A Challenge issued

The day was bright with some clouds lazily floating about, not an uncommon sight in this part of the world. Sonic the Hedgehog, meanwhile, was resting in a large oak tree without much care. It had been three months since he and his buddies had thrashed Metal Sonic last. The emeralds were scattered once again, Tails was working on a new invention, and Knuckles was sitting around on Angel Island. As for the others, Sonic didn't have a clue towards their whereabouts. He hadn't heard from Eggman, and wasn't sure if he was glad or disappointed about this. Recently, there wasn't anything to do since the world wasn't in any danger.

Fortunately though, a small metallic sphere with some interesting news hovered over towards the blue hedgehog. It made a loud beeping noise that startled and knocked him off the branch of the tree.

"Ow, my head…" Sonic said, as he rubbed a swollen spot. The sphere floated back down to him and transformed into a miniature television. On the screen was an image of Metal Sonic's head.

"Hm? Well, what do we have here?" Sonic said, curiously. He noticed a play button and instantly pressed it.

"Greetings, organic counter-part," Metal Sonic said, with an expressionless tone. "I have formed a rematch, as you insisted, but this will be an international challenge between a few more competitors. The ultimate winner will receive all seven Chaos Emeralds as a reward. Come to the area listed below to hear the further details. End transmission." Metal Sonic faded while the words, 'Runeswick Valley' took his spot. Sonic knew this place, and was fairly fascinated with this type of a challenge. He wasn't sure who would be joining the race, or how they would arrive, but it probably wouldn't turn out the best.

He took a deep breath before deciding to head over to Runeswick, but was stopped by a faint green aura hovering in front of him. In an instant, a black figure popped out of the opening, grabbed Sonic while doing a flip, and tossed the blue blur back into the same oak tree with a thud. Sonic collapsed on the floor, but easily picked himself back up. Shadow the Hedgehog was glaring straight ahead at him.

"So, Faker, long time no see, huh?" Sonic had a slight grin.

"You seem to be slacking off," Shadow said, with the same smirk.

"Yeah, well, we'll see about that!" Sonic dashed forward with a punch prepared, but the black blur was already gone.

"Shoot!" Sonic cried, as he turned around. He barely caught a faint color of black before he was kicked in the ribs.

"Is the fastest creature alive starting to slow down?" Shadow teased with a mocking tone of surprise. "You're getting old, hedgehog!"

"Yeah, I'll show you old, grandpa," Sonic mumbled as he stood up. He paced for a second, and then rapidly circled Shadow at full speed. This created a slight illusion of several different Sonics running at the same time after each other. The alter-images then all charged into their target at once. Shadow tried to avoid the attack, but was sent into the air regardless. When he reached the peak, though, he managed a back flip and swiftly landed on his feet.

"Is that the best you can do?" Shadow said, coolly crossing his arms.

Sonic revved up his feet, preparing to get serious now, and charged at Shadow with outstretched fists. Shadow quickly jumped to the side and dodged the attack, but Sonic corrected his path in a millisecond and tried to again. Shadow easily dodged as before, but he also decided to stick his leg out this time. The supersonic hedgehog clumsily tripped, but recovered by landing on his hands, doing a flip, and correcting his path.

He returned to Shadow and threw another outstretched punch, but the ultimate life form, still on defense, leaned back to dodge it. Sonic started one more time with his left fist just to be avoided, followed by the right, another left, an uppercut, and then finally finished by putting both fists together and slamming them into Shadow's head for the first connection. Shadow stammered back for a second in shock and pain, giving Sonic the chance to utilize a small device that Tails had given him to test.

"Alright, let's see if this works…" Sonic whispered, as he pressed the button. A blue aura began to glow around Sonic as he headed towards the designated target. "Hey, Faker!" He smirked with a fist ready to strike.

Shadow looked up and was struck in the face by Sonic's attack. He stumbled backwards to be hit again in the back of his head. "What the…" Shadow started, but Sonic appeared in front of him again and struck the exact same punch. Shadow finally collapsed to the ground with Sonic calmly standing above him.

"Cool, it worked!" Sonic exclaimed, his blue aura now gone.

"How'd you do that?" Shadow asked, picking himself up.

"Watch, I press this button," Sonic instructed as he did so, "Then, I attack!" Sonic had another aura as he charged up a spindash and was sent to Shadow. The black hedgehog dodged it, but Sonic vanished and reappeared behind Shadow while continuing his spindash. He did this several times before stopping, and then looked at Shadow who was lying on the floor, again.

"Tails had based it on your Chaos Control attack, but it takes a while to charge up unless you have a Chaos Emerald." Sonic said, simply.

"Well, since I have a Chaos Emerald, my attack is still better then!" Shadow replied, revealing a green emerald he had been hiding. He stuck it in the air and shouted, "Chaos Control!" Before being swallowed by a green light, and vanishing. He copied Sonic's moves and struck him from every angle at warp-speed until Sonic finally collapsed himself.

"I'll have to finish this next time, blue hedgehog. There's somewhere I have to be right now." There was a final green light and Shadow was gone.

"Yeah, well, good riddance!" Sonic shouted, standing back up. He began walking towards Runeswick Valley again, but was stopped by someone else. A small wolf popped out from behind tree this time, which startled the speedy hero. He had gray fur with a black stripe on the top of his head and wore a blue vest. He was almost a foot below Sonic, and looked to be young.

"Hey, Sonic!" He shouted.

"Sheesh! Don't sneak up on me!" Sonic replied.

"You almost lost to that black guy! Did you go easy on him?" The small wolf asked.

"Yeah, he's pretty tough, but in a real fight, I could easily take him out." Sonic grinned.

"What was that thing you were using?"

"Hmm? Oh, this is Tails' new invention!" Sonic said as he took out the tiny device. "It's called the A.F.I.S.T."

"A.F.I.S.T.?" The wolf asked.

"Yeah, the aggressively fast initiative stupefying technique," Sonic said with a small chuckle towards Tails' strange name.

"Cool!" the wolf said as he quickly grabbed it.

"Hey! Careful David!" Sonic shouted as he attempted to take back the device. But David had already pressed the button and a green aura shown on him.

"Whoa, awesome!" David said. He a jumped into the air and did a flip similar to Sonic's spindash. He then disappeared and reappeared behind Sonic and hit him.

"Oof!" Sonic said as he stumbled forward. David appeared in front of Sonic and attacked one more time before landing.

"Whoa, sorry Sonic!" David said, and helped him up.

"Uh, it's okay David," Sonic answered, "just don't touch my things without my permission anymore!"

"All right," David said, as he gave back the A.F.I.S.T. "So, where are you goin'?" The wolf started to walk alongside Sonic. They had only known each other for a few weeks, but David was already attached to Sonic like a small kid brother. Sonic didn't really mind though because David had already proven helpful, and he almost missed having someone tag along like Tails used to.

The young wolf was eleven years old and was pretty fast. He was captured by Eggman and would have been turned into a robot, but Sonic had come in and saved the day at the right time. David couldn't perform a spindash like Sonic, but he could do several fast flips and had excellent leg strength.

"I'm headin' to Runeswick valley," Sonic told the wolf. "You know the place?"

"Uh, I think so." David scratched his head.

"Well, I think we should hurry up to make it there on time." Sonic smiled and began to pick up the pace. The young wolf did so as well, and the two were off in a flash.