A.N. - Welcome! Ths main story of this fanfic and any characters not well-known to Sonic fans are my own creation. Any recognizable characters, including (but not limited to): Knuckles, Tikal, Tails, Rouge, the Babylon Rogues and Big the cat; and all story elements borrowed from Sonic the Hedgehog games are the property of SEGA.

References and possible spoilers for the following games: Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Sonic Adventure/SADX, Sonic Battle, Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. (The last one's not my fault. I had the plot roughed out and SEGA comes along and drops previews that match or interlock with some of my points. Then they release the game and it fits even better. But if you haven't played ZG yet, you have until Chapter 7 to do so.) This story also follows after my previous set of stories, but probably the only thing you need to know from them is that 'dokan' is the word I made up for 'anthropomorph'/'furry' because it's easier to type and less confining. (The Rogues, for instance, can hardly be called 'furries')

Three There Are

It was a gorgeous day. The sun beamed down over the ancient stones of the shrine, while a soft breeze prevented the heat from becoming too oppressive. The breeze smelled strongly of salt, which meant that the island was floating not too far above the ocean waves. Yes, floating; Angel Island was nearly unique in that it floated in the air, traveling from place to place, rather than rising solidly from the sea floor. The enormous green gem that helped maintain its flight glittered alluringly from its altar on top of the stone shrine, which floated on its own little island, moored to the main isle by a rope-and-wood bridge. Across on the 'mainland', a handful of the little chao were playing in the rocky field. Most were playing 'king of the mountain', clambering up one of the rocky outcrops to try and topple each other off it. One green chao appeared to be hunting grasshoppers. They seemed, as always, utterly content with the world, both in general and in their own spheres. The land grew rockier as the meadow sloped upwards and merged with the base of the volcano that occupied the central portion of the range. Though lava still churned in the heart of it, the volcano had stood dormant for millennia, and the top was capped with snow and ice. Today, with the island hovering near sea level, the icepack was melting; narrow streams pouring over the mountain's ridges in long, sparkling waterfalls. They merged at the intermittent channel that meandered across the rocky meadow and ultimately poured down through gap between the two islands and into the sea below. It didn't matter; when the island rose again to the chillier reaches of the sky, new precipitation and condensation would freeze again on the volcano's peak.

Although the setting may have been idyllic, the guardian of the shrine felt anything but. Knuckles the Echidna grumbled to himself as he stood up, looking away from the playful chao. He stepped up onto the platform that held the Master Emerald and its altar and paced off the few steps it took to circle it entirely. Nothing to see but the balance of Angel Island on one side and the empty, calm ocean on the other. He paused a moment, then descended the steps to walk the much larger circle around the base of the shrine. A pale blue chao emerged from a clump of bushes against a half-fallen wall and fell into step with him. It looked up at him and gave him a toothy grin as he reached the steps again, then skipped off towards the bridge to rejoin its fellows. Knuckles climbed back up the steps and settled himself again on the next-to-the-top one, using the last riser as a backrest. Scowling at the lovely scenery, he finally acknowledged the problem that had plagued him for the last few weeks. He was bored.