The Underground Game – a 50 Phrases collection
"Face it, you need me!"
DISCLAIMER: I'm a little bit slow at the moment for a variety of reasons, only one of which is my slow writing at the moment. But ah well. We're on the downward slope now!
They're lounging around Railway canyon, taking a break that they all know they need, time limit be damned. Tails is tinkering with the massive cannon they just finished blowing up, and Knuckles has spent the hour gliding around the rocks.
He's got no idea what Sonic's been doing. Probably grinding more rails, because he's psychotic like that.
Now, though, Sonic is standing on an outcropping, quietly watching… something. Probably the wind, knowing him and his freaky abilities.
"Hey. The kid almost ready to go?" Knuckles asks as he drops down beside him.
"If we let him, he'd stay here for days," he replies lazily. "But we should probably get goin'. I thought we'd be able to catch up and fly up to the Fleet with these rails, but…"
"Looks like you might have to rely on me and Tails some more," he points out with a smirk, but Sonic just snorts.
"Yeah, right. I'd find a way up there on my own."
He hasn't really been in the mood for a fight with Sonic today, so he just swings a lazy fist and Sonic ducks it without looking. "Yeah, right! Like you could've even gotten here without us!"
"You're right – I would've just skipped ahead to blowin' up the Egg Fleet!" he says. "This whole thing has been easy – piece of cake!"
Normally, that would've been enough to clock Sonic upside the head for sheer stupidity reasons, but the more time he spends with Sonic without breaks, the less prone he is to beating the heck out of him. Instead, he just smirks at him sideways.
"'Cause you did so well against Amy in Metropolis."
He twitches, and then glares at him, but it's dampened by the smile. "Somethin' you wanna say, Knucklehead?"
"Just face it, you need me," he says lightly. "Your weak little hedgehog arms couldn't've made it through those blocks and you would've been totally messed up by that engine."
"Spin-dash, baby. Would've been fine."
When he's been spending too much time with Sonic, in these friendly, allied moments, he'll admit he gets a little childish. "Ba-bawk!"
Sonic whirls around to pretend to glare. "What was that?"
"Widdle baby Sonic is too scared to admit he needs help," he says, and laughs as he catches Sonic's roundhouse kick. "You should be used to it! Pretty little princes are supposed to have people fight for them!"
"Shut up!" he snaps, and even though he's still grinning, it's lessened, and Knuckles realises he might have hit it on the head. He forgets, sometimes, that he's not supposed to know about Sonic's heritage, because most of the time he forgets why it matters.
Knowing him now—happy, independent and carefree as the wind—it's hard to remember the Sonic Underground, and the angry, defiant prince he was. He forgets the way Sonic always had one eye on his siblings; because he couldn't rely on them to take care of themselves, let alone watch his back.
Which is exactly what he and Tails are doing now, Knuckles realises, and drops Sonic's foot, suddenly aware of why it's such a big deal.
For a second, he pauses, almost touched by the faith he suddenly knows Sonic is putting in them.
And then Sonic spins around, slamming a foot in his back, and all his sentimentality gets rammed into the dirt along with his face.
"That's for callin' me chicken," Sonic says cheerfully, dusting off his hands until Knuckles slams his fist into the ground, shattering it and knocking Sonic off his feet.
"That's for everything else."
With both of them sprawled on the ground, Sonic blinking and Knuckles glaring, they exchange looks, silently discussing whether to make this a fight. But before they can make up their minds, a loud engine catches their ears over the sound of the trains, and they both look up in time to see one of Eggman's zeppelins soaring low overhead.
Sonic bounces to his feet, then holds out a hand to help Knuckles up. "To be continued?"
"Count on it," He grins back, and starts sprinting after the zeppelin, knowing Sonic will get Tails and the two will catch him up.
He can count on his team, that way.
This is a challenge to myself, inspired by my friend Jkateel, who told me to stop complaining about how I can't write anything and just do it.
And so, at least once a week, I will write a fic based around one of the 50 phrases. I will post it, whether I like it or not (so sorry for the spam). And to further force myself, I'm going to say it will be in my head canon of Sonic Underground merged with the Sonic games, because that's a canon that's stayed with me for years, so it's not like I'll lose interest.
I'm not actually doing it on LiveJournal because for one, I can't find the community again, and for another, I don't think I'm actually matching the rules. I just copied down the challenges once and still have it.
No restrictions on length. It does not need to have a point. Just a story or a thought. And the phrase, of course.
Because fanfic should be about fun, not whether it's fabulous or not.
Really should finish that game, one day…