EEnE Z IDC Ch. 13: The Hedgehog of Clan Lightning

Drew's eyebrows arched at the hedgehog opposite of him. What made this orange hedgehog different from all the other furries he had met so far? Well, for one thing, even though he was male, he wore white pants and green shoes. Also, he seemed to specialize in elemental energy control, as he demonstrated when sparring with Zach when they found him.

Just how did they wind up with this new ally? Well, after a hard day's training in the gravity room, Tails and Amy came up with a plan for the fighters to improve their numbers, to compensate for the two dimensionally misplaced. Drew, Zach, and Eddy set out in the world, combing every area. Eventually, they found a forested area, where the orange hedgehog in question was busy fighting off other dead villains. They proved to be no match for him at all. Curious about his skill, Zach, the one who found him, had a quick spar, and was happy to lead the hedgehog back to base.

"I just don't get it..." Drew said. "Of all the fighters we could have found, why did it have to be him?"

"I'll have you know I am among the top ranked of the Lightning Animal Clan." the orange hedgehog responded. "I want to offer assistance, since we too, in the elemental clans, have seen the dimensional disturbances."

"What's your name?" Edd asked, who had, up until recently, been helping Tails make calibrations to the gravity chamber.

"Streak," said the orange hedgehog in response, "Streak the Hedgehog."

"That is the most original surname I've heard." Drew answered with sarcasm.

"Look, do you want me to prove that I can help you all out, 'Drew', was it?" Streak questioned, having had his fill of Drew's mouth.

"Fine," said Drew. "In one hour, we will spar in that gravity room. Since I'm in a relatively good mood at the moment, I will only use the ten-fold Kaioken against you. The gravity level will be fifty times that of Earth, so you'd best be preparing yourself for that..."

"Agreed," replied the orange hedgehog, "So, am I allowed to get used to lighter gravities before this?"

"I'm not merciless. I may have a disdain for anthros, furries, like you, but as long as you are our ally, I will treat you like I do any other-as a student, and to some extent, as a man." the angular-haired Saiyan confirmed. "Don't take it too serious, though."

With that, Streak walked towards the gravity chamber.

"You're going to spend the whole hour in there?" asked Tails, already moving toward the panel.

"I don't have a choice," the elementalist responded, already inside. "I've never been in any gravity other than our own. Start me off at ten, and increase it every fifteen minutes until it's time for the spar with Drew."
---
The hour came and went, and Drew cracked his knuckles.

"Alright, let's see what he's made of..." the Saiyan said, entering the chamber. When he processed the interior of the room, just the same as it had been since its creation in Episode 20, he noticed the orange hedgehog from before, walking along slowly.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be..." Streak responded to the unspoken question, crossing his arms in front of his face with some difficulty, "Raiken!" As he yelled out the name of his move, a yellow lightning bolt appeared in his left middle quill.

"Hm, so it's just like the Kaioken...but it seems to increase your speed more than your power..." Drew observed as he sensed the power spike. Without a word, he went to the tenfold Kaioken, just as he had promised. "Show me what you've got, Streak!"

With the starting bell rung, the anthromorph immediately got into range, leaving behind only a yellow lightning bolt. Before Drew realized it, a punch was thrown, and he was hit by it. This was followed by a kick to the chest that sent him back. The Saiyan soon recovered, and began to attack back, but some of his strikes were fended off.

His speed has increased, but his power has jumped as well...this is actually interesting... Drew noted. He dodged a hay-bale punch after a bit more of the melee exchange, and axe-heel kicked the anthromorph away, letting loose a few small blue ki balls. Streak recovered, and discharged several lightning-based attacks, canceling out the Saiyan's attack.

20 times his base power...but his speed's been enhanced a lot more...! the Saiyan observed as once again, a mass of light came through the smoke. He stuck out his hands, and found himself actually having to struggle with the hedgehog's power. Suddenly, Drew felt an unspeakable pain as an unknown amount of lightning-based energy was streamed directly into him from the anthro's hands. He was then thrown back, but recovered in time to kick Streak in the head.

"Have I proven myself to you yet?" the hedgehog asked of him, clearly tired of the filler chapter at hand. For the first time since meeting Streak, Drew felt he had agreed with him. This chapter was filler, but important filler, for they had found Sonic's replacement while the cobalt hedgehog was off-world with his cousin.

Briefly, Drew's thoughts returned to his cousin. Wherever he was, he'd hoped he was safe, and not falling in love with interdimensional characters. Not only would that lead to heartbreak on their parts, if said character was any form of furry, Corey would have to answer to him! But mostly, he'd hoped he and Sonic were safe. And he'd also hoped they'd carry on the fight, try to find new teammates, and Streak was strong enough to be one of them, anthro or not!

"Yes, you have. You can join us in our training," Drew dropped the hostility, relaxing his stance. Streak and Drew both powered down, and exited the chamber, where they were soon replaced by Zach, Knuckles and Ed, ready for another go-around.
---
However, much like with Corey and Sonic in the forested world, all was not well with this group either. In this case, a human-looking male, with jet black hair and pale skin was watching them with dark purple eyes. Like the deer mentioned previously, he too, was an agent of Oskuro sent to interfere with any possible plans the heroes had. And he too, was forced to adapt to the universal physics.

"For my master...I will put a halt to their plans, should they figure out what their Chaos Emeralds can do..." he murmured, vanishing in a shroud of black and purple mist.