CHAPTER IV – THOSE WHO ARE CLOSEST
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD, 2016
It was odd for him to not even put on a scarf. He was just like his father in that way where no matter how cold it was, his fur would be the only thing to protect him from the elements. Definitely stubborn like his father too, as if his paternal looks didn't remind them enough of Jules. It was the closest his godparents would get to being around their old friends. Days like this were nostalgic in a way and made for great memories.
The couple in question were friends to everyone in Knothole. The gruff exterior of the older man and the sweet, aging face of the older woman were some of the city's greatest icons. They wanted nothing but the city they called home to be that: a home. Too long it had been mired with crime and corruption. Their godson may have been the golden boy for that peace in modern times, but they liked to think that they and their best friends and helped light that fire in the first place.
The weather was one might expect for early November. Mid-40s as a high, cloudy skies, wind whipping around the skyscrapers to accentuate the 20 mph gusts. It wasn't just the weather that was reminiscent of the year's penultimate month. As they walked, trees and wreaths were already in the windows of a few businesses. Ornaments began to pepper the mom-and-pop shops for blocks on end.
As the trio made the turn up the next block, Knothole City Hall Park came into view. Its trees were already barren when it came to leaves. They blow off easily with weather like this. A few city workers were stringing lights around the branches while others raked the leaves away to the best of their abilities. The foreman swore loudly when one of his underlings lost his pile and got a face-full of maple and oak.
Of course, Pastor Dominic Posit of St. Mark's church chided the city's workers for their foul language especially since they were next door to the House of the Lord. The lavender, feline reverend was also doing his part in decorating for the holidays as he began to hang his lights above the doors to the parish center. However, his base instincts also told him to bat around the hanging lights.
"There was some kind of big fire that happened here, right?" Sonic asked his godparents before taking a sip of ginseng tea. It wasn't much, but he found that tea worked at keeping his body healthy. Where most people shelled out for brand-name recovery drinks at the local pharmacy, his was tea. It was soothing. It made him feel like a million bucks (or maybe it was the painkillers). And the best part? It wasn't coffee.
"It was almost 95 years to the day to be exact, (Maximillian Acorn: Robert Redford)" Max began. "Both of our families lived through that night, my great-grandpa Silvanus and my grandpa Sebastian included."
"You're saying that like not many did?" Sonic replied uneasily.
"Because 97% of Knothole's citizens died that night." Sonic's grim response was damning to say the least. "Knothole had just broken off from Mobotropolis to be its own town. Try and imagine the people in 1921. The town's first suburb! There was a big party to be had at the new town hall, but then the local temperance movement got involved."
"Huh. A 'temperance movement?'"
"A temperance movement, (Alicia Acorn: Emily Rose)" Alicia began, "is a call to completely end alcohol consumption. No more beer or bourbon but something like rubbing alcohol was still fair game. Back in 1921, the United Federation added an amendment to their constitution that prohibited making any kind of booze."
"Right before that federal law started," Max added, "the Knothole City Council decided to break bread and have plenty of wine that night in celebration for their… I guess you could call it 'independence.' Until the movement came by and ruined the fun, I suppose. Sonic, do you see the man over there by St. Mark's with the lights?"
Sonic turned his head after swallowing his latest sip of tea and nodded to Max. "That's Pastor Dom Posit. His great-grandaunt was Gretel Posit. She was the leader of the city's temperance movement and protested the night of the celebration back in 1921. When her posse and the town council collided, she went ballistic. It's said that she grabbed the nearest bottle of booze she could find and threw it into a bonfire."
"Oh boy," Sonic said. "I think I know where this is going."
"Well, booze is flammable, and the fire spread to the town hall. You have to remember that this was a suburb away from all the hustle, bustle, and—most importantly—concrete jungle of Mobotropolis. Knothole back then was mostly homes, wooden homes to be precise."
"The fire could've been so much less if that dreadful Posit woman wouldn't have gone crazy," Alicia added.
"What do you mean by that?" Sonic queried.
"According to the story, she didn't see that her first destroyed bottle spread onto the city hall and started throwing the hooch all over the place. On the grass, on people, sidewalks, and so on. When the fire started, it had plenty of real estate to ignite."
"Sounds like hell."
"You're probably not too far off. Those people who tried to run away were either caught by the fire or tried to jump into the Allegheny Passage to swim over to Mobotropolis. The problem was that hundreds of people drowned in the river or didn't survive the jump into the river at all. Remember that Knothole sits at a higher altitude than the rest of the city since the city's built on chalk. The don't call our coastline the 'Whitecliffs of Knothole' for nothing. Both of our families were some the lucky survivors that made the jump and swam across the river."
"At least that Posit woman died with everyone else. I couldn't imagine what the townsfolk would've done to her." Sonic's viewpoint changed quickly when Max laughed at that remark. "Wait, she survived?!"
"Dying like that would've been too good for her," Max said. "Gretel's daddy was also a pastor at St. Mark's during that time. He survived that night too and helped oversee the rebuild of his church. However, legend has it that it damn-near broke him to see his daughter get hanged on the grounds of the old city hall as punishment for her actions. Gretel was known as a God-fearing woman with her strong ideals, but her ideals got her killed along with thousands of others. And the craziest part of it all? She claimed that everyone of them deserved to die because they were all drinking the devil's juice."
"Yes, I'm sure that all the toddlers in town that night had Budweiser in their sippy cups," Sonic said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Good grief. She strikes me as the type of lady who warns people of bullshit but is ironically too wrapped up in their own bullshit."
"It's hard to take people seriously when they do that," Alicia added. "She was toxic before 'toxic' became a modern figure of speech. Here's something spooky about the whole Posit fiasco. In 1933, that U.F. alcohol amendment was repealed, and a bar that had been built on the city hall grounds began serving people all kinds of drinks that same day. It used to be a clean dairy bar before making the switch. Ironically enough, that bar burned down that night with no survivors."
Her godson scoffed. "Now that's just eerie."
"Still not as eerie as one's godson coming back from the dead."
"But you should've had both of us back," the hero said lowly.
The Acorns' faces turned gloomy as did Sonic's. Green was always a sore subject, even more for Sonic given their recent history. They sympathized with their godson as evidenced by Alicia grabbing Sonic's shoulder. The hero stopped and turned around to find the loving smiles of Max and Alicia as they looked him compassionately.
"We miss him too," said Alicia.
Sonic's saddened face bowed in regret. "How did you cope?" the hero asked.
"Cope with what?" Max replied. "When we lost you, Eli, and your parents?" Sonic nodded but still couldn't meet his eyes. "It was hard to take in. Your parents, me, and Alicia… we'd been together for what felt like forever. We'd do anything for each other out of love and respect. I guess…."
"'You guess' what?"
Max smiled and hugged Sonic tightly. "I guess I coped by doing what they'd want me to do. Same with Alicia. Bernie and Jules wanted everyone to know the truth, to be well-informed because it was the best way to protect yourself and those closest to you. It's my way of honoring what they stood for because they would have done the same for us. In a way, you fight for truth and to protect everyone just like they did. The only difference between you and your parents is that you approach it in a different way. Jules and Bernie did it through journalism. You do it in a more… 'hands-on' way," Max said with a chuckle. "I can say with absolute certainty that you're doing your parents proud with what you've done and what you will do."
Sonic smiled for a brief moment, but he lost it quickly when he asked, "And Green?"
"I bet it's for the same reason. You both would've beaten Robotnik, right? Because it was the right thing to do?" Sonic nodded, although he admitted to himself that revenge had a hand in it. "And you became a hero to honor him, right?"
"Yeah?" Then it hit him. "Yeah, I did. Because it's what he would've done too." Max let go of him godson and nodded back. "Thanks," Sonic said with more hope in his voice.
"It's what we're here for. Don't be afraid to come to us if you need to talk. Don't be afraid to go to your friends either if you need to open up, you got that?"
"Even if it's for experimental equipment testing that I do not want to do?"
"Especially that." Then it clicked for the Acorns what Sonic had said. "Wait, what?"
"Come on…! Hurry up! Urgh! Do I really have to do this?!"
Sonic was about to blow a gasket. He hated whenever he had to stay put before something big was going to go down. Like a child, he couldn't stay still. He was itching to get this over with. One more crime boss. He was gonna catch her in the act, and Rouge's team would make the arrests. Bing, bang, boom. What made his waiting worse was that Tails's newest piece of ingenuity was all but ready for a test drive. And the fact that the piece of action was a little better than 24 hours away. Until then, Sonic was stuck playing guinea pig in the fox's laboratory as he tinkered.
"Aren't you finished yet?!" Sonic asked with a healthy dose of annoyance. "I want this done and over—!"
RING! RING!
"That'd be Rouge," said Sonic.
"Try again," CREAM said.
Sonic turned around to see that it wasn't the commissioner on the line. It was Amy from her AMG office. She was in the process of getting her equipment ready by the looks of it. Seems like another field story was ready to be reported on.
"Are you still fiddling around with that suit?" Amy asked.
"Almost done with it," Tails said. "Just need old blue boy here to give it a test run."
"T, I don't know why you're pushing this now. Can't it wait until later?"
"It's ready now, and Sonic needs take his mind off tomorrow's operation." Amy rolled her eyes at her brother's insistence. He was always like this whenever he invented another game-changing gadget.
"At least you're not the one testing it, A," Sonic huffed.
"Sonic, I've heard 25 years of your moaning," CREAM said. "Suck it up. For Tails's sake." Sonic rolled his eyes. "Don't you roll your eyes at me, young man!"
Sonic blushed out of embarrassment, much to the delight of Amy and Tails. "I hate all of you," the speedster said with noticeable contempt.
"You love us, and you know it," Tails said. His tone rattled Sonic's cage.
"Tails," CREAM began, "I don't want to hear any lip from you either since this was your idea." Sonic immediately smiled as the fox's face soured a bit. "To a degree, I agree with Sonic in saying that I'm not 100% onboard with this flight suit business. Doubly so when he's still recovering from his injuries from Halloween."
"No worries, CREAM," he defended. "You're just being the over-protective parent."
"Maybe so, but this contraption you've been slaving over for weeks is sounding more like a toy than a necessity. And if it weren't for that, I might be in a new body by now." There was a little venom in her tone that hit struck a nerve with Tails, like it hurt him to hear that. She was admittedly jealous of how much time he spent tinkering on the suit over the last few weeks than fulfilling his promise to her. Her new body (or was it a chassis?) was almost done, but it had been put on the backburner for Sonic's flight suit. She much rather preferred him to be intimate with her body's delicate inner-workings. Wow, that sounded wrong.
RING! RING!
"Now, that would be Rouge," CREAM said as a camera feed from the commissioner's office lit up to show the head cop. "Good evening, R."
"T tells me that S is supposedly testing something tonight," the bat said.
Sonic groaned again. "T, just hurry up. I want this done and over with."
"Are you sure about this, Sonic?" CREAM asked.
"No, but we're doing it anyway." Then he zipped to Tails who had just finished it. On Amy's and Rouge's screens, they were each given a better view of Sonic's movements as he slapped on the apparatus.
The getup looked like a backpack with carbon fiber on the exterior, especially the back, that contoured to Sonic's trimmed torso. The rest of the suit was a harness which Tails helped strap and buckle to Sonic's sides, shoulders and front. The buckles were made from a nigh unbreakable plastic while the harness loops around his shoulders, waist, and chest had a padded layer for comfort. Finally, Sonic was given a pair of gauntlets, one for each hand, to which there were the usual wrist grapples built into them. When his dress-up was complete, Sonic looked somewhat intimidating, but you couldn't take him seriously when it looked like he was rocking a turtle shell strap-on. Not the kinkiest item ever invented.
Tails and Sonic then walked so that they were front and center for the small audience to see. Just as Tails opened his mouth, Amy's office door opened up, and in stepped Sally Acorn. The shock of someone walking in on their business—literally—made the lot of them stop, but they immediately relaxed when they saw whose blue eyes came on screen.
"Hey, Amy?" Sally asked. "You wanna—?" Then she saw the screen with Tails and a dressed-up Sonic. "Oh, I didn't realize I was interrupting something. And Sonic, what are you wearing? You look ridiculous! If I knew you'd look so stupid, I'd get my parents over here to take pictures of you." Sonic shot her an unimpressed look as Sally had a good chuckle.
"Well, Sally," Tails started, "if you have a minute, I'll show you what I've got cooked up for Sonic."
The news anchor smiled and shook her head. "I was going to ask Amy if she wanted a coffee before she left, but I guess I can stay for this."
"In that case, welcome." Tails then cleared his throat and collected his thoughts before looking back at the camera. "When Sonic said that he would help wipe out Mobotropolis's crime, we all agreed that we would help him. In that past four months, crime has gone down due to Sonic's heroics and the joint effort that everyone here has put forward. As we all know, Sonic is the most versatile person in this group if not the most important. He's taken on his fair share of crazy people, but as we've seen, criminals have evolved. We saw that with Eggman when he wanted to take his city-wide grip on Mobotropolis to a global scale with the clones, not to mention what happened a few nights ago on Halloween. With such powerplays getting more and more frequent, it's important that the city's most capable hero—no offense, commissioner—needs to be equipped to combat any conceivable situation. It's with that in mind that I'm proud to show off the first working prototype of the Winged Flight Suit."
With a nod to the hero, Sonic pressed a button on his chest. His backpack began to whir and sprout wings spreading opposite directions, perfectly contouring to Sonic's arms. As the small crowd looked in astonishment, the wings then clamped onto Sonic's gauntlets and spread out about a foot longer than the ends of his fingers with small handles next to his fists. The wings themselves were slim, but strong. The ends were metal-tipped and sharp, looking like the world's biggest and deadliest knife. The hero tried to take in the incredible sight around him, barely comprehending how CREAM and Tails were able to make this a reality.
"Not bad," Rouge said.
"Glad you think so, R," Tails replied. "The wings are made of high-resistance carbon fiber. In other words, these babies are bullet-resistant against everything from 9mm rounds to the heaviest sniper fire. At the tips of the wings, you'll notice the steel-titanium alloy. Obviously, the wings retract using this rigging, but the wing tips are sharpened to point where they can cut through a 3-foot-thick tree like a hot knife through butter. While it does have melee properties, the sharp tips are meant to ward off potential attackers. However, should Sonic not want to slice anyone, he would need to do is ball up his fists to access the suit's primary melee mode."
On cue, Sonic grabbed the handles and jerked his wrists down twice. Looking to the tips, Sonic saw how the sharp ends folded down and then began to wrap around his fists, locking on the wing with a CLICK! His hands weren't damaged in any way, just trapped but with extra protection. They were safely inside the small, metal-encased areas. What Sonic also noticed was that he felt more limber than expected in this state. He was able to move freely since the metal joints on the tips were able to move in various directions.
"As you can see, Sonic's hands are now enclosed. When Sonic has to engage in combat, his punches will have more weight and pop behind them, allowing him to hit harder. Imagine getting hit by steel-titanium boxing gloves. And don't worry, the suit can keep up with how fast Sonic can move his arms. That's why the wings are carbon fiber to begin with. Also, there are grips inside for Sonic to hold so that when he throws a punch, his fists don't smash against the metal."
"It's an impressive piece of tech, T," Sally said in an amazed tone.
"Thank you, but there is a small catch. With how much work the suit will need to do to keep up with Sonic's speed, the wings have a chance of wearing down. That doesn't mean that they're fragile—far from it—but overusing the melee mode can compromise the durability of the wings and potentially lead to them being damaged. Considering the wiring in the things, it could lead to electrocution."
Amy groaned and said, "Long story short, Sonic shouldn't use them? Doesn't exactly seem practical when he uses his hands on a very regular basis on the streets. And because, oh yeah, the suit could falter and KILL HIM!"
"Sonic would have to put those wings through a war to get to that point!" Tails defended. "Besides, CREAM and I are developing a Mark II suit with stronger, sturdier wings that can handle more abuse."
"Tails, I'm still not sure about this," Sonic said with concern.
"Sonic—for the millionth time—don't worry. Like I said, you'd have to put those things through hell to really damage them."
"T, you're putting too much faith in these things, especially for a prototype," Rouge said, echoing Sonic's unsure tone. "The last thing we need is your ego leading to something bad, and Sonic does that enough already."
"Thanks," Sonic said. Then he finally got what she was saying. "HEY!" he defended.
Tails took offense to her concerns. "They won't fail, R. You have my word. Now, if we're done complaining… Sonic, activate 'Flight Mode.'"
"Got it," the unsure hero replied as he jerked his wrists up to disengage the metal fists and unfurl the wings to their initial spread state. He then pressed the ends of his handles where a big, red button rested on each of them.
CLICK!
Sonic's suit started to vibrate. While it tickled a bit, Sonic was more interested in how he was now LEVITATING IN THE AIR. The onlookers' eyes went buggy as they saw Sonic the Hedgehog rise a meter off the ground with his wings keeping his steady.
"Sonic, raise your arms."
The hero nodded and did so. The gauntlets then magnetically bonded to the wings again as the hero regripped the wings' handles and started to turn around. Sonic groaned as he was feeling akin to a supermodel rather than a superhero. The only reason for this was because he had to show off the backpack to the captivated audience.
"The backpack has a pair of small jet engines that allow Sonic to propel himself forward. He can turn on and off Flight Mode by pressing both buttons on the end of his grips. The grips can also rotate forward and back with simple motions so that he can control his flying speed and direction. Obviously, practice is needed to—."
Sadly, Sonic's curiosity got the better of him. He gripped the hoops and only moved his hands forward barely, but Sonic then took off straight up, much to the horror and shock of everyone. Sonic was rapidly approaching the ceiling with no way to go but through it, gripping harder than before from the shock, unable to slow down.
"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA!"
"SONIC!" everyone screamed.
By instinct alone, he turned to the right at the last second to avoid a painful crash. Now he had a new problem: the next wall. Getting the idea (or so he hoped), Sonic turned his grips to pull off a hard left and to see the lab from his aerial viewpoint. CREAM was able to keep a bead on Sonic the whole time via the camera.
"SONIC!" Amy screamed. "GET DOWN FROM THERE!"
Sonic chuckled.
Everybody else knew that didn't sound good.
With a wry smile, Sonic instantly divebombed and pulled up, flying a foot off the floor. Now it was time to have some fun at Tails's expense. He gunned it, flying straight at the fox, watching him try to run out of the way. But Sonic had no interest in spearing his friend, so he pulled up and circled around Tails's large lab as he got used to the machine. He stopped and restarted his flight on a dime, did figure-8s, and loop-de-loops among other neat air tricks all within a few seconds.
After looking back at the stunned faces of his cohorts, Sonic decided enough was enough. He gently glided to the ground and beside a mortified Tails. It wasn't because the fox was afraid that Sonic was going to kill himself accidentally (that was part of it, though), but it was because the quick-study that was Sonic properly flew and used his new flight suit to effectively and epically steal Miles Prower's thunder.
Sonic let loose of the hoops and jerked his arms forward to disengage the gauntlet magnets. He quickly got out of the suit by pressing the button of the suit's front and unstrapping himself, handing the contraption back to the stunned inventor and smiling at his equally stunned face. He took one last look at his friends' bewildered gawking and started to laugh. Looking back to Tails one last time, Sonic said, "I think it works just fine, buddy," before giving him a pat on the back and leaving the lab.
Amy starred at the video feed in shear awe of Sonic's actions, completely captivated by how he was able to move so valiantly through the air despite it happening by complete fucking accident. Without realizing at first, her feelings for him coupled with his actions caused her heart to pound and her face to blush madly.
"Amy?" a concerned Sally asked after just finally noticing the state of her friend. "Are you okay?"
The pink hedgehog instinctively cut the feed from her office, leaving the two of them alone. Suddenly, Amy's stunned face morphed into a lovesick smile as her eyes were halfway shut. The chipmunk immediately shot up an eyebrow. Then it hit Sally that Amy's heart had swooned… big-time. Sally couldn't help but chuckle and grin like a schoolgirl.
Amy sighed happily. "Even on accident, he's amazing."
"No, he's just amazing," Sally said as she patted Amy's shoulder and began to walk out of the office. "It was my brother that was the accident."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
If you're wondering if the second half of the chapter is familiar, it should be. It was the SP2 teaser that I had up for the longest time. The only major changes are grammatical and cohesiveness edits. That teaser was deleted the same time that the first chapter went live. It's not like it was needed anyway. It's pointless to have the same material take up two story slots.
On the other side of that coin, Alicia and Max Acorn make their first official appearance in the story as opposed to later (the beginning of the story's second act). In the initial planning stages, they weren't going to be used all that much in the story. However, given the "Big bad" of this story, not having them appear more given their other godson is still alive (And since they haven't seen him in 25 years) would be a missed opportunity. I'll stop talking about that before I spoil the rest of the story for you.
Like the scene with Amy and Sally in chapter 3, the Max and Alicia segment wasn't in the original script and was added later to flesh out the story and give you a glimpse of world-building. I did mention the Great Fire of 1921 in SP1's chapter 7. Come to think of it, I feel I should make notes in the story of past references in prior stories/chapters. It probably would make it easier for you guys. Perhaps in a future edit...
I've got nothing else worth talking about other than the flight suit is clearly based on Falcon from the MCU. Chapter 5 will be out March 2nd with chapter 6 on th March 13th. Special shout-outs go to FlameShadowFireDragon (x3), NeckBreak, and Jurassicdinodrew for the reviews. Thank you again, guys! And to everyone else, don't be afraid to let me know your thoughts on hos the story is going. I'm not going to force you to do so (mainly because I literally don't have that kind of god-like power), but if you do, just make it professional. Flames should be for Blaze the Cat, not fan-fictions.
As always, the characters used in this story are the property of SEGA, Sonic Team, and Archie Comics. Everything in the story is being used strictly for entertainment purposes. And as always, I will talk to y'all later.