"E-gad! What in the blazes is going on out there?!"
Eggman was pissed.
One moment, he was enjoying his eggy, villainy nap, and next the world shook to it's roots.
Eggman rushed to the bridge of the Egg Carrier, praying the world hadn't shattered again.
His prayers were answered.
The situation was much worse.
Eggman, upon reaching the nearest viewport, looked up and gaped at what he saw. The sky was ripped into fragments, each rip looking like an interdimensional doorway.
The biggest tear, however, looked like a world consuming void. It swarmed as it took up more of the night sky (for where he was, it was night), but at the same time, it seemed to be collapsing in on itself.
"There has been a change in the winds…" Eggman said darkly. "A threat to my rule. The time will come soon when I will unveil my latest project, heh heh… Perhaps I should speed up my plans and pay him a visit…"
"Finitevus, what did you do?!" Knuckles yelled to the albino as the entirety of New Nocturn, for some reason unknown was slowly being pushed towards the rapidly expanding rip in the Twilight Cage.
"This isn't me, Guardian! I have no—" Finitevus, who had somehow find himself standing on top of the judgement hall, was pulled up towards the rip in space-time by a demonic looking black tentacle from below, which flung him through the gateway. "Curses," he mumbled as he disappeared from sight.
All around Knuckles, the same was happening to many people, many who screamed out in fear, and some who accepted their fates in gloomy silence as the tentacles swept them off their feet—literally.
"Knuckles!"
The guardian jerked his head towards the call, noting with happiness that is was his long-time love, Julie-su.
"Julie! Uh, not the way I meant to see you again—"
"Shut up and get us out of this!" Julie-su had apparently been a little to close to the void-like door, and gravitational force started to pull her towards it, struggling to wrench her away from the streetlamp she was clinging on to. Saffron the bee was flapping her wings frantically trying to help Julie-su, although the results where minimal.
Moving immediately, Knuckles glided over Julie-su, and put his gloved hand over hers.
"It's gonna be fine, 'Su." he soothed. "You trust me, right?"
"Y-yeah." Julie-su visible relaxed.
"Well, try not to hate me. See you in a bit." Without warning or waiting for the sure-to-be confused response, Knuckles lifted his hand, then hers, effectively allowing gravity to grab her.
"Knuck-!" Her cry was silenced when she entered the exit. "Knuckles." A familiar voice cut through the fog of Knuckles' thoughts.
"Moritori Rex?" Knuckles recognized the voice of his ancestor. "What are you…Oooh, Finitevus banished you here, didn't he?" Knuckles recognized the other Guardians standing besides Rex as well. "Tobor, you're looking well. A sight for sore eyes." Knuckles chuckled at the intended pun (Knuckles does, infact, chuckle).
Tobor laughed as well. "My eyes are a lot more than that, young one. Now, come. We must leave this place."
"…Do you know what's happening?" Knuckles asked. The members of the Brotherhood looked to each other with uneasy glances.
"…Something bad. Something that puts our entire world at risk—no, the entire universe. Something so ancient even Aurora-la does not know what, or who it is. But we will do no good to Mobius if we sit here talking. Now, come on!" The Brotherhood members leaped into the air, and gliding, flew straight into the void.
Grumbling, Knuckles followed them. "They never told me they could glide."
As he looked around for the last time, he saw the many other races of the Cage apparently being sucked into gateways back to what he assumed was their home planets. Hope they learned their lesson about trying to enslave entire planets…hey…Eggman tried to rule our planet dozens of times! How come—Ooh, maybe the Argus Event happens once for every planet?
He didn't have time to contemplate this thought as he flew through the rip in the sky, which closed behind him unexpectedly. Huh, guess I was the last one out…
Upon seeing the withering mass of tentacles, and pieces of land exiting the hole in the sky, Relic had fainted. Again.
Tikal watched with interest as several echidnas few down from said hole, one of which she recognized as Knuckles. One of the other echidnas (she noted they were of the Knuckles Clan) spoke to Knuckles, all the while pointing at her.
"Uh…Knuckles? Who are the old geezers?" Tikal inquired. "I don't remember them..."
"Oh, Tikal, meet the Brotherhood of Guardians. They were, in the, uh, Old World, my predecessors." Glancing elsewhere, Knuckles noted Relic unconscious besides the Master Emerald. "She fainted again, huh?"
He was about to say something when Moritori Rex (who was missing from the group) flew down to join the echidnas in the Sky Sanctuary, holding an angry looking Julie-su and a sleeping Saffron.
"Knuckles…" Julie-su growled. "Why did you throw me through that hole in the sky?"
"Uh…Would it be ok if I told you it was because I love you?" Knuckles grinned awkwardly.
Julie-su stormed up to Knuckles, looking as if to punch him (with her left arm), but kissed him instead. Breaking away from the kiss, she replied, "Well, I love you too, Knux." Then she slugged him.
"Knuckles, just so you know, Aurora-la has extended the Master Emeralds power to keep the New Nocturn—" he glanced at it in disgust, "—And she advises you to 'meet in the middle'. She also says—"
"New Nocturn, you say?"
The echidnas conversing turned to see Tikal, who's eyes were alight with flames.
"Under no circumstances will they step foot on this island." Tikal growled.
Knuckles (now with his breathing under control) couldn't help but agree. Not just because of the tribal feud, or that they tried to kill him, but the island would soon be densely populated with the rescued echidnas.
All the more reason to keep everyone else away from it.
Knuckles looked below the edges of the Sanctuary, and smiled. Whatever had brought them all back had been kind enough to place the Albionites on Angel Island directly. Many of them where hugging family or friends who should've been lost to the Egg Grapes, and many more where up and about, dancing, celebrating.
Julie-su came up to him, a tuckered out Saffron on her head. Wrapping a hand around him, she leaned her head back into his. "Beautiful. This wasn't here before, was it?"
"No not really. I'll explain later." Knuckles didn't feel like ruining a good day, though. Looking at the happy echidnas rejoicing, Knuckles couldn't help but feel that everything was going to be alright.
A/N: Im still alive, just so you all know.
Next...whatever is gonna be a little bit of a crossover, though no characters from the other universe will play an important role, and will only be mentioned in the next chapter. Ciao!