Author's Note: Oh lord. I'm back. Hopefully ya'll have missed me in my extended absence from this site : D. For those of you who don't know, this story, "Stray," is a remake of my earlier story "Reverse Psychology," which sucked. So don't read the old one and read this one : D. Also, review please. Review review review. Thank GlassSuicune and Lupus Silvae for betareading this.
On with the story.
Weak, rosy shafts of sunlight shone through the boughs of the wide-leaved trees, reflecting off droplets of moisture in the air from the humidity. The sun slowly sank behind the horizon, its reddening light glowing through the jungle foliage, lighting up the veins and capillaries in the leaves. Silhouettes of frogs and insects stood out on the leaves like shadow puppets on a green canvas as they hopped and scattered towards their homes before the nocturnal predators awoke. Night time didn't signal an end to the jungle's day; it was merely a continuation of perpetual activity between the insects, the frogs, the salamanders, the howler monkeys, and the one lone sentient Echidna who lived amongst them.
Within a grassy copse laid an ancient, moldering stone gazebo, the eroding pillars coated with moss and lichen. The covered platform sat stoutly on a small, Echidnan-made knoll, whose surface was still covered with archaic petroglyphs if one dug deep enough to find them. Seven vine-strewn columns stood around the gazebo that looked ready to fall over at the slightest breeze from age. Within the center of the gazebo stood an enormous green crystal, who's radiating light quickly began to outshine the dying rays of the sun, illuminating the clearing in a jade corona.
Knuckles sat with his back against a supportive pillar near the Master Emerald's base, his head slowly nodding towards his chest before quickly popping back up again, trying to keep himself awake. He'd been guarding the Emerald non-stop and without sleep for the past three days, and his fatigue was quickly catching up with him. Usually the Master Emerald just sat there, motionless, yet very much alive as it pondered the goings-on of Angel Island and its environs, making little notes in its transparent fractal center and shifting its facets around to tally the floating Island's course. But gradually, its patterns changed, it's light giving off a harsher glow than normal and making Knuckles' flesh burn if he was too close. The systematic and symmetrical patterns and shapes inside the Master Emerald became tangled and disorganized like a bothered spiderweb. Worried, he resolved to stare at the Master Emerald day in and day out, noting it's increasingly bizarre behavior.
His head abruptly whipped back up, startled by a loud sizzling noise. A steaming moth fell off of the Master Emerald's surface, fried to a crisp by the gem. Knuckles sighed, furrowing his brow. Every night since the Master Emerald had changed the type of light it emitted, thousands of insects were attracted to it like an enormous bug zapper. And just like a bug zapper, the Emerald's sicklier light grilled any and all incoming bugs. Knuckles scooted back away from the Emerald, not wanting to be pelted with ricocheting pieces of charred moths and the occasional fruit bat. Soon enough, the familiar bzzzzzt, ZAP, ssssszzzzzing sounds popped up on all sides of the gazebo as the stupid bugs failed to notice the corpses of their fallen comrades as they zoomed headlong to their deaths.
He grumbled to himself as a swarm of particularly fat beetles smashed on the worn flagstones of the gazebo's floor. He liked to keep the shrine clean, and he didn't want to have to sweep away piles of dead bugs. Why was the Master Emerald doing this? Was it dying? Was it sick? What was he supposed to do to help? Was it normal for the Emerald to go through a phase like this? Never in his life as a Guardian had he seen or heard of the Master Emerald going nuts as it was right now. His train of thought was interrupted as a colorful parrot swooped down out of the jungle's fringes, its skull colliding with the Emerald's surface with a sickening whack. Very dazed and possibly brain damaged, the parrot picked itself back up and flew lopsidedly out of the gazebo. At this rate, Knuckles thought, I won't even need to guard the Emerald. It seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping pests away. His head lowered again, his eyelids begging for him to shut them with the chorus of dying bugs almost soothing him to sleep.
He frowned as his flesh started to burn again, the Master Emerald's rays scalding through his short fur. He had hoped that the column he was leaning against would be far enough away from the Emerald's glare before he was burnt. He huffed a sigh as he stood up and backed up out of the crystal's range, rubbing his arms soothingly to cool them down from the heated energy. He paused, feeling the front of his torso and muzzle begin to burn as well. Dang, how far back do I need to move? He took a few more steps back, his heel knocking a few loose pebbles off the side of the stone platform. Nope, no good. He was still getting burned. Knuckles frowned, stepping down with one foot on the grassy hill and the other still on the pedestal. Was this it? Was this the final meltdown? He was standing as far away as possible from the Master Emerald without leaving the gazebo, yet he could still feel his skin being singed.
There was a whistling, popping noise as the carcasses of dead bugs closer to the Emerald burst into flame, their guts boiling into steam and bursting their carapaces. Knuckles wrinkled his nose in distaste, and was finally forced to step completely off of the platform as the burning sensation became painful. His grimace turned into a shocked expression as water began hissing out of the flagstones close to the Emerald, short jets of steam poking up from the cracks. The moss that had accumulated between stones began to turn crisp and dry, before finally flaking away and drifting off into the night as flaming ashes. The plaster that held the stones together began to chip and flake as well as the Master Emerald's light became painful to look at. It slowly began to revolve on its pointed base, its light oscillating in sickly, piercing waves that practically cooked the surrounding stone and granite. The bodies of the dead insects vaporized completely into a glittery powder, and looser chunks of rock began to rise up from the ground. Knuckles covered his eyes, loosening the grip between his feet and the slope of the hill to allow him to slide down the damp grass to the bottom, away from the Emerald's violent rays.
The gigantic jewel rose off the ground in a pained jerking motion, its blazing energy pushing the grass down flat and blowing Knuckles' quills back over his shoulders. The Emerald careened over on its side, a few stray arcs of green electricity sparking off of its surface before bursting into a comet, the entire mass igniting and hurling itself into the early evening sky, leaving Knuckles half-blind from the afterglow burned into his eyes. He growled and rubbed them with his fists, before turning his attention up towards the sky again. The Master Emerald left a clear green aurora, a perfect trail. He huffed once more as he began running towards the edge of his floating Island, his quills fanning out as ran, his eyes following the shimmering path in the air.
...
Strong, blazing quartz lights bore down through the millions of windows and advertisements, reflecting off of the chrome skyscrapers and glass towers that formed Station Square. The sun slowly sank behind the horizon, its reddening light igniting the smog and pollution that accumulated from the cars and chimneys. Silhouettes of pedestrians and cars flashed and sped by amid the polar-white glare of the commercial screens and headlights. Night time didn't signal an end to the city's day; it was merely a continuation of perpetual activity between the humans, the sentient Animals, the criminals, the occasional robot, and the one blue Hedgehog that raced among them.
Sonic ran through the lane of traffic, keeping a slow 65 mile-per-hour jog, the red taillights of cars blurring into scarlet streaks as he passed them. A car behind him honked loudly, urging him to get off of the road and onto the sidewalk like a normal person. Sonic turned to face them, running backwards at the same speed as the offending car and stuck his tongue out at them. The man in the car grimaced, and Sonic laughed, speeding up ahead of him so that he could merge into the proper lane.
Two shipping trucks drove alongside each other up ahead, forming a long narrow gap between them. Sonic's already-present grin grew broader as he jumped up, bounced off of the springy yellow roof of a taxicab and curled into a tight ball. He dove in between the two trucks, wildly bouncing between their metal sides like a trapped pinball before launching out on top of one of them. He looked around, craning his neck to spot the street signs to regain his bearings. After spotting the name of the avenue he'd been heading for, he reached up and grabbed an overhanging street light, swinging around and around on it like a gymnast and catapulted off, bending into a ball again as he landed in Station Square Plaza, rolling across the ground in a bright blue blur around pedestrians and street performers. His speed kicked up a strong gust of wind that ruffled up an attractive Fox's skirt, making her blush.
Sonic snickered as he rolled to a halt, quickly standing up on his feet at the base of a circular fountain. He sighed and sat on the concrete rim, tossing his legs up next to him and lying back with his hands behind his head. The cool water vapor from the fountain washed over his face, making his muzzle grow damp. Sonic loved to sleep next to fountains, especially in warm weather like tonight when the heat could get a bit stifling. And since he usually slept in public places, he was always open on display to his fans. He smirked and rolled onto his side. There were quite a lot of people in the Plaza tonight, but that wasn't unusual. Sonic narrowed his eyes slightly as he began to count down, knowing that he'd be noticed any second as The Mobian Hero, The Blue Blur, the Fastest Thing Alive...
3...2...1...
"Hey, is that Sonic?" somebody asked. A few heads turned.
"Yeah, you know what, I think it is!"
More heads turned.
"Holy cow, is it really him for real?"
"It is!"
"Margaret, get your camera ready!"
Sonic sat up, his tail wagging slightly as a mob of human and Animal fans swarmed around him, chattering excitedly and whipping out their cell phones to take up-close pictures to post on their blogs.
"Sonic, can I have an autograph?" A thirty-something woman asked, holding out a t-shirt she'd bought at a street vendor.
"Sure, you got a pen?" he replied. "That's okay, I've already got one." He pulled a matching blue pen (with his face on it, no less) out from behind his quills and quickly scribbled his name. "Who's next?"
The mob went nuts as people began thrusting their purses and hats towards him to be autographed, while those on the fringes of the crowd ran to vendors to purchase more useless souvenirs for Sonic to sign.
"Relax, people. I'm not goin' anywhere. Who wants a picture?" he asked. Those who were female and under the age of 40 squealed in delight at the prospect of getting to take a picture with him. He laughed and patted the space next to him on the fountain's ledge for someone to sit in. An elderly lady stooped down and sat next him, her grandchildren beaming as they held a digital camera up to snap a photo. Sonic gave a pained smile, hoping that he would've taken a picture with a younger fan, but he let them take a picture just the same.
"Alright, who's next--" FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFKRSHBOOOOOOM
An enormous green light blasted across the sky like a meteorite and smashed into the largest jumbotron advertisement screen, right above the plaza. Plastic and sparks rained down from from the ruined jumbotron as it began to sag, the Master Emerald having knocked it right off of its support cables. The screen slowly detached from the face of the building it was affixed to, its remaining cables snapping apart and allowing it to fall to the granite plaza floor. Sonic gritted his teeth, hoping that the people underneath had gotten out of the way in time before the jumbotron collapsed. He quickly scrambled to his feet, darting through the frightened crowd that stood staring agape at the burning crater in the building that the Master Emerald had created.
Sonic sprinted out onto the street, grabbing another streetlight to swing around a sharp corner and flung himself through the revolving doors of the damaged building. It was an office building, with a simple low-ceilinged lobby and receptionist's desk forming the back wall. Janitors and miscellaneous cubicle workers were frantically running out of stairwell doors, none of them noticing Sonic as he stood in the center of the room. He put aside his annoyance of not being noticed for a second as he noticed that none of the elevators were being used. Perhaps the Emerald's crash cut the power to the upper levels of the building?
Sonic turned around again, tensing up as one of the glass side doors near the revolving lobby entrance shattered. Knuckles shrugged through the jagged hole he'd created, the revolving door apparently being too confusing for him to enter through. Sonic relaxed and winked at him.
"Rough day?" he asked.
"Oh, you know. The usual."
"Egghead behind this?"
Knuckles shook his head. "I don't think so. The Master Emerald's been acting weird for a few days. It finally did something major tonight."
The building shook, a deep rumble emanating from the elevator shaft and loosening a ceiling tile, which fell on Sonic's head. "You don't say." he grumbled, dusting off his head with a gloved hand.
"I saw it hit the building and knock that big screen over," Knuckles explained, "But I didn't see it go through the other side. Did you?"
"Nope. I think it's still in here. Or, well, in there." He jabbed a thumb towards the elevator doors, which had begun to rattle in their metal casings noisily like cookie sheets. "Nobody was using the elevator to get down here. I'm gonna assume that something was messing with them to make them faulty. Who knows, some people might still be stuck in the elevators, if they haven't fallen yet.
Knuckles bolted towards the nearest set of elevator doors, punching his spiked mitt through it and tearing the metal apart. The doors screeched in protest before being ripped from the wall and casually tossed over his shoulder. Without bothering to peek inside the shaft, Knuckles ran headlong into it. He promptly vanished, falling downward into the basement level.
"I forgot to mention that there's a basement level here." Sonic called, walking up to the elevator entrance. He looked down, the square shaft bathed in a red glow from the emergency lights towards the bottom, which contrasted with the familiar green glimmer of the Master Emerald at the top. Knuckles got up from his sore rear, wincing as he looked up to scowl at him. Sonic skillfully jumped down, landing on his feet with a small puff of dust and plaster. Hunks of concrete and mortar the size of beach balls littered the shaft's floor, and exposed pipes ran up the sides that were bolted to the colorless brick wall. They both looked up and saw the crater in the shaft's side, and the Master Emerald floating right next to it. The elevator car was towards the top as well, a black rusty rectangle fixed solidly to a stout cable, the Emerald's collision apparently not knocking it down.
"Sooo....is everything cool now?" Sonic asked, glancing up at the Emerald. "Is it still gonna freak out on us?"
"Nah, I don't think so." Knuckles said, shrugging. "I think it wore itself out when it burst---MOVE!" he roared, shoving Sonic into the corner.
There was a brilliant green flash that highlighted the entire shaft, before quickly turning red, then blue, then orange, then yellow, then purple, over and over in quick succession before turning white. There was a massive rush of displaced air and a loud screech of metal on metal as the elevator finally collapsed, rushing downward towards the basement in a shower of hot orange sparks. It hit the concrete floor with a tremendous crash that coated Sonic and Knuckles with dust, and caused more sheets of the ceiling to come down with it. Slowly, like a falling umbrella, the Master Emerald drifted downwards back to the ground, apparently having gone back to its normal state, its pointed end barely touching the cracked floor. Knuckles ran to the gem, now dusted with the grey-white residue from the plaster and placed both palms on it, caressing and whispering frantically to it like a cowboy would to a frightened horse.
Sonic quirked an eyebrow, never having been able to understand the odd relationship between Knuckles and the Master Emerald. He stood up and coughed some of the dust out of his lungs, and walked up to the elevator. Smoke and dust wafted out from the warped metal, which had bunched up like an accordion towards the bottom of the car. He paused, shocked to find that the buttons were still glowing. He looked back over at Knuckles, who was now hugging the Master Emerald gleefully, and knew better than to ask him a question at the moment. He tilted his head back up to look at the crater in the side of the shaft again, but gasped; the elevator car was still up there, just as it had been a few moments ago. Then what was the second elevator doing on the floor? There was only room for one car in the shaft, and the elevator that had crashed had different paneling and rivets. They didn't match. Without thinking, he jabbed one of the glowing buttons. There was a soft 'ding' noise, and the doors creaked open.
His stomach lurched when he saw a small body huddled in the corner of the car, the flickering light-bulb inside only making it look sicklier. He sighed, his forehead creasing as he looked away.
"Hey, Knux, someone was in here."
Knuckles halted his reunion with the Emerald. "Hm? What?"
"I said--"
He was interrupted by a small cough, then a rustling noise, then a thud from inside the elevator.
Author's Note: Oh snap. Looks like Sonic isn't very good at distinguishing dead people from living people. Hoped you like the chapter, and depending on how many people like this story, I'll continue it. Review review review review review. And, review.