Pre-chapter 26 Bonus
Let's take a look at how the pairs of the bad guys are doing in the 2nd part of the preliminaries.
Rosey & Knuckles
They're at the first part, the maze part.
Rosey: "What are you doing Knuckles! It's this way!
Knuckles: "No, it's not. It's this way!"
And all the time it goes like that.
Rosey: "Look, this red block belongs in the blue hole. And the purple block in the yellow hole.
Knuckles: "You made a mistake. The purple one belongs in the blue hole. And the red one belongs in the yellow hole."
Rosey: "No, it's... The... ARGH! Now I forgot! Look what you did, stupid! I hate men!"
Knuckles: "So what? I hate woman!"
Jackal & Jody
Jody leads the way, while Jackal just follows her. And then... they see a couple of other hedgehogs beneath them. Jackal starts laughing and won't stop. "Shut up!" Jody says to him. Jackal stops... for a few seconds. And he starts again. Jody sighs...
So... after a long time, they've finally reached the puzzle part. Jackal takes the lead all of a sudden. He solves the puzzles like it's nothing. Jody's amazed by his skills. So... he isn't as dumb as he seems.
Revenant & guy named Gin Drake
Revenant walks in a fast tempo, leading the way. The guy behind her is nervous. Not just that... he's frightened. So he doesn't dare to say something to her, or else she might kill him, he thinks. Though Revenant isn't really smart, she's not that stupid either. Often she walks into a dead end, resulting in going back. Her expression seems indifferent about all the time. Despite all this, they do get further. Though Revenant is surely taking her time.
Zero & Lexer
They don't say anything against each other. They just use simple signs to show the other where to go. Lexer refuses to talk against a bad guy, while Zero refuses to talk against a friend of Solar. But they still manage to get through the 2nd part of the preliminaries pretty easily. But because they don't say anything against each other, some things take a bit long. They don't help each other to get across platforms, and both just puzzle away without asking for the help of someone else. They stick together though.
The Malicious & Summers
They don't haste themselves. But they don't get stuck either. Shouldn't be surprising since both of them are smart and calm guys. When they're about halfway through...
Summers: "Malicious, what are you planning? You said you wanted me. You wanted Hero too."
Malicious: "I don't need you anymore. You've done your part."
Summers: "And Hero?"
Malicious: "He has a dark side, but for some reason it's taking too long to awaken. After that i'll make him work for me."
Summers: "You sure you're telling the truth?"
Malicious: "I don't lie."
Summers: "You still haven't told me your intentions."
Malicious: "I want to create a better world."
Summers: "By becoming an absolute ruler."
Malicious: "By banishing all the bad hedgehogs in the world. Then I shall lead the good ones into the right direction."
Summers: "You're crazy, you know that."
Malicious: "I know i'm not. I don't care what you think."
Chapter 26 - First rounds
Bass and I ended up a building somewhere in Evolutia. Not in the Life Dome. Apparently, the area used for the 2nd part of the preliminaries was too big for just the arena. I wonder why there's such a HUGE space under the city though. They can't possibly have made it themselves. After the tournament i'll check it out. We get told that there are 10 other buildings in the city, and get escorted back to the Life Dome. Both of us get the 2 best rooms at the very top of the Life Dome. That's what we get for our effort. We didn't lose any match, and got here the fastest. It's a long way up though. Takes us about 2,5 hours from the place where we were to get there. Getting to our rooms from the bottom of the Life Dome even takes an hour. This is where I part with Bass, and he says he'll kick my ass in the tournament because it's my fault he got stuck with me. I'd say it's his fault, but whatever. The view is really magnificent. And there's a device that shows who are already through the preliminaries. It's called a Portable Announcer (PA). As for other things, a very big bed and many other things you'd expect from a 5 star hotel. But... I don't really care about that. I just stare through the window for an hour, before I go to sleep.
In the morning, after only sleeping for about 4 hours, the sunrise wakes me. I never had a sunrise wake me up before. It's kinda annoying, though pleasant at the same time. I pick up the PA, and see that 1 other pair arrived. Regulus and Ryoukusho. Their time? 35 hours and 12 minutes. Exactly 5 hours and 29 minutes more than our time. Gee, I guess being bossed around by Bass was good for something. I wonder if it's his sense of direction?
The following days, more and more pairs arrive while I use those extra days to train. They arrived in this order, with these times.
3. Lexer Adario & Zero Zaca: 39 hours, 3 minutes
4. Summers the Hedgehog & The Malicious: 44 hours, 15 minutes
5. Sonic the Hedgehog & Lilly Fluff: 51 hours, 37 minutes
6. Shadow the Hedgehog & Blaze Krezne: 51 hours, 59 minutes
7. Seria Idon & Jack Matis: 54 hours, 20 minutes
8. Jody Summers & Jackal Night: 64 hours, 23 minutes
9. Overdrive Vercetti & Unknown fella: 67 hours, 41 minutes
10. Solar Blaze & Aquis Krezne: 69 hours, 55 minutes
11 - 126. Whole bunch of others: 71 hours to 93 hours
127: Knuckles the Echidna & Rosey Fluff: 94 hours, 19 minutes
128: Revenant & Guy I feel sorry for: 95 hours, 44 minutes
The total time limit was 96 hours, 4 days exactly. I don't know why team Knuckles and team Revenant took so long. Maybe I do. Knuckles is stubborn, and Rosey too. They probably don't get along at all. As for Revenant... I just don't know. Knowing her, she probably just walked all the way or something. So there's 256 fighters in all. That means the winner must win 8 matches in a row, to win. The first fights don't start until a week from now, until everyone is rested. While the others spend most of the time with each other, having fun, I spend most of my time training. Though I do talk a bit with them. The crowd favorites top 15 just got announced:
1. Jackal Night (this is strange... they like lunatics?)
2. Hero Red(uh... guess i'm some sort of real hero to them)
3. Summers the Hedgehog (evil is always popular)
4. The Malicious (best known villain of all)
5. Regulus Bomb (they dig his Bullet Blast, and heavy voice)
6. RyouKusho Guy (his right arm is a big gun. What more could they want?)
7. Knuckles (A favorite among the girls, it seems)
8. Jody Summers (hot chick, cool fighting style and sister of Summers)
9. Bass Shadnik (Badass bounty hunter)
10. Revenant (I wonder what the crowd sees in her... Badass chick?)
11. Shadow the Hedgehog (he's badass, has cool shoes, and is very fast)
12. Sonic the Hedgehog (crowd thinks he's Shadows younger brother)
13. Blaze Krezne (he's cooler than his brother, though he's a hothead)
14. Lexer Adario (a genius and two tails. That must be it... I think.
15. Jack Matis (It's the man of teen hedgehog girls dreams)
The main battles start. I'm the first one to go. A guy named Gin Drake is my opponent. He's the guy that Revenant teamed up with, so I expect him to be strong.
Battle 1, Hero VS Dragon! Hero Red VS Gin Drake
Gin: "Well, well. You don't look nearly as strong as they say your are. Are you really the nearly legendary Hero Red?"
Hero: "Give it your best shot."
A few minutes after the fight started, I know why it took Revenant this long. It was this guy. He sucks! He can't have won 8 battles alone! Anyway, I take care of this trash easily. Heh, not much of a battle.
The next battle is Jody VS some random guy. He's easily defeated. So... Jody is my next opponent. Alright, I still have a settle to score. For the next week, the others all get their battles. Everyone I want to win, wins easily. Now there's only 128 fighters. There can't be that much trash left now, right?
The next day...
Unfinished business: Jody Summers VS Hero Red
Jody: "Are you ready?"
Hero: "Whenever you are."
She starts with her usual pattern, by running straight at me and then trying to make a combo, get me into the air, and then reap me. I have a plan, but I won't use it yet. I block her hits, and counter. She blocks my hits too. Sometimes I let one of her weaker punches just hit me, just to catch her off guard. After fighting for 5 minutes like this, she leaves an opening. I take the chance and give her a full uppercut against her face, lifting her high up into the air. Before she falls to the ground, I try to punch her, but she grabs my arm and manages to throw me into the air. Time to start my plan, before her deadly Sky Reaping gets me. She mostly kicks, so I use my own kicks to connect with hers and stay into the air, pushing her down to the ground again so she can't fly like she usually does. After doing that 3 times, she does the same again. This time, I let myself fall at a different angle, and try to punch her into the ground. "Tornado Uppercut!" She yells. She jumps into the air with an uppercut, surrounded by a tornado of energy and I get blasted a very long distance away. It was the same move as the one she used against Seria, only she combined it with an uppercut. It hurts quite a bit. But it's nothing that keeps me down. I still have plenty of energy left, thanks to her. I absorbed a lot from the energy tornado she used. We run to each other and stop a 10 feet from each other away. She's pretty tired already. Those energy attacks drain a lot of stamina from her. I dash to her, dodging a few of her attacks, and grab her at her neck, and arms. Now she can't move. After a couple of seconds, she releases a burst of energy, blowing me away. Hurts like hell, but it won't keep me down. She falls to the floor then. She spend her last energy doing that, just as I expected. I could've finished it without taking the damage, but I didn't want to give her more injuries.
Hero Red wins!
For a few days, the others easily win their battles. My next opponent will be The Malicious. It's going to be a hard battle. Right now, the last fight of the 2nd round, and an interesting one.
Ryoukusho Guy VS Knuckles the Echidna: Melee VS Gun
Ryou: "I can't lose. I must win this tournament."
Knuckles: "Huh, I can handle you."
A brutal battle begins. Power vs power. Knuckles and Ryou just keep hitting each other, neither one backing down. This goes on for 15 minutes. They create some distance between each other to recover a bit, but while doing that Ryou also fires his gun. Knuckles gets heavily damaged and stunned by the electromagnetic bullet. Ryou fires one more to finish it. Knuckles is KO.
Ryoukusho Guy wins!
So... next up is round 3. I hope i'm strong enough now to beat The Malicious.
End of chapter