Chapter 2
Sonic remembers the first time he came across Angel Island.
He had been in his Super form then and he and Tails had been surprised to see the huge mass floating in midair. The natural curiosity of young boys was the thing that had pushed them to explore it.
The next thing he knew was that a powerful force knocked him so hard that the emeralds spurted out of his body. Sonic had not been able to attack due to his body compensating for the sudden loss of energy so he just sat there dazed as the red echidna gathered up the gems and disappear. Tails had to help him up. As they ran in the direction the thief went, both agreed that they would never set foot on this island again.
How wrong they were.
Sonic shivered as the plane broke through a patch of clouds. He was used to the cool feeling that came with the combined efforts of the water clinging to his quills and the air blasting at his face it was one of the coldest spring mornings of the year so far.
"Ya doing alright there, Sonic?" Tails's voice came through the band under his glove.
"Yeah. A little cold though."
"Why don't you come inside? I can make you a drink."
"Do you really have-"
"There it is!" Tails interrupted. To Sonic's relief the clouds had thinned out to reveal the floating island right in front of them. A few minutes later, the plane started to land. When Tails parked it in clear space he slid off the wing and took in their surroundings.
Angel Island had changed since the first time the duo had set foot in it. It sure wasn't on fire anymore like it was most of the first trip. It didn't even look like it had a fire. The Master Emerald had done a terrific job at protecting the fauna from the fire and replenishing the flora that had been lost. It had even conjured the rain to extinguish the flames.
"Hey! Knuckles!" Sonic greeted his long time friend who had just appeared. Instead of waving back, the guardian charged and punched him.
"What's the big idea?" Knuckles growled.
"I should ask you the same question." The hedgehog coldly replied as he rubbed his arm.
"You don't talk to me for months and you just appeared at my home unannounced. What were you expecting?"
"A 'hello' or 'Welcome'."
"I'll show you a 'welcome'." Knuckles pounced on the hedgehog and both proceeded to tussle on the jungle floor. The brief fight ended when Tails yelled at the red figure to not smash through the plane wing that Sonic had taken shelter behind. Knuckles heeded the plea and gave one last glare to the hedgehog before stomping off.
"Geez." Sonic commented when the echidna was out of earshot. "What's his problem?"
"Well," Tails slid down from the plane and dusted his jeans. "it is your fault that he's like this."
"Oh, you're taking his side?"
"I'm not taking anyone's 'side'. I'm just saying that you should have contacted him once in a while."
"Like I-"
"I know what you went through. But a brief greeting over the Miles Electric during the day when you were yourself or a phone call when we got home would have prevented this. He was worried about us."
Sonic nodded. From what he gathered from Amy in the brief times he saw her during his predicament, Knuckles had been unable to join them because something had gone wrong with the Master Emerald. The hedgehog couldn't never blame him for staying with the giant gem. Tikal and Chaos were like the echidna's mother and older brother before a freak accident had sucked them inside. Of course he would want to stay.
"I guess I should say that I'm sorry." He sighed. Tails didn't reply but instead went towards the building that was the echidna's house. The hedgehog followed.
What had started as an idea for extra protection for the M.E. expanded into the biggest thing on the island. All three of them had designed and built it over the course of seven months, each of them being able to point out what exactly they contributed. Since none of them had been strangers of the concept of erecting buildings from the ground up, (Sonic and Tails built their own house and Knuckles had done shrines around the island for the emeralds.) everything went smoothly.
The overall dome shape had been Sonic's idea. He thought it would be easier to see around the building than the basic rectangular shape. The outside had been made with a kind of rock that grew around the island to trick visitors into thinking it was a just a giant bolder. There was only two openings built that led inside. One was the camouflaged main entrance on the side that Sonic and Tails used to go in. The other was at the top that worked like a sun roof.
The interior of the house was unusual as well. The living room where the entrance led showed how the rest of the rooms and some of the furniture was going to be. On the left side there were the things that were seen in a basic living room with the exception of a sofa that had been designed into a curve shape to fit the circular quality of the house. On the right, however, the wall was made out of glass. Knuckles had wanted the giant gem always in his sight so the glass wall went throughout the whole house, giving a clear view of both the gem and the other rooms that were in the building. There were also a door for every room that led out to the mini courtyard. The coolest part of the building wasn't even something that had been built. It was the lighting. Yes, Tails had wired lights to be able to see but it was hardly needed. The M.E. always gave off a glow, making the whole house fill with green light. It was much more prominent now because the sun roof was open and the sunlight was allowed to hit the gem.
Sonic flopped himself on the couch while Tails went into the kitchen where the owner of the house was currently in. He heard the fox greet him over the sound of tinkling glass and the sound of the fridge, indicating that someone was getting something to drink.
"Why are you guys here?" Knuckles asked the fox a few seconds.
"You know that bug collection I have?" A pause, then the voice continued. " I think I dug up mostly every kind of grub around my house. They hate me now." Sonic lightly chuckled at the last sentence. " Anyways, I need a new variety now and since these bugs have been around Chaos energy for so long I wanted to see how they look compared to the ones that I have caught. "
"Where's Sonic?" The echidna growled.
"On the sofa." Tails's voice then dropped down to a whisper, a sign that he was talking about the hedgehog. Sonic didn't try to listen in.
"Fine." The guardian grunted.
There was a scraping of chairs and Sonic tried to look like he wasn't listening to the conversation before they popped out of the kitchen.
"Ready to go bug hunting?" Sonic tilted his head to look at his ward.
The fox nodded eagerly. "Let me get my stuff." With that being said he sped out of the house, leaving the two older males alone.
Sonic rose from the couch in order to be somewhat eye level with Knuckles. The latter glared in response.
"Sorry." The hedgehog extended his hand. The echidna looked at the gesture for a long moment.
Then slowly took it.
After reconciling with the eighteen year old guardian Sonic and Tails had spent the rest of the day at the echidna's home traipsing the island for specimens for the collection. Knuckles had allowed them to stay over the night, much to the fox's glee. However, during his nocturnal hunt, Tails finally collapsed and fell asleep on the dirt. The hedgehog had to carry his brother all the way back to the house.
The following day was spent exploring the city that was currently beneath the island. Knuckles mentioned that he asked the Emerald to allow the floating mass here for a while last year and hasn't regretted it since. Sonic could see why. From what he saw, the population of the town was mostly made up of older people. They weren't the kind who would love to get autographs and selifies. They treated celebrities like regular people. Knuckles was a fan of solitude and that's exactly what the town gave him most of the time.
The town felt homey altogether. More than half of the shops were owned by the residents and it seemed like everybody knew everybody. They spent the morning grocery shopping in a farmer's market. Knuckles introduced them to food combinations that they never heard of.
From now on peanut butter will be replaced by almond butter.
They had lunch at a café nearby. The echidna was obviously a fan of the place because he had a good thing to say about every single item on the list. What was even better was that there was a cute cat working the counter. Since there wasn't any other customers in the little restaurant she was able to stay at their table. The cat had been more interested in Tails than in either of the two teenagers. The fox had been perfectly fine with it and even took it up a notch when he noticed the glares from his companions.
They got their revenge, though. When Tails later on made the mistake of getting cocky about the experience while on the park fountain, they both pushed him in. After yelling at them for his unexpected bath, the fox spent about a hour and a half on a park bench in silent fury drying out his clothes while they played soccer. The preteen's park experience wasn't all bad. A nice elderly couple came by and sat by him. They kept him entranced with a story about a war that had been going on when they were teenagers. They were very knowledgeable about the aircraft industry, Tails had told them on the way back to the island, because the husband had been a pilot and the wife had worked on a plane assembly line. The trio rested until sunset before they loaded on they plane. Knuckles had been convinced to come along with them in order to see the spring festival that would be held in the city near their house.
The sky was decorated with stars by the plane touched home. After bringing everything inside Tails went to set up his collection while the older ones set up sleeping accommodations for the visitor.
"Do you want to see the emeralds before you hit the hay?" Sonic offered.
"You have all seven?" Knuckles asked.
"Most of them. Shadow came by a week ago insisting possession of the green one. So we have six."
Sonic led the way into the garage where Tails had set up his workshop. In the garage was a display that mirrored the ones that were seen in museums. The container seem to be simple enough for the precious gems it contained, but most people who have tried know how difficult it was to get into it.
"So you just leave them out in the open like this?" Knuckles stepped closer to the gems. Sonic stood silently a little ways off to the left and waited until the visitor's face shifted into realization. "Wait. These aren't real."
"Of course they are real." Sonic smiled. "They're real convincing copies of them."
"Then where are the originals?"
"Right here." Tails had walked across the room and opened a nearly invisible part of the wall. Inside were seven circular cubbies for each of the authentic emeralds. Six of them were filled.
"Those are just decoys." Tails pointed at the display. "I had to make protection totally convincing to fool common thieves."
"And what happens if it doesn't?"
"You have to use special gloves to access the fake wall."
"Hmm..." The echidna nodded and grabbed the red chaos emerald from its hole. "They still don't have their full power."
"I know." Sonic frowned. They've been through a lot lately. But nothing has been going on lately so that we need them."
"Hopefully they'll get to rest a little longer."
