Hidden
The noise and movement as the resistance teams hauled their gear under cover, almost succeeded in making this place less eerie.
Knuckles looked around. Almost. Only almost.
The hard white flares they were using for lighting, until they got power set up, cast long, pitchy-black shadows from the abandoned and overgrown contraptions that towered over their heads. Rails and loops which had once been brightly coloured swept into the air, over-topping the tangled shallow canopy of new-growth trees. The moonlight gleamed on the water of a broad, shallow inland sea at the base of a cliff to the west, highlighting the remains of a balcony and cliff-railway descender.
This had been an amusement zone once and it wasn't the war that had destroyed it. It wasn't even really destroyed as such – abandoned and slowly being reclaimed by vegetation and decay, but still substantially standing. More of the structures were sound than otherwise although paint was flaking, corrosion marked every metal surface and the plant-life was everywhere. In places even fabrics had survived, rotting banners flapping wetly in the damp night breeze.
Knuckles didn't know why the place had been abandoned, only that it was relatively recent. Not more than half a dozen years at most. Sonic spoke - had spoken – fondly of it.
Knuckles struggled to tell one amusement zone from another – perhaps this one had just been superseded by the next fad – like the monstrosity Eggman was having built in Luminous Forest. There were people who would pay for distraction from this conflict it seemed, even it it was Eggman himself they were paying.
Knuckles turned his attention back to the unloading. Overhead, Charmy and Rouge had one end each of a sling-load of food supplies. Silver was also aloft, floating crates of wispons from the transport. On the ground, Vector and Espio were conferring over where to put them.
Knuckles headed for them, glass from long-since broken bulbs crunching underfoot as he moved over the cracked pavement and ankle-high weeds. The decision was made before he reached them and Silver and his airborne cargo drifted towards what would hopefully form the core of their new base.
Knuckles detoured to lift down a generator from the loader, as the two dogs who'd been struggling with it nodded thanks. He turned back in the same direction as Silver. The place they'd secured as their latest base of operations – after being discovered and uprooted yet again – had been a power distribution hub for the zone. It had all the infrastructure for power, communications, monitoring that had kept the place running. Tails had surveyed it in one of his more composed moments and declared it basically serviceable if they could restore power.
Knuckles looked around for the fox. He found him accompanied by a watchful Amy Rose, her arm on his shoulder. She greeted Knuckles with relief as he approached.
"This place is giving me an almighty case of the creeps, Knuckles."
"Good," said Knuckles. "Maybe it will put off any visitors who might be tempted to sell our location for the reward."
Amy made a face. "Yeah and that really helps my state of mind, so thanks for that." She looked around. "I suppose I thought 'abandoned' meant more of it had fallen in. This half-gone half-standing is...weird."
"We came here," Tails put in abruptly. "Me and Sonic."
Amy squeezed his shoulder and her voice softened. "It must have been fun here. Once."
Knuckles pointed the way to the building they'd earmarked. "Come on. Let's get one of these generators hooked up and see what still runs."
Before they could obey a crash and a yell of pain span them all back around towards the unloaders. The glare of the burning flares and the deepness of the shadows in contrast made it impossible to see what had happened at this distance. They ran back.
The generator had slipped again and one of the dogs was caught beneath, not longer yelling but face screwed up in pain. Knuckles lifted it again and Espio dropped to the dog's side.
"Get out of the light," he said firmly as people crowded round. Everyone obeyed but it didn't make enough difference.
"Get right out of the way," Vector said. "Find out which crate the torches were in."
"I can't see enough," Espio said. He addressed himself to the dog again. "I can't tell if that left leg is broken."
Knuckles hesitated a moment then closed his eyes and reached. When he opened them a Chaos Emerald lay in his palm. The green one. Less than optimal for what he had in mind but it would do. He concentrated again, not on the Emerald in his hand, not entirely, but on the Master Emerald. The height and distance of the Island was no obstacle to the contact as he drew on that unshakeable connection, channelling, willing. The Emerald in his hand glowed and kept glowing, brighter and brighter, spilling green light on the startled faces around him. He tossed it lightly in the air towards Espio. It drifted above him, suspended.
Espio glanced up, then back at the now clearly illuminated dog and his injury.
"All right," he said after a moment. "I don't think it's broken. You were lucky. We even have rings in one of these crates."
Silver, who'd returned at the sound of the shouting floating upwards over their heads and pointed at one of the still packed crates, lifting up and over to them. The dog reached for the rings inside with relief.
After a moment he got cautiously back to his feet. Espio watched him for a moment.
"I'm okay. Just a bit sore now."
The chameleon nodded. "All right. Be careful."
The dog looked embarrassed. "Yeah." He glanced sheepishly at Knuckles who waved it off.
"We've got all night," Knuckles told him. "Take it steady."
Another embarrassed nod and the dog moved away.
"Okay, show's over." Knuckles raised his voice. "We've got all night but only tonight,. We need to be undercover by dawn."
Everyone hurried back to their tasks but Amy and Tails stayed at his side. Amy was looking at the Chaos Emerald.
"You think it's a good idea to throw those around?" she asked. She didn't add that they hadn't known Knuckles was in possession of any Emeralds, but the fact lingered in the air between them anyway.
Knuckles looked up at the Emerald, stilled for a moment, then closed one hand. The Emerald blinked out, not merely dark, but gone.
People glanced up but continued to work by the flare-light. Amy's eyes bored into him.
"So this is what you've been doing all the times you haven't been here? Back on Angel Island learning magic tricks with Chaos Emeralds?"
Knuckles met her eyes levelly. "Don't you think we need a few tricks?"
He'd make no apology for dividing his time between the Island and the Resistance. They couldn't afford to lose either and he'd entrust the defence of the Master Emerald to no one else.
And there was more to it. The enemy had something, something that had enabled them to take out Sonic in mere minutes, something that had enabled them to ride roughshod over every opposition, over every militia and army that had gone up against them – even those who'd had years of experience in dealing with Eggman's periodic attacks and wild robot-driven schemes.
Knuckles couldn't be sure if it was something the masked creature that had attacked Sonic possessed or something he was, but there was power there that Eggman hadn't had before.
Whether the Chaos Emeralds, even brought together under the control of the Master, were enough to go up against it Knuckles couldn't guess, but Sonic had been looking for them before he'd been – Knuckles flinched from the word 'killed', mentally went with 'defeated'. Sonic had been looking for them and so Knuckles had finished the job of gathering them.
And then baulked.
He may as well admit it to himself if no one else. He'd gathered them, then… stopped. Hadn't taken them into battle. Had fallen into doubt. If even that was not enough and they were taken, lost… If the Master Emerald was lost…
His other worry sprang from the fact that Sonic had been their most adept user of the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles himself had only ever managed to bludgeon them into use, over-ruling their nature through the Master and turning their energies his way. It was inefficient and exhausting. Easier to use the Master Emerald directly. Easier – although in its own way, more dangerous.
Tails had managed to use the Chaos Emeralds on occasion and so had Silver. Knuckles suspected that Amy and one or two of their newer hedgehog recruits could be taught it – but circumstance would offer them no trial runs, no training period. Shadow could perhaps have turned things with them but, by all accounts, he'd gone over to the other side.
And so Knuckles had kept them. Replaced them in their former location circling the Master Emerald. Experimented alone. Tested the limits of what he could do with them. Of what the Master Emerald could do with them. Through them. Through him.
Some of what he learned he'd known of in principle from the old writings on the Island. Some, the Master Emerald had… Not shown exactly… Led him towards? Guided? Imparted?
He knew there was a system – none of the parts acted in isolation. Everything was linked and the way the power flowed through those links made all the difference. Having the Emeralds on the Island made all the difference. Proximity mattered. The difference between a hundred miles and a thousand was infinitesimal – the difference between arms-length and hands-on was astronomical.
Amy was still watching him, and hadn't answered. Tails watched both of them. The worry on their faces was clear. It was time to tell them what he'd been trying to do.
"I'll explain," he said, instead of waiting further for a response. "But we need to make this place secure first."
Amy watched him a moment longer. Then she nodded. "All right," she said. "But soon."
Before any of them could return to that task the devices which all three wore on their wrists beeped loudly.
"Proximity warning," Amy said, looking back from the device to Knuckles.
Setting the sensors was the first thing they'd done before even beginning uploading. They were short range, no better than a ten minute warning, maybe as little as five depending what had been sent against them. Maybe much less if the threat was that masked creature.
"Lights!" Knuckles yelled. Then remembered himself and broadcast it over the comm as well. "Unpack the wispons, get armed." He hesitated, releasing the broadcast button. "Where..."
Amy pointed, not needing the question finished. "I know which crates went where. I can sort that."
Knuckles nodded and left her to it.
"Silver, to me," Knuckles returned to the comms, looking around for him in the rapidly darkening clearing, as people threw shovel-loads of dirt over the burning flares to extinguish them. There was still a chance it wasn't an attack. Still a chance they could go unnoticed in the dark. It wouldn't fool a robot's infrared but if it was a passer-by… Knuckles almost snorted at this piece of wishful thinking. As if anyone would be out for a stroll in their eerie spot in the dead of night.
It was an attack, they'd have to light more flares to see to fight it, but for now… Maybe a moment extra of hope was no bad thing.
Silver touched down out of the gloom overhead and Knuckles beckoned him over.
"We're going to find out what it it."
Silver nodded.
Knuckles looked round once more. At the state of ordered haste. There was no panic, only urgency. Good.
Only Tails stood motionless in the midst of it. Knuckles put his hand on his shoulder and the fox jumped.
"Get inside," Knuckles said.
For a moment there was a flash of something in Tails' expression that was almost his old self who'd have protested at being sent from the front-line, would have insisted he stay and fight, would have been right in the middle of it making suggestions and assessing their plans. Then it faded. Whatever had taken Sonic from them had taken something more than his friend from Tails. He nodded listlessly and started walking that way.
"Tails," Knuckles called after him on impulse. "See if you can get that generator up to run the surveillance gear, we might need information on safe fallback locations."
For a moment he thought Tails would ignore him, but the fox looked back. His nod was still half-hearted but at least it came. Knuckles sighed.
"Okay, Silver. Let's go."
Silver took off and a moment later Knuckles felt himself lifted as well and they accelerated over the treetops to where the forest came to an end at the northern edge of the inland sea that bordered it. The sensation made him queasy not matter how often they did it. He was used to being in the air, and his body instinctively tried to position itself for gliding. He could feel the air around him, but the way he moved through it was not the natural motion of gliding/ The sensations didn't match with his movement and it was unsettling and uncomfortable. He strained his eyes to look ahead of them, trying not to think about it. If there were robots, especially in any sizeable force, they'd see them soon.
The moon came out from behind the scrappy clouds a moment later and glittered on metal below them. Silver drew in his breath and Knuckles gritted his teeth.
He squirmed in the air and triggered the comm.
"Enemy position report. Five Death Egg Sentinels from the north-northwest. Coming round the top end of the coast. Just entering the treeline. I can see maybe two dozen of the Egg Robos behind them, but there's probably at least that that many already in the trees."
As if his words had caused it, one of the Sentinels, wading into the trees, and crushing them underfoot, swung its huge head in their direction and fired. Silver rolled them both aside in the air and Knuckles closed his eyes against nausea, still trying to get his report out.
"They, uh, they know we're here." He swallowed hard and went on. "Must know you're there too because they're on a direct track." Knuckles glanced up woozily at Silver above him. "We've got to try and stop at least some of them. Let me go."
Silver gave the array of robots before them an appraising glance.
"You sure? What's the plan?" Silver dived aside from another blast, still towing Knuckles with him.
"Gah! Just stop them shooting at me for as long as you can." Knuckles keyed the comm. "Amy. We're going to try and hold them up here. Send me, uh, send me half of however many people you've got already armed. They're going to meet Egg Robos on the way. They're to take out as many as they can without losses then fall back. Then we hit however many are left with everything we've got."
Amy acknowledged this and Knuckles heard her relay it, choosing units, sending them out.
"Okay, Silver. Now."
Silver let go and the blue energy flickering around Knuckles vanished. He few a few feet before catching himself in the air. Not enough to glide, just redirecting his course towards the nearest Sentinel. Its weapon glowed but was spun aside by Silver as it fired. Another Sentinel turned on him but was rocked almost to tipping point as Silver lashed out and that shot too went wild.
Knuckles dived at the first robot that had fired, aiming for the head, at what would have been an eye if the thing was alive, and was instead its laser weapon. He smashed into it, almost knocking the breath out of himself and clawed wildly at the tearing metal for purchase. Finding none he kicked out and landed on the thing's arm. He leapt and struck downward, striking out the outboard portion and sending the huge spikes to the ground.
The Egg Robos below scattered from the debris and opened fire. Silver snatched some of them up into the air to drop and smash against the ground. The rest of them divided their aim between Silver and Knuckles. Their shots ricocheted off the damaged Sentinel as Knuckles flung himself flat on the remain of the arm. Friendly fire was apparently no risk to these things but he could use that. He leapt up in a gap in the firing and tore off a panel which had peeled away when he'd struck the head. He flung it to the ground and leapt after it. He swerved his way down through the air and grabbed it, raised it in front of him and charged at the nearest Egg Robos, taking out a round dozen before something hit his makeshift shield hard enough to throw him onto his back
Once again fighting for breath he lay there a moment before the silhouette of the damaged Sentinel blotted out the moon. He tried to move and couldn't, his eyes went to the second, spiked arm, waiting for it to blast towards him. Instead it moved in jerky stop-start twitches. He'd damaged something in the control systems when he'd hit the head then? It wasn't enough though, and the thing raised one enormous foot, meaning to crush him where he lay and he still couldn't even draw a full breath, let alone move.
He reached for the Master Emerald, knowing he'd almost certainly left it too late, but before he could even calm his mind to try, the darkness was split by an electric-blue blast as Silver cannoned into the Sentinel, toppling it backwards, one foot still in the air. Silver spun in the air above, gestured at it wildly and swung its fall into the feet of the one behind it. Both went crashing to the ground, the undamaged laser of the second one cutting into the air where Silver had been a moment ago. Swinging wildly back and forth, the laser sliced through the sky and the thing's jet pack fired, setting the nearest vegetation alight but still not enough to get it back to its feet.
That was two, and the moment's respite let Knuckles scramble back to his feet. Silver touched down beside him and staggered, breathing heavily.
"I can't do this forever," he warned.
"I know." Knuckles looked around, assessing what they'd achieved and what was still to do. The remaining three Sentinels were ignoring them, pressing ahead, though they seemed to have taken an idea from the downed one and were sweeping the undergrowth with their laser eyes, setting the forest floor, and trees alight. About twenty of the Egg Robos that had been at their heels had stopped following and now stood in line abreast, facing Knuckles and Silver. Not yet firing but their defensive role clear.
The comms squalled static then cleared to Vector's voice.
"We've engaged Egg Robos but can only see three Death Egg robots. Can't get near 'em. Too many of the little 'uns."
Knuckles looked at the line of Egg Robos which now formed a rear guard of sorts to the remaining Sentinels. Between the Egg Robos and the flames they were going to have the same problem.
"Fall back," he ordered. "Slowly. Join up with the others. Buy me some time."
He eyed the row of Egg Robos. Half had their weapons levelled at him and Silver, half angled up in the air. They intended to put up a barrage of covering fire the moment he and Silver approached the Sentinels.
"We won't get through that," Silver predicted. "That's going to be a wall of laser-fire once they start shooting."
Knuckles didn't spare the line of robots a second glance. "We're not going to try. Can you get me back to the base?"
"Yes."
Knuckles glanced at the white hedgehog, trying to assess how weary he actually was under that automatic, determined answer.
"We'll have to go around this lot," he warned. "It'll be longer."
"I'm okay." Silver said. "Just tell me you've got a plan."
Knuckles tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it wasn't his forte and he knew it came out more of a snarl.
"I've got a plan."
Silver did grin and then cyan light engulfed them both again as they flew into the air.
They skirted the battle as it got closer and closer to the base. Line of Resistance fighters stood between the robots and the building, arrayed across the clearing. Flare-light and wisp energy and laser-fire turning the light and shadows an eyeball-searing variety of colours. Knuckles squinted into the confusion. They were holding for now.
He cast around for the location he wanted.
"Go left."
"Huh?" Silver sounded dazed, close to spent.
"Left," Knuckles repeated. "Then when I say, let go."
"Yeah." Silver swerved in the direction indicated, too tired to ask questions.
"Amy," Knuckles sent. "Retreat. Get everyone inside."
"We can't just hide!" Her voice came back at one, strained, and half drowned by the noise of the battle.
"Don't argue, there's not time. I want one team on the entrance. Do it."
A moment's hesitation. Long enough for Knuckles to wonder if his failure to tell them sooner what he'd been doing on the Island would cost him his authority now. Then the moment passed and he heard Amy organising the practical implementation of his order. Saw the lines shift and start to fall back.
"Now, Silver."
Silver at least didn't argue and Knuckles fell free and into a glide. He glanced down. Had any of the robots seen him? He hoped to go unnoticed, or failing that to be dismissed as no longer a priory threat, less important than ending the battle. He hoped for time.
He landed atop one of the remaining structures, the tallest of three loops strung together in a wild rollercoaster route through the gambling platforms that had once operated. None of the attackers had turned towards him. The Resistance troops were funnelling past Amy's chosen team of last resort. He saw Silver land and join them. Saw the Chaotix, Rouge, and Amy herself take up positions flanking the entrance to the bunker-style powerstation, preparing to hold that last entrance if what he was about to try didn't work.
He closed his eyes and saw more. Saw the glittering line of energy that linked him always back to the Island, back to the shrine, back to the Master Emerald. A braid of energy now not a single thread, the Chaos Emeralds, plaited into the connection, arrayed around the Master Emerald. The bonds between them, the power flowing to and from and through, lapping against the boundaries of the Master Emerald's control. He saw it almost clearly enough to believe that if he opened his eyes he would still see it.
He could redirect that energy as easily as drawing channels in shingle with his fingers to redirect the tiny trickling streams that ran to the lake, up there on the Island, up there in the cloudless sunshine. As easy as redirecting the air over his spines in a glide.
He was Guardian and though the Master Emerald was distant and safe, his friends were nearby and in desperate danger.
He opened his eyes and for a moment he did think he saw chaos energy flickering there between them as they stood facing off against the oncoming forces.
Chaos was power enriched by the heart. He'd read that. Heard it. But never known it before. Not really.
One of the Death Egg Sentinels had noticed him at last and turned towards his position, swiping aside two of the three loops with those massive, spiked arms. Someone had managed to take out the laser eye though, so he ignored it a moment longer. The other two still advanced on the tiny party guarding the door.
His friends had bought him the time he needed and he reached as he'd reached earlier, as he'd reached, rarely, for the strength and succour of the Master Emerald. Reached not for his usual cautious, measured trickle of power but throwing open sluices and letting the power flood into him in a wave.
His breath caught in his throat and for a moment he was losing himself because swimming on a wild, rising wave you either got atop the crest of it to ride it or you got sucked under to drown and for long seconds he was certain he'd failed in his control and it would be the latter. It would rip him apart. He'd die, and his friends would die and the world would go under the heel of these machines and their master forever.
He'd completely underestimated both the extra power and the turbulent effect of the Chaos Emeralds and he was drowning, tossed helpless in the wave, pounded by battering surf, completely out of control.
Control.
The word snagged his attention and fought for the crest of the wave, for control of the torrent, forced his rolling eyes open, forced himself to see the real world around him. His friends, their backs against the wall but no longer fighting he realised because every robot's attention and aim was on him now.
He stood as though in a spotlight, the rail and platforms around him as bright as daylight, the shadows of the robots long on the ground as they all opened fire at once and there was no time to do anything about it, no time to do more than close his eyes and throw up his hands.
Neither the expected pain or oblivion came and Knuckles opened his eyes a second time. His blood pounded in his ears like crashing waves and Chaos Energy surged in his blood like the tide. He stared into the crackling light of laser-fire, rendered as harmless as distant fireworks by the leaping dancing aura of power around him.
He was breathing in huge slow gasps, hanging on to control by the slimmest of margins but he was hanging on, and the longer he did so the more of the patterns he could perceive and the easier it got. Like the waves there was a rhythm even in chaos. He quickened his breath to match that runaway beat until it was almost a pant. After a few moments he felt his heartbeat hasten to that same pulse. Felt everything he was align with it. Felt the Master Emerald's steadiness at his back though it was half a world away. The steady tide at the back of the pounding breakers.
One of the Sentinels swung for the loop he stood atop, and he stepped aside. Stepped onto thin air and swung for it in return. Swung with flickering speed and watched in mild surprise as the thing shattered into fragments.
Giddy delight at the ease of it washed through him and he bit it back. There was danger it it. Madness in it.
Control, Guardian.
Control.
He hung onto the word, flung himself forwards onto the air and dived for the next nearest Sentinel. Dived at it and through it and into the air again, leaving sparks and smoke twirled into vortices in his wake. He looked over his shoulder to see it fall, with a secondary explosion when it hit the ground. He spun in the air unable to contain a harsh, high cry of triumph, already seeking the last of them.
Control…
But it was a whisper at the back of his mind and the waves and the tide were louder. He snapped around in the air and targeted the last Sentinel. This one still had a functional laser and fired at him, but what did that matter? It was only energy and chaos energy was stronger. He tore the beam apart, snatched the Sentinel into the air and whirled it around and over the clifftop into the shallow water where it broke apart in a shower of sparks. With another whip-crack fast change of direction, he tore into the ranks of Egg Robos, smashing some and letting the wake turbulence of his passing fling the others aside.
He hesitated, senses reeling, heart hammering, looking wildly around for a new target and finding none.
"Knuckles!"
Someone called his name from the ground and for a moment he felt only anger at the interruption. At the distraction. Appalled at his own reaction he drove himself away from it, drove himself higher into the air. The pounding rhythm in his blood and bones and head was erratic now. Painful. Confusing.
Control…
But the distraction had come at just the wrong moment and he couldn't think, couldn't focus.
He fell, off the crest of the wave, down into darkness, out of the air.
The darkness was interminable but voices wove through it. Insistent. Unending. Until he could ignore them no longer.
"Wake up, Knuckles."
Stay asleep, Guardian. Sleep. Rest here, rest easy, rest and heal. A wordless demand, that he longed to obey but more corporeal voices were still calling.
He forced his eyes open and immediately regretted it. He'd fought in darkness, fallen and lain in darkness and the light was agony. He squeezed his eyes shut again, unable to stifle a moan.
"Hang on." The light dimmed. "Better?"
He nodded, and opened his eyes more cautiously. It was Amy's voice he'd heard but Tails' face which now leaned over his, eyes full of tears. Abruptly the fox leaned in closer, wrapped his arms tightly around him, dragging him half upright, then abruptly letting go and sprinting from the room which appeared to be a hastily equipped infirmary.
Amy came into view instead, her face troubled. "We couldn't convince him you weren't going to die," she said. A tired sort of anger came into her eyes. "We can't keep losing people, Knuckles – don't do that to us again."
"I..." he coughed and stopped, swallowed several times trying to work some moisture back into his mouth.
"I didn't intend to do it even once," he croaked. "I..." He swallowed again. "Miscalculated."
Amy raised her eyebrows. "That's what you're calling it? Wait there."
Knuckles wasn't sure he had a choice, every nerve and muscle and joint ached fiercely and just dragging himself to a sitting position left him shaking and his head spinning. Cautiously, he reached out along the lines of power, along the tangled and trembling braid of energy. The Master Emerald was safe, the Chaos Emeralds still held, though the backwash of energy was wildly unsettled.
Amy returned carrying a glass of water.
"Drink." She handed him the glass, holding onto it until it was clear he was actually going to be able to keep hold. "You fell from about about a hundred feet up you know. Just passed out, right in mid-air. Tails caught you. I didn't even know he was outside. He wasn't supposed to be."
Knuckles emptied the glass, sip by sip as Amy went on.
"Rouge and Charmy both took off to try as well but Tails was faster."
"So he should be, all that time running round after-" Knuckles stopped, appalled at how dazed he must be to bring up Sonic now.
Amy just shook her head.
"We can't keep loosing people, Knuckles," she repeated. "What did you do? Why did it affect you like that?"
But Knuckles had lost all interest in that question and shot back a panicked one of his own.
"We didn't lose anyone? Did we?"
Amy scowled at him.
"No," she said and Knuckles slid halfway back down the bed in limp relief. "Amazingly not. Bruises, burns, concussions, broken bones, no fatalities. Silver is still sleeping it off but everyone else is back up and getting ready to move. You've been out almost 12 hours. What did you do?"
"Move?" Knuckles said, ignoring the question again.
"Well we can't stay here can we? The idea was it would be a secret base."
Knuckles should have realised that for himself. He shook his head, trying to clear it. That was one experiment he wouldn't be trying again in a hurry. It had almost made him forget what he did want to do.
"Wake Silver," he told Amy. "Ask Tails to come back in here. And the Chaotix crew." He hesitated. "And Rouge I suppose. I want you to hear an idea."
Knuckles used the time that took to try and regain his equilibrium. It wasn't easy but he would have to manage it if his next suggestion was to have any hope of succeeding.
He also climbed shakily out of the bed and shuffled around to sit on the end of it instead. He might not be too steady on his feet yet, but he needed to be at least upright. No one would take his suggestion seriously if he still looked like a delirious invalid.
He greeted people as they arrived, hoping he sounded composed, waving off questions about what had happened with an in-a-minute promise. The Chaotix arrived together, with Charmy assuring him that smashing up the robots had been "mega cool" and Vector shaking his head at the bee. Rouge arrived alone. Knuckles nodded at her, thanked her and Charmy for trying to catch him. Silver arrived yawning and trying not to, with Amy and Tails behind him.
Knuckles looked at the seven of them, grouped around the end of the bed watching him. For a moment the number caught at his attention, and the surging pulse of the Chaos Emeralds leapt again to the forefront of his consciousness. He closed his eyes briefly and either his will or the Master Emerald's – the connection still to unsettled too be entirely sure of which – lulled them again.
He opened his eyes again, drew a deep breath, waved off the concerned expressions.
Where to start? It was more difficult than he'd expected. Every instinct cried out against telling them what he intended to tell them, against doing what he intended to do.
"Start with what happened out there," Amy said, watching him closely. "What did you do?"
"You used the Master Emerald, right?" Vector put in. "But you've done that before – so why the..." His hand swept through the air in a descending spiral from head height to below his waist, in wordless description of a tumbling fall.
"It wasn't just the Master Emerald. I…" Knuckles hesitated, knowing the next bit was almost certain to cause uproar. "The Chaos Emeralds are on Angel Island."
A startled babble broke out, cut off by Rouge. "All of them?"
Knuckles nodded.
Amy was staring at him with a fierce 'I knew it' look on her face. "And you kept this a secret because…?"
Knuckles looked back at her helplessly. "I couldn't think what else to do – I'm Guardian. The Chaos Emeralds are a secret."
Charmy gave him a sympathetic look. "They're kinda really not anymore y'know."
"Knuckles, we could have used them-"
"How?" He cut Amy off. "Who? And if we'd tried and failed and lost them what then?"
He stopped. Waited for everyone to work through to the same conclusion as he'd already reached.
Amy sighed. "Okay. So you did what out there? Tried to use the Chaos Emeralds instead? As well?"
"As well." Knuckles ran his hands down his face. "I.." How could he describe what he'd done? Braided them into the lines of energy, plaited and twisted and wound them around the Master Emerald and himself so tightly into gem and stone and blood and bone that he wasn't sure he could ever unpick the links again. "I connected them to the Master Emerald."
"And it didn't work?" Amy asked.
Knuckles gave an involuntary bark of laughter. "Oh it worked. But it turns out there's a very good reason why the Guardian is never usually a Chaos Emerald user." He shuddered and at the back of his mind the Master Emerald's murmur rose above the racing beat of the Chaos Emeralds. Soothing. Quieting "It's too much," Knuckles finished. "It's madness waiting to happen." he shook his head. "For a moment, at the end, I… I almost…" He wanted to look away, but he kept his head up, meeting no one's eyes but head up because they had to see his face, had to know he meant it.
"I wanted to keep fighting and if I hadn't found another target I think I would have turned on you. All of you."
"Hey," Rouge said after a second's silence. "You didn't do it, sugar. 'kay? You fought it. You beat those robots, which, let's face it, would have made mincemeat out of us and then you stopped."
"Only because I passed out!" Knuckles almost shouted, desperate to make them understand the danger.
"And why did you pass out instead of spreading us up the wall?" Rouge shot straight back.
Knuckles hesitated. Why had he passed out? Because he'd lost his grip on the energy. Because he'd hesitated, resisted it. Fought it. The relief was immense. He nodded then sighed heavily.
"I couldn't do it again."
"Okay," Vector's voice was brisk and how could he possibly say 'okay'? Knuckles watched him as he continued.
"So, given that we probably don't want any blue-on-blue chaos zapping, and probably don't have many uses for kamikaze chaos attacks that finish up with Knux faceplanting the deck, where does that leave us? And shouldn't we be getting out of here and looking for somewhere secure to have this conversation?"
"We need a secure base," Knuckles agreed, trying to gather his wits and come to the point. "I never intended to use the combined energy to fight. I never expected to have five Death Egg robots bearing down on us while we were still unpacking the damn sleeping bags. I did it on impulse because I didn't have any better ideas. It was stupid. It wasn't what I'd intended to use it for."
"So what was?" asked Espio who, along with Silver, had watched the rest of the interactions in observant silence.
"There's one thing it's safe for. One thing it was was once used regularly for-"
"Angel Island is no good for a base." Tails cut across the conversation so abruptly and with such flat hopelessness that everyone looked at him. Most in complete confusion.
"Tails?" Amy asked gently. "What do you mean?"
"That's what Knuckles means isn't it?" Tails went on, still in an almost disinterested monotone. "The temple where he has the Master Emerald now... Hidden Palace where he had it when me and Sonic first went there – they've both got places for the Chaos Emeralds to interface as well. What do they do, Knuckles? Some sort of defence system? But it's no good. The Island is no good as base, there's nothing there, no infrastructure, nothing useful, nowhere to house hundreds of fighters, nothing worthwhile, nothing but ruins."
"Tails!" Amy looked from the fox to Knuckles in dismay but Knuckles was too relieved to find Tails' quick mind still at work on the problem to take offense at the slight upon his home.
"Escape," he said. "It's escape, Tails, not defence. Why was the Island unfound for all the long lives of my ancestors even though glimpses had been snatched of it, even though the Master Emerald only moves it through the sky slowly? Why did I not manage to go a single month since the Emeralds were lost without fighting off some new intruder? Why have I been able to spend my time here with the Resistance, not there defending it since I recovered them?"
The spark of curiosity in Tails' eyes lifted Knuckles' heart further, made this pouring out of secrets easier.
"Because it's an escape system." He swished his hand, palm out, through the air. "Gone! Chaos Control and the Island is on the other side of the world. Un-trackable. Un-followable, start again and come looking and even if you find it..."
"Whoosh!" said Charmy, grinning and flicking his fingers out in a starburst gesture. "Gone again."
Knuckles nodded. "We could be anywhere we needed to be. At once." He thought of the orbiting war satellites and added, "Almost anywhere. Anywhere on the surface."
Amy glanced at the wide eyed faces to either side of her and managed, "And when were you going to tell us this?"
Knuckles blinked. "Now. Once I knew I could do it reliably. If we hadn't been attacked I'd have told you once we were all safely unpacked here. I only worked out how to do it a few weeks ago. It was an accident the first time!"
Amy stared at him. "You've been Chaos Controlling Angel Island hither and thither over the planet for the past few weeks for practice?"
"Yes?" Knuckles frowned. Hadn't he made that clear?
"Oh. Right." Amy's voice shot up. "And if you'd just never come out of the other side of one of these experimental little hops?"
Knuckles shrugged. "Then you'd have been no worse off than if I'd been killed in an attack. Better off probably since the Master Emerald wouldn't have been left laying around unguarded, it'd have been taken out along with me."
And you're sure about this are you, Knuckles?" Rouge drawled. "'Cause you've had quite a day. Sure you haven't just scrambled your wits more than usual?"
"I'm certain."
Silver frowned. "Wait. Go back a step. You said once we were here. Why here? Why unpack here if we're going to Angel Island?"
Knuckles took his eyes off Rouge's sceptical look and Amy's outraged one.
"Because we're not. Tails is right. Angel Island isn't suitable." He didn't wait for further questions before continuing. "Tails – you figured this much out, tell me if you think the rest of my logic holds."
Tails didn't answer, but he did at least nod.
"Angel Island – the Floating Island, wasn't always an island. Or floating. This much all of the texts agree on. It falls back to the surface in the absence of the Master Emerald. I don't need texts to tell me that. So it's nothing to do with the geology that allows it to be what it is and everything do with the Master Emerald and the devices that interface the Chaos Emeralds with it. Tell me if you think I'm wrong, Tails."
"I don't think you're wrong." Tails paused. "I'm not even sure that the Emerald pedestals are anything special. It may just be the positioning that matters."
"We don't have time to guess," Knuckles said. "We're taking them."
"Yes," Tails agreed, "But we need to measure their orientation and distances from the Master Emeralds very carefully first."
"I've done that," Knuckles assured him, "And I found it written down as well, so you you might be right. But check my measurements, definitely."
Vector raised his hand in the dumbfounded silence which followed.
"Just making sure I get your drift here. You think you can turn this whole zone into another floating island so we can use it as some sort of giant getaway vehicle?" He turned to Charmy and Espio. "Has he lost it d'you think?"
Knuckles found himself actually laughing. Now that the secret keeping was done, the telling done, the relief was dizzying. Secrets were heavy and the absence of this one made him unexpectedly light-hearted – almost light-headed, giddy.
"Come outside," he invited and didn't wait to see who followed.
Everyone had and he led them to the clifftop. Looking over the shallow inland sea he closed his eyes and stopped.
"Look up," he advised.
He felt out along the braid of energy, settling now, responding light and easy to his touch. He pulled slightly, pulled and steered, as though the lines of energy had been the guiding strings of some vast kite. He knew he'd succeeded before he even opened his eyes, knew by the rush of familiar energy in the proximity of the Master Emerald.
And by the ongoing string of profanities issuing from Rouge's mouth which after a solid ten seconds made Vector clap his hands over Charmy's ears.
Knuckles walked to the very edge of the cliff and cast his gaze between the Island floating overhead and the water below.
"I'm going to land it down there – the water's too shallow further north." He felt a fierce grin spread across his face. "And I want my home back in one piece when this war is over."
"It won't be a problem," Silver said, joining him at the cliff edge. "I can lift up anything you need lifting."
Knuckles nodded. "I'm counting on it. We won't have long. Probably only until Eggman decides how many Death Egg Sentinels to send if five wasn't enough..."
The next few hours were a flurry of activities. Tails worked on the setup with an almost alarming intensity now that it had caught his attention and Knuckles just wanted to be everywhere at once. Things had to be moved and he couldn't be at both ends at once and the amount of trust it required in everyone helping was a challenge to every instinct, in spite of his relief at no longer having to keep his plan a secret.
Finally all that was left to move was the Master Emerald itself. Knuckles crouched atop it, watching Silver.
"Ready?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Go."
Cyan light flickered around them and the Master Emerald shifted in its altar socket at the very tip of the temple pyramid, shuddering, reluctant. Knuckles laid a hand flat against the smooth top surface. Let some of the reassurance it always gave him flow back the other way. This wasn't a snatching, wasn't a tearing away, wasn't a taking. He was here, he was Guardian, it was all right, safe, calm.
"Slowly," he said aloud to Silver.
"I'm trying. It's difficult."
Knuckles looked up. "Is it too heavy?"
"No," Silver frowned. "It's not that. It's… Slippery."
"Slippery?" Knuckles repeated, confused.
"It feels weird. I can't quite…" Silver shook his head. "It's okay. I've got it."
"Are you sure?" Knuckles demanded.
"Yes."
Knuckles looked down. They were rising steadily, angling towards the clifftop above. He looked up instead, trying to steer his thoughts away from what would happen if Silver couldn't lift it all the way after all. Was the height of the fall enough to damage it? It was enough to kill him if he didn't abandon it to glide – could he do that without being certain of its safety? He didn't think so and the vivid mental image of tugging helplessly at it as they plunged from the air grew stronger and stronger in his mind's eye.
He was already crouched on hands and knees but almost sprawled sideways in relief as they crossed above the springy turf at the top of the cliff.
They had set up the altar and pedestals from Hidden Palace outdoors in a cobbled clearing, a mile from the inshore lake and the buildings that would form the core of the base. Knuckles would have preferred an undercover location – somewhere that felt more secure, regardless of how impossible any secrecy would be to achieve when the whole Resistance force would be operating from here – but there was nowhere big enough. One of the few less than optimal features of this zone for this task but it would have to do.
In the absence of that option, this place had called to his attention somehow. Though overgrown now it had been a central feature once. Coloured paving tiles spiralled around to a starburst pattern on the ground, and the whole arrangement had once had an ornamental water channel circling it, criss-crossed by a series of tiny bridges and now holding nothing but a few inches of rainwater.
Knuckles knew the decoration wasn't important for itself, had probably been nothing more than a spot for a silly photo opportunity in this zone's original purpose. But he wouldn't discount his own instincts either, and since he liked the place more than anywhere else amid the twisting, rusting artificial structures and since his concentration was what mattered, that fact alone was enough to make this the right place.
Silver adjusted his position in the air and brought the Master Emerald to a halt above the alter, now installed at the centre of the starburst. Tails stood on the ground below waving him down. Outside the circle Rogue was unpacking radio equipment and Amy and Vector were shoring up a sort of summerhouse to act as a guard-station. They all stopped to watch. Somewhere further out in the trees Espio and Charmy were rigging a second set of proximity sensors.
"Okay?" Silver asked.
Knuckles glanced down. The alignment looked right and he waved.
"Yes. Down then. Slowly."
"I know."
As lightly as Knuckles could have hoped, Silver lowered the Master Emerald into its new resting place. Knuckles felt it settle into place, and more, into the circling energies of the Chaos Emeralds already in their places on the surrounding pedestals.
He jumped to the ground and put one hand back on the Master Emerald, letting his eyes fall shut, following the energy down and down further through stone and earth. He went to one knee, the hand still touching the Master Emerald trailing down it as he knelt, until he could press his other hand flat to the cracked and faded cobbles and feel the energy spreading and winding through this new place.
It was going to work.
He opened his eyes and stood.
"It will take some time for the energy to spread enough for what we want it to do," he said. "And I need some time to-" he stopped, unsure of the word he needed. "To learn this place. To recognise it."
By the puzzled looks he got in return from Tails and Silver he knew neither had been the right word.
"Angel Island I know. It's more than familiar, it's..." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I need some time here, that's all."
"How long?" Silver asked.
"I don't know." Knuckles reached for the drifting, spreading energy. "It might depend how much of it we want to take with us..."
He glanced at the horizon, up at the sun. "Sunset. Give me until then. We can't risk another night attack. I'll have to try then." He looked across at the others and beckoned.
Amy, Vector and Rouge crossed into the circle. Rouge's eyes lingered on the Chaos Emeralds as the sunlight caught them, then looked back at Knuckles, spotting him watching her.
"Looking's free," she said, meeting his eyes, unabashed at having been caught doing so. "'I'm on your side, commander."
No follow-up joke undercut the title and Knuckles nodded. "I know."
He turned to Amy.
"How much does everybody else know about what we've been doing?"
Amy looked thoughtful. "I haven't briefed them if that's what you're asking. But they can't miss the fact there's a new island out there in the sea! And you know how rumour is. Some think it's a sort of disguised ship and we're going there. Some think we've got hold of whatever power source made appear or may it fly and want to use it to secure this place. Some have guessed, or are hoping it's the Chaos Emeralds. Especially those who saw your little magic trick last night. Some will have seen you and Silver moving the Master Emerald but I can't imagine anyone else would recognise it. I'm utterly certain no one would remotely guess what exactly it is that you're going to do!" She paused. "I did tell them that this area would be off limits from now on, but I wouldn't have put it past a few of them to have crept out here for a peek."
Knuckles spun to rake his eyes along the undergrowth at the edge of the clearing in alarm.
Amy patted his arm sympathetically. "They wouldn't have joined up with the Resistance if they were all exactly the kind of people who had a bit of nerve, Knuckles."
Knuckles nodded reluctantly. It had been a relief to share the plan with his friends, but the thought of everyone knowing the Master Emerald was here, just sitting here in the middle of the woods, made him feel painfully exposed.
He reached out for it, half for reconnaissance, half for reassurance, and felt the energy spreading into the ground, radiating out at a little more than walking pace. He felt along it, surveying it. It was already past the edge of the tree line and spreading smooth and even, spilling through the trees. If anyone had been there they weren't now.
"Alright," he said. "At sunset I want everyone outside, down on that plain at the southern edge of the sea. Well from building and structures. I don't want to damage anything but if I get it wrong I don't want anyone hurt."
He would have elaborated but in the next moment a cold wave of utter weariness made his knees wobble. He staggered and Amy, still standing beside him caught his arm, staggered as well but stayed upright.
"What was that?" She said at once. "What's wrong?"
Knuckles shook his head, eyes closed. "Wait."
He concentrated and the moment's loss of control passed. He opened his eyes again. He should have made a plan for this part before moving the Emeralds.
"Well," Amy said. "We waited. Explain. Are you okay? Is it a side effect?"
He shook his head again. "Not exactly. I need to concentrate." He wasn't sure it could explain it anyway. He wouldn't normally have tried.
"Knuckles?" Tails asked. Knuckles looked at the tremulous worry on the fox's face and sighed. And tried to explain.
"It's not a problem as long as I concentrate. The Master Emerald's energy is flowing into the area here right now – it's filling it up, spreading through it and into it. That's why I'll be able to move it. On Angel Island all that happened thousands of years ago and the energy transfers are small and slow. Here they're fast. The Master Emerald is transferring energy into the zone faster than it's renewing itself." He saw alarm growing on his friends' faces and waved it off. "That's okay because the Chaos Emeralds are feeding back into it too. The Master Emerald renews itself all the time and so do the Chaos Emeralds and there's enough energy. I'd know if there wasn't."
"So what just happened?" Amy asked.
Knuckles made a face. "I got distracted. The Chaos Emeralds are linked to the Master Emerald but the links are not as strong as the links between the Master Emerald and the Guardian. If I don't deliberately make sure it's using the Chaos Emeralds to renew the energy levels-"
"It defaults to using the Guardian as a backup power source?" Tails said.
Knuckles frowned slightly at the mechanical terminology but nodded. It sounded close enough.
Amy stared from Tails back to Knuckles.
"If you forget to tell it use the Chaos Emeralds it resorts to trying to suck energy out of you? Well that's just great!"
"It's temporary," Knuckles said, ignoring the outbreak of sarcasm. "And I can control it if you let me concentrate. It will stabilise – equalise – once we're in the air, once the boundaries for how far and deep it can flow are set."
Amy stared at him as though trying to work out if this was actually the truth, but then nodded. "Okay. So what do you need? Apart from peace and quiet. You said get everyone together at sunset when you're going to try and lift this place up – heck, that sounds crazy just saying it!"
Knuckles flicked his attention back to the links found them steady and nodded.
"Yes. Amy, Tails, Vector, Rouge – At sunset I want you four there out there with everyone else, and Charmy as well. Do what you think best if anything goes wrong. Silver, I want you and Espio back here with me. I'm going to be fully occupied and if we do have any, let's say bad eggs among our recruits, I'm not going to be in a position to deal with them. That will be your job. To stop anyone interfering."
He looked from face to face for questions or problems. They looked worried, but no one looked mutinous.
He let them go back to their tasks. No one would leave for raids or attacks today and distantly he wondered if that would be noticed or raise suspicions. Too late if it was. He returned his attention to the Emeralds, following the energy, first only mentally then pacing after it, out into the trees, looking and feeling and learning the place. The overgrown paths which had once led visitors from attraction to attraction, the more subtle and natural paths that had been formed by the passage of feral animals since the visitors stopped coming, the shape of the plants, the colour of the bedrock where it peeped through the dirt and overgrowth, the patterns of light and shade from the still standing structures.
Seeing it, hearing it, smelling it, feeling it. Coming to know it.
Where the energy had already spread he could feel people moving across the ground, both friends and less familiar presences.
He wandered.
Sunset came and before he'd reached the circle of Emeralds with the Master at its centre he already knew that everyone had done as he'd asked. There was a huge gathering of people on the plain and Silver and Espio were standing just outside the ring when he returned.
He wasn't entirely sure he was ready, but he was readier than he had been and he'd hadn't changed his mind about not waiting any longer.
He crossed into the ring of Emeralds and put both hands on the Master Emerald without preamble. He heard Silver comms check the others and warn them it was starting and then he stopped listening to everything except the not-quite-sound of the Emeralds' chiming.
He felt out for the spreading energy and with an effort of will stopped it spreading further, let it build up against the boundaries he'd decided, let it gather, deepen, harden there. Let it sharpen. His breath quickened. He could see what he needed to do. He cut. Pushed.
There was a rumble like distant thunder and the ground shuddered, making the leaves rustle in the windless dusk.
That was the right pace. No damage, just pressure, crack by crack by crack, as the chaos energy knifed into the rock below them and the Master Emerald tugged for the sky. Between pull and push, in the web of competing forces Knuckles fought for control, fought to kept things together, fought to keep himself together.
Like jaws meeting, the energies came to a point and with a final tremor the ground they stood on ripped free of the solid earth. The acceleration at the sudden release of pressure threw Knuckles off his feet, away from the Master Emerald and for a split second they were falling again. He flung himself back against it, hard enough to bruise and clung on.
Control.
Control.
They rose, slowing, but still rising. Smoothly.
Knuckles took a more stable hold of the settling energies and took up the lines of control that ran through it. He knew where he wanted to be and he'd only done half of it. If he got the next bit wrong he might still kill them all, wipe them off the face of the planet in an instant.
He didn't hesitate. It wouldn't help.
One hand curled against the Master Emerald in a wordless, almost unconscious command and in the next second sunlight was spilling against his closed eyelids.
He opened them and looked up at blue sky. They'd moved several hundred miles to the west by the position of the sun. They were still rising, though more slowly.
Cautiously he removed one hand and then the other from the Master Emerald, monitoring the energy flows.
Stable.
He felt too tired to feel any real relief, but it was simple tiredness, nothing more. He didn't dare sleep yet, wary of any unforeseen problems, but perhaps, by this sunset he'd be able to.
And then, they would pick up the fight again. And this time they'd do more than escape. This time they'd have an advantage of their own. Power of their own.
Hope.