Hello and thank you for checking out this story. This is my first story I've written so please bear with me if you find any mistakes or grammar errors. Also, all Sonic characters belong to Sega. Everyone else belongs to me.

Detour.

Chapter 1: Rude Awakening

Mystic Ruins: 1:28 P.M. Tails POV.

"I wonder how the Tornado will perform with these upgrades I've installed. I replaced the metal plating with a more durable but lighter alloy, thus increasing its top speed and maneuverability; I built and installed a new engine that I dubbed the "Burst Booster", which creates a short but powerful propulsion or a long steady propulsion, on the base of each wing and under the nose of the plane, a larger salvo of radar jamming chaff and flares, and last but not least, a new laser cannon designed like a minigun. Each of the six barrels can fire a shot at a rapid pace of over 8000 shots a minute or set it to railgun mode, in which the barrels extend out and a seventh barrel in the middle fires a large modified tank round which is super-accelerated by the Chaos Drive currently installed. Man I can't wait to see Eggman's face when he sees thi.."

Suddenly my thoughts are interrupted by my computer's alarm. I go to check and see that it has detected a massive energy spike located at a desert 300 miles from here. I better call Sonic and Knuckles, this energy reading is big. It might be Eggman, he probably has a few Chaos Emeralds, and he might be using them to power something big…really big! And with that, I called Sonic and Knuckles and told them to meet me at the location. I then got in the Tornado and took off; maybe I might beat Sonic there with these new upgrades.

Well I didn't beat Sonic to the location but I can dream can't I? Oh well. I landed the plane and met up with Sonic, energy detector in hand.

"Yo Tails! So what's this all about? I don't see Egghead anywhere around here." Sonic looked a little irritated, probably because there's no action or anything out here.

"My computer picked up a massive energy spike in this area; I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't Eggman and a massive robot that he probably has for you to blow up."

"I was kinda hoping that is was, this was a good excuse to get away from Amy."

I sweatdropped. "She pronounced her undying love to you in the bone-crushing hug manner?"

"How did you know?" Sonic asked, puzzled by how I knew.

"2 things, one, you just told me with that statement and two, well, come on, this is Amy we're talking about."

"Touché. Anyway, is that thing picking up anything now?" He's started to tap his foot impatiently. Typical Sonic.

I checked my radar, the energy seems to be west from where we are standing. "Well the energy reading seems to be coming from that direction, let's go check it out."

"Alright bro, lead the way!"

We ran in the direction of the energy reading until we came across a small crater. The edge of it seemed scorched and the bottom of it had many shards of glass, but the main focus of the crater was what was in it. A person lying there, unmoving, and kneeling next to him was…Knuckles? "How the hell did he get here before us?"

"Never mind that! The more important thing is, is that guy alright?" Sonic exclaimed. I felt pretty dumb after he said this. Both Sonic and I came down and greeted Knuckles. "Is he alright?" I asked, a little scared of what he might say. He turned to us and then looked down at the stranger. He was a wolf with gray fur, a white muzzle similar to mine, white chest fur, somewhat like Shadow's but a little messier, and long hair that was halfway to reaching his tail with bangs that almost covered his face. His tail was gray with a white bushy underside. He was wearing black fingerless gloves with a red metal plate on the back of the hands, his fingers had sharp, white, claws. He was also wearing a black unzipped coat and black boots with red metal plates on the toes and heals. Lastly he was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses.

Knuckles then spoke, confirming my fears. "I checked to see if he was alright, but he wasn't breathing and he has no pulse." I paled at his words, but looking at the stranger more, something doesn't add up. He has no wounds on his body nor does he show signs of dehydration. Not only that, what caused this crater he's in anyway? As I started to try to figure this out, there were loud sounds of engines approaching. Seems like Sonic is going to get the action he wanted after all.

We climbed out of the shallow crater, Knuckles carrying the body with him (it didn't seem right to just leave it there and not only that, this guy was heavy!) only to meet up with at least thirty of Eggman's robots plus a larger, arachnid-type robot with Eggface himself at the controls. Half of the robots were designed to wield not only a long double edged sword in one hand. Their chassis were lightly armored but aerodynamic. The others had a large, round shield with Eggman's logo on it. The robots chassis looked heavily armored and durable.

"Oh hohohoho! My, what a pleasant surprise! Seems like I get an early birthday gift! A new energy source and me, destroying you and your friends!" Eggman exclaimed, albeit a little to happily.

"Oh Eggman, as smart as you are, you overlooked something…" Sonic started.

"And what would that be, rodent?"

"You should know by now that I always blow your stuff up right after you say that you'll destroy me and my friends." Sonic stated with a smug grin. I couldn't help but chuckle at what he said. At this, Eggman instantly turned red out of anger.

"How dare you! GET THEM! I WANT THAT ENERGY SOURCE!" Instantly, the robots, the ones brandishing their swords rushed at us while the ones with the shields focused more on on Knuckles, or so it seemed.

Sonic spindashed through the first wave of Sword bots, each one sporting a large hole in the chest before exploding in a fiery explosion. I was holding my own with my arm cannon, blasting off the swords and rendering them useless. It was difficult for me to aim because the bots were moving pretty fast. Looks like I wasn't the only ones making upgrades. Knuckles was having a harder time with the Shield Bots because he was still carrying the stranger's body, and damn was he heavy! The Shield Bots were tough, really tough. All Knuckles was able to do to them was dent the shields. Another wave of the Sword Bots came at us and Knuckles had to put the body down before he charged at the Shield Bots full force.

We were holding out fairly well but I can't shake the feeling that something was wrong. The bots aren't putting up much of a fight, and some of the shield ones were running past Knuckles and heading for…the stranger's body? "Why are they going for him?" I thought as I ran towards their target, blasting at them to keep them at bay. As I got closer to the body, my energy detector started to beep rapidly, I pulled it out and faced the body pointing the device at it. "The body is giving off a lot of strange energy! Eggman's after the body!"

"Tails! Behind you!"

I turned at Sonic's words to see a Sword Bot about to bring its blade down on me. Everything seemed to slow down as I stood there in fear as the blade came down, threatening to slice me in half. I closed my eyes, waiting for the end. A few seconds pass and…wait, why am I still alive? I creaked open my eyes only for them to widen in shock. The stranger's body is standing in front of me with his hand above his head, blocking the blade with the metal plate on the back of his hand. Many things ran through my head. "What just happened?" "He's alive?" "How is that possible?" "Z-Z-ZZOOMMBIEE!" Just to name a few.

3rd person POV

Everyone who witnessed the stranger save Tails was awestricken. No one moved nor said a word. The stranger then lifted his hand, the one blocking the sword, so quickly that the Sword Bot was pushed back about a good ten feet.

Eggman was the first to react. "Get him! He has the energy source!" All the Sword and Shield Bots then charged at the stranger, aiming to capture him.

In a calm but dangerous voice, the stranger spoke. "I don't like being woken up…" Then, Sonic and Knuckles jumped in front of him, facing the charging bots.

"Stay back kid! We'll handle this." Knuckles said as he cracked his namesakes. The Shield Bots ran in front, protecting the Sword bots behind them. Sonic attempted the homing attack only to bounce off the large shields. Knuckles tried to punch through the shields, denting them and pushing them back, but not enough to destroy them. Tails was still standing there in shock from his near death experience and also staring at the stranger, who has his back to him. The stranger, although not visually showing it, was standing there surprised. He found it strange that two talking animals are fighting a bunch of robots. His thoughts were interrupted when he spotted a Sword Bot break off the formation and came straight at him from the right. Tails, noticed this too and was about to warn him, but it was too late. The Sword Bot was already upon him, blade swinging downward, until the whole bot fell next tohim. Tails, for the second time, stood shocked at what just happened. The Sword Bot was laying on the ground, cut clean in half, but what Tails was staring at was what was in the wolf's hand, a large scythe with a dark ruby colored blade. "W-where did that come from?" The second Tails finished that thought; more Sword Bots came at the stranger. In many fluid motions, the bots were taken out, either cut in half, or totally dismembered. The wolf then turned to the Shield Bots fighting Sonic and Knuckles.

Sonic and Knuckles were having a hard time with the Shield Bots. They managed to take down a few of them, but they can take a lot of punishment before they went down. Both of them backed off and gained some distance from their slamming attacks to catch their breath. "This is starting to take too long." Sonic panted. "

What, are you going to miss a date with Amy?" Knuckles joked with a sly grin. Sonic only glared at him in response but then grinned himself.

"No, just worried that you'd miss a date with Rouge." It was Knuckles' turn to glare.

"We are not dating!"

"Sure you're not."

As the two were having their little quarrel, they failed to notice a Shield Bot coming at them, ready to slam them with its large shield, only to stop dead in its tracks with a scythe protruding from the shield. They both turned to the bot and stared. The wolf casually walked past between them. "Shall we move along?" He stated dryly as he tore his scythe from the unmoving bot, ripping out the shield with it. The shieldless bot tried to move but fell over as its legs were severed as well as its other arm. Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other then jumped into the fray.

One by one, the Shield bots were falling either to the stranger's scythe or the combined attacks of Sonic and Knuckles. Eggman was starting to get more angry and frustrated that he's losing…again. In his anger, he started to fire a salvo of missiles at the trio. Upon seeing the missiles, Sonic began dodging them while Knuckles swiftly grabbed one and redirected it to the others, blowing most of them up in chain reaction of explosions. However, one missile was blasted off course and it was headed straight for Tails! Before anyone could react, the stranger seemed to shimmer before disappearing completely and appeared right in front of Tails, facing the oncoming missile fearlessly. Tails watched as the stranger slammed his free hand into the ground, and what happened next once again made him at a loss for words.

Red energy erupted from the ground around them in the form of glowing red and black tentacles with a faint red wall of energy. The missile collided with the barrier and exploded. Even with the barrier, the force of the explosion knocked Tails off his feet as well as blowing the stranger's sunglasses off his face. He stood up and turned to Tails, making eye contact with him. "Are you alright?" he asked calmly. Tails however didn't hear him; he was too transfixed on the stranger's eyes. His irises were red, and they were glowing. Not only that, his left eye had, instead of white, black sclera. "W-what is he?"

"Hey kid! Are you alright?" The stranger practically shouted, jolting Tails from his thoughts.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." He looked down, picked up the sunglasses, and held them out to the mysterious wolf. "Y-you dropped these."

"Hold on to them for me." And with that he turned to the direction of Eggman's spider bot, and vanished as he did before.

The explosion from the missile kicked up a lot of dust and sand, obscuring everyone's view of what happened to Tails. Sonic fell to his knees, many emotions going through his head. Shock, despair, guilt, but mostly rage; at what Eggman did to Tails, he's gonna pay for this. Knuckles was showing the same, except he displayed more anger. Their rage only increased as the mad doctor laughed in triumph. "Oh hohoho! One pest down, and two to g—wait, b-but THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" As he yelled this, Sonic and Knuckles turned to look at where Tails had been to see the dust and smoke clearing, revealing Tails, sitting inside a barrier made of red and black energy tendrils, without a scratch! Sonic and Knuckles breathed out a sigh of relief, knowing that he's safe. But, where did that stranger go?

"Where…" Eggman started before he was interrupted as a series of explosions that rocked the robot violently, nearly making him smack face-first into the control console. "What the…" The wolf suddenly appeared in front of the cockpit, scythe in hand, staring Eggman down with his eerie eyes. To say that Eggman was freaked out at what he's seeing would be an understatement.

In a calm tone, the wolf spoke, "I suggest bailing out now."

"And why would I do that? I have you right where I want you!"

In one swift motion, the wolf threw his scythe at the head of the robot, its blade buried deep in the metal plating. "This is why." The wolf then vanished and appeared next to Sonic and Knuckles.

"You think that a little scythe will stop my Spider Walker?"

"Yes", the wolf said simply as he lifted a hand in front of him and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the scythe that was impaled in the spider bot's head began to glow brightly. Seeing this, Eggman quickly ejected in his Eggmobile and flew off before the scythe detonated in a large explosion, creating a deep and wide crater. The group could hear Eggman yelling in the distance as he made his escape, "You haven't seen the last of me! I'll get you and your friends! Just you wait!"

"He always says that when we beat him yet he doesn't deliver" Sonic stated to no one in particular with a small laugh. He turned to see the stranger walk up to the barrier around Tails and touched it, bringing it down. Tails promptly got up and handed him his sunglasses. "Here, and thanks again for saving me, Mr. Wolf."

"Mr. ...Wolf?" the stranger asked puzzled, as Sonic and Knuckles joined them.

"Well, we don't know your name and, well, that is what you are, right?" Tails asked.

"What do you mean by…" He stopped and looked at his hand. Claws. He looked himself over. Fur. He touched the top of his head. Big furry ears. Nervously, he looked behind him and saw a large bushy wolf tail. He hadn't noticed his appearance until now because he was focused on the fight. "…..you have got to be kidding me."

Who is this stranger and where did he come from? More importantly, what is he? Next chapter reveals his identity. By the way, for those of you who don't know, the sclera is the white part of your eyes.

Well, that's the first chapter of my first story! Please tell me what you think. No flames please, constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated.