It's whatever time it is as you read this message that has been typed by the hand that is of the belonging of me. Do you know where your children are?

Yes, I know. Leave me alone. I suck. I've been gone for a year and people think I'm dead. I will stick with this story though. You can probably expect an update at least twice this week, and I'll also do my best to update on the weekends. I don't know how long this story is going to be, since they tend to just write themselves, but we'll see where this takes us, huh?

I do not own nor claim to hold any rights to Sonic the Hedgehog or any related characters or affiliates, and make no profit off of this story or anything related to it. This is simply for my and my reader's enjoyment, and Sega may, at any time they would wish, remove this story and any traces to it from the internet.

The clouds were starting to form above the island. He sat in silence, meditating. He was currently trying to form a deeper link with the Master Emerald. These are the kinds of things you do living your life secluded on a deserted, floating mass of land, your entire life and background a mystery save for this strange gem and the bond you feel with it.

He felt a raindrop land on the tip of his nose, then slide off of it to the ground.

"Shit! Come on! This is just what I need!" He told himself in his head. He gritted his teeth in frustration as he felt himself getting soaked.

"No! Damn it! I lost it!" He got up and darted towards his predetermined shelter. Only, it wasn't there.

"Oh, yeah. That's right… my shelter burned down in those invisible flames. (Reference to previous story. If you haven't read it, this likely won't make any sense) Now what?" In the midst of his self-pity, he suddenly noticed a strange force calling him. It wasn't really a voice, just a feeling really. He knew where to go; he just wasn't sure why.

Arriving at his destination left him scared and confused. The Master Emerald had been what was calling him, but it didn't seem to be in any danger. Yet anyway. Stranger still was the unfamiliar spacecraft that was landing on his island.

Now, he wasn't one to ask questions. He was a man, er, echidna of action, and jumped up to one of the columns to get a better vantage point of the spacecraft. Looking more closely at it, he saw that it was a red tripod like machine with a large dome shaped cockpit on one side of the vehicle, with four small, glowing, things, was the best he could come up with to describe them, seeming holding the glass dome to the machine. Written under the cockpit in small white letters was the code C-0052.

Not wanting to take any chances with this newcomer, he jumped right at the contraption. Each leg of the tripod had a hidden machine gun blending into the bottom of the foot like section, but his keen senses were easily able to detect them. What was strange was that they did not fire at him, but of course, an echidna of action wasn't about to be stopped by common sense! Common sense was for the weak! He brought his fist back and sent it with all of his power straight at the cockpit.

Needless to say, he was sent flying backwards. He, with all of his might, could not even scratch what he presumed to be the weakest part of the machine. Perhaps he would target the legs. He could us them as a bettering weapon against the machine, as something as hard as this would surely be able to destroy itself, right.

But just as he was about to begin his plan, a white flag shot up on top of the machine. Knuckles, not being one to pay much attention to things, immediately assumed that it was a weapon, and jumped up towards it. He landed on top of the craft and pulled out the flag with little effort.

There was now a hole leading to the inside of the cockpit where the flag once was. He dove in without hesitation. Curling into a sonic spin for added speed and power, he barreled down into the depths of the mysterious mechanism (I'm really starting to run out of ways to say that.)

He blasted past various things: weapons, what appeared to be a girls room and what seemed to be a picture of him, but he was moving too fast to get a good look. Suddenly, he felt a force push at his head, and he was sent flying out through the vehicle, creating a new hole.

He stopped himself in midair with his gliding technique and rode the wind to fly around the nearly destroyed battleship. The outside air and rain felt embracing to him in the heat of battle, and invigorated him into action. He once again aimed a full power punch straight at the cockpit, landing a direct blow in the dead center of the glass. The two warriors appeared to be at a standoff, neither was sure who would emerge victorious. Knuckles tried to get a look inside the machine to see who was piloting it, but it was one-way mirror. Then, a crack was heard.

Knuckles, knowing that his attack had failed before, assumed it was the crack of his bone, but felt no pain. Looking closer, he saw that he was breaking through the glass. With one final push of effort, the glass was shattered, and he thought he saw a flash of very light orange before the entire ship smashed into the ground, collapsing into rubble.

He landed gracefully, and slipped on the wet ground as he did. Getting up, he saw that the pilot was also surfacing from the ruin of his ship. He began to walk menacingly towards him, and then noticed something very odd about him.

First of all, he most definitely was not a "him," but a "her." Second, she was not only an echidna, another of his species which he had assumed to be extinct, but the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, save maybe the Master Emerald, but she was definitely a close second at least. And last, she looked very familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

She walked slowly over to him weakly and unsurely, and before long she was only a foot away.

"Brother…" Was heard from her perfect lips as she collapsed, completely unconscious. He caught her before she fell, and then set her lightly onto the ground. He was never one to do something slowly or delicately, but she was special. He didn't know why; she just was.

Normally he would have left her out in the cold, but the latter two of the three mentioned points and the fact that she had called him "brother" intrigued him. There was a mystery surrounding this girl, and he wanted to solve it. But first, he should probably get them out of the rain. He would just head back to his predetermined shelter and… oh, right, it was burned down by invisible flames.

"Well then, now what should I do?"

So, what did you think? It's a bit more serious than my other stories, but that's mainly because I started off with a battle. Plus intros are rarely funny. Anyway, to anyone who has wasted their lives reading any of my other stories, please tell me what you think of the new, mostly serious style. If you like it, I may have to write a few more stories with a similar tone. Otherwise, well, we'll see what the future holds.