Chapter 6: Round One, Fight!
March 6th, 2314 – 12:30 PM – Baca Park, Rotisiv, Tneicna
"Gah...why are we still here?" Sonic moaned. "We've been here for two freaking days!"
"Probably because the airport's got a lot of passenger jets full of tourists going through it, and the airport can't spare us any fuel," Carrie said, taking another bite out of her sandwich.
The three of them were sitting in Carrie's tent in Baca Park in Rotisiv, eating a lunch of sandwiches. They had decided to camp out in the park, since it was cheaper than staying at an inn.
"I want out of here!" Sonic shouted. "Jeez...why did all of these tourists have to be coming here at the same time as us?!"
"Sonic, quiet down..." Carrie said. "You don't have to yell."
"Oh! I almost forgot!" Tails suddenly said.
"What is it, buddy?" Sonic said.
Tails pulled out a flyer. The words Rotisiv Street Fighting Tournament were emblazoned in red across the top of the paper.
"This flyer says there's a street fighting tournament going on in Cyndica Square in the center of the city," Tails said. "It's going to start in about 20 minutes. Do you want to go watch? You don't even have to pay anything to see it."
"I've got nothing else to do right now," Sonic said. "So yeah, I'll go. Are you coming too Carrie?"
"Of course, Sonic," Carrie said with a grin. "I can't be without my bodyguard, can I?"
She laughed a little.
"Aww...will you stop calling me that?" Sonic said.
"Cyndica Square is a long way from here," Tails said, handing the flyer to Sonic. "We should go right now."
"Long way?" Sonic laughed, as he looked at the map to the tournament on the other side of the flyer. "There's no place on this planet that's a long way for me! Betcha I can get there in thirty seconds flat!"
Sonic ran straight out of the tent, blasting the entrance flaps aside with a massive gust of wind. They flapped in the breeze for a good ten seconds or so before falling back into their still positions.
"Die!" Carrie said. "I keep forgetting how fast he is!"
"Umm...die?" Tails asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh uh, heh..." Carrie said, smiling at Tails. "I don't mean 'die' literally. I just say that whenever something surprises me a lot, like Sonic's speed. It's a saying of mine."
"Oh, okay," Tails grinned. "Anyway, let's go catch up with him."
"Right," Carrie said.
The orange fox and the white wolf walked out of Baca Park, and onto the busy city streets. However, they soon came to a marketplace that was overflowing with shoppers. One could hardly fit a piece of paper in some of the gaps between the people.
"Great..." Carrie muttered, starting into the crowd. "We're gonna be late with this crowd in our way."
Tails looked around, but he couldn't see much through the people since he was so short. Even though he was just a tiny kid, he couldn't slip through the crowd all that well.
We'll never get through this place in time. If only there were less people, or if we could go over them... Wait...over them?
Tails grinned. He had completely forgotten about his special trick. He turned around to look at his tails.
"Carrie," Tails said.
"What is it, Tails?" Carrie said as she turned around to face him.
Tails pointed at his tails, and said, "How about it? You could hold onto my arms, and I could fly us over this crowd."
"I don't know...it sounds dangerous," Carrie said. "Are you sure you can hold me and fly at the same time?"
"Well, you trust Sonic because of his dad Swift," Tails said. "Can't you trust me, because I'm the son of Kyle Prower?"
"You do have a point there," Carrie said with a smile. "Let's do it."
The two of them walked to a more open spot in the crowd, and Tails took Carrie's arms in his hands.
"Hold on tight," Tails said. He started to spin his tails as fast as he could, the downdraft fanning the ground beneath their feet. Tails slowly rose up into the air, holding onto Carrie's arms. Carrie looked down in surprise as she saw her feet rise up off of the ground. She looked up at Tails and grinned. Tails smiled back. The people in the crowd below them looked up in surprise, gasping and pointing at them. The two were soon flying above the crowd and through the air. Tails sighted Cyndica Square in the distance, and headed towards it.
A few minutes later, at Cyndica Square...
As they touched down in the large open space of the square, they easily spotted the fighting ring. As big as the square itself was, the makeshift stadium took up a good portion of it. Stands for spectators to sit on rose high into the air, and most of them looked to be quite full. They walked in between two of the stands, and they could finally see the fighting ring. It was a large raised square made of stone. It was about thirty feet by thirty feet, allowing a lot of room for fighters to maneuver inside it.
There was a buzz of activity around the ring, with spectators chatting with each other, fighters grunting as they got in some last-minute practice on their moves, and with people running around trying to sell snacks and drinks.
"Hey you two!" Sonic called out from behind Tails. He and Carrie turned around. Sonic was sitting on a high row in one of the stands, waving to them. He then waved his hand over two open seats next to him. He shouted, "Hurry up before someone gets these!"
---
Carrie and Tails ran over to join Sonic, and sat down in the spots next to him.
"I didn't think you'd make it!" Sonic said. "These stupid tourists are grabbing all the seats!"
"You really don't like tourists, do you Sonic?" Carrie said. "Aren't you forgetting? We're tourists too."
"Eh, whatever," Sonic said.
"Look! The tournament is about to start!" Tails said, pointing to the ring.
Sonic and Carrie turned to face the fighting platform. A pink female rabbit wearing a red cloak was getting up into the ring, and the crowd hushed as she moved to the center of the platform. Once everyone was quiet, she began to speak.
"I would like to welcome all of you to the tenth annual Rotisiv Street Fighting Tournament!"
Cheers and clapping rose up from the crowd. The crowd quieted down moments later to allow the rabbit to talk again. She turned to the fighters waiting outside of the ring.
"Those of you who have been in the past tournaments should already know the rules. But, for those of you who are new, I'll tell them to you. We have sixteen fighters in this tournament, organized into eight pairs. Each pair of fighters will have a match. The loser of the match will be eliminated from the tournament, while the winner will go to the next round to be sorted into new pairs with the other winners. We will then go through the same process of elimination in the next round, and so on up in the other rounds, until all of the fighters have been eliminated except for our champion! The champion will receive a prize of 3,000 demens!"
The crowd cheered, before quieting down again.
"The rules during matches are simple. If you are knocked to the ground in the ring, I'll begin counting. If you can't get back up before I count to ten, you lose. Also, touching the ground outside of the ring at any time will result in an automatic loss. Furthermore, if you kill your opponent during a match, you will be disqualified from the tournament. Other than that, anything goes in these fights ladies and gentlemen!"
The crowd erupted into cheers once again.
"With that out of the way, let's get our first match started! Knuckles Echidna versus Drake Scales!"
Two fighters climbed into the ring, one a small blood red echidna wearing a silly-looking cowboy hat, and the other a giant, muscular blue-green crocodile. They both quickly assumed their fighting stances and faced each other.
The pink rabbit climbed off of the platform, and turned around to face the two combatants.
She shouted, "Ready?! FIGHT!"
The two fighters slowly sidestepped in a circle around the ring, facing each other. They were sizing each other up, looking for potential weaknesses and openings to attack. However, while the echidna remained calm and collected, the crocodile appeared to be getting rather fed up with the echidna for not attacking.
Finally, Drake growled and said, "Enough of this! I'm gonna grind you and your stupid red dreadlocks into the ground!"
He charged towards him with a mighty shout, pulling back one of his arms to wind up for a strong punch. However, Knuckles calmly ducked when the crocodile thrust his fist forward, and gave him a hard punch to the gut. The crocodile's eyes bulged out with pain, the sudden attack catching him off guard. The echidna smirked, and winded up his fists before unleashing a barrage of punches on the croc's chest. His white-gloved fists moved so fast that they almost looked like white comets.
No wonder he's called Knuckles... Sonic thought.
The echidna concluded his attack with an uppercut to the bottom of the crocodile's jaw, sending him flying into the air and out of the ring. He crashed onto the ground beneath the platform.
"Ring out!" the rabbit cried. "Knuckles Echidna is the winner! Wow, that has to be the shortest match we've ever had in the history of this tournament! I'd watch out for that echidna if I were you! Who knows what other tricks he can pull off?"
The crowd cheered, impressed with how quickly Knuckles had defeated what looked like such a strong opponent. Knuckles, however, simply exited the ring and ignored his applause. He sat down on the fighters' bench with a frown on his face, as if he were waiting for a bus or something.
"Wow, that was fast!" Carrie said. "Knuckles took him out like he was nothing!"
"Echidnas are rare," Sonic said. "This is the first time I've seen one in person. I think I might talk to him once the tournament is over."
"How come he looks angry?" Tails asked. "He won the fight..."
"I think Tails..." Sonic said. "It's because the fight was very easy to him. Maybe he was hoping that crocodile would be stronger or something."
The next two combatants entered the ring for the second match. However, Sonic barely paid any attention to the new fighters. He focused most of his attention on this powerful echidna. It was like he felt a strange aura from him, or something. Why did he care so much about him? Maybe it was because his large amount of physical strength was something like his high running speed. It was like the two of them were linked with their above-and-beyond abilities.
Now I really want to talk to him, Sonic thought.
Sonic continued to watch the tournament from his seat in the stands, as the fighters were eliminated one by one. Finally, the last match of Round One had started.
"Let's hear it for the last two fighters of this round!" the rabbit shouted as the two warriors entered the ring. "Nick Isaac versus Bachro Berall!"
Nick Isaac was a green hedgehog, and had a decorative bracelet on his arm. He also had a large, archaic sword in one hand. Even though the sword looked almost as tall as him, he wielded it as easily as if it were no bigger than a small knife. He took several practice swings while he waited for the match to begin.
Bacharo Berall was a large brown bear, and he was wearing some very durable-looking metal armor around his chest. He didn't have a weapon with him like Nick, but his massive arms and legs looked like they could do some serious damage. Not only that, he also had the added advantage of his claws. He showed them off to the audience as he fully extended them on one arm.
---
Bacharo grinned as he looked down at the green hedgehog. Nick looked tiny next to the giant bear, and Bacharo thought he could squash him like a bug before he could even use his sword. Nick didn't smile back, but a look of extreme confidence could be seen in his eyes. Both of them looked like they thought the other one didn't stand a chance.
"Ready you two?" the pink rabbit said.
Both of them nodded.
"FIGHT!" the rabbit yelled.
The bear started to walk calmly towards the green hedgehog. He was so big and heavy that his footsteps even shook the ground a little. He got a broad grin on his face as he towered over Nick. However, Nick calmly stood his ground, holding his sword out in front of him.
"I'm going to squash you like a bug, Nick!" the Bacharo declared. "But don't worry, it won't hurt...much..."
He raised one huge foot off of the ground, and aimed it at Nick. He pushed his foot down, but in a split second Nick rolled aside dodged the attack. He got back up to a stand, as Bacharo's foot slammed down to the stone. The bear raised his foot, and was surprised to see that Nick wasn't crushed beneath it. He then saw Nick standing off to the side, and got a look of surprise on his face.
"You're way too slow," Nick said. "I would have had enough time to dodge your foot three times there."
"You little maggot you!" Bacharo bellowed. "You don't insult me and get away with it!"
Bacharo swiped one massive arm towards Nick, the claws fully extended. However, Nick pushed the blade of his sword down to the ground, so that it was between him and the path of Bacharo's claws. When the claws made contact with the sharp edge, they were sliced right off his hand.
"Impossible!" Bacharo said, as he examined his claws.
Suddenly, he gasped in pain, as he felt a blade cut across the middle of his chest. He looked down, and saw that Nick had taken a slash at his armor while he was looking at his hand. The little hedgehog's sword had actually cut all the way through the armor, down to his skin. He could feel searing pain, and the blood trickling down underneath his armor.
But...this is my own personal metal armor, and it has never failed me!
He looked back at Nick, totally shocked by what he had just done. Nick got a shark-like grin on his face, and leaped high into the air, the sword held over his head. Bacharo covered his face with his arm, to block the blow. The blade sliced across his arm, leaving a gash that began pouring blood. Bacharo bellowed in pain.
I can't beat him! I'm quitting now!
"Stop the fight!" Bacharo yelled. "I give up!"
"Are you sure Bacharo?" the rabbit said.
Bacharo took one look at Nick, with that sword in his hands and that grin plastered across his face, and said, "YES! I QUIT!"
"Bacharo has given up!" the rabbit declared. "That makes Nick the winner!"
While some of the audience cheered, others booed, angry at how Bacharo had just ended the fight like that. Bacharo didn't care though. The tarnishing of his reputation as a fighter beat the hell out of getting sliced and diced by that green hedgehog. Bacharo jumped down out of the ring as fast as he could, and hurried out of the stadium, laughs and jeers following him as he ran.
I feel very sorry for anyone who has to fight him after me, Bacharo thought as he ran. It was like he had a demon within him while I fought him.
Meanwhile, back at the stadium, Round Two began, and the crowd quickly hushed in anticipation for the next set of fights. There were eight fighters left in the tournament now.