Hunting Season
Gazing out over the floating landmass Angel Island, Knuckles stood vigil in his duty to guard the Master Emerald. However, he was no longer alone in guarding it. His good friend and fellow echidna Shade was also helping. She had volunteered to do so and Knuckles thought, why not? It would be good to have some company for a change. However, something didn't feel right. Sonic, Amy Rouge, Shadow and Omega had claimed to have received help from strange beings with unseen weapons and fighting styles. They called them amazing and unique. Knuckles, however, wanted to see them himself before agreeing with whether they could be trusted or not.
Then, there were the gruesome deaths that had been happening in the surrounding area, of humans and Mobians being skinned and hung from trees for all to see or having skulls and spines removed from their bodies completely and rumors of people seeing the air shimmer in front of them and loud roars sounding through the night. When they went to the source of the noise, they found another body. Shade appeared to read his thoughts and came over. She put a hand on his shoulder.
"You okay Knuckles?" Concern was in her voice as she spoke.
"Just all the stuff that's been going on lately", Knuckles replied, worry evident in his voice. "What kind of... thing would do something like that?"
Shade couldn't answer that. She was just as horrified by the method of killing as Knuckles was. She'd seen some pretty bad stuff in her time, but seeing a skinned body just about beat them all. She'd gagged when she saw the first body and now, she was still disturbed when she saw one. As she looked out towards the trees, she thought she saw something move. The air seemed to shimmer and distort. No she must be seeing things.
Knuckles was still deep in thought when something caught his eye. Three red dots were on the stone in front of him, set in a triangle. They moved along the stone and came to rest on Shade's head. It was almost like a...
"...targeting laser!" Realizing this, he leaped at Shade and pinned her to the ground. Just as he did, he heard a whooshing noise and a bright blue ball flew the air, right where Shade's head had been a second before. It hit the stone behind her and blew a large chunk out of it. Knuckles looked in the direction of the shot , but couldn't see anything.
"Uh, Knuckles. Would you... um... move please." Knuckles looked down to see Shade underneath him, blushing like mad. Blushing as well, he got up and helped her to her feet.
"Sorry Shade. It's just..." He was about to finish, but she cut him off.
"It's okay. If you hadn't done that, I'd probably be dead", she assured him, though still red around the cheeks. "Did you see who fired that?", she added, looking at the shot's direction.
"No, I didn't see anything. You?"
"Well..." Shade thought how to put it. "Before it was fired, I saw the air shimmer. It wasn't invisible, more like a chameleon. Some kind of cloaking device." No sooner had she said this, there was another whoosh and another ball flew past them.
"Well, we gotta find this thing and fast!", Knuckles said, his eyes darting all around. They then heard laughter. It sounded like Eggman, but there was something different. It was oddly distorted, like a recording.
"Over here." That same style of voice echoed through the trees.
"It's using recordings", Shade said "It must be trying to confuse us. Taunt us, like it's toying with us."
"Come on, where are you!", Knuckles yelled. "Show yourself, you coward!" The thing responded with a loud roar. He'd touched a nerve.
"Yeah that's right!" Knuckles smiled at Shade as she took over. "You heard him! Only a coward fights when his enemies can't see him. Let's get a look at you!"
"Nobody calls me a coward, lou-dte-kalei!" A deep, glutteral voice spoke this time. There was a thud as something landed in front of them. The air shimmered as it stood there. Then, there was a beep and their adversary was revealed. The form of it was tall and muscular, with greenish-brown skin, like a reptile almost, but without scales. It had long, dread-lock hair and wore a mask that covered it's face, armor in some places and a tribal like garb. The creature raised it's long fingers to its shoulder and removed a tube device and dropped it to the floor. It then reached up to it's mask and pulled out two pipes, that hissed as they were removed. It then removed it's helmet. Shade gasped and Knuckles cringed.
The face resembled a crab's. It had a large forehead, with deep sunken yellow eyes, a row of sharp teeth and four mandibles surrounding the mouth. "I am N'yaka-de, I am Yautja and I am your death!", he stated and roared at them, hunching his back and flaring his mandibles, a sign of aggression.
"Bring it on!" Knuckles and Shade said at the same time. They were about to fight when a voice of a girl yelled "Ki'cite!" and another deep voice said "Stand down, Badblood!" Every one turned to see the new arrivals.
One was like the being they were about to fight, but he seemed older and more experienced. He wore less armor and both this and his mask bore many scars of unknown battles. The second was a young girl, of about 14 or 15. However, some of her attributes weren't exactly normal. She had bright yellow eyes, pale skin and long black claws instead of fingers. She had a thin face and white hair in a ponytail.
The large one stepped forward. "Stand down, Badblood. Lay down your weapons and surrender, or you will die."
N'yaka-de didn't listen and looked at the girl. "How do you know our language ooman?", he asked in a dangerous voice.
"How I know is no concern of yours", she responded coolly. "Do as he says and lay down your weapons."
"I will surrender when the Black Warrior himself dies!", he roared back. (Not being racist, it's their version of the Grim Reaper!) He pulled out a spear and ran at them, mandibles flared, spittle flying from his maw. The girl leaped aside and landed in a battle stance, her claws bared.
"Allow me to introduce you to him then!", she yelled and the two ran at each other, both fierce warriors, both fighting to kill!
And cliffhanger! Oooh I'm cruel! Hope you liked this chapter, I'll update again in time. Until then... good hunting!
Yautja language:
lou-dte-kalei- child maker, slang or joke for a female.
ki'cite- enough
N'yaka-de - Master
badblood-criminal
ooman- yautja pronouncing human
Black Warrior- their Grim Reaper
