SuperSonic Speed-- Chapter 13: Testing, 1, 2, 3, yeer out!
---
Juke walked into Sonic's hut, and saw the blue hedgehog, head in his hands, silent. He wasn't even crying, just sitting there, leaving his world behind.
"Hey," Juke said softly.
"What do you want?" was Sonic's muffled reply.
"I heard what happened..."
"Yeah?"
"And, Knuckles said you were real shook up about it."
"whatever, I just found out that Robotnik had been tracing my audio the whole time, he heard me cry, I'm probably the laughingstock of his base right now."
"Well, I just wanted to ask you, how bad do you want to kill Robotnik?"
"I want to make sure he never gets to kill anyone ever again."
"Well then, you're gonna wanna get back to training as soon as you can, the sooner the better."
"Yeah..."
"'Sides, it'll help take your mind off last night."
"Yeah... You're right. But what happens to you?"
"I guess I stay. Knuckles said he wants you to learn how to use a gun and honestly, I don't want to go back to Casino Night, too many memories. 'Sides kid, look what happened the last time I decided to try and live there."
Sonic chuckled, "Heh, I guess you're right, we had to go and fetch you."
"You just go back to training, I have some things I need to pick up." With that, the Lieutenant walked out of the room. Sonic rose from his bed, stretched, and did the same.
---
10 hours later
---
Sonic crawled into his bed. While he had forgotton how hard Knuckles had worked him, he had forgotten how good it had felt to be up and moving. He had finally perfected his counters and was able to go toe-to-toe with the echidna guardian by not getting hit so easily. He laid flat on his bed and watched the stars outside his window. It felt so peaceful, so... good to be able to just sit there and not care about anything. He was glad Knuckles had been working him so hard, it had definately been paying off. He could see and feel the results, his bruises were less tonight. He laid there and let his mind drift off, he couldn't wait to show off his skills. Just two more years...
---
Knuckles' Hut
---
Juke stood in front of Knuckles, who was holding a dark gray pistol with a scope. Aside from the scope, it looked like your average laser pistol, without all the curves. It's edges straight and smooth.
"Cool!" Juke exclaimed as she reached to grab the pistol, Knuckles held it back.
"Uh-uh, this is high technology here, Juke."
"What technology?"
"New laser penetration technology, real dangerous stuff. Instead of just burning the surface, this keeps burning through, possibly exiting. However, you're much more likely to kill someone with this type of technology, so be careful when shooting at something."
"Okay. Will do."
"And also," Knuckles added, pulling a long, skinny, tube shaped object from a drawer behind him, "for recon missions, or for when you'd rather save your ears, a supressor."
"Whoa! Cool! I always did hate the loudness of my other gun."
"Yes, you just screw it onto the end. And it's small enough to stick in the pocket of your combat uniform."
"I noticed."
"But wait! According to the Chaotix, Robotnik has begun implementing this technology into his new robot squads and has stopped production of his weaker squads, such as the buzzbombers, and are using the last of them for special missions."
"That's bad, I'd best pray I don't ever run into any of those bots."
"Well, if you do, you can always out run them," Knuckles paused, pulling a bright white board out of a box behind him. "with this..."
Juke's face lit up, "Wow! A new hoverboard!" she inspected the logo, "V 220-- For Military use only. Wow! This is so cool, a V220! I've always wanted one of these!"
"Heh, now you can keep up with Sonic. Now, practice with these new toys of yours, I need to get some sleep."
"Sure thing Knuckles! 'Night."
----
10 months later...
---
Sonic had learned timing with his counter, throws, a variety of other moves, and how to use his extreme speed to his advantage. Winter had come and Knuckles said that survival would begin soon. However, Knuckles said that one day there would be a test and that on that day to be ready for anything, and that Sonic was gonna need to rely on something other than speed...
---
Sonic opened his eyes and watched the bright sunlight reflect off of the hut's walls. He was wide awake, because Knuckles hadn't awakened him. The blue hedgehog smelled a trap. He stretched, ate the plate of food he had been left, and left his hut, taking in the morning's fresh air. He started to run around the set track Knuckles had showed him he could run around. It was outlined in an oval shape by various road signs routed around trees designed to create a barrier.
He kept running around the track, unaware of the presence of a a creature dressed in forest green hanging in a tree. Sonic counted the laps... 1, 2, 3... Suddenly, as timed, the green figure swung down from a rope and kicked the running hedgehog to the ground before abondoninng the rope and pressing a button on a remote control. Ten foot crates emerged from the ground around them, surrounding the two figures in a much smaller oval. Ten more feet of barbed wire rose from inside the crates. There was no escape.
From inside the mask, an evil voice barked, "You will challenge me here, and you will challenge me now. There is no escape, and if you will not fight me, I will kill you."
"Who are you?" Sonic asked, puzzled at how someone could have gotten past Knuckles' security and create such a setup.
"That is of no importance." The mysterious creature replied, and with that, charged at Sonic.
Sonic side-stepped the charge and watched as the green creature readied himself for another go. As the creature charged, Sonic charged at it as well. Before the two creatures met in the middle, Sonic turned to his side and rammed the creature with his shoulder. The creature fell to the ground with a loud thump.
Sonic went to punch the creature again, but it rolled away, and before Sonic could recover, kicked the hedgehog's back into the ground. Sonic tried to get up, but felt the creature put both of its arms around the blue hedgehog's midsection and slam him into the ground, Sonic let out a loud grunt of pain. the creature repeated this again, and again, and again. It let Sonic go and watch him fall limp to the ground, breathing heavily.
Sonic rolled to the side right before the creature executed his finishing move. Sonic quickly ascended to his feet and jumped onto the creature's back, once, and then twice. Sonic took a second to breathe. the creature rose and threw a kick at the blue hedgehog, who, in turn, grabbed the creature's leg and threw it. Landing with a grunt of pain, the creature stayed still. Sonic ran to where the creature was, picked him up as far as he could and threw it into the crates, face first. It was finished, limp as a dead insect.
Sonic picked up the creature and held it's head in his arms. He slowly ripped the costume at the neckline. Sonic finished ripping the neckline and slowly, hesistently, pulled off the mask. The blue hedgehog gasped in surprise at his find...
Underneath the mask, was Knuckles the Echidna. The guardian was unconscious and his lip was bleeding, it was hard to tell where else the echidna was bleeding because of his crimson skin.
At that moment, the barriers dropped and Lieutenant Juke emerged, balanced on her new, white V220 Hoverboard. "Congratulations kid."
Sonic set Knuckles' limp form onto the grassy ground "Huh? What are you talking about?"
"This was your combat test. The basic idea was to fight against a dumbed down version of Knuckles."
"Whadda ya mean 'dumbed down'?"
"He was taking it easy on you. As good as you were, if he had fought as hard as he normally could, you'd a been Knuckles' position right now."
The hedgehog glared at the bleeding Echidna. "But why didn't he just show himself? Why the costume?"
"You ain't yet learned about 'attacking with extreme prejudice' yet. That goes under military technique."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Juke sighed, "What that means is that if Knuckles hadn't been using the costume and the voice scrambler, you wouldn't of fought that hard because you'd of been afraid of hurting him."
Sonic nodded, "Ah,"
"Yeah. Now bring him here so we can take him back."
Sonic picked up the guardian, and helped Juke get ahold of him.
"Now kid, we're gonna go back. Keep up... If you can!"
---
Juke walked into Sonic's hut, and saw the blue hedgehog, head in his hands, silent. He wasn't even crying, just sitting there, leaving his world behind.
"Hey," Juke said softly.
"What do you want?" was Sonic's muffled reply.
"I heard what happened..."
"Yeah?"
"And, Knuckles said you were real shook up about it."
"whatever, I just found out that Robotnik had been tracing my audio the whole time, he heard me cry, I'm probably the laughingstock of his base right now."
"Well, I just wanted to ask you, how bad do you want to kill Robotnik?"
"I want to make sure he never gets to kill anyone ever again."
"Well then, you're gonna wanna get back to training as soon as you can, the sooner the better."
"Yeah..."
"'Sides, it'll help take your mind off last night."
"Yeah... You're right. But what happens to you?"
"I guess I stay. Knuckles said he wants you to learn how to use a gun and honestly, I don't want to go back to Casino Night, too many memories. 'Sides kid, look what happened the last time I decided to try and live there."
Sonic chuckled, "Heh, I guess you're right, we had to go and fetch you."
"You just go back to training, I have some things I need to pick up." With that, the Lieutenant walked out of the room. Sonic rose from his bed, stretched, and did the same.
---
10 hours later
---
Sonic crawled into his bed. While he had forgotton how hard Knuckles had worked him, he had forgotten how good it had felt to be up and moving. He had finally perfected his counters and was able to go toe-to-toe with the echidna guardian by not getting hit so easily. He laid flat on his bed and watched the stars outside his window. It felt so peaceful, so... good to be able to just sit there and not care about anything. He was glad Knuckles had been working him so hard, it had definately been paying off. He could see and feel the results, his bruises were less tonight. He laid there and let his mind drift off, he couldn't wait to show off his skills. Just two more years...
---
Knuckles' Hut
---
Juke stood in front of Knuckles, who was holding a dark gray pistol with a scope. Aside from the scope, it looked like your average laser pistol, without all the curves. It's edges straight and smooth.
"Cool!" Juke exclaimed as she reached to grab the pistol, Knuckles held it back.
"Uh-uh, this is high technology here, Juke."
"What technology?"
"New laser penetration technology, real dangerous stuff. Instead of just burning the surface, this keeps burning through, possibly exiting. However, you're much more likely to kill someone with this type of technology, so be careful when shooting at something."
"Okay. Will do."
"And also," Knuckles added, pulling a long, skinny, tube shaped object from a drawer behind him, "for recon missions, or for when you'd rather save your ears, a supressor."
"Whoa! Cool! I always did hate the loudness of my other gun."
"Yes, you just screw it onto the end. And it's small enough to stick in the pocket of your combat uniform."
"I noticed."
"But wait! According to the Chaotix, Robotnik has begun implementing this technology into his new robot squads and has stopped production of his weaker squads, such as the buzzbombers, and are using the last of them for special missions."
"That's bad, I'd best pray I don't ever run into any of those bots."
"Well, if you do, you can always out run them," Knuckles paused, pulling a bright white board out of a box behind him. "with this..."
Juke's face lit up, "Wow! A new hoverboard!" she inspected the logo, "V 220-- For Military use only. Wow! This is so cool, a V220! I've always wanted one of these!"
"Heh, now you can keep up with Sonic. Now, practice with these new toys of yours, I need to get some sleep."
"Sure thing Knuckles! 'Night."
----
10 months later...
---
Sonic had learned timing with his counter, throws, a variety of other moves, and how to use his extreme speed to his advantage. Winter had come and Knuckles said that survival would begin soon. However, Knuckles said that one day there would be a test and that on that day to be ready for anything, and that Sonic was gonna need to rely on something other than speed...
---
Sonic opened his eyes and watched the bright sunlight reflect off of the hut's walls. He was wide awake, because Knuckles hadn't awakened him. The blue hedgehog smelled a trap. He stretched, ate the plate of food he had been left, and left his hut, taking in the morning's fresh air. He started to run around the set track Knuckles had showed him he could run around. It was outlined in an oval shape by various road signs routed around trees designed to create a barrier.
He kept running around the track, unaware of the presence of a a creature dressed in forest green hanging in a tree. Sonic counted the laps... 1, 2, 3... Suddenly, as timed, the green figure swung down from a rope and kicked the running hedgehog to the ground before abondoninng the rope and pressing a button on a remote control. Ten foot crates emerged from the ground around them, surrounding the two figures in a much smaller oval. Ten more feet of barbed wire rose from inside the crates. There was no escape.
From inside the mask, an evil voice barked, "You will challenge me here, and you will challenge me now. There is no escape, and if you will not fight me, I will kill you."
"Who are you?" Sonic asked, puzzled at how someone could have gotten past Knuckles' security and create such a setup.
"That is of no importance." The mysterious creature replied, and with that, charged at Sonic.
Sonic side-stepped the charge and watched as the green creature readied himself for another go. As the creature charged, Sonic charged at it as well. Before the two creatures met in the middle, Sonic turned to his side and rammed the creature with his shoulder. The creature fell to the ground with a loud thump.
Sonic went to punch the creature again, but it rolled away, and before Sonic could recover, kicked the hedgehog's back into the ground. Sonic tried to get up, but felt the creature put both of its arms around the blue hedgehog's midsection and slam him into the ground, Sonic let out a loud grunt of pain. the creature repeated this again, and again, and again. It let Sonic go and watch him fall limp to the ground, breathing heavily.
Sonic rolled to the side right before the creature executed his finishing move. Sonic quickly ascended to his feet and jumped onto the creature's back, once, and then twice. Sonic took a second to breathe. the creature rose and threw a kick at the blue hedgehog, who, in turn, grabbed the creature's leg and threw it. Landing with a grunt of pain, the creature stayed still. Sonic ran to where the creature was, picked him up as far as he could and threw it into the crates, face first. It was finished, limp as a dead insect.
Sonic picked up the creature and held it's head in his arms. He slowly ripped the costume at the neckline. Sonic finished ripping the neckline and slowly, hesistently, pulled off the mask. The blue hedgehog gasped in surprise at his find...
Underneath the mask, was Knuckles the Echidna. The guardian was unconscious and his lip was bleeding, it was hard to tell where else the echidna was bleeding because of his crimson skin.
At that moment, the barriers dropped and Lieutenant Juke emerged, balanced on her new, white V220 Hoverboard. "Congratulations kid."
Sonic set Knuckles' limp form onto the grassy ground "Huh? What are you talking about?"
"This was your combat test. The basic idea was to fight against a dumbed down version of Knuckles."
"Whadda ya mean 'dumbed down'?"
"He was taking it easy on you. As good as you were, if he had fought as hard as he normally could, you'd a been Knuckles' position right now."
The hedgehog glared at the bleeding Echidna. "But why didn't he just show himself? Why the costume?"
"You ain't yet learned about 'attacking with extreme prejudice' yet. That goes under military technique."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Juke sighed, "What that means is that if Knuckles hadn't been using the costume and the voice scrambler, you wouldn't of fought that hard because you'd of been afraid of hurting him."
Sonic nodded, "Ah,"
"Yeah. Now bring him here so we can take him back."
Sonic picked up the guardian, and helped Juke get ahold of him.
"Now kid, we're gonna go back. Keep up... If you can!"