((here lies chapter two of my ongoing sub- based almost entirely on the sole genius of GameGirl2, whom we have all grown to love and cherish!))
Knuckles:-Gives GameGirl2 a big echidna hug- yes we have!
A: anyway, I have much inspiration and several ideas for this here chappy-nappy, so I'm just gonna get this ball rollin'. As it were.
Sonic: what about my damned attention?
A: right, Sonic. You can have your say.
Sonic:……-doesn't know what to say, GASP-
A: okay… onto the fic, I suppose…
: as I have mentioned, the original idea for this fic was devised by her lustrous wonder, GameGirl2 -applauds- neither of us, however, own Sonic and co. :
This story supports gay couples. Gotta problem with that? Kiss my ass and go elsewhere to read. It's not my fault you're so tight-wadded and conservative. Free speech for all!
Chapter 2- Violence is the Answer
Sonic hopped out of the Gale before it had finished landing- Tails hated it when he did that- and slung his overly-large duffel bag over a shoulder. He smiled back at his best friend knowingly, seeing the worried little face he made when he knew he was going to be on his own for awhile. It wasn't the first time. The kid still had some growing up to do…
"You sure you're gonna be ok, little dude?"
"I'll manage….. I have a nightlight…."
Sonic shook his head, chuckling. "I'd think someone as smart as you would know better than to be afraid of the dark...?"
Tails was silent for a moment, staring blankly at the control stick in his grasp. He looked back to the hedgehog with a weak smile.
"It's never a fear of the dark itself. It's always been a fear of the unknown, I guess. If I can't see… I kinda get a little frazzled, if ya know what I mean… must be a fox thing…."
"Nah, I guess everyone's afraid of the dark in their own ways…. Take it easy, kid. I'll only be gone a week."
"I know…. Have fun!"
"I will, trust me."
His quills were tossed about haphazardly as the rotating blades stirred up a strong wind in their departure. Grinning, the blue rodent was stewing all sorts of deviant plans to get the echidna miffed.
Knuckles, out of sheer boredom, was reading "The Fall of the House of Usher" again, quietly minding his own secluded business…. when suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at his chamber door….
'Ok, enough Poe for me…' he thought to himself, setting down the book and rising to see who it might be. A visitor. Makes a nice change in the daily drag…..
Upon opening the door and seeing that stupid grinning face, he promptly slammed it, drawing the lock and returning to his sofa.
"Helloooooo? Knuxness?" the nuisance shouted.
The echidna ignored him, picking up his book to continue reading.
"Tis I! The blue one, come to challenge thee to a duel of sorts!" Sonic exclaimed in a horrible attempt at a British accent.
"Go away." He retorted calmly, turning a page in his book.
"Awh, comeooon….. don't be such a deushbag. I just came to visit! That's all…."
Knuckles paused in his reading. Didn't he just the other day wish for such an unexpected visit?
Now he regretted the thought bitterly.
The door opened once more and Sonic beamed as Knuckles let him inside.
"If you brought that stupid fart machine…"
"It broke. You're safe."
Sonic tossed his bag in a corner and tipped over the back of Knuckles' sofa, sitting upside-down in Mork fashion and folding his hands.
"Nanoo, nanoo." he stated, looking at the red one upside-down.
"Why are you here, exactly?" the guardian grumbled, looking down at him.
"I needed a vacation, and I assumed you didn't have plans."
"You assumed correctly, but I still don't get it." Knuckles continued. "Why here? Why… why me?"
The hedgehog shrugged in his precarious position. "I got bored. It ain't like Lardass has given me any exercise lately, y'know. So… I decided to pop on over and see what you were up to."
"That doesn't sound like you…"
Sonic flipped into a standing position easily, grinning at him. "And why not? I can visit my good ol' buddy when I feel like it, can't I?"
"One, I am NOT your buddy and two, no you can't. I suggest you call Tails and have him pick you up. I have no need for distractions at the moment."
The blue irritation appeared behind the echidna, tugging annoyingly at his tendrils.
"Oh, but of course you do! We all need distractions! Distractions are fun!" he proceeded to pinch Knuckles' cheeks, disregarding the homicidal glare evident in his violet eyes.
Sonic found himself hitting the tile floor with force, the cause of which had been so violently swift he hadn't even seen it.
"Someone needs anger management…" he groaned, rising. The injuries of the day previous began to revisit him with those fresh and his playful mood was withering.
"Go, if you'd like to stay healthy."
Sonic thumbed his nose cockily. "I think I'll take my chances."
"You sure about that?"
He looked around, chin in hand. "Yeah… yeah, I am."
He cringed slightly as the huge gloved hand closed over his head, flailed noisily as he was dragged from the air-conditioned house into the glaring sunlight. Knuckles deposited him in the grass, eyes narrowed. Sonic stood hastily, dusting himself off and regaining his pride. The red one took stance, fists raised.
"If it's a fight you want, then gawdamnit I'll give you one you won't soon forget." he growled.
"Feisty, feisty, feisty. Something tells me you've wanted to do this for awhile." Sonic remarked, also stepping into stance.
"I've been looking forward to it…." without warning, the marsupial stepped forward and connected with a nasty right hook to the jaw. Sonic, shocked to say the least, struggled to regain his bearings, then executed a few homing attacks, each blocked expertly by the guardian. He'd definitely been training in his spare time…
"Nice one, there… have to say… unh! you've improved…." Knuckles stated, ducking under a kick and parrying another homing attack.
"Thanks…" Sonic evaded a set of rapid punches, grasping one of his gloved fists and hammering his skull against the other's. This, however, wasn't the smartest of maneuvers, being that it brought back the severe headache of the day previous. Nice goin' there, genius….
It was successful, though, and the echidna faltered under the unexpected blow, leaving him open for a knee to the gut, followed by a sharp uppercut to the chin and a swiping kick to the side of his head. He caught the blue leg before it finished its swipe and flung the hedgehog roughly to the ground.
" :COUGH: That was clever…" Sonic praised painfully.
"I thought so. Anyway, if you feel the need to continue, I'd suggest we do so further from my house. I don't want to have to break a window by throwing you through it."
"That would definitely be unfortunate…" he wheezed in reply. He tried to rise to all fours, only to feel a heavy foot on his back, pushing him back down.
"Ok, now that's just mean…. And I can hear you snickering and it's not funny." Sonic mumbled into the grass.
"Of course it is. It's hilarious." Sonic didn't need to see his face to know he was grinning.
"Let me up, man."
He obliged, and the spined one stood, spitting a few blades of grass as he did. He scouted the terrain, finding a suitable spot and glancing back to his opponent, jerking his head in the chosen direction. Knuckles nodded in agreement and the two set off for the new battlefield.
Sonic skidded to a halt, smiling proudly at his choice of grounds. There were several tall boulders lying about (good for vantage points); and not far off there was a bit of a stream, ending in a misty waterfall that dropped off a steep cliff. Knuckles soon followed, gliding in and touching down on a boulder with ease. He nodded in approval.
"Not bad for a novice."
"Novice? Heh. Alright, think what you want…" he tensed visibly, preparing to spring.
Knuckles leapt, fists clasped. Sonic spun out of the way as the echidna hammered his fists into the dry rock, causing it to shatter in a circular pattern. He was only showing off….
They clashed again in close hand-to-hand combat, Sonic mainly throwing kicks and knee thrusts, Knuckles using his two spiked assets.
He suddenly surprised the red combatant with a sharp thrust with the heel of his palm to the nose, causing painful involuntary tears to sting his eyes and blur his vision. With this new advantage, Sonic flipped backward, kicking him sharply under the chin and causing him to stagger. They waged on from there precariously close to the steep ledge.
Knuckles hit home with a quick jab to Sonic's gut, making him cough painfully and inflicting new bruises to his old.
"Had enough, Blue?"
"Thought you' never ask, Red…:hack: I think I'd like seconds…"
With this, he tucked forcefully into a ball, slicing in for a well-placed spindash.
This caused our echidna to stagger backward, tripping over a large rock, cracking the back of his head against the ledge, and flipping completely over it.
Sonic rushed to the edge, staring down in horror. Knuckles fell limply to the gathering mist at the bottom…. unconscious.
"….Ooohhh….. fuck…. fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…… he's out cold and he fell in the water and he's gonna drown and I CAN'T SWIM!" he hopped nervously from foot to foot, wringing his wrists in anxiety, all the while staring down at the frothy water below.
"I can't just let him die… he's like important or something… oohhh, holy fuck I'm gonna get in trouble…." He bit his lip, looking around with a harried hand to a perspiring forehead. He came to an inevitability and removed his shoes.
"Here goes absolutely nothing!" he pinched his nose and flung himself from the ledge, screaming all the way down.
The water hit him like a brick wall, the whole front of his body stinging. Ignoring the pain, he attempted to swim downward, searching frantically. He saw a flash of red and kicked his feet as fast as possible to get to it. Hooking an arm under both of Knuckles', he strove for the surface feeling his lungs burn for air….
Gasping, he strove for the shore, paddling with all his might. He managed to shove his rival onto the rocky shore, collapsing in the shallow water to catch his breath.
"I swam…. I swam…. I can swim…." he pulled himself up to check the red being for vitals, realizing that he wasn't breathing.
"Don't even think about it. NO WAY! Oh, God, you have a sick, sick sense of humor…." Sonic growled, shaking his fist towards the heavens. It appeared, you see, that Sonic's knowledge of CPR would come in handy.
"One… two… three…" he pushed forcefully down on the white-crescented chest, tilted the echidna's head back, opened his limp mouth… cringed….
and breathed for him.
'Strange…..' he thought as he measured the seconds between breaths, 'I'd never imagined his lips to be so… soft….'
He shook his head, rising to pump at the still chest with clasped hands once more… one…two….three….
"WAKE UP, DAMNIT!" he screamed at him, feeling a lump rise painfully in his throat. Tears stung at his eyes as he again leaned in to exhale into his mouth.
What happened next was both relieving…. and also extremely disturbing. Knuckles coughed up water -along with a portion of his lunch- into Sonic's mouth. He rose quickly, spitting, feeling his stomach do some contracting of its own.
"GROSS!"
(AN- for your information, this happens a lot to paramedics. They all have one food they'll never eat again. Sonic's is now grapes.)
The one on his back coughed a few more times, gasping air.
"How long was I out?" he rasped, wiping his mouth.
"Not long. You were underwater for about three minutes. Nasty….." he spat again, feeling ill.
"I'm just gonna…. rest here for a…. minute…." Knuckles said breathlessly before losing consciousness once more.
Sonic, (still winded from dragging Knuckles to a dry spot in the grass, followed closely by scaling the cliff to retrieve his shoes) removed his sodden gloves to warm them in the heat of his newly-made fire. He'd also found the time to race all the way back to Knuckles' abode for his duffel bag. There were essential things in there…. like beer….
He knew there was a pack of freshly-bought franks in his pack, but didn't feel like eating just yet. The exertions and inflictions he had attained in the last four hours had left him racked with muscle aches, bruise pains and a considerable migraine. He found the codine hastily and swallowed a couple pills with a well-deserved swig of warm beer.
As relief washed over him, he began to hum something from Newfound Glory absently, gazing at the westering sun.
"Lucky bastard gets to live here…." He murmured, glancing towards his so-called friend.
He jumped, somewhat startled, seeing the gleam of the fire reflected in his tired violet eyes.
"Hey, you're alive. I was beginning to worry…."
"Shut up." He grumbled quietly, squirming as he was encased in Sonic's sleeping bag. "Where am I and what happened?"
"You managed to earn yourself a nasty bump on the head, then tried to drown yourself."
"None of this being your fault, I'm sure."
"None at all. Legally, it would be called 'roughhousing' so all's fair."
"That's a legal term, is it?"
He nodded matter-of-factly, sipping from his warm can.
"Toss me one?"
"Why, Knuckles, I didn't know you drank!"
He glared at him flatly. "I'm twenty-one."
"Sorry I missed your birthday." he winked at him, tossing him a beer.
After drawing a long swig, Knuckles sighed with relief, looking back to the other.
"Did you really perform mouth-to-mouth, or was I having a nightmare?"
"I….. reeeeally don't want to talk about it." he replied curtly, finishing off his beverage.
"….Sorry you had to go through that… glad I can't remember…."
"Me too."
There was a long pause as the two watched the sun disappear behind dark hills, the stars beginning to wink in their slow trek across the night sky…
"Thanks, man."
Sonic looked at him, smiling.
"No problem. I just hope to God you're worth it."
They both chuckled lightly, watching the rising flames.
"You wouldn't happen to have any food with you…?"
"Lazyass…. Yeah, I got some franks around here somewhere…" he dug around his bag and pulled out said packaged meat.
"I'll get us some decent roasting sticks an' we'll have ourselves a genuine boy scout cookout." He rose to search the premises.
"Who are you calling boy scout?" Knuckles frowned at him.
"Cub scout. Whatever."
"Keep it up, pussy boy, keep it up." he laughed half-heartedly as he was handed a roasting stick.
The two ate dinner in silence, watching the fire with disinterest. Sonic was the one to break the still calm.
"You up to headin' back?"
He rubbed the back of his head for a moment, considering it, then flopped back onto the sleeping bag.
"I think I got myself a minor concussion. If I get up and move too much, it might become serious…"
"I had one of those yesterday…. Those things can mess you up…"
Knuckles coughed a single laugh. "How'd you manage to do that?"
"I'd….. rather not say."
He propped himself up by his elbows, smirking at Sonic challengingly. "Come on, as long as we're doing the male bonding thing, you might as well be candid with me."
"Male bonding… :cough, cough: Alright, I'll tell you. But this information does not leave this island."
The echidna tapped his marked chest with two fingers. "You have my word as an asshole."
"Well, as long as YOU'RE being candid…"
They shared a hearty laugh.
"Out with it."
"Ok, so I was running through the Great Forest… and this stupid tree jumps RIGHT out in front of me…"
Knuckles made choking sounds as he tried not to burst into a bout of hysterics.
"Shut up! It was the tree's fault! Damn trees…."
He was now full-out howling with uncontrollable spasms of mirth, rolling over in the black sleeping bag.
"It's not that funny!"
"LIKE HELL IT'S NOT! I woulda paid good money to see that!"
Sonic didn't much appreciate being laughed at. He had too much pride.
"Yo, shut the fuck up, man…."
"…ran into a tree…heeheeheehee!"
The one agitated reached over and clapped the echidna upside the head, only causing him to laugh more violently.
"Hey, I may run into trees….. a tree…. But at least I'm not as God-awful stupid as you! What was it… TWICE you got tricked by Ro-butt? How can anyone be so GULLIBLE!"
The laughter died rather quickly, and Knuckles didn't retort. He gazed intently at the flame, sniffing indifferently. Sonic could see he'd struck a nerve.
"We're even, alright?" he said finally.
"Alright."
"I won't talk about trees, you don't bring up that motherfucker."
"Agreed."
He rolled over in the sleeping bag and sighed heavily. Sonic lay back as well, gazing at the stars until he couldn't keep his eyes open….
((Ok, so I mixed in pieces of chapter three, sue me. It seemed like the spot for it. You'll see why. Anywhoots, onto the next chappy! Awayyyy!)))