From thuber@vs5.im.med.umich.eduMon Dec 4 09:12:44 1995 Date: Sun, 19 Nov 1995 01:34:59 -0500 From: Ryan Huber To: rotor@primenet.com Subject: New Story "Keeping the Faith" (all done..'bout 5 pages) Keeping the Faith A Sonic the Hedgehog Story by Ryan Huber This entire story and all related characters in it are protected under copyright laws. It fine to distribute this story, but only in it's full form, with no alterations, and never for profit. Well, readers... In this story, Ryan finds a new aspect of his power. Will it make or break him? Unfortunately, for all of you looking for Sandra in this story, she's only mentioned towards the end. I couldn't think of a way to include her. Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally, and all other related characters are copyrights of SEGA, DIC, and Archie Comic Publications. Except for the following... Bookshire and Sandra Nightweaver: David Pistone Ryan Nightweaver and Greg: Ryan Huber Historian's Note: This story takes place a week after "Tricks of the Trade" ended. Part 1 Ryan walked out for dinner the second he heard the bell. He was starving. He had skipped a few meals walking through and admiring the woods, and hadn't realized it until recently. Stomach growling, he moved past other Freedom Fighters until he came up to where the food was being finished up. The chef, who happened to be Rotor this time, was cutting the last vegetables. He didn't notice Ryan walking up. Rotor turned with knife in hand quickly, about to say, "Dinner's ready!" but he didn't finish saying it. He felt the knife hit something. It was Ryan's hand. "OW! Damndamndamn!" he yelled. Rotor's eyes became wide. The wound was pretty bad, but Ryan's hand shimmered a little, and the wound disappeared in a few seconds. Rotor pointed at the hand, his finger shaking a bit. "W-what happened?" Ryan had noticed the pain stopping, and looked down. His eyes got even wider than Rotor's. "What in hell? I thought I got cut..." By now, a few people had gathered around, and gasped as they saw the wound healed. Ryan blinked. "Another part of my 'gift'? I use the term lightly...who knows what this could cause to happen to me now..." The group parted, and Sally, with Sonic, moved over to the scene of the accident. Sonic looked around. "Hey..I heard someone was hurt. This some kind of joke?" Ryan shook his head. "Let's say my morphing goes beyond shapeshifting. The wound closed itself. I must have a built-in healing reaction now..." Sally listened, then spoke. "Do you think there may be a side effect?" Ryan shook his head again. "Not that I yet know of, Sal." A silence fell over the Freedom Fighters. Ryan noticed the unease that this change caused. "Hey, forget about it. Nothing major. Let's eat." A few mumbled, a few smiled. Ryan was afraid that this had sparked the distrust anew. He would find out soon enough. Part 2 Ryan sat in bed late that night. He couldn't sleep, and hadn't eaten much. He had been too busy thinking about what had happened. He regretted not eating much as hid stomach growled. "What in the world is happening to me?!" he thought. "I used to just be a normal kid. Fox was a huge change, but not nearly as tough as this." He let his head hit the pillow with a muffled *THUMP*, and stared at the ceiling. After about ten minutes of this, he stood up and moved towards the window. He looked outside, and by the looks of things...it was about four hours until dawn. He was definitely going to be tired in the morning. "Why did this happen to me?" he kept thinking. "I had a decent life on Earth...why me?" He already knew the answer. "Maybe...I was always...supposed to be here. I never really felt...'at home' back on Earth," he said aloud. He looked at himself, remembering all that he had done so far. Shapeshifting, which disturbed him now a little, and now healing himself. He was scared. He didn't know why...but he was. Packbell sat in his usual seat, and laughed. It was an evil laugh, and would have chilled a real person to the bone. He kept laughing. "Why didn't I think of this before? Set up random laser traps in the Great Forest! Someone's bound to stumble upon one at some point!" He spoke into an intercom this time. "Get some traps ready at random areas in the Great Forest. I don't care where, just spread them out." "Understood, Commander," droned a robotic monotone from the other end, "the traps will be set in approximately 2.3451 hours from now." Packbell leaned back into his chair, laughing. The next morning, all the traps had been placed. Most of the Freedom Fighters were up. Most. "WAKE UP!" Sonic yelled. Ryan rolled over in his bed, but didn't even acknowledge he'd heard anything. Sonic moved over until he was right in Ryan's face. "WAKE UP!" he yelled again. "Jeez...he wasn't kidding that time he said he was a heavy sleeper." Ryan didn't even move this time, so Sonic threw his hands up in exasperation, and left. About two hours later, Ryan finally woke up. He opened his eyes, and rolled out of bed easily. He looked outside the window, and his eyes opened wide. He ran out the door, and to the breakfast tables. People were just finishing putting everything away. "Wait! I haven't eaten!" Ryan called. Rotor was there, and he kept lugging the bowls away. "Well...we saved you a little," he said, "it's over there on the far table." Ryan smiled quickly. "Thanks." "Hold on. I did try to wake you up. I was even yelling right in your ear." said Sonic. Ryan stood there, still disbelieving a bit. "You mean to tell me I didn't even seem to react to you yelling right in my ear???" "Yes," Sonic replied. Ryan looked at Sonic, and immediately believed. "Why would he lie?" he thought. Then he said, "Fine. I have no idea what happened in that case." "Well, I sure don't either. Just try to wake up from now on," said Sonic, grinning a little. Ryan laughed a little. "Sure, sure. Wait a sec..." "What?" said Sonic. "What's up for today?" "Not much, man. Just the routine foraging in the woods for anything of use." "Like?" Sonic shrugged. "Pretty rocks for Ant to play with?" the hedgehog said sarcastically. Ryan laughed. "Probably..probably..." Part 3 A few hours later, most people were out in the forest, looking around for various items. Finding usable wood without cutting down trees which would be used for repairs and other things was one priority. Greg, an opossum...in fact, the opossum who persecuted Ryan before, was out in the forest as well. He forgot about having ever hated Ryan for a while, but the recent happening changed his mind again. "Damn human, pretending to be one of us," he thought. "He's just so perfect now that he can heal himself, isn't he?" Greg smirked inwardly and kept on going with his mental assault on Ryan. "I'd just love to see that healing of his put to a test." The opossum kept on looking around and gathering. Little did he know he had just passed a single inch from the trigger of one of the traps set by Packbell's orders. Back at Knothole, Ryan was talking to Bookshire. Ryan leaned back in his seat. "Well, Bookshire...I have no idea if there even is a side effect to all of this. My limits I definitely do not know." Bookshire thought for a moment. "Well, you must have limits...otherwise you'd be a god." "Not an idea I like. Power corrupts...look at Robotnik." Bookshire nodded. "I know. Which is good that you probably do have limitations." Ryan sighed. "Bookshire..." "Yes?" "Do you think this...discovery...has rekindled the prejudice in a few of the Freedom Fighters? It's not something I want to deal with again." "Neither do I...but, unfortunately, I think it may have. With these kinds of powers, and your heritage, people are bound to have some hate and envy pointed towards you." "Well damn it! They can have these powers for all I care... I've been brought nothing much less than pain and suffering due to them." "They can't help themselves. They view humans like that because of Robotnik and Snively...and you can't expect to have the talents you do without some envy attached." "That's exactly my point. Those fools are grouping all humans together into one group that they want to drop into a pit, totally discounting the fact that maybe not all of them are evil." Bookshire sighed this time. "That...is the curse of being only mortal." "You're right. I'm just glad that you and my other friends aren't one of those like that." Bookshire nodded. Sonic suddenly slammed open the door. Ryan and Bookshire spun towards the hedgehog. Sonic looked at both of them quickly, just before he said, "Hurry. Someone's been hurt. Bad." Part 5 When Ryan got there, Bookshire was still a bit behind, hindered by his limp. Ryan had practically sprinted the whole way there. Greg, whom Ryan recognized as the opossum who persecuted him, and also as the person who had realized the mistake of that, looked at him with the same hatred that Ryan had seen when he first arrived. The opossum struggled to rise, and Ryan's eyes widened as he saw the damage. A good-sized hole was surrounded by burned fur, and blood seemed plentiful. Greg managed to weakly say, "Damn it..had you been hit just now, you would have healed yourself and walked away, wouldn't you have?" Ryan and a few others looked down at Greg with surprise, some with disgust...others with support. Ryan moved forward and saw what caused the injury. A small laser was hidden in a tree, and the trigger was visible, and very near Greg. He had hit it. Greg kept talking. "You and all your kind make me sick. It's your fault we're in this mess...your fault these traps were set." Ryan moved forward again. "Guys..back up..I'm going to see if I can use this to heal others as well as myself." Greg didn't pause. "Stay away you damned human. I'd rather die than be healed by you. I don't care if you can." Ryan exploded. "LOOK! I'm so goddamned tired of you idiots pointing fingers at me! I didn't make anyone set the traps! I didn't let Robotnik take over! I didn't do one damn thing! I should let you die...I know you would let me if you could. But I won't! I'm a better person than you. Now shut up and let me try to save your miserable life." Greg finally stopped talking. The others backed away. Some smiling ear-to-ear, some afraid. Ryan stepped forward, and laid a hand on Greg's shoulder. The telltale shimmer of Ryan's shapeshifting and new healing showed on his hand. It also appeared on Greg's wound. The wound closed, fur grew. It looked as though there hadn't even been an accident...not even a scar. Ryan removed his hand and stood, backing away. Ryan glared at Greg. "I'm probably going to regret that. Spread one more rumor about me...and I swear.. Next time...I will let you die." Ryan turned and walked off. Part 6 Ryan stood alone in a clearing. No one knew where he was besides himself. "No one probably even cares," he thought. Ryan looked down at his roboticized finger. He thought again, to himself, "I bear the mark of all the evil here... Along with all the pain and suffering that evil has caused. Bunnie doesn't get the crap I do because she's a native to this planet, not a 'shifter, and has no human background." He looked up, and said aloud, "I wish to remove the mark." Ryan pulled out a knife and looked at it. "I wish..to remove...the mark," he thought. "Healing, you better kick in." The knife descended on the mechanical digit. A scream of pain echoed throughout the forest. Part 7 Ryan awoke about half an hour later. He had passed out. He stared at his hand. There was no longer a machine attached to his hand. He looked around. There it was, on the ground. So was blood, but not much. "Healing must've kicked in right away..despite the fact I blacked out," he thought. Ryan laughed. "No pain now, either," he thought. "I gotta let Sandra know about all this...as soon as she shows up." Ryan turned, and walked back to face the feelings of the other Freedoms Fighters. Without the mark of the evil that plagued Mobius upon him. -THE END-