Silvermoonlight GJ – thanks for the review. The Devil Gene issue is from Tekken. However, I agree with you. But you won't find out what the Gene is capable of until the next chapter. I may also do and Angel Gene, ha-ha. o
Sonic the Hedgehog
July 12, 1987.
It was a very beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon at Epping Forest in London. Emmanuel and Vivian had taken their sons there in Emmanuel's red Mercedes. The car was strange – it was a Mercedes, but Emmanuel customised it for himself, fully, and now it looked like a sports car with a tail at the back. Inside was unbelievable; it looked a felt very comfortable, with a digital radio and cassette player. Back then there was twelve inch LPs, so cassettes were more popular. Strangely, the car has a 'brain' of its own; it knew over 7,000 words of the English language, and thousands more of the rest of the world's languages. It sounded so human; it even had feelings – fear, anger, and even happiness. It could even laugh. All this was all due to the powers of Soul Calibur, which was still a gauntlet, still stuck on Kofi's arm. It had enhanced Emmanuel's and Kofi's intelligence to superhuman levels.
Kofi and Rory were at the back of the car, talking cheerfully. Hitomi and they became the best of friends since nursery, but Martin decided to teach Hitomi Karate on his own (in which the style looked suspiciously like either Goju-Ryu or Kyokushin), while Kofi and Rory where taught all that Emmanuel knew about martial arts, and he knew all about Chinese, Japanese and Korean martial arts, and has been teaching them since they started walking.
He knew a lot about Ninjutsu since he got his powers. He knew of the ninja's speed, which even excels a world athlete, agility, which excels a world gymnast, strength and martial arts, and above all their stealth, which suppresses even military stealth. He knew that there were different ninja clans, especially in Japan. He knew every clan's style of Ninjutsu. He knew that members of a clan start training at a very young age. He was going to start their type with speed and agility.
When they reached the forest, they parked at a car park nearby (Epping Forest is a very public place), and got out of the car. Kofi and Rory got out, bubbling with excitement.
'C'mon!' Emmanuel said, smiling, leading the rest of the three to the edge of the forest, and then heading inside while Vivian, Rory and Kofi followed.
The forest was full of tall trees giving each other very big spaces, with leaves, dead and alive, all over the soil. It wasn't long before they reached a part where the trees were a lot closer together. Rory couldn't contain the question he had in his head during the time any longer.
'What are we going to do?' he asked innocently.
Emmanuel smiled, looking down at him.
'You're going to learn how to climb trees,' he said calmly. Both Rory and Kofi grinned, unable to contain their excitement.
Once they stopped at the beginning of the slightly squashed trees, Emmanuel turned to the two youngsters.
'Alright you two, we are here because I'm going to teach you how to climb trees and run across them,' he said. He wasn't smiling at first, but he was proud of them because since he taught them, they have learnt very quickly. Rory's only problem was that he could only entice in one-on-one combat, but he'll get better, one way or another. These thoughts he had caused him to subconsciously smile at them, and they too beamed at him in return.
His smile turning into a grin, Emmanuel said, 'When you finished this, you will learn how to climb and run up and on walls.'
He sensed that his son was going to ask why, so he answered, 'You're going to do this because that's what ninjas do.'
He couldn't tell them the real reason that Raiden told him to teach all he knew about martial arts, they wouldn't understand at this age. Anyway, he didn't want to ruin the enjoyment they were having of having Kofi's little sister, born about three years ago (even though this had nothing to do with her. She would learn tree running later in life).
Kofi and Rory were jumping in excitement at his answer. They were big fans of ninjas.
'Let me show you,' Emmanuel said, and jumped on the nearest tall tree, which was on his right. He got to the upper trunk, curled himself up, and pushed his left leg while putting his right leg forward. From there, he was hopping from tree to tree, stepping on every trunk before pushing forward, without heading downwards. He went so smoothly he looked like he was flying without wings.
It looked amazing, even though he did this on a small circle of trees so that everyone could see. Kofi and Rory looked on at amazement, staring with mouths open in shock, while Vivian watched smiling.
Emmanuel hopped incredibly smoothly from tree to tree for about five minutes. When he landed, Kofi and Rory where jumping up and down, wanting him to teach them individually first.
Emmanuel started off with Kofi, carrying him so that he could learn how to push from trunk to trunk with his feet. It didn't take long however, that Kofi mastered the whole technique fully. He could even push himself from the lower trunk of one tree to the higher part of another, and push himself back down to the lower trunk of another, and so on.
Rory also learned as quickly as Kofi did. When he finished, the two hugged each other in glee for their achievement. It was only a matter of time before Emmanuel interrupted them.
'OK boys,' he said smiling, and clapped his hands. 'Now that you've learnt this, how 'bout you two race to the end of the forest and back?'
Maybe their subconscious's wanted this for the time they were there, so imagine their overexcitement when they heard this.
'YEEAAHH!' they both shouted together.
By this time, other people had started coming. Some were having picnics, from two partners to a bunch of families and friends; there were some running in tracksuits for exercising, and so on. But it did look like there were a lot of people there. But they had a reason for watching the black man, the white woman and the kids.
What Emmanuel didn't notice was that while he gave the kids the demonstration, he was seen by a man jogging to the entrance of the forest, who then went to the café not far from it and told everyone there of what he saw and what he thought the man was going to do next.
Either unaware of the audience or ignoring them, Emmanuel drew a line in front of Kofi and Rory, and pointed at the trail in front of them.
'Keep to the trail, for it's you're way back,' he said. 'You can run on the trail if you like but you have to jump back on the trees. I will be running with you to see who wins.'
The kids ran up onto the trees and they were off! Emmanuel smiled in amusement.
'Why do I bother sometimes?' he wondered in amusement, and sprinted on the trees after the kids.
Kofi and Rory were heading back to the compound from where they started – at full speed. They were so focused on beating each other that they hadn't noticed Kofi's gauntlet glowing on his right arm. They also didn't notice Emmanuel behind them making sure they didn't do anything stupid. Then Emmanuel gasped.
Kofi's body was starting to move faster than it normally did, faster than the average man. And it was starting to affect his speed. He was going faster than the fastest athlete could run on the ground, let alone on the tree trunks. He was now moving like... like... Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. Possibly faster.
Kofi was now nothing but a blur. He was now moving so fast that when his foot stepped on a trunk or branch, the sound was heard after he had jumped to the next tree. Not even Emmanuel could catch up to him. Emmanuel managed to see the glowing gauntlet turning into a long piece of light before him before it vanished before him, bringing hundreds of thousand of green leaves with him. He hoped that Rory had not seen this, fearing it will distract him and will cause an accident (and gave a small laugh at the thought of Rory crashing into a tree while he passed him).
He didn't realise that while he was seeing Kofi as a part of the wind blowing with them, Kofi was seeing it at a very different perspective.
Kofi felt he was winning this race, quickly looking behind him to see how far Rory was behind him.
He couldn't see him or his father. But he kept on going so that Rory didn't catch up.
Making sure he kept to the path, he kept going, unaware that he sped up. He thought he was going normally while Rory and his dad were slowing down. But then he looked down at a man running as fast as he could, and found that something was wrong.
The man was running slowly, very slowly, even though he had the techniques right. Kofi felt that he was watching a film being slowed down.
This happened to everyone he passed; he felt that time slowed down while he was going normally. He also saw someone throwing a flying kick to another person's face, but they were slowly starting to pause now. They were moving so slow it looked like the world stopped working with everyone else apart from him. What was going on?
As if wanting to stop the confusion it had on Kofi, Soul Calibur's glow started to dim down, and as it did the people started 'working' again. The flying kick to the opponent's face ended in the jaw broken.
It was strange; he was nearing the finish line, where Vivian was waiting, smiling. He couldn't wait to tell her what he saw during the race. When he hopped to the last tree and jumped to the ground, he ran straight to her.
'You wouldn't believe what I saw!' he said breathlessly. 'I saw people slowing down to the point where time stopped!'
He was right. She didn't believe him. She just laughed. Kids, she thought.
'You're telling me a story so that I think you didn't cheat to the finish line,' she said, smiling. She then squatted to reach Kofi's height. 'Now c'mon, tell me the truth!' she said cheerfully.
'But I'm serious!' he shouted in laughter.
It took ten minutes while Kofi was telling his story when both Rory and Emmanuel came. Rory landed on his feet safely, while Emmanuel, very tired from trying to run after Kofi, fell flat on his face, breathless. Rory ran straight to Kofi.
'You cheated, didn't you?' he said, pretty cross from finding that Kofi 'went missing'. He then went to Emmanuel and started pulling his shirt saying, 'Kofi cheated! He cheated! He ran on the ground!'
Emmanuel laughed. Rory was very focused on winning the race he hadn't noticed Kofi going to supersonic speed. Then he said cheerfully, 'Kofi didn't cheat. You and I both slowed down by accident while he went past us.'
Vivian giggled. The irony, she thought, the irony.
She wasn't the only one giggling. The gauntlet on Kofi's arm was flashing very brightly with laughter. But Emmanuel spoiled its mood. As they walked back to the car to go back home he randomly remembered when Kazuya Mishima planted the Devil Gene inside him. That memory wasn't traumatic for him, but degraded his emotion to blank silence. He was like this for a few seconds. As they were stepping in to the car he said unhappily and quietly but loud enough for the others to hear, 'With every blessing comes a curse. With every blessing comes a curse.'
These words definitely changed the mood in the car as they were going home. Emmanuel was silent, concentrating on the road. Vivian was silent, but occasionally kept looking at him with concern. She knew what he meant; Kofi's blessing and curse was one good example. They both feared the day when his curse would be unleashed upon him and the people around him.
Kofi was the only one happy. He was quietly sniggering at Rory, who was sleeping very quietly. Why was he laughing? Because lately Rory has been blushing every time he saw, or spoke to Hitomi, and vice versa. It was very unlikely for a six year old to notice this, but Kofi did. Emmanuel, Vivian, and Martin noticed this too. Right now Kofi was thinking that Rory was probably dreaming of her.
The gauntlet on his right arm was silent. However, it could feel the Devil Gene flowing in his blood. For the first time ever since it was first made along with the Soul Edge twin blades tens of thousands of years ago, Soul Calibur was afraid. The Gene was more powerful than the evil twin blades put together. Fighting Soul Edge was easy, but fighting the Devil Gene was going to be the biggest problem since fighting Soul Edge's vortex it was thrown in. it was very grateful that Raiden took it out of the vortex. It was going mad in there.
Its fear turned into security. Feeling that the Gene won't be active for some years, it decided to go to sleep until they got to Emmanuel's house, which was about an hour away. It hasn't had a sleep for a millennium.
Kofi looked down on his gauntlet. The crystal that used to be on the gauntlet and facing up was now been slowly covered by the metal of the gauntlet, but hadn't changed the gauntlet's shape. Finally though, the crystal was completely covered with the metal and couldn't be seen. Well, Kofi thought, it's sleeping. Maybe I should sleep. I am getting tired anyway.
Kofi slowly shut his eyes. But strangely, he thought he heard a soft, calming voice that said 'Goodnight.'
R&R for another chapter. If you've got anything to say about the story (apart from flaming), review please.
Sonic the Hedgehog
July 12, 1987.
It was a very beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon at Epping Forest in London. Emmanuel and Vivian had taken their sons there in Emmanuel's red Mercedes. The car was strange – it was a Mercedes, but Emmanuel customised it for himself, fully, and now it looked like a sports car with a tail at the back. Inside was unbelievable; it looked a felt very comfortable, with a digital radio and cassette player. Back then there was twelve inch LPs, so cassettes were more popular. Strangely, the car has a 'brain' of its own; it knew over 7,000 words of the English language, and thousands more of the rest of the world's languages. It sounded so human; it even had feelings – fear, anger, and even happiness. It could even laugh. All this was all due to the powers of Soul Calibur, which was still a gauntlet, still stuck on Kofi's arm. It had enhanced Emmanuel's and Kofi's intelligence to superhuman levels.
Kofi and Rory were at the back of the car, talking cheerfully. Hitomi and they became the best of friends since nursery, but Martin decided to teach Hitomi Karate on his own (in which the style looked suspiciously like either Goju-Ryu or Kyokushin), while Kofi and Rory where taught all that Emmanuel knew about martial arts, and he knew all about Chinese, Japanese and Korean martial arts, and has been teaching them since they started walking.
He knew a lot about Ninjutsu since he got his powers. He knew of the ninja's speed, which even excels a world athlete, agility, which excels a world gymnast, strength and martial arts, and above all their stealth, which suppresses even military stealth. He knew that there were different ninja clans, especially in Japan. He knew every clan's style of Ninjutsu. He knew that members of a clan start training at a very young age. He was going to start their type with speed and agility.
When they reached the forest, they parked at a car park nearby (Epping Forest is a very public place), and got out of the car. Kofi and Rory got out, bubbling with excitement.
'C'mon!' Emmanuel said, smiling, leading the rest of the three to the edge of the forest, and then heading inside while Vivian, Rory and Kofi followed.
The forest was full of tall trees giving each other very big spaces, with leaves, dead and alive, all over the soil. It wasn't long before they reached a part where the trees were a lot closer together. Rory couldn't contain the question he had in his head during the time any longer.
'What are we going to do?' he asked innocently.
Emmanuel smiled, looking down at him.
'You're going to learn how to climb trees,' he said calmly. Both Rory and Kofi grinned, unable to contain their excitement.
Once they stopped at the beginning of the slightly squashed trees, Emmanuel turned to the two youngsters.
'Alright you two, we are here because I'm going to teach you how to climb trees and run across them,' he said. He wasn't smiling at first, but he was proud of them because since he taught them, they have learnt very quickly. Rory's only problem was that he could only entice in one-on-one combat, but he'll get better, one way or another. These thoughts he had caused him to subconsciously smile at them, and they too beamed at him in return.
His smile turning into a grin, Emmanuel said, 'When you finished this, you will learn how to climb and run up and on walls.'
He sensed that his son was going to ask why, so he answered, 'You're going to do this because that's what ninjas do.'
He couldn't tell them the real reason that Raiden told him to teach all he knew about martial arts, they wouldn't understand at this age. Anyway, he didn't want to ruin the enjoyment they were having of having Kofi's little sister, born about three years ago (even though this had nothing to do with her. She would learn tree running later in life).
Kofi and Rory were jumping in excitement at his answer. They were big fans of ninjas.
'Let me show you,' Emmanuel said, and jumped on the nearest tall tree, which was on his right. He got to the upper trunk, curled himself up, and pushed his left leg while putting his right leg forward. From there, he was hopping from tree to tree, stepping on every trunk before pushing forward, without heading downwards. He went so smoothly he looked like he was flying without wings.
It looked amazing, even though he did this on a small circle of trees so that everyone could see. Kofi and Rory looked on at amazement, staring with mouths open in shock, while Vivian watched smiling.
Emmanuel hopped incredibly smoothly from tree to tree for about five minutes. When he landed, Kofi and Rory where jumping up and down, wanting him to teach them individually first.
Emmanuel started off with Kofi, carrying him so that he could learn how to push from trunk to trunk with his feet. It didn't take long however, that Kofi mastered the whole technique fully. He could even push himself from the lower trunk of one tree to the higher part of another, and push himself back down to the lower trunk of another, and so on.
Rory also learned as quickly as Kofi did. When he finished, the two hugged each other in glee for their achievement. It was only a matter of time before Emmanuel interrupted them.
'OK boys,' he said smiling, and clapped his hands. 'Now that you've learnt this, how 'bout you two race to the end of the forest and back?'
Maybe their subconscious's wanted this for the time they were there, so imagine their overexcitement when they heard this.
'YEEAAHH!' they both shouted together.
By this time, other people had started coming. Some were having picnics, from two partners to a bunch of families and friends; there were some running in tracksuits for exercising, and so on. But it did look like there were a lot of people there. But they had a reason for watching the black man, the white woman and the kids.
What Emmanuel didn't notice was that while he gave the kids the demonstration, he was seen by a man jogging to the entrance of the forest, who then went to the café not far from it and told everyone there of what he saw and what he thought the man was going to do next.
Either unaware of the audience or ignoring them, Emmanuel drew a line in front of Kofi and Rory, and pointed at the trail in front of them.
'Keep to the trail, for it's you're way back,' he said. 'You can run on the trail if you like but you have to jump back on the trees. I will be running with you to see who wins.'
The kids ran up onto the trees and they were off! Emmanuel smiled in amusement.
'Why do I bother sometimes?' he wondered in amusement, and sprinted on the trees after the kids.
Kofi and Rory were heading back to the compound from where they started – at full speed. They were so focused on beating each other that they hadn't noticed Kofi's gauntlet glowing on his right arm. They also didn't notice Emmanuel behind them making sure they didn't do anything stupid. Then Emmanuel gasped.
Kofi's body was starting to move faster than it normally did, faster than the average man. And it was starting to affect his speed. He was going faster than the fastest athlete could run on the ground, let alone on the tree trunks. He was now moving like... like... Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. Possibly faster.
Kofi was now nothing but a blur. He was now moving so fast that when his foot stepped on a trunk or branch, the sound was heard after he had jumped to the next tree. Not even Emmanuel could catch up to him. Emmanuel managed to see the glowing gauntlet turning into a long piece of light before him before it vanished before him, bringing hundreds of thousand of green leaves with him. He hoped that Rory had not seen this, fearing it will distract him and will cause an accident (and gave a small laugh at the thought of Rory crashing into a tree while he passed him).
He didn't realise that while he was seeing Kofi as a part of the wind blowing with them, Kofi was seeing it at a very different perspective.
Kofi felt he was winning this race, quickly looking behind him to see how far Rory was behind him.
He couldn't see him or his father. But he kept on going so that Rory didn't catch up.
Making sure he kept to the path, he kept going, unaware that he sped up. He thought he was going normally while Rory and his dad were slowing down. But then he looked down at a man running as fast as he could, and found that something was wrong.
The man was running slowly, very slowly, even though he had the techniques right. Kofi felt that he was watching a film being slowed down.
This happened to everyone he passed; he felt that time slowed down while he was going normally. He also saw someone throwing a flying kick to another person's face, but they were slowly starting to pause now. They were moving so slow it looked like the world stopped working with everyone else apart from him. What was going on?
As if wanting to stop the confusion it had on Kofi, Soul Calibur's glow started to dim down, and as it did the people started 'working' again. The flying kick to the opponent's face ended in the jaw broken.
It was strange; he was nearing the finish line, where Vivian was waiting, smiling. He couldn't wait to tell her what he saw during the race. When he hopped to the last tree and jumped to the ground, he ran straight to her.
'You wouldn't believe what I saw!' he said breathlessly. 'I saw people slowing down to the point where time stopped!'
He was right. She didn't believe him. She just laughed. Kids, she thought.
'You're telling me a story so that I think you didn't cheat to the finish line,' she said, smiling. She then squatted to reach Kofi's height. 'Now c'mon, tell me the truth!' she said cheerfully.
'But I'm serious!' he shouted in laughter.
It took ten minutes while Kofi was telling his story when both Rory and Emmanuel came. Rory landed on his feet safely, while Emmanuel, very tired from trying to run after Kofi, fell flat on his face, breathless. Rory ran straight to Kofi.
'You cheated, didn't you?' he said, pretty cross from finding that Kofi 'went missing'. He then went to Emmanuel and started pulling his shirt saying, 'Kofi cheated! He cheated! He ran on the ground!'
Emmanuel laughed. Rory was very focused on winning the race he hadn't noticed Kofi going to supersonic speed. Then he said cheerfully, 'Kofi didn't cheat. You and I both slowed down by accident while he went past us.'
Vivian giggled. The irony, she thought, the irony.
She wasn't the only one giggling. The gauntlet on Kofi's arm was flashing very brightly with laughter. But Emmanuel spoiled its mood. As they walked back to the car to go back home he randomly remembered when Kazuya Mishima planted the Devil Gene inside him. That memory wasn't traumatic for him, but degraded his emotion to blank silence. He was like this for a few seconds. As they were stepping in to the car he said unhappily and quietly but loud enough for the others to hear, 'With every blessing comes a curse. With every blessing comes a curse.'
These words definitely changed the mood in the car as they were going home. Emmanuel was silent, concentrating on the road. Vivian was silent, but occasionally kept looking at him with concern. She knew what he meant; Kofi's blessing and curse was one good example. They both feared the day when his curse would be unleashed upon him and the people around him.
Kofi was the only one happy. He was quietly sniggering at Rory, who was sleeping very quietly. Why was he laughing? Because lately Rory has been blushing every time he saw, or spoke to Hitomi, and vice versa. It was very unlikely for a six year old to notice this, but Kofi did. Emmanuel, Vivian, and Martin noticed this too. Right now Kofi was thinking that Rory was probably dreaming of her.
The gauntlet on his right arm was silent. However, it could feel the Devil Gene flowing in his blood. For the first time ever since it was first made along with the Soul Edge twin blades tens of thousands of years ago, Soul Calibur was afraid. The Gene was more powerful than the evil twin blades put together. Fighting Soul Edge was easy, but fighting the Devil Gene was going to be the biggest problem since fighting Soul Edge's vortex it was thrown in. it was very grateful that Raiden took it out of the vortex. It was going mad in there.
Its fear turned into security. Feeling that the Gene won't be active for some years, it decided to go to sleep until they got to Emmanuel's house, which was about an hour away. It hasn't had a sleep for a millennium.
Kofi looked down on his gauntlet. The crystal that used to be on the gauntlet and facing up was now been slowly covered by the metal of the gauntlet, but hadn't changed the gauntlet's shape. Finally though, the crystal was completely covered with the metal and couldn't be seen. Well, Kofi thought, it's sleeping. Maybe I should sleep. I am getting tired anyway.
Kofi slowly shut his eyes. But strangely, he thought he heard a soft, calming voice that said 'Goodnight.'
R&R for another chapter. If you've got anything to say about the story (apart from flaming), review please.