Chapter 2

Luigi watched in disbelieved awe at the blue hedgehog going up against W and W.L., the best men in the Heroes of Today on the training room floor. Another thing that shocked him was how…fast the hedgehog was running. When he ran, he was just a blue blur, so when he would be standing in one place, all of a sudden he was somewhere else on the floor in a sudden bGideon of an eye. W.L. and W were getting frustrated now, and they were beginning to get more aggressive which Luigi whole-heartedly believed was not a good idea when it came to these two.

Four poles had risen out of the ground, and the hedgehog would run around it and catch either W or W.L. on the other side. W.L. tried swinging a fist at the hedgehog, but the blue blur would have W.L. on the floor in a split second from running against his legs and tripping him over.

"Who is he? What's his name?" Luigi asked, his eyes wide in wonder. Knuckles tapped a few keys on a computer screen, which brought up a profile of the hedgehog.

"His name is Sonic, and he was found and recruited by the Chairman himself, rather than him coming to us and wanting to join us," Knuckles explained. Luigi didn't reply. He didn't have to. This Sonic was a genius, and he wasn't surprised that the Chairman immediately chose him without him coming to them first. Luigi could tell that Sonic didn't receive combat training like Amy possibly did. This was different. This looked like the talent came naturally to him.

He watched as Sonic ran up one of the poles and along the ceiling, coming down hard on the ground right beside W. With one swift move from his foot, he tripped W to the ground and kicked his whole body toward W.L. W.L. jumped over his brother's incoming body and tried firing practice fire into Sonic's chest, but he grabbed the small handG.U.N., held it up high, than quickly curled up in a ball, flying upward, and sent W.L.'s body flying up toward the ceiling. He struck the ceiling, but the man's boots were magnetized, so he stood upside down, firing false rounds toward Sonic, who easily dodged them all. W obviously found this an opportunity to take Sonic while he was distracted.

Luigi watched as he ran, one hand grabbing a pole, swinging around it in the air and sent his feet flying towards Sonic's face. Sonic, however, dodged the move, dodged another false bullet from W.L. and kicked W in the chest with incredible force. W slammed against the pole so hard it left a dent in it.

"Oh my," Amy said in surprise. Luigi watched as she took off her helmet, revealing her true face. Her large eyes were sparkling in delight, and her pink hair was dangling over one eye. She removed that with a flick of her head.

"I'll be, I've never seen anything like it," Knuckles said, though he didn't remove his helmet, Luigi could see his eyes behind the T-visor wide with astonishment. Luigi noticed he was almost groping the control panel in front of him. What was it about Knuckles that made him so impressed by power? Luigi had sometimes wondered about this since the first time he had met him. His attention suddenly went back to the fight below as he watched W.L. come down from the ceiling with a chunk of the ceiling. Sonic raced backward as W.L. landed on his feet, his fist in the ground, and the other hand clutching the chunk of ceiling. Sonic didn't hesitate before racing by W.L. with a fist at ready. The impact was so strong, the chunk of ceiling exploded into pieces and the side of W.L's helmet shattered. W held up a hand for truce. When Sonic stopped, he stared at his hand, which had blood on his fingers. Luigi realized that Sonic was bleeding from his hand. He wondered if it was from the broken shards of W.L's helmet, or if Sonic had really made a bad move that was beyond his abilities. Looking satisfied with himself, Sonic ran away from the training room floor and out the door. Luigi, Knuckles, and Amy clapped even though Sonic wasn't there to be congratulated to.

The three of them went down the stairs to the training floor to check on W and W.L. They didn't look like they appreciated getting beaten down by a blue hedgehog with super speed. Knuckles gripped W.L's hand and pulled him up to his feet, though he didn't look like he appreciated being given a helping hand.

"Good try," Knuckles complimented to W.L., who only grunted in return and walked away.

"Man, that hedgehog is something, I'll tell you that," W said, slowly getting back up onto his feet, one hand feeling the back of his head. Getting slammed into the pole took his yellow and purple helmet right off. His black hair looked like it was plastered to his forehead from the sweat, and his growing mustache was bedraggled and wet.

"How did he get here?" Luigi asked. W shrugged.

"All that I know about him was that Chairman Neeko said that we had a challenge to face on the training room floor and that it was a new recruit, like Amy," W explained, pointing a finger to Amy. Amy grinned fiercely, and W smiled back in the form of a mock grin.

"W and W.L., I need you to come to my office now for information on a new mission," Chairman Neeko said over the intercom on the wall.

"Let's see how long it takes my brother to replace helmets," W said with another grin, this one showing off his white teeth. He walked off the floor, leaving Luigi, Amy, and Knuckles alone.

"Maybe the Chairman is sending them to recover my brother," Luigi suggested, feeling a glint of hope. Knuckles shrugged, and Amy said nothing.

"I'll catch you guys later, I'm going to see if I can catch up with our new guy," Amy said, and walked off. Just then, Luigi noticed that the board on the wall said PROJECT 60…FAILURE.

"I wonder what that project was," Luigi wondered aloud. He turned to Knuckles, who happened to be one of the Chairman's personal representatives, so he got to know more about what the Chairman was up to sooner than anybody else. Most of the time, new weapons or equipment was stored in the armory without warning, and the soldiers would figure out how to use them by themselves. Luigi wondered if Sonic had any knowledge of that, although, after seeing what Sonic was capable of already, he couldn't see Sonic needing any weapons.

"Luigi, you've been here for years, so I suppose I could trust you enough to tell you this. Come, we have a lot to talk about," Knuckles said, motioning to him to follow. Luigi nodded and followed him off the training room floor, wondering what was next.

NOTES: I knew since the beginning that the best way to introduce Sonic was to show off what he was capable of, and just how well he could manage that sonic speed of his. In my opinion, if you want to introduce a character that has unusual, special strength, you should show that first, and then his personality comes next. It gets the reader excited because he or she will want to learn more about this character.