Chapter 3: A Knockout Performance
September 1st, 2316 – 5:30 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna
After leaving the hotel, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Carrie went to a nearby open-air restaurant to eat dinner. The courtyard they were sitting in was surrounded in all sides by buildings, giving the place a cozy feeling. A tree gave them shade to block out the late afternoon sun, and a candle burned at the wooden table they were seated at.
After they placed their orders and got their drinks, Sonic decided he'd talk to Knuckles.
"Knuckles," Sonic said. "Where all you've been treasure hunting since we met last?"
"Well, the last place I've been to is my home country, Tresed."
"The desert?" Tails asked. "Why out there?"
"Because there's the ruins of a lost civilization out there, that's why," Knuckles said.
"Oooh..." Carrie said. "What's the place you explored like?"
"It's kind of weird," Knuckles said. "Going by the ruins of the city I explored, the civilization thereseemed pretty advanced for the time it was built. I mean... You should have seen the hieroglyphics I found. Their language is so developed and–"
"Eh, they're just words," Sonic said. "What's so special about a language? Can't we talk about something more exciting, like the treasure you found?"
Knuckles growled a bit.
"Look Sonic, without a language, it's impossible for us to have civilization, you know? We'd all still be hanging out in caves and–"
"Now now Knuckles," Carrie said, putting an arm on his shoulder. "Just tell Sonic about the treasure, okay? I don't want us to get into a fight, especially since this is the first time in ages we've all been together."
"Fine," Knuckles said, pulling away from Carrie. He looked at Sonic. "Well, okay. The treasure I found out in this underground sarcophagus–"
"Sarco-what?" Tails asked.
"A tomb," Knuckles stated, choosing a simpler term. He rolled his eyes, seemingly getting irked by this whole conversation. "Anyway, I found two diamond arm bands around the arms of the mummy in there. He must have been a real important person when he was alive..."
"You took from a grave?" Carrie asked with shock. "Doesn't it bug you that you're a grave robber by doing that?"
"Well it's not like it's doing anyone any good sitting down there, is it?" Knuckles asked. "I don't think that mummy needs it anymore, do you? Jeez, you're starting to sound like my mom and dad. That's why I ran away from them. They were always 'Waaah! Waaah! Don't touch that! Waaah! Waaah! Don't go in that room! Waaah! Waaah! It's thousands of years old!' That got old real fast. I just had to get away from them."
Sonic laughed a bit, and said, "I think I'd do the same thing."
Knuckles grinned at Sonic, and then started talking again.
"Well, anyway, about those arm bands. I've got them in my backpack back at the hotel."
"Really?" Carrie said. "Can I see it when we get back?"
"Sure, why not?" Knuckles said, but then he smirked. "You're awful enthusiastic about seeing it, considering I stole it from a grave."
Carrie blushed, and the white fur on her cheeks turned pink. "Well I'm not gonna touch it... I just want to see it. That's all."
"Heh, fair enough," Knuckles replied.
"Ooooh! Here comes our food!" Tails said, pointing at the approaching waiter.
The waiter came over, put down everyone's dishes, and then softly said, "Enjoy". He bowed and walked off.
"Looks great," Sonic said, glancing over his plate. He then looked at the others. "Let's get started!"
"Hey Sonic," Carrie spoke up. "Save your energy. We still gotta go to that show tonight, remember?"
"Don't worry about me," he said. "I got enough energy to keep me awake all night!"
Later that night...
The sunlight quickly gave way to darkness, as the sun set behind the buildings lining the streets. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Carrie had finished eating a while back, and they were now headed through the Grakoran Stadium to find their seats for the opening ceremonies. The stadium could easily hold thirty thousand spectators, and most of these sat on the marble benches that ran around the colossal structure. However, the four of them would instead be sitting in a private box.
At long last, they opened the door to their private box, and took a look around where they'd be sitting tonight. There certainly wouldn't be any marble benches for them. Instead, they saw four padded seats, done in soft red cloth. These seats looked fit for a king.
After entering the box, Knuckles immediately ran to the front to look down into the arena.
"Wow...this place is incredible!" Knuckles said, as he gazed across the open space. "I heard that this stadium is thousands of years old, but it looks like it could have been built just yesterday. I didn't know that the entire thing had such nice preservation!"
Carrie had never come in this place before, even though she lived in this city. They always kept this place locked up tight, except for the Grakoran Tournament. So when the wolf saw how new this place looked, she nearly choked.
The maintenance crews had done a magnificent job keeping this place up. Light from thousands of torches reflected off of the well-polished marble the stadium was constructed of, giving the place a glowing quality. The show must have been completely sold out as well, because every seat she could see from their position was full. Lots of excited chatter could be heard among all the people. The entire atmosphere around the stadium felt energized.
A runners' track ran all the way around the center of the arena, and in the middle of that was a field of packed-in dirt. Hundreds of musicians filled a third of that space, sporting horns, flutes, string instruments, bells, and drums. That wasn't what caught Carrie's attention. Even without microphones and speakers, she could clearly hear the musicians getting in some last-minute practice. Carrie could even tell the difference between each instrument she was hearing.
"That's amazing!" Carrie said. "How does that music get all the way up here without any modern sound equipment?"
"It's called acoustics Carrie," Knuckles answered. "I heard that this stadium was designed so that sound could carry very easily here. That way you can hear sounds coming from the middle of the stadium, without needing speakers or anything like that."
"I'm impressed!" she said.
After that, the four of them took their seats and waited for the show to begin. While Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles chatted, Carrie let her thoughts wander around.
I'm real worried about that guy who was on the roof across the way, even though I know I shouldn't be. If it's more of Blackie Sten's men, I should be able to get away easy with these guys helping... But then that would mean I'd have to give up my home again. I really don't want to do that. Mr. Olandra's been so nice to me, what with giving me that room and the job. I doubt I'll find another person in the world that generous. Unless...
Carrie looked to her left, facing her three friends. Sonic was busy talking with Knuckles, the two of them catching up with each other. Meanwhile, Tails was glancing out across the stadium, taking in the surroundings.
Maybe Sonic and Tails would let me stay with them if that happened? They said it was pretty lonely at their hideout, with how it was in the middle of nowhere. I could be good company.
Suddenly, a musician below sounded a blast on his horn, and the other musicians quickly joined in. Everyone in the stadium immediately stopped talking to listen to the music. For a minute or two, nothing else happened, but then cheering resounded as the athletes entered the stadium field through the gateways below the spectator stands. A couple minutes later, all of the athletes in the tournament were assembled down below, filling up the dirt space in the field that the musicians didn't take up.
As the music faded away, Carrie saw a white and black lemur walking to stand in front of the athletes. The robes she wore practically shined with a rainbow of color. Adding onto that, an ivy wreath was around her shoulders, and a golden crown sparkled upon her head. The wolf recognized her as Teracotza XII, the queen of Tneicna. Her ancestor, Teracotza III, was on one of the tapestries in Carrie's room.
With a booming voice, she shouted, "People of Planet Freedom! Welcome to our humble city for the 216th Grakoran Tournament! We thank all of you for coming all this way to watch this glorious event!"
A loud chorus of cheering and clapping rose up from the people around the stadium. After it quieted down, the queen resumed her speech.
"For many generations, we have continued to hold this tournament, decade after decade, century after century, millennium after millennium, no matter what circumstances grip our planet. Famines, plagues, wars, even the arrival of the humans has not prevented this tournament from starting right on schedule every decade, and it will stay that way for many generations more!"
Once again, more cheering and clapping rose up from the spectators. The queen picked up the speech again after the cheering. She waved her hand across the competitors standing behind her.
"I also must thank these athletes, for all of their hard work! It takes a tremendous amount of effort and dedication to even hope of getting a chance at standing here today! They deserve your utmost respect for their accomplishments! Please, give it to them!"
As the audience cheered again, the athletes bowed to them. One more time, the queen began speaking.
"May all of you here today be able to witness this occasion again in another ten years! And with that, let the opening ceremonies of our tournament begin!"
Right after Teracotza XII finished speaking, firework rockets shot up from the edges of the stadium, and exploded in colorful flashes of light as the audience 'oohed' and 'aahed'. Following that, buckets of confetti were poured from the canopies above the spectators, blanketing the entire stadium in a snow of paper.
Dancers in colorful costumes dashed across the runners' track down below, doing various tricks to impress the audience. A rat went all the way down the track while walking on his hands only, while six cats jumped on each other's shoulders to make a six-man pyramid.
"Oooh, this is great!" Carrie yelled. "I love it!"
"Yeah, this is real cool!" Tails shouted too.
In the distance though, Carrie heard a strange roaring sound. The roar made her think of an engine. Whatever it was, the noise was getting closer fast. Then it reached almost deafening levels as some kind of hover bike entered the stadium through the open roof. It looked kind of like a white jet ski, only short wings extended from the sides, and there were hover pods glowing on the bottom of the ship. A white trail of smoke flew out from the bike as it followed the curve of the stadium. Carrie guessed that he was part of the show, whoever he was.
However, the pilot felt quite out of place here. Tneicnans avoided human machines as much as possible, so it didn't make sense for this modern jet bike to be performing in a Tneicnan festival. It was then that she realized everyone else had suddenly stopped performing, including the musicians and dancers. All eyes in the stadium were on that bike, and the officials in the stadium seemed confused by the bike's appearance. Furthermore, the wolf's sixth sense for trouble was tingling. Now Carrie knew for sure that something was up.
In a surprise, the bike turned towards their private booth. Carrie reflexively held up her arms, believing he was about to crash. However, the driver engaged the air brake and stopped just in front of their box. The bike slowly rotated to the left, so that the craft was perpendicular to their seats. The pilot was a purple weasel, wearing a cowboy hat and a belt with a revolver strapped to it. He also had some kind of grenade gun strapped across his back.
"My prey!" he shouted, pulling the launcher off of his back. "Nack the Weasel has come for you at last!"
Before Carrie could move, the weasel fired his weapon and sent a grenade flying their way. The projectile didn't explode when it landed in front of their seats though. Instead, a cloud of purple gas popped out of the canister, instantly filling the entire private box. Carrie coughed and gasped for air, and then she realized she was having a hard time trying to keep her eyes open. Also, her thoughts became very muddy and unclear.
It's sleeping gas...
Before Carrie could get up from her seat, she slumped back into it with her eyes closed, as she went unconscious.