The golden age of Angel Island had passed. Finitevus was now the guardian, and Locke and his son Knuckles were said to have been dead. Locke's body was buried last week, but Knuckles' body was nowhere to be seen.
Many changes were made on the island. The Babylon Rogues and their families were Finitevus' assistants, the parents were being overworked in the field and Finitevus stole the money they had.
Taking it no more, Lara-Le, her three sisters Rita-Le, Komi-Ko and Mari-An and brother-in-law Wynmacher all stormed up to Finitevus.
"Finitevus!" Lara-Le demanded, "This has to stop. You are destroying the island!"
"I am merely looking after it, my dear." The white echidna replied, "And I am the guardian, so you must do as I say!"
"Locke didn't make people do as he said!" Rita-Le snapped, "He was a true leader and looked out for the well being of his tribe, and the island!"
"Something which you clearly lack." Added Mari-An. "No wonder Locke was chosen to be guardian over you!"
This enraged Finitevus so much that he punched Mari-An to the ground, which Wynmacher did not take kindly to.
"You've asked for it, chump!" He growled, and the two fought, while the other girls helped Mari-An up.
"We should get the children out of here." Komi-Ko whispered to the others as they got into a hiding place.
"Good idea." Rita-Le agreed, "But where should they go?"
"We could try Zokar and Aleena or Ruby." Mari-An suggested, "The first two have a son and the latter has a daughter, both a bit older than Simon and Floren-Ca."
"They are running away." Sighed Lara-Le. "News has spread fast about Finitevus' plans."
"How about Sonia, or maybe Sally and Khan, Mina and Manic or Rotor and Nicole?" Asked Rita-Le, "They seem nice enough."
"Well, Sonia's got Charmy, Melissa and Ivo to look after." Komi-Ko pointed out, "And she and the others have run off too."
They've tried other ideas too, but none seemed to have clicked... until Lara-Le told them another one.
"What about the Valley Tribe?" She suggested, "They are quite secluded. I'm sure Sha-Quo's family won't mind looking after them."
The other three sisters agreed that it was a good idea.
-
"But mum..."
"It's for the best, sweetheart."
Gala-Na hugged Tikal tightly and gave a kiss on the forehead.
"I will miss you and Gabor very much."
"As will I." Pachacamac agreed, as he handed both kids their suitcases and gave them a hug and kiss goodbye.
"We will see you again, won't we?" Asked Gabor, also getting a hug and kiss from his mother.
"One day."
Tikal and Gabor joined their friends outside. It was pretty late at night. They had to slip away while Finitevus was asleep.
"So," Tikal announced nervously, "are we ready to go?"
Her friends looked equally as nervous and sad as she did, but they nodded.
"We've got a lot of ground to cover." She continued. "Let's get moving."
-
"It can't be that far away." Shade commented as the group started to go around a big rock, "I mean, Sha-Quo can get to our tribe and back within a day."
"That's because he and his parents are always on horseback." Sighed Remington. "My mum says we can't take the horses with us. Finitevus will just take em back!"
"Couldn't we have at least take a couple of the ponies?" Asked Jon as he panted along.
"We can't risk it, buddy..." Julie-Su trailed, taking the younger echidna's hand.
-
As they walked along, the night grew cold and bitter in the wilderness, and a blizzard started to form. The group shivered and froze in fright.
"Ah-choo!"
Shade walked over to the younger echidna worriedly.
"We have to find shelter soon," She said, putting another coat on the red echidna's body, "Kneecaps' is getting a cold."
"I don't know if we're going to find any..." trailed Ralph, placing extra gloves onto Jon's hands. "We're in the middle of nowhere."
"We can't give up now." Tikal called to her team, "There has to be a cave or something where we can warm up."
What the group didn't realise, was that two mobain bats were sleeping in a house close by. The younger of the two, just a few years older than Simon and Floren-Ca, had woken up.
Ugh! She groaned, Blizzards are so loud.
Maybe she could get some hot chocolate out to fall asleep again. That sounded like a good idea, she thought.
But, as she went to the kitchen, she thought she saw something outside.
"Those trees weren't there before, and they can't grow in this weather." She pondered to herself.
Trying to shrug it off and telling herself that she was seeing things, she proceeds to get the hot chocolate ready. Maybe she'd get some for her mother too, in case she wakes up.
-
Back outside, the kids continued to shiver, and poor Gabor started sneezing too.
"AH-CHOO!"
"Here," Tikal said gently, "take my scarf."
Before she could wrap it around Gabor's neck, it blew right out of her hands into the wind.
"Floren-Ca, hold Gabor!" She said quickly, and raced off after her scarf.
-
Back inside, the younger bat was trying to find the hot chocolate powder, when something hit her front door.
"What was that?" She asked herself.
Her mother had woken too.
"Rouge, are you ok?"
"Yes, mum, but something hit the door."
They both whipped out their winter coats, boots, scarfs, gloves and hats to look outside. There was a dark purple with pale pink tipped scarf which had just blown from the door to the window.
"Someone must be looking for this." Rouge's mum commented. "It would have to be a child to wear a scarf that small."
"In the middle of the night?!" Rouge cried, "but... that can't be possible!"
Just then, they saw a small figure running toward them.
"Oh, there's my scarf!" She sighed in relief. "Thanks."
Rouge stared at the kid. She had seen her briefly before, when she and her friends took off to the 'rogues base' or something, but she never got her name.
"What are you doing out here in the cold?" She asked, "It's much too late to be far from home too."
"Running away." She replied, "Finitevus made the island too unsafe for the kids to live there. We didn't know it was going to be a blizzard tonight."
"Do you have friends with you?" Asked the older bat.
The kid pointed to the shape on the hill. Sure enough, the two bats were able to make out the shapes of 9 young echidnas freezing together.
"Come in with your friends." Rouge said gently. "I'm making hot chocolate, and mum can get some blankets."
The girl nodded gratefully, and brought her friends inside.
-
The kids' winter clothes were drying out on the hooks in the hallway, and Rouge and her mother Ruby had brought out hot chocolate to them all.
"Thank you." They said gratefully, and began to drink them slowly.
"Will Finitevus get here?" Asked Shade nervously. "Or the rogues?"
"They don't know about this cottage." Rouge confirmed. "Besides, the blizzard would have covered your tracks."
"However, next time, check the weather report before setting out." Ruby advised. "I don't recommend going out in a blizzard, especially in the middle of the night."
"We'll remember that in future." Julie-Su agreed.
Ruby then went to call the parents, and Rouge looked carefully at the children. Something didn't seem right...
"I remember 8 of you who went to the Rogues' Base, and there was a 9th member of your group as well." She told them, "Someone's missing."
Tikal didn't say anything to that, but just sobbed into her hands. Gabor, Jon and Kneecaps clung to each other tight, also crying. Julie-Su and Ralph nuzzled into each other with tears coming down their face. Remington and Shade clung to each others' hands with depressed looks, and Simon and Floren-Ca were trying their hardest not to cry.
Thinking that they lost their friend in the storm, Rouge was about to get her winter gear to go looking for him, but her sensitive bat ears picked up her mother talking on the phone.
"... they both died?"
"Yes." Replied the female voice on the other end (Rouge didn't recognise it), "My son was Tikal's best friend."
Rouge sighed sadly, and hugged Tikal gently.
The orange echidna looked up gratefully, and reciprocated.
"He will always be in your heart." She whispered.
"I know..."
"And maybe one day," Rouge added, "one of you can be the next guardian in Finitevus' place, rule the island like it's supposed to be."
That brightened up everyone a little, and they felt good enough to get some sleep.
-
Meanwhile Eric and Teri-Lu were accompanying Lara-Le, Mari-An, Rita-Le, Komi-Ko and Wynmacher on the way to their house.
They had been told of Finitevus and Wynmacher's fight and they hoped Wynmacher was ok. Both could see that the brown echidna had certain blows on his body, but they were nothing compared to what he had given Finitevus.
"Wow, I can not believe that that bastard of Finitevus who knocked down poor Mari-An." Eric groaned, "I should beat him up, too."
"Don't worry." Mari-An reassured, "Wynmacher already left him beat up. I don't think he'll do it again."
"I'd hate to see someone else hit to the ground like that," Komi-Ko said with a worried tone.
"I second that." Rita-Le agreed with her sister.
"I still can not believe that someone like him is related to Locke." Eric muttered, "Since childhood he never gave a good impression to Pachacamac and I."
"Well, the important thing now is to be prepared." Teri-Lu announced, "We don't know how things are going to be in the future. But, I do know one thing." She paused. "The dark times are rolling in on our island."
The others nodded worriedly in agreement, and decided to chat with the other members of the tribe.