All Sonic the Hedgehog characters are copyrights of SEGA, DIC, and Archie Comics. Silver the Hedgehog is copyrighted by me.
Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a Sonic adapt, which is based after the Sonic 3 and Knuckles game for Genesis. Metal Sonic takes the place of Robotnik being the one to trick Knuckles initially. I also decided to start calling Metal Sonic by the name Mecha part of the time when talking about him. (It just sounds better than Metal) I'm using a few elements from NetRaptor's story S3&K. Like the fact that the red Chaos Emerald becomes super hot when separated from the green emerald. And the fact that the emeralds split up when they are given to someone who shouldn't have them when the green emerald is missing. There will likely be more things that are similar or taken from NetRaptor's story later on, so I just want to say now that anything I do take that is her idea, it is copyrighted by her.
Story Note: This story takes place approximately 1 year after the events in "A new Enemy, A New Ally". The Freedom Fighters have gathered all the chaos emeralds, even the one Robotnik had, but Shadow's vision of destruction still remains. I might put in the stories regarding the collecting of the emeralds later on, but I wanted to get to the good stuff. Only Angel Island will be split into it's two acts on account of the prologue taking up a good portion of the first chapter. All other chapters (Zones) will be written as though the two acts are combined into one.
The 1st person Point Of View is Knuckles, who is recalling his memories of what happened with some regret to what he did.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Chapter 1
Prologue
Today's a lovely spring morning in Knothole as the sun rises above the tree line, sending its warm glow streaming through the forest. There have been a lot of changes to the small village in the last year. The first of which was the return of Robotnik, who unleashed a new robot version of Sonic, called Metal Sonic. Another was their two newest recruits, Silver the Hedgehog, formally known as Mecha-Sonic; and Shadow the Hedgehog, a black hedgehog that had shown them what the future of Mobius would hold if they didn't change their outlook on the war. While an official Freedom Fighter, Shadow never went on any mission that involved facing Robotnik or Mecha for a personal reason, so Robotnik has never seen him. Now about a year after Shadow first came to Knothole, things are finally quieting down. Sonic had collected all seven Chaos Emeralds, which they had found out could transform him into Super Sonic by striking two of the emeralds together when holding onto all seven. Silver had been coated with a special silver colored metal alloy just like Metal Sonic's blue alloy that protected him from the effects of the emeralds, allowing him to hold them and use them if necessary, but the need has not arisen. Sonic never could master the Chaos Control (at least not yet), leaving Shadow the only one able to use it. But enough of the past, let's jet to the present.
**********
Everyone in Knothole was fast asleep in the early morning hours of the day, resting from the week's long hours put into hit-and-fade attacks against Robotropolis. No major strikes, but enough to give Robotnik a good sized headache. Fortunately for them, Metal Sonic was still undergoing repairs from his last encounter with Super Sonic, so he was out of the picture during the strikes. Everything was as quiet as could be in the village, except for the sound of a hammer hitting something metal and the occasional ticking of a wrench working on a bolt coming from the giant storage shed near the edge of the village.
Tails had been up since dawn, putting the finishing touches on a project that he had been working on for almost a year. The project had been ready to go since a few months ago, but Tails had taken some extra time modifying it to his standards. As he tightened the last of the bolts, he crawled out from under the engine housing, looking over his masterpiece with excitement. Sonic was going to love his surprise.
**********
Beep…Beep…Beep… Sonic opened one of his eyes, then looked over towards the source of the sound. He groaned as he saw the familiar shape of his alarm clock, beeping constantly at him to wake up. He reached out and slapped the snooze button before turning over and falling back asleep. He was almost totally asleep again when there was a knock at his door. Sonic mumbled something inaudible, then slowly sat up in his bed.
"Who's there?" he asked, eyes still trying to fully open.
"It's Tails. Hurry up and get out here Sonic! I've got a surprise for you! It's in the storage shed out by the south edge of the village," answered an excited Tails. Sonic immediately woke up, feeling all his drowsiness slip away. He quickly got out of bed and threw on his sneakers before running out the door and down towards the shed. Everyone else was already gathered there since Tails had waken them all up the moment he was done.
"So what's the big surprise, little bro?" asked Sonic as he skidded to a stop in front of the shed. Tails grinned one of his biggest grins as he reached down to open the shed's door.
"Get ready for the surprise of your life Sonic, cause this thing's going to blow you away! I call it, the Tornado," said Tails as he threw open the shed. Everyone gasped when they saw the surprise. Sitting in the middle of the shed was a red bi-plane with silver wings and some kind of jet propulsion engine on the underside.
"Wow! Now that's what I call a plane," said Sonic as he started looking it over from top to bottom. Silver and Shadow were also looking it over, Shadow for the look of the plane, Silver for the mechanics of it.
"You put this together all by yourself?" asked an astonished Silver as he examined the engine housing.
"You bet," said Tails, smiling proudly as he shook his head yes. Silver looked back at the engine and gave a whistle.
"Hey Tails, why is there only one seat?" asked Shadow, noting the only place to sit.
"Well, I had to make a few modifications to the plane in order to fit the machinery for the jet engine into the plane's frame, which meant that I had to put it in the passenger's area. But if you look on the top of the wings, there is a place where a person can anchor their feet to the wing. And don't worry, Sonic; the wing is insulated against your being super," he said, pointing to the top wing. Silver flew up to see that sure enough, there were two braces attached to the wing where someone could slip their feet inside and stay on the wing no matter what position the plane took. Sonic was nearly bursting with excitement as he looked inside the cockpit. He then leaped up onto the wing, smiling as he tried his feet in the braces.
"This is way past cool, Tails. Is it ready to fly?" asked Sonic, his eyes shining with eagerness.
"You bet, Sonic. I was hoping you would be the person I take with me on the Tornado's maiden flight," answered Tails. Sonic smiled as he gave Tails a thumbs up.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's see what this baby can do!" cried Sonic as he jumped down off the wing and raced out of the hanger to grab the Chaos Emeralds. He didn't want to take a chance of the plane dying on them in the air, since Tails couldn't carry him all the way to the ground from that altitude. If he had the emeralds, he could become super and fly them both down safely.
"Tails, are you sure you can fly that thing?" asked Sally as Tails wrapped a pilot's scarf around his neck.
"Sure I can, Aunt Sally. If I could master flying with my tails, then I should be able to handle a simple plane. Besides, I know exactly what controls do what. I'll be fine," he answered as he put on a pair of goggles and a leather pilot's cap with openings for his ears.
"Come on, Sal. Let the kid have a little fun," called Sonic as he sped into the hanger once again, this time holding two of the emeralds having pocketed the other five. Sally looked up at him, a stern look on her face.
"You're only saying that cause YOU want to go flying on that thing, probably just to show off as usual," said Sally.
"It's not that. Tails is 12 years old now. I think he deserves a little bit of fun when he wants it. After all, we were running mission against Robotropolis since we were 7 and never got enjoy our childhood," said Sonic. Sally sighed as she remembered those days all those years ago. Sonic was always pushing his limit, even though he never changed that attitude anyway. But so was she. She had to lead them through each of those missions, and at times she had wished that they could have just had some good, old-fashioned fun as kids.
"All right, you win," said Sally, defeated. Sonic put his hand up to his ear.
"I do believe my hearing's going on the fritz. I could have sworn you just said that I won," said Sonic. Sally just shook her head as Tails climbed into the cockpit.
"You ready, Sonic?" asked Tails, looking up at the blue hedgehog. Sonic leaped onto the wing, looked back, and gave Tails a thumbs up. Tails nodded and motioned for everyone to step out of the way. He started the engine up, it purring softly as the propeller started rotating faster and faster. The bi-plane started moving out of the shed and towards a makeshift runway that Tails had made. It was a strip of the forest where no trees were blocking the way towards the cliff about a half-mile down the path. Tails knew he could get enough speed to lift off before they reached the edge, but if he did, then the plane what smack into the tree line above and snag Sonic's head.
"We'll be back in about a day or two! I want to check out where ever it is we land!" hollowed Sonic as the plane accelerated down the path. Then the edge of the cliff came, and the plane went over, falling shortly, then pulling up towards the sky and then changing direction towards the Great Ocean.
**********
In the city of Robotropolis, the finishing touches on Metal Sonic's repairs were nearing their completion. Robotnik had been furious when Mecha had literally crawled into the Command Center after Super Sonic had once again trashed him, his electronics completely shorted out from Super Sonic grabbing an exposed part of his inner mechanisms and holding on while the power of his invincibility overloaded his circuitry. He had given the robot a serious yelling at, but such was standard for failing him every time. As the repairing mechanisms disengaged from Mecha's systems, the blue robot started walking out of the repair bay, his black and crimson eyes having no look but hatred on them.
He had already come to the conclusion that Sonic was his number one enemy a long time ago, the silver robot and the other Freedom Fighters being nothing more than thorns in his side. He made his way towards the Command Center, ready to get his new assignment. Hopefully, this next assignment would get his mind off the blue hedgehog. He was almost there when his eyes caught the data on one of the radar screens. It showed an unidentified aircraft heading from the Great Forest out towards the sea.
*So, those accursed Freedom Fighters have a new aircraft,* thought Mecha as he read the data as it scrolled up on the screen. *Perhaps I should show them that all air space is restricted.* Metal Sonic turned around and started running out of the building, engaging his cloaking device. He didn't want Robotnik to know he was sneaking out on his own, but he would tell him what happened when he returned later on.
Angel Island
"Boy, this thing handles great!" yelled an energetic Tails from the cockpit of the Tornado as it flew out over the Great Ocean. Sonic was loving the thrill of riding on the wing as the bi-plane did turns to the left and right rapidly, then nose-dived and pulled out real quick.
"Man, this is the coolest!" cried Sonic as the plane pulled out of another nosedive. "Come on, Tails! Let's see just how high this thing can go!" Tails gave Sonic a thumps up as the bi-plane started gaining altitude rapidly, flying high into the sky and entering a layer of clouds. After about two minutes, they rose above the layer of clouds and into the blue sky above. Sonic took in the site from his position on the wing. But then he caught site of something that he never expected to see. About two miles south of their position was a floating land mass about twenty square miles wide. Tails also saw the giant flying island, his mouth hanging wide open.
"What in the world is that thing!?" asked Sonic, his astonishment growing every second he looked at the landmass.
"It looks like some kind of flying island!" cried Tails. Sonic rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.
"What do ya think's holding it up?" asked Sonic. Tails looked over the length of the island, but couldn't find anything to indicate what was holding it up.
"I have no clue," said Tails.
"Well, I say we land and investigate," said Sonic, pointing towards the island.
"All right! Hang on while I make the course change," said Tails as he started to turn the Tornado towards the island. But Sonic didn't want to wait. Leaping off the wing, he went into a spindash as he started to fall to the ocean below. But he hadn't even fallen twenty feet when he struck the two emeralds he was carrying over his head. The tan parts of his body remained the same color, but his stunning blue changed to a hot yellow. His vision increased five times, giving him the eyes of a hawk. His arms were flung back by the surge of power as the emeralds started to orbit his body, three circling his horizontally, four circling vertically. He then blasted towards the island at Mach 2, leaving the Tornado far behind him. Just for fun, Super Sonic dove to water below and skimmed across the surface, kicking up a mist cloud behind him before flying back up towards the island.
**********
*Another beautiful and uneventful morning, same as always,* I thought as I sat on the top of the central mountain that served as the middle of my island. I'm Knuckles the Echidna, a strongly built Mobian with hands that are bigger than most other creatures. I also have long dreadlocks that I use to glide by catching air drafts. Each of my hands have two short spikes that protruded from the knuckles, which was why I was given the name Knuckles. I yawned and stretched as I looked about the clouds that were surrounding my island.
It was then that I noticed something flying about five miles off in the distance. I raised my hand to shade my eyes as I looked out at the thing. It didn't look like any kind of bird I had ever seen before. In fact, the thing looked as if it had two pairs of wings. I did remember hearing about flying machines that could fly just about anywhere. While I had plenty of machines that helped me maintain the island and some others that I tinkered with, I had never seen a plane before. I quickly jumped to my feet, keeping an eye on the thing.
Maybe it wouldn't land here. But by the way it was starting to turn towards the island, that wasn't going to be the case. Well, if that thing wanted to land here, then it would have to answer to me. I ran back about ten yards, then dashed off the edge of the mountain, spreading my dreadlocks as I started to glide down towards the northern edge of the island. But what I hadn't seen a the time was the small blue thing that was following the plane. It was keeping a good distance out of range of the plane so it wouldn't be spotted.
**********
"Well, well! What do we have here? An island that can stay afloat without any kind of support? Robotnik would love to hear about this," said Metal Sonic as he flew after the Tornado. He had been trailing the bi-plane for some time now, but he wanted to see where they were going in case they were heading for another Freedom Fighter village. But what they lead him to was way more important than any Freedom Fighter village. Chortling to himself, he changed his course to land on the island opposite of where Sonic and Tails were head for.
**********
"Man, look at this place! Those mountains, that jungle," said Sonic in awe as he flew over the north side of the island. The part of the island where they had chosen to land had a lush jungle that spread over about a fifth of the island, with a small beach near the edge. Tails started the landing procedure as they neared the edge of the beach where they had decided to leave the plane. The bi-plane started nose-diving towards the beach, but pulled up and straightened itself out as it touched down on the soft sand, easily slowing the plane down. Tails cut the engine as Sonic landed next to him. Sonic then reached out and grabbed two emeralds out of their orbit and struck them together, deactivating them as his color changed back to blue.
"So what do we do first?" asked Tails as he climbed out of the cockpit. He pulled off the leather cap and goggles and stuck them in the bi-plane's glove compartment.
"I don't know. How about finding something to eat since we left without eating breakfast," suggested Sonic, his stomach growling slightly. Tails couldn't help but smile as his own stomach growled, signaling his hunger from missing breakfast.
"Okay, but how do we know if the fruit in this jungle is safe to eat?" asked Tails. But Sonic had already plucked a purple, pear shaped fruit off of one of the trees that lined the beach and was biting down into it. Tails watched hungrily as Sonic chewed the fruit for a second, then swallowed it.
"How is it?" asked Tails. Then he caught sight of Sonic's eyes and saw the look that he usually only had for chilidogs.
"Tails! This is the best fruit I have ever had! You've got to try some!" cried Sonic. That was all the encouragement that Tails needed as he flew up and plucked his own piece of fruit off the tree and took a bite. It tasted great! Kind of like a mixture of apple, pear, and honey. Tails had never eaten anything so good. They both picked a half dozen a piece as they sat underneath the tree, eating the delicious fruit. Little did they know that they were being watched.
**********
During my glide to the northern part of my island, I had seen the plane land on the northern beach. So I had been right about it wanting to land here. My thoughts quickly turned to the source of my island's flying power, the giant power stone called the Master Emerald. While it was hidden in the Hidden Palace, out of sight and mind from anyone but me, I still shuttered at the thought of my island crashing to the sea below and eventually sinking if it was taken. This worried me greatly, because whoever it was that was on that plane had to have come for it. There was nothing else of real value on the island. The whole rest of my glide, I thought of ways to deal with the intruders. Perhaps throwing them off the side of the island. Or just beating them to a pulp.
But I wasn't stupid. I had seen that one of them was in possession of the seven Chaos Emeralds as I was gliding. I knew a lot about the emeralds, especially since my ancestors had studied them extensively. While the Chaos Emeralds were indeed powerful, there were other emeralds like the Master Emerald that contained greater power than they did. I figured that I would have to get those emeralds away from them first before I directly attacked them.
I landed undetected in the jungle, then ran down to the beach. I stopped when I spotted the two intruders. One was a tall, blue hedgehog wearing red sneakers. The other was an orange fox…with TWO TAILS!?
Now I had seen many strange creatures on my island that lived here naturally, but this new one took me by surprise. The fox had just finished climbing out of the bi-plane and was talking to the hedgehog. I wasn't close enough to hear them, but I guess they were just talking about eating since the hedgehog plucked a Kinkaburu pear off of a palm tree. I decided to wait and see what they were going to do. I would remain hidden unless they tried to venture into the jungle. If they tried to enter it, then they would have the fight of their lives.
**********
Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, Metal Sonic was busy taking in his surroundings as he looked about the giant carnival he had happened upon. It was enormous, probably taking up about a tenth of the island. Everything looked in great shape, the rides ready to be used as soon as power was restored. After searching for a while, Mecha found the main switch to the carnival's power generator. Flipping the switch, he stood back and watched in awe as the whole place lit up. He had never seen anything like it. He cautiously stepped up onto the slowly moving carousel nearby, almost tripping from the change in G-force.
*So this is what humans and Mobians consider amusement?* thought Mecha to himself as he jumped off the carousel, hovering in mid-air as he watched the mythical animal seats bob up and down. He had never understood the minds of any living creature, and frankly, he didn't want to. They all seemed like such silly beings. He slowly made his way through the carnival, watching the roller coaster as it whizzed by overhead.
He saw it go through the loops, twists, and turns before coming to a stop at the entrance to the ride. Figuring that no harm could come from trying out the ride, he walked up the steps to the entrance and climbed into the front seat. This didn't seem so bad. He almost slashed the metal restraining bar when it came down on his lap, but he decided against it when the ride started moving towards the first incline. He looked about as the ride climbed the steep slope towards the top, seeing the whole island from his seat in the front of the coaster.
He was actually starting to enjoy the nice, calm ride to the top of the hill. But his whole out look on the ride changed the second it went plunging over the edge of the hill, rapidly gaining speed as it shot down the railing. Mecha gripped the restraining bar as felt his body leave contact with the seat. Then the coaster shot up into the air, slamming Mecha back into his seat. He started to curse to himself, but never finished the sentence as the coaster whipped around a tight turn, flinging Metal into the side of the seat. Then a sharp turn the other direction sent Mecha flying against the other side.
Next came the loop, which caused the gyros in Mecha's stabilizer to go completely haywire, giving the robot a feeling of nausea. After the coaster had righted itself on the track, Mecha quickly slashed the restraining bar off the seat and leaped out of the coaster. He hovered for a few minutes, watching the roller coaster with a fear that he had never experienced before. He landed a good distance away from the coaster, never wanting to come within ten feet of it ever again. He began exploring the carnival some more, but decided that that was the last ride he would ever try. After a while, he came to a small tent with a sign that said: KNOCK DOWN ALL THREE BOTTLES TO WIN A PRIZE!
His memory banks recalled that a prize was often something given to someone as a reward. While he didn't like the idea of having fun by riding a machine that tossed you around like a rag doll, he did want to see what kind of a prize he could win at what his computer dictionary called a "carnival game". Maybe he could win something for Robotnik. He walked up to the tent and looked inside. There were three tables standing in the rear of the tent, each one had three bottles standing in a pyramid formation in the center. This was going to be easy.
He looked about for a rock to toss at the bottles. After searching for two minutes, he found a nice, round stone. Taking aim, he threw the rock as hard as he could, smashing all three bottles on the middle table to pieces. He then took a step back and waited for his prize to appear. He stood like that for five minutes, his anger rising with each passing second as he waited for his reward. He then went ballistic on the tent, ripping it to shreds with his claws. His eyes glowing bright red, he turned away from the wreaked tent. He then started to proceed through the carnival again.
After about another five minutes, he happened upon a stand that once sold saltwater taffy. By now, his previous anger with the carnival game had subsided and his curiousness was once again aroused. He examined the old taffy-making machine, trying to figure out what exactly taffy was. His memory banks did recall that taffy was some kind of candy, and that both humans and Mobians loved to eat candy. He then spotted a list on the side of the stand that had instructions for making saltwater taffy. Mecha was intrigued by the recipe, and decided that he wanted to try and make some himself. Maybe he could give the taffy as a present to Robotnik for sneaking out without telling him.
He started combining the ingredients into a large bowl, mixing them together exactly as the recipe said to. He then turned on the machine and stuck his mixture into it. He watched with interest as the machine mixed and strung the taffy about inside itself, adding water to the mix. After about three minutes, the machine came to a stop, a bell chiming the end of the mixing. Mecha reached into the machine with his left hand to grab the taffy and pull it out, only to end up with his claws stuck together by the sticky taffy.
Cursing to himself, he pulled his hand out of the machine and tried to separate his claws from the gooey candy. He then gripped his hand with his right and pried his claws open. But the sticky taffy caused his right hand to become stuck to the top of his left. He tried to take his right hand off, but the taffy held it tight. Growling loudly now, he yanked his hand free, only to have the sticky claws on his right hand smack onto the side of his head. Grabbing the arm with his free hand, he pulled his right hand off, now having his left hand stuck to his right arm. The scene continued for a good ten minutes before Mecha collapsed in a heap on the ground, his hands stuck together exactly like when he had first tried to handle the taffy.
He walked back into the stand, looking for something to remove the taffy with. It was then that he spotted a small note on the top of the stand that read: "To clean taffy off of the metal pieces of the machine, heat until all taffy is melted off metal." His anger with the situation subsiding a little, he walked out of the stand and turned his engine on just enough to have a small flame stick out the back. He then reached behind his head and bent over, allowing the heat of his engine to melt the sticky goo off his hands and claws. After having the last of the taffy melt off his hands, he decided that he had had enough of the carnival and all its "amusement". He searched around for an exit for a few minutes before giving up and just flying out of the carnival, not even bothering to turn the power back off.
**********
"Man, that was the best thing I have ever eaten!" cried Sonic as he swallowed the last piece of his final Kinkaburu pear. Tails had already finished his and was inspecting the Tornado, seeing how well everything had held together on their flight to the island.
"Boy, the Tornado did better than I expected, "said Tails as he examined the engine that provided power for the propeller. They had not used the booster engine yet, mainly because Tails had never had the chance to test it. But the main engine had worked perfectly. He rose from the engine housing with a big smile on his face and turned towards Sonic, who had started walking about the edge of the jungle.
"This place sure looks neat," said Sonic as he gazed into the jungle. He saw several more of the palm trees inside the jungle, along with several other kinds of plants. The smell of the tropical jungle was overwhelming. It smelled like all the kinds of fruit and spices that Sonic had ever smelled, and then some. "What do you say we check this place out?"
"All right. Just let me secure the Tornado so it won't go rolling off the island's edge," said Tails as he placed wooden blocks on either side of the wheels. He grabbed both of their packs out of the Tornado, then joined Sonic at the edge of the jungle as they started walking into the tangled trees and vines of the thick jungle.
"Maybe I should go super, just in case," said Sonic, smiling as he struck two emeralds together, his coloring changing back to the hot yellow. Sonic then sped off at full speed, leaving a groaning Tails behind to catch up.
**********
I watched the two of them finish eating. They didn't seem that bad, but they had set foot on my home without my consent. It wasn't until I heard the hedgehog saying that he wanted to take a look around that I suddenly went on the defensive for my island's safety. But I had learned a long time ago that it was best to stay out of sight when preparing to ambush something. So I ran back into the jungle along the only visible path for over a square mile. Moving just out of sight of the trail, I climbed up the trunk of a nearby palm tree, letting my natural instincts take control in order to sense when they were at just the right spot to make my move. I then heard the hedgehog as he ran down the path, his hot yellow color mixed with the orbiting emeralds catching my eye. It was then I made my move.
**********
Sonic had been running along the narrow path that was winding through the jungle, his body forward at a 65-degree angle, his feet not even making contact with the ground. He was unaware that danger lurked above him. Sonic jerked his head up when he heard a cry that could wake someone from the dead. He looked up in time to see a red furred Mobian come flying out of the tree. Even with his excellent reflexes, Super Sonic wasn't able to get out of the way as the creature slammed a giant fist into his face, knocking him backwards a few feet and to the ground.
It didn't hurt Sonic, invincibility from the emeralds made the blow only feel like a tap on the nose, but the force behind it was enough to knock him to the ground. But what happened next was what made Sonic a little nervous. When the fist had made contact with him, it had also knocked two of the emeralds together, one orbiting horizontally, another one orbiting vertically. The striking of the two emeralds deactivated them, and since Sonic hadn't been the one that struck the two together, it caused them to go flying several meters away from Sonic, whose hot yellow was now his normal blue. That emeralds deactivating also made part of the punch hurt. The figure quickly gathered the seven emeralds up off the ground as Sonic tried to regain his senses. The figure then turned towards Sonic.
"Leave here now, or pay the consequences!" shouted the Mobian. Tails had caught up, but had retreated to the safety of the air as he watched the red furred Mobian stand his ground. Sonic dizzily stood up as he regained his senses. He then looked over at his attacker and got a good look at him for the first time. Red fur, long dreadlocks, and two big fists. At first, Sonic didn't recognize him as being an echidna, especially since they were believed to have been extinct for ages.
"Thanks for the warning, buster," said Sonic, rubbing his aching head as he stared at the echidna with an angry gaze. Tails landed behind Sonic, taking refuge behind his hero. Sonic motioned for Tails to get out of the way as Sonic continued to stare down his opponent.
"Who are you and what right do you have for attacking me and stealing my emeralds?" asked Sonic. The echidna smiled slightly as he clapped two of the emeralds above his head. His color changed to a hot pinkish red as he rushed Sonic, who knew better than to try and fight someone with the emeralds directly. Sonic leaped into the air and avoided the punch the echidna swung at him. Using his speed, Sonic landed behind the echidna and snatched the green Chaos Emerald from its orbit around the echidna. The other emeralds continued to orbit him, but the invincibility effects of the seven combined no longer had any effect. Knowing he was thwarted for now, the echidna dashed out of the area, using the emeralds remaining power to run away at well over Mach 2, just like Sonic had.
"Sonic, who was that?" asked Tails as he came out of hiding. Sonic shook his head, his spirits very low. Here they had only had all seven Chaos Emeralds for only a few weeks, and all but one had been stolen in less than two minutes.
"I have no idea, Tails. But were going to get those emeralds back," said Sonic as he took off into the jungle after the echidna, Tails flying right behind him.
**********
I couldn't believe that this hedgehog had been able to take back an emerald. I had seen many fast things in my lifetime, but no one could had ever come close to comparing with my speed before. I had always been a natural runner since my childhood, and could come close to breaking the sound barrier. But his speed wasn't the only reason I had hightailed it out of there, nor was it because he had taken back an emerald. I had sensed another intruder on the other side of the island, and I was determined to find him.
**********
Metal Sonic landed outside the carnival, ready to get back to his main goal of finding and destroying the Freedom Fighters who were on that plane. He was sure that Sonic was the one he had seen riding on the wings, especially after he had gone super; and he was ready to give him some pay back for everything he had done to him since the first time they had met. He was preparing to set out when his hearing detected something approaching rapidly from the north. Figuring it was Sonic, Mecha activated his cloaking device, ready to pounce on Sonic the second he appeared. Mecha watched for over five minutes, the power in his battery starting to drop into the caution zone.
Sighing, he turned off his cloaking device and started to power his engine up to head towards where he had heard the noise. But no sooner had he turned off his cloaking device, he was struck in the back of the head with more force than the roller coaster had, almost knocking him to the ground. Whipping his whole body around, he came face-to-face with a red furred Mobian. His memory banks didn't recognize his species. Since Robotnik had figured all echidnas were extinct, he had neglected to put that information in his memory. But the Mobian stood ready to fight to the death by the look in his eye.
**********
I had ran as fast as I could towards the carnival, not even giving the hedgehog and fox a second thought. I had long since deactivated the six remaining emeralds, since there power was no longer complete, and had hidden them in a tree trunk not far away from waterfall that feed into the desalinization plant beneath the surface of the island. Climbing the tallest hill around the area, I looked towards the direction of the carnival and saw some kind of blue light flickering above where the carnival was.
*That must be the intruder!* I thought to myself as I leaped off the hill and glided the whole ten miles to the outskirts of the carnival. The whole glide took me a good fifteen minutes to accomplish, but it was much quicker that running through Marble Garden, which rested in the middle of the island. As I was preparing for the final touchdown just outside the carnival, I spotted the intruder. This one was not a living creature, but instead a robot. And not just any robot, a robot that looked just like the hedgehog I had left behind. As I touched down, I saw it jerk its head upright, and I figured that he had heard my landing. I went to the ground, watching to see what he'd do next.
He then vanished into thin air, leaving me worried sick to my stomach that he knew where I was. But after five minutes of waiting, he reappeared. This time, he had his head turned away from me. Seeing my chance, I rushed him, ramming my fist right into the back of his metallic head. He went reeling forward, but didn't fall. He then turned to face me as I went into an offensive stance, ready to fight this metal hedgehog to protect the island. His eyes glowed bright red at me, his silver claws glinting in the sunlight. He looked like he was almost on the verge of killing me outright without any sort of delay. But he stopped for some reason, his eyes returning to the normal light output they had been when I had first spotted him.
"Who are you?" asked the robot.
"Tell me who you are first," I answered. The blue robot smiled slightly, which made me a little nervous. But I stood me ground with a firm look of determination on my face, not showing any kind of fear.
"My robot designation is Mechabot 2," said Metal. I had not known before hand that Robotnik had tried to build another robot version of Sonic way before Mecha, especially since Sonic had trashed him right after they had first met it. There was another one that Robotnik had been working on to replace Mecha, but it had been abandoned after it failed to even match Mecha's power and speed. "But I go by the name, Metal Sonic; or Mecha, as some call me." As soon as I heard him say his name was based after the hedgehog I had just beaten up, I knew he was up to no good. But what he said next had made me change my mind about him…at least for the two days following this encounter.
"I was made to seek and destroy Sssonic the Hedgehog," said Mecha. This was a shock to me. So this robot had pursued Sonic all the way here. I wondered why the robot had stuttered when saying Sonic's name, but I dismissed it. Confining in my belief at the time that all robots weren't essentially evil, I figured him to be okay. I let my guard down slightly as the blue robot walked up to face me.
"I believe he has landed on this island with the intention of taking it over for himself," continued Mecha.
"But why?" I asked, becoming more trusting to Metal Sonic's talking.
"It's a sad story, you see. My master built me to rid his glorious empire of the one thing that threatens his rule, which is Son…son…the hedgehog. I believe that he is going to turn your island into an aerial fortress to use against my master," said Metal Sonic. I couldn't believe my ears. That hedgehog planned to take over my home and turn it into a weapon to use against a great empire? I was listening intently now, not realizing that he had been lying to me from the start.
"I know you think of me as an intruder myself, but I'm only here to stop him. Maybe with your help, we can stop him from succeeding," said Mecha. I thought about this for a minute. Sonic did come here packed to do an exploration of the place, and that plane would make a great get-away vehicle. Not to mention he had become super before entering the jungle as to protect himself from harm. And this robot did seem to have a hatred for the blue hedgehog. Everything pointed towards the robot telling me the truth.
"All right. We will work together to stop him," I said shaking his claws. Little did I know that he was already planning to kill Sonic with my help, then turn on me and kill me as well, after Robotnik's most powerful weapon to date had been completed.
**********
"Now you are sure that this won't permanently harm the jungle, right?" I called up to Mecha as he hovered over the southern tip of the jungle. He had insisted on torching the jungle so that the ground would regain all the nutrients that it had lost over the years. But at the time, I hadn't know that his real reason to doing it was to hopefully catch Sonic and Tails in the soon to be inferno.
"Of course I'm sure. All this will do is make sure that the plants will continue to grow for at least another couple of decades longer than it would otherwise," he answered spraying chemicals from a pack on his back. As soon as the chemicals came into contact with the jungle, the plants burst into flames. I wasn't worried so much over the fact that we were burning the jungle. Heck, even my father had done it once to replenish the ground. It was the fact that he was using chemicals to start the burning and keep it going. He told me it would go faster than traditional burning, and it would be safer, more controlled.
But there was something that had me even more worried at this point in time. Mecha had radioed his master, who went by the name of Dr. Robotnik, and had told him to come to the island. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea at the time, but I figured that anyone who could create a robot like Mecha could surely help in the defense of my home. He was scheduled to arrive anytime now in his hovercraft, and I had overheard in the conversation that he had a special surprise in store for Sonic and Tails after we had made our greetings.
It was then that I saw Robotnik's hovercraft coming into view. The guy seated at the controls was enormous. I decided it better not to say anything, but kept a mental note in my head never to eat as much as what I had been over the last couple of months. I watched as the hovercraft made its descent towards us, then noticed that Mecha's eyes had lowered in wattage output, making them almost too dim to see. My guess was that Mecha knew how the doctor would show up to the last detail and was bored to death of the same thing over and over again. I almost smiled, but held it back as the hovercraft finished its landing procedure.
"What took you so long?" asked Mecha in a sarcastic voice, his eyes now back to their optimal outage. Robotnik gave him a mock smile.
"Well, for one thing, my ship's not as fast as you," he answered, a hint of anger in his voice. He then turned to me, studying me like a lab experiment. I ignored him as he continued to examine me, but I decided to give him a friendly greeting.
"Greetings, Doc, and welcome to my humble home," I said in a friendly voice. He must have liked my greeting, because he smiled slightly under his thick mustache. I wondered if it was from the warm welcome, or the fact that I had called him Doc.
"Hello, echidna," said Robotnik. I suddenly felt very embarrassed. Here was Robotnik, ready to help defend my island and he didn't even know who I was.
"The name's Knuckles," I said, raising my hand to shake his. He took it and shook it firmly, as any adult male of any species does to prove superiority.
"A pleasure to meet you, Knuckles," he said. "Listen, just so you know and don't freak out, I have placed air units all around the island, so if they try to escape by air, they will be shot down instantly," said Doc. Now this caught my attention. I had only wanted to drive them off the island, at the most give them a good pounding, but not kill them. That look in Doc's eyes should have told me that he didn't want them to escape at all.
"By the way, do you know if Sonic was carrying the Chaos Emeralds with him, by any chance?" he asked.
"Yes, he was, and I was able to get the emeralds away from him just before your little robot here caught me attention", I said, jerking my thumb at Mecha. "Sonic did manage to get back one of them, however." Robotnik looked very pleased, which kind of worried me. Why would he ask about the emeralds? Did he know about their power, or was he just making sure that he wouldn't have to face Super Sonic on the island.
"That is very good news. Can I please have them?" he asked very casually. Now this definitely raised a red flag in my mind.
"Why do you need them?" I asked, trying to figure out what he needed them for. But at the particular point in time, my keen sense of the weather around the island caught my attention. Apparently, Mecha had caught it too, as he had raised his head and was suddenly a lot more alert than before. I looked about the clouds, looking for the usual dark clouds that usually accompanied this feeling.
Sure enough, heading straight for the island was a giant, anvil-shaped cumulonimbus cloud, dark as night. Both Mecha and Robotnik looked horrified when the first lightning bolt lanced from the cloud. But I had no fear since I had handled situations like this all my life. Kneeling to my right shoe, I opened the metal plate on the top of the shoe, revealing a hidden compartment. I pulled out what looked like a small green jewel, which glowed softly. I was holding onto a miniature of the Master Emerald, which I used to steer my island wherever I wanted it to go. The Master Emerald could keep the island afloat in the air, but when I needed to move the island, this miniature proved to be more than adequate. I didn't notice it at the time, but both Robotnik and Mecha had turned their attention over to me, watching me as I prepared to move the island to a safer altitude.
I rubbed my left palm over the top of the miniature emerald, letting my hands take in its power. I then formed a fist under my right hand with my left. To someone like me, who has spent the past 8 years doing this, the slight vibration that could be felt from the ascending island was unnoticeable. But both Robotnik and Mecha had felt the change, and watched with amazement as the island flew higher into the sky until it had risen out of the path of the thunderhead. I then put the miniature back into the compartment in my shoe before turning back to them.
"What? What's wrong?" I asked, the amazement showing on their faces.
"That...was incredible! How did you do that?" asked Robotnik, who was nearly shining with joy at the site. I was never one to withhold information from someone I trusted, which I regretted doing a hundred times over two days later. I told him all I knew about the Master Emerald, how I steered the island, everything I knew about the Chaos Emeralds. He listened intently, while Mecha just stared off into space like nothing was going on, yet he did hear the whole conversation. But what was surprising me was how much he was interested in the Master Emerald. But I just shrugged it off as over-active curiousness.
"So that's why Sonic and Tails came to the island. They must be after the Master Emerald" he said, following the lie that Mecha had told me earlier. "I know I sound kind of selfish in saying this, but I do feel that the Chaos Emeralds would be safer with me. After all, I have a vast army of robots that can defend them." I thought about this for a minute, which surprised me because I should have known right then not to give them to him. But the logic behind what he had said prevailed, and I set out to retrieve them. Running back to the tree I had left the emeralds in, I gathered them up and dashed back.
"Great. Now give them to me!" demanded Robotnik. This startled me slightly, and I was a little reluctant to hand them over, but I did. But the second they made contact with Robotnik's hands, the emeralds glow increased ten-fold, blinding all three of use, even Mecha. There was a small sound, like a hammer hitting something, as Robotnik was thrown back by the now rapidly spinning emeralds. Both Mecha and I watched as they swirled about a hundred feet in the air. I had no intention of disturbing their little dance, cause I knew that the safety measure of the emeralds had become active. But Mecha shot off at top speed to try and collect the gems. I yelled at him to stop, but it was too late. Mecha hit the invisible electric field around the emeralds and went flying right through a tree with more force than being shot out of a cannon. Being the only one left standing, I watched as the jewels slowly stopped their rapid spin cycle. Then the emeralds shot off in different directions, each one vanishing in a flash of light. Robotnik was the first one to say something.
"What just happened?" he asked, rather annoyed that the emeralds had just flung him across the ground. I began to explain to him that the red emerald was so powerful, it was almost radioactive. It needed the green emerald to stay cool and under control. Without the green emerald around to keep it in check, the other emeralds had been absorbing the energy of the red one, causing them all to become highly reactive. This caused them to go crazy like they had, and they had all shot off to an unknown dimension, waiting to be recollected. I had not told him that giving the emeralds to someone who wasn't supposed to have them also triggered this effect. But if the green emerald had been present, the safeguard wouldn't have activated. This should have convinced me that Robotnik was not the good guy he claimed to be, but instead my rage towards Sonic increased. Not only had Sonic invaded my island, he had also taken the green emerald back, allowing the others to become reactive. Now the only emerald left was the green one.
"Oh well, no matter. I think it's time I give Sonic little visit," said Doc as he powered up his hovercraft. Mecha flew out of view for a second, then returned lugging two attachable flame-throwers, which he placed on the sides of the hovercraft.
"Hey, Doc! Do you mind if I set up a little trap near the waterfall?" I asked. He looked at me with a quizzical look, probably wondering if I thought he couldn't handle Sonic on his own. He then shrugged.
"Sure, whatever. I'll leave Mecha at your disposal until I get back," he said as his hovercraft zoomed out of view.
"You heard Doc, let's get going," I said to the blue robot. I thought for a sec I saw a hint of anger in the robot's eyes, but he didn't seemed to be mad, so I dropped it. I knew the prefect place to set my little pitfall. Both Mecha and I left the clearing and headed in the direction of the waterfall.
**********&
"So what do we do now, Sonic? That echidna guy stole all but one the emeralds and we have no clue as to where he went," said Tails as he ran beside Sonic, his double tails twirling behind him to give him added speed. Sonic stared at the softly glowing green emerald, still kind of angry at the echidna. It had been almost half an hour since he'd been wiped clean of all but the green emerald, but his anger was starting to subside a bit. They had trespassed on the island, which was probably why he had ambushed them. But why did he take the emeralds? More importantly, how did he know how to use them? Sonic had only stumbled upon how to activate them when he had struck two of them together out of anger when Antoine had ticked him off earlier that month. But this echidna knew how to activate them from the start.
"I don't know, little bro. But I say the first thing we need to do is get back those emeralds, then catch that echidna and teach him a lesson in manners," answered Sonic. But then Sonic suddenly screeched to a halt, almost causing Tails to bump into him from behind.
"Why did you stop?" asked Tails. Sonic answered by holding up a now dead green emerald, all it's glow and color gone. "What in the world happened to it!?"
"I'm not sure," answered Sonic, shaking his head. "But if I'm correct, that echidna did something to it." Sonic was about to take off again when he was suddenly knocked to the ground by a coconut. Sonic groaned and rubbed the bump on his head. He looked up to see a small monkey swinging on the treetop nearby. "Hey! Why'd you do that?"
"To get your attention, hedgehog. To get your attention!" said the monkey as if he was on a serious sugar high. Sonic started walking over to the tree, ready to dodge another coconut if necessary.
"Why did you want my attention?" asked Sonic. The monkey giggled in amusement as he swung by his tail.
"Looking for a special kind of jewel you are, right? Chaos Emeralds they are called, yes?" asked the monkey, doing a poor imitation of Yoda. Sonic sighed. This monkey sure was weird, but if he knew where the emeralds were, then he'd have to put up with him.
"Yes, we are looking for the other Chaos Emeralds. Can you tell us why this one went dead?" asked Sonic. The monkey swung up onto the treetop, then jumped down and examined the emerald.
"The emerald is dead because the others are no longer here," he answered before climbing up a different tree. This time, Tails asked the next question.
"What do you mean they are no longer here?" he asked
"To a different dimension they have gone, which is why yours is dead. And each one went to a different part of that dimension. They can be collected again, but one must pass a test to reclaim each one individually," said the monkey.
"How do you know all of this?" asked Sonic. The monkey shrugged, causing Sonic to roll his eyes.
"It is not my place to tell you how I know such things, hedgehog. There is a way to reach the dimensions, but I will not tell you directly how to find it. Rather, a riddle you will have to solve to find what you are looking for. Here it is: 'Looking for emeralds far and wide. The ring teleporters you must find'," said the monkey. He then started bounding off into the jungle, leaping from treetop to treetop.
"I wonder what that means?" asked Tails as he tried to think of what that meant. Sonic was thinking about it too, but he couldn't think straight standing still, not with his anger towards the echidna still present.
"I don't know, but I'd say that monkey sound kind of nuts," said Sonic. Tails chuckled slightly as a thought came to his mind.
"I know, but I'd call him Coconuts by the way he beamed you with one," he said, now rolling on the ground with laughter. Sonic laughed some too, amused by what his little sidekick had said.
"Come on. Let's keep trying to find that echidna. Maybe by the time we find him, I'll have figured out what that riddle means," said Sonic as he started to run through the jungle once more. But they had hardly gone a quarter of a mile when they ran into the biggest inferno they had ever seen. Everything was on fire, even the logs on top of the nearby river were on fire.
"I'll give you two guesses who did this," said Sonic, pointing at the burning trees.
"Either Metal Sonic or Robotnik," said Tails. Sonic nodded his head in agreement. There was no way that echidna would be stupid enough to set fire to his own home, and the only other people who would have followed them here had to be them.
"Well, I think that we'd better try and get out of here before they find us. No telling what those two could be up to," said Sonic. He reached behind him to grab Tails, but noticed that the young fox's eyes were wide with terror. Sonic looked towards where Tails was looking. Coming towards them was some kind of giant, orb shaped machine with organ pipes on top, colored jet black with silver trimming.
"So, old Buttnik found us. Too bad he didn't come himself, but this thing will have to do," said Sonic. He was ready to release some of his anger, even if it wasn't on that echidna. "Usual attack pattern. Look for a weakness." Sonic stood his ground as the machine came to a hovering position about a foot off the ground. Tails circled overhead, looking for a weakness on the top. Sonic watched the machine closely, watching for when it would attack. There!
Sonic leaped into the air as a blast of fire came from a nozzle on the front end of the machine, just barely missing him. Sonic dropped to the ground and sped towards the machine. It tried to hit him with another blast of fire, but Sonic dodged that one too. He curled up and went into a spindash, crashing into the left side of the machine. His quills had left a gash in the armor of the machine, but it was otherwise unhurt. Tails tried to help out by diving towards the machine, ready to give it a good swift kick in the side. But before he could even get within twenty feet of the thing, it opened the organ pipes and shot three missiles from the tubes.
Tails quickly retreated to the safety of the air, watching as Sonic played follow-the-leader with the missiles. He led them along, placing already burning trees in the middle of him and the missiles, which caused them to explode into the trees, sending burning wood chips flying everywhere. But now that he had seen where the missiles came from, Sonic knew how to take out the machine. He leaped high into the air and spindash towards the three organ pipes on the top of the machine. Tails saw what Sonic had in mind and started a nose-dive towards the rear pipe. Sonic slammed into the two forward pipes, bending them inward enough to plug up the holes with its own metal. Tails came out the dive feet first and gave the rear pipe a swift kick, bending it in a similar fashion. The machine, which was totally oblivious to the now blocked pipes, fired off another round of missiles. But instead of exiting the pipes like they were supposed to, they crashed into the plugging metal and exploded, fire engulfing the machine.
"Tails, come on! We need to get clear of here! That thing's going to make a good sized fireball when the fire from those missiles reaches the fuel tanks!" yelled Sonic. Tails didn't need anymore motivation. He flew away as fast as he could go, Sonic running at over 100 mph to escape the soon-to-be explosion. Then the fire hit the tanks. The machine expanded for a fraction of a second, then exploded in a shower of fire and molten metal. Sonic came to a stop as Tails landed next to him.
"Well, I think Robotnik's gonna 'fire' that machine for good the next time he sees it," said Sonic. Tails couldn't help but laugh. They continued walking through the now smoldering jungle, Sonic relaxed quite a bit more than he had been a few minutes ago. At least, until Tails had stopped and stared at something in a cave just a few meters away from the path.
"Sonic…what is that?" asked Tails nervously, his mouth hanging wide open. Sonic doubled back and looked into the cave, only to have his mouth join Tails'. Floating in the middle of the cave was a giant gold ring, which was spinning around at a fair speed.
"I have no idea, little bro," answered a startled Sonic. Then what the monkey had said came back to him. "Looking for emeralds far and wide. The ring teleporters you must find." Could this be the "ring teleporter" the monkey had spoken about. Cautiously, Sonic walked up to the spinning ring.
"Sonic, what are you doing?" asked Tails. Sonic felt more scared now than he had in a long time, but it didn't show on his face.
"I'm going to check this thing out. I think this is that ring teleporter that leads to the dimension the emeralds went to," he answered. Tails suddenly became a lot braver as he walked up next to Sonic.
"Well, what are we waiting for. I want to get back those emeralds and teach both Robotnik and that echidna a lesson," said Tails, trying his best to sound bold. Sonic smiled.
"Okay, then. You go first," he said. Tails courage suddenly vanished as soon as it had appeared.
"No need, you go first," said Tails. Sonic chuckled slightly before taking Tails' hand and leaping into the ring, which vanished along with them.
**********
"Man…check this place out!" said Sonic, totally in awe of the place they had materialized in. The dimension that the ring had led to was one where the land was a huge sphere; with many small red spheres, some blue spheres, and a couple of yellow spheres strung about. Sonic was about to start walking when a voice sounded from out of nowhere.
"Collect the blue spheres. Do not touch the red spheres. Collect all rings for teleportation to next part of the dimension," said the voice.
"What do you suppose it meant by collecting rings? I don't see a single one around here anywhere," said Tails. Sonic shrugged.
"Who knows. But if this is the place where an emerald might be, then I say we do as the voice said and start collecting the blue spheres," said Sonic. He and Tails agreed to split up and start collecting them. Tails even made a bet that he could collect more spheres than Sonic, and thus the thing was turned into a contest. They ran about the giant sphere, collecting every blue one in sight. It wasn't until the last 3x3 square of spheres that Sonic stumbled upon how to find rings.
He had circled the outside of the square, changing the blue ones to red. But when he touched the last blue sphere, the whole square turned to rings. Both of them smiling, they rushed to see who could collect the most rings. Of course, Sonic was able to snag five out of the nine. It was then that he saw something coming over the horizon of the land. It shined slightly and was about the size of Sonic's dead emerald. He then realized that it was one of the lost emeralds. Running over to it, he snatched it in his right hand as both he and Tails became surrounded by white light.
**********
They were once again standing in the middle of the cave, but Sonic was now holding onto both the green and red Chaos Emeralds. The red's glow was very diluted compared to the last time he had seen it. The green emerald was starting to regain its glow too, but just barely.
"Well, I beat you this time, little bro," said Sonic as he mentally counted up the number of spheres they had each collected.
"Just you wait until next time, Sonic," said Tails. "Well, now what, Sonic?" They walked out of the cave, but had no idea as to where to go next.
"I guess we keep looking for either Robotnik, more giant rings, or that echidna," said Sonic. They both started to walk off in the direction they were walking before. It wasn't long until Sonic spotted one of the things he had suggested looking for. Heading straight towards them was Robotnik's hovercraft, still outfitted with the flame-throwers. Sonic grabbed Tails' hand and took off at over 80 mph towards where they had last seen the river. Hopefully, Robotnik hadn't seen the flash of light when they had exited the ring earlier. He continued running, jumping over a log, then ducking under a low branch that had been charred black. Then he raced across a small bridge…only to see the echidna staring down at them from a cliff overlooking the waterfall the bridge was near. Sonic skidded to a halt, not knowing what the echidna would do to them and also hoping he hadn't seen them. He looked right at him, but he paid no attention to them. Sonic wondered why, but then got his answer when the bridge suddenly caught fire. Robotnik had caught up with him and had set the bridge ablaze with the flame-throwers. Sonic grabber Tails hand and sped across the burning bridge as it collapsed behind them.
"What now, Sonic? That echidna's just waiting for us to try and cross that other bridge and Robotnik's got us trapped from behind," yelled Tails, obviously afraid.
"We'll have to improvise. Normal attack pattern. Old Buttnik's ship always has a weakness," said Sonic as he started jogging around the small island that stood over a hundred feet above the pool of water below. Tails flew in the opposite direction, looking for any sign of a weakness to the craft. Robotnik had fought Sonic enough times over the last year to know that he would eventually find a weak spot, and he wasn't ready to just sit around while he found one.
Gunning his engines, he sped towards Tails, ready to ram him head-on. But Tails was quicker than the hovercraft, especially with the added weight from the flame-throwers. He flew straight down and then flew back up and gave the bottom of the craft a solid kick on the lower left side. While it didn't harm the craft, it did knock it off balance. Enraged, Robotnik turned his sights on Sonic, who stood his ground as if nothing were there. Fueled by his rage, Robotnik shot off both of the flame-throwers at the blue hedgehog. But Sonic dodge to the right and spindashed towards the craft, slamming into the left flame-thrower. The explosion that followed was fairly big. Sonic had obviously hit the fuel tank the thrower used to create the flame. Aside from a few singed quills, Sonic was unhurt. But the hovercraft was spinning wildly out of control, Robotnik shouting curses left and right. He then detached the remaining thrower and sped off into the sky.
"Serves you right, ya creep!" shouted Tails. He was quite proud that he had actually held his own in a fight, and he was smiling the biggest smile Sonic had seen in over a month.
"So far, so good. All right you!" hollered Sonic up to the echidna. "Come down here and face us!" The laugh that followed from the echidna just caused Sonic even more rage.
"Why would I want to do that!" he yelled back down to Sonic. "I have a surprise for you and your little fox friend" This worried Sonic. This echidna had gotten the drop on him once before, and he wasn't ready for a second surprise.
"Before the surprise, what's your name?" asked Sonic.
"I guess you should know who it is your fighting, since I now know who you are, Sonic. My name is Knuckles…Knuckles the Echidna," he said. "Now back to that surprise. I might just let you leave without harm if you hand over your emerald."
"I'll never give it to you! Not you and certainly not Robotnik!" shouted Sonic. Knuckles shrugged.
"Okay, suit yourself," he said calmly.
**********
I could see that Sonic was too protective of the emerald, and wouldn't give it to me until he was either unconscious or dead. I looked back at Mecha, who was standing by with the switch that I had wired to yank the supports of the bridge out from under the two of them below. Nodding, Mecha pressed the switch. I looked back over the edge in time to see the bridge sway slightly. But then I heard their yells of fear, and pity took over for a second. I hated to have to do this to them, but it was for the safety of my home. I was still a little flustered, but I was able to keep my voice devoid of pity.
"See you in the depths of Hydrocity, Sonic," I said coldly as the bridge gave way and the two of them fell into the pool of water below. I knew this wouldn't kill them, only take them to the underground desalinization plant where the island's store of fresh water was kept. I had asked earlier if Mecha wanted to join me in going after them, but he had refused, saying that he wasn't made to get to damp. Pity, I thought. Mecha would have been a great help in tracking them down there, but what was said was said.
I heard the familiar sound of Doc's hovercraft as it came in for a landing behind us. He climbed out of the craft, obviously anger about the damage it had sustained from the fight.
"Where are they now?" he asked, his voice flat and unemotional.
"They should be exiting the pipe system within the next ten seconds. Don't worry, though, I can probably get down there and get the system going to slow them down before they can even figure out where they are," I said proudly. Doc didn't show any kind of emotion at all, which made me a little nervous. But then my nerves were calmed a little.
"Proceed. I will be down there shortly after Mecha and I modify my craft for use around water," he said. I nodded and proceed to the nearest secret entrance to Hydrocity.
END OF CHAPTER 1