Song of the Pack: Pt 1
As the sun set over the dry rock of Rail Canyon, a lone blue aircraft could be seen coming over the valley. On board Tails, Knuckles, and Amy sat in the cockpit seats while the form of a smirking hedgehog rode center on the top wing.
"I can't believe Princess Sally asked us to go in and retrieve the blue chaos emerald from the Wolf Pack nation." Amy exclaimed admiring the dry yet beautiful scenery below them. "You've met the pack before, Tails. What are they like?"
"Oh Chief Lupe is very friendly." Tails replied. "I'm sure she'll have a warm welcome planned for us."
"Well, I can see that warm welcome right now." Knuckles added looking down at the ground. "Why are all those wolves standing down there holding those funny torches up?" the others looked to the ground only to see several wolf pack members with flaming arrows pointing towards the sky.
Before anyone can react, the tribe members unleashed a volley of shots… that immediately flew over the plane and hit several buzz bombers that Team Sonic didn't notice.
"Why are they shooting at us for? We're the good guys." Sonic protested.
"It wasn't us, Sonic." Tails replied. "We were being followed by badniks and didn't know it." The plane came in for a landing; a female gray wolf with a scar under her left eye. The young vixen looked about Sonic and Knuckles' age, but seemed to carry a weariness in her eyes that made her look like an elder.
"Friend Sonic, I'm pleased to see you again." The young wolf said, pushing the dust off her tunic. "Tell me, what brings you and your companions to our lands?"
"What's up, Lupe? Looking hot like usual." Sonic replied. That got a chuckle from Lupe and her alpha guards. Amy, on the other hand, whacked him on the head with her hammer. "OWW! What'd you do that for?"
"I don't you taking too much interest in the natives." Amy said through clenched teeth.
"Ah, you must be Amy Rose; daughter of Rosie the Rascal." Lupe answered. "Your mother was quite the adventurer; she even visited her tribe once." The chief looked back at Knuckles. "And who is your dreadlock covered companion back there?" Knuckles raised his right hand.
"How." He answered. "Me am Knuckles. Me want to be friends and smoke um peace pipe."
"You, Knuckles, have bad grammer." Lupe replied trying not to laugh. Her guards already rolling on the floor. "But if you like some help with that our tribe kindergarden teacher can show you how to speak correctly." Then, she started laughing.
"What?" Knuckles replied. "That's how they talk on TV."
"How disappointing." She replied, shaking her head. "I've heard that the echidna tribes were great and honorable warriors. It's a shame to see that the apple has fallen this far from the tree."
"Hey, I resemble that remark." He yelled. Leading to another round of laughter from the wolf warriors.
"Can we get back to business?" Tails groaned. "I can use some help refueling the plane and we should get everyone indoors before sunset."
"You're quite correct, friend fox." Lupe replied. "My warriors will help you get your craft down into the caves."
"Can we also get some grub?" Amy added. "I don't mean to complain but I'm starving."
"Of course." Lupe replied with a smile. "When we heard that friend Sonic was arriving, we prepared the traditional dish, dogs of chili." Before anyone could say another word, Sonic had vanished into the entrance to the caves below.
The wolf pack nation's home was a network of tunnels that criss-crossed the mountains of the Sky Rail Canyon. As Team Sonic followed the wolves through the tunnels. Tails noted several bright and colorful chalk drawings on the cave walls.
"Wow, you wolves are really good artists." Tails added.
"Oh, that's just the preschool art." Lupe replied. "Most of the high school kids and adults do cravings."
The group arrived in the large central chamber, many of the wolves from the tribe were already gathered a large circle; seated around a blazing fire in the center of the room. Lupe offered a seat to their guests. Then, took her place at the head of the circle.
"Come, my friends. Enjoy the food we have prepared." Lupe offered as several vixens brought plates loaded with chili dogs and cheese fries with mozzarella dip. "After you have feasted, then we will speak of the emerald."
Meanwhile outside of the cave system, a hover bike with a two-seater side car pulled up at the cave's entrance. A weasel hopped off the bike followed by a polar bear and an insane duck who hopped out of the side cars.
"We found them. Are we gonna blow 'em up?" The duck asked with his eye twitching as if he had too much caffeine. "Huh, huh, huh. Are we gonna blow 'em up?" the polar bear squeezed his beak shut.
"Shut your yap, little dweeb." The bear answered. "You'll blow our cover."
"Will you twos be quiet?" The weasel rebuked them. "I'm trying to come up with a plan." Looking around, Nac noticed a river trickling down the cliff side from a lake on top of the mountain.
"So, how are we gonna get the emerald? Huh?" Bean asked, spazzing out.
"Miss Breezy will pay us a lot to get that emerald and get those wolves out of here." Bark answered. "Then, she can build her new resort casino here."
"Boys, I'z think we have a plan." Nac announced to them looking at a boulder blocking the water from flowing. "Throw your bombs up there, Bean. We'll the wolves all washed up and hang 'em up to dry." Bean already lit one of the bombs and tossed it up towards the large boulder. The three got back on the bike and drove off as fast they could before the boulder exploded into a thousand pieces.
The wolves and their guests were enjoying their meal when they heard a loud boom from outside. Getting up to see what was the matter, several of the wolves could hear the sound of rushing and roaring water pouring into the cave's entrance.
"IT'S THE RIVER!" one of the wolves shouted. "IT'S FLOWING INTO THE CAVES!" Everyone immediately jumped to their feet and headed up to high ground.
"Sonic, get the children out of the caves." Lupe said. "Amy, Knuckles, I'll need your hammer and fists to block off the passage so that the cave doesn't get flooded any farther then it has to."
"Sure." Amy replied, pulling her trusty piko hammer out.
"I'm on it." Knuckles answered cracking his fists.
"Up over and gone." Sonic added grabbing several of the kids and running back and farther between the cave and the emergency exit. "Good thing, you have a back door."
Amy and Knuckles struck the wall of the cave. Then, jumped back as the rock trumbled filling the entrance as the waves stampeded in. Not a lot of water got through the closing wall of boulders filling the chambered floor only up to their ankles.
"Well, that's one disaster averted." Lupe noted looking towards the back exit. "Amy, light a torch and follow me out of the cavern."
"On it." Amy replied. Holding her hand up, a blue ghost light flame appeared floating just above her glove. The flame itself gave off no heat, only light came from it.
"Neat little trick." Lupe answered. "Let me guess, you're an esper."
"Huh?" Knuckles asked. "Is that Amy's religion or something?"
"It means I'm a psychic, knucklehead." Amy replied rolling her eyes. "I inherited a little talent, my mum."
"If you two are done talking." Lupe said. "We need to protect the chaos emerald." She pulled two black stone fragments out of her cloak.
"That's not a chaos emerald." Knuckles said. "Believe me, my tribe used to guard them. I know this stuff."
"No, they're not a whole emerald." She answered. "The pieces are trapped in the stone itself."
"Hey, I recognize those things." Amy gasped. "Those are the deep power stones! Those are the artifacts Sonic and Princess Sally used to destroy the Doomsday device and beat Robotnik."
"Indeed. They were given to our tribe to protect as a sign of trust." Lupe explained holding the two stones together. "We have been trying to figure out how to put the broken pieces of the chaos emerald back together, but as you can see we haven't had any luck."
"Let me try." Knuckles said. Lupe handed the two pieces to Knuckles.
"I wonder if there's some of sort of echidna ritual that will make the stones whole." Amy asked, curiously.
"We'll find out." Lupe responded. Knuckles spread his arms out as far as he could go and slammed the pieces together.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Amy shouted. "YOU BIG, KNUCKLEHEAD!" The two rocks smashed together and there was a bright flash of light…
On the surface above, the rest of the wolf tribe helped the children Sonic had rescued down into the canyon floor. Racing back towards the emergency exit to see if there were any cubs left, Sonic found himself face to nose with an angry weasel pointing a pistol directly at his face.
"Nac, you slimeball. What are you doing out here?" Sonic growled, bearing his teeth. "Wait, I bet you're the one behind this."
"You got that right, Sanic." Nac chuckled waving his gun around. "Miss Breezy wants dat chaos emerald and these wolves out of the way; doesn't matter if their alive or not."
"You mean that greedy gangster's behind this." Sonic answered, clenching his fist. "Looks like I have to take her down, just as soon as I finish with your sorry butt."
"We'll see whose butt is hurt after this, hedgehog." The weasel opened fire just as Sonic dove at him with a spindash. The shot collided with the blue buzzsaw knocking him straight back breaking the spin.
"Hey, how'd you do that? No one ever block my spin dash before." Sonic said falling back into the waiting claws of Bark.
"You're not going anywhere." Bark gnarled as he gripped onto Sonic tightly with the strength even Knuckles could've broken through. "What are we gonna do with him, boss?"
"Bean, get one of your special bombs ready." Nac said with a smile. "We're going to decorate this canyon with splattered hedgehog surprise…"
-To Be Continued-