Chapter 7 Dealing with the Guardian

Its nearly midnight, 11:50 PM to be exact. Dusk's fast asleep in her bed. It wasn't hard for her to sleep...the soft, purple-colored pajamas she wore and the light blanket she was under made it hard for Dusk to not sleep.

She quietly rolled over in her bed, just before a faint thud was heard. It didn't rouse Dusk, it didn't disturb her dream, in fact it barely made her ear twitch.

Another, slightly louder, thud is heard...this time with some inaudible mumbling. Again no reaction from Dusk. Yet another thud is heard that was louder then the first two, just before a grunt and some more mumbling.

This time Dusk wakes up. She barely open her right eye to look around. What in the world is up at... she looks at the clock which glowed a gentle grey in the dark, ...11:53 at night?

A very loud thud is heard just outside the door to her room, as is a frustrated grunt and plenty of muttering. The door slides open and the hallway lights flood Dusk's room, causing her to grunt and pull her head under the sheets.

A small form enters her room, floating several feet above the ground. Bokkun floats up to the lump in bed. "Come on Dusk, up at 'em." he says with as much enthusiasm as possible.

Dusk groans, "Bokkun...go away, I should be asleep right now."

"You think you're the only one? Eggman literally pulled me out of bed ten minutes ago for me to come and get you." The creature argues with a yawn.

Dusk groans again. "What does Eggman want me for this late at night?"

"You've got me there, all I know is that he sounded eager...I rarely see him this excited at all." The only response is a grunt of annoyance, and a little shifting of the lump. "If you don't get up, I'll have to leave a bomb for you."

"Guuh..." she groans. Hearing that was just enough encouragement to get up. "Fine...tell Eggman I'll be right there." she says.

"He wants to meet you in the hangar." Bokkun says. Dusk pokes her head out from under the blanket to see Bokkun floating away, rubbing at a spot on his head.

"So that's what those thuds were...might as well go see what he wants." Dusk gets out of bed and changes into her normal outfit, then shuffles into the hallway.

Despite practically sleepwalking after leaving her room, she still gets to the hangar in under five minutes. After a yawn she looks around for Eggman, spotting him in his floating chair and seeming wide-awake. "Ah! Finally you're here." He says normally, despite the current time.

"Pardon my language, but how the hell do you have so much energy right now?" Dusk asks.

"I'm used to working late-nights...anyway Dusk, climb on. We've got a mission to do." He replies.

"What mission means dragging me out of bed at 11 something at night?"

"I'll explain on the way, now just climb on." Eggman says, now getting slightly irritated. Dusk mumbles something, then walks over to the left wing and use her shadow to lift her up. Instead of standing, Dusk sits down on the wing as the chair flies away.

Dusk would've dozed off in that sitting position had it not been for the cold wind blowing in her face. Sitting there in a half-daze Dusk listens to Eggman's plan. "We're going to attack Knuckles." He explains.

"Knuckles? You mean the red echidna?" Dusk asks.

"Yes."

"But why in the middle of the night?"

"That's when he's the easiest to beat."

Dusk snorts, Yea...me too. She thinks while rolling her eyes.

"You see Knuckles would easily spot us from his floating island during the day, but at night we'll be able sneak up on him...and that's if he's awake." Eggman further explains.

"Okay...so now tell me why we're even going to mess with him? The page on him said that he mostly keeps to himself on his island. If he's just going to stay there, why are we going to bother him?"

"Did you read about what he keeps with him on that island?" Eggman asks.

"Please, I'm not in the mood for a trivia game." Dusk says with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice.

"He keeps the Master Emerald there, and that Emerald can negate the powers of the other emeralds. Using that emerald's power, Sonic could cancel out the powers of our emeralds..."

"Or we can cancel out his?" Dusk finishes.

Eggman lets out a happy laugh, "Exactly!" He continued to chuckle a later more on their way, but Dusk mostly tuned him out, preferring to grab a little extra sleep.


About fifteen minutes pass before Dusk is woken up again. She looks to see Eggman gently shaking her and gesturing downwards. She looks down and sees some large ruins thanks to the glow of a large green gem. Also in the glow is a red figure, which Dusk guessed was Knuckles.

"That's the Master Emerald?" She asks while the chair descends.

Eggman nods, "What I want you to do is take that emerald and place it into the holder on the back of my chair."

"Say what?" Dusk asks in surprise, "You expect me to actually lift that huge gem? I don't think that's possible."

"If you can't lift it then just use your shadow powers." Eggman shrugs. The chair comes to a rest about three feet above the ground. "Remember, stay quiet."

Dusk nods then softly gets down from the wing. She creeps up to the stairway of the ruins and (with a little difficulty) ascends.

Sure enough, that red form she saw in the emerald's glow was Knuckles, but luckily the echidna was fast asleep...and snoring like a chainsaw. He was propped up against one of the ruined pillars, both hands behind his head, and actually looked harmless...despite the spiked knuckles and a couple sharp teeth poking out of his mouth. Bad thing was...Knuckles was lying in a way to block the staircase.

Oh man! How am I supposed to get something as big as the Master Emerald past him?Dusk thought. Despite the roadblock, she stepped over the echidna and continued up to the Master Emerald. She stands for a few seconds in awe of the size and beauty of the emerald...then snaps back to reality and tries lifting it.

After a couple seconds of her unsuccessful attempt, she gives in and tries lifting it with her shadow powers. Using her shadow, Dusk forms a tentacle that wraps itself around the base of the jewel. She lifts her hand, and (luckily) the jewel lifts up too. Dusk sighs from relief then walks back towards the sleeping roadblock, stopping beside him to figure out a way past.

What she didn't know though, was that since Knuckles can sense where the Master Emerald is, his body felt the emerald move and he woke up. Knuckles groans and then partially opens one eye.

Dusk freezes when he groans and does nothing while his eye is adjusting to the darkness. Once Knuckles realizes someone is try to steal his emerald, he springs forward and tries to punch her, but Dusk ducks just in time and kicks Knuckles in the gut, causing him to skid backwards.

"Who are you and what exactly do you think you're doing?" Knuckles growls to Dusk.

"My name is Dusk and I'm taking this emerald." She replies while setting it down. Knuckles smirks.

"Not without a fight you're not." He says before springing forward and throwing another punch, and again Dusk dodges.

Instead of attacking again, Dusk grabs the Master Emerald with another tentacle and hightails it down the staircase, with Knuckles right behind her. At the bottom, Dusk runs a couple feet before throwing the emerald into the grass and whipping around to kick Knuckles in the side.

The echidna slides a ways in the grass before getting up. "What do you want the emerald for?" he yells while running forward again.

"I'm taking it so Eggman has..." Dusk's cut off when Knuckles yells, "Eggman will never have the Master Emerald!" and leaping forward yet again.

Dusk sighs and counters by grabbing his hand and throwing him away. "Look, we only want to..." again she's cut off by a snarl and a charging echidna

"Dusk! He won't listen to us, just grab the emerald and lets go!" Eggman yells from the chair. Dusk kicks Knuckles away again, then grabs the emerald and hurries over to the chair. She sets it down in the holster and climbs onto the wing as Eggman flies away.

Knuckles watches Eggman and Dusk fly away with his emerald and shoots them a cold glare. "Grr...if Eggman's after the Master Emerald, then no good can come of it." A rumbling noise is heard and Angel Island begins falling...again. It plunges into the ocean about three miles away from Mystic Ruins.


Back at Eggman's base, he and Dusk have returned with the large Master Emerald. Decoe and Bocoe and quickly congratulated them on a job well done. "Yea, yea. Now if you don't mind Eggman...I'm going to back to bed." Dusk mumbles while hurrying off towards the door.

"Eggman, can you please explain why you require the Master Emerald?" Decoe asks.

"That answer is easy. I'm developing an incredibly powerful robot, but it needs a large power source. Only the Master Emerald can do the job right now, I don't have enough of the other emeralds." Eggman replies.

"But why even build a robot when we have Dusk?" Bocoe asks.

"I don't care how powerful Dusk is, it can't hurt to have several combat robot on standby." Eggman replies, "Enough chit-chat, get that emerald down to the vault. Now!"

Both robots salute, grab the emerald and hurry off. "Besides, with what I'm planning...Dusk could use a little backup." Eggman mumbles before walking off towards his room.