The Servers are the seven Chaos.
Chaos is the Power. Power is enriched by the heart.
The Controller serves to unify the Chaos.
ancient echidna chant
Shot Echidna
It was a wonderful summer day on Mobius. The sun was shining down on the mountains and it was nearly windless, but from one second to the next a sharp blow of wind rustled through the green grass and a flash of blue raced down the mountain side.
Sonic the Hedgehog sped down into a canyon; his feet touching the rocky ground hundred times per second. He followed the canyon's sharp turns without even thinking of slowing down. When suddenly a vertical wall appeared only meters in front of him, Sonic accelerated even more and ran up the wall.
The blue hedgehog found himself on a large rocky plateau and raced across the plain terrain, improvising a slalom run, his arms stretched out like wings of a plane and steadying Sonic's fast movements.
He stopped when he reached the other side of the plateau and looked down into a deep canyon, so deep that the hedgehog could barely see the ground. Sonic took a stone, stepped forward until he stood with his toes on the edge and let the stone fall down. He watched as it got smaller and smaller and after a few moments was out of his sight. Seconds later Sonic's sharp ears caught the hardly audible sound of the impact.
"Cool!", he grinned and looked down into the depth a few more moments. Then he glanced around and his grin broadened when he spotted the small suspension bridge a few meters on his left. Sonic strolled over and regarded the old bridge with playful nonchalance. Simple ropes holding pieces of wood together, it seemed as if it was nearly falling apart just when someone looked at it.
Using it to cross the groundless canyon would be dangerous – and Sonic loved danger. While he stepped backwards on the plateau to get a few meters for a run-up, he noticed a satisfactory wave of adrenaline flooding his body.
Sonic grinned and accelerated. "Yahooooooo!", he yelled in excitement as he raced over the bridge, looking down on the wooden steps and in the depths between them. Sonic reached the other side in less than two seconds, turned around and saw, running backwards, how the bridge scatted into pieces and its parts fell down into the canyon. "Wow, that was great!" Sonic turned around again and continued running.
He had been out here in the mountains for days. It was his idea of a perfect vacation. Loads of exiting routes to run on, enough place to discover some kinds of adventures. Adventures were what Sonic lived for. He had a body full of inexhaustible energy and a mind determined to use it.
It didn't matter to Sonic where he was running. When he got out for a run he never knew where it would end. He needed running like he needed eating, drinking and sleeping as well. He was running because nothing in the world was more fun to him.
Okay, maybe busting Eggman's robots, Sonic thought and smiled.
He ran on a few more hours and enjoyed the great mountains around him. Sonic loved mountains.
Eventually he stopped on the edge of another plateau and took in the view in front of him. He was standing on a small rocky path and beneath him lay - paradise. A large valley covered with green grass and dark green forests, a blue river like sparkling sapphires winding through it and in the background on the other side of the valley rocky grey mountains with summits like sharp teeth surrounded the valley. It was lying down there like a precious green gem, flooded by the midday summer sunlight.
"Wow", Sonic whispered, nearly gaping in fascination.
Why the heck do people say the beach is the nicest place to go? Despite the fact that Sonic didn't like beaches because there was too much water, and he didn't like much water in one place at all, he wondered if you could see something like that at the beach.
The blue hedgehog stood several minutes, unable to take his eyes off the beautiful nature beneath him. Then he sat down under a nearby tree, still watching the scenery in complete awe. He crossed his arms in his neck, feeling perfectly at ease, and relaxed. The place was way too pretty just to leave quickly again. Even a mostly restless guy like Sonic had to consider this location the perfect place for a chill out.
The warm summer sun shone down on the hedgehog, warming his body comfortably. A gentle breeze of wind palmed thought Sonic's blue fur and he deeply inhaled the wonderful smelling air. Slowly Sonic's eyes dragged themselves closed and the hedgehog began to doze off.
"Aaaahhhhhhh!"
Sonic jerked awake out of his peaceful nap to a painful yelp. He jumped to his feet and looked around. Who was that?
He could see nothing more than before his nap, the place was still beautiful and the blue hedgehog didn't spot any persons around him. Attentively Sonic looked down at the valley beneath his position, searching for any movements down there.
Someone was in trouble and might need help.
Sonic began to run, following the path that led him along the valley's side. Finally the hedgehog spotted movement on the green grass from the corner of his eye and stopped to look at it.
Eight red robots, hovering in the air by jetpacks on their metal backs and obviously armed, had surrounded a red echidna, who was sitting on the ground, holding his left leg with both hands.
Sonic couldn't see his face, but he didn't need to see it to recognize the echidna. His name was Knuckles, and it was easy to recognize him because he was the only living echidna on Mobius. Knuckles was the last of his kind and normally staid on Angel Island, an island floating in the sky above the planet by the power of the Master Emerald. Knuckles was the guardian of the Master Emerald and only left his island for short periods of time, usually to do treasure hunting, which was his favourite hobby. Knuckles was known for his short temper and his stubbornness and also for being sometimes a bit naïve.
To Sonic the red echidna was friend and rival at the same time. Sonic and Knuckles often got into conflicts, that normally led to fights, but none of their arguments were completely serious. Neither the hedgehog nor the echidna would ever admit it, but they were much more friends than rivals.
Sonic clenched his fists angrily. Knuckles was a tough fighter and a bundle of robots was not meant to be a serious threat to the echidna. They must have caught him by surprise, while he was off his guard, Sonic thought. He knew it was more then difficult to catch Knuckles off his guard anyway. Considering the fact that the echidna was sitting on the ground and didn't fight off the robots, Sonic knew his friend must be injured.
Not wanting to lose any more time, Sonic left the path and sped down the slope, directly heading for the group of robots. A sonic boom echoed through the hills of the valley, was reflected by the canyons and summits of the high mountains of the environment, and thrown back hundreds of times as Sonic reached his full speed.
The robots turned around to the blue flash, but it was already too late for the two of them that stood closest to the blue hedgehog. Sonic reached them at full speed, jumped up and performed his spin attack to hit them. Curled into a tight blue ball, his sharp spikes completely ripped apart the robots' metal armour as he hit them like a cannon ball. He uncurled and hit a third robot with a homing attack, even before his feet had touched the ground again.
One of the robots pointed its metal arm at the hedgehog. "Target identified as Sonic the Hedgehog", it snared, "priority one orders override: Destroy Sonic the Hedgehog. Priority two orders delayed." It aimed its right arm at the red echidna on the ground and hit Knuckles with an electric shock. The echidna yelled in pain, then he collapsed to the floor unconscious.
"Hey, is that what you guys call 'delay'?", Sonic shouted angrily at the bot.
Instead of dignifying the hedgehog's question with an answer, all five Badniks started attacking the blue blur. Sonic dodged a few laser beams and destroyed two more robots with a quick spin. Then he jumped between two of the left ones, stood perfectly still for two seconds. Both robots shot a missile at the hedgehog, but Sonic had back-flipped quickly and instead of hitting the hedgehog, the robot's shot themselves and both of them exploded at exactly the same time.
Sonic turned around and looked into a glowing laser gun, which was ready to fire. Sonic grinned at the robot. "Sorry pal, you really need to be faster than that to hit me!" He span into the robot's chest and the machine fell apart.
Sonic ran over to the echidna and knelt down at his side. Quickly he checked out on his friend's breathing and pulse and sighed in relief when he found it okay. Knuckles had been knocked out by the electric shock, but that was nothing to really worry about. The actual reason to worry was Knuckles' leg. It was bleeding badly. The blue hedgehog looked around. He needed something for a bandage to stop the blood from flowing, but he couldn't see anything like it. They were surrounded by the smoking rests of busted robots and by nothing more than nature. Sonic didn't know what else to do, so he pressed his left hand on Knuckles' wound.
The echidna stirred at the touch and slowly began to open his eyes.
"Knuckles! Can you hear me? Knuckles!"
"Uh - Sonic? – What happened? – Why – ouch!" Knuckles had tried to sit up and pain flashed through his injured limb.
"Careful, Knux. That leg of yours looks bad and if you move too much the bleeding might get worse." Sonic watched as the echidna sat up sensibly slowly this time and looked down on his leg.
"Don't you know anything more efficient to stop something from bleeding than pressing your hand on it, hedgehog?"
Sonic shrugged. "I know we need a bandage and better sooner than later, but I don't have anything. Look around, we're in the middle of nowhere. Where the hell should I take it from?" Sonic had sounded sharper than he had intended, but he was worried and he didn't like not to know what to do.
Knuckles looked from the hedgehog's face to their surroundings and back again. Sonic was right, there was nothing. Nothing useful. He sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry Sonic. It's not your fault. It looks more like you saved my butt." He hesitated a moment, then continued. "Thanks, Sonic."
Sonic regarded the echidna in surprise. Knuckles didn't say thanks very often, so that it was a rare pleasure to hear that word of him. For a moment Sonic didn't know what to say.
But he didn't need to say anything. It was Knuckles who spoke again. He pointed at a smoking robot. "What's that blinking light over there?"
Sonic's eyes followed Knuckles' arm and he spotted a red pulsing light as well. He stood up. "You stay here", he said in Knuckles' direction and to Sonic's confusion the echidna didn't protest, he just pressed his own hand to his wound and followed the hedgehog's movements.
Sonic walked over to the destroyed robot. The blinking light was emitted by a small device in the right side of its head. Sonic studied it suspiciously, trying to find out whether it was a bomb or some other threat or not. Then he took it and pulled it out of the metal skull. It was a bit smaller than Sonic's fist and it was still blinking after Sonic had removed it from its former place.
The blue hedgehog was absolutely no expert on technical stuff; normally he left things like that to Tails. But even Sonic could identify this thing; it was some kind of a radio device. Maybe it had been used by the robot to report home about the mission success or something else. Sonic didn't really want to know, it didn't matter anyway.
A radio set, hey? – Maybe I can use it to…
Sonic's thoughts were interrupted by Knuckles. "Hey Sonic, you okay over there, what is that thing?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Sonic turned around to face the echidna again and started to walk back to the place where Knuckles was still sitting on the ground. "It's some kind of a radio set. I'm not exactly sure about how it works, but maybe I can use it to call help."
"Help? I don't need any help. I can look after myself. I –"
"Yes, of course, I've seen that," Sonic intervened at the risk of making Knuckles angry. "You had everything under control, right. Listen, Knuckles. I don't doubt the fact that you can take care of yourself. You always did." Sonic looked in the echidna's eyes and tried to use all his patience to convince him that this really wasn't the moment to be too proud. "But being able to take care of yourself doesn't mean you can't take help if it's offered. Honest, Knux, this is bad. We need to do something about that injury, but none of us can. So we have to call. I won't just sit here looking at you bleeding yourself to death. I don't care if you like it or not, but I will help you. I know you can't stop me from doing it and I also know that it's the right thing to do. And I know that you know that too." Sonic took a deep breath.
He looked at Knuckles. For a few seconds the echidna stared completely astonished at the hedgehog, then his look changed to somewhat abashed and he dropped his gaze.
"You're right," Knuckles said, more quiet than usually. "Who are you going to call?"
"Tails, I guess. We know we can trust him and I know the frequency of the radio in the Tornado. His workshop isn't too far away from here. I think he can be here in 15 minutes if he flies at full speed."
Knuckles nodded. Sonic sat down a few meters away from him on the former chest of one of the robots and looked at the radio set. He turned a few switches. It was a simple device and Sonic had changed the frequency quickly. He lifted the mobile radio to his mouth and spoke in it. "This is Sonic calling the Tornado. Tails can you here me? This is urgent business. Come in Tails. Do you read me?" Sonic stopped the transmission to listen for an answer.
It came immediately. "Hey Sonic, this is Tails. What's the big emergency? You in trouble?" Tails' voice sounded worried even through the radio's cracking.
"It's not exactly me. It's Knuckles. He has been injured. Quite badly. We have nothing for bandages, but we need to fix it quickly. Can you find out were we are and come here?"
"Stay on transmission, Sonic. I try to locate you."
While he was waiting, Sonic shot a glance over at Knuckles. The echidna's face was slightly sweaty and it seemed to Sonic as if he had paled a little.
"Sonic?" Tails' voice through the radio set again. "I got your position. I will bring bandages and stuff as fast as I can." The noise of the starting engine made it difficult for Sonic to understand Tails' last words.
"We'll be waitin'". The hedgehog smiled, relieved to have a friend like the little fox he knew he could always rely on.
"Hang on. Tornado over." The radio in Sonic's hand cracked a last time when Tails cut off the transmission. Sonic put it on the grass beside him. Now it was waiting and Sonic hated nothing more than that.
He stood up to sit down at Knuckles side again. Now he had the time to ask the echidna what he had thought of all the time since he had intervened in the fight. "Why were the robots attacking you?"
Knuckles lifted his gaze from his leg to look at Sonic. "I don't have any clue." He paused. "I hadn't noticed that there were robots around. I was just walking here. I was on my way back to Angel Island from the ruins of an old temple I visited, to do treasure hunting, you know."
"You didn't notice them? Normally it's difficult to surprise you, Knux. And if you are off your Floating Island, it's twice as difficult."
"I dunno. I was in thoughts." Knuckles noticed Sonic's asking look and continued, in a slightly sharper tone, "None of your business, Sonic. By the way what are you doing here, as you said, it's the middle of nowhere."
The hedgehog smirked. "Well, Knux, you're not the only one who's got a hobby. I'm on a run. In fact I have been out running for about a week now." His smirk deepened a little, getting ironic. "Your yelp down here jerked me out of a wonderful nap."
"Nap? I thought you said you're running." Knuckles grinned.
"Sure, but it didn't mean I don't take breaks sometimes."
"And to that I woke you up, Sonic; you would have yelled as I did if you were shot in your leg without even knowing that there was somebody to shoot you. Normally, Eggman's robots don't attack on surprise."
"I know that. Something was different about them." Sonic paused and his gaze trailed away as he remembered the words of the robot.
"Sonic? What's wrong?"
The hedgehog looked back at Knuckles. "I just remembered what the one of these guys said." He waved his right hand at the remaining garbage of former Badniks. "It said that some priority one orders would override priority two orders and that these were to be delayed. Then it zapped you."
"Yeah, I remember that just too well. But - What's to wonder about that I was electrocuted? Stuff like that happened to all of us several times before."
"Correct, but it seems like they had a concrete order to do something with you. They shot into your leg, so that you couldn't get away and then they surrounded you." Sonic paused to get sure about his thoughts. "It kinda looks like they wanted you alive."
"Maybe they had no deadly weapons. Or they were too stupid to use them."
"They had lethal weapons, Knuckles. They had loads of them and they knew how to fire them, I can tell. You missed on the fight, but you can bet they really knew how to shoot." Sonic grinned. "They were too slow to hit me, but that's nothing new."
"Not really," the echidna answered flatly. "And it doesn't matter what they were ordered to do to me."
"Yeah," Sonic looked around, "they don't really look like if they were in the condition to put up a fight by any definition." The hedgehog smiled.
Knuckles didn't answer. The red echidna was looking exhausted and shut his eyes.
Sonic shifted closer to Knuckles, shoved the echidna's hand which was still pressing on the wound away carefully and pressed his own left hand on it. Knuckles opened his eyes a bare slit to glance at Sonic, a bit confused. Sonic pushed at Knuckles' shoulder with his right hand, forcing him to lie down in the grass. "I think you should relax and rest a little. I can take care of that."
Instead of an answer, Knuckles let his head fall back on the ground and closed his eyes again. Sonic looked down on him, beginning to feel really worried. Knuckles' left hand was bloodied all over, so was his leg, and the echidna's face had paled more. His red friend was loosing too much blood. Hurry it up, Tails, he thought.
Sonic took a deep breath of relief as his ears caught a familiar sound. The hedgehog would have recognized it out of thousand other planes. The engine of the Tornado. Tails was coming. "Hey Knux, here comes our first-aid fox." He didn't get an answer. Knuckles just lay there and didn't move. "Knuckles? Knuckles, you still with me? Come on, hey Knuckles!" No use. The echidna must have passed out. Sonic sighed worriedly.
The Tornado touched down on the grass and Tails stopped the plane only a few meters from Sonic and Knuckles. The young two tailed fox jumped out of the plane before the propeller had stopped spinning and ran over at his two friends, carrying a red first-aid bag.
"What took you so long?" Sonic smiled at his foxy friend, not really serious, trying to lighten the situation up a little for his young friend.
"Sorry, the wind was blowing in the wrong direction."
Sonic wasn't sure if Tails was joking or not and couldn't face asking. Besides, they had more important things to do now.
The fox opened the bag, took passed a bottle of water to Sonic and the hedgehog cleaned the wound from blood before the two of them started to bandage it. Tails held Knuckles' leg and Sonic pulled the bandage as tight as he could around it.
A few minutes later they had managed a bandage both Sonic and Tails considered efficient. The hedgehog leaned over the still motionless echidna. Knuckles hadn't stirred throughout the whole procedure, although Sonic had been somehow radical in his intention to wrap it as tight as possible. The echidna's red fur was matted with sweat and the colour of his face unusually pale.
Sonic turned back to face Tails. The fox hadn't asked a single question about what had happened, since his arrival a few minutes ago he had been completely concentrated on patching up Knuckles. Now that they had finished with the most urgent problems, Tails looked at his blue friend, demanding to know how Knuckles had ended up like that.
"I was lying up there, taking a nap," Sonic pointed at the mountains on the right side of the valley," when I woke up by a yelp. I found Knuckles sitting on the ground surrounded by robots. He was injured and sorta outnumbered. So I rushed here and told these metal guys I don't like it if friends of mine are shot."
Tails looked around. "It looks like you made that a clear point to them."
"They won't do anything like it again." Sonic smiled, then his face turned serious again. "They had an order to do something with him." He looked down on Knuckles. "I'm sure they followed him here, and waited for the perfect moment to shoot him on surprise. It seemed to be a planned operation and every time I see Eggman robots on something like a planned operation, I get the familiar feeling that this weirdo is up to something. Knuckles thought it was nothing special about it, but I know Eggman for longer than he does. He is planning something."
"What, Sonic?" Tails looked at his best friend with big eyes.
"I don't know. But maybe we'll find that out soon enough. That's usually the case anyway." The hedgehog paused and his gaze returned from Tails to the still unconscious echidna on the grass. "We need to bring him somewhere he can rest and recover a little."
"You're right. He looks like if he really needs a rest." Tails looked over at the Tornado. "Let's put him in the plane. We can bring him to my workshop. It's not too far away and it's safe for him there."
Sonic nodded at the fox. He knelt down and scooped the echidna up to carry him through the busted robots over at the biplane. Then he looked up. For Sonic himself jumping into the plane was a cinch, but Knuckles' motionless body was heavy and Sonic didn't want to risk hurting him further.
Tails looked at Sonic as if he could read his thoughts. Maybe he can, Sonic thought. They had known each other for years and if somebody knew nearly everything about Sonic, Tails did.
The young fox smirked. "You look like you could use a lift."
Sonic smiled back. "Yeah, it might come in handy under these circumstances."
Tails began to spin his twin tails quickly; by using them as a propeller, the fox could fly. He grabbed under Knuckles' armpits and flew upwards with him. Then he let Knuckles sink down in the rear seat carefully. Sonic climbed to the plane's front to stand on the wings.
Sitting down in the pilot seat Tails started the engine. The Tornado's propeller started spinning and slowly the biplane gathered speed. Eventually Tails pulled the control stick towards himself and the Tornado raised its nose into the blue sky's air, flying a turn, and headed for Tails' workshop in the Mystic Ruins that was also the two tailed fox's home.