Chapter 8: Bitter Reflection of the Past
"Don't you remember how easily I got pushed around back there?" Vector questions Kyousuke, as Kyousuke listens, still confused. "Well, I'm tired of it and how do you expect me to save the world when I get trampled over like that?!" Vector says upsettingly, as Kyousuke feels bad for him. "Teach me the best tricks you know." Vector says somewhat demandingly, as Kyousuke then starts to worry about Vector's hardness on himself.
"Well Vector, the best technique I know is unlocking your energy control, but it's extremely difficult to complete." Kyousuke says, as Vector only gets up and walks to the waterfall, turning around and facing Kyousuke in a bold stance.
"Then teach me it, because I don't really care how hard it is." Vector says confidently, as Kyousuke only starts to worry about it.
"If you fail, you'll die as a consequence!" Kyousuke says concerning, as Vector doesn't seem to be affected by that.
"Yeah? Well I ain't gonna die so just get it over with." Vector says, still standing confidently as he gets upset when Kyousuke refuses to help him out.
"I'm not going to risk your life for this. You could easily die within seconds and…" Kyousuke says, before being shocked at Vector's devastating response.
"SO WHAT! I'm not gonna let that Theotrin crap get a chance to kill me again!" Vector snaps, as Kyousuke looks at him in concern, looking down at the ground and clenching his fist, uncertain on making a choice.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Kyousuke says to himself, as he looks up at Vector, charging energy through the palm of his right hand.
"Alright, if it really means that much to you." Kyousuke says regretfully, as Vector gets into a stance, ready to start.
"Now let's get this over with." Vector says, preparing to fight before being intervened by Kyousuke.
"But Vector, this isn't a fighting match. It's a process." Kyousuke explains, as Vector gets easily confused and stands normally.
"Huh? What do you mean by process?" Vector asks puzzled, as Kyousuke starts to explain.
"You stand there and let me hit you in the stomach with a pressure pad attack, literally. You'll have to control your bodily energies and release them right when I attack you, so that it'll send the pressure from my attack out of your body, and release your energy. This'll let you have kinesis over a specific type of element, depending on you and your personality." Kyousuke explains, as Vector stands there, holding his fists ready for anything.
"Bring it!" Vector shouts, as Kyousuke is ready to attack.
"Here I come!" Kyousuke shouts, running up towards Vector and hitting him in the stomach with the attack. It causes Vector to stumble to the ground instantly and cough a bit, as Kyousuke watches in fear, hoping that he'll survive. "Come on! Don't give up on me now!" Kyousuke shouts encouragingly, as Vector stumbles to the floor, lying on his stomach on the ground as if he died. Kyousuke grips his head in frustration, his heart beating even faster as he kneels down on the ground. "No no no no NO! This can't be happening!" Kyousuke shouts fearfully, as he starts pacing around back and forth, before noticing something happening to Vector.
"Are those, green flames?" Kyousuke says surprised, as he sees Vector being engulfed into green flames as he picks himself up from the ground, launching a green fireball into the sky from his mouth and dispersing himself of the flames, covering only his hands in green flames. Kyousuke is just standing there, laughing joyfully as Vector smiles in response. "You did it, did it faster than I ever thought possible. I mean no one did it that fast, ever!" Kyousuke says joyfully, as he gives a high-five to Vector in joy.
"Told you I could do it!" Vector says pleased, as he then disperses his hands of the flames and notices something odd about Kyousuke.
"Hey, you don't look like a croc anymore!" Vector says displeased, as Kyousuke looks at his hands to see that he's right.
"Yeah, I must've reverted back to my human form. That attack did use a lot of my energy." Kyousuke says feeling a little bothered about it.
"Hey, at least it ain't permanent you know." Vector says calmly, as Kyousuke agrees. "But next time, could you go easier on me?" Vector jokingly asks, as Kyousuke chuckles in response.
"Of course." Kyousuke says kindly, as they both start to laugh. All of the sudden, a hidden door in the cliff opens up, startling both Vector and Kyousuke as they instantly run up to the door.
"A secret door! Want to check it out?" Kyousuke asks, while Vector already starts walking into the cliff.
"Let's see what's in here." Vector says, as he walks into the cave and sees a switch next to a door.
"Switches in a cave?" Kyousuke says confused, as Vector pulls the switch and another cave door opens. Vector walks into the cave, as Kyousuke gets lost in thought about Theotrin.
"Kyousuke! The door's open you know." Vector says, as Kyousuke shakes his head and clears his mind.
"Oh, right." Kyousuke says, walking over to the door. However, the floor underneath Kyousuke breaks down, and Kyousuke falls down into the floor of the cave. "VECTOR!" Kyousuke screams, as Vector attempts to grab him but doesn't grab him in time as Kyousuke falls into the hole, painfully hitting a wall and bouncing off like a rag doll before landing on the ground. He starts rolling across it until he hits a wall. Right after he falls into the hole, a metal door closes up the floor, making it impossible to get down there.
"Damn! I gotta find him!" Vector says to himself worried, as he runs through the cave, trying to find him. Kyousuke gets up and brushes himself off, noticing another cave door with another switch.
"What's with all these switches?" Kyousuke asks himself, pushing the switch as the door opens, leading to a large area with a bunch of corridors and pathways leading to different areas of the cave. "What a surprise. I get a nice cave to run around in!" Kyousuke shouts, as his voice echoes and travels through the entire cave. Kyousuke, however, was completely unaware that Dayton and Knuckles were in the same cave with him. Knuckles was apparently thinking about Eggman, concerned on what he's doing.
"What's Eggman doing? Working with someone like that, he's gotta have something to back it all up." Knuckles thinks to himself, as Dayton is carefully scanning the area for anything important. "What does this mean? And is Vector and Sonic even alive?" Knuckles asks himself, as Kyousuke's voice finally catches up to them and they hear it echo through the cave. "Who was that?" Knuckles says on guard, as Dayton clenches his fists in anger.
"Kyousuke!" He thinks to himself angrily, as he then kicks Knuckles into the wall and uses his mineral control to create a rock structure that traps Knuckles onto the wall.
"HEY! What are you doing!" Knuckles says angrily, as Dayton smirks before responding.
"See you around, sucker!" Dayton says coldly, as he runs after Kyousuke and Knuckles becomes enraged.
"HEY, GET BACK HERE!" Knuckles yells angrily, having no effect on stopping Dayton. Dayton runs through the caves, getting to Kyousuke as he has his back turned and is looking at the door he just came through. Dayton quickly creates a rock-solid structure around his fist, ready to unexpectedly blast a punch right into Kyousuke.
"HAAAAAGH!" He screams, as he charges towards Kyousuke and Kyousuke spins around in shock.
"How the?!" Kyousuke says shocked, as Dayton is about to hit him right in the face. Kyousuke, however, dodges the attack and back-handsprings himself out of the way, as Dayton spins around and launches the rock substance right off his fist, launching it like a rocket towards Kyousuke. "Really? This again?" Kyousuke says disappointed, as he pulls out his chokuto and charges it up with a radiant, electrical energy. He hits the rock substance like a baseball and it flies into the wall, breaking to bits and falling to the upper level of the cave. Kyousuke looks at Dayton with shock, only having a hateful expression on his face. "What are you doing?!" Kyousuke says shocked, as Dayton glares at him hatefully.
"I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to us!" Dayton says bitterly, as he throws a sharp rock needle at Kyousuke, only for it to be blown to bits by Kyousuke's pistol.
"What I did to you?!" Kyousuke says angered, upset that now Dayton's going against him. "I did nothing to you!" Kyousuke shouts angrily, only sparking Dayton's anger in response as Vector comes out from the upper level of the cave and watches them fight between each other.
"Oh YEAH?! You've left us to die from the disease, so you could find a new pathetic life and let us suffer until death!" Dayton yells enraged, as Kyousuke starts to fume up and Vector's memory makes a comeback.
"I had no choice! Once I got in that ship I couldn't change my course of direction!" Kyousuke says angrily, as Dayton instantly makes a comeback.
"Then why did some weakling like you get in it in the first place?! HUH?! Did you expect us to survive ON OUR OWN against something that COULD KILL US ALL?!" Dayton screams in a fury of helpless rage, as Vector stands up there guilt-stricken.
"Sounds like Downunda, huh?" Vector asks himself, as he watches Kyousuke clench his fists in anger, feeling worried and sympathetic about him.
"It was Alisa's last request!" Kyousuke says bitterly, ready for an attack right on the spot.
"Yeah, and she's escaped too!" Dayton says raged, as Kyousuke feels both complete shock and relief that Alisa may be still alive.
"That makes both of you traitors and weaklings!" Dayton says cruelly, as Kyousuke's anger limit is about to break apart. Meanwhile, Knuckles manages to escape the rock substance through brute force, as he brushes himself off.
"Sucker huh? What till I give you a piece of my mind!" Knuckles says enraged, sprinting through the caves to get to Dayton at all costs.
"You'd even go that far and say that?!" Kyousuke says devastated, as Dayton chuckles in response.
"That's all you are, and that's all you did!" Dayton says cruelly, having a massive grudge against Kyousuke, who know has had his limits.
"You stubborn bastard! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!" Kyousuke yells enraged, as he prepares to attack with his chokuto, only to see Knuckles fly into the battle.
"THAT WASN'T VERY FUNNY!" Knuckles screams while jumping towards Dayton with a power-packed fist. Dayton makes an extremely sharp-pointed rock object that glows brown, not wanting to deal with Knuckles at the moment.
"Time to die as a punishment." Dayton says bitterly, as Vector and Kyousuke are horrified, charging into action.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Kyousuke screams, making his chokuto glow radiantly as he charges towards Dayton at full speed, Knuckles being too focused on payback to notice what Dayton's doing.
"YOU'RE GONNA STOP NOW!" Vector yells angrily, jumping down behind Dayton as they all notice him, but clash all-together afterwards. Dayton is thrown into the wall brutally as a result, along with Kyousuke getting his sword stuck in the cave wall and Vector and Knuckles dodging each other's punches at the last minute.
"Vector, you're alive!" Knuckles says surprised and relieved, as they both are regaining their balance after dodging each other.
"Yeah, and so are you!" Vector says relieved, as Kyousuke pulls his sword out of the wall and chucks it at Dayton in rage, which barely misses him by a few inches. This causes Dayton to revert to his human form, with brown naturally spiked hair and brown eyes, with a black, short-sleeved shirt and jeans with black shoes. Dayton's right arm is seen to be really red like his arm got sunburned, as he's holding it in pain.
"First animal to ever succeed the Elemental Energy Control test, ever. How preposterous." Dayton says mind-blown and doubtfully, as Knuckles gets easily confused.
"What's that have to do with this?" Knuckles says, as he then sees the green flames floating around Vector.
"What?! Since when did you learn to control fire?" Knuckles asks mind-blown, as Vector chuckles in response. "Kyousuke here taught me." Vector says, as Dayton starts to run out of the cave, knowing he won't easily win a fight like that.
"HEY, GET BACK HERE!" Knuckles yells while chasing after Dayton, leaving the cave. Kyousuke walks over to the wall and pulls out his chokuto, looking at it sorely for a little bit until sheathing it. Vector walks over to Kyousuke and sees his new, depressed expression.
"You ok?" Vector asks concerned and caringly, only to see Kyousuke walk up to the upper level and leave the cave without an answer.
"I hope he's gonna be alright." Vector says to himself concerned, as he then runs up to the upper level and walks out of the cave.