Her white fur glistened under the morning sun, as she quietly crept across the white desert. Wisp wouldn't let anyone near her territory, especially so close to her home. The arctic fox was the queen of her domain, the ruler of the white wasteland and everyone knew it. Finally satisfied that there weren't any trespassers on her land, the small fox crawled through a small doorway and into her home. She always felt like she ruled the glaciers when she was on patrol.
Wisp was an arctic fox and possessed the power, like her ancestors, of cryokinesis, which meant that she could control ice and snow. Because of this ability, her species were the rulers of the ice domain, hidden at the top of Planet Mobius. They were tasked with protecting the power stones, which would allow the holders to enhance a certain type of psychokinesis, but only if they already possessed an amount of pure power, only possible to gain by the will of the gods and birthright. The power stones had come together and created the master emerald, about a millennium ago, which had later caused the creation of the 7 chaos emeralds. Most people didn't know that there was something even more powerful than chaos energy, and that was because it was so well guarded by Wisp's vulpine ancestors. Now, it was up to her family to protect the secret of power energy.
Contrary to popular belief, the foxes didn't grow a tail every 100 years, but instead they aged slower than most animals, a year for them being 10 normal years. Wisp was 12 years old, so completely capable of handling the responsibility of guarding the energies, especially as she was directly related to the First Fox, who was the first to discover the energies and learn how to use them. However, her grandmother was still in charge, and then it would be her mother, and then older sister. She might not even get a chance to be the Shield! Men couldn't be the Shield, because the First Fox had clearly stated that only women had the power to use the energies fully.
This was something Wisp could understand, because she knew that a woman could summon a protective barrier around the glacier, and they could do a lot more damage with their cryokinesis. The glacier was the reason the power stones had their power, and although it couldn't do anything by itself and if anything was to ever happen to the glacier, the power stones would fail and the planet would implode. There were 11 types of psychokinesis and there was a power stone for each. These power stones were buried in Mobius' mantle and they were the things powering the earth. Chaos energy helped, but it wasn't the blood of the planet. There were also small power stones, and they were given to those like Wisp, who already could preform a bit of kinesis.
As Wisp entered her house, a flood of hot air engulfed her, as she had just been prowling the icy kingdom. She went down the stairs until she reached the city. Because of the cold, the foxes had built their city underground, with each house having a staircase down. There was a meeting hall, shops and parks, just like any normal city. As she made her way to the meeting hall, people stood back, as Wisp was a princess, and she needed to be respected. Sometimes, she wished she wasn't a princess, as it meant that she had to do a lot more work and had a lot more responsibility. Her grandfather had told her that on the rest of the planet, princesses were lazy, spoiled brats, and although that sounded like a horrible way to live your whole life, Wisp sometimes wished to get away from her home for a while.
Normally, the young princess would have stayed out longer, as being out in the snow made her feel relaxed and carefree, but today the Guardian of Angel Island was arriving, and every 10 years (in Mobian time) the echidna and foxes would meet, to make sure the master emerald and glacier were still in harmony. This year, Wisp had to come too, and she was not pleased. She knew that the guardian was a muscular, old echidna and she didn't understand what was so important about him.
This time though, there was a smaller version of the guardian with him, who Wisp guessed was his son. And he did not look pleased. It seemed as if he would rather be scooping up poop than attending this meeting. Same here, thought Wisp, settling down at the meeting table and waiting for her grandmother to start the meeting.
In the end, the meeting passed exactly as the young vulpine expected it to, a lot of talking about power stones and chaos emeralds, and nothing that even slightly interested her. Although, she and the echidna boy (who his father introduced as Knuckles, next guardian of Angel Island) kept glancing at each other and making faces. It was nearly the end of the meeting, and Wisp was ready to get out of there and go to the banqueting hall for dinner, but suddenly her grandmother proclaimed:
"Wisp, although you are not going to be the Shield for a while, it is time you started your training, which means that you need your power stone," Delighted, Wisp leapt to her feet, ready to finally do something exciting.
"I can't wait!" she exclaimed, thinking it would be nice and easy. "When do I get my power stone?"
"Settle down, young one. You will get your power stone in a couple of days, but filling it is a hard task. You must travel to all of the zones with a power rock underneath, and collect power to charge your stone. We didn't want you to go alone, but Knuckles is going on a quest to find the rest of the echidnas, so you two will go together."
Unsure on how to react, the arctic fox just nodded respectfully and sat back down in her seat. When the meeting was over, she headed towards the banqueting hall, only to be stopped by Knuckles.
"Look, I didn't ask to have to travel with you, but I need to find the rest of my kind. It makes sense for us to go together, but you can do whatever you want, I don't really care."
With that, the red echidna turned away, leaving Wisp puzzled at what had caused that sudden attitude.
"Wait, Knuckles!" Wisp called after him, "I already decided, I am going with you, there's no point me trying to explore the outside alone!"
Looking back with a surprised expression, Knuckles replied, "What do you mean, explore? Surely you've been outside before?"
"I've been outside, but just not outside the Arctic region," responded a very annoyed fox.
"Well, in that case, you can come, just as long as you don't get in the way."
"Get in the way? Is this what this is all about? Are you usually this annoying, or what?"
"Well, according to Sonic, yes, I am usually this annoying." Realizing he had just mentioned something he shouldn't have, Knuckles covered his mouth, but the words were out.
"Who's Sonic?" was Wisp's response, and by the way Knuckles reacted, she guessed it wasn't the one he had been expecting. Now, she was properly intrigued, "I mean, you obviously didn't want me hearing about him, so what, is he an escaped dangerous criminal, or, or….?"
"You really don't get out much if that's the best you can come up with. And, by the way, do you really not know who Sonic the Hedgehog is?"
"No?"
"Well, let me fill you in," with a smug, I'm-better-than-you look, Knuckles continued "There is a madman trying to conquer the world with robots and what-not, and Sonic the hedgehog is the hero who saves the world pretty much every time. Sometimes his other friends help out, but he's the really famous one." he finished.
"Right. So a hedgehog can defeat armies of robots?" replied Wisp, almost mockingly.
"Ughhhhhh," exasperated, the next guardian of angel island had to use all of his already very little patience not to chuck the fox into the closest wall, "He has extremely sharp spikes and can move quicker than the speed of sound. Surely, you must of heard of him?!"
"I told you, I've never been outside the polar region, and news doesn't travel here often. By the way, how do you know about him, you live on a floating island in the middle of nowhere and you try to keep people away from it?!"
After a few more minutes of arguing, the teens were called to eat, and they managed to not kill each other in the time the echidnas were staying at the north pole, and finally it was time to go to Angel Island. Excited with the prospect of finally seeing the outside world, even though Knuckles kept telling her it wasn't that amazing, Wisp said her goodbyes quickly, and the trio set off.
Clutching her new power crystal tightly, Wisp remembered something that she wanted to show Locke and Knuckles. However just as she was about to show them, Locke announced that they were about to teleport to get Angel Island quickly. Excited, Wisp looked at what the senior echidna held in his hand, only to find him holding the same thing she was about to share- a beautiful, glowing emerald. The only difference was that hers was light blue, while Locke's was a salmon pink.
"This is a chaos emerald," stated Knuckles, looking at it with admiration.
"I know, I've seen one before," was Wisp's reply. But before Knuckles had enough time to ask where, how and when, Locke pointed the emerald to the skies and started the teleportation.
"Chaos control!" were the only words spoken before all 3 of them were engulfed is green swirls and the sound of wind whistling through the trees. When her vision cleared, Wisp found herself standing near the edge of a massive floating landmass. For some reason, she had been expecting a little island and not a massive diverse continent. However, she was interrupted from her sightseeing by a groan from Knuckles.
"I'm never, I repeat never, going to get used to that,"
"Really? I've been doing it for ages, and I think it's actually quite satisfying!" Realizing that she had a bit of explaining to do, the pair found a small meadow where Wisp could admire nature while she told Knuckles about her experience with chaos emeralds.
About a year ago, a chaos emerald had dropped from the sky when Wisp was on patrol and she had picked it up, only to find out how powerful it really was. After playing around for about 2 weeks and discovering how much she could do with it (teleport, create spears of energy and heal herself) Wisp showed it to her grandmother who had explained to her the chaos theory and that anyone who has a bond with the power stones will be able to use the chaos emeralds easily, and allowed the vulpine to keep the emerald. She had continued to practice using chaos, and had gotten used to it very quickly.
Fascinated by Wisp's tale, Knuckles showed her a bit of the island and promised a full tour in the morning. They settled down under a tree, and both drifted off into a long, peaceful sleep. She's not so bad after all were Knuckles' last thoughts while Wisp's were random, as she was excited by the prospect of seeing more of the island.
After deciding to stay on the island for a week before leaving to set off on their quest, the duo had a fun time exploring the island (well Wisp anyway), battling with their abilities (Knuckles was surprised at how much power the fox had in her) and experimenting with chaos emeralds. The fox could quite easily use the chaos emeralds, and had been training with her new powers. Wisp found out how rarely Knuckles smiled, and made it her personal goal to make him dredge up at least 10 real ones. She hit 11 on the last day at the island, and that only boosted her excitement for the coming day.
They were planning to start off by heading to the volcano zone when Knuckles got a call on his wrist communicator. For a couple of days, Wisp had been wondering about what the communicator was for, but she didn't bother asking, as she knew the most likely answer would be none of your business.
Knuckles answered the call, and suddenly the quiet meadow was filled with noise. Explosions, thuds and yells all erupted from the small object, and Wisp froze a tree in terror. On the other hand, Knuckles was being very calm, as if he was used to this. After a quick conversation which Wisp didn't quite hear (she was busy trying to unfreeze the tree), the echidna turned to her with panic and excitement on his face.
"Listen, Eggman is attacking Station Square, and the gang needs backup. We're going to go there, and take a different route to the volcano," Wisp just looked at him.
"Who are 'the gang' and 'Eggman'? You keep forgetting that I literally found out what a flower was two weeks ago!"
Knuckles quickly explained both, and they were about to set off. Wisp had no idea where they were going, and was nervous when they stood at the very edge of Angel Island. She reminded him that she couldn't fly, and wasn't surprised when the guardian had completely forgotten about that.
"You really are a knucklehead!" exclaimed the vulpine, before using chaos control to get to their location.
When they arrived, they saw that all hell had broken loose. Robots swarmed over the city, firing missiles and lasers. Buildings were reduced to rubble, and a massive robot stood in the middle of it all. It was red, with yellow and white stripes running down it. Higher than the tallest skyscraper, the robot destroyed a petrol station within seconds. Citizens ran, terrified, all over the streets, some with burns, others with cuts. No-one seemed safe, except for a very fat man hovering in some kind of ball. Not particularly surprised (Wisp had seen lots of crazy technology over her 12 years) the arctic fox noticed he was controlling the robots, and deduced that this must be the infamous Dr Eggman.
Another citizen yelled in pain, which brought Wisp back to reality. Snapping into action, she used her cryokinesis to freeze the small circle of robots surrounding her before rushing over to a woman and helping her escape. Unsure on where Knuckles went, Wisp did the only thing she could do at that moment, try to defend herself and protect the others. She discovered that sometimes physical attacks worked better than ice, as she began to utilise her tail to help with destroying robots.
After what seemed like a millennium, the flood of robots seemed to cease, and a blue blur shot up and snapped the head right off the robot, causing it to fall to the ground, broken. Everything seemed to move quite smoothly after that, and Wisp wondered if the city had suffered these kind of assaults before. However, she wasn't really concentrating on the city, as her main priority was finding Knuckles. After a few minutes, she found him destroying the last few robots.
"Hey! Does this city get attacked often, or are these people not really care about what happens to them?" she asked. Knuckles replied after smashing another two robots heads into each other.
"You guessed it," he replied "Eggman seems to like destroying this city, and today's attack was extremely fierce."
"I'm guessing that's why you were called?"
"Yeah, normally Sonic and Tails handle it, but today they called lots of reinforcements. I enjoy bashing egghead's robots, so I come along when I have to. By the way, how did you get on?"
"Not bad, although a few times my cryokinesis needed time to recharge and I had to rely on physical attacks,"
"Nice," was all that Knuckles said, because he had finally got ridden all of the robots, and was panting heavily. Having regained his strength, the echidna continued
"There's going to be a party tonight at Sonic and Tails' house, seeing as Eggman will need a long time to recover his army. Seeing as we're both worn out, why don't we go and set off properly tomorrow?"
Only happy to get some rest, Wisp agreed. They started moving away from the city but Wisp asked Knuckles,
"Do you have any clue on where we're going?" When the echidna said that he didn't Wisp sighed and proceeded to teleport them to Mystic Ruins, where the party had already started.