Chapter 9: Angel Island
Screwdriver scanned the horizon as she veered her biplane to the right, enamored by the floating mass of land nearby.
"Ooooooh." She giggled as she steered the aircraft, flying just high enough to be level with the ground. "Time to land!" A second glance, however, revealed trees lining the edge of the floating island, preventing her from touching down.
"Woahh!" She veered left and followed the irregular shape of the island's perimeter, studying the trees that formed a protective barrier against foreign threats, looking for an opening to land her plane. Before she realized it, though, she felt the sun's warmth abandon her, obstructed by a tall tree resting upon a peninsula jutting out from the rest of the land.
"Ahhhhh!" Pulling the yoke toward her, she clenched her teeth as the plane swooped up and began to climb along the tree's trunk, eventually achieving a greater height than its peak. As she was about to sigh in relief, though, the plane fell back, performing a reverse loop under the weight of gravity. Attempting to keep her cool, the prodigious fox gripped her smol hands to the yoke as the plane dove down, barely missing the land mass and swooping beneath the floating island instead.
"What's she doing?" asked Sonic, who worriedly peered down at the smaller plane below, placing his gloved hands against the sleek glass hatch of the Tornado.
"She doesn't know where to land," Tails replied, eyeing the troubled hedgehog through the rearview mirror. "Here, let's follow her." Entering into a nosedive, the orange kitsune expertly swooped below the island, leveling off his plane while following the disoriented fox cub from a safe distance. Tails grabbed the corded speakerphone from his dashboard and cleared his throat.
"Screwy, this is daddy."
"Daddy!" Despite having nearly crashed moments earlier, Screwdriver was still in a cheery mood, one made all the better with the reassuring voice of Tails to keep her company.
"Follow me, Screwy. I know where we can land safely."
"Hmmm…?" She cocked her head as she pondered her daddy's request. "Okay!"
"Phew…" Tails wiped his brow. "Glad to see she's finally listening to us!"
"Won't make her any less grounded…" Sonic grumbled from the backseat, sitting between Blitz, Leo, Amanda, and Clover as he folded his arms in annoyance. The other fox cubs weren't paying much attention to their runaway sibling, however.
"Aha!" Blitz called, placing his palm over Leo's fist. "Paper beats rock! That's two out of three." The edgy fox cub groaned as he fished through his tail for a Mobium, flicking the coin to the energetic fox to his side. Blitz caught the coin and pumped his fist up in the air. "All right!" He exclaimed. "Who's number one?"
Leo scoffed. "I have no use of worldly possessions anyway…" Leo crossed his arms as he peered out the window, having no doubt saved this edgy one-liner for just the right moment.
On the other side of the blue hedgehog, Amanda stretched out each individual finger of her left glove before pulling it off, extending her hand out and analyzing each of her fingers.
"What are you doing, Amanda?" Clover asked from her side, leaning forward to see what caught her attention.
"Just looking at my nails." Amanda showed off her green nails complete with silver polka dots.
"They look adorable!" Clover exclaimed, resting her hand on her sister's leg. "When did you get them done?"
"Ohh, the other day." She put on a big smile. "Daddy helped me, too!"
"He did?" Clover placed a palm over her mouth. "But…he's a guy."
Amanda chuckled under her breath. "The right hand looks worse, but his technique got better by the time we did the left."
"Very pretty." Clover gave her sister a warm smile with closed eyes, only interrupted by the sun appearing seemingly out of the nowhere as the biplane emerged from beneath the floating island. Giving himself some leeway, Tails pulled the yoke, swooping the aircraft upward.
"Now follow me," Tails ordered into his cordless phone.
"Ga!" Screwy replied in baby speak. Peering up, she furrowed her brow as she pulled her yoke toward her belly as well, following her daddy to the blue skies above. She kept her distance as the elder fox leveled off and made a 180-degree turn, following shortly after him. They were now approaching the island's surface once more.
"You see that clearing up ahead?" Tails asked. Screwdriver looked forward, nodding as she spotted a grassy landing strip between lush trees.
"Mmhmm," she replied with a nod.
"Good, now just land behind me. Make sure to deploy your landing gear!"
"Kay!" She replied with a giggle. As the orange kitsune touched down on the island, Screwdriver steadied her plane, preparing herself to land as well, but as she leveled off, her yoke snapped from the rod to which it was affixed. The fox yelped in surprise.
"What's wrong, Screwy?" Tails asked as he rolled to a stop. He peered up to find his daughter flying overhead. "Where are you going?" The prodigious kit froze in indecision, holding the steering contraption in her hand for several seconds before shaking her head and attempting to slide it back into place. Unfortunately, the yoke simply fell to the floor, refusing to stay in place. She was only now starting to realize that constructing a biplane in a matter of hours was, perhaps, not one of her brighter ideas.
"Whaaaaa!" Screwdriver looked ahead once more, finding the plane's altitude starting to fall as she descended upon an open clearing. She could see a shrine with stone steps near the end, a large, glimmering emerald resting on top and a picturesque waterfall serving as its backdrop.
"Screwy? Screwy!" Tails yelled into his phone. He only heard the sound of desperate screaming from his daughter on the other line, followed by a brief crash and complete silence. The orange fox called her name once more, but she didn't respond.
"Screwy…" Tails dropped the phone from his gloved paw, his arms falling to his sides as he gazed down at his legs, sitting still in the pilot's seat as tears started forming in his eyes.
Pulling himself up from between the other fox cubs, Sonic reached over his younger brother, pressing a button on the dashboard to open the protective glass casing. He picked him up, cradling the kitsune in his arms as he jumped to the grass below. The blue hedgehog set him down feet first.
"I'm sure Screwy's all right," Sonic reassured, placing a palm on Tails' shoulder as he sniffled, "after all, I'm sure she must've built some sort of safety doohickey or somethin'…" The orange fox wiped his nose with the tip of his namesake. "But we'll only know for sure if we go search for her." Tails looked up at his older brother, his radiating smile filling him with rejuvenated confidence, giving him a renewed sense of hope when all seemed lost only moments earlier.
"…Right." Wiping the moisture from his eyes, Tails gave Sonic a confident nod before activating his rotary namesakes, flying up to the cockpit to collect the four fox cubs, two in either arm. Returning to the ground below, gently landing with bent knees, the orange kitsune handed the blue hedgehog Clover and Amanda while he kept Blitz and Leo in his own arms. "Let's go!" Pressing his two sons against his furry chest, Tails sped forward with the aid of his tails, Sonic running alongside as they approached Screwdriver's last known trajectory.
Yawning into his gloved paw, a lone red echidna stretched his arms as he sat upright against a large, green emerald several times his size. Crossing one leg over the other, Knuckles pushed up his cowboy hat and slid his sunglasses down to get a good view of the trees gently swaying in the wind. Taking in a breath of fresh air, he allowed his aviators to rest on his muzzle as he grabbed his tall glass of grape juice from his side, sipping at it with a straw.
"Ahhh, now this is the life." Setting the glass down with a clink, the sound of ice cubes colliding with each other in the otherwise still, quiet afternoon, the red echidna closed his eyes once more, pushing his hat back down to shield his eyes from the sunlight. As he was about to fall asleep, however, the ears under his dreadlocks perked up, alerting him to a noise generally foreign to Angel Island.
Tipping his hat up, and pushing his glasses down his snout, he gasped at the sight of a biplane approaching him at a rapid pace. Tipping over his juice as he shot up, Knuckles waved his arms in the air.
"STOP!" he cried, hoping to capture the pilot's attention, but it was no use. "Kuso!" The red echidna dove out of the way, his glasses and hat flying off as he rolled down the stone steps of the shrine seconds before the miniature biplane collided with the mystical gem. The plane exploded, engulfed in a fiery flame, while the emerald remained unscathed.
Knuckles spun around shortly after reaching the ground, dodging a few pieces of shrapnel that flew in all directions before catching his breath, watching as the fire roared around the mechanical mass which could not withstand the amazing, chaos-infused powers of the Master Emerald.
"Whoever was in there couldn't have survived that." With a sigh, Knuckles planted his sneaker on the first stone step of the shrine, stopping as he heard a whooshing sound from above. Looking up, his jaw dropped at the sight of a baby fox cub, who slowly descended back-first with a mysterious green aura surrounding them.
"I gotchu little guy." Lifting his arms, the red echidna grabbed the orange kit, who was all smiles as they giggled at the sight of a new friend. Knuckles looked at them in confusion. "Where'd you come from, lil' guy?" Cradling the furry fox baby in his arms, the red echidna peered up at the fiery mess above once more. "Don't tell me…you were in that plane, weren't you?"
"Gaga!" She nodded her head, a prominent UwU on her face. Knuckles almost UwU'd back, overcome by the fox's overwhelming sense of floofy cuteness, but he shook his head and, instead, sat on the stone stair, placing the cub on his left leg.
"I don't know how to tell you this," Knuckles began, sighing as he collected his thoughts, "but your pilot didn't survive the crash."
"Goo?" The cub cocked their head while raising a finger to their lower lip.
"You know, the one who flies the pla—" The red echidna froze as he eyed the goggles strapped to their forehead. Observing the fox more closely, he found the cub wearing a utility belt not unlike the one Tails wore.
"But…you can't be related…to Tails?"
"Dada!" they cheerily yelled, giggling as they clapped their hands.
"Dada?" Knuckles raised a hand to his chin. "Since when did Tails become a father? And what about Sonic?"
"Papa!" they replied even louder.
"Okay, now I'm really confused." The red echidna shrugged his shoulders. "So if they were looking after you, where are they now?" The baby raised a finger to their chin in thought before twisting themself around, pointing away from the shrine and down the dirt path leading to the clearing beyond. Just down the hill and past the echidna's small cabin was the forest leading to the landing strip Sonic and Tails always used when stopping by for a visit.
"So they're already here?" Knuckles asked. The fox replied with an enthusiastic nod. Pondering for a few moments, he lifted himself from the stair and cradled the baby in his arms once more. "Well that settles that." He turned around and peered up at the mystical gem for the final time. "Sorry, but I need to take care of this cub first. I'll come back and check up on you later." The cub was confused, unable to comprehend why the strange echidna was talking to himself.
"Hey, Knucklehead!"
"Huh?" Spinning around once more, he found Sonic and Tails running toward him. Knuckles chuckled gently under his breath as he noticed the four other fox cubs in their arms. The cub in the echidna's arms smiled brightly as they extended their arms toward their parents in excitement.
"Well Sonic…Tails…" Knuckles raised the child in the air. "Care to explain this?"
I apologize that this chapter took so long to publish! I prioritized finishing my longfic, A Prelude to Chaos Control, and then I started the homebuying process shortly after. The latter has taken up a lot of my time, but I still hope to continue writing on a somewhat regular basis.
Special thanks to Stardown for coming up with the idea for the fox cubs to visit Angel Island!