Day Four, Prompt: Cattle Prod/Shock
Pain is nothing new to someone like Sonic. He's resilient however after a particular fight gone awry, maybe a few sessions of Pain Management with none other than Shadow may help battle his guilt.
Sweat drizzles down like a bullet down his temples. Hands and knees find themselves on the ground beneath him. He's huffing and his pelt feels wet to the touch.
He knows it's coming but he doesn't have the energy to move so when he feels that dreadful shock on his back, he can't help but shriek. Hands land at his sides and he falls so he's now on his stomach.
"Come on, get up. Let's go again," a familiar voice is heard in the background.
His ears feel as if they had been stuffed with cotton. His cheek lays against the cold floor and he takes a moment to appreciate it as his entire body feels terribly hot all over.
Sonic forces himself to stand and is wobbly on his feet. He turns and faces Shadow who only stood with amusement.
"We haven't been doing this for too long, hedgehog, and you're sweating as if you had been in direct heat all day. You wanted this."
His palms lean against his knees. Ever since those two weeks ago when he passed out all because he simply couldn't take the exertion his body was exhibiting with every hit Metal painted him with, he felt a sense of doubt fill him. He couldn't let that happen again, he wouldn't allow it.
He nods, "Alright. Alright, let's go again."
Shadow steps back, he's holding a cattle prod on one hand while the other is free forming a fist. His finger intimidatingly presses on the button on the prod lighting a brief shock to show his opponent what he was up against.
The objective here is to get Shadow down without being shocked or at least be able to withstand the shocks. Metal's exterior was lined with 500 volts of energy surge throughout. Every touch to Metal's body was a burn to his own. With Shadow, however, they're barely at 200 volts and his figure was already sore and achy all over.
They take their stance, one waiting for the other to begin. It's Sonic who makes the first move. He goes below Shadow's legs and he almost feels that prod nearing contact. He gets in between Shadow's legs bringing them down with him. Shadow falls and he's stunned but he's quick to shake it off. The prod flew out of his hands away from his reach. He tries to turn his body upright but Sonic's got him pinned. He tries kicking with no avail and Sonic thinks he's finally got it this time however Shadow uses all his strength in his lower limbs to flip the hedgehog on his back knocking the wind out of him.
He lands hard against the ground and his coughs aren't ceasing. He can see Shadow at the corner of his way making his way to retrieve the rod however not before Sonic does.
Sonic sits up despite his body's protests. He tackles Shadow down and goes to throw a punch but Shadow catches it before he can do so. He's flipped to his back and Shadow affixes his wrists with one of his hands and the other sucker punching him right in the sweet spot of his face.
Shadow might be taking this a tad too far. They were simply training and this wasn't supposed to be a real fight. After about a decent amount of hits, Sonic turns his head to the side and coughs out blood. Shadow lets go believing that this is the end of their brawl and Shadow has established himself as the winner.
Maybe he was too focused on that thought that he didn't realize Sonic had reached over for the prod that had been located not too far from the two, within grabbing distance and he tries to take it from Sonic's own hold but he isn't able to and not before Sonic shocks him.
It doesn't really hurt honestly. To him at least. Just a simple shock and a brief ache and then it's gone. He sighs and looks down at Sonic who seemed completely winded overall. He reaches a hand out and Sonic doesn't hesitate to take it. He's pulled to his feet and he's awfully off balance. He realizes that Shadow is holding him to make sure he won't fall right back down.
"That's enough for today. Go get some rest."
Sonic shakes his head, "No, n-not until I win at least one."
Shadow sighs, "Hedgehog, I don't think in your condition right now you have any chance of taking me down. We'll try again another day. Now come on."
Shadow sees the disappointment painted on Sonic's face but he doesn't really care all that much before he eventually Chaos Controls them back to Sonic's residence.
He sets Sonic down on the couch before he makes his way to the kitchen. Sonic's head is spinning and he thinks Shadow might've actually burned his side by the fact that the ache is making him wince at every move he made. Even breathing made it agitated enough to the point where he just wanted to stand still and not move. A hand covers that part of his waist.
Shadow returns with a First Aid kit and a pack of ice in hand. He takes Sonic's hand, the one not currently holding at his side, and makes him hold it against his cheek. He knows Sonic will be left with a nasty bruise from his seemingly excessive punches.
Shadow removes his other hand away to inspect the place that he knew he kept the prod on longer than the rest. Fingers lightly press against his side but Sonic pulls away with a hiss before he can press any further.
Shadow apologizes before applying a salve with a feathered touch, When he deems it to be thoroughly applied he pulls away and applies a bandage over it. Sonic thinks to himself how much of a pain it'll be to remove later.
Shadow sits back and pulls away the ice at Sonic's cheek. A notices a split to the left of it and applies two butterfly bandages to keep it from infection.
"I apologize if I was too harsh. I might've gotten a bit carried away," he apologized sincerely.
Sonic shook his head, "It's alright. I needed it anyway."
Shadow's head stood upright, "What do you mean?"
Sonic set the now slightly melted ice pack aside, "I mean it's good practice when I need to go up against Metal again. I guess it's also what I deserve for letting him go."
Red eyes don't blink, just a blank stare remains. "Sonic, you did all this because you asked me to. Remember right? This wasn't supposed to be seen as a punishment."
"Yea, no I know I just -ugh- I don't know. I saw it that way and maybe it wasn't the best thought to have developed. I just feel really guilty that's all."
A hand was set on his shoulder, "Sonic if you felt that way you could've talked to me you know? I'm here to help you not feel worse about things that have already happened. Chaos knows I've had my fair share of mistakes but you never looked down on me for it so I won't either."
Sonic's eyes never wavered from Shadow's. He just listened.
"For next time, don't see it as a punishment but as a genuine way to improve. It'll help you long term build up your pain tolerance. That was the entire point of this, you know that right? I thought that's why you had asked me in the first place."
He nodded, "No, I mean it was yeah but I guess somewhere along the way it was maybe a sorry excuse as a way to rid of my guilt in some way."
"What happened with Metal, Fine. Whatever. It happened. He might've gotten away but that doesn't mean you won't get a second chance at finally knocking him to his butt. You'll do so eventually. So stop with the wallowing and use that as motivation to fuel your way through these training sessions."
Sonic nibbled at his lip. Shadow was right and he took the advice to heart.
He gave a slim smile, "Thank you Shadow, truly."
Shadow rolled his eyes, "Enough sentiments. Rest now hedgehog."
Sonic snickered, "Next time, take it easy on the punches would ya? Chaos it feels like you hit me hard enough to have my head spun around 360 each way."
Shadow playfully scoffed, We'll see, hedgehog. We'll see."
So I finally managed to get through the entirety of Update 3 of Frontiers and literally, No crapping words to describe that final boss. It was literal peak. I have no clue how they're going to top that I mean like no way there's no way they're going to be able to live up to the potential that Frontiers was able to produce I mean come on…
