The following short story is based on characters created and/or copyrighted by SEGA! Enterprises, DiC Productions, Archie Comic Publishers, Fleetway Comic Publishers, and the Taki Corporation. All other characters were created and copyrighted by Roland Lowery The author gives permission to distribute this work freely as long as it remains intact and unaltered, and the transfer of monetary units is not involved. Questions, comments, suggestions, complaints? Send them to me at . I enjoy hearing from people who can spell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote for the day: "I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis, and I don't deserve that, either. -Jack Benny ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speed by Roland Lowery (aka Jim Doe) EVERYTHING MELTED around him. The sights. The sounds. The colors. He was moving within pure ecstacy, and it was moving within him. It flowed through and about him in ways he could never describe to another person, even though he knew every feeling in his heart, all the way down to the tiniest detail of the merest fraction of a second of it. He didn't, technically, see what was truly going on around him. He didn't see the outskirts of a run-down city, followed by open plains and then a dense forest. Instead, he had the impressions of the images imprinted on his brain, processed with mind numbing speed. He sensed, rather that saw or heard, oncoming threats to his being, and was able to counter them anywhere from minutes to mere nanoseconds before they actually caused him harm. He especially enjoyed the nanosecond saves, as they gave him the biggest thrill, the closest feeling of being on the edge, even though he knew he could easily run circles around anything that stood in his path. He wanted the ecstacy of these fleeting moments to never, ever end. He felt the urge to simply turn back and go through the entire exercise again, simply for the sensation. But he was aware that he would have to stop sometime, and that sometime was- "Now!" "What's that, Sonic?" Sonic T. Hedgehog, self-proclaimed fastest thing alive, tapped his foot. A few feet away, Princess Sally Acorn was busy typing something into her palm top computer, Nicole. She appeared to still be totally engrossed in her work, despite the fact that Sonic had just run up to her with the customary sonic boom and rush of air. "What's that?" Sonic asked, placing a cupped hand to his ear. "The main hedgehog doesn't even rate a 'hello, how are you' anymore?" Sally looked up just long enough to give her visitor a disparaging glance. "I'm a little busy, Sonic," she said. "What do you need?" Sonic pointed both of his thumbs over his shoulder. "I just came back from Robotropolis with that disk you wanted," he said. "Uh, yah, okay," Sally said distractedly. "Just . . . set it down somewhere." "Ooooo . . . kaaaaay," Sonic said. He pulled the disk from a pocket on his backpack, set it on a table near Sally, then slowly walked out of the hut, frowning. Busy again, he thought. It had seemed like she was getting busier every day since a few weeks before. She hardly ever left her hut anymore, leaving missions up to Sonic and the rest, and barely seeming to care whether they really got done or not. With a final shake of his head to clear the cobwebs, Sonic blasted amongst the huts of Knothole Village until he stood in front of the one he shared with his bestest bud, Tails. He slowly opened the door to find the two tailed fox resting in bed and leafing through a torn magazine salvaged from Robotropolis. Tails looked up blearily and tried to smile, but it turned into a series of wet coughs.