Chapter 8: A REAL Welcome To Earth

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The super speed racecars came to a stop a few feet away from the blue hedgehog. The "suspect" seemed a little relaxed for a person on the lamb. At least that's what the man in the lead car felt. Sam Speed was a tall man, as tall Eggman to be exact. But, unlike Sonic's other troublemaking foe, this one was slim, athletic. He also had a clean-shaven face and a well-trimmed head of reddish hair. To top it off, his costume was a police uniform-style red and white racer's jumpsuit.

Sam had been itching to meet this guy. He was there at dispatch, hearing the whole fiasco, as the regular police units were no match for this super fast "threat". That's why he was called up, with his subordinates. They were the S-Team. They could handle ANY high-speed pursuit. A few minutes of preparation and they were out on the streets in five of the best racecars the city could afford. Sensing an interesting evening, Sam decided to speak to the hedgehog, if it could understand him at any rate.

He stepped out of the car. "Hey little blue hedgehog," he called. It started to leave, "Wait!" he ordered, while removing his helmet, "When someone's speaking you should listen till the end." Sam was rewarded with the knowledge it could understand him. It stayed. Sam then sat on the side of his car. Smugly, he decided to "chat" with it, "This city- it's too peaceful. It's a place without any excitement. In the last year, we've only arrested one person. The idiot deliberately brought his formula machine onto the highway. He was pretending to be a racer." Sam chuckled as he brought up that little escapade. He resumed the story as the hedgehog looked at him with a frown, "I wonder if he knew his fun would only last for two minutes." As Sam continued his story, the hedgehog turned to face him a little a better, "The guy was driving from place to place.... Heck, in two minutes you can make ramen." Sam didn't get his expected reaction, "Hey that's the part where you supposed to laugh."

The hedgehog turned completely around, smiled, and placed its hands on its hips. Sam liked that, it meant this was a challenge worthy of him, "Well, that's close enough. In this town, we're one of a kind, we're the Special High-Speed Highway Force - S Team. The captain? That's me. People call me Highwest. Sorry my self-introduction was long," Sam grinned evilly, "From here on out, it'll be quick.

Suddenly, the other four cars behind Sam roared to life and came straight at the hedgehog. Its smile vanished and it began to run for its life. As Sam watched the chase get ahead of him, he thought to himself, "Please survive until I catch you." With that Sam donned his helmet and got back in the car, and into the chase.

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Sonic had already had some fun out of the first batch of people after him. Now, here was something better, and that ONE really sparked his interest. Could he have met someone as smart-mouthed, cool, and FAST as him? He was sure he hadn't, but why not give him a chance anyway. He laughed to himself as he sped down the highway, the cars hot on his trail. "So, you want to play tag with me, eh? This'll be fun!" With that, Sonic gave an additional burst of speed.

In the cars, the drivers realized this one wasn't going down without a fight. A few quick radio transmissions, and they revved their motors up and closed the gap between them and Sonic. As they began to pull up along his sides, Sonic smirked, "Yeah!" Then, he noticed that the one he wanted wasn't there, "Hey, you're not that guy from before," as he continued to smirk at one of the other drivers. Then the cars began to encircle Sonic. In standard police procedure, they surrounded him and set up a textbook- perfect rolling roadblock.

Sonic feigned worry, "Uh-oh. If this keeps up, I'm gonna be smashed!" A smirk returned to his face, "But!" Suddenly, he jumped up and out of sight of the S-Team.

In one of the side cars, one of the drivers asked over the radio, "He-he disappeared! Did we run him over?" Far from it, as Sonic appeared on HIS right, tapping on the glass. "Huh!" was the startled cry. Another split second later, Sonic was on the roof of the car, looking in through the windshield!

"Hey, quit fooling around!!" cried the angered driver, "That's really dangerous! What'll we do if some nice kid decides to imitate you?" Deciding to show how stupid that sounded, Sonic looked into an imagined camera and offered the warning, "Kids, NEVER stand on moving cars!" A short jump later, Sonic was on the ground and on the run again.

The lead car's driver was furious. How dare this pipsqueak try to make fools out of the S-Team. He gave orders for everyone to increase to full throttle. The intense speeds pushed against the drivers and forced a few of them to grunt against the G-Forces strain. They were going to catch him yet! They're speed was up to about 300! There's no way that he could...

The leader couldn't believe it, "What?!" That was the only word that escaped his lips as he saw Sonic running BACKWARDS!! HE WAS SHOWING THAT EVEN THOUGH THESE CARS WERE GOING THREE HUNDRED, HE COULD -STILL- RUN FASTER IN -REVERSE-!!

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The radioed complaints and pleas poured into Sam's headset as he trailed a few car lengths behind, unable to see the insulting runner. Sam reacted quickly, "Everyone, move clear of the center lane. It's time to set out my special "milk". Sam was of course referring to the nitrous oxide that he had his mechanic put in the reserve fuel tank. It dawned on him, "I can't believe I actually have to use this." Then, a harsh tone came to his voice, "But, on my highway....to pass me.....that's something I absolutely cannot forgive!" As he flipped the switch he gave notice to the other S- Team members, "Super Nitro, ON!!"

The car's tires spun as if the machine had been parked, NOT going 300. It rushed forth with such speed that Sam was slammed against his seat. He only saw white streaks as the other cars had already moved to the sides of the road. Then, for a brief second he saw the shocked, almost terrified look of the hedgehog, then nothing but open road. It served that upstart right! Once more Sam Speed had proved himself the master of the roadways. He chuckled to himself, "Out here I can't accept that someone is faster than me." As the speedometer climbed near 500, Sam dared, "If you want to pass me, you'll have to break the sound barrier!"

As the thrill of victory swept over him, Sam looked out the corner of his eye, for a brief instant, he saw THE HEDGEHOG! It passed him as if he were frozen in place! It kept going. Suddenly he was rocked by a sudden gush of wind and an explosion like sound. In total, breathless, disbelief, Sam uttered, "Sonic Boom?!" Then, in mental agonized pains of defeat, he stated, "It's over." He'd lost to a strange hedgehog-like creature, WHO WAS RUNNING ON FOOT!!

Suddenly, the voice over the radio brought Sam back to the here and now. "Captain! The D-Point!" Realizing the code term, Sam deployed brake chutes and hit the brakes manually. It was extremely difficult to try to stop that rocket of a car, even with break chutes.

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Sonic was WAY ahead of his competitor for the night. Then, as he looked back, he noticed HE'D begun to stop. Quizzically, Sonic looked ahead. He saw it! The road ended! A streak of blue light shattered the flimsy stop signs and blockades.

As the UFO streaked through the sky, it brought with it a wind so powerful it began to turbo-spin a row of windmills. Being an environmentally friendly city, these windmills were the city's primary source of electricity. After being hit with a wall of wind that strong, they cranked out enough power to brighten the city more than it had ever been before!

Sonic looked down and whistled in awe, "The lights are so beautiful." Sonic then looked back at the edge of the highway, Sam Speed stood there alone, looking after the escaped fugitive. Seeing him, Sonic couldn't help but make the comment, "And, this place has some interesting characters...this might actually be fun!"

Soaring through the night air proved really relaxing, it was cool and quiet. As Sonic began to lose altitude, he looked down to scope out his landing spot. He nervously took notice of, "A pool?" Sonic's eyes widened, his one weakness: SWIMMING!! In an almost comical panic he uttered the famous coyote's famous sign statement, "Uh oh..."

Trying desperately to regain altitude, he began to run in place. Seeing it was futile, he weakly laughed and fell screaming into the pool.

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An incredibly loud splashing noise from outside disturbed a young boy from his sleep. Curiously, he went to the window to see what had caused it. Looking at the pool, he decided he wouldn't be satisfied until he got a closer look for himself. So, he ran into the hall. As he was a well to do kid living in a mansion, he hoped whatever it was could hold its breath a while.

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Sonic was sitting at the pool's bottom. He hated pools, ponds, anything deep and wet. His face showed it. At first he tried to run underwater. Seeing as how the water restricted contact with the floor, he didn't move an inch; despite his making a similar effort to the one that it took to outrun Sam Speed. Giving up, he hatefully, quietly resigned himself to a reluctant watery grave.

That's when he heard a splash of something else coming into the pool. He looked up to see the outline of someone in the pool's lights. Whoever they were could swim, and more importantly, help him.

When the Good Samaritan had gotten Sonic out of the water, he coughed and hacked for breath. Hoping to help him, his savior rubbed his back to help clean him out. "Are you okay?" the boy asked in worry. Sonic smiled and replied, "Yeah, thank you."

Sonic looked into the kid's face, the young boy seemed totally taken aback by the fact he got an answer. "You-you can talk?" he stammered. Sonic was now surprised himself, "Naturally." The boy continued to stare at him, "Wow, you really can talk." He struggled with an introduction, "I-I'm Chris. And-and what's your name?"

Feeling a good bit happier that someone wasn't trying to capture or run over him, Sonic smiled. "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!"

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End Chapter Sonic Shout-Out:

Well, enter Christopher Thorndyke Ladies and Gentleman! At least Sonic has made one friend on Earth. Anyway, I hope I can count myself on friendly terms with my past reviewers, such ones as:

T'Wolf!!

MarthLover618!!

Lonely Shadow/Pyro-Kid!!

Thanks gang for all your support and all your kind words. If you've read this far, then try to keep going! Things are about to really take a few wild twists and turns. That goes for everyone else too, even if you didn't review! See you same fanfiction.net, same fan fiction!!