On an island known as Newtrogic High Zone, a fierce battle was taking place.
A well-known, red echidna named Knuckles due to his large, spiked fists, battled among a group of new allies he had encountered as prisoners of Robotnik's.
A maniacal, giant red robot hedgehog bore down on them. The centre of its body opened up to a destructive lazar cannon whilst its arms bore vicious metal claws and a horrific, gaping maw lined with gleaming fangs only emphasized the monstrosity's dark purpose.
Suddenly its arms detached and came down around the five, boxing them in whilst it leered over to power its lazar up. "Hey Knux, what say we give this creep a double knuckle sandwich?" A red armoured and black bodied armadillo named Mighty said with a sly look between him and a large, red spined and green scaled crocodile named Vector.
"Heh, sounds a plan. Vector!" Knuckles shouted as both he and Mighty leaped at him.
"Got it!" He cried before catching them and propelling the pair at the robots head. Between knuckles large spiked fists and Mighty's strength they socked the machine hard enough to send it reeling back, its lazar beam vaporising what used to be one of the islands carnival zones.
"Holy!" Vector cried in alarm from the force of the blast.
"Jeez I felt that singe my wings from up here, yup!" A large bee called Charmy buzzed in the air above their heads. He would look like any other bee with its black and yellow markings if not for his trademark helmet and goggles and an orange half jacket covering the top part of him up. Well that and he was bigger than your standard bee at a foot tall.
"Never mind that, throw me a rubber ring!" A yellow horned, purple chameleon by the name of Espio shouted from the ground.
"Coming up!" He said cheerfully before tossing him a ring.
As soon as he grabbed it, the ring in Charmy's other hand became connected by a magic wire.
Springing up just as a giant clawed hand came down to squash him, he cleared it with Vector lunging out the way before letting go and spun like a tornado, smashing into the lazar canon. A crack sounded and a plume of smoke billowed from the nightmarish hedgehog's mid-section.
"CURSES!" cried the familiar voice of Doctor Robotnik from up high on his Egg-O-Matic. "If it isn't that accursed hedgehog it is someone else interfering with my plans."
"Well considering your plan involved using the Chaos Rings of this island to gain control of the Master Emerald I'd say you brought it on yourself you egg bellied bufoon," Knuckles shouted back from the ground. "Give up whilst you still can."
"Ahh but all I have to do is defeat you all and take the rest of the chaos rings you five collected and victory will be assured. Then Sonic will fall with the power I will harness from the Master Emerald and then, THE WORLD! Mega Metal Sonic. FIRE ALL MISSILES!" He cried out to his giant robot.
With a screeching cry, a torrent of missiles fired from its back.
"Everyone split up!" Vector shouted, prefering to think he was in charge of the situation as they were all already doing so.
As the five dodged each missile, Robotnik laughed from up high. "Hah, you can only dodge for so long!"
"Time to return them to sender then," Knuckles said with a grim face before jumping from the ground and dug his spikes into Robotniks craft, using an explosion to propel him upwards.
"Good thinking," Espio said before following suit, using his sticky pads to cling on, followed by Vector using his grip gloves. Charmy hovered above and dropped Mighty into Robotnik's craft before he looked around in dismay.
"No, get off. They will aim for me!" He cried, his craft slowly losing altitude with the extra weight.
"Exactly," Mighty smiled as he saw them heading towards them. "Well the hospitality stinks on this flight, think I'll catch another. Bye egg breath," Mighty jumped on his head before springing off, the rest following suit.
Shaking his head, Robotnik looked in horror as five missiles headed straight for him, "SHIELDS UP!" He cried, a hum sounding before they all collided with his craft.
With a huge explosion, the rotund dictator was blown from his craft and off into the water.
"Huh, that takes care of that," Knuckles said, dusting off his hands before turning to his new allies and awkrawrdly rubbed the back of his head. "And uhh, thanks guys. I couldn't have done it without you," he said before smiling to them.
"It isn't over yet pests," Robotnik grumbled from the water before lifting a communication device to his face. "Metalix; Initiate overload procedure!" With a final departing laugh he summoned a submarine he kept nearby for an emergency exit before fleeing.
"So what now?" Mighty asked with an awkward glance at everyone. "We only all just met and formed this team, but its clear some of us have personality issues."
"About that..." Knuckles began before he was interputed as their pile of chaos rings began to glow suddenly bright, "what?!"
"Hey fellas?" Vector cried out, pointing towards the giant robot, "think we left a detail out," he said as the giant Metallix began glowing bright red, the chaos ring inside it turning a dark purple colour.
As the five looked to their stash of Chaos Rings, they too had started glowing the same sickly colour.
"It looks like they have all been infected with a virus from that large robot and are about to blow!" Vector cried, flailing his large arms around, nearly swatting Charmy.
"Watch it Vec!" he buzzed angrily at him.
"Its over," Espio sighed, slumping to the ground in defeat, "there is no way even Sonic could make it here and off before they took the island with them."
Giving an annoyed growl, Knuckles summoned what looked like a chunky power ring forth. "Okay we have no choice here, I'm trusting you four to keep quiet about this. It is a warp ring but unlike the ones that vanish, it can be tethered to another for transport. This leads to my island; no questions just everyone jump in!" He cried out before jumping through as the chaos rings hummed ever louder to destruction.
With an eerie squeal, the rings exploded just as Vector's tail vanished through the ring before the island vanished in a purple blaze, leaving no trace as to what had once been there.
In a flash, they all came tumbling out onto the grassy floor of the Floating Island.
"Gangway!" Vector cried as he fell on top of the pile, excluding Knuckles who shook his head at them.
No sooner had his tail cleared the ring before a burst of corrupted energy blasted through the ring, causing the warp ring to shatter into pieces. "WHOAH!" Vector cried, his entire back tingling with the heat of the blast before rolling off the pile of bodies.
As the rest picked themselves up with a groan, at the bottom pressed right into the ground lay Charmy.
Rolling his eyes, Espio pulled him out before the bee shook his head before buzzing angrily up to Vector.
"You big oaf you way as much as a house!" He buzzed around him in indignation.
"Hey its all muscle bee," Vector said, flexing his arms to try and look macho.
"More all mouth there crocodile," Mighty said with a shake of his head as he walked off to Espio.
"Hey that's Vector to you rodent!" He cried out, flailing his arms in anger as the bee tried to keep him back.
"Hey, you okay?" Mighty said as he put a hand on the Chameleon's shoulder. Espio had been quiet since they had arrived back on Angel Island.
"No, I'm just not used to interacting with others," he said with a turn of his head. "I'm training to be a ninja, they don't teach you how to interact sadly."
"If you are all finished?" Knuckles grumbled, tapping his foot with a scowl, "I'd like it if you got off of my island."
"What? Hey come on, I thought we were all buddies now?" Vector said with a hurt expression.
"I have no friends, it would just...get in the way of my duties," Knuckles said quietly, turning his head and closing his eyes as a gust of wind blew through his dreads.
"What, guarding a magic rock your whole life only to die unkown to anyone? Sounds stupid to me and sad," Charmy buzzed, just dodging a swat from the red Echidna that would have sent him flying a good distance off.
"One problem," Espio said from the side," we have no means of getting off this island."
"I keep spares in the emerald chamber, so thats no issue," he said, about to head straight off for them.
"Hey wait a second," Mighty said with a hand on his shoulder before recoiling as Knuckles swatted his hand off. "Hey look, just hear us out okay? Everyone needs someone, and even if you are not actually on Mobius that doesn't mean you are not still a part of the planet. What effects most of us will also impact you too."
"Mighty is right Knuckles; look we are not asking you to be close busom buddies with us, but it might be useful for us to stay in touch okay?" Vector said in a lively, optimistic tone.
"And how do we do that?" Knuckles said with a defeated sigh, his large hands hanging by his side.
Suddenly he felt something fasten to his wrist before looking at a black device strapped to his arm.
"I'm pretty good with tech and have made a few communicators since I was thinking of starting my own detective agency. If something comes up just press the centre button and you can talk to anyone with the same watch," he said proudly.
"Gee, you certainly are a lot smarter then you look and sound. Yipe!" Charmy cried as Vector flailed after the bee with hands and snapping teeth.
Watching the pair, Knuckles gave a small chuckle and smiled at their antics.
"There's something nice to see; a smile," Mighty said with a grin on his face.
"Heh, you remind me of a certain annoying hedgehog I once met," Knuckles said to the armadillo. "Okay, I will keep in touch. I won't give you a spare warp ring yet. I've...been fooled before so not too trustful of others."
"Well, allies for now. But maybe one day we can be friends," Espio said, putting a hand out to shake Knuckles own.
Reaching out, he smiled at their warmth and acceptance before excusing himself to retrieve a spare warp ring.
As he watched them leave with a final wave, the ring closed, leaving him all by himself again.
"Alone again...just as I wanted it. So why does it feel so hollow?" Knuckles whispered, a tear rolling down his face to be swept away with the wind.