Two chapters in two days! I'm on a roll! Alright, here's the second chapter. The story will start having a faster pace after this chapter, I think. As always, LEAVE A REVIEW!

Koholint. It was a relatively peaceful town. At least, as peaceful as new town trying to build itself can get. In the wake of Eggman's incredible defeat at Sonic's hands, many new towns had begun springing up all over the map, most of which took off to become cities. Koholint was not one of them, but that was most likely due to its location. It rested in a secluded location in the USA out in Wisconsin. All around the town, people were abuzz as winter had finally set in, bringing with it people eager to get ready for the holidays. All except one house, that is.

"Hurry up, brother! You're going to be late for work if you lounge around all day!"

"Mmm… five more minutes," came the reply from the lump of blankets.

"You can't! You're already late to train the new guy today as it is." At the mention of being late, the little girl had to stand back as the covers instantly flew off the bed to reveal a young teenager. He stood at 5' 10'', with short brown hair and green eyes. He had a thin build that belied his strength.

"What time is it?" His voice had a small bit of urgency to it. He was supposed to have arrived earlier than normal to work, but had forgotten to adjust his alarm clock.

"It's 8:00 AM already! You were supposed to have been there an hour ago!"

"Then get out of here so I can get ready!" As his sister closed the door, he immediately set about throwing off his clothes in favor of his work outfit. He dashed downstairs, saying a quick goodbye to his mother as he dashed out the door.

'Son of a gun!' was all he could think as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the store. He was supposed to be there training the new employee. Ordinarily, Kane, his boss, wouldn't entrust such a task to him, but Voss and Rhodes both called in sick yesterday with the flu. That left only him to show the trainee the ropes, as Kane had put it. Opening the door to the store, he was greeted by the stony face of his boss, who did not look pleased in the slightest.

"What the hell took you so long!? Our employee has been patiently waiting for over an hour now!"

"I'm sorry, sir. I overslept. It won't happen again," he mumbled. What else could he say? Truth be told, he didn't like his job, but it wasn't really Kane's fault. He just tended to get stressed out this time of year because it was always when the store was at its busiest. Actually, he probably wouldn't even work if he thought he could get away with it. With his father's passing however, that left only him and his mother to earn money.

"You're lucky I don't have people to spare. Now, get back there and do your job." Kane's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Before he could head to the back, Kane spoke one more time.

"And just so you know, the new guy is a mute, so don't expect any responses from him." He rolled his eyes. That was just what he needed, training some new guy that didn't even speak. Heading to the back, he found what he could only assume was the new guy. The new guy stood almost a full head taller than he did and looked like he was dressed to rob a bank. He had a long coat on that reached all the way to his feet, huge boots that covered all the way up to his calves, gloves, a scarf wrapped all around his neck, oversized ski goggles that covered everything else up on his face, and a hat to top it all off. The whole sight was quite ridiculous, and the teen found himself straining to withhold a sarcastic remark. After all, for all he knew, this guy could be really sensitive or something. Taking a moment to recompose himself, he finally spoke.

"So, you must be the new guy, right?" A period of silence descended during which neither one moved. Then, the teen mentally kicked himself.

"Oh yeah, you're mute, huh? Well, let's go ahead and get started. Sorry for being so late. I overslept." With that, he began to lead the mute down the various aisles, explaining what each aisle contained, how to stack items up at the front, cleaning the floors, and various other things. The whole time, he found it quite unnerving talking to a guy who never spoke and only stared at him. He never even nodded to show that he understood what he was being told. When the teen had finally finished explaining everything the new guy would need to know, he summarized everything up.

"Well that about covers everything, I think. Are there any questions?" He stood while waiting for some form of acknowledgement, but it never came. The new guy continued to stare as if he had never even listened to a word.

"Okay… Um, if you understood everything I told you, nod your head, if not, shake your head." He was again met only by silence and the new guy who seemed to not even listen. Without warning, the new guy suddenly took a hold of the teen's left arm. He tried to shake his arm free, but found that the new guy had strength disproportional to his body. He couldn't even budge.

"Look, I don't care if you're from around here or not. I don't like people randomly grabbing my arm. Let go!" He was now trying to vigorously shake his arm in an attempt to free it, but met with no more success than he had the first time. He finally resorted to shouting.

"Let go of me right now!" He could only watch as the new guy began walking off towards who knows where, dragging the teen along with him.

"What's going on over here? Why are you shouting?" Kane had suddenly appeared as if on cue. The teen once more shook his arm to find that it had already been released. He looked at Kane and opened his mouth to explain what had happened, but realized how absurd it sounded.

"The new guy just has a much harder grip than I had imagined, that's all."

"Well if you're done messing around, the store is about to open in five minutes. Get ready." The teen watched as they both walked off to prepare. As they turned out of sight, he stole a glance at his arm. To his utter surprise, he saw purple bruises starting to appear on his arm.

'Hard grip, indeed. What in the world was all that about?' He didn't have time to ponder this as he heard the first couple of people already walking into the store. Putting on his best smile, he went to go greet them.

Glancing up at the clock, he saw that it was time for the store to close. They had been even busier than they thought they would be. After running through the normal checklist as he always did, he walked outside into the wintery night. Today had been interesting day, but at least he had managed to stay away from the creepy new guy. There was something wrong about him, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. Shrugging it off, he headed home as fast as he could. Upon arriving inside, the first thing he noticed was the delicious smell coming in from the kitchen.

"Smells like somebody has been busy today." His mother walked by to give him a hug.

"You can thank your sister for the food. She's been at it all day."

"All day? Maybe she should look for a different profession if it takes her a day to cook a meal." He said jokingly.

"Perhaps you'd like to switch places?" Came the reply from the kitchen.

"Oh heck no. I wouldn't cook unless you like your food when you can't tell the difference between it and charcoal briquettes." After a good laugh, everyone sat themselves down. Before anyone could dig in however, the doorbell was heard buzzing.

"I'll go get it," the teen said, hopping up before anyone else could offer. Opening the door, he found himself face to face with none other than the new guy.

"Can I hel-" before he could even finish his sentence, he instantly felt the wind knocked out of him as he went flying backwards into the kitchen. Just like that, the family was in a panic. He couldn't even hear anything. All he could think about was gasping for the air his lungs had been denied moments ago. Pulling himself up into a sitting position, he saw the new guy advancing on him. He sloppily rolled out of the way as he saw a fist go crashing through the table. Turning around, he saw his sister taking swings at him, but they didn't even faze him. The new guy simply swatted at her like a fly, and she went flying until her head hit the wall, leaving a small trickle of blood along the wall where she had hit.

"NO!" It was all he could really say. This guy was going to pay for that. Grabbing a large butcher knife, he swung it as hard as he could, but it didn't carve through flesh as he had expected. Instead, there was a metallic twang, as the weapon vibrated violently, causing his whole body to do so as well. He fell down in shock and looked over to see that there wasn't even any blood where he had struck. There was only a small sliver of grey along the cutline. The guy walked over as if nothing had happened and paused in front of the teen. The last thing he ever heard as the fist flew into his face was his mother's screams.

"NO! NOT MY SON!"

All he even had time to think was, 'Why me?', then there was darkness.

Well, that's all for this chapter. For those of you who don't know what's going to happen, you will soon enough. I've almost got the next chapter done, too. Finally, REVIEW!