Chapter 1 - Summoning the Shield of the Wind
"We did it! The summoning was a success!"
"O brave heroes, please save our world."
Those words were the first thing Sonic heard as he got to his feet, his vision still had spots from the flash of light that bright him to this place.
He was in a stone room with robed people staring at him and 3 others guys holding weapons, a sword, a lance, and a bow. Dusting himself off, he found a shield with an emerald green gem on his arm, which he tried and failed to shake off.
'Oh boy, this is reminding me about the worlds of the Arabian nights and Camelot, would explain the book thing that just happened.' Sonic thought before someone spoke up.
"You can forget it." A blonde guy with a ponytail said, he had orange eyes that fit well the red gem on his spear.
"I also refuse myself." Said another blonde but younger boy, though this one was wearing a fancy school uniform, he had golden yellow eyes and also wielded a bow.
"You brought us here without our consent, don't you feel the least bit guilty about that?" Another boy said, he looked around the same age as the bow wielder with short black hair with blue eyes, he was pointing his sword toward the closest robed man to intimidate them.
"Not to mention that if you throw us out as soon as we save you, we would've done all that work for nothing." The bow wielder said.
"How willing are you in order to accommodate our requests?" The spear wielder added, but at this point Sonic had heard enough. Zipping to the sword holder and the men in robes, he held his shield between them.
"Woah, calm down guys, I get being frustrated at being randomly summoned and stuff, but how about we hear them out BEFORE we start treating them." Sonic said.
The spear wielder was visibly shocked and jumped back a bit, "What is that thing?! Is that a giant talking rat?"
Sonic glared at the spear, "I'm not a rat, I'm a hedgehog, now let's stop tormenting these people and let them explain what's going on."
"Please heroes, you mustn't fight right now. We can take you to the king, he would be more than happy to explain everything" one of the robed men hastily cut in to de-escalating the situation, lowering their weapons and started to follow them for answers.
Heading up a spiral staircase and forced to slow down or else he would lose his guide, Sonic took in the situation and thought about everything.
'A sword, a spear, a bow, and a shield. People summoning us to save everyone, finding a book that flashed with a familial light, and-' Sonic stopped to look out a window into a medieval city '-it looks like I stepped back into Camelot. This proves I'm in another Arabian Nights situation, and I couldn't get the one weapon I'm familiar with, luckily me.' Sonic thought as he absentmindedly swiped at a bug in the corner of his vision.
"Hurry up, let's get moving" the sword hero said to Sonic, frustrated at him for only getting in his way so far.
Sonic brought his hand to his heart in offence, "Oh, don't ever tell ME to hurry up." Sonic said cockily before running ahead of the 3 heroes out of spite. Said heroes stared at the strange rodent that didn't fit their games or reality speed of, all mentally agreeing to interrogating the hedgehog about this in the future.
Finally arriving at a large door, a voice called beyond it announcing the arrival of the cardinal as the doors opened, Sonic could feel hundreds of angry eyes follow him and hear some of the crowd whisper.
"Is that the shield hero?" "They're a filthy demihuman!" "Are they not wearing clothes?!" "They are a beastman, of course they wouldn't bother with basic decency." Did they not think the Hedgehog Mobian couldn't hear them? Why were they so upset that they summoned him? What was a demi human, and why was that a bad thing?
The King (thankfully) wasn't an Eggman look alike like King Shahryar was. He was an old man wearing gold lined medieval clothing with a purple cloak and rings on almost every finger, one ring even had a purple gem just like his crown.
"So… these are the summoned legendary heroes." The King said, gathering the attention of all the heroes and barely gathering his own expressions before the shield could see him, "Very well… I'm King Aultcray Melromarc XXXI, now could the heroes name themselves."
The sword hero went up first, "I am Amaki Ren, age 16, high schooler." He said, clutching his sword tightly.
The spear hero held his spear on his shoulders and wrapped his arms around it, "I'll go next, I'm Kitamura Motoyasu, 21 years old, college student." He moved his spear to his one hand and bumped his heart as he announced this
"I suppose I'm next, Kawasume Itsuki, 17, also a high schooler." The bow hero said, though his focus was really on expecting his bow.
Sonic stepped forward with a smile on his face, "Well, I guess you saved the best for-"
"Very well Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki."
"Wha- hey! You forgot someone!?" Sonic said, clearly annoyed, tapping his foot.
The bow hero Itsuki took extreme offence to this, "Hey! He's the king, try to show a bit of respect to him."
Sonic crossed his arms and closed his eyes, "I will respect him when he respects me, respect is a two-way street after all." He opened one eye to the king, "Besides he ignored the hero he just asked the name of, now want to try again so we can put this misunderstanding behind us?"
The king's mask broke a bit as annoyance crept into his voice and face, "Forgive me, please reintroduce yourself."
Sonic smirk returned as he brought his thumb to his nose, quickly dragging it across as he strikes a pose, "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm 16, nearly 17, and I'm the fastest thing alive."
Most of the crowd seemed to mutter about how arrogant the hedgehog was for such a big claim, the only exception were the heroes, who thought Sonic had took advantage of the system in some way. King Melromarc just looked at Sonic in anger.
"Very well then, now allow me to explain why we summon you heroes here." Aultcray said, ignoring Sonic's introduction, which obviously annoyed him, but he kept quiet. The king then explained how his country was under attack by waves of calamity and that they summoned the hero's to save everyone. Besides being a basic 'save the world' request, it is also exactly the same story as the 'The Record of the Four Cardinal Heroes' book that Sonic found. The book explained everything the king did but the main character Sonic instead of some shadow knockoff, although the story didn't go past the first wave.
"It was best to summon you now while the waves are still weak, so you may have time to strengthen yourselves to properly face them."
"Strengthen ourselves? Are we not legendary heroes? Are these not legendary weapons?" Ren stated. Surely they didn't expect to have everything handed to them on a silver platter, right? Sonic has gone on multiple adventures, and it's never that easy, the metal virus should have been a prime example of that.
The king also seemed slightly annoyed at this statement, "While you are the legendary heroes and hold the greatest weapons in the world, they currently lack that power." His words seemed to just confuse 3 of the 4 heroes.
"Each weapon has its own strengthening method. They gain strength alongside the hero, as for yourselves, could check your status magic for a moment." the king successfully shuffled the heroes he confused with this statement.
"What? Status magic?" Motoyasu asked confused
Ren looked back toward the other heroes annoyed, "Are you guys serious? It should have been the first thing you noticed. There's an icon in the corner of your vision, focus on that and a menu should appear."
Sonic found the icon, grumpy muttered, "I would have found it if YOU didn't distract me." Just loud enough for the sword hero to hear before a menu appeared.
[Name: Sonic Maurice Hedgehog]
[Race: Mobian (Hedgehog)]
[Class: Fastest Thing Alive, Shield of the Wind/Shield Hero]
[Equipment: Legendary Shield (Locked), Otherworldly Gloves, Otherworldly Shoes Otherworldly Commutation Watch]
[Inventory]
[Power rings - 1991]
[Chili dogs - 4]
[Miles Electric Mark 2]
[Full Mint Tins - 2]
[Otherworldly Soap Shoes]
[Sunglasses]
[Light Gaia bracelet]
[Group Photo (Classic)]
[Group Photo (Modern)]
[LV 1]
[HP: 200]
[MP: 45]
[SP: 45]
[ATK: 1]
[MAG: 15]
[DEF: 20]
[MDEF: 20]
[AGI: 9999 - ETC]
[Perks]
[Bot Buster: Your skill with fighting robots allows you to hit hard material and not suffer any injuries. This doesn't increase the damage you do to hard material but reduces the self damage inflicted to near none.]
[Inertia Nullification: Your party members are immune to the negative side effects of super speed. Examples: motion sickness, dizziness, whiplash, poor reaction time compared to speed, ETC.]
[Embodiment of Chaos: Your connection to the forces of chaos allows you to enhance your abilities. You have a boost gauge that slowly fills with chaos energy. You can increase the chaos energy you get by spacing out your homing attacks or by doing stunts while in the air.]
Sonic stared at the screen that reminded him of Tails's inventions, showing all his abilities, he did have one problem.
'WHY IS MY ATTACK SO LOW!? I know I'm no knuckles, but come on only a measly ONE? The only thing I got is my speed but HOW WILL I EVEN FIGHT LIKE THIS?'
"This is bad." "I know right? Level 1?" "This will be hard, and we still haven't confirmed any rewards." Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki complained in the background, but sonic was more focused on his stats.
'Come on, COME ON. There has to be something here that can help, any "don't use the crippled shield" option?' He thought as he scrolled through his status window, "I'll be better off just bashing - Wait a second, what's this?'
"Well, there's four of us, so we just need to form a party,-" Motoyasu started before getting cut off.
"Excuse me, but that won't work. Due to the unique properties of the legendary weapons, you can't get experience while near each other" the royal advisor called out.
As he said that, a pop-up appeared on Sonic's status window, partially blocking the solution to his problems.
[Warning]
[The legendary weapons dampen each other's progress when in close proximity. Distance is recommended.]
"Wouldn't that mean that we wouldn't get EXP from the wave, and even if we only don't focus on that during the waves, then we need to work with an entirely new team that we don't know anything about, leading to huge problems." Sonic said, closing his status window.
The king actually seemed hesitant to answer before coming to a conclusion, "While you wouldn't get EXP from the wave, you would hone your skills as teammates while they are still weak. You can also strengthen your weapons by harvesting monsters that normally won't give experience."
[Notice]
[The Cardinal Shield can absorb objects to unlock new forms, new forms provide stat increases and abilities. Fully mastering a shield permanently unlocks its stats and most skills in any form]
"We can ask questions all day, but your status magic should be enough for tonight. I shall gather seasoned adventurers to aid you while you accustom yourselves for now." The king dismissed the heroes and motioned for his servants to take them to their private room, or rooms. In the centre was a dining table full of unique foods, the bedroom was also located close so they didn't need to go far after they ate.
After the servants left, the heroes were left to themselves. Sonic sat at the table.
"This looks like a feast fit for a king, or at least his heroes. Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen you on my adventures. So are you from a place like South Island or somewhere like Spagonia? I do get station square vibes from you guys though." He said reaching for some food.
"Are you role playing right now? Ask Ren.
Sonic gave a puzzled look, "No what do you mean?"
"He means there are no places named like that in the real world or Emerald online, there's also no race option." Motoyasu said.
"Emerald online? What's that?" Ren asked.
"Don't tell me you never heard of emerald online, it's literally the world we are trapped in right now."
"No, this is clearly Dimension Wave, the world is exactly the same as in game." Itsuki stated.
"Isn't this Brave Star Online, it's the most popular VRMMO after all?" Ren asked in a confused tone.
"Are you guys talking about that old book with the 4 heroes?" Sonic asked, causing more chaos. No one could agree what the world they were in. The arguing only stopped when Sonic let out a whistle to gather everyone's attention.
"Time out!" he started, making a T with his hands. "(Can't believe I'm saying this but-) let's slow down and clarify some things. You all know a game that looks exactly like this world, but none of you guys can agree on the finer details like tech and genre." He paused for a moment, "It's possible we all were summoned from different worlds instead of the same one, that would explain everything going on."
Do you mean like the multiverse theory? Are you sure that even exists?" Motoyasu asked.
Sonic snapped his fingers and pointed at him, "That's a point to my theory since in my world the multiverse isn't just a theory. Any other differences?"
"Let's find out, who is the prime minister of Japan?" Ren asked.
—
It turns out they were all from different worlds. Sonic's world was the most different so he hung back while the others tried to find every minor detail that was different for them, though there was one thing they all agreed on.
"What do you mean that the shield is the worst weapon?!" Sonic asked in confusion.
"Well, it's only really useful early game but during the late game it can't tank as well or attack." Motoyasu said.
"Even after multiple patches it's still the worst." Ren said.
"Same here, it's just objectively the worst class in the game." Itsuki said.
Sonic looked around confused, "But in my world's book, the shield hero was the main character?"
"Well that doesn't mean they are good, the side characters probably carried the main character. Besides, if 3 of the people here agree that the shield sucks then it must be true, I'm sorry but the odds that your weapon is different are not good." Ren stated.
Sonic closed his eyes in thought before standing up from the table, classic smirk on his face. "So I'm facing unbeatable odds with something hindering me? Well it's nothing I haven't faced before." he said confidently before stretching, "Well it's late, and I want to make the most of the day. I'm heading to bed, night."
Sonic left as the other 3 heroes began discussing about the blue hedgehog that was heading to his room. The first thing he did was head to his balcony to gaze upon the stars he's slept so many nights under, finding them in new locations but still gleaming down on the city below.
"Well I guess I got a Camelot and Arabian Nights combo going on, just with no flaming arrow time limit and talking sword… you can't talk right?" Sonic asked his shield, no response coming, "I'll take that as a no. Can't blame me, I know I'm supposed to 'power you up' to get a new shield, but you seemed to already learned a couple from me."
Opening the shield menu, Sonic looks at his the unlocked shields he started with.
[Spindash Shield]
[+5 Agility +2 Attack]
[Ability: Spindash]
[Gives the user the ability to do a Spindash into opponents, using their shield for rapid damage.]
[Uses 50% of the user's Defence stat plus 5% for every level the user has for a max of 150%]
[Homing Shield]
[+3 Agility +2 Defence]
[Ability: Homing Attack]
[Gives the user the ability to do a Homing Attack into opponents using their shield for a burst of damage.]
[Uses 50% of the user's Defence stat plus 5% for every level the user has for a max of 125%]
[Boost Shield]
[+10 Agility +2 Magic]
[Ability: Boost]
[Gives the user the ability to boost into opponents using their shield for constant damage, uses the boost gauge.]
[Uses 50% of the user's Defence stat plus 5% for every level the user has for a max of 110%]
"You somehow have 3 shields that allow me to use my abilities, how did you know about them?" Sonic asked, only to again be greeted with silence, "…You really aren't alive are you." he said scratching his head before thinking of something, "I wonder…"
Sonic took one of his quills and pressed it to the shield's gem. The quill swirled into the shield like a liquid as a pop-up appeared.
[New Shield Unlocked]
[Hedgehog Shield]
[+10 Defence +50 Agility]
[Passive Ability: Keep Up]
[Increase party member's Agility growth by 25%]
[Passive Ability: Inertia Nullification +]
[Party members slowly gain the effects of Inertia Nullification permanently]
"It worked!" Sonic exclaimed, "It didn't give me any of my abilities though, but I got new ones instead. I wonder if it works on objects?"
Reaching into his quills, Sonic grabbed a power ring and a chilly dog, putting it into his shield.
[Hot dog Shield]
[+1 SP]
[Ability: Cooking increases (small)]
[Chili dog Shield]
[+5 SP]
[Ability: Fast food]
[You can make a Chili dog appear for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For every party member you can make 1 extra Chili dog]
[Ring Shield]
[+3 agility +5 magic]
[Unique Ability: Ring]
[Allows the shield to transform into a small golden ring, only allowing few abilities to be used in its state. The removal of the ring will force the shield to turn back to normal]
[Power Ring Shield]
[+15 defence +15 magic]
[Passive Ability: Boost Charge]
[Your boost gauge perfectly passively charges at a much faster rate.]
"Whoa, that's a lot of shields for just 2 items." He said as he switched to the chili dog shield. The shield looked just like a flat chilly dog with depth where the toppings were. Sonic expected the shield before saying "fast food" causing a green flash to appear that left Sonic's favourite food in his hand.
Taking a bite out of his new snack Sonic looked over his shields again, "And I can apparently master them to get the effects permanently. Oh, I'm absolutely mastering this one first… j-just to make sure that mastering them doesn't come with any downsides, yea that's something tales would say."
At the mention of his brother's name Sonic looked to the horizon, his smug smile faded as he rested his head on the balcony railing.
"I bet Tails would have probably figured out everything these weapons can do by now, heck Amy would probably be a better shield than me. Knuckles would probably be the spear with his strength, Tails could have turned the bow into some sort of science blaster, we could have another classic adventure."
Sonic stared for a moment longer before jumping onto the ledge, classic grin on his face.
"Well, I guess while the others are having their solo avengers, I'll have one of my own, after all I can't let the others catch up to me. They should know I do have a reputation to keep up." looking out to the country of Melromarc Sonic shouted "Lookout waves, because Sonic the hedgehog is here!"