CHAPTER 1: NEW GAME
Sonic did a free fall from a large hole in the sky. Screaming just as loudly as the first time, he was not used to falling from large heights while not in a ball. He managed not to make himself land as silly as he did last time, and thankfully, he didn't have to rush around catching chilli dogs falling from the sky. Rubbing his head, he got up.
"Being from a distant world! Forgive my abrupt summons!" a female voice from behind him worriedly said.
Sonic got up, looked at a giant armored black horse, along with an equally large yet more armored knight riding the horse, all too familiar to Sonic. He looked behind him to see a girl with a purple gown and a large staff, and behind her an army.
Sonic cracked his neck and fingers. "Alright, I can see where this is going." Sonic said as he walked up to the large army. "Hey!" he shouted, gaining the army's attention.
The group slowly started walking toward him. "Don't blink!" Sonic said, reaching behind his back and pulling out the kitchen knife. Quickly, he made through the whole entire company of knights and demons, row by row, stabbing them through weak points in their armor, leaving thick amounts of dirt and dust in the air, enough to completely mask the large band of knights and demons, but you could still hear the screams.
When the dust settled, the young woman saw Sonic finishing up putting a bow on his back, tossing away the knife and putting the sword in a gap between his belt and side. He walked out of the field of bodies, past the young woman he knew as "Merlina" and up to the giant horseman.
"Those guys were easy! I hardly even tried!" Sonic shouted, trying to get his reaction.
"What are you..." Merlina was cut off.
"Hey! Can you hear me? Those guys sucked!" Sonic shouted more, furthering his attempt. He glanced at the horse for a moment, and smiled.
He put two fingers up to his mouth.
"PHWEEEEEEEEEEE."
The horse began to sprint toward the hedgehog. Sonic felt Merlina grab her hand, but he broke out of the grab. He sprinted up to the horse, and jumped on one of its legs.
"GET DOWN FROM THERE!" Merlina ordered at the hedgehog now on the horse's leg.
"Why?" Sonic replied as he began to climb it, humming an orchestrated tune to himself. He didn't hear a reply.
He continued to climb until he came to the knee. By this time the Black Knight had gotten the horse to slow down, so he could try to kick him off. Sonic saw the giant knight raise his foot, and he knew what he had to do.
Sonic took his sword, and stabbed the horse in the knee.
The horse collapsed onto itself, the Knight losing balance and falling off, Sonic had dropped off of the horse by this time. Sonic ran to the horse's feet, and raised his sword. He put the sword down unsatisfied by the lack of ominous blue markings on the bottom of its feet.
Merlina came rushing over to Sonic and grabbed his hand. He had no objection this time. He let Merlina cast a teleportation spell, sending them away from the gravel road.
The Black Knight was furious. His horse had suffered a wound in his first encounter with this new blue creature, before he could react, too. He went up to the wounded leg and placed his hand over it. A fog of darkness covered the knee, and when it dissipated there was a black bandage over the knee. The Knight began to lift his horse upright, and stood with ease. He mounted it and rode to a cliff near the road, where he was at eye level with the three knights standing there. One was a red echidna. The next was a black hedgehog with red highlights on his quills. The last was a female lavender cat. At the sign of their king's presence, they knelled.
"I shall give chase." The large horseman ordered. "Spread out and go after them. Slay them on sight."
The three nodded. And with that, the knight rode off.
The first to rise was the cat. "Let's go." She said.
"Must we?" the red knight questioned. "She is the royal wizard after all."
The hedgehog answered. "The King's orders are absolute, Ga-"
"Yes, but-"
"Without loyalty to the king, we are nothing." The female interrupted.
The hedgehog turned around and began to walk away from the cliff.
"Still, the king... he's changed. And the kingdom..." she continued. She looked back at Gawain. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but she shook it off.
She began to walk off. Feeling misunderstood, he followed slowly.
"What were you thinking? You can't go and try to attack him like that! He wouldn't be hurt anyway!" Merlina complained.
"Yeah, but the horse seemed to be in pain when I stabbed its knee." Sonic replied. "That must have slowed their party a little."
"It would only be a minute or so!" Merlina retorted. "At most!"
Sonic began to lecture. "A second can mean a lot. Let's say you take a detour, going no where, and you have to go back, and waste ten seconds. That's ten seconds behind on your whole life. Ten seconds off of dodging an assassin's blade. Ten seconds off of meeting someone who will change your life. Ten seconds off in a contest. Not having any ten seconds changes your life forever."
Merlina rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I am Merlina the Wizard. And you are?"
"Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog." Sonic answered. "I have read about King Arthur and the Scabbard, so I am well informed on that."
"Good, that saves some time." Merlina replied relieved. "You also know that his servants, the Knights of the Round Table, carry sacred swords?"
"I sorta figured that." Sonic said. "It'd be a bad choice to give your best men your worst weapons."
"Yes. To properly arm yourself against the Knights, you need-"
"A sacred sword."
"Yes!"
"Alright, I've heard some rumors about one being in a stone at Misty Lake? Couple of kids saw it or something."
She stared for a moment. And then she nodded. -She probably thinks I'm psychic.-
"I'll go get it. I'll be right ba-"
"Wait!"
Sonic sighed as she clamped on a heavy metal gauntlet.
"What's this for?" -I know it seems stupid but I had to know why she cursed me with this giant anvil for a hand.-
"It's to protect your hand, in case you accidentally block with the hilt. It also provides more finger strength."
-Just give me Digging Claws and a Bounce Bracelet why dontcha? Unlike this piece of crap, those I can be pretty crafty with.- "Alright." Sonic said, rushing off.
Smashing target after target with expert timing, Sonic began to worry if he was appearing TOO skilled. Like, as if he was using a sword weeks ago. -Y'know, I just tossed that book in the box not even half a year ago.- He let her comment on him as she wanted.
"Are all creatures from your world as coordinated as you?" Merlina asked.
Sonic thought for a moment. "I wish! If everyone was as good as I was, I wouldn't have had to save the world as many times as I did. I swear I've done almost everything someone tells me to." Sonic explained. -Sonic! Rip off a piece of metal from that helicopter and skate down San Francisco with it! Sonic! Beat your metal clone in a race! Sonic! Save me! Sonic! Beat a master of CQC in a fist fight! Sonic do this, Sonic do that, SONIC DO EVERYTHING.-
Sonic jumped off the vine and ran onto a walkway, where there were rampaging boars. "Are they really running straight into water?"
"Defend yourself!" Merlina ordered.
Sonic jumped on one's head, and flung himself into the air, landing on a third row of boars, jumping off that row and landing on the last and rolling off.
"... or not."
Sonic slashed the targets and ran by, just running through. He noticed more stampeding boars coming his way, but he didn't have enough time to jump. He slashed through them and continued onward.
"Well Sonic, since you seem to be doing very well, why don't you try something a bit more challenging?" Merlina asked.
"If it is a dragon, it better not breathe fire, then I'd think you'd be trying to kill me..." Sonic said, changing his tone from perky to paranoid in seconds as a large shadow covered him.
"... Well, it is a dragon," Merlina said. "But it doesn't breathe fire. It's the guardian of the lake, the Mist Dragon."
"So it breathes the opposite of fire?" Sonic questioned as he kept running to the dragon.
"... No." Merlina answered. "Beware, it is a very powerful foe, and-" She stopped to look at what Sonic was doing.
Sonic threw his sword, from dozens of feet away from the dragon. The sword landed in the giant crystal horn on its snout, giving it tremendous pain. In this pain, Sonic rushed up onto the snout, retrieved the sword, and shattered the crystal horn. The dragon shook Sonic off and hurriedly flew off in pain.
"DOMINATED, YOU OVERSIZED SALAMANDER!" Sonic shouted his best R. Lee Ermey impersonation as the dragon flew off. "WHY DON'T YOU COME BACK WHEN YOU GROW A PAIR?"
Merlina walked up to the skilled hedgehog. "... Did you really just...?"
Sonic turned around and put the sword on his shoulder. "Yep! That throw really fucked with my arm, though. The crystal on the dragon's head may as well be made out of rock candy, though. Didn't need much to break it."
"Ah. I see." Merlina replied. "Through that tunnel is the sacred sword's resting place."
"Alright." Sonic said, rushing through the tunnel.
Sonic came out of the end of the tunnel seconds later, noticing the sword in the stone. The sword's name was 'Caliburn'. He walked up to the ledge and climbed on top of it. He then pulled on the sword.
"Agh, throwing a sword about a hundred yards was NOT a good idea when I knew I was going to have to pull a sword out of a rock..." Sonic ranted. Shortly after, he pulled it out, and fell on his backside. He sighed, and looked at the sword. "Finally." He put the Caliburn face down- purposefully-, and laid there on his back. "I could use a rest."
Merlina came out of the tunnel moments later. "Where's the sword?"
"Right here," Sonic answered, raising the Caliburn up.
"Waking up after being put in a rock for hundreds of years with my face down in the dirt is a nice feeling." The sword said.
"I'd put you in a rock if you kept nagging on me." Sonic said smartassly. "I'm sure there's swifter and sharper swords.
"Haha, yes, but are they SACRED?" Caliburn argued.
"Nothing is truly sacred." Sonic answered.
"... Anyway," Caliburn replied, not wanting to try to come up with a counterargument at the moment. "I am Caliburn. And your name is?"
"Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."
"Hmph. You look knavey." The sword grunted.
"What was that?" Sonic said almost shocked at how lame that was. -What the hell kind of word is "knavey" anyway? Oh god I can see bad puns coming right out of this guy's mouth for the rest of the book.-
"Maybe I should reword that. You look like a knave." Caliburn replied. "You don't look good. You look like you're scared of guards. You look like you've never held a sword before. I tried making it a joke saying you're blue, but apparently neither of us have a sense of humor."