Chapter 11: Leaving behind Knothole- Beginning of a new era

"So it seems I won’t ever be able to get away from you guys," Sotsu said as the two ex-earthlings opened their eyes. They found themselves in two separate beds.

"Where are we?" Evi-Tanoted said in a weak voice.

"You’re in my home," Sotsu replied, settling in a wooden chair next to the white desk that was pushed into the corner to make room for the extra bed.

"Your home? Where’s that?" Evi-Tanoted said looking around.

"Oh God. I didn’t now your.. your…" Evi-Tanoted stumbled as he recognized the objects about the room. The TRIGUN wall scroll, the white desk with the computer, the sunglasses.

"I left that identity a while ago. I’d prefer if you call me by my present name, Sotsu," Sotsu said.

"Where the hell are we though?" the wolf asked.

"You’re in Knothole. I know you haven’t read the comics so I’ll inform you. We are in the town that Sonic and the Freedom Fighters live in. Yes… er…" Sotsu stopped realizing he never caught the wolf’s name. 

"Wolf," the wolf replied.

"Lemme guess who you are," Sotsu said, it was probably his friend from earth, the one that always named his characters in D&D with the most unoriginal of names, it was either his name, or it was Angel.

"Yeah you still owe me money," Sotsu said. Wolf grinned.

Remoan walked in and brought in the Chaos Emerald.

"Knuckles said that we might want to use this," Remoan said, holding up the emerald.

"Yeah... Wolf doesn’t need anything and Evi only would want his computer," Sotsu said.

"Hey be quiet!" Evi-Tanoted snapped back.

"Yeah I want might want my computer to!" Wolf shouted.

"Why, it’s not like we can play on Battle Net because we can’t get net access here," Sotsu implied.

"Oh yeah," Evi-Tanoted said.

"Hey. I just realized something," Wolf said, a air of slight confusion spread across his face.

"What?" Remoan asked.

"We’re all stuck like this and this is like the Monster Rancher show," Wolf said blankly.

"Yeah, but it doesn’t matter much because here we have reason of being," Sotsu said.

"Ha! You only have three fingers!" Wolf said pointing at Sotsu.

"Yeah how are you gonna play guitar. Or are you just gonna take up bass," Evi-Tanoted mocked.

"Hey be quiet. At least… er… something," Sotsu snapped back. Wolf and Evi-Tanoted continued laughing.

"Oh yea’. I got the D&D stuff here," Sotsu said lifting the heavy tan duffel bag.

"Yeah but we’ve got cooler things to do now," Wolf said.

"Like what?" Sotsu asked, though he was afraid of the answer.

"Well since we got psychic powers and stuff we can go around scaring people," Wolf said with his usual grin.

"Yeah that’d be fun," Evi-Tanoted said.

"Look you guys are in bad condition right now so stay in bed. I’ll just sleep on the floor since that’s normal for me anyway," Sotsu said. He remembered back on Earth he had a back problem and if he slept in a bed he’d wake up with a sore neck, so he slept on the floor a lot.

"What about me?" Remoan asked.

"You can conjure yourself something using that Chaos Emerald there," Sotsu said pointing it.

"Ha! You’re flipping him off when you point!" Wolf shouted. Sotsu hadn’t put his gloves back on since he usually took them off when he played guitar. Except he forgot that he was going to.

"I’m going now and you two rest! Remoan you might want to rest as well you took a pretty badly beating," Sotsu said as he headed out of the door.

Sotsu went to check on the tailor to see if his suit was ready. He didn’t like the idea of going around with nothing. Back on Earth he’d always were a windbreaker jacket of some kind because he liked having a sufficient amount of clothing. 


He noticed something strange though, despite having been shot and beat up, he was walking around like nothing had ever happened. In fact, no wounds were visible whatsoever. 

"Hey Sotsu," Knuckles called, walking from the diner.

"Mr. Knuckles it’s good so see you," Sotsu said extending his hand.

"Just call me Knuckles. I’m sorry if I seemed rude before, I was busy," Knuckles said shaking Sotsu’s hand.

"That’s no problem. Hey I was wondering if I could go back to Echidnaopolis with you whenever you go back," Sotsu said, trying to keep polite sounding as possible.

"Sure no problem. But I’m going to be here for a little longer. Most likely a few days," Knuckles replied.

"Hey what happened to your wounds?" Sotsu asked.

"I can regenerate most wounds within a short time span. It seems for some reason, you’ve done the same."

"Funny. I wonder if I’ve gotten your DNA somehow," Sotsu’s tone held both curiosity and fear. 

"Well I don’t recall being in contact with you until we meet before we left to Robotropolis."

"Do you think maybe Robotnik might have some of your DNA somewhere in the base?"

"I don’t know. That’s a possibility. After all he’s been in plenty of fights with me, so all he’d have to do is get some of my blood."

"But then again that doesn’t explain why you have black fur," Knuckles added.

"Do you figure that if I do have Guardian DNA that, that may be another factor of my extra abilities?" Sotsu asked.

"Well if you do have Guardian DNA then yeah if would. Not only that but you’ll end up living a lot longer to," Knuckles replied.

"Ah crud," Sotsu mumbled. He didn’t like the fact that he’d already decided that if he had a choice to go home he would stay here, but now he was going to be able to outlive all of his friends if he did. But… would it be wrong to stay here. I’d be helping on the behalf of a greater cause. Why then do I feel guilty?

"Not only that but the spikes on you hands are real. I’m the only echidna I know that has real spikes on his hands," Knuckles said indicating Sotsu’s ungloved hands.

"Well I’ve gotta go check up on my suit. I don’t like standing here like… well… this," Sotsu said. 

He got to the tailor. The middle-aged mouse had finished and given back Sotsu his suit. It looked better then ever, as far as he knew, he just got a new one. Sotsu donned the suit and made it back home.

"Hey you got your suit back," Remoan said greeting Sotsu as he walked in.

"Yeah I like it," Sotsu said pulling the wrinkles out of the selves.

"Yeah are you wearing that?" Wolf asked.

"Feels uncomfortable without anything on," Sotsu replied.

"Yeah I want my pants and shirt back," Evi-Tanoted whined.

"Even talking about this feels awkward," Sotsu said staring blankly ahead.

"I know what you mean. Talking about it doesn’t sound right," Remoan added.

"So what do we do now that we’re stuck in this ‘Sonic world?’ " Evi-Tanoted asked.

"I don’t know about you guys," Sotsu began," But I’m gonna go to Echidnaopolis and meet the Chaotix.

The three others gave him a slightly confused look.

"Ahem… Echidnaopolis is on the Floating Island. The Floating Island is where Knuckles lives. The Chaotix are a group of people that are like the Freedom Fighters, except there cooler," Sotsu answered.

"Yeah I know who the Chaotix are," Wolf said.

"Eh… can I come?" Evi-Tanoted said.

"I’m staying here with the Freedom Fighters. It’s cool that Sonic is like real here," Wolf said.

"Yeah, I think I might come with you guys," Remoan said.

"Yeah. I don’t think Knuckles will mind. I’m sure he’d welcome the help," Sotsu said.

"Well I’m gonna go out to the forest and practice. C’ya guys," Sotsu said waving his hand as he exited.

Sotsu went out a ways into the forest. He conjured up his punching weights that he had back on earth and began to practice several punching drills. Time passed fairly quickly and night fell onto Knothole. Sotsu began to head back home, he looked up at the bright stars that shined through the foliage of the trees. Despite being a little exhausted Sotsu decided to practice a little longer, mostly to enjoy the beautiful night sky. 

"Hey um… Sotsu," Remoan said as he stepped into the perimeter.

"Hi’a Remoan," Sotsu replied as he rested his arms.

"You must like it out here. It’s going on ten or so."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. I used to practice outside at night a lot back on Earth."

"Well I just wanted to check on ya’ " Remoan said as he walked back toward the town.

"Okay then c’ya" Sotsu said lifting his arms back into a fighting position.

Sotsu finally did go back to his hut. Wolf and Evi-Tanoted took the two beds, Remoan slept in the chair next to the desk and Sotsu slept on the floor. It was a decent night’s rest, though he was woken when Evi-Tanoted tripped over him. 

The next day the after the group grabbed breakfast at the diner, they went to go off and do separate things. Sotsu was later called to the town because of complaints that two of his friends were going around scaring people.

"What have you guys been doing?" Sotsu said approaching Wolf and Evi-Tanoted.

"Er…nothing," Evi-Tanoted said hiding behind Wolf’s legs.

"I told you before not to fool around like that. You could get in major trouble," Sotsu said sternly.

"Ok we’ll stop. But that doesn’t mean…" Wolf began.

"That does mean overall stop fooling around," Sotsu cut in.

"Alright," Wolf said with a disgusted tone.

Sotsu decided to head back to his hut and work on his computer. Because he had no access to the Internet he hadn’t been keeping up on updating his three fan fics he’d been working on. Yes that’s right, fan fics. I’m sure you people have all guessed who he is by now… right?

He flipped the switch on and the computer booted into Windows. He had on his Knuckles wallpaper. Sotsu looked around… I wonder what he’d think about this? He switched the wallpaper to a TRIGUN one. One of the ones he made. There, now I won’t even have to worry about it.

"Hey Sotsu," Remoan said entering the room.

"Whatcha doing?" he added as he looked on the screen.

"I was just going to work on one of my fan fics," Sotsu said clicking on the Microsoft Word icon.

"Ah… Man there’s not much to do around here," Remoan commented as he watched Sotsu begin typing.

"Enough to keep the other two busy."

"Yeah. We’ll their just acting stupid. Hey maybe we can boot TFC in Kevin’s and your computer and we can play LAN."

"We need a hook-up line."

"I’m sure there’s something like that somewhere."

"We’re in the middle of a forest. Not only that but the only thing like that would be in Robotropolis and I really don’t feel like going back there."

"Yeah I know. Hey how can you type so fast with only three fingers?"

"Practice," Sotsu replied matter-of-factly.

"Hmmm. Okay, c’ya," Remoan said as he walked out the door.

A knock came to the door. Sotsu opened to see Knuckles.

"Hi Mr.…er… Hi Knuckles," Sotsu said.

"Hey there Sotsu. Well I’m leaving tomorrow actually. You might want to get whatever stuff you have and pack it up," Knuckles said.

"Me friends asked if they could come. Do you think that’s too much trouble?"

"Actually. I believe it’d be best if they didn’t," Knuckles replied.

"Oh… how come?"
"Well, if you are a Guardian, then in all best interests you should keep your friends away… at least for the time being. Not only that, but Robotnik is expected to retaliate by attacking Knothole and it would be best for your friends to stay here and guard the place."

"Ok that’s fine. I’ll be ready by early tomorrow," Sotsu said.

"Okay then later," Knuckles said taking off toward the hut he’s staying in.


Sotsu closed the door and began searching through his desk drawers. He produced a small zip disk and put it into the computer. He loaded all of his writing onto the disk and put it into a case. He took his wall scroll, CD Player with TRIGUN soundtrack, his DVDs and his paper pad and pencils.

"I’m sure my computer will be fine," Sotsu said patting the monitor. Then Sotsu’s attention was drawn out the window when he heard a loud shout. It was Evi-Tanoted being put into a sleeper hold by Wolf.

"Poor, poor computer," Sotsu said softly.

Sotsu replied all the news to his friends and he said to take care of whatever he leaves behind. He also told them to help out the Freedom Fighters to the best of their abilities and they can visit him whenever.

Everyone was up early. All of the Freedom Fighters stood outside. Knuckles was waiting at the edge of the town. Sotsu walked up to Kevin first. 

"C’ya Kevin. I owe you a lot. You saved me from Robotnik, and you gave me hope for a better tomorrow. A second chance in life," Sotsu said giving the cooxen a good handshake.

"Sonic, I except you to watch out for my friends. And I hope no hard feelings have come between us. Best of luck of you," Sotsu gave Sonic a pat on the back.

"Sally thanks for helping out. Hope you find someone nice," Sotsu said, Sally gave him a hug. 


"All of you guys. Best of luck to you. Well… until next time, c’ya!" Sotsu announced as he headed over toward Knuckles.

"You guys remember," Sotsu began pointing toward his friends," behave and don’t screw around. You screw around you’re gonna get hurt."


The two echidnas walked off into the trees. Everyone waved goodbye, then it was quiet after the two left the perimeter.

"Hey wanna go scare people?" Wolf said.

"Yeah… Monkey!" Evi-Tanoted exclaimed as he put on a gorilla mask.

"Oh God help me," Remoan whined.

 

Notes:

This is the end of the first Sotsu saga. I thought I could make it longer then eleven chapters but heck I like the Chaotix too much to leave them out that long. Anyway… the next saga is labeled Sotsu: Chaotix. This one (despite never having actually been labeled) is suppose to be Sotsu: A Second Chance. If Mr. Sonic Hedgehogs labels the sagas on the chapter’s screen then it should work out. 

Now… feel free to e-mail me with feed back. I know I’m sure there are some form of plot holes here and there, or something of the like. Well I hope you’ve enjoyed it thus far because I’m not stopping Sotsu until I’m forced to… Mr. Lu has opened made a plot background in which I can easily develop a plot and story line basis. Therefore I’ve already planned out most of this upcoming one and will be coming out with almost a chapter a day. So if you’ve been reading it, check on the updates everyday. 

Oh yeah and I almost forgot. Those question marks on the first notes that were next to my name… those were suppose to be crosses using the Monotype Sort font. But it didn’t transfer so screw it.

Well thanks for now! Tell next time… C’ya!

 

 

-Nicholas D. Wolfwood-