AN: I'm not dead! Actually, I'd originally meant to have this story begin its Wednesday and Saturday upload schedule back in early February, but major computer issues prevented me from getting to that. It has taken this long for me to get to this point. Fortunately, I can now start doing that...in March. Real life and other distractions kept me away for this long. The upside to this is that I was able to get this story completely finished in terms of both the written and typed version. The day this first chapter goes up, I'll be starting on my next planned story. Anyway, enjoy the first chapter of Sonic Battle Tournament. All named characters belong to SEGA, except for Wander the Goat, a character of my own creation.
Ch 1: Sign Up
A two tailed fox is pacing around his workshop. "Come on, Sonic. Where are you?"
The door to the workshop is thrown open and a very familiar blue hedgehog steps inside. "Hey, Tails. Long time no see."
Miles Prower (Tails to everyone who knows hims) lets out a sigh of relief. "Finally. You showed up."
"Finally?" asks Sonic the Hedgehog. "I got here minutes after you called me."
"After a week of trying to contact you."
"Guess the service was bad before. I'm here now though, so what's up?"
Tails grabs a poster and presents it to Sonic. "Check this out."
The blue hedgehog looks at the top of the poster. "What's WanderCo?"
"A sporting goods company that started up recently. It quickly rose through the ranks and bought out a lot of its competition until it became the number one sporting goods company in the world. Its founder and CEO…Wander the Goat."
Sonic sees the face plastered on the top of the poster.
Wander the Goat has dark blue-green fur, a white muzzle with a big tuft of a beard which hangs down, red eyes, and giant horns that curl back. He has the look of somebody who has lots of power and relishes in it.
"You know, thinking about it, I have seen that smug face around on billboards and stuff."
"Focus, Sonic," Tails requests of the blue hedgehog. He points down at the middle of the poster. "This is why I called you."
Sonic looks where his young buddy directed. "WanderCo Battle Tournament?"
"Yeah. WanderCo set it up and is sponsoring it. Sixteen competitors will face off in one on one matches until there's a winner."
"Why's this a big emergency?"
"Look what's being offered as the prize."
Sonic's eyes go to the bottom of the poster. What he sees definitely surprises him. "The Chaos Emeralds?"
"All seven of them. I knew something like this would lead to trouble."
"Trouble meaning Eggman."
Tails nods at Sonic's mention of the evil scientist they face off against all the time. "That was exactly what I was thinking. I was real worried about you showing up since sign ups for the tournament close in half an hour."
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sonic rushes out the door.
Tails crosses his arms and taps his foot. He smirks when the blue hedgehog returns. "It's hard to enter if you don't know where sign ups are being held."
"Just show me the way," an annoyed Sonic requests of the young fox.
Tails spins up his two tails and flies off, the blue hedgehog close behind.
Soon…
The two arrive at a giant rectangular stadium.
"How long has this been here?" asks Sonic.
"WanderCo started building all of this the moment the competition was announced," Tails answers.
The two enter to find a line of people waiting to get to a desk set in front of a huge arena.
"I'm liking how I'll have a lot of free space for fighting," Sonic says as he's checking out the arena from his place in line.
Tails looks it over too. "It makes me wonder if ring outs will be much of an expectation. More likely, it'll be knockouts."
Once the two reach the front, a lady otter smiles at them. "Sign your names on the papers here, please." After that has been taken care of, she pulls out a syringe. "Allow me to take your blood samples, please."
That confuses and unsettles the two who just signed up.
"Blood sample?" asks Tails.
"You collecting for a vampire overlord or something?" Sonic jokingly asks.
The otter rolls her eyes. "Not at all, Sir. Mr Wander doesn't want any robots to be in the tournament. The blood samples are to make sure none of the entrants are secretly machines."
The blue hedgehog shrugs before presenting his arm.
"Why doesn't the CEO want robots competing?" asks Tails.
The otter finishes taking Sonic's blood sample. "He says robots can be unfairly upgraded against people." She deposits the contents of the syringe into a scanner beside her. "Mr Wander wishes to keep things as fair for everyone as possible." After the scan of Sonic's blood has been completed, the otter repeats the process with Tails. "There. The both of you are now eligible for consideration."
"Cool," Sonic says with a thumbs up. He and Tails explore around the giant stadium. "Is the lineup gonna take long to be announced?"
The two tailed fox pulls out his personal computer pad, the Miles Electric, and taps on the screen. "According to the schedule I downloaded, it should be an hour after sign ups close."
"Sweet. Means we don't have to wait forever."
"I'm not as enthusiastic about it as you. How can they decide on sixteen competitors out of the hundreds of applicants in any decent capacity?"
A new voice grunts. "As long as I can get back to the Master Emerald quickly, I can care less about it."
Tails smiles as he turns to the one who spoke. "Knuckles!"
Sonic waves. "You here for the tournament too?"
"Yep," the red echidna says while holding out a spike covered fist. "Tails called to let me know about the Chaos Emeralds being offered up as prizes. The more of us who get in, then the less likely Eggman will get em."
The fox turns back to the hedgehog. "He's not the only one I called in."
"Who else did you get?" Sonic asks Tails. He's then immediately hugged from behind.
"Sonic!" a high pitched girl's voice squees.
The blue hedgehog sighs. "Hey, Amy."
Amy Rose the Hedgehog backs away and grins. "I'm so glad you're here!"
"I'm guessing Tails called you in too?"
The pink hedgehog girl nods. "That's right. Cream and I already signed up."
Sonic finally notices the little rabbit girl behind Amy. "I didn't think you liked fighting."
Cream the Rabbit shakes her head. "I don't really, Mr Sonic. I signed up for this because the more friends we have in the competition, the less chances the Chaos Emeralds have of being used by that bad man Dr Eggman."
"What about your Mom?" asks Tails. "Is she okay with this?"
The little girl grimaces at the mention of Vanilla the Rabbit. "Mother was upset when she heard of this, but I told her this would be a valuable learning experience whatever happens."
"Chao!" pipes up Cream's tiny Chao friend Cheese.
Knuckles smirks at the light blue creature floating by the young rabbit's head. "It's really gonna be something to see a rabbit and her Chao fighting opponents."
"That won't happen," says Amy. "It's against the rules for Chao to enter or assist. It's all going to be Cream on her own if she's chosen."
The little rabbit smiles at her bow tie wearing Chao. "I look forward to you cheering me on from the stands."
"Chao!" Cheese excitedly shouts.
Amy turns her attention back to Sonic. "We actually signed up a few days ago. We came here today this early because we had a surprise arrival." She points to the line for sign ups.
Sticking out like a very sore thumb amongst the other hopeful applicants is a light purple cat everyone recognizes as Blaze the Cat. Noticing the others, she waves.
"What brought the Princess of the Sol Dimension here?" Sonic asks Amy as he's waving to Blaze.
"Things were quiet for her back home," the pink hedgehog explains. "She decided she'd take a week long vacation in our dimension."
Cream smiles at the others. "When Miss Blaze learned about the tournament and how the Chaos Emeralds are the prize, she understood our worries perfectly and volunteered to help."
"The more the merrier," says Tails.
"SONIC!" a distressed voice cries out.
Everyone looks up to see a white hedgehog flying in using his psychic powers.
"Silver?!" Sonic asks as the hedgehog from the distant future lands.
"I need your help!" Silver shouts as he approaches the group.
"What happened now?" asks Knuckles the Echidna.
"I was in my own time when the world around me just started vanishing!"
"Vanishing?" a now trembling Cream asks while hugging an equally scared Cheese.
"Any idea what caused it?" asks Amy.
Silver clenches his fists. "That's the worst part. I don't know."
Tails grimaces. "No offense, but how can we help if there's nothing to go on?"
"I came here though! The source of the world disappearing has to come from this time!"
Cream raises her hand. "Excuse me, Mr Silver, but maybe this tournament is the reason."
"Tournament?"
"We're all signed up for a big fighting competition," says Amy.
"Winner gets the Chaos Emeralds," reveals Knuckles.
That really catches Silver's attention. "All seven? That has to be the source of all this."
Tails nods. "Seems the most likely explanation."
Sonic points to the line of people. "Sign up's over there."
Silver raises a fist. "For the sake of the future, I must win this!" He runs over.
Cream cups her hands over her mouth. "Please don't cut the line, Mr Silver! That would be rude!"
The others hang out and chat until they're joined by Blaze, who they fill in on why Silver is there.
The white hedgehog rejoins the group, rubbing his arm. "While that's definitely the least painful way I've ever lost blood, I'm still not a fan."
Blaze briefly smirks at this before asking a question that's on her mind. "Silver? Are you completely certain this tournament is the reason for the future not existing?"
"What else could it be?"
"It's just that, other than us, no applicants have been noteworthy, let alone possibly evil."
Amy remembers something. "When Cream and I entered, we saw Honey the Cat signing up."
"Who?" most of the others ask.
"Big time fashion mogul."
Cream smiles. "She's a very pretty lady with wonderful clothes."
"Honey's obviously in this to promote herself. That isn't really evil though, just more of a business tactic." Amy now feels embarrassed. "Thinking about it, bringing that up might have been pointless."
"Back to Blaze's original point," says Tails. "Eggman has yet to make an appearance and he can't use any of his Badniks since robots aren't allowed in the tournament. Makes me wonder if the danger even originates from here at all."
Knuckles scratches the back of his own head. "The Chaos Emeralds are up for grabs and Eggman's not even getting involved?"
"Don't count on that one," says a sinister voice.
Everyone turns. "Eggman!"
The mustachioed, egg shaped scientist grins as he adjusts the dark glasses which hide his eyes. "That's right. I've arrived, so there's no need to feel disappointed anymore."
Silver points at Eggman. "So you're the reason the world gets destroyed!"
"Destroyed?! I would never! After all, how can I rule the world if it's destroyed?!"
Amy brings out her Piko Piko Hammer. "Whatever you're up to, we'll never let you steal the Chaos Emeralds!"
"How rude of you to assume I'd do something so underhanded."
Sonic gives the wicked man a look of complete disbelief. "Eggman, you're the definition of underhanded."
The scientist glares at the blue hedgehog. "For your information, I was invited here."
Blaze the Cat is skeptical. "Who would invite you?"
"That would be me," says a new voice.
Everybody looks.
Approaching the group is Wander the Goat, the CEO's horns waxed to a shine. The dark blue-green goat is wearing a maroon tuxedo shirt and brown designer shoes. The smirking goat's being followed by a short, bespectacled, gerbil woman (clearly his assistant considering the way she's tapping away on a computer pad).
Eggman smiles. "Mr Wander. A pleasure to meet in person."
The goat's smirk gets bigger as he shakes the scientist's hand. "Likewise, Dr Eggman. I hope you enjoy your stay."
Knuckles growls. "You invited him?!"
"Of course. Dr Eggman is an important figure."
"More like infamous," says Amy.
"Important. Infamous. The point is he's well known."
Cream steps forward. "Forgive me for saying this, Mr Wander, but I think you might not understand. Dr Eggman is a mean old man who does bad things."
Wander smirks condescendingly at the young rabbit. "How adorable. You think I care."
Cheese the Chao is furious at this treatment of their friend, so they try charging the smug goat.
Cream catches the Chao. "Control yourself. You're better than this."
Wander turns his attention to the blue hedgehog. "Ah, you must be Sonic the Hedgehog. The hero of the planet."
"That's me," says Sonic. He already doesn't like Wander due to how rude he'd just been to the young rabbit.
"I hear your power is to go incredibly fast. Is that all? How disappointing."
Tails and Amy instantly get in Wander's face.
"Disappointing?!" asks the two tailed fox.
"How dare you!" shouts the pink hedgehog girl.
"Sonic has saved the world countless times!"
"Don't ever belittle someone who has done so much for us!"
The blue hedgehog is currently feeling both flattered and embarrassed by the two sticking up for him.
Wander sneers. "Oh, joy. The hero has his own little cheering squad."
Eggman frowns. "Sonic and his friends are an annoyance, but don't underestimate them. Sonic especially is THE thorn in my side."
"If you say so. By the way, about our deal for the tournament…"
"Deal?!" asks Knuckles.
Tails is furious. "You're overlooking the no robots rule for Eggman's sake?!"
Wander scoffs. "Wrong, little boy. That rule is set in stone."
Sonic snorts. "Is Eggman entering himself?! That'll be hilarious!"
The evil scientist glares at his arch nemesis. "Why dirty my hands in that manner when I can hire someone to do it for me?"
"Hired stooges," says Blaze the Cat.
"Precisely. Mr Wander here agreed to invite me to spectate the tournament and guarantee my hired help gets in. In exchange, I don't cause trouble or attempt to steal the Chaos Emeralds for myself."
Silver the Hedgehog glares at Wander. "How can you do this?! You have no idea what it is you're risking!"
The goat laughs. "Enlighten me. What am I risking?"
"The destruction of the world!"
Wander's smirk falters. "What makes you so sure of that?"
"I came from the future! The world was wiped from existence and I'm here to put a stop to it!"
The red eyed goat stares at Silver before grinning. "Quite the dramatic twist that we have on our hands now!"
"What?!"
"Think about it. 'The winner of the tournament decides the fate of the world.' Doesn't it sound like an exciting bit of advertisement? The people being ruled over by Eggman as one such possible fate?! Even more so!"
"You think it's exciting?! You'd use the end of the world for stupid advertising?! You…"
Blaze places a hand on the time traveling hedgehog's shoulder. "Silver, I really don't like his mentality either, but you need to calm down. If you attack him in a rage, the only thing you'd end up doing is making yourself look bad to the public."
Eggman laughs as the white hedgehog chooses to stand down. "That's right. If Wander's choosing whoever I've hired to be in this competition, then there's nothing to be done. After all, he set this up and is the one overseeing the final selection."
The dark blue-green goat clears his throat in order to get the gloating scientist's attention. "Actually, I wished to discuss that with you. The ones you hired haven't shown up."
"WHAT?!"
Wander checks his watch. "And there's only…five minutes left to sign up."
Eggman is completely livid. "Where are those incompetent fools?!"
"ENTRY TIME!" somebody screams out.
Sonic and his friends turn to the source and collectively groan.
Strolling into the stadium while blowing an imaginary horn is Bean the Dynamite, a short green bird that's wearing a red bandana. It's unknown whether he's a duck or a woodpecker, but what everyone does know is that Bean loves using bombs and he's a complete wacko.
Following close behind Bean is Bark the Polar Bear, a giant yellow polar bear (the last bit is pretty obvious). The perpetually silent brawler is wearing his usual green scarf, red toque hat, and brown boxing gloves.
Entering the stadium after the odd pair is Fang the Hunter (who has also been called Nack the Weasel as an alias), a purple jerboa with one large fang which always sticks out of his mouth. Fang is wearing a brown stetson hat and a belt with a holster for his blaster. The jerboa's feeling ticked off at the moment. "Bean! If you made us late, I'll pulverize you!"
The green bird smiles innocently. "What did I do?"
"You ran off into those woods and it took us two days to find you!"
"But I had to. That shiny I saw in the river called to me."
"'That shiny' turned out to be a broken piece of a bottle!"
"You never know what the shiny is. The adventure taken to discover what it is, that's the best part."
"Keep this up and you'll discover my foot kicking your tail feathers!"
Bark rolls his eyes at the antics of the other two.
An unimpressed Sonic glances at Eggman. "Team Hooligan? Really?"
The wicked scientist glares at the blue hedgehog. "They were available and cheap. Let's just move on."
Eggman's hired thugs approach the desk with the otter lady attendant (some of those who had been hoping to enter bail out as the wacky trio comes closer).
Bean props his elbows on the desk and smiles at the otter. "I'll have an order of fries and some apple slices."
The otter stares in confusion. "I'm sorry?"
Fang shoves the green bird to the side. "Ignore him. We're here to compete."
The three sign their names on the papers provided.
After receiving the papers, the otter lady frowns at what she sees written on one of them. "Is this a joke?"
Fang and Bark look at the presented paper.
The silent polar bear face palms.
The jerboa glares at the green bird. "Bean!"
Having walked away and gotten lost in his own little world already, the oddball (quite the understatement) of Team Hooligan has to rush back over. "Ahoy?"
"Why'd you sign your name as Ernest Hemingway?"
"Oops. I used my pen name. What was I thinking?"
The other two give their blood as Bean signs his actual name. When he's done and gets a syringe pointed at him though, the green bird screams. "NEEDLE! EVIL! DIE IN A BOOM BOOM!" Bean pulls out a bomb and makes to throw it at the otter lady.
Bark quickly restrains the insane bird.
Fang plucks the bomb from Bean's hand and snuffs out the lit fuse. "Bark!"
Nodding, the polar bear brings a fist down on the struggling lunatic's head, knocking him out. Bark then holds out one of Bean's arms to the otter woman.
"Take his blood," Fang orders the attendant.
Wander the Goat smirks at Dr Eggman (who's embarrassed of the trio he hired). "That's quite the colorful cast of characters you chose. As promised, I'll give them a definite spot in the tournament."
"I should be more upset," Silver the Hedgehog says in response. "If this is really all that Eggman hired though, I'm not worried."
The gerbil woman finally looks up from her computer pad. "Mr Wander, the sign up time is almost over. You should get ready for the selection."
The dark blue-green goat nods to his assistant. "Thank you for reminding me. Could you please escort Dr Eggman up to my office? I'll join you both shortly." Once his assistant and the scientist are out of hearing range, Wander turns to Sonic and his friends. "If I were you, I would consider abandoning all hope of winning."
Tails glares at the goat. "You're giving this all to Eggman?!"
"Hardly. I have no illusions that any of those thugs the Doctor hired for this will make it to the semifinals, let alone win. I'm simply humoring him for the time being so he won't make a nuisance of himself early on. Personally, my money is on the one I have heard referred to as the Ultimate Life Form." After dropping that huge bombshell, Wander turns and starts to walk away from the group. "Good luck. You'll need it."
"Ultimate Life Form?" Amy asks the group. "That means…"
"I'm here," says a new voice.
The group turns to find a familiar black hedgehog with red streaks in his quills giving all of them a cold stare.
Sonic smirks. "Should've known you'd be part of this, Shadow."
Shadow the Hedgehog grunts. "You're surprised, blue hedgehog? Obviously, I'm here to prove my superiority as the Ultimate Life Form. However, I'm also here on orders from GUN to acquire the seven Chaos Emeralds."
"GUN?" Knuckles asks feeling dread. "If they ordered you here, that means—" The red echidna doesn't get to finish as hands cover his eyes.
"Hi there, Big Boy," a seductive voice says in Knuckles's ear.
The spike fisted echidna frees himself and points at the culprit. "You?!"
Rouge the Bat has a false look of feeling hurt on her face as she places a hand over her…assets. "That's how you greet me? How rude. Maybe I should head on over to Angel Island and swipe that precious Master Emerald of yours to make myself feel better."
For once, Knuckles doesn't rise to the bait and let himself blow a gasket over this. "Even though you love personal gain, I know you wouldn't risk GUN assuming you bailed on a mission and getting mad at you."
The white headed bat frowns. "You always take the fun out of this, don't you?"
"Back up a minute," Tails requests of Rouge and Shadow. "You guys were ordered to get the Chaos Emeralds for GUN?"
"Of course we were. That's the main reason I'm here."
Sonic rolls his eyes. "That's just great. Now the government wants the Chaos Emeralds. Probably for some experiment too."
Hearing this, Silver glares at the two members of Team Dark. "Not happening! I'll never let you have them!"
Shadow scoffs. "Are you really challenging me?"
"I'm doing what I can to stop the destruction of the world!"
Rouge laughs. "GUN wouldn't do that. So, we'll take what you said as pure speculation and continue with our mission."
Silver growls. "Why you—!"
The sound of a weapon being armed alerts everyone to the presence of E-123 Omega, the third member of Team Dark and a former Eggman robot. The large red, black, and yellow robot has its arm cannons aimed at Silver. "All obstructions to current objective shall be eliminated."
Blaze pulls Silver away. "Stand down."
"Why's Omega here?" Tails asks Rouge. "He can't compete."
The bat smiles. "He's here in case things go south."
Omega finally puts away its arm cannons. "I have also been programmed to offer words of encouragement to my teammates while they are competing." The robot raises one of its arms. "Annihilate worthless flesh and blood opponents!"
Most everyone makes disturbed faces at this (Cream the Rabbit's once again trembling as she hugs Cheese once more).
Shadow shakes his head.
Rouge face palms. "Omega, maybe dial it down to a silent form of encouragement."
"Acknowledged," the robot says as it lowers its arm back down.
"We've wasted enough of our time here with pointless chatter," says Shadow. "Let's go." The black hedgehog turns and walks away from the group, Omega following after him.
Rouge winks at Sonic and his friends. "If any of you get to face off against us, try not to make it too easy for us to beat you guys." She blows Knuckles a kiss. "See you later, Red." She spreads out her bat wings and uses them to catch up to the rest of her team.
The red echidna is both angry and embarrassed by the blown kiss. "I hate that bat."
The group sees the last of the entrants sign up with no one else in sight. However, just as there's only one minute left for signing up, a trio the group knows well rushes into the stadium.
This trio is Team Chaotix, a detective agency constantly in need of money.
"WAIT!" screams Vector the Crocodile, the leader of Team Chaotix. "Don't close!" He slumps onto the desk in front of the otter lady who was preparing to leave. The green crocodile's now gasping for air after all the running he did. "Please…sign us…papers."
As papers are handed out, Charmy Bee, the tagalong kid of the Chaotix, sits down on top of the desk. "My wings hurt."
"Write through the pain," says Espio the Chameleon, the third member of Team Chaotix. The purple reptile's the only one who isn't tired out from rushing all the way to the stadium. His ninja training likely contributed to that.
While Espio and Vector give their blood without question, Charmy's scared. "The needle looks sharp. I don't want it to hurt me."
"We don't have time for this. Let go of your fear."
With only seconds left, Vector comes up with a plan. "Charmy, close your eyes and keep telling yourself you're a brave bee."
The young boy does as requested. "I'm a brave bee. I'm a brave bee. I'm a brave bee. I am a brave bee."
The otter lady pulls the syringe away from Charmy. "And we're done."
The little bee opens his eyes, realizing the needle has already taken his blood. "That was it?! I didn't even feel it!"
Just as Charmy's blood goes through the scanner, a buzzer goes off.
"Attention," comes Wander the Goat's voice through the loudspeakers. "Registration has now closed. No more applicants will be accepted. The sixteen competitors shall be chosen from the pool of entrants we have as of this moment. We'll announce who the sixteen fighters will be in one hour."
Vector and Charmy cheer at making it in time to be up for consideration.
Espio smiles. "Our client will be pleased we succeeded at making it this far."
Having overheard this, Silver feels worry. 'Client? Don't tell me the Chaotix were hired by whoever's responsible for destroying the world.'
A little information for the readers. I've been a Sonic fan since I was little. My first games were Sonic Mega Collection Plus and Sonic Heroes for the PS2. Hardcore fans will know the PS2 version of Heroes is considered the worst handling one, but I still consider it to be my favorite Sonic game. Anyway, the idea for this story came about from my love for battle tournaments in anime and other similar media as well as the adaptation of Sonic the Fighters from the tail end of the Archie comics run. I wanted to do my own version of a battle tournament for the Sonic cast. I wanted to include the main roster from the Sonic the Fighters game, plus the originally dummied out Honey the Cat. Considering that leads to a total of nine characters, which isn't a structurally sound number, I chose to include other major characters from the Sonic franchise. Sixteen characters total is what I consider enough for a fleshed out story while not being too overcrowded. You all likely can tell who's going to be in the tournament itself, but finding out who's facing off against who is something you'll have to find out on Saturday. See you then!
