| GCB Fanfics: The Fanfiction Project |
July 26th, 2003Preshow A red blur was streaking across the field. From above, it would have looked like a ball of fire was burning its way through the grass. Knuckles was training as best as he knew how. The echidna came upon a patch of trees and swerved through them. Left, right, left, left... even before he knew what he was doing, his instincts moved him out of the way of harm. The last tree he raced straight up with his momentum and leaped from the top. He turned and rotated in the air, managing to land on his feet. He nodded to himself, pleased with the maneuver. There was no one to see what he had done, but he didn't care. He didn't need to flaunt his speed like Sonic, or try to impress others with his superiority. He knew what he was capable of, and that was enough. Knuckles took off again, his mind moving almost as fast as his body. About all he knew of his opponent today was what the whole crowd had witnessed at the end of Ganondorf's fight. Yuna was apparently a dancer-but she had tried going up against Ganondorf armed with guns. The weapons didn't last long however, and he had missed his chance to see what the girl was capable of. One of her companions had already left the tournament, and her other friend, Auron, had beaten Tails. That alone was not cause for concern, but Knuckles had to be ready for anything. Knuckles skidded to a halt as he surveyed a hill up in the distance. Part of the grass near it was burned in a circle-Bomberman or someone must have been there. It was fairly steep... good enough for what he intended. Knuckles took off again, gathering speed. He could feel the wind rushing past him, as he strained to accelerate. Knuckles knew he probably wasn't the best racer there was. His best skills lay elsewhere, but he would need to be fast for his match. He sped up faster and faster. He was nearing the crest of the hill. Knuckles leaped off the end of the hill and soared into the air, extending his arms. He began to glide through the air... surveying the land around him. He took his time soaring through the air, enjoying the freedom of motion and the stillness of the morning. He enjoying being alone, like he was back on his island. But he wasn't going to back down from a fight either. He reached the ground and steadied himself. He had executed the entire maneuver exactly as he wanted. Not bad at all. He was ready for his match. ---- Yuna was alone. It had been too much to be reunited with Tidus only to be separated from him again. The grief still weighed heavily on her heart. She didn't even know why she was in this tournament anymore. Auron was a fighter who appreciated the thrill of battle, and he had done everything he could to keep her safe. Tidus had been given a new lease on life, and chance to be with her... but that was gone now too. And she was supposed to go on somehow. She was required to fight tomorrow. Her only thought for fighting was revenge on the dark wizard who had robbed her of her chance to be with Tidus. But he was on the opposite end of the tournament... too far away to fight for at least a month. Yuna sighed. "I have nothing," she whispered. "You have yourself, your life, your world. Those are the gifts Tidus gave you. It would not be fitting for you to ignore the sacrifices he made." Auron stood beside her. She had not even heard his approach. His presence was calming somehow... he had a powerful, secure aura to him. She looked up at him and dabbed her eyes. Auron continued to speak. "You must find your purpose again. This fight may remind you of who you are. But it would be better to lose the match than to lose hope." Auron stalked away. He had nothing more to say, and nothing he needed to hear from Yuna. She mentally steadied herself and tried to focus on something other than losing Tidus again. She'd try to fight as best as she could, with what abilities she had left. It was all she could do. The Battle The guardian of the Floating Island stepped into the arena, shielding his eyes from the glare. The sun was high overhead, and several times brighter and hotter than it normally was. Okay, whoever had the idea of painting the stadium pure white should be hit with heavy objects. Repeatedly. Knuckles squinted, trying to adjust his eyes to the brilliant glare. After a few seconds, his eyes began to acclimate to the bright light. Blinking rapidly, Knuckles looked out over the stadium. It was full-not to capacity, of course, but plenty full enough. From the competitors' section, a familiar voice rang out. "Boooo! Boo! ...hey, I'm just playin', Red, don't take it too hard! But...booooooo!" Knuckles shook his head, chuckling softly to himself. That hedgehog will never change. The red-furred echidna, eyes having adjusted, turned to the competitors' tunnel as a bit of motion flickered in his peripheral vision. The girl named Yuna was walking out of the tunnel into the stadium, shielding her eyes like the Freedom Fighter had done moments before. Knuckles ran a hand through his dreadlocks, frowning. He didn't like to go into battle without having analyzed the opponent beforehand...it made him uneasy. While Sonic might be confident enough in his superior speed to rely on that in combat, Knuckles knew better than to underestimate his adversary. And what he knew of Yuna--or rather, what he didn't know--worried him. The girl was some sort of gunslinger, apparently, as her showdown with Ganondorf had shown. And indeed...she was holding twin pistols in her hands, gripping the handles so tightly her knuckles were white. Perhaps she had purchased them from Nook's after the dark wizard had destroyed her originals...? However, there was something about Yuna that suggested to Knuckles that she was much more than a pure gunfighter such as Duke Nukem or Lara Croft. She must have been, for the guns weren't her only weapons...Knuckles could clearly see some sort of staff on her back, a long metal staff with an ornamental headpiece, a large amythest glittering amidst the gold. There was also the sense that the echidna picked up when he looked at her...a feeling of power that made his hair stand on end. It was rather akin to what he felt when he communed with the Chaos Emeralds... A person with the power of the Emeralds? That could be a problem... The echidna shook his head, dreadlocks flying. He could win this if he used his head, he knew... Yuna squeezed the handles of her twin pistols, then let her hand muscles relax. She preferred the grips on her usual weapons, but the dark wizard--the summoner felt a twinge in her stomach as she thought of Ganondorf--had destroyed them both. Thankfully, she had been able to purchase two new ones from the former shopkeeper Tom Nook, as well as the staff she was currently carrying on her back. A summoners' staff. Tidus had come back, and if he could exist in this dimension, than the aeons had to as well. She could feel them... The brown-haired girl met the shorter combatant's gaze readily, trying not to break down. She was nervous. Had he been nervous right before battle? No...he probably had gone in confident as always...Yuna swallowed the lump in her throat, raised her guns, and the battle was joined. Knuckles dodged skillfully to the right, using his above-average speed to dash out of the way. However, Yuna wasn't fooled. With a series of resounding cracks, she opened fire, and the guardian of the Floating Island felt bullets tear past him, whooshing through the air. The echidna leapt into the air, stretching out his arms into a glide for a single instant. In that moment, his speed slowed considerably, and he knew Yuna was drawing a bead...Knuckles knew he had to time this just right. Without warning, he curled up into a ball, hitting the ground rolling, accelerating dramatically. As he did so, bullets hissed through the air where he had just been, a rain of deadly lead. If I can keep adjusting my speed like that, I can fool her... A single bullet tore through the air, passing through the echidna's dreadlocks, so close that the heat from its passing scorched some of the hairs clean off. ...or not. That was too close...those guns are going to be a problem... Yuna ejected the spent clips from her guns, letting them clatter to the ground. In one smooth motion, she had plucked two fresh cartridges from her belt and slammed them home into her pistols. She didn't want to kill the stoic red animal...but what else was there to do? Noticing the fact that she was reloading, Knuckles nodded to himself. Okay, she's got thirty bullets total...I gotta try and count 'em... He resumed speeding, flipping across the arena, running in a circle around Yuna. With each revolution of the circle, he got slightly closer to her... Lethal hail ricocheted off of the tile floor of the arena, some coming too close for comfort. As he heard each individual gunshot, Knuckles slowly counted down in his head...when she had, in his estimation, only a few rounds left, the red-furred echidna immediately changed direction, heading straight at his foe, sprinting as fast as he could. A single bullet grazed past Knuckles' shoulder, slicing a shallow cut. The echidna winced at the pain, but tried to ignore it, only concentrating on reaching Yuna. And then, right before he reached her, the guardian of the Floating Island leapt into the air, smashing both of his powerful fists into the girl's arms, knocking her pistols into the air. Knuckles smirked at Yuna. "Sorry about that, lady...but I just think we needed to even the playing field a little." Yuna stared somewhat blankly back. "I understand..." she said softly. And then, without warning, she reached behind her and grabbed the staff, swinging it forward. "Yow!" the echidna blocked the strike with his hand, and used the staff as a springboard to leap forward, kicking Yuna in the face. The gunfighter stumbled back, and Knuckles flipped into the air. He didn't like hitting women, but he didn't have a choice. Yuna's aura was stronger now...and as she held the staff, Knuckles realized why, and nearly cursed himself for his stupidity. It wasn't the brown-haired girl giving off the aura of the Chaos Emerald. The amethyst stone in Yuna's staff, glittering brightly, was without doubt one of the Chaos stones... Well, she's got an emerald...No time to wonder how...beat her first, ask questions afterward!" Knuckles raced forward, trying to go for another combo...however, he screeched to a halt, puzzled, as his opponent began to...dance...Yuna swung the staff around in circles, and a wind began to blow. The already hot stadium started to get a whole lot hotter...waves of heat shimmered off of the brilliant white stone. And then, Knuckles noticed something on the ground beneath him. It was some sort of circle, some seal or something. And it was glowing...the echidna wasn't stupid. Dreadlocks flying, he backpedaled as fast as he could, getting away from the magical seal. Not a moment too soon, for what he could only describe as a demon burst from the ground where the seal had been, shattering the tile. Knuckles shielded his head from the falling stone, eyes wide. What in the name of the Master Emerald is going on...??? Coughing, the red-furred animal tried to clear the smoke from his eyes...and then backed away, stunned. A huge fiery beast was crouched there, belching flames from its mouth. It looked like some sort of gigantic cat/wolf hybrid, with a burning mane, long, black, horns, and very powerful-looking claws. Knuckles continued to edge away from the thing. "Th--this is new..." he muttered to himself. Okay, something new here, but nothing I can't beat... However, Yuna didn't appear to be afraid of the monster. On the contrary, she was looking at it wistfully, stroking its massive cheek like it were a simple housecat. What was more, the beast appeared to be receptive to her caring... "Hello, Ifrit..." the young summoner whispered softly to herself, her multicolored eyes sparkling, slightly damp. "It's been a long time..." With that, she turned to face Knuckles, who was trying frantically to work out a strategy. "We need to beat him, okay, Ifrit?" Yuna grabbed her staff and pointed it at the echidna. The Chaos Emerald in the headpiece glowed, and the beast called Ifrit lunged with a roar at the smaller creature. "Down, boy..." muttered Knuckles, leaping into the air above the demon's reach. As he passed, the echidna kicked the creature in the back of the head. It felt like kicking a stone wall. Now that Ifrit was behind him, Knuckles ran full speed at Yuna. He had to get that staff out of her hands. However, before the guardian of the Floating Island could reach her, a gigantic brown mass leapt out of the sky with a roar, landing right in front of him. Ifrit glared at the smaller combatant, before shooting a fireball out of its mouth. The attack hit Knuckles straight on and exploded, throwing him very, very high into the air. Knuckles, amidst the pain and the ringing in his ears, could hear the crowd gasp far below...a fall from this height would surely kill almost anyone, unless they could fly. Knuckles couldn't fly. But...as he fell, gaining speed, he saw Ifrit far below, waiting expectantly for its opponent to fall to his doom...and the echidna grinned. No, he couldn't fly. But he could fall with style. Bare feet above Ifrit's reach, the echidna flipped over, extending his arms. The momentum from the fall quickly became pure speed as Knuckles glided straight at the summoner, who was taken by surprise. In one swift motion, Knuckles had knocked the staff from Yuna's hands, broken it in two over his knee, and knocked the purple Chaos Emerald from the headpiece. "I'll take this..." he said, pocketing the magical stone. As he touched it, he felt its energy suffusing him, healing the wounds that he had received during the fight. As the staff broke, Ifrit let loose a mighty bellow...and then collapsed, bursting into small glowing balls that danced, wisping up into the sky, before vanishing completely. Well, that was easier than I thought it'd be... Knuckles turned to his opponent, the lady summoner, and settled into a fighting stance. "I don't want to hurt you, Yuna...but looks like it's just you and me now." But then he stopped. Yuna was kneeling on the ground, staring at the spot where Ifrit had been the moment it had disappeared. Her face was in her hands, and she was sobbing, weeping for all the world like someone who has no reason to continue existing. Rather nonplussed, Knuckles walked over to her. "Uh...Yuna? Are...are you okay?" Ordinarily, the echidna wouldn't have bothered with the state of his opponent before the match had been called. But this...this was different. "What's----?" Before he could finish the question, Yuna had risen to her feet and run into the competitor's tunnel, her cries muffled, and vanished from sight. Did...did I win...? The crowd was just as confused as the echidna. There was some scattered applause here and there, but most of the spectators were completely baffled. The only real sound was the horrendous laughter of Ganondorf, Bowser, and Kefka, who just delighted in misery. Several rows behind them, Magus grimly smiled to himself as he silently cast a low-level fire spell beneath their seats. The echidna performed admirably...even against such an opponent. The lady summoner was skilled, true, but in no emotional shape to battle...yet, I am without a doubt impressed... Aftermath Auron was alone now, nothing new for him, he had pretty much been alone even while traveling with others. All of his compatriots gone, some thought he might be sad. He wasn't, neither of the results had surprised him in the least. Tidus was far too headstrong to be able to beat an opponent as powerful as Ganondorf, even though he had shaped up during the match he had waited too long. And Yuna, he hadn't even seen her train since Tidus had disappeared. She hadn't seemed as tearful as usual when she went through the portal to her own dimension. "Maybe its for the better. Seeing Wakka and Lulu again will surely lighten her spirit, as it did before." Auron continued to walk aimlessly, he simply needed to think, but didn't feel like sitting. Suddenly, Knuckles came chasing after him. Auron turned and looked down at the red echidna. "I'm sorry," Knuckles said the instant he caucht up with Auron. "For what?" asked Auron. "You know....for...beating Yuna, and all," Knuckles responded. "I didn't apologize when I defeated your friend Tails." Auron said. "I know, I just thought that I should apologize, because I didn't really win, she just sort of ran off." Knuckles repeated his apology, trying to avoid eye-contact with the Red Warrior. "You fought admirably you deserved your victory." "Thank yo...." Knuckles was interrupted as a very exited blue blur whirred between him and Auron. "Hey, Red!!!! hey geezer, anyway did you really get another emerald. I thought thats what was on her staff but I wasn't sure because I couldn't see and I tried to get a closer look, and Bowser was all like, 'GET OFF OF MY HEAD' so I had to sit back down and I couldn't tell and then that fire thing came out and I couldn't see anymore and then there was nothing on her staff so I was like, 'It must have been a Chaos Emerald and Knux must have took it' so I decided to come find you after the match to find out if it was really another Chaos Emerald, so was really another Chaos Emerald?????" Auron and Knuckles stared at Sonic for a few moments. "...............Yes, yes it is." responded Knuckles to Sonic's verbal bombardment. "Alright," said Sonic, punching it home with Knuckles, "Three down, well four including Shadow's, three to go." Next Entry Back |