Nimue, the Lady of the Lake could not help but smile softly at the beauty of her home.
The Misty Lake sparkled and glittered in the sunlight; the green grass was alive with flowers of all shapes and sizes; the butterflies fluttered lazily from flower to flower, and the birds sang restlessly of summer. And how she loved it all!
Even the spider's web, wet with raindrops of the previous day, shone brightly in the sunlight as it hung on the sign over the path to her island.
She watched from the window of her pagoda happily, the book she was reading completely forgotten, and she wondered just what it would be like to run through the grass and smell flowers blooming; but of course she couldn't. It wasn't ladylike to play around in the grass…. With a sigh she stood and went around to pick up the books that littered the floor, and after moving the kettle off the stove she curled up with her book and a cup of tea. But the wind carried to her the smells of spring, and the walls of her home couldn't repel the sounds of it either; eventually it got to her, and she found herself staring out the window again, her sad smile returning.
"You're ladyship?"
With a yelp she turned to look over her shoulder; she'd nearly jumped out the window in shock! As her heart slowed down she took a breath and smiled at the newcomer.
"Ah, Sir Lancelot! And To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you?"
"I apologies, my lady, for the unexpected visit but, the nag wanted to see you."
Sir Lancelot gave a glare over his shoulder, leaving Nimue with no doubt as to who he was referring to.
"I heard that! Don't forget that I helped to defeat you before! I most certainly can do it again!"
Nimue shook her head. Ever since King Sonic disappeared, Caliburn and Sir Lancelot were always at each other's throats! Actually, Caliburn had become a problem for all the members of the Round Table; Lancelot was simply the only one who fought back.
"Hmph! That was merely luck! I simply let my guard down."
"Sure~ You did!"
"And what do you mean by THAT! You scrawny piece of lead!"
"Exactly what it sounded like, you overgrown pincushion!"
"Say that again! I dare you!"
"Hey you two! Calm down already!"
She pushed the two apart before they managed to both demolish each other, and her home.
"Calm down you two!"
"Hmph!"
"Fine. I shall desist for now, as we are in the company of a lady!"
Nimue shook her head as the Knight on her other side scoffed.
"Then I shall take my leave. Good day Nimue."
With a short bow Lancelot swept outside the door, unwilling to stay behind and listen to their chatter plus he didn't want to be near that stupid talking sword any longer than necessary. There was also the fact at Nimue had a way of making him feel… strange. Not that she didn't to most other people, but for him it was a stronger feeling of unease than was normal.
Not that he had time to dwell on it. He frowned as his eyes caught something strange in the distance. At first glance it looked like a cloud, but now he realized that the "cloud" was not really a cloud at all; they were birds. And they were frightened of something.
Without another moment he took his sword and was skating towards the disturbance in the distance. He had almost made it to the edge of the forest when the sky went dark as thousands of birds went over head in a massive flock and he sped up, now a bit more careful of the debris that littered the forest floor…
"Sir Gawain!"
Sir Percival hurried forward to the stumbling form of her comrade, and lifted his around her shoulder.
This was bad.
This was very bad!
She took out her sword, and sent a worried glance overhead.
Smoke.
It filled the air around them and left Blaze with a feeling of deep sadness.
There was nothing left of the village anymore; it had been almost completely wiped out during the attack. The knight of the Round Table had done everything they could, but it had happened so suddenly and there had been too many people to try and protect.
Percival gave a sigh.
That was probably the only good thing to have happened in this battle; the citizens had all been brought to safety almost as soon as the attack was started.
She almost stumbled over as Sir Gawain made an unexpected movement as he awoke suddenly.
"What? Where am I? Sir Percival?"
"Ah Gawain; you're awake! Thank heavens."
She stopped to let him catch his bearings for a moment, but she kept her sword at the ready inc case of an ambush.
"We're in the forest, close to the Misty Lake"
"Ah, we're seeing Nimue then?"
"Yes. She may be the only one who can bring the King back here!"
"Yes. Since Merlina lost her powers…"
Percival nodded and they both looked up at the column of smoke far behind them.
"I wish we could have DONE something… I feel so helpless!"
Gawain shot his arm out at a boulder in frustration.
"We all do Gawain…Don't blame yourself; this new foe's magic is beyond us! Using metal and rock to create such evil creatures!"
Gawain cursed at the thought…
This new foe…
He'd only shown up a week ago; right after King Arthur, who preferred to be called Sonic, was sent back to his home. And yet; even in such a short amount of time the evil human creature had already attacked and destroyed hundreds of villages throughout the kingdom! It had been Sir Lancelot who'd discovered them first, and that already had been reason for concern. The hedgehog had come back in worse shape than they'd ever seen him! And it wasn't until after he'd swallowed his pride a little that he admitted that he'd been defeated by the evil wizard and his creatures, but not after doing some damage of course.
The Knights of the Round Table were doing their best, but they were too much at a disadvantage, and without their king to lead them!
"Hey, where is Sir Lancelot?"
Gawain looked around as if to find his comrade walking out towards them.
"He was behind just behind us…"
She turned to the pathway they'd just come from but it was at that moment that her previous fear was realized! At least a dozen metallic monsters fell from the sky around them, and Percival and Gawain jumped to put their backs to each other, preparing to defend themselves from attack.
"There are so many of them!"
Percival heard the fear in her comrade's voice and her frowned deepened defiantly!
"Don't lose faith Gawain! We must find the king and protect the people!"
A sudden movement forward by one of the robots stopped her mid-sentence,
"Get ready! They're attacking!"
They jumped, only just dodging the metal fist sent towards them.
With a slash of steel the monster was sliced in half, and Percival barley had time to doge the resulting explosion. Again she dodged another iron first, moving from side to side quickly. Gawain held his sword in an X front of him, blocking attack after attack by the merciless robots.
Again they came together, back to back, their sword in front of them protectively as they panted.
"What are we gonna do!"
"We have to keep on fighting! It's all we can do!"
She swung her sword out, flicking a blast of fire to the robot in front of her, but as it hit home the robot was merely replaced by another.
This time as the robot lunged, she tried to block it by holding her sword in front of her, but unlike all the other times, as she closed her eyes her ears were met with a clang that caused a deep pit in her stomach and her sword broke clean it half.
But she didn't have much time to think about the loss.
The robot, unaffected by the futile attempt continued forward in that spilt second, and with a crash of pain Percival was sent backwards and she rolled a few feet away, quite unconscious.
"Percival!"
Angered Gawain smashed his fist into the nearest robot, ignoring the pain as it exploded around his arm, and he ran over to his fallen comrade, his knees skidding across the grass and he tried to make sure she wasn't bleeding.
He had to get her out of here.
He grabbed Percival's arm and draped it over his shoulder, and he took a stance ready for another attack.
A robot spotted him,
It lunged.
Gawain out up his arm in defiance,
But the blow never came.
Instead it was stopped halfway in air but a familiar looking sword, held by a familiar looking hedgehog.
"Lancelot!"
"Gawain, take Percival out of here. To Lady Nimue's tower; Hurry."
"Yes, sir!"
Gawain slumped the cat over his back and with a nod to Lancelot he dashed out of the clearing towards the Misty Lake.
The robot's arm was pulled from it's socket as Lancelot pulled it forward and sliced I off.
Lancelot jumped and kicked off the robot's head and with a spin he sent himself to another and another in a chain attack, landing on his feet, only to spin back to another foe.
"This is almost too easy!"
He charged.
"Lady Nimue!"
Lady Nimue was standing on her bridge looking into the water with Caliburn at her side.
She turned, here eyebrow raised, but quickly her face turned surprised and with a gasp she ran forward.
It was Gawain. Beaten up, bruised, and battered. But even more concerning; he was carrying an unconscious Percival.
"Oh no! Gawain, what happened!"
She pulled Percival's other arm around her own shoulders and led them inside to lay her on one of the cot's of her study.
"Caliburn, please get the bandages; they're on my desk."
"I'm sorry your Ladyship. We were ambushed on our way here from the Nottingham village. The metal creatures had attacked, and we let our guard down."
Lady Nimue leaned over her charge as she gently rubbed a wet towel over the gash on her arm.
"No. It's not your fault. You tried your best. Here, sit down and hold this to that cut on your head."
Gawain took the other wet towel she handed out to her and nodded; too worn out to argue.
Nimue walked over to her reflecting pool, and as the glowing liquid showed her visons of the rest of the kingdom she shuddered.
"We have to do something about this…"
Gawain looked up curiously and wondered what was being shown in that reflecting pool of hers.
"Hmph! If only that idiot knave of a King were here. How impertinent; leaving his kingdom defenseless in a time of crisis!"
"Caliburn!"
The sword cleared his throat and corrected himself.
"I'm just saying that it is very irresponsible to have left his kingdom. Especially for so long."
"Somehow I agree"
The group turned in surprise as Lancelot strode into the room.
"Lancelot! Are you okay?"
Gawain jumped out of his chair towards the hedgehog, but Lancelot waved it off.
"I am alright. For now. But this is serious; our kingdom is in grave danger, and the Knights of the Round Table are powerless."
"What can we do… We're gravely outnumbered AND outmatched!"
With a groan that surprised the whole group, Percival sat up slowly, with the help of Lady Nimue.
"We need King Sonic! Only he can handle something of this magnitude."
"Yes…. We need are king back…" Gawain looked to the floor dejectedly; uncomfortable with having to resort to begging their king to save them.
"But how to get him here…" Lancelot's gaze went to the window as he mumbled, and his eye caught the glow of the reflecting pool.
"If only Merlina hadn't lost her powers in battle… we could summon him here no problem!"
"I wonder…" Lancelot's voice carried over the silence, and he turned to Lady Nimue.
"My Lady, you have the ability to summon objects at will correct?"
Nimue's face flushed as everyone stared at her awaiting her answer.
"I know what you're asking, and yes I can summon objects… but I've never tried summon something a large or complex as a person before… and… it would be harder seeing as King Arthur is from another zone…"
"I'm sure that you could do it Lady Nimue" Caliburn bounced as he spoke.
"Yes, we have full confidence in you" Percival smiled as Gawain held her in sitting position.
Nimue took a breath and moved towards her reflecting pool, looking over her shoulder to the others.
"I'll try it then… it's not like we have much choice…"
They all looked worriedly to the north.
Over the trees a dark cloud was forming and getting closer and closer.
"Soniku~ where are you~"
Amy hurried her steps as she spotted a flash of blue in the middle of the city streets. He hadn't noticed her yet. She fought the urge to giggle as she got closure, and she was almost a few feet away when her blue hero turned to look over his shoulder. She saw his eyes widen fractionally, and in a flash he'd ran in the other direction.
"SONIC!"
She skidded to a halt right where her blue crush had been and she bent her head and shoulders in disappointment.
"Aww man! I almost got him too."
She kicked at the ground huffily and was about to turn around and walk home, when something strange began to happen.
Her eyes widened as a sudden gust of wind blew wildly around her;
People in the area began running and screaming and from behind a yellowish light began to glow, casting her face in shadow.
Nimue frowned in concentration: her reflecting pool glowing brightly and casting the rest of the room in light. The group around her covered their eyes as the glow only brightened violently. Lancelot looked to the side and his eyes widened as the desk next to him began to move forward all on it's own being dragged towards the reflecting pool.
He moved his arm out the way as the wind around him just as there was a brilliant flash of light.
Amy turned around and had to cover her eyes from the blinding light. The wind got mightier; she could feel it pulling her in! She summoned her Piko hammer, suspecting an attack from Eggman, but it was no use; whatever this thing was had already got her! She was swept off her feet by a sudden force of the wind, and she closed her eyes, screaming as she was sucked in… the last thing she heard was a voice calling after her.
"Amy!"
"S-sonic?" She whispered before she was lost into the swirling wind.