THE NEED FOR SPEED
A New Day
--------------------
The first thing I notice is a tone. A soft beep that steadily repeats itself a few times a second.
A heart monitor. I'm in a hospital then?
I should hope so. Because right now, I ache all over, and I even lack the strength to open my eyes.
Am I dead? Are the tones from something else? From someone else's monitor?
I can hear the ambient sounds around me. The beeping of the monitor, the occasional clacking of footsteps on a tiled floor, and something else.
Someone breathing, no, snoring nearby.
I want to move. To call some kind of attention, to get some answers! But I can't even feel my arms, legs, anything. Just a gentle, but persistent pain that envelops me.
I. I'm scared. What is this?! SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING! TELL ME IF I'M ALIVE!!
But I cannot even make a sound.
'No.' I tell myself. 'I can't be dead, I feel this pain, I'm exhausted, I hear what's around me, I HAVE to be alive.
'Just not well.'
On the whole it's quiet, maybe it's nighttime?
That's good, because if I'm awake, I'm too tired to stay that way right now.
--------------------
"Any change?" a woman asks.
"No," a gruff male replies. "But he's been holding steady. The doctor says it's all up to chance."
"It's been a whole week," a third, younger voice comments sadly.
'A whole week since what?' I wonder.
A solemn silence fills the room.
"Did." the young voice says after a moment. "Did he just talk?!"
Did they hear me!?
With as little strength as I have, I force my eyes open.
Three very concerned faces are looking down at me.
"Rouge.?" I somehow manage to say.
The red echidna, Knuckles, I think it was, grins. "Hah!" he laughs. "I told you the likes of him wouldn't bite it so easily!"
The orange fox, Tails, speaks up. "Hey, how do you feel?"
"Like. I was hit. by a. freight truck." Oh it aches all over, but I don't care for the moment. I'm just grateful to be alive.
"Shadow," Rouge the bat says. "Do you remember what happened?"
"The. A.R.K. ." All I've done is speak three sentences, and already I'm beat, but I don't want to sleep. I want to know what's happened. "Sonic, and I. We went outside to stop it."
"I was falling." I continue, despite my breath becoming more and more ragged. "I saw her. Maria. And then."
It was taking me tremendous effort to speak at the horse whisper I was using, but as I tried to remember, my body tapped a hidden reserve. I felt my arms, my legs. They were suddenly thrashing about, and my ears were pierced by a deafening scream.
Mine.
But it didn't matter, I was aware of the seizure, the horrible pain, but I didn't care. Why couldn't I remember?!
It was like I was under water, like I was drowning. My body was screaming at me to return to the surface, to the warm air above. But there was. something. Some great truth, the answers to all my questions just a few feet further down.
Despite my reaction to live, to survive, to escape the pain I was in, I probed my mind deeper, I HAD to know.
--------------------
I opened my eyes and swore. I had passed out. I somehow knew that if I kept trying to find the answers, it would happen again, so I lay there in my hospital bed and examined my surroundings.
The room was now empty. No windows, no decorations, just my bed, afew chairs, and a tower of medical equipment running about a million wires and tubes to me. White walls, white floor, white ceiling with floresent lights, nothing that really caught my eye. Except for what's on the wall to my left.
Three big letters, written in black.
G.U.N.
My heart begins to race, G.U.N.?!
G.U.N. was responsible for only three things in my life. Maria's death, my imprisonment in suspended animation, and trying to kill me when I was working with Rouge and Robotnik.
So why the hell were they keeping me alive?!
"I think I can answer your questions," a new voice said. "Of which I'm sure there are many."
--------------------
The man was Jameson Smythe, an Admiral of G.U.N. He asked that I try not to remember what he would tell me so as to avoid another incident like yesterday.
He told me about how after Sonic and I stopped the A.R.K. I fell to earth, but the powers of the Chaos Emeralds protected me. He told me that, according to Sonic, I had gone insane with the power. That for a whole month I traversed the planet, leaving destruction in my wake.
Finally Sonic took up the power himself to stop me.
Who was this joker?!
Like I was really supposed to believe that load of bull!
But Sonic's friends came in and confirmed the battle that had taken place.
They also told me about Amy.
"Is she okay?"
Jameson sighed, "She'll live, but it was very traumatic for her. She's awake, and physically recovered. But she seems to have regressed into her own mind. She won't talk, get out of bed or even eat. Like her soul was ripped right out of her body."
I glared at him. "Not that YOU care. You just wanted to be rid of the threat of a super-powered hedgehog."
The Admiral narrowed his eyes. "Maybe I did, maybe I DO. But the last thing your friend did before going to fight you was made me swear to not prosecute you."
This greatly surprised me. Why would the Faker do that?
"Believe me," Smythe continued, his voice growing cold. "If I had my way, I'd lock the both of you up 'til Doomsday."
Then a thought occurred to me, one I wondered why I didn't think of it sooner. "What about Sonic? What happened to him?"
"Gone." The officer replied. "Vanished into thin air. We're using all of our resources to try and find him. And if we do, you all better just stay out of it."
And with that he left the room.
"Can we really trust this guy?" I asked the others once I was sure he was gone.
Tails nodded. "From what we know it's all true. And we saw the fight ourselves."
Knuckles raised his fist threateningly. "But you can bet we are not going to just sit here on our butts without knowing what happened to him."
"And what's the verdict on yours truly?"
Knuckles immediately turned away from me. "The scientists have done some tests on your blood, and it no longer reacts to the pieces of the Chaos Emeralds that were left behind. They don't think you'll ever be able to become Super again."
He was quiet for a moment.
"What else?" I pressed.
"According to Sonic," he finally said. "After using the Chaos Emeralds, the body goes through a sort of, withdrawal. No one's ever channeled their power as long as you have, except for Chaos of course."
"Knuckles." Rouge gasped.
"Okay, I know, I'll cut to the chase. Your body's been so drained by the experience that the doctors don't think you'll ever walk again. I'm sorry."
He turned to face me and leapt back in surprise.
I had managed to hobble over to him, though my muscles ached with the effort.
"Well," I said with a sly grin. "Shows what they know!"
--------------------
In space, in the infinite cosmos, there is not any air to carry sound waves. There is no sound.
This is true.
But if we could bend the laws of physics just a bit, enough to cancel out this fact, we'd hear this as Chaos Sonic soared back towards our humble blue Earth from the farthest reaches of the galaxy.
"I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all."
---------------------------------------- The End ----------------------------------------
A/N: WHOO! My biggest project on Fanfiction is finally complete! It's been a hell of a ride for me, I hope it was for all of you too. This was a real challenge for me, and I truly thank EVERYONE who read this story. Especially all those who reviewed! I truly cannot thank all of you enough! I swear, no matter how long it takes, I shall review some of your works too!
I may someday make a sequel to this, I have some vague ideas (why I left the cliffhanger). Right now, though, I want to try and bust out of this "angst" rut I'm in, I want to try my hand at a random humor fic. Hey, we never grow if we don't challenge ourselves.
Thanks again,
thag-the-upset
A New Day
--------------------
The first thing I notice is a tone. A soft beep that steadily repeats itself a few times a second.
A heart monitor. I'm in a hospital then?
I should hope so. Because right now, I ache all over, and I even lack the strength to open my eyes.
Am I dead? Are the tones from something else? From someone else's monitor?
I can hear the ambient sounds around me. The beeping of the monitor, the occasional clacking of footsteps on a tiled floor, and something else.
Someone breathing, no, snoring nearby.
I want to move. To call some kind of attention, to get some answers! But I can't even feel my arms, legs, anything. Just a gentle, but persistent pain that envelops me.
I. I'm scared. What is this?! SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING! TELL ME IF I'M ALIVE!!
But I cannot even make a sound.
'No.' I tell myself. 'I can't be dead, I feel this pain, I'm exhausted, I hear what's around me, I HAVE to be alive.
'Just not well.'
On the whole it's quiet, maybe it's nighttime?
That's good, because if I'm awake, I'm too tired to stay that way right now.
--------------------
"Any change?" a woman asks.
"No," a gruff male replies. "But he's been holding steady. The doctor says it's all up to chance."
"It's been a whole week," a third, younger voice comments sadly.
'A whole week since what?' I wonder.
A solemn silence fills the room.
"Did." the young voice says after a moment. "Did he just talk?!"
Did they hear me!?
With as little strength as I have, I force my eyes open.
Three very concerned faces are looking down at me.
"Rouge.?" I somehow manage to say.
The red echidna, Knuckles, I think it was, grins. "Hah!" he laughs. "I told you the likes of him wouldn't bite it so easily!"
The orange fox, Tails, speaks up. "Hey, how do you feel?"
"Like. I was hit. by a. freight truck." Oh it aches all over, but I don't care for the moment. I'm just grateful to be alive.
"Shadow," Rouge the bat says. "Do you remember what happened?"
"The. A.R.K. ." All I've done is speak three sentences, and already I'm beat, but I don't want to sleep. I want to know what's happened. "Sonic, and I. We went outside to stop it."
"I was falling." I continue, despite my breath becoming more and more ragged. "I saw her. Maria. And then."
It was taking me tremendous effort to speak at the horse whisper I was using, but as I tried to remember, my body tapped a hidden reserve. I felt my arms, my legs. They were suddenly thrashing about, and my ears were pierced by a deafening scream.
Mine.
But it didn't matter, I was aware of the seizure, the horrible pain, but I didn't care. Why couldn't I remember?!
It was like I was under water, like I was drowning. My body was screaming at me to return to the surface, to the warm air above. But there was. something. Some great truth, the answers to all my questions just a few feet further down.
Despite my reaction to live, to survive, to escape the pain I was in, I probed my mind deeper, I HAD to know.
--------------------
I opened my eyes and swore. I had passed out. I somehow knew that if I kept trying to find the answers, it would happen again, so I lay there in my hospital bed and examined my surroundings.
The room was now empty. No windows, no decorations, just my bed, afew chairs, and a tower of medical equipment running about a million wires and tubes to me. White walls, white floor, white ceiling with floresent lights, nothing that really caught my eye. Except for what's on the wall to my left.
Three big letters, written in black.
G.U.N.
My heart begins to race, G.U.N.?!
G.U.N. was responsible for only three things in my life. Maria's death, my imprisonment in suspended animation, and trying to kill me when I was working with Rouge and Robotnik.
So why the hell were they keeping me alive?!
"I think I can answer your questions," a new voice said. "Of which I'm sure there are many."
--------------------
The man was Jameson Smythe, an Admiral of G.U.N. He asked that I try not to remember what he would tell me so as to avoid another incident like yesterday.
He told me about how after Sonic and I stopped the A.R.K. I fell to earth, but the powers of the Chaos Emeralds protected me. He told me that, according to Sonic, I had gone insane with the power. That for a whole month I traversed the planet, leaving destruction in my wake.
Finally Sonic took up the power himself to stop me.
Who was this joker?!
Like I was really supposed to believe that load of bull!
But Sonic's friends came in and confirmed the battle that had taken place.
They also told me about Amy.
"Is she okay?"
Jameson sighed, "She'll live, but it was very traumatic for her. She's awake, and physically recovered. But she seems to have regressed into her own mind. She won't talk, get out of bed or even eat. Like her soul was ripped right out of her body."
I glared at him. "Not that YOU care. You just wanted to be rid of the threat of a super-powered hedgehog."
The Admiral narrowed his eyes. "Maybe I did, maybe I DO. But the last thing your friend did before going to fight you was made me swear to not prosecute you."
This greatly surprised me. Why would the Faker do that?
"Believe me," Smythe continued, his voice growing cold. "If I had my way, I'd lock the both of you up 'til Doomsday."
Then a thought occurred to me, one I wondered why I didn't think of it sooner. "What about Sonic? What happened to him?"
"Gone." The officer replied. "Vanished into thin air. We're using all of our resources to try and find him. And if we do, you all better just stay out of it."
And with that he left the room.
"Can we really trust this guy?" I asked the others once I was sure he was gone.
Tails nodded. "From what we know it's all true. And we saw the fight ourselves."
Knuckles raised his fist threateningly. "But you can bet we are not going to just sit here on our butts without knowing what happened to him."
"And what's the verdict on yours truly?"
Knuckles immediately turned away from me. "The scientists have done some tests on your blood, and it no longer reacts to the pieces of the Chaos Emeralds that were left behind. They don't think you'll ever be able to become Super again."
He was quiet for a moment.
"What else?" I pressed.
"According to Sonic," he finally said. "After using the Chaos Emeralds, the body goes through a sort of, withdrawal. No one's ever channeled their power as long as you have, except for Chaos of course."
"Knuckles." Rouge gasped.
"Okay, I know, I'll cut to the chase. Your body's been so drained by the experience that the doctors don't think you'll ever walk again. I'm sorry."
He turned to face me and leapt back in surprise.
I had managed to hobble over to him, though my muscles ached with the effort.
"Well," I said with a sly grin. "Shows what they know!"
--------------------
In space, in the infinite cosmos, there is not any air to carry sound waves. There is no sound.
This is true.
But if we could bend the laws of physics just a bit, enough to cancel out this fact, we'd hear this as Chaos Sonic soared back towards our humble blue Earth from the farthest reaches of the galaxy.
"I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all."
---------------------------------------- The End ----------------------------------------
A/N: WHOO! My biggest project on Fanfiction is finally complete! It's been a hell of a ride for me, I hope it was for all of you too. This was a real challenge for me, and I truly thank EVERYONE who read this story. Especially all those who reviewed! I truly cannot thank all of you enough! I swear, no matter how long it takes, I shall review some of your works too!
I may someday make a sequel to this, I have some vague ideas (why I left the cliffhanger). Right now, though, I want to try and bust out of this "angst" rut I'm in, I want to try my hand at a random humor fic. Hey, we never grow if we don't challenge ourselves.
Thanks again,
thag-the-upset