Chapter 8: Duel, part 2
Well, this is it. I'm about to fight the guy who once beat a sophomore and a junior when he was a freshman. My own best friend since childhood. We both started walking towards the center of the pit and slowly circled each other, waiting for the other to make his move or slip up while everyone watching above the pit chanted "Fight!" on repeat. I swear, I don't think I've ever felt my heart pounding this fast. I'm actually scared to death, but I can't be. I dragged myself into this fight and now I gotta-
"ARGH!"
Okay. That. Really hurt. I let my guard down and he got the first punch. The crowd went wild after that.
"Your mind going somewhere? Come on, we're in a fight. At least try to hit me."
…he's right. I have to stay focused. Okay, time for me to make my move. I charged forward and-
*thud* "OW!"
What the- how!? How did I not see him sidestep and trip me!? I nearly had him back there and now everyone's laughing at me getting tripped while's he's taking in the cheers! That's it, I'm taking this prick down, no matter what!
First thing I did after getting up was throw a couple of lefts and rights, but Sonic was quick to hide his face behind his arms and block the punches. I kept on pummeling him, but it doesn't look like his defense is gonna break anytime soon. He either blocked or dodged all of my punches. I guess he's trying to tire me out or something.
"Come on, tough guy! Fight back! You too scared or what!?" I taunted in between my punches.
"OOF! GAH!"
Argh… dammit. Shouldn't have said that, because he immediately responded with a couple punches of his own.
"How d'ya like that, huh!? That better for ya!? Have some more!"
"UGH! OOF! ARGH!"
Grr… those 3 punches nearly knocked me down. Right… I got an idea. If I lower my guard, he'll come right at me, and then- aha! NOW!
"ACK! URF! GAH!"
Hah! That worked! I ducked just at the right time to dodge his punch before giving one of my own to his gut, followed by another left and right to his face. That got him stumbling backwards a bit. Alright… let's see if I could get away with it for the second time… aha! There's the punch, and now-
"AAH!" *thud*
…oh God, my nose… he grabbed my head and drove his knee hard into my nose… I thought that was just a punch, but… hey, is that blood coming outta my nose? Oh God, it is. Right, about time I make this SOB bleed too.
I got back up, but halfway through, I lunged at him, wrapping my arms around one of his legs and sending him crashing hard on the concrete floor with a loud thud. And before he could even react, I got up close and smashed his face in four times before he eventually countered with his own punch and shoved me off of him. I backed off for a while, letting him get up, and… whoa. Holy crap. He's bleeding from his mouth. Never thought I'd actually do it, but here I am, with little specks of his blood on my fists.
He wiped off the excess blood from his lips before saying "Y'know, for a dork, I guess you're not that weak."
"Hmph. Thanks."
"Don't get too excited, though. I was just toyin' with ya."
Suddenly, he shoulder barged me and I stumbled backward a bit. I tried landing another punch on him, but he got his first. And again. And again. And again, until my back was up against the wall. And he kept on going. Every time I tried to fight back, he'd always get the first punch, which was really annoying and painful. But that's when I figured out I shouldn't fight back, but try to dodge instead. So, I quickly ducked and, like last time, it worked. His fist hit the wall with this loud, almost cracking sound which made him scream and hold his hand painfully. Now's my chance. I grabbed him by his shirt and slammed my forehead against his, knocking him down hard. I got a bit dizzy from it, but I bet he had it worse, because he was writhing on the floor with both his hands covering the spot of the headbutt's impact.
After a while, he got back up, and he… ran towards his friends? Why would he- oh no. Oh hell no. They just gave him a baseball bat. Of course they'd play dirty, of course.
He slowly approached me as I slowly backed off too, preparing for when he-
*whoosh*
"WHOA!"
Damn, that was close. A few seconds late, and I probably would've gotten my skull bashed in. He went for another swing, but this time, I managed to grab the other end of the bat (at the cost of my hands hurting a lot), and a tug-of-war began. I gave it all I got, trying to take the bat off his hands, but my grip was slowly slipping off because of the bat's smooth surface and my sweaty palms. Eventually, I lost my grip and-
"ARGH!" *THUD*
He managed to smack me in the cheek and knock me down. My mouth was hurting like hell. I'm not sure why, but he tried to take another swing while I was down. Good thing I noticed it and immediately rolled outta the way. The bat missed and whacked the floor instead. I got up quickly and this time, I grabbed his end of the bat and tried to wrestle it out of his grip. This time, keeping a steady grip was much easier and slowly, I managed to pull the bat towards myself before kicking him in the stomach, making him let go of it.
Alright, got the bat. Now to throw it- wait…
Is that… a tooth on the floor!? Whose- OH GOD, IT'S MINE! He must've whacked it out with the bat! Alright, that's it! He's crossed the line! I was gonna throw the bat away, but now I'm pissed. I want him to pay in blood. So, I took a wide, sideways swing with the bat, and I swear, I could hear a small cracking sound when the bat made impact with his skull and sent him crashing hard on the floor again. I stopped to catch my breath and noticed that the bat now had a small splat of blood on it. That's when I also noticed that there was an open, bleeding wound on Sonic's temple, and it doesn't look like he's getting up anytime soon. Which might mean that… oh God. Oh God, no. Did I just… kill him!? N-no way… I… I didn't mean to! I swear! I was-
Oh, thank goodness, he's slowly getting up. Okay, I really shouldn't use this bat anymore. Time to throw it away to a safe place: the sewer tunnels behind the bars where no one could reach it. Also… that got me thinking, Sonic's gotta be one hell of a tough guy if he can still get up after that massive blow to the head. I think I might be in trouble.
"You're gonna wish you hadn't done that, punk!"
He then charged forward with a punch to my face. I fought back with another punch to his gut. We kept on throwing hands, spewing spit and blood all over the pit (and maybe even some tears too) whilst being covered in our own sweat and dirt. I don't know how long it's been, but I'm surprised I managed to make it this far, even if I have no fighting experience whatsoever. I guess the adrenaline rush from the first, few punches made me extra-alert and gave me the ability to ignore most of the pain.
…for a while, at least, because at this point, every single part of my body was hurting. I'm not sure if I could keep going. In fact, I don't think the crowd is even as excited as they were before. They were mostly quiet by now. They had to be worried about both of us duking it out for such a long time.
I clinched onto Sonic's body, feeling that I could faint at any time. But even then, we were still trading gut blows to each other before Sonic eventually pushed me off him and I fell backwards.
*thud* "AAH!"
Ow… I hit my head hard on the floor… I know every part of me hurts like hell, but I gotta get back up and- wait, what the hell is he doing!? …oh no. No, no, no! He's got my left arm in an armbar! I gotta get out of it!
…hng… raaagh!
Aww dammit, I can't! I'm stuck!
"It's over, pal! Give up, and I won't have to break your arm!"
"S-screw you! I didn't come this far to- AAAAAHHH! Ow, ow, ow- okay, fine! I give! Just stop!"
Oh God, that hurt a lot… but at least he stopped pulling for real. If he kept that up, he probably could've ripped it off…
"Good. Hope you learned your lesson," he said, before simply walking away.
I was expecting the crowd to go wild over the outcome of the fight, but… there just wasn't any cheer or anything. I guess they're just shocked at how badly hurt we both look. …at least that was until those jocks broke the silence by cheering obnoxiously. I could hear them coming down to taunt me while I'm down. Cowards.
"WHOO-HOO! YEAH! You're looking at one year full of swirlies and homework, boy! HAHAHAAAH!" Knuckles boasted, even though he did absolutely nothing in this fight other than giving Sonic the bat.
"Yeah, doesn't seem like such a good idea now, huh tough guy!?" Vector said.
"Yeah, and remember our deal? You're ours now. And for your first act, I want you to give me your bike," Jet said while rummaging through my jeans' pockets. "This the key to the lock, yeah? Well, better kiss it goodbye 'cause it's mine now, loser." They all walked away, laughing and high fiving each other while being so full of themselves. Soon, the crowd began to leave too.
I couldn't help but ponder at what Knuckles just said. One year (and possibly more) full of swirlies and homework. The sad thing is… he's right. It's all part of the deal. I'm officially their slave now. I knew it… I shouldn't have taken up that offer, but I did anyway. God, why am I such an idiot!? Just… why…? *sob* Ugh, great… there goes the waterworks again. I'm such a pathetic wimp…
Later on, I noticed that Charmy, Cream, Silver, and Blaze all came over to me.
"T-Tails? Are you… okay?" Charmy asked to me who's crawled up on the floor, crying like a baby.
"*sniff* N-no… I'm ruined. I just permanently screwed over half of my high school life. *sniff* Great. My parents are gonna be proud to know I got in a fight too. What are they gonna say!? They'll probably disown me or something! My life is over… done… finished. I never should've acted all tough… *sob*"
"Hey, c'mon, don't say that. I think you did the right thing, Tails," Charmy said.
"Yes, I have to agree with that. Even though I don't necessarily support the violence part, you still stood up for yourself, for us, and for every victimized student in this school. And I believe that takes a lot of courage," Silver said.
"*sniff* Well… yeah, but… still doesn't change the fact that those guys own me now. Who knows what they're gonna do to me for the next 2 years of my life?"
"Well, you still have us. We can try to make things easier for you. We'll walk with you wherever you go and help you out with any trouble and homework they might give you," Charmy said.
"*sniff* R-really? You'd… do that for me?"
"Of course. We're with you all the way through. I mean, you stood up for me too when those guys picked on me a few weeks ago, so it's only fair if I help you back," Cream said.
"Yeah. And I couldn't stand seeing you get pushed around by them all the time. I hate them as much as you do. That's why I want to help you," Blaze said.
"W-wow… *sniff* thanks, you guys… but what about my parents, though? What am I supposed to tell them?"
"Ah, you're right… hmm… oh, I have an idea. It might sound farfetched, but… perhaps you can tell them that you got involved in a hit-and-run? And since they took your bike, you can also say that you had to discard it since it broke down beyond repair," Silver said.
"Well… I guess I could give it a shot. Thanks, Silver."
"Always glad to help. Now, let's tend to your injuries, shall we?"
Silver and Charmy then pulled me up by my right arm while everyone else propped me up by my back. Charmy then wrapped my right arm around his shoulders to help me walk to the nearest wall. Once I sat down against it, everyone took something out from the first aid kit that Charmy brought and began treating my injuries.
"Man… you're tough as nails, y'know that?" Charmy said while wiping all the excess blood from my face with some cotton balls.
"Really? Thanks…"
"Is this like, your second fight? Or third? You seemed really good at it." Charmy then applied some iodine to my wounds. It stung a bit, but I tried my best to hold the pain.
"N-no… I've never gotten into a fistfight until now. I'm not sure how I made it that far either, to be honest. I guess my instincts just… kicked in? I dunno…" By now, Charmy had already covered the wounds with some band-aids.
"Wow, alright then. By the way, is your other arm okay?"
"I don't think so… it hurts a lot when I try to move it."
"Ouch… also, are you missing a tooth back there?"
"Yeah…" I opened my mouth to show him which one.
"Oh God, that's bad. One of your fangs are gone. We gotta get you to the clinic, Tails. Silver, go to the payphone in front of the school and call an ambulance. I'll look for Tails' tooth."
"Understood," Silver said, climbing up the ladder shortly afterwards.
After some time, the guys finished patching me up (temporarily) and the ambulance came. Luckily, it had room for all of them too, so they all climbed in to accompany me to the clinic. On the way there, I talked to them again.
"Hey… guys?"
"What is it, Tails? You need anything?" Charmy said.
"No, it's just that… I wanna thank you all for your help today. I just wanna say that… you guys have been such good friends and I'm grateful for that. I know, it sounds sappy, but… the… thing is… *sniff* I don't think anybody's ever been this nice to me since… *sniff* Sonic… *sob*"
As much as I didn't want to cry again, I just… couldn't help it. Charmy then put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me.
We finally arrived at the clinic and I got treated for my injuries. I told the doctor it was a hit-and-run, and surprisingly, he bought it. I was sure he'd ask twice about it, but he didn't. So, after several hours of diagnoses and treatments, the clinic called my parents and told them what I told them: it was a hit-and-run. They both came around half an hour later and Mom immediately came up to me and hugged me. She was really worried about me. I don't think I've seen her cry this hard… ever. The doctor told us that the estimated time of recovery would be around 2 weeks, which is great since I won't have to deal with those bullies for some time. But… at the same time, I'm kinda worried about what they're gonna do to my friends when I'm not there. They've been so kind as to go outta their way and help me the best they can, even to the point where they accompanied me all the way to the clinic and were willing to stand up for me too. I don't want them getting hurt or anything because of me. The bullies' beef is with me and that's the way it should stay.