he meant business.
All at once, several tiny rocks began to pelt Storm's body all in succession of each other.
"Hey- wait- Ack!"
The force of the rocks themselves wasn't what knocked Storm off his board, but rather the sudden shock of having an army of large pebbles rocketing toward him.
"Storm! What happened? Did you seriously fall off your board by just standing there?!"
"No, there were rocks. Flying rocks. Ugh."
Storm got back up to his feet again and looked around, concentrating.
"Shoosh shoosh shosh-shosh-shosh-shosh"
He began to make shushing noises, whether he was telling his friends to shush or the actual wind to calm down remains to be seen, but his friends knew to be quite while he did it.
"Come on buddy, make a move." He began muttering, mostly to himself. "Nothing big. Just shift around a little bit."
There wasn't a shift, but there was a disturbance in the wind. A small grunt. Storm could feel it. The Adam's apple vibrating. The sound piercing the calm wind flowing around him.
"THERE!"
With a quick jab Storm punch the air and sent a large pulse of it toward the direction of his supposed attacker. The wind shot met its mark and the attacker came flying out of the tree, hitting the ground with a thud.
"Ha! Got you!"
But the eccentric echidna wasn't done yet. While still on his knees he took the hand that had been previously nursing the lump on his head and waved it in Storm's direction. This caused several rocks to follow this course as well. But before they could hit their mark, Storm, in a panicked desperation, held up his Extreme Gear to shield against them. This left Strom with an uninjured face and torso, but a ruined Extreme Gear.
"Ah! What the hecks man! You totaled my board!"
"You not belong here. My island. Private island. Leave now."
" Dude! Someone has seriously gotta teach you some social skills."
"Go away."
Storm was seriously starting to get pissed off by this guy.
"Okay! First lesson! If you want someone to leave then don't destroy their only method of transportation!"
"Hrm. I shall help you leave then."
The Guardian had gotten to his feet and began focusing on the ground under Storm. The earth around the awestruck albatross began to crack to form a circle surrounding him. Sensing danger, Storm sidestepped off the ground before it was lifted up high into the air. Storm ran in a semi circle around his attacker who was essentially chasing him with several more rising platforms much like the first one with the attention of catapulting him off the island. He punched a second air blast in his direction, forcing the guardian to dodge it by quickly burrowing underground.
"What th- where'd you run off to now?"
It didn't take long for his question to be answered as the guardian burst out of the ground, upper cutting Strom in the beak. Storm recovered quickly enough to block the follow up jab with his arm, and counter with a blow to the chest. The echidna staggered, then quickly advanced into a crushing bear hug. Storm struggled a bit before rattling his opponent's skull with his iron beak. The hold around him was loosened and the awesome albatross used this moment to break free via a powerful wind shield that set itself between him and the echidna, and then discharged outward. This sent the echidna flying back several yards.
With a grunt the echidna got up, motioned his hands upward and lifted the entire area in-between the two fighters high into the air with his geokinesis, and with a heavy push motion he sent it in Storm's direction.
"Eep"
Mustering up all of his strength Storm blocks the mound of Earth with a continuous blast of air.
"Ha! Is that all you can do? Throw dirt around?!" I- ack, wo-no."
This is when Wave chimed in over the communicator.
"Storm. This is no good. You may be able to use your wind to move rocks but this guy can move actual rocks! Brute force is no good. You'd have to be ten times stronger than him to overpower his skill and I think he might spend a lot of time up here training."
"Fine then! If I can't move the earth, I'll erode it!"
He let go of his hold on the large cluster of dirt and let it come sailing towards him. Then he shifted his weight on his hind leg and began to wind-up his left arm. Air began to circulate around it, building more and more power. Timing it just right, Storm let loose his "wind"-up dead center on the rock. The pent up wind cut through the mound of earth, separating it into four individual rectangular shaped segments.
"… Storm. Do you even know what erode means? Because I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen instantly."
"Erosion. The process in which soil and rock is removed from the planet's surface by wind or water flow and then transported to other locations. No info about time span found."
"Ugh. I hate when you look things up on the internet with your mind, Wave. Your eyes go all binary." Jet replied sounding a little bit spooked.
"Time to make a path!" Storm yelled, confident that he finally had the upper hand. Parting his arms apart, he separated the segments from each other and began to use the bottom left one as a platform, making his way to his adversary.
The guardian wasn't done yet. Attempting to squash his opponent for good, he geo bended both the top left and bottom left segments and crashed them together. But Strom is quick and with the help of his aerokinesis, rockets into a side jump that lands him on the right bottom segment. The right top segment comes crashing down on the bottom right and Storm side jumps to the top left segment, where he runs along the side of it. The top right segment detaches from the bottom right and slams itself into top left. But not before Storm can fall back down onto the bottom left. The top left slides off of the top right and into the bottom left, forcing Storm onto the top right segment.
Sensing that Storm might be getting a bit too close, the guardian decided to just cheat and slam all four segments together at once with a large CRASH. The dust clears and there's silence. He got him. At least, he thinks he got him. It looked like he might have been trying to jump on top of the platform all together. But it seems like he didn't mak-
"GAAAAAAAAH!"
Oh wait. No. There he is. Yeah. He made it over and is going for an aerial haymaker. The haymaker connects and sends the gruff guardian flying.
The battle looked almost over. Both fighters seemed exhausted, injured, and were breathing heavily. They stood and faced each other, the moment tense. But among all of this, there was something else, something that didn't feel quite right. Almost simultaneously they both singled a finger up as if to tell the other to wait for a minute. Jet found this behavior bizarre.
"Wha- what's going on? What's happening? Why are we stopping."
"You sense that?" Asked Storm, wondering if his attacker's rock throwing skills helped him sense things just as well as he could.
"Hrm." He grunted in reply. A reply that translates to "Yes, I very well do sense that."
"Something is coming."
"Something" in an understatement. As for on the edge of the island. Several yards away from where they were fighting, an enormous claw rose up and clung to the ledge of the island. But not just any enormous claw. An enormous claw that belonged to a beast so large that the very island itself began to tip over.
"Ohmygod! what is that?!" Strom cried out, terrified as he began to slide in the creature's direction.
"Ugh. Intruder. More Intruders." Was Knuckles' reply as he slid down with him.
END OF PART ONE