Chapter 14 - For great justice!

Jody's next fight just started. There's only 1 fight between her and Bass's fight, before it's my turn. So I wait in the preparation room and watch. Jody is angry at Bass, who's her opponent. She moves much faster than before, and rushes immediately at him. Bass simply blocks her first punch, with his overwhelming power. Jody then quickly runs around him, grabs him by the neck and throws him away. Bass easily recovers himself in the air, but before he gets down Jody is already there and kicks him in his stomach. "Come on, girl! Is that all you got?" Before he can land she launches a rain of punches and keeps him in the air. As a finisher she charges her punch up a bit, and hits him into the wall. Bass coughs up some blood, but he doesn't have any serious damage. Before Jody can run away Bass grabs her at her neck. "Hmpf, you know you can't win now. Don't you?" Jody kicks his arm repeatedly, but that does not help. He puts her against the wall, and gets ready to punch her. Right before he hits her she manages to slip away. She then runs away for some distance, recovering her breathing tempo. She looks only a second away from him, I don't know why. But Bass takes advantage of it, rushes her, and gives her a full powered punch. She flies backward and some blood leaves her face. Man, that's a really hard punch! Things don't exactly look good for Jody now. She struggles to stand up. Before she's on her legs again, Bass grabs her throat again. He pinching a lot harder now. Is he trying to kill her! I'm getting ready to rush in at any time! She kicks him in his face, then he lets her go. She falls down on her knees, coughing a lot. While she's doing that, Bass kicks her really hard in the face. While she's hit a a long distance backwards, quite some blood is flying around the arena.

Jody... doesn't move anymore. The bell goes, and I run into the arena to check up on her. Bass is preparing to attack her yet again! Man, that bastard really needs a lesson. I punch him right in the face, and he falls over right before he attacks Jody. "This fight is over!" Bass wipes away the blood he has on his face. "Huh, so you're saving your friend? The loser doesn't deserve to live." What the hell! "That's wrong! You're not supposed to kill someone in a tournament!" He slowly stands up, and gives me a mean look in the eyes. "Heh, if you think you're right. Defeat me in the finals. I'll be waiting for you." He walks away. That bastard! He beat Jody this easily... I wasn't even sure I was going to beat her? How... am I going to beat him?

I check up on Jody. She's still breathing. Her face bleeds quite a lot, but she'll be okay within a few days. Phew, lucky her! I was sure that punch nearly killed her. I pick her up and run into the preparation room. Amy just arrives there. "Hero!" She runs up to us. "Jody... won't die... right!" She asks in panic. "Don't worry, she'll be fine in a few days." I hand Jody over to Amy. "Just let her rest at your house for now, and take care of her wounds." I turn around to watch the next fight in the arena. "But what about you? Don't I need to support you?" She's worried about me? "Don't worry. I'll be sure to win this tournament." Then I hear her run away. After a couple of seconds... "Hey, Hero!" I turn around. Regulus? How did he get here?

Regulus: "Man, Jody got beat up bad. If you win this fight and the next one you'll fight Bass, right?"

Me: "Yeah. I'll beat him somehow. Are you the only one here?"

Regulus: "Nah, Overdrive is somewhere in the city."

Me: "That's good to know. Where's the others?"

Regulus: "Lexer is in Evolutia right now. I don't know where Solar and Blaze are. They disappeared after the explosion. There's no sign of Jackal or Revenant either. What happened to that Seria girl anyway. I know that Summers became evil already."

Me: "Seria should be coming soon. She'll help me fight. At least, that's what I hope. How did you know Summers got evil?"

Regulus: "He destroyed a village to the south of this place. Where's The Malicious?"

Me: "I wouldn't know. He may be dead. He took a near direct hit from Summers explosion."

Regulus: "Did you know there's a big hole in the ground where you fought?"

Me: "So that's what the explosion caused? Oh man... am I glad to be alive!"

The bell rings. The current fight is over. My fight comes now. "Good luck with your fight." Of course, I easily win this fight. After that we leave the dome, and prepare to go to Amy's house. I have to fight the semi-finals and finals tomorrow. Overdrive waits at the entrance of the dome. "Hey there, Hero. Nice fights you had." How would he know? Wasn't he in the city? "Weren't you in the city?" Regulus asks. "There's a thing called radio, you know." They have radio's here? I didn't even know! But I gotta hurry right now. "Hey Overdrive, i'd love to stay here and talk about what happened, but we gotta go to Amy's house now. We're in a rush." He comes along, of course.

Once arrive, we check how Jody's doing first. She's okay. Her face has a few bandages. But she doesn't have any staying injuries. The slight scars will go away within a few weeks. Then we all go to the living room.

Amy: "Hey, you're the one that assaulted me some time ago!"

Regulus: "I wasn't! I only touched your shoulder to get your attention!"

Amy: "Yeah, right. I know the likes of y"

Me: "Amy, stop it. He really was only trying to get your attention. I know him well."

Amy: "Why did he want my attention anyway? Trying to pick up a cute girl like me! Of course you did!"

Regulus: "Ah... not really. But I do admire you a bit."

Amy: "Really! I should start my own fan club."

Me: "You have plenty of fan clubs where we come from. You and Sonic, and many of your other friends are really well known there."

Amy: "Yay, I got fan clubs! People adore me!

Overdrive: "... ... ... They like Knuckles more than you."

Amy: "What! No way!"

We explain the whole situation to her, and share the information we have. It appears that Lexer has something important for me and wants me to get over as soon as possible, but I still have some unfinished business here.

One day passes, and I win my next fight in the morning. It was harder then most, but I didn't get hit once. That night, i'm standing face to face with Bass in the arena. He beat Jody, so if I beat him... then she won't blame me for her brother turning evil. At least I think she won't.

The final fight starts. He gets in a fighting position, but he doesn't move. He's taking it serious, because that's not what he did when fighting Jody. I slowly approach him. Even when i'm in hitting distance, he doesn't do anything. He's expecting me to dodge his hits. Heh, i'll surprise him. I lower my fighting stance. He assumes I can't dodge from this stance, and throws a hard punch. It's true, I can't dodge it completely, but... his punch touches my face and as soon as it does I use the force his punch sends through my body, and send it back right at him. He flies a big distance backward, just barely touching the wall. Oh man... that really hurt. I got a lot of damage because of that one single punch. I have a bit of blood on my face. But he has more damage! The fight continues on for a while. I get hit a lot, and he too. Occasionally I use his weightt against himself. There's no way for him to dodge so soon after attacking. So he just hopes he overpowers me. It's some sort of Lallapallooza. A hitting match. Neither one of us is backing down. That is...

Until the roof starts crumbling. We stop our fighting and look up. Someone comes crashing down right through the roof, landing right between me and Bass. I see that Bass is send flying towards the wall with some kind of force. I can't see what, there's smoke everywhere.

Suddenly I feel a punch in my gut. Damn... I don't have much strength left right now. I feel I get lifted into the air... just before I faint.

End of chapter