FoxFire Studios present:

Sonic the Hedgehog:  Blood and Metal Restart

Installment Two:

By David Gonterman

Sonic the Hedgehog by Sega of America
Blood and Metal by David Gonterman
MechTail by Paul Lapansee
Kickaha by Edward Becerra
Bear (a.k.a. The Hermit) by Daniel Davis
___________________________

     The argument started with MechTail and Davey over at
Antoine's:

Mech:  "You're getting as bad as Robotnik!!"

Davey:  "What do ya want to hear, Paul?  That some days I
actually feel like roboticizing someone?!  I do!!  I even got a
Roboticizer for the occasion . . ."

     Suddenly, several from around this diatribe join in,
supposedly on *David's* side, but actually spouting the same
violent streak as Davey did.
 
	"Do you think that putz that turned my Family into scrap should
have rights!?"  "You yourself knows what Robotnik's all about!! 
I don't give a rip if he *did* get neutered yesterday!  It's
great!!  We don't want him to bear offspring!!  er, no offence,
David . . ."  "And he was about to burn down *the entire Great
Forest* just to get at Knothole, and just because we have his
son!!  We're weren't about to just let that happen, were we."

     And some more coming from that direction.  Apparently,
Robotnik's return has put a good amount of Freedom Fighters 
on edge.  It appears to Davey that if he doesn't kill Blubber-butt, it 
would be certain that one of *them* will!!

     Davey notices this as the argument begins to escalate, he
takes Mech aside.  

     "Hey listen, I don't care right now whatever or not I want
to kill Robotnik.  He's my dad.  I feel the moral obligation--a
dept that needs to be balanced--to stop him once and for all. 
But the others, they're out for his blood.  It's not just me
going over the edge, but the entire populace as well.  And even
if I *do* turn bad, I don't want the rest of the world to go the
same way I'm going.  [A sigh, and a silent curse]  We need the
ROCC more then ever . . ."

     "ROCC??"
_______________________________

     David gathered an audience with the King, and every one of
his cloest friends.  He's showed an hologram of a machine with a
crystaline chamber, glowing with Chaos Emeralds and Power Rings.

     "You're looking at the ROCC:  Retro Orbiting Chaos
Compressor.  It is the last masterpiece of my father.  When
pumped with seven Chaos Emeralds and fifty Power Rings.  The ROCC
begins to suck the chaotic energies from the planet it's in at
that time.  I intend to find this ROCC and re-activate it.  The
entire nots of it are in Julian."

     "Way past cool, Davey.  If you pull it off and get this ROCC
back on-line."

     "The world of Mobius could be restored to it's origional
beauty; it could be as if Robotnik ever happened!!  This is
great!!"

     "However, I must warn you:"

     All eyes turn to Uncle Chuck.

     "This is the same machine that turned your father into
Robotnik, if you'll remember.  According to record, he spilled
soda pop and a hard-boiled egg on it, and it released all that
chaotic energy right into your Father.  You know the rest by
now."

     "How can I forget?"  David shook his head.  The batter
earlier this week were still fresh in his mind.  Looking back, he
couldn't believe that so much bloodshed could occurr within one
battle.  He suddenly pulled himself back together.  "We just
don't allow that accident to occurr again, that's all."

     "I agree."  King Acorn looked right at Davey with eyes that
gleamed with royalty.  "A good friend once said that any idea, no
matter the risk or danger, is better than doing nothing about
your problems.  We will help you fulfill your Father's last
dream, David Kintobor.  We must have the ROCC.  We will begin at
dawn."
_________________________________

     David couldn't sleep well that night.  In fact, he couldn't
sleep well since that battle with his father.  Even in his own
liberal definition of "Violence," it was too much.  Every time he
tries to fall asleep, he would return to the battlefield, staring
down a Father that want's him, his teammates, his friends, and
the rest of the Great Forest--Flora and Fauna--dead.  His
response to his father wasn't a shining example of diplomacy
either:  He was actually feral at that point.  He couldn't think
straight; he could only see Robotnik hack his way through
critters du joir, each stolen life demanding retrebution.  He
would want nothing less than to slice his lightsaber across that
pitiful excuse of a neck Robotnik has.

     He couldn't tell which was worse:  The state of his mind at
that time, or the fact that he left Robotnik go.

     -That does it for me.  No more Rise of the Triad for the
rest of my life-

     He cringed when he saw that game in his menu.  Before this
battle, playing ROTT was nothing for him.  He just switch on
"Woundless Mode," crank the violence to "Ecessive Plus" and take
out his desire to punch out fill-in-the-blank on some pitiful
monks and stormtroopers.  He would actually revel in the body
parts flying and spraying countless air space with digitized
blood.

     But now, that he actually played a round of ROTT for *real*
. . .
____________________________

     Kickaha saw David leave his hut, he motions him toward the
campfire.

     "Can't sleep, my friend?"

     "Yeah, I can't seem to do that as of late."

     "Still can't shake the demons from your head, I see.  Still
thinking about that battle we had?"

     "Yeah.  I'm still stunned at what I did back there.  It
didn't matter to me when I play Mortal Kombat with Swatbot's. 
I'd figure that Robotnik would be more like a bot, too.  But he
was *a living flesh and blood person **like I am**!  I thought I
was going to kill him."  He hung his head in disbelief.

     "Hey, you put Klingons to shame, and you're afraid of
actually *killing* someone?  Have you forgotten what Robatsy
wanted to *do* with you and your new world?"

     "I know all that, but . . ."  His voice drifted into his own
thoughts:

     -It's a lot more than anything here, even with Robotnik,
isn't it.  Anybody with a good eye for it can tell; I've got a
lot of anger pent up in me.  It wouldn't even register to the
common man, or sometimes even to myself, but there it is.  It was
fostered long ago, according to that trip in Pippkin's mansion: 
I was pissed off at *everybody*--mad at my Dad for leaving.  Mad
at my Mom for being this dysfuntional jerk that disapproved with
every-phracking-thing I say, do, and *be*.  Mad at the other
schoolkids for making my schooldays a living hell.  The teachers
were no help; they were the ones that made me scarred stiff at my
anger, and then at everybody else.  Other relatives, uh-uh.  The
trailer park bunkies that I got dumped to?  The mean well, but
heck, they're incompetent.  The Church I grew up in?  Jesus H.
Christ Almighty, with all this humans (humans?  was I one too?) 
labeling me "Unforgiven" for, heck, being born, It's a total
shock that I had ever accepted you as my Personal Savior and
Lord.  (Now *there's* a guy I haven't heard from as of late.  I'd
sell my soul to the devil to have Him do what Old Man Coyote is
doing right now)-

     >You got me at for a discount, Grandson<

     David looked up from his pout for the god who, dispite not
being the shining example of divinity or is concerned with dying
for anyone's sins, has come down from whater gods live, show up
in his live, shake it up every now and then, and generaly look
out for him (And what would David Kintobor would want to do with
God?  Shake his hand, hand him a Diet Coke, tell a joke or two? 
That's what he wants in a god, not--surprisingly, due to his
upbringing--anything that has to do with nail holes) --

     "Earth to Kinto, hello?"

     He only saw Kickaha, who looked around to see if he was
alone with him.

     "I've seen that look that's on your face before, but believe
me, it is worse.  You have no doubt heard of Communists?"

     "I do.  Does this have to do with that trip to Germany
Pippkin sent you to?"

     "Yeah.  While I was there, I had to help an Army Veteran
come to terms with something a lot like what you're going through
right now."

     "What the heck happened to him?"

     "Well," he sighs, struggling for his words.  "He was made
to, unlike you, stand by and do nothing while these Comunists
plink away with villagers that were trying to excape their
cuelity."

     "Damn.  Glad I'm not him."

     "<No duh>  Like I said, he was worse off than what you are
at that time."

     "I'd bet he'd felt that he failed them."

     "He did.  He had a *big* debt on his conscious; something
that he is incapable of paying back."

     "What did you say to him."  He had a great intent in his
eyes, looking for answers for his own problem.

     "We Wild Pack believe that if you can't pay a debt back with
anything short of marching your poor tail straight to Hell, be it
some religious place or one of your own making, there is an
alternative; paying the debt *forward.*  Think of it as covering
a bad debt with a million coats of "random acts of kindness;" 
lighting a candle, instead of cursing the darkness.  I think you
believe in this without knowing it, with what you said about "any
idea being better than nothing" and all.  Maybe that can help
you."

     David did some improntu soul-searching.  "The closest thing
I could ever think I have to such a 'bad debt' like what you just
told me about, is the bad debt I have . . . to myself.  I grew up
believing that I could never be good-bright-neat-fast-strong-
whatever enough.  To this day not a day goes by without any
voices in my head telling me this.  If there's anything that
needs to be "paid forward," it is this.  But how?"

     "I think it has something to do with another debt you have."

     "The moral responsibility I have to undo the damage my
Father done--and doing, now that he's back.  I'm his phracking
*son!*  It's my duty!  It's why I'm looking for this ROCC in the
first place, not waiting for someone to hack off my head--which
is something that would happen to me if all this would happen
back at Earth, no doubt."

     "Hey, I just thought of something:  If the ROCC can suck the
evil from a planet, maybe it'll suck all this anger from you. 
You can finally find peace in your soul from all this emotional
baggage you carried over here."

     "You're right!  I think it'll work.  It could even work on
my Dad!"

     "Yeah!"

     A pause.

     David sighs, then returns to the campfire.

     "but who would want him to?"

     David has a point.  Even Mobian Grace should have a limit
somewhere.  They could take in the son of the man who enslaved
their people and nearly destroyed the planet, but the one who did
it himself?
___________________________

     That morning, as he prepared to leave for the ROCC, he
fetched for Bear to join him, since he has a nack for older
machinery.  He rounded up with Sonia and Antoine.

     "We're going to need seven Chaos Emeralds and fifty Magic
Rings," he told Sonic, who responded with a 'will do,' and took
off with Tails.

     "Zee bikes are gazzed up and ready, mon ami.  Vee are going
to do zome zerious rumbling.  Varooom.  Varooommmm.  Varroooom." 
He made like jumpstarting a motorbike.

     As the three reached a garage, they were joined by a fourth: 
King Acorn has traded his regally royal garb and crown with a
faded jacket.  "You mind if I join you three?"

     "Sir, is this wise.  Y're the ruler of there people.  These
missions get dangerous at times."

     "You're Will Riker act is greatly appreciated, David, but I
wouldn't send anyone to do something that I would do myself. 
Besides, I want the people to see that their king's back on his
throne."

     "Very well, then."  Davey hoisted King Acorn on his larger
hoverbike.

     "Daddy?!" Sally protexted as they passed her.

     "Don't worry, Sal.  We'll keep him in one piece."

     With that, the three hoverbikes took off and sped away.

     "Do you know where we can find this ROCC, Davey?"

     "I do, Bear.  It's collecting dust in the basement of Dr.
Robotnik's old lab in the mountains."

     "I know zat place.  It ez zee one with a sculpture of him at
zee side."

     "Yeah, Ant.  My Pop'a always has been full of himself."  He
switched to a com-link.  "Sonic, you there?  We're heading for
the ROCC now."

     "I hear ya, Davey.  I'm showing this Starfire girl the
ropes.  [static]  Whoa!!  She just toasted another one.  This
girl can really fly!!"

     As he switched the com-link off, he said to Acorn, "What
were you doing on my home planet?  Selling tickets over here?"

     "It's a long story, son,"  Acorn started as they sped off
toward the horizon."
_________________________________

Whoa!!  I just finished this one just one half hour after
finishing off the second part of the Orange Ranger Trilogy!! 
It's attached to the back of SMAK 6--Edward's side....

To Be Continued.

E-mail me at dgonterman@aol.com, or visit my web site at
http://users.aol.com/dgonterman