Trixie: Thanks :D Yeah, I love Omega too...he was my favourite character in Sonic Heroes
Asher Tye: It certainly looks that way...;)
Maverick87: Now THAT's a good idea :P Bait bombing Shadow...ooh boy :D And thanks, glad you enjoyed it :D
Forgotten Muse: Yeah, talk about a miscalculation :P Guess Chaos Control isn't as easy as it looks ;)
Awdures: Thanks :) And...yeah, I guess there is a kind of theme :P
D.C.111: Yep :P As for what's going to happen...you'll find out soon ;)
KR. Mitchell: (blushes) Thanks; I'm glad you liked it :D As for whether Sonic and Bait are going to meet again...maybe, maybe not ;)
Taranea: (laughs) Oh man! I never even thought of having Sonic land on top of Shadow :D (blushes again) And thanks; I love writing Shadow :P And I think you're right; it'd make a pretty cool picture :D
Milette Tails Prower: Thanks :) Shadow's an interesting kind of character...like you say, he's neither one thing nor the other :P
Guardian's Log no. 11502
I've failed.
I've never had to write that before, or even admit to it, but it's true. I came down here to get a replacement for the Master Emerald and rescue my sister, and I screwed it up on both counts.
--Knuckles the Echidna
Dear Diary
I managed to get Espio out the tunnels! Now all I gotta do is go back for Knux and his sister! I saw ol' Scarface hit her on the head with a pickaxe. I hope she's okay.
--Tails
Knuckles lunged forward, but Scarface was already gone; he'd vanished immediately after striking the puggle, and the echidna didn't believe he was stupid enough to hang around.
Carefully, he walked towards the crumpled form of his sister. There was no doubt she was dead; the pickaxe had gone straight through her skull and at least four inches into the brain. For a moment Knuckles was sorely tempted to yank it out, then he decided against it.
His sister...
What was her name? Knuckles had never asked. Now he'd never know either.
The sound of someone approaching him cautiously from behind snapped the echidna back to reality and he tensed. If they thought they could just grab him like your average Mobian, they were in for one hell of a surprise.
Hands curled into fists, entire body shaking slightly, Knuckles turned to face his would-be assailants.
"Alright." The word was barely intelligible, snarled out through clenched teeth. "Who's first?"
---
Tails dropped to the ground, panting for breath, then looked around him and tried to figure out where he was. The heat was intense; cloying and humid, and there were too many scents in the air for him to isolate one. Dark green foliage surrounded him on all sides, so thickly clustered it was hard to tell where one plant ended and the next began.
The fox flattened his ears, for once unsure what to do. He couldn't leave Espio here – the chameleon needed help – but he couldn't abandon Knuckles to the tunnels either.
Maybe he could rig up some kind of sling. Tails looked up to where numerous vines were strung between the trees, some as thick as his arm, and shook his head. No, he had no way to cut them and by the time he managed to break them, Espio's arm would probably have healed on its own. Gnawing through the vines was out too; Tails was no botanist by anyone's standards, but even he knew better than to bite into strange plants, especially in the jungle.
Which jungle was this? And how was he supposed to help both Espio and Knuckles?
A sound drew the fox's attention to his left, although he couldn't see what had caused it. Even as he watched, an area of moss on a fallen log was depressed into the shape of a footprint.
Tails hesitated, then took a deep breath. He didn't think Espio would ever forgive him for what he was about to do, but there was nothing else for it.
Turning to where he'd seen the moss sinking, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "HEY YOU!"
No response. The fox scowled at the area. "I know you're around! I saw you make a footprint in the moss! Espio's hurt an' he needs help! If you don't want me to see you, I'll look away and let you take him, but you can't leave him like this!"
Nothing. Tails turned away, heart hammering. He didn't know much about chameleons, but what little he did know – ie, a lot of them treated non-chameleons with a distrust that bordered on xenophobic at times – wasn't exactly reassuring.
When two or three minutes had gone by without any sound or response, Tails rolled his eyes. Typical!
Turning around, he came face to face with a strange chameleon and leapt back reflexively with a startled yelp.
"Did you say Espio?"
Tails nodded vigorously. "Uh huh. And you gotta help him 'cause I don't know where I am and I don't know how to get him back to Scrap Brain Zone and—"
"You're in the Jungle Zone. As far as Scrap Brain goes, you can put him on the cable car; there's a station two miles away. It's a four hour journey, but it's the fastest way to get him there."
"Four hours?" Hopes of dumping Espio into Mighty's care and rushing back to help Knuckles died as Tails slumped against the tree. He hadn't realised Scarface had dragged them that far through the tunnels. How long had they been out?
The chameleon hesitated, reticence clearly battling curiosity, then he said, "What happened to him?"
"He was fighting in the tunnels and ol' Scarface broke his arm," Tails said, not quite accurately.
"The tunnels?" There was a sudden hard light in the chameleon's eyes that made Tails uneasy. "You're from down there?" He nodded towards the barely visible cave opening.
Tails hesitated. "I guess..."
To his dismay, the chameleon folded his arms and said, "In that case, you're on your own. Why don't you go back where you came from?"
The fox glared at him, dismay giving way to exasperation. "What d'you think I'm trying to do? Espie was trying to rescue Knux's sister, only ol' Scarface hit her with a pickaxe. Espie's gotta get to a hospital and you gotta help him 'cause he's a chameleon like you, and I thought chameleons were loyal to each other." Tails paused for breath. "Please," he added hopefully.
"Leave it." Espio's voice was hoarse, but audible. "He won't help us. You're wasting your time asking him." Pushing himself to his feet, gasping as pain tore through his arm, the chameleon leaned against a tree for support and jerked his head at Tails. "I'll head for the station by myself. I'll be fine. Go and get Knuckles before someone plugs him with another tranquilliser."
The mention of Knuckles convinced Tails, who spun abruptly and leapt back down the shaft, both namesakes spinning rapidly as he hovered in midair, scanning the rocks for a sign of the echidna.
He wasn't hard to spot, Tails realised. Knuckles was in the centre of a ring of bodies, not all of them fully conscious.
Without stopping to think about what he was doing, Tails dived towards the echidna, seizing him under the arms and struggling to gain back the height he'd just lost. He was vaguely aware of shouts, and of something (several somethings, in fact) whizzing past him close enough to ruffle his fur, but not close enough to do any real damage.
There was no sign of anyone when he and Knuckles finally burst into the sun. Either Espio had managed to cover a good amount of distance already, or more likely he'd vanished and was probably watching them even now.
"Knux!" Tails dropped the echidna the six feet to the ground, then flew down to land next to him. "Are you okay?"
Knuckles stared at him for a long moment as though trying to place him, then nodded once. "Yeah. Fine."
He didn't look it, Tails thought worriedly. Physically the echidna seemed fine, but there was a slight dullness in his gaze that the fox really didn't like.
"Knux, we gotta get to Scrap Brain. There's a cable station a couple miles away; we just gotta follow the path and we'll find it."
When the echidna didn't immediately spring into action, Tails took off again, flying behind Knuckles and shoving him hard.
"Quit it!" Knuckles ordered, half turning in a vain attempt to swat the fox out of the air. Dodging, Tails folded his arms, the action looking faintly ridiculous in midair.
"We gotta go, Knux. Right now. I don't wanna get caught out here and I'm not gonna let you get caught either, so c'mon!"
Before the echidna had a chance to react, Tails had grabbed him again and taken off, flying him some two feet above the ground.
"Alright! Alright, fine! I get the point! Now put me down, kid; I can walk just fine."
Tails set him down a little more gently than before, although he kept a tight hold on Knuckles' arm.
"You're not gonna go back down there, right Knux?"
The coldness in the echidna's expression took him aback and he shifted his weight uneasily.
"There's no point now, is there?" Knuckles said at last.
"I'm sorry," Tails offered. "'Bout what happened to your—"
"Yes. Thankyou." Again, the words were colder than Tails had expected and he fell back a pace or two, confused.
"Knux? Are you okay?"
"Apart from my sister just being murdered by a sadist who just got access to an unlimited source of Chaos matter to do what he wants with?" Knuckles said in one breath. "Yeah, kid, I'm just peachy. How about you?"
When Tails didn't answer immediately, the echidna sighed.
"C'mon," he said in a quieter voice, "we'd better get moving. It's going to be a long walk to that station."
---
Some distance away, and a long way down, Scarface skidded to a halt, gasping for breath. He'd been running flat out for a full ten minutes now, ducking and weaving through the tunnels so much that Knuckles wouldn't have been able to follow even if the chameleon hadn't been camouflaged.
Leaning against a wall, he closed his eyes and waited to get his breath back. He'd registered the presence of two slaves – both talking instead of working – but didn't have the energy to discipline them.
Once he felt stronger, he pushed off from the wall and set off at a jog, heading for an office where he knew he'd find Sekko. It was long past time for a little talk.
The office itself was in fact just a cave, one slightly larger than the others and almost perfectly rectangular in shape, but nowhere near as grand as the name suggested.
"I thought I'd find you here," he said abruptly.
From behind his desk, Sekko raised an eye ridge. "Good call. Will this take long?"
"What was the point of removing that puggle?"
Sekko eyed him coldly. "You had your orders, Lugnor. I would have said they were clear enough."
"Kill the puggle before the other echidna reached it," Scarface reeled off flatly. Without waiting to be invited, he sat down on the edge of the table, crossing both legs at the ankles.
A slight narrowing of the lizard's eye informed him that this was going to be remembered against him later, but Scarface was past caring.
"You found it hard?" Sekko queried.
"I found it...distasteful." Now Scarface sounded as though he was choosing his words with the utmost care. "I'm an overseer, not a damn hitguy. Dealing out the death penalty is one thing. What you had me do was murder. Usually I'm not too bothered about that either, but it's going to spark off riots if it ever gets out and I'm going to be caught in the middle."
"If you're too squeamish to handle the finer points of this job, maybe it's time for a change in occupation," Sekko said, tone dangerous.
Scarface raised an eye ridge. There was no way he could stop being an overseer. Quite apart from the flexibility of the hours and the high pay, he knew far too much for them to let him go and find a job among Mobius' more respectable people. Only Espio had managed that (not that his brother had stayed long enough to rise very far in the overseer hierarchy) and that was only by hiding and severing all contact with everyone he'd ever known.
"Funny," Scarface said pleasantly to Sekko. "I was just thinking the exact same thing."
The blow was so clean and fast that Sekko didn't register it, thought that Scarface was preparing some odd form of attack. It wasn't until the unnatural warmth drew his gaze down to see the blood seeping out of his chest that he realised the truth and raised a shocked face.
"My brother's," Scarface said, flourishing the now bloody kunai by way of explanation. "I took the precaution of searching him while he was unconscious. Rather effective, isn't it?"
Sekko stared, bewildered. He'd never viewed the chameleon as a threat; in an odd sort of way, Scarface was the closest thing he had to a friend, although neither of them would ever say the word out loud. Getting stabbed by the chameleon almost felt like betrayal.
"What...?" he managed, before collapsing onto his knees and from there to his face. Scarface didn't answer, didn't react except to move out of arm's reach; he wouldn't have put it past the lizard to hamstring him, even half-dead.
Survival instinct and perhaps an odd sense of propriety stopped Scarface from turning his back on Sekko until the light had died completely from the lizard's one eye, then he smiled slightly.
"It's been fun," he said in matter-of-fact tones, "but like you said, it's time for me to find another job, and unless I'm very much deceived, a vacancy's just come up."
--
Tails looked around him. It was early evening and they were back in the CDA headquarters. Mighty – who seemed to have unofficially taken over Vector's role – had given them rooms for as long as they needed. The room Tails had picked out was small but more than enough for him, containing not only a bed but a large bookshelf and giant beanbag next to it. Unlike the other rooms, there were no pictures on the wall, but the large oval rug in the centre more than made up for the lack.
It was also Knuckles' room, although the echidna hadn't been in it since they'd got back. In fact...Tails frowned. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen Knuckles all day and that worried him. Suppose the echidna had some thoughts of revenge?
Scrambling out of his beanbag – something which wasn't as easy as it sounded – Tails replaced his book and padded out the door, searching each room for some trace of Knuckles.
In fact, the echidna was only a few doors down and, although restless, wasn't quite crazy enough to try storming the tunnels singlehandedly.
"You're obsessed," Espio remarked. His arm had been plastered up earlier and thanks to the painkillers, he was in a far better mood than he had been all week. Sighing, he added, "There's no point dwelling on things you can't change."
"If that kid hadn't stopped to argue—" Knuckles began.
"What happened down there was no fault of Tails'," Espio said flatly. "What's the big deal, anyway? You didn't know you had a sister a year ago, and it's not like you got to know her."
Knuckles took a deep breath. "I'm the last of the echidnas. When I die, my race will be extinct."
"Uh huh." Espio raised an eye ridge. "And unless you were planning to have kids with your own sister, rescuing her would have changed...what, exactly?" Reaching out, he somehow managed to change the channel and grab a fistful of peanuts one-handed and almost simultaneously.
Knuckles shook his head, eyes haunted. "You don't know what it's like, Espio. You don't know what it's like to be the only one of your kind."
"I understand more than you might think." Espio changed the channel again and the Zonal News gave way to a turtle naturalist swimming with feral sharks. "How many chameleons do you see on a regular basis? Or if you want an example a little closer to home, how many two-tailed foxes?"
Knuckles got to his feet abruptly, pacing back and forth across the hard red carpet before turning to face Espio again.
"That's just it! Tails is only different from other foxes because of some...some kind of genetic mutation!"
"An extra tail?" Espio drawled. Helping himself to more peanuts, he added, "That's quite some mutation." He shrugged, careful not to spill his food. "But if you want to wallow in self-pity and rant and rave some more, go ahead. There's nothing on TV worth watching."
The echidna tightened his jaw. "Do you ever care about anyone besides yourself?"
A slight smile appeared on Espio's face. "I try not to these days. Sometimes I even succeed."
"You're a big help." Spinning abruptly on his heel, Knuckles stalked out of the living room and into a room none of the CDA used much for the simple reason that it hadn't been decorated or furnished yet. It did, however, offer one of the best views of the Zone along with a raised dais to get a better look and Knuckles stepped onto it, staring at the panorama in front of him without taking any of it in. It was here that Tails found him some ten minutes later.
"Knuckles!" Tails hopped up next to the echidna. "Are you—oh." Ears drooped as Knuckles turned his back on him. "Oh. Okay." He paused, trying to think of something to say. "Knux, I'm real sorry. If we hadn't argued, mebbe ol' Scarface wouldn't've been able to kill your sister before we got to her."
"You're damn straight he wouldn't," Knuckles said tonelessly.
Tails' ears flattened further. It was one thing to believe that he'd let Knuckles down; it was quite another to hear it from the echidna himself.
"You want me to go away?" he asked after the awkward silence between them had stretched out interminably.
"That'd be nice, yeah."
"Okay." Ears drooping, namesakes tucked between his legs, Tails padded forlornly over to the door. Pausing, he turned around. "Knux?"
"What?"
Tails swallowed. "Are you mad at me?"
"What do you think?"
The fox cringed. "I'm real sorry, Knuckles, honest. I jus' wanted to make you proud of me. You know, like you were when I first came out the tunnels. I heard you an' Espie talking and how you thought I couldn't handle it. I wanted to prove you wrong."
Knuckles turned a look on Tails that verged on the dangerous. "My sister – the only other echidna in existence – is lying dead in a tunnel, the people in charge down there are all set to get hold of a limitless supply of power and energy and we lost the replacement Master Emerald, all because you wanted to play the damn hero."
Tails flattened his ears and stepped back. "Knux, that's not fair!"
The echidna took a long, deep breath, held it for a few minutes and then expelled it in a sigh.
"You're right, it's not." He shook his head, staring unseeing out of the window at the metropolis beyond. "Just go, alright?"
Tails went, taking care to close the door behind him. Despite Knuckles' words, he knew that this was only a temporary thing, that the echidna simply wanted a little space to come to terms with what had happened.
Well, fine. He could deal with that, and when Knux was ready then things would be back to normal again.
He hoped.
"Tails?"
The voice came from behind and Tails turned, coming face to face with Mighty.
"You know he didn't really mean that," the armadillo said quietly.
Tails looked up at him miserably. "But he's right. If he'd gone out, he coulda finished ol' Scarface and then we coulda got his sister out. If I hadn't argued with him..."
"It wasn't your fault, Tails. And Knuckles is honourable, if nothing else. He'll come round, I promise. Just...give him some space, okay?"
In fact, Knuckles was already feeling guilty over the way he'd treated Tails. Although he firmly believed that their debate/argument in the tunnel had slowed him down enough to let Scarface do what he'd planned, he was also honest enough to admit that he'd played his part in it. Tails had done his best.
Still, he couldn't very well apologise to the fox; at least, not yet. The feelings were still too raw inside; if he saw Tails anytime in the near future, Knuckles thought he might say something they'd both regret.
Yeah. Give it until the morning, then I'll make it up to him. Part of him thought that Tails might understand; after all, the fox had acted in pretty much the same way after Sonic's supposed death.
Leaning forward onto his elbows, Knuckles stared unseeing at the view. Scrap Brain Zone was at its best – there was a soft rain falling and someone had managed to work out the exact placement of streetlights in order to achieve the maximum rainbow effect – but he was past caring.
"Knuckles?"
The echidna blinked, then half turned to see Espio silhouetted in the doorway and realised how dark it had gotten.
"Espio. Thanks for your help." There was no irony in his tones; he genuinely meant what he was saying. "If it hadn't been for you, I doubt we'd have got as far as we did."
Espio shrugged, the gesture meaning, Yeah, well.
"I owe you some money, don't I?" Knuckles' voice was vague now, the sound of someone who is currently seeing life through a haze. "Two and a half thousand Mobiums."
The chameleon leaned against the wall and shook his head slightly.
"Forget the money. It doesn't matter, anyway."
"Doesn't..." A frown creased Knuckles' forehead, the first real indication of feeling he'd displayed since coming out the tunnels. "The money doesn't matter?"
"No."
The echidna turned around fully, staring at the chameleon. "Alright. Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Espio?"
"Ha ha." Espio pushed himself off from the wall and came to join Knuckles, staring at the view.
"Do you want something?" Knuckles asked, after a few minutes had gone by in silence.
"Besides you digging that stalagmite out your ass?" Espio shook his head. "Not really. Except to tell you that what happened down there would have happened anyway. Orders."
"Orders?" Knuckles echoed. "What do you mean, orders?"
The chameleon hesitated, then sighed. "Alright. I'm only going to say this once, Knuckles. If you mention it to anyone – anyone – I'll deny it until the day I die, but I think you need to know. I was there when your sister was first brought down, and I was there when every overseer got their orders. If anyone – especially an echidna – besides the person who brought her to us came looking for her, whoever got to her first was to kill her. I don't know why. I followed you down that tunnel and as soon as I saw Scarface heading towards the pit, I knew what he was going to do and so I acted." When Knuckles stared at him in silence, Espio added quietly, "There was nothing you could have done. The mines don't just have overseers; that area was covered by snipers."
A hovercar horn blared loudly outside, the noise making both of them jump and startling Knuckles out of his funk.
"You..." he began, then abruptly lunged forward and seized Espio by the arms. "You knew? All the time down there and you knew what your asshole of a brother was going to do?"
Espio turned his head away. "I knew someone was going to do it. I just didn't know who, and I didn't see any point in telling you since you were so determined." He shrugged. "Maybe I even hoped that you'd be able to beat the odds and succeed."
Knuckles released the chameleon and turned away. "So we're screwed. I don't have my sister and I don't have a replacement for the Master Emerald either."
He wasn't sure in the darkness, but he thought Espio might have grinned. "I think I can help you with that one, Knuckles. That lump you got out of the Chaos Caves is in Sekko's outer office."
"What?" Knuckles swung round again, jaw hanging. "How..."
Espio flicked a finger. "Never mind that. Sekko's desk – that coiled dragon he was always so damn proud of – is hollow inside. You can lift up the top and retrieve your replacement." He paused. "Or you could just smash your way through it, whichever suits you. You won't be disturbed; I hear Sekko's left that particular premises for a slightly better place. I wouldn't hang around though; once word gets out the place is deserted, looters will probably be on it like bees on a honeypot. See you around, Knuckles."
Turning, he walked towards the door, blending as he stepped through it.
"Yeah," Knuckles muttered, mind reeling. The Master Emerald was in Sekko's office? How the hell had Espio managed to pull that one off?
Well, he supposed it didn't really matter. What was important was that Angel Island would soon be floating peacefully in the skies again.
Knuckles headed out of the room and towards the front door. He could grab the Emerald, get back here with it and then he and Tails could return to Angel Island the next morning.
"Glad to see you're moving again," Mighty remarked as Knuckles drew level with the kitchen. The echidna shifted his weight.
"Yeah, well, seems I'm not the only one."
"I know. I was watching Shark Bay Mania, but Espio dozed off and I decided to give him some peace. The doctor said he needed rest."
Knuckles snorted. "Yeah? Maybe you should remind him of that; he and I have just been having a pretty interesting talk."
Mighty frowned. "Espio? That's not possible, Knux; I checked on him two minutes ago and he was out for the count. Those painkillers the doc gave him really pack a punch."
The echidna stared at him, momentarily speechless. "What?"
"See for yourself." Mighty opened the door across the way wide enough for Knuckles to see the chameleon sound asleep on the couch inside.
Knuckles stared at Espio's slumbering form, then at Mighty.
"Then who...?" His voice tailed off.
"I dunno," the armadillo said with a shrug, "but whichever chameleon you spoke to, it wasn't Espio. And speaking of which, I better toss a blanket over him if he's going to kip on the couch. I'll see you in the morning, Knux."
He walked into the living room, shutting the door on Knuckles' stunned expression.
Okay...so that answers that question :) Next chapter's the last one, and it's shaping up to be a pretty long one. Hope you liked this one and if you read, please review!