SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: SUPER SONIC Z
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE GUARDIAN
The Freedom fighters had landed on Angel Island, a place believed having only existed in fairytales. But it was as real as can be as they had made their way towards it and landed. They were surprised however when they found the island being overrun by Eggman's machines.
As they wandered through the forest, still wondering how Eggman had found the island. However, Muttski's sensitive ears jerked. "Muttski hears someone following us!" he said.
"Is it one of Eggman's robots?" Sonic asked.
"No…Eggman's robots aren't so light on their feet." Muttski replied.
The Freedom Fighters were on their toes. They didn't know what the one following them had in store. "Come out wherever you are! We know you're there!" Sonic shouted out to the heavens.
"Don't antagonize him Sonic." Sally said.
Out of the fern of the trees jumped a red blur, who jumped to a few other treetops before he stood still on top of a tree. The being was Mobian, with red fur, dreadlock-like spines, tribal clothing and spiky boxing-gloves. "Go back!" he said.
"Whut?" Sonic asked.
"Go back, leave this island and never return. This is your last warning thieves!" he said.
"Thieves? We're not thieves, we haven't stolen anything." Tails stated.
"Not yet, but I know what you're here for, and I won't let you have it." The echidna said.
"We didn't want to steal it…we're trying to prevent someone else from getting it and abuse it's power." Sally stated.
"I don't believe you. You could be working for that mustached guy who has invaded my island and tainted it with the presence of his machines!" the echidna replied.
"Mustached…Dr. Eggman?" Tails wondered.
"So you know him? So you are on his side!" the echidna said as he jumped off the branch, glided at our heroes with his spiky fists forwards, our heroes scattered to avoid being on the receiving end of the spikes.
"Listen, we don't want to fight you…" Sonic said, trying to be reasonable.
"Then you'll be defeated!" the echidna said as ripped a tree stump out of the ground and tossed it at our heroes. They avoided being hit by it.
"Whoa, he's strong!" Fiona noted.
"That's it! If he wants a fight, he can have one." Sonic said as he rushed at the echidna. However, the echidna uppercut him and knocked him in the air, Sonic drops the box with Chaos Emeralds in the progress.
The echidna took it, and peeked inside: "I knew it, you've stolen the remaining emeralds and now you're after mine!".
"I didn't steal them, I earned them, give them back!" Sonic said.
"Make me!" the echidna said as he fled.
"After him!" Sonic said as he and the others chased the echidna. However, after chasing him down for a while, the echidna grabbed a gourd and poured the liquid contents on the floor, making Sonic slip on it and run into a tree. "Got to admit, he's pretty crafty."
"Muttski has echidna!" Muttski said as he got close to the echidna, he jumped up, Muttski couldn't stop and ended falling down a trap hole. "Echidna has Muttski!" he said as he fell down.
"Ah got him!" Bunnie said as she used her jet boosters to get close to the echidna, but he pulled out something from his pocket, a mushroom of sorts and tossed it in Bunnie's face, making it explode in a cloud of yellow spores. Bunnie fell down, but Antoine caught her.
"Bunnie, are you okay?" he asked her.
Bunnie wasn't hurt, but she had a weird look on her face, like she had too much alcohol. "Hey you know sugah-twan, you're really cute, and ah luv the way ya talk!" she said as a bit of drool left her left mouth corner. She then grabbed Antoine's butt.
"Ooh-la-la!" Antoine said embarrassed.
"Oh, ya got a nice tush! But ah also got a nice set of buns, wanna feel?" she said.
The remaining Freedom fighters still chased the echidna. "He's almost as fast as you and Sonic." Fiona commented.
"Yeah, almost!" Tails said as he cracked his tails and used them to gain a speed boost while running, tackling the echidna down on the ground and make him drop the emerald box. Sonic, having picked up himself and having caught up, has picked it up.
"Okay, red guy! I don't know what your problem is, but you got serious issues. Someone should put you back into your place." Sonic commented.
"I won't lose to you!" the echidna growled.
Sonic handed Tails the box of emeralds. "Tails hold these for me, I'm going to take this guy head on. The rest of you, don't interfere." Sonic said, sure of himself.
"Are you going to be okay?" Sally asked.
"Don't worry, I've dealt with guys tougher than him. Next to the death egg he should be a breeze." Sonic said. He then took a battle stance in front of the echidna. "Okay, you and me, right now. No tricks, no traps, just one to one with our own strength and techniques."
"Fine by me." The echidna said as she cracked his spiky knuckles. He rushed at Sonic, Sonic did the same. He tried deliver a punch, but Sonic ducked under it and spin-dashed in his stomach, knocking him back. But Knuckles grabbed the curled-up hedgehog in his hands and tossed him into a tree. Sonic shook his head to shake his daze of, as he saw the enraged echidna approach and rolled out of the way as the echidna punched right through the three, snapping it in half as it fell down.
As Sonic had avoided the punch, he delivered a powerful kick to the echidna, sending him flying. The echidna recovered and punched the ground, creating a crack that moved up to Sonic, as he sank into the ground. The echidna moved closer to a trapped Sonic, who vibrated himself out of his predicament and spin-dashed into the echidna, knocking him over. "You're not a bad fighter hedgehog." The echidna said.
"Thanks, you're not bad yourself. You actually make me break a sweat." Sonic said cheekily. As Sonic looked at the echidna, he saw something behind him. "Look out!" Sonic said as he tackled the echidna to the ground. A bullet flew over them, which would have hit the echidna if Sonic didn't interfere.
Amy retaliated by taking out the robotic sniper out with one of her arrows. When the echidna realized what had gone on, he said this: "You saved me!"
"Duh! I guess you didn't want to have your brains splattered all over the floor." Sonic answered.
"If you saved me from one of those robots it means you're not on the same side as the robots' master." The echidna realized.
"That's what we've been trying to tell you the whole time!" Sonic said to him.
"I'm sorry, I take my duties a bit too serious at times. I apologize for my behavior." The echidna answered.
"Apologies accepted. So, what's your name?" Sonic asked.
"I don't know…one day, nearly a year ago, I just woke up from a long slumber without any memories. Only from ancient writing on the temple of the island, which isn't much as it is, I was able to deduce I'm destined to protect the island and the emerald in it." The echidna replied.
"We have to call him something, have we?" Tails stated. He thought for a moment. "How about 'Knuckles'?" he suggested.
"Because he's a knucklehead?" Sonic stated, the echidna had an annoyed look on his face.
"No, because of the spikes on the knuckles. And he's a tough fighter, so it fits I guess." Tails explained.
"Knuckles…well, can't think of anything better and it fits, so yeah, call me that if you want." Knuckles agreed.
"By the way, I'm Sonic, fastest thing alive. That's my little bro Tails, his girlfriend Fiona, Amy, Lily, Rotor and last but not least for sure, the greatest girl in the world, my girlfriend Sal!" Sonic introduced. Sally rolled her eyes but was clearly flattered.
"Reminds me, where are Muttski, Antoine and Bunnie?" Fiona wondered.
As if on cue, a tired looking Muttski and Antoine carrying a drunk on spores Bunnie came onto the scene. "Muttski doesn't remember how long it took to climb out of the pit." He said as he collapsed on the ground in front of them.
"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, do-do-do-do, here they are all sitting in a bunch…" Bunnie sang drunkenly.
"Hey Twan, where have you been? We managed to convince this knucklehead we're not the bad guys!" Sonic said.
"Trying to get Bunnie 'ere, those spores are making her act…different (pronounce that last word in a French accent)." Antoine answered.
"I am being carried by the schmexiest coyote on Mobius! Tee-hee!" Bunnie laughed as she stood up, staggered around for a bit before she nearly fell if Sally didn't catch her. "Hey Sally-girl, you're my best friend in this whole darn world… Say haven't you made Sonic a man yet, if ya know what ah mean?"
"Er, the spores will eventually wear off, I don't mean to kill anyone, just neutralize them!" Knuckles stated a bit embarrassed.
"I guess Bunnie has to sit this one out then." Amy noted as she helped Sally carry her.
Muttski had woken up from his tiredness and saw the remains of the scrapped assassin. "Oh, did Sonic and guys fight robot?" Muttski asked.
"Yes, why?" Sonic reacted.
"Knowing Eggman, and the Freedom Fighters all know Eggman, where's one robot, there are always…" Muttski said, but was cut off when several Kama-Kama's, Asterons and Spikes jumped from the fern and shrubbery and surrounded them. "…more. Muttski just jinxed it, right?"
The heroes normally had no trouble dealing with the large group of enemies, since they were doing that since forever. However, they all forgot about the spore-drunk Bunnie (or actually have put her aside, telling her to stay put as they fought the robots) but Bunnie's head was screwy and she forgot she had to stay down. "Heya fellas, keep sum for me!" she said as she aimed her blaster, but due to her intoxicated state she missed and hit Sonic, who dropped his Emerald box again.
"Bunnie!" Sonic said annoyed.
"That's ma name sugah-hog! Hiccup!" she said as she fell over. The heroes could hear her snore, obviously stating she has fallen asleep.
Sonic tried to make his way for the Emerald box, but a few Eggman robots got in his way. As Sonic fought them off, something came down and snagged the Emerald box. It was a long retractable mechanical arm. It was attached to the Eggmobile, controlled by (not really surprising) Dr. Eggman. "Hello Freedom Fighters! Long time no see…or maybe it's not, I really lost my sense of time after YOU MADE ME SO MAD AFTER BLOWING UP MY DEATH EGG!"
"How did you get here before us? You couldn't have known about the fairytale!" Sonic asked.
"You see, when the Death Egg blew up, it was broken into pieces, which were scattered everywhere. One really big and relatively intact piece ended up here. It was intact enough to be detected by my scanners so I found my way to this invisible island. Now, with these Emeralds I'm going to complete my nearly-finished Death Egg Mark II and instead of rewriting history, I'll just burn everything on the surface of the planet to ashes and rebuilt my empire form it!" Eggman gloated.
"I won't let you Egghead!" Sonic said as he jumped for Eggman, only for Slicer to jump in his way and kick him off his master.
"I'm sorry I can't play with you now, hedgehog, but I have to oversee the construction of my new and improved superweapon." Eggman said as he tried flying off.
However, Knuckles jumped into the treetops and jumped up, gliding after Eggman. "I won't let you get away, not after you tainted the island with your presence!" He was about to touch him, but Knuckles was shocked by a forcefield Eggman has erected around him.
"I'm sorry, guardian. But I don't need your emerald anymore, so I have no time to play with you any longer. Ta-ta now!" Eggman said as he activated the thrusters of his Eggmobile and zoomed off in the distance. Knuckles plummeted towards the ground, hurt by the electric forcefield earlier.
"My job here is done…until next time hedgehog!" Slicer said as he bowed and left the Freedom Fighters to be. He had done as he was told, hold back the hedgehog as Eggman snatched the emeralds.
"Damn it! He has our emeralds!" Sonic cursed.
"Didn't you hear what he said? He said he didn't need the one Knuckles has anymore. But why? He knows using the Emeralds when the set is incomplete is dangerous." Sally stated.
"Not unless you have something to stabilize it, like the fake emerald. Don't know if Eggman created one, he might have created a something to substitute for it." Tails deduced.
"But he left us with one emerald, so why would he allow us to keep it?" Sonic wondered.
"Because one against six and a stabilizer is not exactly even odds." Knuckles reminded him.
"Correction, one Chaos Emerald and a Time Stone. However, we haven't figured out how to work the Time Stone yet." Tails said.
"We might have to learn sooner than later, the Death Egg must never rise again. We are going out there and take it down before it takes to the skies! And we take the emeralds back. Are you with us, Knuckles?" Sonic said.
"Of course, if you can keep up!" Knuckles stated.
"I wanted to say the same about you…" Sonic said with a grin. There was obviously a friendly rivalry going on between the two.
"Okay, we need to work on an attack plan and fast, the doctor himself bragged it's nearly finished. But we'll show him we won't give up!" Sally said.
END OF CHAPTER