FICTION: Ripoff Writings.

[Ekajra]

Hello SSMB/SSN peoples! I have returned in wake of the destruction after kinda disappearing off the face of this forum many months ago. I doubt anyone here knows who I am, so I'll just move on to the writing. The current story I'm in the middle of working on is similar to how New Empire was a take on Shadow, except this one is SA2. And what exatly is this "Alternate Ending"? You'll just have to read to find out. And fortunately for you I've already got 4 chapters(and a prolouge) written.

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Prologue: A Hero’s End.

‘Handing over the fake emerald, I can kill two birds with stone,’ Sonic thought as he pulled out the yellow gem he was holding. He looked up at Tails for a brief moment as the fox nodded in acknowledgement.

“Put the emerald down right there and back off!” Dr. Robotnik said from his Egg-Walker, pointing at a circular spot on the floor with the gun in his hand. Beside him, Amy Rose cowered in fear.

Sonic smirked as he walked slowly up towards Eggman. “You’ve turned into a big-time villain, doctor.” Sonic was just about to set down the emerald as Eggman pressed a quick series of buttons on his control panel, laughing. “Whoa!” Sonic yelled as an escape pod suddenly came down and trapped him.

“You thought you could trick me with that fake emerald, didn’t you?” Eggman mocked.

“So… how did you know it wasn’t the real one?” Tails asked, leaning forward in the Tornado mech.

“Tails!” Sonic yelled, trying to stop him, but it was too late.

“Because you just told me, fox boy!” Robotnik said, laughing as Tails face quickly took on a dumb struck expression. “Now for a little space ride,” Eggman said, redirecting his focus back to Sonic. “The capsule clears the colony… BAM!”

Sonic took one last look at his friends. “I’m counting on you Tails!” he said to his young friend, frozen in shock. “And Amy, take care of yourself,” he said softly to the pink hedgehog on the verge of tears.

“Farewell Sonic the Hedgehog!” Eggman proclaimed as he pressed the capsule launch button, sending the escape pod blasting from the colony.

As the pod shot closer and closer to the planet, Amy look out of the window in fear and sadness, calling, “Sonic…”

In the capsule, Sonic recalled Tails’ words that the fake emerald had the same wavelength and properties of the Chaos Emeralds. ‘But, can I really do it?’ he thought.

The timer on the bomb inside the capsule quickly reached zero, and it exploded, flames and debris flying out into the great vacuum of space. “Farewell Sonic… my admirable adversary,” Robotnik said, watching the explosion, as Amy broke down into tears and collapsed onto the floor. Robotnik turned back around to face Tails. “Now, we have some unfinished business to take care of. If you give me the real Emerald, I’ll release you both. You have my promise!”

“Sonic…” Tails said quietly to himself.

“What?” Eggman asked.

“Sonic has asked me for the first time to do something for him. I won’t let him down. I won’t give up!”

“Do you really think you can beat me?” Eggman asked as Tails locked on to him with his laser sight. Tails launched a cannon shot, and Eggman attempted to maneuver out of its way. The shot however caught up to him, exploding on the back of his walker. “What?” he yelled as his mech shook. He fired a quick shot at Tails, and he grunted in anger as the laser hit.

Tails aimed for one of the green canisters floating up through the center of the room, just as Robotnik passed it. He fired, and the canister exploded, the flames and debris smashing against Eggman. He quickly turned to face Tails, yelling, “That’s it! You’re no match for this, Tails!” The front end of the Egg-Walker changed, and suddenly a giant laser shot out of it. Tails jumped, activating the mech’s hover boosters, but the edge of the laser caught him as he fell.

Tails targeted Eggman as he checked the Tornado’s status. “No, the Tornado’s power is failing! I have to hurry this up.” He launched the laser blast as Robotnik’s laser slowed down, and he didn’t have time to dodge it. Tails, in the mean time, ran to the other edge of the room.

“Alright, no more games!” Eggman proclaimed, pressing a series of buttons on his dashboard. Two large missile launchers fanned out from the back of his walker. “Take this!” Suddenly dozens of miniature missiles launched from Robotnik’s mech. Tails kicked the Tornado into high gear, constantly moving to try and dodge them as they exploded just behind him. Eggman was moving in on Tails, and carelessly passed the center of the room as another canister began to rise. Tails quickly targeted it and fired. Eggman didn’t have time to move, and the canister exploded just behind him. The Egg-Walker began to explode and smoke, falling to the ground as Eggman muttered to himself, “I can’t lose to Tails…”

* * * * *

Moments earlier, Shadow stood by a window in the central area of the ARK. He looked out as Sonic’s capsule exploded. “I guess he was just a regular hedgehog after all.” He stood up from leaning against the wall, and walked out of the room.

* * * * *

Rouge walked up to the panel where the Chaos Emeralds were stored in the Eclipse Cannon. “Legend has it that when all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected, the power creates a miracle,” she said to herself. “I have six of them. They’re mine, all mine.” She began to move towards them, when a voice stopped her.

“I don’t think so!” Shadow said as he walked into the room.

“Shadow…” Rouge said as she turned around.

“So that was your plan from the very beginning, huh? Or was it a direct order from the President? Now I know who you are. You’re the government spy, Rouge the bat, aren’t you?” He turned to her, a look of triumph on his face.

“So you did your homework, is that it? I’d say that’s an invasion of privacy.”

“I could say the same about you.”

“Hmm! It looks like things aren’t quite going your way, but since my job is done… I thought it was time to take what’s mine and get out of this place.”

“You are one pathetic creature!”

“Hmm, look who’s talking? What about you?” Rouge jumped off of the platform surrounding the control panel and began to slowly drift to the ground, a large manila folder, bulging with papers, in her hand. “Here are the results of the research project called “The Ultimate Life Form.” But, if this picture is of the real ultimate life form named, Shadow…” Rouge landed on the ground, waving a piece of paper bearing the picture of a large lizard creature in front of her face. “Then exactly who, or what, is standing in front of me?”

Suddenly a crackling noise came from Shadow’s walkie-talkie. He picked it up, and as expected Dr. Robotnik’s voice came from the other end. “This is Dr. Eggman. I have all seven chaos emeralds. Shadow, I’m heading for the Cannon Control room. Get over to this research lab and take care of these two. There’s not much time before the cannon fires again.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Shadow said, putting the walkie-talkie away. He turned back to Rouge. “If you want to live, leave the Chaos Emeralds where they are! The fake emerald should be enough for you.” He turned to leave.

“Do you actually believe that you’re the real Shadow?”

“No doubt.”

“Even your memories might not be real, you know.”

“Even if my memories are not real, it’s still me, Shadow. And I will fulfill my promise to Maria. That’s the only thing that matters to me now.” He left the room, running down the halls.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Knuckles was also running through the corridors of the space colony. “I’m getting these weird feelings from the Master Emerald. Something is definitely not right. I have to find Sonic and the others, wherever they are.”

* * * * *

Tails looked at his own walkie-talkie, and murmured. “Sonic, I did it…” He looked downward, dropping the walkie-talkie, knowing there wouldn’t be an answer.

“Yes, well, you certainly slowed the Doctor down, but you haven’t stopped anything,” Shadow said as he strode into the room. “Looks like that faker died in vain…”

“You take that back!” Tails yelled, jumping out of the Tornado and running forward, grabbing Shadow at the neck. Amy stood behind him, holding her hammer.

Shadow merely smiled, looking down at the young duo in front of him. “Do you really think you can beat me? Chaos Spear!” Shadow flung Tails away, a blast of yellow Chaos energy shooting from his hand. Tails skidded along the ground, but got up quickly, fiery tears of anger in his eyes. He grabbed a large wrench from the Tornado and charged Shadow, swinging it like a madman. Shadow simply brought his hand up, grabbing onto the tool and twisting it from Tails’ grasp. “You’ll need more than this to take down the Ultimate Lifeform!”

“Then how’s this!” Knuckles yelled as he punched Shadow in the back of the head. He was stunned and flew forward, crashing into a collection of control panels at the edge of the room. He attempted to stand up, but collapsed and slid along the panel to the ground, unconscious. Knuckles turned to Tails and Amy. “Hey you guys… where’s Sonic?”

Tails and Amy both looked away, and Tails soon looked back. “Sonic’s…”

Suddenly an alarm began to sound around them. Red light’s flashed, and Robotnik’s voice soon came over the speakers. “Shadow! Forget about those brats and get to the control room! Something’s gone wrong!”

“What do you think is going on?” Amy asked.

“I don’t know, but we’d better get out of here!” Knuckles yelled, running for the door. “Let’s go guys!”

Tails jumped in the Tornado along with Amy, and the three quickly blasted through the halls, trying to find a safe way out.

* * * * *

“Aghh, what’s going on?” Eggman yelled, trying to make sense of the various warnings appearing on the screen. He knew the cannon must have fired, but he had no idea why the computer was acting like this.

Rouge put her hand to her ear as a call came in from earth. “Rouge, what the hell’s going on up there?!” a G.U.N. commander said. The signal was faint and filled with static, and various cries of terror were clearly audible in the background.

“I don’t know. Dr. Eggman fired the cannon, but all these warnings and sirens are going off,” Rogue said, her worry about what was going on below clearly showing.

“It might… omethin… o do wi… ARK… fall…” The signal broke completely, leaving Rouge with nothing but static.

“It can’t be… Doctor, quick, can you check what our altitude is?”

“Yes, I should be able to…” Eggman said as he punched a series of commands into the computer. “No, that can’t be! The Ark is falling at an alarming rate!” Robotnik began to enter more commands into the computer, when suddenly a video image came up onto the screen. The image was grainy, but you could make out the form of an old man, clearly worn down by extreme anger, driven to insanity. A light swung above him, illuminating his features. Eggman’s face showed his surprise as he realized whom the video was of. “It’s my grandfather… Gerald Robotnik!”

* * * * *

“There has to be a way out of here! Another rocket, a transporter, something!” Tails said quickly, looking over a map of the colony. The trio stopped however, as a sound clip began to play over the speakers. “Who is that?”

“This, is a death sentence, for every human being on Earth!” Gerald began, his voice coarse and broken. “If my calculations are correct, the space colony ARK will impact the Earth in twenty-three minutes, sixty-two seconds.”

“We’re falling to Earth?” Amy proclaimed as Gerald paused.

“All of you will be destroyed, along with your beloved planet Earth. I plan to give you a taste of my revenge, one all the seven Chaos Emeralds are collected. Once I initiate this program, it cannot be disabled. All of you ungrateful humans, who took everything away from me, will feel my loss, and despair!”

“Is there anything else you want to say?” a voice said.

“No,” Gerald replied.

“Ready… fire!” the other voice said. The audio, and the video playing elsewhere on the ARK and around the world, stopped as Gerald was executed. The ARK suddenly began to shake more violently.

“The vibrations are getting stronger! We have to find a way out of here!” Knuckles yelled.

“I’ve got it!” Tails proclaimed. “Robotnik built a transporter from here to one of his bases! We can use that! Let’s get moving!”

* * * * *

“No, my Grandfather can’t really mean to destroy us,” Eggman said as the video ended. “Rrrgh, we have to get out of here!” He jumped off of the control panel platform and began to run for the door.

“Doctor, what about the Chaos Emeralds?” Rouge asked as Robotnik ran past her.

“Forget them for now! Better to survive than to go down with them.” Eggman continued to run, headed for the transporter room. Rouge headed after him.

“Where’s Shadow?”

“He’s either escaped already or is somewhere on the ARK. I’m sure we don’t need to worry about him. Now let’s go!”

* * * * *

Tails, Amy, and Knuckles had reached the door of the transporter room. They attempted to open the door, but it was locked. “It must use a password. But I don’t think I’ll be able to crack it in time,” Tails said as numbers and letters flew across the screen in front of him.

“I’ve got your password right here!” Knuckles said, putting on his shovel claws. He lined up his fist, then punched the door, his knuckle spurs sliding into the groove in the middle. He twisted them around a bit, then put his fingers in, pulling against the door. He strained, sweat breaking out over his body. Eventually the doors made a slight movement, then with one more burst of strength, they flew apart.

The three entered the room, Tails quickly turning the transporter on. It began to power up, just as Eggman and Rouge came running down the hall. Tails spotted him, and once again his rage was ignited. “Eggman! You’re gonna pay!” He jumped out of the Tornado, but Knuckles caught him, holding him back inside the transporter. “Let me go Knuckles!”

“No! What’s important now is to get off of here! You can get revenge on Robotnik as much as you want later,” Knuckles said, as the three of them began to fizzle away. “He’ll certainly be getting it.” And with that the trio was transported back to the planet.

“Hmph, foolish fox boy. Let’s go Rouge.” Eggman walked into the room, setting the transporter to an alternate location, not wanting to run into those three again.

“But what about Shadow?” Rouge asked again as she walked up to the transporter.

“Like I said, he’ll be fine. He is the Ultimate Lifeform after all.”

‘I certainly hope so…’ Rouge thought as her and Robotnik were transported away from the ARK.

* * * * *

The ARK was beginning to enter the earth’s atmosphere. The propulsion stabilizers broke off, flying into space. As the outer edges began to rapidly heat up, some sections exploded entirely, chunks of rock and metal bursting into flame.

Shadow stirred, sitting up from the floor. He looked out the window, seeing the earth rushing up to meet him. “Maria…” he said as glass shattered all around him.

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Business as Usual.

Another cloudy day in the city, as usual. Thick black clouds hung in the sky for miles. As they did every day. And they didn’t bring life giving rain. If anything these clouds formed from smoke and pollution would only bring death, and more darkness.

It was also quiet, once again, as it usually was. The only sounds came from various factories and the occasional transport. In fact, if not for these sounds, one might think that the city was abandoned. Those more knowledgeable, however, wished it were.

Miles away, low in the sky to avoid the smog, an airplane was cruising through the air. It was small, the cockpit only having room for one, comfortably at least, and propelled by a powerful but relatively silent jet engine. The blue paint that coated it was peeling away from the many years it had seen, revealing an earlier red paintjob. The pilot didn’t think about the appearance of his aircraft at all however, as he looked at towards the city in the distance. “Hmm, doesn’t seem like there’s many guards. I could probably get farther into the city today. Doubt I have enough ammo though…” The pilot thought for a moment. “I’d better play it safe at first. No need to get too risky.”

The plane was nearing the outskirts of the city, and the pilot began to slow down, preparing for descent. The words outskirts weren’t quite accurate, since what is now the unpopulated outskirts of the city were once part of a large metropolis. But these days, the main city was centered on a large hill inside an even larger crater. Citizens of the area had long said there was something strange about the hill, and for good reason, but few these days cared to think about it’s origin. Even the ones who didn’t know it.

Slowly, with skills honed through years of flying, the pilot brought in his plane. Immediately upon entering the city limits he had cut his engines down to the lowest possible power. He didn’t want to announce his presence with the roar of a jet engine, even one as quiet as his. He landed beside, or rather in, a run down building, probably a former home. Judging the area to be hidden enough he slid the goggles he’d been wearing up to his pointed ears, and replaced them with black sunglasses.

He jumped out of the cockpit, strapping a long sheath to his back. The pilot wore a brown, hooded overcoat, the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, and black combat boots. He pulled a small remote control from one of his coat’s pockets. Pressing a button on it, his plane began to shimmer in that way the air seems to on a hot summer’s day. Soon, it had disappeared completely from sight. Carefully remembering the location of his plane, the pilot walked away, ducking behind a nearby wall that had been broken down to standing only a few feet tall.

He made his way towards the city proper, diving behind an overturned barrel as he heard footsteps approaching. Slowly, he crept over the side of the barrel to look for the source of the footsteps. He was surprised, and slightly amused, at what he saw. They were guards, but not the kind he was expecting.

‘He can’t be serious. Guess I can’t blame a guy for saving resources though. These guys won’t be very useful, but beggars can’t be choosers,’ the pilot thought as he ducked back behind the barrel, grabbing a small gun in each hand out from the holsters in his coat. He got into position to attack, and waited for the opportune time. Soon enough the guards, still unaware of their attacker’s presence, began to walk past the barrel.

The pilot jumped out from behind the barrel and sent silenced shots at both of the guards. The bullets hit them square in the chest. They fell to the ground, motionless. “Perfect,” the pilot said as he holstered his guns.

‘Well, I should be able to salvage a few parts from these guys. Still, these are really old models,’ the pilot thought, scratching his head as he looked over the two robots in front of him. They were circular in design, with thin limps connecting their various ball-like body parts. They each carried a large, but weak, blaster gun. ‘Seriously, these are even less threatening than the ones from… back then.’

* * * * *

A rolling hillside stretched out for miles in front of the young fox. Next to him stood his new friend, who had a mischievous smirk on his face that showed his complete confidence. He looked down at the fox beside him. “Well, we aren’t gonna accomplish anything by standing around. Let’s gooooooooo!” he said before running towards the hills.

“Hey, wait up!” the fox called, running after his friend.

* * * * *

The pilot shook his head as if to shake away the flashback. ‘I’d better get to work. Never know when more guards will show up. Even these guys could prove dangerous in large groups.’ The pilot knelt down towards the robots to retrieve his bullets. This may sound like a strange thing to do, but his bullets weren’t exactly your standard ammunition. The mere fact that someone of his technical prowess would be using traditional metal bullets should have been clue enough that something was different. The bullets he used were in actuality specially designed canisters, each containing four small darts. When fired the canister would open and the armor piercing darts would shoot out, embedding into their target. They then delivered an electric shock, but also emitted a low range electromagnetic pulse, shutting down any sort of mechanical victim that they should hit. In addition, they had been designed so that the same darts, should they be recovered, would be reusable. And since they shut down the robots instead of destroying them, the pilot could use them as parts.

The pilot knelt to one knee, scanning the first guard bot for his darts. As soon as he began to reach for them however, he was blinded by an excruciatingly bright light that flooded the area. As his eyes adjusted he looked around him to see, approximately ten by his count, silver robots drop down from the sky in a ring around him as more searchlights came on. They landed in a crouching position, but soon stood up one after the other as they activated, their red eyes lighting up. These were much more imposing than the first guards by many levels. They were tall, sleek, heavily armored, and carried more dangerous weaponry. And above all they now had the element of surprise that had been so favorable to the trapped pilot moments ago. “DECOY STRATEGY SUCCESSFUL. TARGET HAS BEEN SURROUNDED,” the leader of the squad, identifiable by the red stripe that stretched down the right side of his front, said.

‘Crap! I should’ve figured!’

The leader turned to the pilot, scanning him. “TARGET IDENTIFICATION… SPECIES: FOX, MALE. ARMED. SEARCHING DATA FILES… ENEMY IDENTIFIED. PREPARE FOR BATTLE,” it said aloud in its deep metallic voice. With an ominous series of clicks, the silver robots raised their right arms, each baring a machine gun.

“This going to be pleasant,” the fox said, reaching for his sword.

“OPEN FIRE.” The air was instantly filled with the sounds of machine guns firing. The entire area around the pilot exploded, dust and debris flying into the air, the decoy guards completely obliterated. After firing for a good thirty seconds, the robots ceased fire to examine the damage. The dust settled, revealing the ground to be riddled with bullets. However, there was no sign of the fox. The robots analyzed the situation and simultaneously looked up.

The pilot had jumped into the air just as they had opened fire, and now hung in the air above him, hand grasped around the handle of his sword. He was falling towards them, and they pointed their gun arms in his direction. He pulled his sword from his sheath just as he was on top of one of them. As he did so he pressed a small button just below the guard. The center of the sword split and slid apart, revealing what appeared to be coursing blue lightning. He swung it in a wide arc, slashing the robot straight down the middle. He jumped away, the split remains sparking before exploding.

As if on cue, the other robots began firing at the smoke cloud. The pilot dashed out from behind it, headed for his next target. The robots followed him with their guns, tearing up the earth behind him. He held his sword at a horizontal to his hip as he ran, bending forward. He slashed the next robot in half, and its comrades quickly dispatched the rest of it. He continued running, but the robots’ bullets were gaining on him. One grazed his tail, sending jolts up along his spine. He dove forward, and the robots, not anticipating the movement, continued in their movement. This gave the fox enough time to roll over, get to his feet, and begin charging the group.

They began firing at him again, but this time he kept up his assault. He weaved this left and right, dodging the stream of ammunition as best as possible. He jumped up, flipping over the center robot, slashing its head off. He landed behind it and immediately thrust his sword through its center, using the robot as a temporary shield while he planned his next attack. He pulled out of the robot, charging towards a somewhat more solitary target on the edge of the half circle.

He slashed its legs off, and the robot fell down, still firing its gun in a futile attempt to hit its target. It took out two more ‘bots before the pilot slashed its head off. The remaining three guards, the leader and two others, regrouped into a single line across from where the pilot was. He charged them as they opened fire, holding his sword in front of himself horizontally to try and block as many bullets as physically possible.

As he neared them this became much harder, and series of rounds shot through his shoulder, knocking him back on one side. He hefted his sword in the air and slashed an “X” through the robot that had shot him. He immediately slashed the next one across the chest diagonally. The two fell apart, exploding and sending up a cloud of dust. As it cleared, only the leader stood before the fox.

“SQUAD DOWN. TARGET HAS PROVEN MORE DANGEROUS THAN THOUGHT. HOWEVER, ANY FURTHER ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT WILL BE FUTILE,” the leader said as he raised his gun arm, pointing it at the fox’s forehead.

‘Even at this close of a range my sword wouldn’t be faster than his gun. And I don’t have time to draw my gun!’

“ELIMINATING TARGET,” the robot said. Within the processors that made him operate, he sent a command to fire the gun to the gun arm, which was aimed with careful precision as dictated by his targeting system. He also calculated that the chance of the fox destroying him were less than one percent. However, he overlooked one minor detail. When the machine gun should’ve fired all that came was a light clicking sound. “AMMUNITION EMPTY. RELOADING,” the robot declared.

“Heh, guess it’s my lucky day,” the fox pilot said. Holding his sword at his side with on hand, he reached into his coat and pulled out one of his handguns. “Unfortunately for you, I’ve got plenty of ammo.” He pulled the trigger, and his usual darts flew straight into the lead robot’s head. Electrical currents surged around his body, and then he fell back wards with a metallic thud.

The pilot let go off his gun with all but his trigger finger. With a flick of the wrist, the 9mm handgun twirled around his finger, a thin wisp of smoke trailing from the tip like a ghost. He holstered it, and with a flourish, slowly sheathed his long curved sword as well. The blue current died away and the center blood-groove reformed as the sword slid into place with a soft metallic “chik”.

The pilot walked over to where the robot had fallen, and knelt down. Grasping all the darts in one hand, he jerked his arm up. They gave surprisingly little resistance considering the tough armor they had been embedded in. He looked them over as he rolled them into a line on the palm of his hand, then dropped them into one of his coat pockets. He stood up, flicking the strands of hair that grew quite, if one thought about it, randomly from the middle of his forehead away from his eyes. It really made no difference, as they soon fell back down over his left eye, but he had grown accustomed to at least one of his eyes being covered.

He surveyed the area carefully. He was still on the outskirts of the city, but much nearer to the hill than from where he had touched down. The aforementioned thick, black smog hung in the air, covering the blue sky above like a blanket, once again, as it usually was. Yet somehow, the fox noticed as he gingerly touched the bullet wound on his shoulder, today seemed brighter. Was it the fact that he had just come out of battle, which had been decided with a veritable miracle? Or maybe he was just sensing something big was about to happen? More likely, however, as he quickly realized, was that the searchlight bots were still hovering above him.

“Ah, dang, forgot about those guys didn‘t I?” The pilot crossed his arms as he reached into his coat, grabbing a gun in each hand. Carefully calculating the circular flight path of the robot combined with the wind speed and the trajectory of his bullets, he deduced exactly where he needed to aim for the most successful shot. Of course, all this was done in less time than it would take the average human to read that sentence.

He whipped his guns out, arms pointed at the two flying robots. He pulled the triggers simultaneously, and the dart bullets hit right where the robot itself connected to its searchlight. The lights turned off as they shorted out and the robots crashed into the ground. There was still one more spotlight, and the pilot looked up to see the last spotlight-bot was hovering above him. He drew his sword, reactivating its electric core, and jumped into the air, slashing it down the middle. The robot split apart as the fox flew past him and it fell to the ground, exploding. The pilot, however, stayed in the air unnaturally long. He wasn’t very light, even being a fox, especially with the equipment he was carrying. The fact that he staying in the air was likely due to one little mutant attribute he’d had his whole life.

He lowered down to the ground, his twin tails spinning slower as he settled to his feet. He flicked the tails for a moment before letting them fall down to rest on the backs of his legs. The small crater had now grown dark as the surrounding city, and the pilot was alone again. He sheathed his sword and went to go retrieve the darts from the other spotlight sentries.

As he removed the last bullet he looked at his haul. ‘Well, this went surprisingly better than expected. One silver guard and two spotlights. These could be pretty useful. Hauling them back to the T3 is gonna be a frikkin‘ chore though.’ He sighed as he began to haul the two spotlight robots into one pile.

* * * * *

Back at the plane, the pilot was busy taking apart the robots. A small cargo hold was open in the back of the cockpit, and he was trying to sort out what was useful now to save space. He’d already gutted one searchlight robot, and was busy doing the same to the other. He didn’t take much from these apart from their propulsion systems and central processing units. He always took the CPU from every robot he scrapped, as their computing power was higher than anything he could otherwise acquire. Once he’d wiped them for hacking software of course.

He moved on to the gun robot, detaching its gun arm. “This I can definitely put to use,” he said as he nonchalantly threw it behind him into the cargo bay. There was a metallic ring and a thud as the part rolled around for a brief moment. After removing the armored plating, the pilot took out the CPU of the last robot and climbed into his jet. He reached behind his chair and slid the door over the cargo hold, locking it in place. Once there had been a chair where the hold was, but these days the fox flew alone.

The pilot ran his pre flight diagnostics then powered on the engine. Grabbing the controls, he flipped a toggle labeled “TRGT. SYS.” A crosshair appeared on the screen in front of him, and he aimed it towards the wall in front of him. Carefully making sure he had the area he wanted, he pressed a lock-on trigger and a small beeping noise came from his dashboard. He slammed his thumbs down on the red buttons on top of his controls and streams of bullets spewed forth from his dual machine guns embedded in the plane’s nose. They decimated the wall in front of him, and he taxied out into the deserted street, turning so his plane faced straight down the road. As soon as he had straightened out the pilot expertly pushed the throttle and began to jet forward. Sensing he had reaching the needed speed for take-off, he pulled back on the controls, and the plane lifted into the air.

Once a few miles out from the city, the pilot typed in a series of numbers on a panel next to him. His plane’s global positioning unit entered the coordinates into its system and plotted the quickest course to the pilot’s destination. He relaxed and sat back in his seat, still keeping a firm grip on the control sticks with one hand, and took off his sunglasses, revealing his bright blue eyes. He quickly slid his goggles back down over his eyes as he drifted into a wisp of the smog above him.

* * * * *

“DESTINATION REACHED,” the GPS’s computerized voice chimed with a ding. The pilot looked out around him. He was flying over a low plain with a small forest located on the edge of it. Originally this whole area had been a large forest, but much of it had been destroyed years ago, and even some of the prairie that replaced was dead from pollution. Still, here and there clumps of tree dotted the landscape. But to the casual observer, the pilot’s landing here would be confusing. There was no town, no roads, not even a small house with a landing strip where he might live. But, that was just to the casual observer.

Turning the GPS off, the pilot flipped another toggle switch on his dashboard. “This is the Tornado 3. Ground control, do you read me?” the pilot asked, a slight hint of annoyance in his voice. “Rhetorical question of the month,” he muttered under his breath.

His radio system came to life with a jolt of static as a voice on the other end of his frequency spoke. “We read you T3. Relay your request,” it said in a very professional tone.

“Skip the formalities, what else would I want? Just open the runway,” the pilot said, not even attempting to hold his annoyance in check.

“Of course, right away. Always a pleasure dealing with you, sir,” the ground control personnel member said before cutting off communications. The pilot was now approaching one of the clumps of trees, which on a closer inspection almost looked as though they were aligned in rows. A few seconds after the ground control had disconnected there came a deep rumbling noise, and the ground around the trees lifted out of the ground, tilting to the side. Slowly, a gray runway rose up out of the ground, angling into a cavern.

The pilot slowed and pushed his plane down towards the new opening in the ground. He flipped a series of switches in a row, and with a loud “clunk” his landing gear extended out from the bottom of the plane. The pilot carefully touched down, he tires squealing as he shot down the angled road. He began to slow down and the runway began to move back to its horizontal resting position as the ground closed up above it. The plane came to a stop on top of a circular platform that rose about a foot off of the rest of the ground. He turned off all the plane’s systems as it locked into place. The pilot jumped out onto the platform, landing in front of a pedestal with a control panel in front of it.

He turned it on, and entered in his name and a pass code. With a loud click and whirring noise the platform moved along the road, which ran through the center of a large underground hanger. It was filled with planes of various sorts, a large amount of them military fighter jets, as well as a larger amount of ground vehicles. Most of them, however, hadn’t been operated for quite some time, evident by the heavy buildup of dust. The platform reached an empty space in the collection of vehicles and turned, settling into its proper home. The fox turned the control panel off and climbed back up to the plane.

Opening the cargo hold, the pilot reached around, groping for something amongst the metal. Feeling course fabric, he pulled out a large burlap sack and began to fill it with the parts. He stopped to switch his eyewear yet again back to sunglasses, then hefted the bag over his shoulder and walked off towards the door of the hangar.

The hangar, as was earlier noted, was underground. It was the only thing hidden below the surface here though. In fact, dug into and out of a series of catacombs, an entire underground city had been constructed. Over the years it had expanded from a small village of mostly animals who used it as a temporary safe house to a medium sized city, home to both humans and animals, who existed in harmony, more or less.

The fox walked through the passageways towards the residential district where his small home was. He paused at the door to reach into a pocket for his keys, but stopped and simply reached for the doorknob. He turned it, and as he’d suspected it was already unlocking. With a sigh, he walked inside his house. He flipped the light switch next to the door, and removed his sunglasses as the swivel chair at his desk turned around, seemingly on it’s own. “Well well, look what the cat dragged in,” the figure seated in the chair said.

“What are you doing in my house, again, Hopper?” the fox said flatly as he set the burlap sack down.

“Hey, why so angry?” the frog, Hopper, asked as he stood up from the chair. “And here I was worried about when you’d come back.”

“Yeah, which is why you broke into my house right around now and waited for me. It gets old considering I know you’re going to do it,” the fox said as Hopper walked up to him.

“Well, whatever. But dang Miles, you seriously got beat up dude. You know someone’s not gonna be happy about this,” Hopper said, looking at the fox’s various wounds.

Miles simply uttered a “hmph.” “Whatever, just get out of my house,” he said, pushing the young frog outside the door.

“You know she really does worry about you!” Hopper said, only to be answered by the door slamming in his face. “Geez, that guy. Seems to get more uptight every day. But I guess he has good reason,” Hopper said, putting his hands in his shorts pockets. He walked away, taking one last glance at the door marked with the address number “92” below which was the name of the resident…

“MILES PROWER.”

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Livin’ In the City.

“Miles, let me in!” the feminine voice called from the outside of Miles’ door. It was followed a triplet of knocks on the hard wood. “And don‘t think I don‘t know you‘re home, Hopper already filled me in on your condition. I‘m not going to let you just sit there and bleed to death because you don‘t want any help!” Miles did simply sit there in the swivel chair by his computer desk, holding a dirtied rag against his bleeding shoulder. There was a long silence, pierced only by a faint squeaking noise. The fox’s ears perked up, and he straightened in his seat. “Okay, have it your way. But if you aren‘t going to let me in,” the voice continued. “I‘ll just have to open the door myself!” Miles bolted from his chair to the door and wrenched it open in a matter of seconds. In the doorway stood a pink female hedgehog, and in her raised arms was a comically enormous hammer. “Thank you,” she said with a smile.

Miles stepped back from the door and walked back over towards his desk, grabbing the rag which he had dropped on his living room table. Really, it was his only table, and the house was mostly one large room with various inset areas, but it was the table by the couch and T.V., so it was the living room table. He sat down in the swivel chair and spun around to the desk, typing in a series of commands on the keyboard with his free hand. “I really don‘t need your help Amy, I can take care of my self,” Miles said as the hedgehog walked in, closing the door.

Amy sat down on his couch, her hammer disappearing in a small puff of smoke. No one could really explain where she kept the massive hammer that she used as a weapon. Some theorized that it was magic, some said she could access a sort of special zone with limited chaos powers, and others had more, less tasteful, explanations. Amy looked at Miles like a mother scolding a child. “Yeah, sure you can. Last time I let you patch yourself up, I found you like this, bleeding all over. You‘re going to face some serious damage if your wounds aren‘t treated properly.” Feeling her hard stare on his back, Miles turned around in the swivel chair, looking at his slightly unwelcome guest. She wore red and white boots, white pants, a long sleeveless shirt that hung down almost to her knees, and white gloves. Her hedgehog spikes were quite a bit longer than average, and were held down by a red hair band, causing them to grow more like hair than spikes. And her fierce green eyes were staring at Miles, with a friendly worry behind them.

“You don‘t need to worry about me. Hopper just over exaggerates things, I‘m fine,” Miles said, trying not to look Amy directly in the eye.

“And that‘s why you‘re sitting here with a bloody rag against your shoulder, which I can tell from here obviously got shot. Now come over here and sit,” she said, picking up a medical kit she’d brought with her.

“Not now, I‘m working,” Miles began before being cut off.

“Sit. Now.” Amy said firmly. Miles was frozen, but soon stood up and walked over to sit on the table in front of Amy. She took Miles hand off the rag, grabbing it and depositing them on the table beside him. She looked over his shoulder was she reached around in the med kit. “You really got it this time. What did you do, run straight at whoever was firing at you?” Miles didn’t say anything, trying not to give away the fact that he had, in fact, charged a firing machine gun. “Well, this shouldn‘t be too bad, you do heal pretty fast so there shouldn‘t be too much lasting damage.” She began to wipe the wound with antiseptic, holding Miles’ arm tightly with her free hand so he’d stop twitching. She set down the wipe on the rag and pulled out a roll of gauze, wrapping it around Miles’ shoulder. After a few minutes she had sufficiently treated the bullet wound.

“Thanks, I should be fine now,” Miles said, standing up as soon as Amy moved her hands away from him.

“Fortunately for you, I think you‘re right,” she said as he sat back down in the swivel chair. She picked up the dirty rag and wipe in one bundle and deposited it in the wastebasket. After packing the gauze back into the first aid kit, she stood up, smoothing out her shirt. “Well, I‘ll be leaving then, I have to return this kit to the doctor. I‘ll see you later, okay Miles?” She began to walk towards the door, but when there was no answer, she turned back towards Miles, the fierce side of her voice showing again, “Okay?”

“Yeah, see yah,” Miles said, turning around to wave as Amy left. As soon as the door clicked shut, he walked over to his desk. He sat down and spun the swivel chair

around to face his computer monitor. Checking over the numbers

streaming down the screen, he quickly typed a series of commands into

the keyboard. They appeared amongst the scrolling data, and in a few

moments the words "DATAWIPE.EXE COMPLETE" appeared on the screen. The

letters and numbers ceased appearing, and a high-pitched noise sounded

to Miles right. He rolled the chair over to where the desk curved to

align with the curve of the wall. There on a small platform was one

of the CPUs of the robots he had scrapped.

"This one's clean," he said as he detached various wires from the

roughly cube shaped computing unit. The fox gently set it in a

cardboard box and reached into his burlap sack for the next. He pulled

it out, looking it over. Pushing himself over to the keyboard, he

typed in a command to lock down all his connections. Miles then hooked

up the robot brain as he had before, typing more commands into the

computer. The data-wiping program initiated, purging the CPU of any

hidden hacking program or viruses.

* * * * *

Amy Rose walked into the expansive room, squinting to see in the

darkness. "Hopper? Are you in here?" she asked the shadows.

There was silence, and then a voice answered from above. "Yeah, can

you turn on the lights? Some jerk flipped 'em off on me. Should be a

switch nearby you." Amy groped in the darkness behind her, eventually

finding the small flip switch that would turn on the lights. She

flicked it upward, squinting as the bright hang lights above turned

on. As her eyes adjusted, she looked up at the green figure hanging

from the ceiling. "Hey Amy, how's it hanging?" he asked as he jumped

down, landing right in front of the pink hedgehog.

Amy looked over the individual standing before her. He was green tree

frog, with oddly shaped purple spots all over his body. His eyes,

which were positioned on small bumps on the top of his head, were a

matching violet color. He wore a simple outfit of sandals and red

shorts bearing a single flower on the right side. His expression was

a smirk that never seemed to change.

"I'm fine, Hopper. Thanks for telling me about Miles, he actually

wasn't as bad as I thought he'd be."

"No problem. That fox may be one cold-hearted Lone Wolf techno genius,

but if he died I'd lose the best sparring partner I've got," Hopper

said, barely pausing to breath.

Amy simply took his words with a smile. She knew well what Hopper

really thought of Miles behind all the joking. Hopper was one of the

few people to try, somewhat successfully, to get close to Miles in

years. She blamed it on the fact that the frog was way too stubborn

for his own good, and Amy knew it would be good if Miles could open up

to new people after so many years. "Honestly, sometimes he acts just

like that echidna," Amy said, her thoughts breaking their way to her

tongue.

"Who does what now?" Hopper asked.

"Oh, nothing. So, how has the training been going?"

"Feh, don't even really need to ask. Same old same old. Not much to

report, just, you know, trying to "better my skills" and all that."

"I'm surprised your master doesn't think you're that good. You can do

that whole climbing on the walls move after all."

"Yeah, but my whole family can do that, it's just natural for me. Anyway…”

"Hopper! What did I say about the lights! You need to train in total

darkness to improve your senses!" called an elderly rat from a doorway

at the end of the room.

"Oh look, the jerk returns to finish the job. I'll see yah later Amy," Hopper said as he walked over towards the other end of the room to his sensei.

“Yeah, bye Hopper,” Amy called, turning off the lights as she left the dojo. The door closed behind her with a resounding echo as Amy stepped out into the city streets. She looked back at the building she had just exited. It was built in a very traditional style of most martial arts schools, seeming out of place in the modern city that surrounded it. Of course, the city itself seemed quite out of place with its own surroundings.

The city of Subagri. Originally it was simply a series of underground caverns constructed by the mainly animal citizens of a village formerly located in the area. They used it as a storage cache and safe-house in times of danger. Within the past years, as more wars began to ravage the land, the citizens moved completely into their caverns and began to expand. Soon others came seeking shelter from their enemies, and the simple village became a massive city. Within the center of all the canals that were continuously being expanded was a roughly dome shaped underground cave, dug out of the inside of one of the many hills that dotted the fields above. And within this was the city proper, a modern metropolis of tall skyscrapers. Though I suppose dirtscraper would be a better term in this case. People went to work, children played along the streets, and life continued on as it always had. Simply underground instead of above it.

Amy took a deep a breath as she looked up at the circular hole that let in sunlight at the top of the hill. It was reinforced with metal plating so that the rock wouldn’t wear away and crash into the city below, and it could also be sealed. Surrounding it on the surface, camouflaged among the trees, were defense turrets of various makes and models. In this day and age, one could never be too safe. In fact, the reason the weapons were surrounding the city was the same reason they were living in it.

After collecting her thoughts, Amy turned and began to walk down the street towards the Market District. She was about to go grocery shopping when Hopper had come to tell her that Miles was back. She then rushed over to the hospital, where one of the doctors always knew exactly what she needed. Amy showed up at the hospital fairly often, whenever Miles would come back from one of his little excursions badly injured. And considering the small amount of fame he had, it didn’t take long for the medical staff to catch on to the situation whenever Amy dropped in for a visit.

Both her and Miles were had actually been very well known throughout the world years ago, though that had all quickly faded away during the wars that had ravaged the land for the past decade. Still, within the city of Subagri, Miles especially was well known, though not so much for the reasons that he used to be. These days, most people knew him only as, “that insane fox who is always trying to pick a fight” with his regular reconnaissance mission. Few knew what his real purpose was, and even fewer cared to find out. If Miles Prower wanted to keep to himself, then they figured why bother trying to talk to him.

Amy’s thoughts were broken as someone yelled out, “Hey, someone stop that guy!” She looked up to see a rather shady looking character running towards her, an obviously stolen purse in his hand. She immediately spread her left arm out, her hammer appearing in it. The thief, a porcupine by the looks of him, had little time to react as Amy brought the mallet swinging into his face, slamming him to the ground. He hit the concrete a few feet away, unconscious and with a bloody, and most likely broken, nose. Amy walked over and picked up the purse as its owner ran over to her.

“Oh thank you very much, young lady!” the woman said as Amy handed her the purse. She was human, with long reddish brown hair, and she wore blue boots, tight brown pants, and a blue vest jacket with a white T-shirt underneath.

“It was no trouble ma’am,” Amy said politely, putting away her hammer. “I have no idea why people would still act like this the way the world is.” Amy knelt down and grabbed the porcupine. She hefted him up onto her shoulder, wary of his long, thin spines. “I’ll just take this guy down to the police station and have them take care of it.”

“That would probably be the best thing to do. Thank you again, Miss…?”

“Rose. Amy Rose,” Amy said, with a slight curtsy that was hardly discernible due to the fact that she was still carrying the rather large porcupine.

“Thank you Miss Rose. My name is Sally by the way,”

“Well then, you’re welcome Miss Sally. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime,” Amy said as she turned and walked towards the police station a few blocks away.

* * * * *

“That’s the last of them,” Miles said as he unplugged the last of the robot CPUs from his computer. Setting it in the box with the rest of them, he opened up a document on his screen. It was a journal of some kind, and scrolling to the bottom, Miles began to type in an entry.

“6/1, 10th year.

Went on another salvaging mission today. Acquired one silver guard and two searchlight robots. Resistance was tougher than usual today; enemy used a decoy maneuver to ambush me. I took severe bullet wounds to my left shoulder, Amy Rose patched it up. I’ll have to be more careful next time; they’re beginning to anticipate my movements. ”

He saved the entry and closed the window, opening up another program. It brought up a 3D image, with various technical writings surrounding it. Schematics of one of the silver robots he had fought earlier that day. Drawing a line from the gun arm, Miles created a word box, saying “Possible to take down in-between ammunition cartridges. When caught in a long-term firefight, seems to overlook reloading. Might not hold true for all units.”

Leaning back in his chair, Miles grabbed an aluminum can sitting on the desk. The drink inside it had gone flat, having been sitting there half-drunken since yesterday, but he didn’t mind. He drained the last of it, crushed it in his hands, and threw it in the overflowing garbage can. Miles checked the time, then walked over towards the door. His long coat hung on a small hook on the wall, and below it was small table with his handguns. On the wall just to the left was a sword rack with a wooden practice sword and his specially designed katana. He had developed the long curved blade after seeing the effectiveness its more traditional cousins could have on an object. Built within the reinforced metal the composed the blade was a thin electronic device, hooked up to a powerful battery in the handle. By pressing a button concealed near the hilt, the blood groove of the sword would slide inward, revealing the coursing electricity inside. The blade would become covered in the sparks, heating up incredibly. And when these factors were combined with a well-trained swing, the blade could slash through anything.

Miles turned to his guns, picking them up and walking back to the desk. He also retrieved the darts from his coat pocket. These he placed in a small metal box, and a small light in the corner of its frame lit up green to signify that the darts were charging. He then proceeded to take apart the guns, examining the individual pieces. One error in the inner workings of his weapons, and he wouldn’t have a chance against the metallic armies he fought regularly. And if there’s one thing the fox would never do, it would be losing to them…

* * * * *

Miles away from the where Miles was holding his own personal war, there was a mysterious island where a different war was taking place. Yet the enemy in both cases was the same. The circumstances in each, however, were somewhat different. Miles fought for his own personal reasons, the war fought on this island was fought out of a duty to protect it.

A figure jumped from tree branch to tree branch. The trees shook, and leaves rustled. Birds nesting in them would have likely flown away from their homes with a ruckus. That is, if any of them had remained. The red being was moving quickly, hardly pausing to catch his breath. Not that any of this was strenuous for him. He’d lived his entire life training for battles such as these, and he knew his surroundings well. Jumping from an upper branch, he grabbed onto a shorter tree as he fell, spinning around the thin branch that stuck out parallel to the ground. He let go, flipping through the air and landing in a patch of low-lying jungle plants. He quickly scanned the area, his palm pressed flat against the ground. He caught something moving in his peripheral vision, a thin red light piercing through the night’s darkness, and he jumped into the air as a high caliber bullet flew towards him.

“TARGET SIGHTED. INITIATING CHACE,” a metallic voice said. The small squad of robots shot into the thick growth of the jungle, the machines in front hacking down a small path through the trees. They had been designed to fight in this environment, and worked efficiently, rarely being slowed by the dense vegetation. Yet even the best of computer programming can’t beat the instinct of something that has lived in the area its entire life.

The figure continued to run through the treetops, swinging from branch to branch. Frequently, he would change his direction, diverting left or right as he judged the path he should take. He was having trouble losing his pursuers, and wanted to get rid of them quickly before they destroyed any more of the jungle. He landed on the ground and immediately jumped into a tree branch, perching low as he waited.

The trio of robots flew towards him quickly. They hadn’t yet noticed that their target had stopped, which he had counted on happening. Just as they passed the tree he was hiding in, he jumped down, ambushing the robot in back. He slammed it into the ground, smashing its head with his powerful punch. He looked up, his long dreadlock-like spines falling in front of his face. The other two robots quickly turned around and spotted him. He dove towards the ground as one of the robots threw a small canister towards him. The incendiary grenade hit the jungle floor and exploded, engulfing the jungle in flames for a five-foot radius. The two robots moved forward to examine the charred remains of tropical forest for signs of the body. Finding none, the robots were about to split up and search for the target when one of them was suddenly smashed through the center by a fist.

The red figure dove out of the ground, tearing one of the robots apart as he did so. Immediately he ran back into the dense jungle, the other robot firing its weapon at him as it gave chase. “TARGET IDENTIFIED. ECHIDNA, MALE. PREPARING TO ELIMINATE.”

“I’ve got to give this guy the slip somehow!” Looking around him as he ran, the echidna sniffed the air. Recognizing the scent of seawater, he turned to the left, the robot close on his tail. The jungle was slowly beginning to thin, and he could see a faint light from the moon up ahead. The robot was gaining on him, and he only had one shot at this. He was approaching a cliff over looking the ocean. Yet he didn’t stop running at full speed, and the robot, focusing all its power on maintaining its gain on its target, didn’t anticipate that the echidna would jump off of a cliff.

However, that’s exactly what he had planned. Just as the robot was about to fire a shot straight for the echidna’s head, he jumped off of the cliff. The robot, its engines blasting at full power, couldn’t slow down in time, and shot straight off of the edge, plummeting to the ocean miles below. The echidna however, was perfectly safe, clinging to the underside of the cliff. He slowly pulled himself up to land, and sat on the edge of the cliff, catching his breath. Looking up he stared at the disfigured moon, half of it having been missing for almost ten years. Reaching up to his face, he felt the long scar along his right eye. Memories began to float through his head, and he quickly stood up, driving them from his mind.

He turned back to the jungle and dashed off in the direction of his home. Years ago he’d lived out in the open near ancient ruins, or just settled down wherever was most convenient for him. But those were simpler times, when the island hadn’t been in turmoil and he wasn’t living in hiding. Back then, he had control of the island. These days, he fought to survive on it.

He soon arrived a cave hidden deep in the jungle. Its entrance was small, but as one would go deeper inside, the cave became larger, having been dug out by the echidna over time as a suitable house for two. As he walked into the main living space of the cave, he was greeted by a relieved voice.

“Well, look who‘s finally home,” the orange furred female echidna sitting waiting for him. She walked over to her partner, hugging him. “You were supposed to meet up with me hours ago. Please tell me you didn‘t just charge straight into the main base.”

“Don‘t worry Shade, I wouldn‘t do something that stupid. Yet,” Knuckles said, and was answered by a playful smack on the side of his head. “I just ran into a scout group. Had to lead one to the edge of the island.”

Shade stepped back from her partner, kissing him lightly on the cheek. “Good then. Now that you’re back, I‘ll throw together something to eat,” she said, walking towards the kitchen.

“Alright, but nothing too much, it is getting kind of late,” Knuckles said, sitting down on the makeshift couch. He crossed his arms, looking at the sharp spikes that adorned his hands, trademarks of the ancient echidna tribe he was descended from. “I will save the Master Emerald, though, no matter what.”

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Isolated Memories.

Knuckles ran towards the robot horde. Nothing could stop him from reaching his goal. Yet, what his goal was, he wasn’t sure of. He could sense the Master Emerald’s power from within the giant metal fortress, but there was something else driving him. It felt like more than his lifelong calling to guard the giant Chaos Emerald. It felt like he was being driven solely by rage.

A large mechanized giant crashed down from above him. It raised a giant energy sword into the air, the hot plasma charging it causing the air around the blade to shimmer in the heat. With a great rushing noise, it swung down towards Knuckles. Then, everything went blank.

The real Knuckles woke up and bolted to a sitting position, panting for breath. He quickly looked around himself and saw that he was still in his cave home, on the bed he shared with his spouse, Shade, who was now stirring after Knuckles had made such a sudden movement.

“What‘s wrong?” she asked, somewhat drowsy, but still with the alertness of a soldier.

“Nothing, nothing,” Knuckles replied, slowing his breathing back to normal. “Just some weird dream, I‘m fine.” He turned so his legs went over the side of the bed, resting on the floor. Reaching over to a sort of table carved out of the rock wall, he grabbed a small clock, one of the few technological items they still had from when Shade first arrived. Seeing that it was getting close to the time the sun usually rose, Knuckles reached down and grabbed his shoes which were sitting beside the table. After living on the island his whole life, the Guardian’s internal clock was well tuned to the solar patterns of the floating island. In fact, if not for the nightmare, Knuckles probably would have woken up just minutes later anyway.

After putting on his shoes, Knuckles stood up, stretching and letting out a yawn. He turned to see that Shade, along with her normal dress, was also attaching two silvery bracelets to her wrists. After pressing a button on each, a dotted line around the center lit up a bright pink color. Knuckles knew that these were weapons developed by Shade’s people that could manifest energy from the bracelets into a powerful blade. He wondered, however, why she was putting them on, as generally, even when moving around the area, she generally relied only on her other fighting skills.

Sensing her partner’s questioning stare at her, Shade turned to face Knuckles as she slid on her black combat boots, which also possessed the strange energy that powered her bracelets. They were one of the few pieces of her battle suit that she still wore daily. The rest had either been destroyed, put to other purposes, or just waiting for a time when they could be used again. The simple form fitting black shorts and sleeveless shirt that she wore was better suited for the jungle environment where any of her battles would be fought, and allowed her to move even quicker than she could with the battle armor, which, while developed to be simple and lightweight, was still, after all, armor. “In case you‘re wondering,” Shade said as she clasped the top of the second boot shut. “I‘m planning on heading towards Sandopolis today while I get some supplies. We‘re mostly getting low on food, and for some reasons I really want some of those strange fruits that grow near the large oases.”

Knuckles nodded, knowing exactly what fruit she meant. He honestly had never really liked them, they were sour and had a strange aftertaste, plus they didn’t look too appealing after being exposed to the harsh conditions of the Sandopolis desert. But he figured that if she was going to head all the way to that part of the island, she must like it.

“So I figured I‘d bring the Leech blades with me, just in case I run into a large amount of trouble. We haven‘t been in that area recently, who knows what the enemy could be up to over there,” Shade finished, and walked towards the cave’s main exit. Knuckles followed her.

“True. Just be careful, okay?” he said, leaning in to kiss her good-bye.

“Should you really be worrying about me being reckless?” Shade asked playfully after they parted. She then walked into the dark cavern that led out of the cave, while Knuckles walked over to a strange rock that stuck up in the middle of the main room. He’d originally found this cave years ago, though it had been much smaller then, after falling down a concealed hole while exploring. The island was filled with secret passageways, and Knuckles had known them all. Or at least he thought so at the time. After finding his way out of the cave, Knuckles figured the passageway had taken him a distance of about half the total length of the jungle. Now, the shoot made for quick transportation from the cave, and helped to hide its location. Knuckles bent down, slid aside the flat rock that concealed the hole. He stepped over one edge of the stone rim, then jumped into the tube, curling into a tight ball as he shot through the subterranean channel at incredibly high speeds.

* * * * *

Minutes later, Knuckles emerged from a similar hole. As usual he came to a stop just short of bursting out of the ground like a geyser. Slowly lifting the rock lid, he looked for signs of any robot presence. Seeing that the coast was clear, he stepped out of the rock, quickly concealing the hole again. He was now in a small clearing, though partially in an effort to keep the secret passage concealed and mostly due to robot problems, the undergrowth of the jungle was beginning to fill it up. Looking up through a hole in the trees, Knuckles found the direction the sunlight was coming from, turned so it was shining on his right and began to head south. He wanted to see how things were on the edge of the jungle, and for that matter, the edge of the island. And this time, any scouting parties would be much easier to get rid of.

Traveling through the jungle in the early morning was much easier than at night. The light from the just rising sun gave enough light for Knuckles to see, especially thanks to his sensitive echidna eyes, yet the long shadows of the trees gave him cover from roving robots. Yet for this reason Knuckles still didn’t leave the cover of the trees. While it would certainly be much easier to just glide along the air currents towards his destination, it would also make him easer to spot. So he simply jumped from branch to branch, high up in the trees. Rarely did he lose track of where he was, he knew the island like the back of his knuckle-spurred hand. After all, he’d lived on it, alone, for almost his whole life.

The trees soon began to shorten in height, though their thickness didn’t increase. Knuckles stopped suddenly on one tree branch, perched like a cat waiting to pounce. He looked around, checking his surroundings before jumping onto the soft ground below. He walked slowly to where the trees, and the ground, ended and the sky began. He sat down, his legs dangling off the cliff, and he looked down.

Far, far below, the sea glistened up at him, and here and there a cloud drifted by. To the average person, such a sight would be beyond their thinking, but to the echidna it was nothing new. Still, he thought as he laid back on the ground, it was a beautiful sight. When he managed to get peaceful moments like this, they reminded him of the days when he hardly knew there was a world outside his home, and hardly anyone knew of him. Back when it was just him, the small animals of the island, and the Master Emerald. But when he thought of this, always his mind would return to the day when all of that began to change. When the emerald he had guarded with his very life fell into the hands of Dr. Robotnik…

* * * * *

The day had started off peaceful as any other. The sun was shining, hardly a cloud in the sky, or on the ground, and everything seemed at peace. Knuckles leaned back on the side of the sheer cliff that towered over him, as he sat on a large flat rock jutting out from the side of it. He crossed his arms behind his head as he looked out at the island. To his left he saw the small separate island nestled in the mountains that were the ruins of an ancient shrine to the Master Emerald, the jewel of infinite power that not only controlled the seven mystical Chaos Emeralds, but also kept Angel Island airborne. Of course, the Master Emerald was no longer kept there. It had been moved not long ago after an increased pressure from others wishing to possess it.

It had been just over a year ago, nearly a year after the incident aboard the space colony ARK. Knuckles had returned to Angel Island with the Master Emerald and went right back to guarding it. No news came to him by way of his former allies, and fortunately neither his enemies. For a time, the Island seemed to have returned to its days of being just a legend, and Knuckles could go about his business in peace, knowing the Master Emerald was safe. However, the past soon caught up to him, and unfortunately it involved his enemies.

Small groups of robots, made by none other than the infamous Eggman that Knuckles had fought against on numerous occasions, began to land on the island. Knuckles did his best to fight them off, though his main priority was to stay near the Master Emerald, which was easily exposed in its open environment. The squads being dispatched to the island quickly grew larger and more frequent, with such a ferocity that Knuckles had never seen from the doctor. They had already reestablished a base deep in the mountain valleys where Eggman had already constructed a launch base for his Death Egg the first time he’d come to the island. And now they were beginning to expand their territory. Knuckles knew that if he were going to battle this threat alone, he’d need to move the Master Emerald to a more secure location.

At first he attempted to simply shrink it to a more manageable size to keep with him when he went into battle, but this proved harder than expected, and Knuckles couldn’t keep the emerald small for long while fighting at the same time. He moved it into the Hidden Palace, though he still kept a close eye on it, as Robotnik already knew of its location and would likely send a scout to the cavern shortly. When Knuckles returned from destroying a robot outpost in the Ice Cap one day, he found a small scout droid floating about the Emerald Chamber. He destroyed it, then took the Master Emerald to find a new hiding place.

Now, it was hidden in a cave dug out entirely by Knuckles deep in the Red Mountain range. He was positive no robot would find it, as he had then concealed the cavern with rock, and so he was able to fight against the Eggman Empire more freely and frequently. And thanks to the strange link he shared with the Master Emerald, Knuckles could always keep tabs on its location, and would know if it had been moved.

Stretching, Knuckles stood up. He’d overheard a commander robot the previous day giving orders to start building outposts near the Hyrdocity ruins. There always seemed to be one flaw in Eggman’s machines, and in this case it seemed to be the lack of non-vocal communications systems. Now with the advantage of knowing their plans, Knuckles could destroy the outpost, eliminate the robots there, and still have time for lunch. Confident in his plan, and sensing the Master Emerald remained untouched, Knuckles jumped off the rock edge, plunging through the air. After free falling for a few seconds, Knuckles stuck his arms out in front of his face, his dreadlock spines fanning out as he caught onto an air current. With a little help from the chaos energies that he could control as Guardian, he was soon gliding towards the lake region where the ruins of an underground city lay partially submerged beneath the waters.

Slowly he began to grow closer to the jungle canopy as he descended through the air at a fairly consistent angle. He could see the ruins and signs of construction near them about a half mile away. Careful not to make too much of a disturbance, he landed on top of a tree and climbed down to the ground. He continued the rest of the way on foot, the trees thinning into bushes and undergrowth as he neared the lake. In the distance he could hear a waterfall and a running river, and the low level of vegetation after the jungle being set ablaze during the first Robotnik invasion told him he was headed in the right direction.

Soon he could see clearly through the plant life at the Hyrdocity area. Sure enough, a small squad of robots was busy constructing a small base of operations. There were about three or four constructors, simple robots with low armor and almost no weaponry apart from their building tools. And standing guard were five spiked Orb-bots and two humanoid robots that appeared to be of G.U.N. design. “Not even using his own ideas these days. This‘ll be too easy.” Knuckles commented to himself as he watched the scene for a while. “Maybe a little too easy. Knowing Eggman, he‘s probably got something hidden or a larger force close by. Though I highly doubt that the robot I overheard was a trick. Robotnik may have been a genius, but he was never that clever.”

Knuckles walked sideways slowly, till he was in line with the two bi-pedal robots who were pacing back and forth. Waiting for the right moment he watched as the robots passed each other, and one began to walk towards him. Smirking with the anticipation of a nice quick fight, Knuckles waited for the robot to reach the end of its pacing. Timing it just right, Knuckles burst from his hiding place just as the robot turned its back to him. He jumped on its shoulder, wrapping his legs around its head. He pulled his weight backwards quickly, snapping the robot’s head off. He then jumped off and did the handstand to get back on his feet. Just as he’d anticipated, the other pacing robot now turned and began to fire at him. Knuckles grabbed the falling body of the robot he’d just dispatched and spun around, throwing it with incredible force at its partner. The two collided and flew backwards, exploding.

As Knuckles watched the impact, he felt something flying towards his head. He ducked just in time as a spiked mace ball flew over him. Rolling to the side, he turned to face the Orb-bots, they’re spike balls rapidly orbiting their simple spherical bodies. He charged at them as they began to launch their projectiles at him, one after the other in quick succession. Knuckles weaved in and out of the spiked horde, until all that stood before him was the five, non-spiked, black robotic balls with eyes. Which soon ceased to exist, as he threw them one by one at the constructor robots.

Looking over his completed job, Knuckles was about to turn back towards the mountains, when he was stopped by a sound coming from just behind him. It sounded like a hover engine, which could signal nothing other than an incoming robot. However, the situation seemed to grow more tense as a clanging of metal sounded in a rhythmic pattern, almost like slow clapping. And then came the voice, cold, metallic, and villainous. “Well done, Guardian, well done.”

Knuckles quickly turned around to face his new foe. What met his eyes shocked him more than he’d expected. Standing before him, hovering just above the ground, was a robot he never thought he’d see again. It was the height of the average animal, with a generally red color scheme. Coming off the back of its head were several long exhaust ports/flight stabilizers, and its hands were clawed and possessed two long spikes on the back of each hand. And on its chest was a white crescent, identical to the one on Knuckles’. Knuckles smirked as he looked at his robotic counterpart. “Well, never thought I‘d see you again, Metal Knuckles.”

“Actually, it’s Metal Knuckles m.k. II. I have had some improvements since we last met,” Metal Knuckles replied, landing on the ground.

“Yeah, whatever, that‘s what all you Eggman robots say. So, you here for a fight?” Knuckles asked, cracking the knuckles on his fingers for emphasis. “Cause I‘ll be sure to make it a quick one.”

“As much as I‘d love to prove my superiority, eliminating you is actually only my second mission objective. Though when the time comes for that, I‘m sure it will be a quick fight.”

“Well then, if I‘m not who you‘re after, then what are you here for?” Knuckles asked.

“Really, is it that hard to figure out? What else could I be here for?”

“You don‘t mean you plan on taking…” Metal Knuckles nodded. “Well, you‘re never going to find it. It’s hidden in a completely different location, and only I know where it is.”

“That would be true, and the Emperor Robotnik assumed this after scouts reported that both the Master Emerald Shrine and Hidden Palace where empty. Which is why he had me equipped with this.” Metal Knuckles reached to his side and opened up the casing on his body, revealing his inner workings. Pointing to a strange glowing piece, he continued. “A Chaos Energy tracker. With this, finding your precious emerald should be a simple job. And then I‘ll come back to take care of you.”

Knuckles closed his eyes and faced the ground, chuckling. “You really think it‘ll be that easy? Its not like I‘m just gonna let you go free!” Suddenly Knuckles jumped at his metallic doppelganger, throwing a well aimed fist at his still exposed chest cavity. Metal Knuckles reacted quickly and caught Knuckles’ fist and shut his casing. Knuckles attempted to hit Metal with an uppercut, but this two was blocked. However, Knuckles had expected this and twisted his body around, picking up Metal Knuckles and throwing him towards the jungle.

Metal Knuckles engaged his hover engine and righted himself midair, landing on the ground. He slid back, his feet digging two shallow trenches in the soft ground. He paused for only a second before blasting back towards Knuckles, throwing a couple of punches of his own. Knuckles side stepped them, holding his fists close in front of his face. Watching Metal Knuckles timing, he found an opening and managed to hit him in the face, throwing the robot off balance. Before he could orient himself, Knuckles pounced, grabbing onto Metal’s arms and flinging him into the air. Knuckles jumped after him and grabbed his feet, throwing him towards the lake.

Metal Knuckles hit the water with a heavy splash as Knuckles landed back on the ground, crouching. He waited for a minute, then stood up and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Like I said, it‘d be a quick fight. Though I will admit, that was the most challenge I‘ve had in a long time.” Knuckles turned and was about to walk away from the area when he was once again stopped, this time by the sound of water splashing.

“Well, then, why don‘t we continue this fun!” Metal Knuckles called from where he floated in the air above the lake. “Over in Red Mountain. Where a certain Master Emerald is hidden. Let‘s see who‘s really fit to be its Guardian. Knuckles the echidna, or his metal twin.” And with his mocking complete, Metal Knuckles turned towards the mountains, and blasted off through the sky. Without so much as the slightest though, Knuckles chased after him. The race for the Master Emerald had begun.

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Double the Losses.

Leaves rustled violently. Shrubbery and twigs crack and crunch with every step. Whole trees are bent, thrown to the side, or just smashed in half as the enraged echidna frantically charges through the jungle. Overhead he can still he hear the slight hum of his robotic counterpart’s propulsion engine, heading towards the mountains in the distance. Knuckles glanced to his left through the trees. He was running just on the edge of this section of the jungle, and would be completely free of the bothersome vegetation if not for the lake blocking his way.

He continued, trying his best to clear a path for himself. If he’d been thinking straighter he probably would have taken to the upper tree branches, and maybe even taken to the sky. However, with this powerful of an enemy threatening to get their hands on the Master Emerald, Knuckles was being driven purely by his instinct. He looked to the left again, and saw that the lake had begun to shrink as it rounded off into one of the many rivers that ran down from the mountain, through the jungles and forests, and off the island. Of course, somehow there was always water flowing, but that was just one of the many mysteries of the island.

He sidestepped out of the trees, now running along a large plain like clearing. Up ahead he saw a strange collection of mushrooms. The island, with its large size, was rich in its variety of vegetation and terrain. A majority of the outer edge of the island was covered in tropical jungle, but a large amount of the forests were also deciduous and coniferous, as well as fungous. A large part of the forests were covered in strange, giant mushrooms. They had various properties, from being abnormally strong and springy to ones that could be held on to and used to glide on air currents. Knuckles reached the clump of parasitic organisms, finding three of ascending lengths conveniently lined up in a row. He jumped, bouncing off the first, then the second, and the third. Growing off of the side of a tree was another mushroom, which he recognized as the parachute variety. He grabbed a hold of it, and soon a gust of wind caught it and he began to float into the air. As he reached the peak of his climb, he let go of the mushroom, breaking into a glide. Metal Knuckles still had a gain on him, and Knuckles did everything he could to increase his speed.

The descent of his glide was almost ground level when he reached the base of the mountain. He latched on to the side, and using all his strength, he repeatedly launched himself higher up the mountain, climbing higher and higher with each jump. Here and there he would climb straight along the rock face till her reached an outcropping. He saw no sign of Metal Knuckles, and hoped it meant that he had beaten the robot there. Just as he was getting to the height where the Master Emerald was hidden, however, he heard the low roar of Metal’s engines, and the red robot came streaking around the mountain, headed straight for where the Emerald’s cave was. Knuckles jumped off the side of the mountain, glided around its edge, then grabbed back on and continued to climb up to where the freshly dug cave had been exposed.

He walked in, cautious of where the robot could be hiding. Overhead small stalagetites were already growing. As he traversed deeper into the cave the light from the entrance faded, and he was plunged into darkness. However, he soon rounded a corner, and new light began to shine. A strange green glow, that could only come from one source. The Master Emerald. Knuckles soon entered a circular chamber. And there in the middle of it stood Metal Knuckles, the Master Emerald in his hands.

“So, you finally decided to show up,” Metal Knuckles said, turning to face his original.

“Yeah, and this is as far as you’re getting. Hand over the Emerald. Now,” Knuckles said, taking a fighting stance.

Metal Knuckles laughed. “Well then, if you want the Emerald so badly, then you can have it!” Metal Knuckles spun around, throwing the Master Emerald towards Knuckles, who dove forward to catch. Metal Knuckles dashed towards him and slammed him into the wall, catching the Emerald before it fell. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Metal Knuckles said as one of his hands began to spin, transforming into a gun barrel. He pointed it at the ceiling of the cave and fired a yellow laser which blasted through the rock. Sunlight blasted into the dim cave, blinding Knuckles as he tried to stand up. Metal Knuckles fired up his boosters and shot out of the cave.

“You’re not getting away that easily!” Knuckles yelled, stumbling towards the light. He jumped out of the opening and managed to catch onto Metal Knuckles leg. The weight of the two passengers began to wear down Metal’s engine, and the two slowly descended towards the side of the mountain. The landed on a flat plateau-like formation on the edge of one of the lower peaks, and Knuckles, still holding onto Metal’s ankle, tried to throw him to the ground. Metal twisted free and kicked Knuckles in the face, flying a few yards away from him and setting the Master Emerald down.

“I can tell you’re not going to give up easily,” Metal Knuckles said as he got into a fighting stance. “In which case, I‘ll simply have to eliminate you now!” Metal Knuckles dashed forward, slamming the flat side of his arm into Knuckles’ stomach. The echidna’s body bent at the middle as his robotic counterpart towards the edge of the plateau. He recovered, and grabbed Metal Knuckles’ arm. Fighting inertia, Knuckles slammed his feet to the ground. His heels dug deep trenches in the rock, pebbles flying into the air. The rock eventually won and the slowed the two to a stop. The crimson combatters stood still for a minute until Knuckles pulled Metal to the ground. His armor produced a high ringing noise as he hit the ground.

Knuckles moved to finish off the robot, but Metal Knuckles jumped up, kicking Knuckles in the face. He stumbled back a step, but was prepared when Metal threw his next punch. Knuckles caught his fist, and did the same with the next. Once again, the two were at a standstill, but only for a brief moment. Knuckles jumped, flipping over Metal Knuckles. Landing behind Metal, he had pulled the robot with him throwing him to the dirt. Knuckles quickly grabbed him by the neck, lifting him into the air. He popped the robot with an uppercut, sending him upwards. Metal Knuckles flipped in the air, pointing himself towards Knuckles. He blasted straight down, arm pulled back for a punch. Knuckles jumped to the side at the last second. Metal slammed into the ground, causing a cloud of dust to fly into the air.

Knuckles squinted, trying to see through the brown haze. His eyes opened wide as Metal Knuckles came bursting from the cloud, spiked fist aimed at Knuckles’ head. He ducked, kicking Metal Knuckles in the stomach. He grabbed Knuckles’ foot before he could pull it away, taking the echidna with him as he executed a mid-air version of the flipping technique used against him earlier. Knuckles landed on his back but sprang to his feet quickly. Just in time to be elbowed in the back by Metal Knuckles at full speed. He landed face first in the dirt, coughing on impact. Red specks stained the dust by his face. Feeling Metal approaching, he rolled to the side quickly, barely dodging the killer robot’s fist.

He swung his leg out, tripping Metal, then spinning around to the deliver two spinning kicks to his face as he fell. The robot crashed to the ground, giving Knuckles time to stand up. He was still gasping for breath as Metal Knuckles got to his feet. “It would seem you may be harder to get rid of than I thought,” Metal said. “So, I‘ll just have to make this more interesting.” He glanced to his right, where the Master Emerald was still sitting. Knuckles did the same, and quickly realized what Metal Knuckles was implying.

“You can‘t really…?”

“You‘d be amazed at the upgrades I‘ve had.” Knuckles began to run for the Master Emerald, but Metal’s hover drive was faster. He grabbed the Master Emerald, a circle opening on his center just below his white crescent. Green energy began to course from the Master Emerald to him ,and his armor began to become lighter colored as the Chaos Energy surrounded him. The circle in his armor closed and Metal released the Emerald. He began to float into the air, laughing maniacally. “Let‘s see how long you can last against Hyper Metal Knuckles!”

“I‘ve beaten one of you super powered robots before, I can do it again!”

“We‘ll see if the years have proven otherwise,” Hyper Metal Knuckles replied. If he had a mouth, it would be smirking. Suddenly, he disappeared, only to reappear a second later standing snout to metallic snout with Knuckles. “Boo,” he said as he raised his hand to the stunned Knuckles’ face, flicking him just between the eyes with a single finger. Knuckles flew backwards, all the way to the edge of the plateau. He would have continued flying had Hyper Metal not flown behind him, stopping him just before he went over. He quickly punched Knuckles in the back, sending him back towards the center of the plateau. Knuckles managed to land on his feet this time, attempting to block Hyper Metal’s next attack, with some success.

Hyper Metal Knuckles began to launch a volley of punches, and Knuckles swerved from side to side, attempting to dodge them. However, delirious from being knocked around, he was unable to keep up with Hyper Metal Knuckles’ high speed punches for long. Soon, the Guardian was being ruthlessly bombarded by his robot clone. After what seemed like a perpetual series of punches, Hyper Metal ceased, allowing Knuckles to fall forward to the ground. The battered echidna tried to push himself off the ground, but his arms gave way and he fell. He tried again, speaking through clenched teeth. “I‘m not… letting you… get way… with… this…”

“Oh really?” Hyper Metal questioned, his electronic voice clearly taking on a mocking tone. He reached down, picking Knuckles up by the neck. He pulled the struggling echidna to his eye level. “Face it original, I‘ve already won. And there is nothing you can do about it.” He tossed Knuckles lightly into the air, only to slam his fist into Knuckles’ muzzle with a fierce uppercut. Knuckles was propelled high above, and Hyper Metal Knuckles flew after him. He stopped just above Knuckles, interlocking his clawed fingers, and slammed his duel fists into Knuckles, sending him back the way he came. He then proceeded to fly around Knuckles, attacking him from all sides, never allowing the echidna to fall more than a few feet. Eventually he grabbed onto Knuckles on each side, holding his arms in against his body. “And now it is time to say goodbye.” He spun around and threw Knuckles towards the cliff, into the jungle. He watched as Knuckles passed over the plateau’s edge, soon followed by the sound of something crashing through the forest canopy. “The chances of him surviving that fall are low, and I can‘t find him with my sensors. Objective B accomplished.” Metal Knuckles lowered himself to the ground, going out of his super state. He walked over to the Master Emerald, and picked it up off the ground. “And now my main objective. Returning to base. Farewell original, you put in a good fight.” Metal Knuckles took to the skys, flying deeper into the mountains.

However, far below in the jungle, Knuckles still alive, silently pledging his vengeance as he lay there, slipping in and out of consciousness…

* * * * *

Knuckles opened his eyes, leaving the world of his memories. Looking to the sky, he saw that it was almost noon. “Better head back. Can‘t spend all day daydreaming.” Knuckles stood up, taking one last look at the ocean, and turned back to the jungle.

* * * * *

Knuckles stepped out from the tunnel, looking around his cave home. Strangely, it seemed empty. “Shade? You home?” he called as he placed the cover back on the secret rock. There was no answer. On the table was a small pile of the fruit shade had wanted, and as Knuckles walked over to it he saw a note. He quickly picked it up and read it.

“Dear Knuckles, if you’re reading this, you likely got home before I returned. The fruit didn’t take long to find, and I picked up the other supplies on my way there, so I decided to do some scouting of the desert after I dropped them off. I’ll be back around noon.

Also, there’s one more thing…”

Knuckles read the last paragraph, and series of emotions swept over him. First a slight doubt, then an uneasiness, both wiped out by an overwhelming sense of joy. A smile erupted on his face and set the note down, sighing a “Wow…” He walked towards the main cave entrance. “In that case, I certainly can‘t just wait for her. We have to celebrate!” He left the cave, heading towards Sandopolis.

* * * * *

In about half an hour, Knuckles had reached the edge of Sandopolis. The harsh, yellow desert stretched out before him, and here and there ancient ruins dotted the otherwise flat landscape. Far to his right was the oasis that was his destination. As he neared it he saw footprints matching Shade’s. But as he got closer he grew more worried. Soon he spotted other tracks in the sand, which were obviously of a robotic origin. He picked up his speed, sprinting to the oasis.

There his fears were realized. Clearly there had been a struggle. The sand was churned up, making the footprints indistinguishable from one another. It was unclear who the winner was to Knuckles as he frantically searched the area. The odd robot part was strewn here and there, but Knuckles need evidence to dispel his worries. Unfotunately, the evidence was against him.

Just to the left of Knuckles’ frantic searching, s small item was hidden. Had he not happened to brush over it with his hand, it likely would have stayed hidden. Knuckles removed his from the sand slowly, his hands shaking. Sure enough, it was on of Shade’s Leech Blade bracelet. Rage built up in Knuckles and he began to forcefully slam his fists into the sand, sending it flying up at him. He didn’t care, or even notice, as he continued to mercilessly pound the desert floor, the ground beneath the sand cracking. He looked skyward and let out a long, painful roar as Shade’s last words echoed in his head.

“I‘m not exactly sure how to say this, and I didn‘t want to tell you till I was almost sure. But I suppose just saying it is the simplest way the do this. Knuckles, I think I‘m pregnant. We‘re going to be parents!”

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More chapters coming.... eventually!

[Legendary Emerald]

Didn't read the second chapter, but I can say that someone else already had your idea. Can't remember what the name of the story was called, but it was submitted to Netraptor.org as a monthly contest entry. Only real difference is that it ended with the ARK crashing into Earth and killing everyone. I might finish reading this story later, but I don't have the time right now.

Short review: Good writing, with nicely sized paragraphs. Just hope you can manage to keep it interesting.

[Ekajra]

Yeah, I kinda figured it'd be a commonly used idea. Its probably been done hundreds of times to varying degrees of success. But you know, the idea was floating around in my head, so I wrote it. Thanks for reviewing, always good to hear what people think.

Oh, and I'm not going to say anything about the ARK just yet... it shall be very important, later...

[Cy-Fox Unit]

Nevertheless that it's a common idea, you put it into words very well. No technical issues (grammar, spelling, etc.) and a lot of detail. Keep up the good work. I'm going to subscribe to this thread.

[Ekajra]

New chapter! Enjoy the plot progression/flashbacks/filling-in-info-that-is-important-but-everyone-already-knows-except-not!

====

Shaded Past.

Shade moved stealthily through the jungle. While Knuckles, having lived on the island all his life, used secret passages and knowledge of the geography to his advantage, Shade had been trained in espionage tactics and silent strikes. And while some may have based this skill on Nocturnus technology, the truth of the matter was that she was still a trained soldier. And one with, technically speaking, over four thousand years of experience. She moved swiftly through the foliage, stepping smoothly between the low growing vines. She was nearing the Sandopolis border, and the trees were growing shorter, but still just as tightly packed. The sun was growing brighter as the jungle cleared and she stepped onto hard, sandy ground.

The sands of Sandopolis were painted a deep red by the rising sun. Though during the day it was dry, hot, and almost too bright to stand, in these early morning hours the cool of night still hung in the air, and light dew covered the ground. It was at this time that most creatures were active, before the desert became an oven. As Shade walked across the sand, small creatures darted back and forth, preparing for the day. As she neared a small oasis, a trio of light blue Chao toddled up to her.

“Hello little one,” Shade said, keeling down to pet one of them. Even with all the troubles the island had encountered, the Chao continued to live happily in their small, concealed gardens. Of course, even since ancient times, they have had difficult lives. But still they persevered. Shade stood up, and the Chao ran off towards the oasis, where its friends already were. Surrounding it were trees bearing the very fruit Shade was looking for. The chao flew up to them, grabbed the fruit, and walked back. Shade watched as they disappeared into the jungle, then walked up to the oasis. She stood for a while at the edge of the trees, looking over the area. This was obviously a deep oasis, judging by the number of trees that lined its fertile waters. Shade bent down and ran her fingers through the water. It felt cool and refreshing, and got Shade thinking. “I really haven’t bathed properly in quite a while, and a nice cool dip in the water feels good right about now,” she said to herself.

Shade leaned back from the water, removing her boots and setting them next to a tree, along with the sack she’d brought to carry supplies. She stood up and stripped off her shorts and top, dropping them in a pile beside her boots, and laying her bracelets on top of them. She stepped lightly to the water’s edge, and then dove in. The cool blast of water rushed to meet her as her streamlined body shot through it. Ripples spread out from where she’d entered, but there had been hardly a splash. She floated under the surface for a moment, enjoying the feeling of floating freely as the water soaked her light orange fur. She turned towards the surface as burst out of the water, taking in a deep breath. She treaded water for a while, her long dreadlock spines drifting around behind her, before swimming to the opposite end of the oasis. She turned around as she reached the sandy shore and pulled herself up slightly, resting her elbows on the sand to keep her in place. As she lay there relaxing, she looked up to the high mountains in the distance, marveling at their beauty, lone marred by invaders, and wondered how more beautiful they must have been in the years before she had arrived.

* * * * *

They had said it would be a routine mission. And everyone believed them. It was simple for the same soldiers who had helped to conquer countless peoples. Just get on the island, retrieve the Emerald, and get out. Simple. At least, that’s what Shade and her unit were thinking as they warped onto Angel Island. They had chosen a location close to the edge of the island, just to be on the safe side. However, the Nocturnus soldiers highly doubted that the single Knuckles Clan survivor guarding the island could stop them. However, they hadn’t anticipated that for the past few years a different presence had occupied the island. Still, they moved on through the jungle, confident that they would emerge victorious.

The Nocturnus Clan of echidnas. An ancient, mysterious nation, that completely disappeared off the face of the planet over 4000 years ago, soon after the demise of their enemy clan the Knuckles Tribe at the hands of Chaos. History never showed how they had disappeared, and where they went. At least, no history still on the planet. Because on that day, know to them as the Argus Event. It was named such after a strange word that all the Nocturnus heard after they were ripped into a strange dimension known as the Twilight Cage, where time passed differently than in their home dimension. So while 4000 years passed by, only a few years went by in the Twilight Cage. Still, in that time the Nocturnus took over the other denizens of the Twilight Cage, led by their ruler, Lord Ix. The other races were no match for the Nocturnus’ advanced technology and fighting skill, and fell to their might quickly. Now, Ix wanted to gain freedom from the Twilight Cage for his people, and his own motives of conquering the world.

Their plans of escape were also simple. Scouting missions had reported that all seven of the Chaos Emeralds were together in one location, while the Master Emerald was located farther away, on the floating Angel Island. So, Ix himself took the majority of the army with him to take the Chaos Emeralds from where they were hidden, while a smaller squad led by Shade would acquire the Master Emerald. Quick, effective, and they’d be out of the Twilight Cage in no time. And so, Shade’s unit moved through the trees. She had a Chaos Energy tracking device with her, and it was guiding their direction through the jungle, heading deeper into the island. The trees were beginning to thin, and they soon could see that they were nearing a grassy valley at the edge of a mountain.

Suddenly, a rustling noise was heard. Shade held up her hand, ordering the soldiers to stop. They looked around, but could not find the source of the noise. Shade then gave more hand signals, commanding the soldiers. Two, carrying large blasters, moved to the edge of the trees and hid themselves, quickly followed by more, the groups dividing up on either side of a break in the tree line. Shade checked the scanner. They were nearing the Emerald; it was located somewhere in the deep part of the mountains. But something else worried her. Her radar was picking up strange signals in addition to the Chaos Energy. It almost seemed like it was coming from something of a robotic nature. But she thought there must be something wrong, there couldn’t be robots up on this island. She motioned for the troops to move forward, while behind them a figure was hidden in the trees, watching them.

The reached the edge of the mountain and saw that there was large ravine, that didn’t appear to be natural. Once again, Shade became suspicious that something wasn’t right. Still, this was where the tracker showed the Master Emerald to be, and so they continued forward, slowly. Something flew past them, and a soldier pulled out a blaster and immediately shot it down. “Hold your fire soldier, do you want to give away our position!” Shade said. She walked over to the remains of whatever had just flown by. The burning, metallic remains. “So it is a robot. Very well then, it would seem we have a new threat to deal with. No matter, we shall dispose of them just as easily. Let’s move,” she commanded, walking to the front of the squad.

They soon reached the edge of the ravine, which opened into a large valley deep in the center of the mountains. Shade had a strange feeling they were being followed, but ignored it. She selected two foot soldiers to go scout ahead, and they soon returned with somewhat disheartening news. “We did not locate the target itself. However there seems to be a large military base, though it seemed to be a military base.”

“That does not seem right. The initial scouts said they had only seen the one Knuckles echidna on the island. Then what could this city be?”

“Also, something else was odd. There seemed to only be robots within it.”

“More robots? Whoever this is they must have highly advanced technology. Alright men, here is the strategy.” Shade delivered her plan of attack to the squad. They all got to their positions, and the attack was launched. They swarmed out of the ravine, quickly assaulting the nearest building, destroying it before moving to the next, constantly on the lookout for the Master Emerald. Up on the side of the mountains, a red figure was watching them.

“I can’t believe it. These people, whoever they are, might actually drive off Robotnik’s forces. Of course, I will have to stop them once they get my emerald back,” Knuckles said as he looked down at them. It hadn’t taken long for the bases forces to come out to meet the Nocturnus, a small army of shining silver robots, each equipped with a deadly weapon. Overhead flying robots shot out of concealed factories in the mountainsides, and cannons turned to face the intruders. Obviously, they’d underestimated the strength of their enemy. “Uh oh, they might need some help.” Knuckles jumped off from his roost and glided over to the nearest opening in the mountainside. He climbed to the top of the door and slammed his fist into the rock, causing the artificial cave to collapse. A cannon turned towards him, but he jumped out of the way and quickly glided over to it and destroyed it.

Meanwhile, down in the valley, the Nocturnus weren’t faring well. The robots were surrounding them and driving them back to the ravine. Slowly, Shade watched as her comrades fell one after another. Knuckles saw them being routed, and swooped down towards the mob. Shade tried her best to fight off the robots, but she was soon overpowered, left alone. All around her, the bodies of her allies were strewn about, dead. And she would be next. She was thrown to the ground, and looked up as a robot, with its cold, uncaring face, raised its gun arm to her head. “So this is the end. At least I will die in my home world, and not in that cursed Cage. I’m sorry I failed you, Lord Ix,” she said to herself. However, death did not come, for her at least. A red blur came down from above and smashed the robot. Shade looked to her savior, and soon realized he was the echidna. He began to smash through the rest of the surrounding robots, clearing their area before turning to Shade.

“Hey, are you okay?” he said, helping her to her feet. “Well, anyway, let’s hurry up, I need to get you out of…” he was cut off as a laser blast caught the side of his face. He fell to the ground, his hands held against his right eye. Shade quickly ran to his side and picked him up, which proved harder than she’d though, and threw up her cloaking device.

‘I’m a fool that I didn’t think of this sooner!’ she thought. The robots were momentarily confused as she disappeared, and she managed to escape into the ravine while they sorted out which visual frequency to use. Shade kept running, carrying the bleeding Knuckles over her shoulder. “What is your name, Knuckles Clan echidna?”

“It’s Knuckles,” he said through clenched teeth. “And you are?”

“Shade, of the Nocturnus Clan,” she responded quickly. Knuckles’ eyes opened wide, or at least, they would have, had one of them not been injured and he hadn’t also just passed out from pain and shock.

Later, he awoke with a start. His hand flew to his face, and he found that it was bandaged up. He looked around with his good eye, getting a bearing of his surroundings. He was obviously in a cave, with light coming from somewhere. At first he didn’t know how he got there, and then he remembered. “Shade! That woman said she was of the Nocturnus!” he yelled suddenly. He thought for a moment. “But that can’t be right, they disappeared years ago.”

“Not exactly,” Shade said as from behind Knuckles. He turned to see her sitting on a rock, a small cube that was emitting bright light sitting next to her. “Before you say anything, allow me to explain the situation.” She then went on to explain how the Nocturnus had been taken from this world into the Twilight Cage, and all that had happened there. How Ix had formulated a plan to escape, and the reason she had come to the island. “Unfortunately we hadn’t anticipated such a strong military presence here.”

“Yes, it was almost four, maybe five, years ago. They came to the island. I tried to fight them off, but they kept coming back stronger, and soon Robotnik, the Eggman Empire, and Metal Knuckles had taken over the island, and the Master Emerald. I’ve been in hiding since, fighting them whenever I can.” Knuckles paused for a moment, as silence settled over the cage. “But hey, at least now I have company, right?”

“Yes, I suppose you do,” Shade said. Still, their relationship wasn’t easy. Shade still held some feelings of animosity towards Knuckles because of his clan. Though these soon faded as she got to know him better as she helped him heal. At the same time, Knuckles was apprehensive of Shade, since for a long time she was still intent on completing her mission some how. Yet time went on, and she never received any sort of communication from the other Nocturnus, and they never answered her. Soon it seemed to both of them, that they were the last echidnas alive, and the only ones who could free Angel Island.

* * * * *

Shade opened her eyes, leaving the world of her memories. “But there’s no time to think about the past when there’s the present to worry about.” She slid back under the water and swam back to the other side of the oasis. She climbed out of the water, and paused to strain some water from her spines before moving to one of the fruit trees. She began to fill the brown sack she’d brought with, allowing the now more fully risen sun to dry off her fur. After filling about a quarter of the bag, leaving space for other supplies, she walked back to where she’d placed her clothes and put them back on. As she pulled on her shirt, she glanced at her belly. Placing a hand on it, she smiled. “I guess today’s the day I tell him,” she said softly as she picked up the bag and headed back to the jungle.

A few hours later, she arrived back at the cave, supplies in tow. “Knuckles, are you here?” she asked as she stepped into the cave. There was no answer. “I guess not.” She walked over to the large outcropping of rock on the wall that served as a counter and set the bag down. She began to pull out the items she had been retrieving, such as food, wood, and medicinal plants, and put them in their respective locations. She then poured out the fruit, piling them together into, well, a pile. Shade then looked around for something she could use to write with, and found some birch tree bark and coal. She quickly wrote down a note for Knuckles, detailing that she planned to explore the Sandopolis area and would likely return some time around noon. She paused after this, then wrote a closing paragraph about the news that she had to tell him. Smiling, she set down the “pen and paper”, grabbed one of the strange dry looking fruit, and left the cave again.

Shade reached Sandopolis quickly, and began to head towards the oasis. It was an easily visible landmark of the area, and it would serve as a good location to map the area around. So far she hadn’t met any robotic resistance whatsoever, which meant one of two things. Either they weren’t patrolling this area, or, more likely, they had an ambush planned. She proceeded with caution. As she neared the oasis, a sound caught her ear. There was slight humming, like an engine, and the sound of something light moving through the sand. She spun around, activating her Leech Blades in the nick of time as a circular white robot rolled by her. It began to transform to a walking form, brandishing a high power laser weapon.

“WE HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO RETRIEVE YOU. COME PEACEFULLY OR WE WILL USE FORCE,” the robot said. When it said “we” she turned and spotted the robots partner, a flying version of the same model.

“I highly doubt that whoever your commander is would be as peaceful if I did go with you,” Shade said, lowering into a fighting stance.

“FINAL WARNING ORGANIC. COME WITH US PEACFULLY.”

“As I said, that isn’t going to happen.” Shade dashed at the ground robot, dodging to the side as it fired its gun. She slashed off its gun arm, but couldn’t finish it off before the flying robot swooped down and knocked her to the ground. She rolled to her feet quickly as the flying robot fired his blaster. Sand shot into the air, but Shade had dodged the blast easily.

“TRAGET PROVING HARDER TO NEUTRALIZE THAN CALCULATED. CALLING REINFORCEMENTS,” The ground robot said. She ran towards him and slashed him in half, jumping away as the robot exploded. However it was too late, as the call had already been sent. Suddenly the ground began to rumble, and Shade jumped back just in time as a giant robotic claw shot out of the sand. She watched as a monstrous robot rose out of the sand. It had a yellow colored armor, causing it to blend almost perfectly with the sand, and it had the shape of a scorpion. No doubt there was probably one powering it. Its pincers were lined with spikes, and its tail, composed of a series of strange floating orbs, ended in a horridly spiked maul.

Shade looked at it in awe. “This certainly adds a new challenge. No matter, I’ve fought worse than this.” She charged the giant robot, and it thrust one of its pincer arms towards her. She jumped, and landed on its claw, running up the long arm. The flying robot swooped down towards her, as she’d anticipated, firing its blaster with more rapid, smaller shots. She extended one of her Leech Blades into a shield like form to block them, then slashed the robot down the middle. It exploded, and Shade continued to run towards the top of the scorpion robot. What she didn’t anticipate was that it was also carrying more troops on its back. Smaller versions of the robot, their tails carrying blasters instead of spikes, rushed forward to meet her, firing their blasters. She dodged them as best she could, but got knocked back by a blast to the shoulder. She proceeded forward, unleashing a large amount of energy through one of her bracelets, firing an energy beam at the smaller robots. She quickly destroyed them. However, a remaining laser bullet from the swarm caught her wrist, knocking off her bracelet. As the pain began to course through her wrist, the pain in her shoulder that she had ignored also caught up to her. Suddenly, she felt dizzy, but not from the pain. “They… must have… poisoned me… some… how,” she said slowly as the world swirled around her. She fell off the large robot’s arm, but he caught her on the inside of his claw, which he shut around. Her.

“TRAGET NEUTRALIZED, RETURNING TO BASE,” was the message the robot sent, though the unit itself lacked any vocal mechanics. The message returned however as from a robot who did, and one with more personality than the units he commanded.

“Well done soldier. Now that we have captured the female echidna, that fool should fall quickly into our hands, along with the rest of this island he so feebly protects,” the message, broadcast to all units, said. “I should know, I was build on his data after all.” High in the mountains, Metal Knuckles’ electronic voice rang out with terrifyingly natural laughter, which sounded naturally evil.

[Ekajra]

The Flames of War.

Knuckles let out the last breath of his roar, bending forward, his face to the ground. He slowly breathed in and out, his harsh exhaling sending the newly settling sand swirling around his face. He placed one hand on his knee, bracing himself as he slowly stood up. His face was still turned towards the ground, his fists clasped tightly. The fabric of his gloves began to tear as his knuckle spurs pushed forward. Knuckles’ face was shrouded by his long dreads which hung down in front of it. He slowly pulled up his right hand, unfolding his fingers to reveal Shade’s bracelet. He grabbed it between his thumb and forefinger, and held it up to his face. He then reached down to his left arm, and snapped the bracelet onto his wrist. He flicked his head up, his dreads flying back to reveal the hard look of determination on his face. It was a face cold and ruthless, set only on one goal: revenge. Knuckles looked towards the mountains. They were a mix of deep red volcanic rock and ice covered peaks in the center. At least, that’s what would be seen, if not for the Eggman Empire. All over the mountain sides they had built gun turrets, factories, and power plants. And wherever there wasn’t a building serving some purpose, they had simply covered up nature with more cold metal. “Ten years,” Knuckles said slowly. “Now, I‘ll finally do what must be done to save my home…” He ran across the sands towards the mountains, where his final battle would soon begin.

* * * * *

The young fox looked over the city, or at least, what was left of it. What had once been a sprawling metropolis, had quickly been destroyed. If something hadn’t been obliterated by the first disaster, it had surely been decimated by the second. And the rare buildings that survived these were likely burning down to their foundations. “This can‘t be happening… why did this have to happen?” He never got his answer, before he was rushed away from the scene by a pair of military jets.

* * * * *

Miles jolted up in his chair. His eyes darted left and right, scanning his location. He was sitting in his apartment, screwdriver and prototype supercomputer still in his hands. “Must‘ve just fallen asleep,” he checked the time on his clock. “22:37... I should probably get some proper sleep, judging by the last mission I might expect a difficult fight tomorrow.” He set down his work, turning his swivel chair towards his main computer’s keyboard. He opened up his journal file, and entered a new entry;

“6/18, 10th year.

Continued work on new A.I. project. Is advancing well, should be ready for test flight of auto-pilot soon. Preparing for another attack mission tomorrow…”

He paused for a moment, thinking, then continued typing;

“In two days it‘ll be the tenth anniversary of when this world went to hell. Not that it matters anymore, but noting for the sake of history. Who knows, maybe someday I‘ll be able to put an end to this long drawn out battle.”

He hit enter and added the entry to his data base. He reached for the soda can on his desk, but soon found it to be empty. He tossed it into the ever growing pile in the corner of the room. Miles then proceeded to shut down his computer systems for the evening. He made a quick trip to the bathroom, then walked back into the living room. He sat down on the couch, only removing his large combat boots before throwing a thin blanket over himself. He pressed a switch on the wall next to him, and the lights went off. He soon drifted into sleep.

* * * * *

Knuckles barreled through the jungle, crashing, literally, through the trees. With every punch he threw a line of trees fell. Normally he would be wary of causing this much damage to his home, as it would also alert the robots to his coming. But nothing was going to stall him from his mission today. Roots snapped and popped as they were ripped from the earth, bark cracked and all sorts of fruits fell to the ground and smashed open. The mountains were still along ways off in the distance, but they were alight with activity. Already, the various defense turrets were trained in the direction of Knuckles’ carnage, and an alarm was sounded. Knuckles turned to his right as he heard a whirring noise. He jumped into the air just as a flying sentry bot burst from the trees. Knuckles grabbed onto a tree branch and swung around to face the robot as it flew back towards him. Knuckles grabbed it and slammed it to the ground. Its white casing cracked, parts flew away, and its circuitry sparked as Knuckles smashed its “head”. The sound of its comrades could be heard, and Knuckles spun around, sending the robot carcass flying. It crashed into another of its same model just as it burst from the trees. Knuckles charged back into the jungle with more of them hot on his tail. He slammed his fist through a thin, shorter tree, and grabbed its trunk, swinging the tree in a wide arc. He knocked three robots aside, but more were following. And he could see figures moving through the jungle ahead of him. But no matter how many they threw at him, he wouldn’t lose.

* * * * *

The sharp beeping pierced the silent air, filling the small apartment. Miles was instantly awake as his alarm went off, and he pulled himself off the couch. He walked over to his clock and stopped the noise, and stretched. It was 5:00. Time to get moving. Few in the city were up this early, except maybe those who’d already been up all night, or those with jobs that required such an early time to be awake. Miles found it the best time to get out of the city without anyone noticing. He hated being questioned on where he was going, because everyone knew the answer. And he knew what they’d say. They’d talk about how he was suicidal, crazy, or was just planning on leading the Empire straight to their front door. And it was true, the Empire had been spreading its territory towards the fields that Subagri lay under, but it wasn’t like anyone in the city was going to fight it. Defeating the Eggman Empire was the only purpose left in Miles’ life, and even that was beginning to fade away.

Miles sat back down on his couch, putting on his combat boots. He stood up, and grabbed his long overcoat from the hook it was hanging on. He threw it on, making sure the sleeves were well rolled up. Reaching down to the small table he grabbed his guns. He spun them around in his hands a few times before sliding them into their holsters on the inside of his coat. He then removed his electro-katana from its rack, and strapped it across his back. As he walked to the door he ran his fingers through his bangs, smoothing them out away from his eyes, before sliding his goggles onto the top of his head, just below his ears. As he stepped out the door, he put on his sunglasses and turned off the light.

* * * * *

Miles walked into the hanger, the bright ceiling lights activating automatically. The entire expanse of the giant room was empty that morning, as it was every morning. And really the entire day. Rarely would someone apart from the fox enter the hanger. No one else really had reason to. Still, today something felt different to Miles as he walked up to where the Tornado was parked. This was the third model of plane bearing that name, though it looked incredibly similar to the second. Still, there were some key differences, not the least of which was that this model also had multiple transformations, including a car and a walker with advanced weaponry. Of course, the plane’s age was beginning to show, and it wasn’t helped at all by the fact that many sections of the Tornado 3 had been replaced using parts of the original Tornado, which had been wrecked during one of Prower’s earlier adventures. He ran his hand over the side of the cockpit, the tips of his fingers, which stuck through his gloves, carefully avoiding the rust and chipped blue paint, which revealed the red paint job of the original Tornado…

* * * * *

“Why?! Why did he have to go?!” the young fox yelled as he stormed around his workshop. Tears ran from his eyes like a roaring waterfall, staining his fur. He toppled into a standing tool cabinet, sending it crashing to the ground. Metal rang in a deafening cacophony as the tools flew across the hard floor. The young fox’s hand reached out and grasped a large wrench as he turned towards his familiar blue plane. He’d only just finished this latest model before the past days’ events had unfolded. It was perfect, combining the best features of the last models and also adding new features. It was going to help his friend win his fights. But it had failed. He had failed. “Why couldn‘t you have been better?!” the young fox yelled as he swung to wrench at the plane. The cockpit windshield cracked and shattered from the impact. He swung again with more fury, bending the top of the side door down. Again and again he swung, his anger swelling with each strike. No longer was he simply smashing his plane to pieces, as he had another mechanical image in mind. A large section of the left wing was bashed through and fell to the ground. With one last malice filled yell he swung with the wrench, and it became embedded into the side of the plane. He fell backwards, releasing his grip on the wrench. He stumbled back to the wall, crying even more than before. “Why couldn‘t I have been better… why couldn‘t I save him?” He sank down to the floor and bowed his head as a grim silence fell on the room, and only his mourning could be heard.

* * * * *

Miles opened up the storage bay, and threw the burlap sack in. He was about to slam the cover shut again, when he noticed something. The sack seemed bulkier than usual. It hadn’t simply fallen flat around the inside of the chasis. In fact, it looked like it was covering a body. “Hopper, get out. Now,” Miles said.

“Ahh, so you found me. Guess I really should practice more,” the tree-frog said as he stepped out from the storage bay. He landed on the plane’s launch platform next to Miles. “So, off on another raiding mission, eh Miles?”

“Yes.”

“Really? Seriously man, I don‘t think you should be doing this,” Hopper said. There was no reply. “Just going out, killing a few ‘bots, and coming back just to mess with their parts doing nothing really? What‘s the point?”

There was a pause before Miles answered. “I have to fight them, cause no one else will.”

“Well, you don‘t seem to be doing much fighting. Think about it this way Miles. So you kill some robots on the outskirts of the city, so what?” Hopper leaned against the Tornado, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “The Empire can replace them in a matter of seconds. They‘ve got practically the entire world‘s resources at their disposal, and whatever they don‘t have they could take whenever they want, the ‘bots and their leader just haven‘t decided to do yet.”

“Exactly. There‘s no resistance force, and the military people here aren‘t fighting. They just protect their little underground city and everyone goes on living ordinary lives, like they don‘t even care of the danger just above them.”

“And what‘s wrong with that? I understand you want to destroy the Empire, I do too. They destroyed my homeland, and most of my people got captured and enslaved. But you‘re going about it the wrong way. The only thing that your methods accomplish is getting more injuries.” Hopper nodded to Miles’ shoulder, then leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “You hardly even get close to the city itself. He would‘ve at least made a move towards their main base long ago…”

Hopper’s next words were cut off by the sound of a clicking gun, and when he opened his eyes he found himself staring down the barrel of one of Miles’ handguns. “Get away from my plane. I have work to do,” he said sternly and with no emotion. Not even anger registered in his tone.

Hopper leaned forward from the T3, putting his hands up. “Come on, you wouldn’t really shoot me? What‘s wrong? Look, if I said somethi…” He stopped as he reenacted the past few minutes in his head. Hiding in plane, getting out, scolding Miles, mentioning… “Oh…”

“Move it. I don‘t want to waste ammo on you.” Miles flicked the gun in a motion to point towards the hanger wall. Hopper didn’t move.

“Okay dude, this seriously has to stop! It‘s been ten years! Either end this long drawn out battle, or just give up and join Robotni…” Hopper’s sentence was cut off once again, but this time from being shot in the chest with a shoulder by Miles’ gun. Blood began to seep out from where the needles had embedded themselves in his smooth skin, but that wasn’t the part that worried him. “Wow… more pissed off than usual I see…” Hopper said before he the electric shock jolted his body. He collapsed on the floor as his muscles spasmed and gave out, but Miles quickly caught him and set him down against the wall.

“Lucky for you I avoided your vital organs. Just remember to watch your tongue once you regain consciousness,” Miles said, his voice still cold as Ice Cap. He holstered his gun, and walked back to the Tornado. He closed the storage bay, then typed in his activation code into the platform’s control panel. It activated and began to move towards the runway. Miles climbed into the cockpit and ran his pre-flight diagnostics. He removed his sunglasses and slid his goggles down over his eyes as a voice recording began to direct him through takeoff. Below him, a small rod connected to each end of his plane. As he powered up his engine, they began to move him along the runway, which slanted up to the surface. Like a catapult, it flung him forth out of the ground and the Tornado’s power kicked in as it continued to ascend into the clouds. They were dark today, but this far from the metropolis the pilot knew they weren’t completely from pollution. “Looks like a storm is coming. I‘ll have to watch out.” He directed his course towards the city.

* * * * *

Knuckles wrenched a guard robot’s gun-arm from its socket. It continued to spray out bullets long enough for Knuckles to destroy its owner. He threw the arm down and flipped over the robot as the rest of its squad entered the clearing. Knuckles hefted the large humanoid robot in the air and threw it at the approaching enemies, smashing them. As he turned once again to run, he felt the air around him becoming hotter. He jumped back just as two horizontal columns of fire rushed towards where he was, combining into a fiery explosion. The trees in front of him were scorched to nothingness, and in the late afternoon sun he could clearly see the source. Two small red robots consisting almost completely of a large circle had been the source of the first flames, the center of their bodies glowing bright red from the flamethrowers that they had just used. But behind them a larger autonamaton was walking forward. It was a giant version of the silver units he’d just destroyed, in all its proportions. It however had red and orange armor covering its shining silver skeleton. Its center plate had the same fan-like flamethrower that the two smaller robots were made of, but on each of its arms was another flamethrower, this one appearing to be much more powerful and streamlined. It was in fact capable of firing a large and widespread blast of flame from its chest just like its smaller comrades, but the two arm blasters could shoot a concentrated flame for a longer period of time and over an even greater distance. And what Knuckles could not see was the short range incendiary bombs the could fire into the air from its back.

Of course, even if he could see them, it still wouldn’t affect his actions. He charged forward as the all three robots fired their fan attack. Knuckles jumped into a still standing tree as the flames converged. He barely had time to dodge as a trio of flying guard robots swooped past him. He ducked down and swung around the tree branch he was perched on. He began to pick up speed as the larger robot directed its main cannons at him, as the two smaller firebots were restricted to the ground. The large robot turned at the torso and Knuckles could see the fire igniting in its “hands”. The white flying robots came in for a second dive attack, and Knuckles released his grip on the branch and flew forward as the large robot fired. It decimated the trio of attackers, and Knuckles landed on the ground. He quickly dispatched one of the small firebots and used its wreckage to destroy the other. He rolled to the side just as he threw it, dodging the laser beam to blasted past him. The ground based cousin of the flying white robots had wheeled in and began firing at him. He ran towards it, only to be cut off by a column of flame. The giant had redirected its blast, and was aiming down at Knuckles now. He jumped backwards, left, and right, dodging the duel blasts of fire, in addition to the laser fire, which had increased now the more of the wheel bots had come in. Flying sentries continued to dash back and forth in the air, waiting for him to take to the trees.

Knuckles was backed to the edge of the burnt out clearing, when he heard the sound of another wheel sentry approaching. He quickly turned around and caught it before it could unroll. He jump to the side as the flames neared him, then into the air. He spun around, then with careful aim, flung the robot, which was just as big as him. It twisted through the air and took out its comrades on the ground as it circled the clearing. Finally it smashed into the giant flame robot’s right arm. It knocked the arm to the side, and the column of flame shot across the robots body and destroyed the left arm. Knuckles glided away just as the flames reached him, though he could feel the backs of his spines being singed. The giant robot had deactivated its right cannon for a brief moment to cool while it located Knuckles. It power up again as it found the echidna, but that split second was all the skilled martial artist needed. He jumped into the air and flipped onto the robot’s arm. He ran up it and reached its head. Positioning himself carefully, he slammed his fist into its head with incredibly force. The head dented into the body, and sparks began to circle around Knuckles’ hand as cracks appeared in the robot’s body. Knuckles jumped off just as it exploded. Unfortunately, this had the unwanted effect of also shooting off all of the incendiary bombs, which, in addition to the fire from the battle, quickly set the remaining trees on fire. Soon, the small area of the jungle was ablaze, and the fire was spreading. Elsewhere in the forest, more of the flame bots had been deployed to flush out Knuckles and burn down his main hiding place. But he wasn’t planning on hiding. His only goal was the mountain fortress.

The jungle cleared much quicker than it normally would have, considering it was now almost completely ablaze. From far away, the normally lush green island, long since metallic and fortified and weaponized, would have appeared to be completely engulfed in flames. And in a sense it was. The flames of the Eggman Empire, of its Emperor’s evil ambitions, of Metal Knuckles’ mockery, and of the Guardian’s vengeance. All of them converged on Angel Island, in the final battle for supremacy. High in the command center of the mountains, Metal Knuckles watched everything play out on the monitors surrounding him. Three high pitch beeps sound, signifying an incoming message. Metal Knuckles bowed as the video screen popped up. “Greetings, Emperor Robotnik,” the robot said to its creator.

“You may rise Metal Knuckles. How goes my plan?” the figure on the screen asked.

“Everything is going exactly as you predicted, the echidna has fallen for the trap,” Metal Knuckles said as he stood up. Just then another beeping was heard, as a message from the surveillance robots came in.

“SURVEILLANCE UNIT ES-0293 REPORTING. ECHIDNA IS APPROACHING FIRST RAVINE GATE.”

“What?” Metal Knuckles said. He quickly looked over the screens. Sure enough, Knuckles was making quick headway towards the mountains.

“I would expect this from him,” the Emperor said. “But, even if he should get through I trust that you can take care of it Metal Knuckles. You‘re the most advanced robot of your line, and you have our best bargaining chip ever. I leave it all to you. I trust you won’t fail me.” With that, the message screen closed, and soon faded away.

Metal Knuckles stood still for a moment. If he’d had a brain, it would be swirling with thoughts right now. However, in his organized CPU, only one line of data was processing. He must be victorious. With a mental smirk, he turned around to his prisoner behind him. “We had best be heading outside. A guest is coming whom I‘m sure you can‘t wait to see.”