The Speedster Coven
(The Owl House X Sonic the Hedgehog)
Chapter 8: Master of fates
Knuckles lays relaxed right next to the emerald, while Tails sits nearby, setting up something on his tablet.
"Alright Knuckles," Tails says, "if I set this up right, then…" Tails pressed something on his tablet, and a laser grid formed around the emerald. Tails throws a stone at the grid, and it gets shocked and pushed back. Knuckles receives a notification on a wrist device he was wearing. Tails taps his device and lowers the laser grid.
"Thanks a lot buddy," Knuckles says cheerfully, "You're upgrades make my job a lot easier." Knuckles pulls out a half-eaten chili dog, "Like, I can finally have a lunch break." Knuckles says eats chili dog, burps, and grabs his stomach. "Ugh..." Knuckles groans, "My stomach feels sick after just one of these, how does Sonic eat almost a dozen in one sitting?" Tails' cheery mood dissipates when Knuckles mentions Sonic, Knuckles walks over to comfort his friend.
"Hey, Tails," Knuckles consoles, hand on Tails' shoulder, "It'll be alright, Sonic has been through a lot tougher.
"I know, Knuckles," Tails said, "it's just, I haven't been able to locate the emeralds on Miles Electric." Tails holds up his device.
Knuckles stopped to ponder. "Well, then maybe it's just something wrong with the emeralds. Sonic had to deal with that before, so don't worry too much, okay?"
Tails smiles, "Okay, thanks, Knuckles."
Tails and knuckles hear a slashing noise, they quickly turn to look at it. There is a cut in the fabric of their world.
"That can't be good," Knuckles says, putting himself in a fighting stance.
The cut opens up, creating a portal to another world, Eggman walks out of the portal, wielding some sort of glove device.
"Eggman!" Knuckles shouts, "What are you doing, and where were you?"
Eggman chuckles, "Why, I had managed to enter another realm entirely, and to answer that second question…" Eggman pulls out weaponry from his Mech, "I came for the master emerald."
Knuckles is about to say something, but Tails jumps on his mech in an attack, and lands right in front of it. "What did you do to Sonic!?" Tails shouts.
"Oh, that pest?" Eggman asks, he shrugs his shoulders, "He alright, he's just mulling around, trying to find the Chaos emeralds on that world, speaking of which, I think I must introduce you to a couple of friends I made."
A short, red creature dressed in white walks out, followed by an army of sorts. "This here is Kikimora and the emperor's coven." A tall figure with a white cloak and a mask with antlers walks out. "And this here is my good friend emperor Belos." An army of purple specimens' step out of the portal. "Of course, we can't forget about our Abomaton Soldiers, can we?"
Knuckles smirks, "You came prepared, I'll admit" knuckles says, he jumps on the Master Emerald, and glows with a green aura, "But not prepared enough!" Knuckles launches towards Eggman, and lands hard on the ground, pushing back the invading forces. "Tails, the defenses!" Knuckles shouts.
Tails nods and presses a button on his device, bringing back the laser grid around the emerald's stand, and activating several turrets around the holding grounds of the emerald.
"This will be harder than we anticipated, Ivo" Belos stated.
Eggman chuckled, "Oh, but where's the fun without a challenge?" Belos nods affirmatively and sends out Kikimora and the troops.
Members of the Emperor's Coven rush towards Knuckles, but he digs himself into the ground. He emerges again, and strikes the guards from below the ground. One guard rush towards Knuckles with a spear, but Knuckles snaps it in half with a kick, and throws the guard aside. Two scouts rush at him, Knuckles kicks one in the legs, grabs their leg, and tosses the scout at the other. A guard uses an ice spell to launch Knuckles in the air, and tries to hit him with a fireball, but Knuckles glides out of the way and jumps on the guard's head, knocking them out. Knuckles noticed the Abomaton soldiers heading toward the master emerald.
"Tails," Knuckles shouts as he pummels a guard in the face, "get those strange purple beings!" Tails nods and flies over.
Tails lands in front of the hulking Abomatons, they try to strike him with their limbs, but Tails dodges the attacks.
"Alright Miles Electric," Tails says, looking at his device. "Let's show them what else my upgrades can do." Tails tosses Miles Electric in the air, and it clamps around Tails' arm, turning onto a cannon with a small screen on the forearm. Tails shoots electrical beams at the Abomatons, shocking them in place. One of the soldiers manages to grab Tails' leg, but he uses his tails to fly around the soldiers. And then ties them with the Abomaton arm. Tails taps some buttons on his screen, then unleashes an explosive fireball on the restrained Abomaton soldiers.
Tails cheers, "All right" he says, Tails notices more Abomaton Soldiers heading towards the emerald. "This might be a bit difficult with just Miles Electric," Tails says, Miles Electric reverts into a tablet.
"I know what to do!" Tails exclaimed, he tapped something on his device. Tail's plane, The Tornado, flies towards tails on the island. Tails jumps up in the air and gets into the tornado. "Alright, time to show them what I'm made of!" Tails eagerly shouts, he pushes some buttons, and the wings of the Tornado form into an X and the tornado enters an offensive mode. Tails targets the Abomaton soldiers and shoots them down from the Tornado. Most of the Abomatons are obliterated into purple chunks, but some of them manage to get out of the range of fire.
The Abomatons grab onto the Tornado and get up to tails, pushing the Tornado downward. Tails gets out of the pilot seat as the Tornado starts to descend, Miles electric shifts back into arm cannon mode. Tails shoots all of the Abomatons with electrical projectiles, but one of them manages to jump out of the way, and land on the Tornado's wings. He flies around and starts to shoot at the Abomaton, the Abomaton is shocked in place, allowing Tails to fly into it, and knock it into the ocean.
Tails gets back into the pilot's seat, then he realizes the plane is headed straight for the ocean. "I'm going to crash, ah!" Tails shouts at a low bit rate. Tails pulls the controls up, allowing the plane to barely make an escape, gently splashing water on the way up.
Back at Sky Sanctuary, Knuckles is fighting off the last of the Emperor's Coven. Two of the squadron launch a series of quick lightning spells. Knuckles dodges around these attacks, before borrowing into the ground. Knuckles quickly jumps up from the ground, in between the two. One tries to shoot lightning at knuckles, but knuckles ducks back into the ground, causing the other guard to be hit with the spell, falling to the ground. Knuckles pops back out to try and pummel the other guard, but the guard summons a vine to knock Knuckles into the ground. Knuckles lands on all fours, and proceeds to tackle the guard, before throwing the guard into the air, and jumping into them.
Knuckles looks on at all of the knocked down guards and scouts, and smirks, he then notices a lone scout, shaking in their boots. "Aw, looks like I missed one," Knuckles says, he walks towards the guard and cracks his knuckles. The guard lets out a childish shriek and passes out on the ground, Knuckles shrugs, "Well, I guess they all can't be winners!"
Knuckles, turns to walk away, but a fireball flies from behind him, and singes his dreadlocks. Knuckles turns around and sees Kikimora, summoning another fireball. "Foolish echidna," Kikimora says in an intimidating voice, "You merely saved the best for last."
"So, I did," Knuckles says, getting ready to lunge at Kikimora, "So I did."
Knuckles lunges at Kikimora, but she shifts out of the way and launches a wave of fire at Knuckles. Knuckles covers his face, and gets slightly burned.
Knuckles looks at Kikimora with a fiery rage, and tries to hit her with a series of punches. Kikimora shifts around each of his punches, and launches him into the air with an ice attack. Knuckles glides into the side of a nearby pillar, and Kikimora prepares a lightning spell. Knuckles glides from pillar to pillar as Kikimora launches lightning at him. Knuckles dives into Kikimora and delivers a devastating punch into the ground.
Kikimora gets off the ground and looks around for Knuckles, but he is nowhere to be seen. "Where are you echidna?" she shouts while looking around, she notices the ground rumbling around. Knuckles emerges and uppercuts her, he goes in for a stomp, but Kikimora stops him with a lighting spell. Knuckles falls to the floor and tries to get up, but Kikimora entraps him with a vine-like material. "Goodnight guardian," Kikimora says, "Tell the rest of your kind I said hi." Kikimora's eyes glow red, and the vine-like material grows deeper.
All of a sudden, something shoots from the skies, and Knocks out Kikimora, cold. Knuckles regains his energy and bursts through the vine like material, he looks up and sees Tails, piloting the Tornado.
"Thanks for the save, buddy!" Knuckles says while waving at Tails.
Tails waves back, "No problem, Now protect the emerald from Eggman!"
Knuckles looks concerned, "But what about that Belos guy? I don't think I have enough energy to face him."
"Don't worry!" Tails says, he presses a button on the Tornado. The tornado lowers to the ground and forms mech legs, it drops to the ground and its parts shift around until it reaches a proper mech state. "I'll deal with him, now go!" Knuckles nods and rushes towards the emerald.
Belos and Eggman look on at the chaos that unfolded on the peak of Sky Sanctuary. "Ugh, We're out of reinforcements and nowhere close to that emerald!" Belos states, he puts his palm over his face, "if only my nephew hadn't gone and beat up that robotic hedgehog of yours."
"Oh, don't worry, Belos." Eggman reassures, he snaps his fingers, and Metal Sonic, a robotic hedgehog with a striking resemblance to Sonic, even more so than Mecha. "For I just happen to possess another metallic hedgehog android."
Belos puts his hand up in concern, "I'm slightly concerned about the fact you own more than one of those, but I'm too desperate at this point to care."
Eggman points out his finger, and Metal Sonic flies towards the emerald. Knuckles gets in front of Metal Sonic, the two get into a fight
"Now while Knuckles deals with Metal," Eggman says while he powers up his glove, "We'll be able to take the emerald for ourselves."
Eggman and Belos make a run for the emerald, but they are blocked by Tails and his mech. "Not so fast, Eggman!" Tails shouts, "you'll have to get past me if you want that emerald."
Belos looks at Tails, "that can arranged." He says before launching an icicle at him. Tails shoots light projectiles at him, Belos blocks them with a shield spell.
"Go Ivo!" He tells Eggman, "I'll deal with the brat!" Eggman nods and runs towards the emerald.
"Wait, where do you think..." Tails is interrupted by Belos hitting his mech with a fireball.
"Don't forget me!" Belos warns as he makes more spell circles.
Back by the emerald, Metal sonic and Knuckles fight. Metal Sonic grabs Knuckles and throws him against a pillar.
Knuckles wipes the dust off of his dreadlocks, "You want to play rough now, do you?". Knuckles charges into Metal and tackles him to the ground. Metal Sonic kicks him into the air, Knuckles dives into Metal, bounces off of him, and digs into the ground. Metal scans the ground, until he detects slight motion. He puts his hand into the ground, and pulls up Knuckles by the neck.
"I see you stopped one of my tricks," Knuckles says. He grabs Metal Sonic and flips him over on the ground, Knuckles then punches Metal away from him. "Luckily, there's still plenty more where that came from!" Knuckles says.
Meanwhile, Tails is still fighting with Belos, on his mech. Tails straits around shooting at Belos, Belos blocks most of the shots, but gets hit in the shoulder by one. Belos shoots a beam of fire at Tails' mech, Tails flies out while the mech faces Belos' wrath. Tails shoots an explosive fireball right in front of Belos, knocking him back. Tails gets back in his mech and tackles Belos in it.
"Insolent, child!" Belos yells in anger, he summons vines from the ground, and they tear the legs off of Tails' mech. Tails jumps out as the mech falls to the ground.
"The Tornado!" Tails yells pained, he looks at Belos with a cold expression, and flies towards him. Tails shoots at Belos with Miles Electric, Belos dodges all of the shots. Tails jumps into Belos and tries to shoot him up close, but Belos pushes him off. Belos grabs Tails, and throws him onto the fox's fallen Mech.
"This is the end of the line, Fox!" Belos says as he prepares to shoot a fireball.
Tails looked around and noticed the mech cannon still works. As Belos shoots the fireball, Tails jumps over it and hits the mech's fire button with one of his tails, shooting Belos directly in the face.
After the impact, Belos' mask cracks up, his white hair flowing through the cracks. Belos grunts and gags, as he coughs up a black substance, he tries to hold it in. Belos lets out a distorted roar, his hand extends towards Tails, as it morphs into that same black substance. Tails tries to fly away, but Belos is too quick, and catches him by the leg. Belos swings Tails against the ground over and over again, before dropping him on the floor, and returning him too normal.
Belos walks towards Tails; Tails tries to get away, but Belos lifts him up by his collar fur. "Look what you made me do, child." Belos says with feigned sympathy. The emperor closes his fists, and sparks come out of it, Tails closes his eyes in anticipation. Belos is about to try and finish him off, but Belos is struck by a thrown Metal Sonic
Tails lands back down on the ground, he looks over and sees Knuckles; Knuckles walks over to Tails. "Sorry I'm late buddy, I had to deal with that Metal thief."
Tails nods, "Thanks Knuckles," he says, he turns towards Belos and Metal, "Now let's get them!"
Metal and Belos get off the ground, Belos groans and puts his hand over his face, "Let's deal with these vermin, right, Metal?"
Metal Sonic nods, "Affirmative," he says in a deep, sophisticated voice, "Let's make master proud!"
Metal and Belos start to rush towards Knuckles and Tails. Belos sends floor spikes toward the two, Tails lifts Knuckles away from the spikes. Tails spin around in the air and throws Knuckles towards Belos. Knuckles heads towards Belos with his fist out, he punches Belos into Metal Sonic, knocking Metal into the ground.
Metal flies into the air, "perish vermin!" he yells as he flies toward Tails and Knuckles.
Metal flies into Knuckles, knocking him back. Knuckles gets back up and anticipates Metal's next attack. Metal Sonic charges at Knuckles, but Knuckles flips Metal over on the ground. Metal grabs Knuckles and flies into the sky. He is about to throw Knuckles to the ground, but is shot by Tails' arm cannon. Metal falls and lets go of Knuckles, allowing Knuckles to glide back to the ground.
Knuckles and Tails go in for a high five, but they are interrupted by a sound from behind. Tails looks around and sees it is Belos, forming a spell circle. Belos finishes the spell, and sends homing projectiles towards the two. The projectiles knock around Tails and Knuckles, leaving them on the floor. The two of them nod, Knuckles digs into the ground and Tails flies into the air. Tails flies in circles around Belos, Belos tries to shoot fireballs at him. Knuckles emerges from the ground and punches Belos, knocking him down.
Metal Sonic approaches the two, Knuckles ducks down. Metal flies over him, and Knuckles kicks Metal into the air. Tails flies and carries Knuckles.
Tails shoots Metal with Miles Electric, and Metal is paralyzed. Tails spins in the air and throws Knuckles at Metal, Knuckles spikes Metal towards Belos, crashing into him.
Tails and Knuckles float down to the ground, they look over at Metal, who is laying, sparking up on top of Belos.
"Had enough, thief?" Knuckles asks sarcastically.
Belos weakly chuckles, "actually, I think we have." He speaks.
Tails and Knuckles look at the two confused, they all of a sudden hear a crashing sound from behind. They look over, and see Eggman, who had destroyed the defenses to the Master Emerald. Knuckles and Tails hurry to rush towards Eggman, but Eggman puts his hand on the emerald, and a shockwave pushes them back.
Dark matter spews out from Eggman's glove, it spills all over the emerald. The matter circles the emerald, until it fully engulfs it. The Master Emerald had become fully corrupted.
"What did you do, Eggman?!" Knuckles shouts, He raises his fists in the air.
Eggman chuckles. "Oh nothing, the emerald just has a new guardian now, and a new home" Eggman turns to Belos.
Belos nods affirmatively, then grabs an earpiece he had. "Secure the package, Blights!"
A chain emerges from the portal, it clasps itself around the emerald. Eggman puts the emerald on a wheeled platform, and gives a thumbs up. The emerald makes a move towards the portal. Abomaton Soldiers come to retrieve the unconscious guards.
"You won't get away with this!" Knuckles shouts, he lunges at Eggman. Eggman raises his arm, and uses the emerald to lift Knuckles and Tails in the air.
"Well, it was nice catching up with you two," Eggman says casually, "but I have some business to attend to, so goodbye fellas." Eggman throws Knuckles and Tails off of Sky Sanctuary.
Knuckles and Tails hurl towards the ocean at high speeds, Knuckles slows down by gliding, and grabs Tails. Tails flies to the side of the peak, Knuckles latches on. "Let's go, before they escape!" Knuckles shouts, he quickly climbs up to the peak of Sky Sanctuary.
Knuckles and Tails make it back to the peak, Knuckles notices the portal is still open, and tries to jump into the portal, but it disappears right before Knuckles makes it. Sky Sanctuary starts to slightly rumble as Knuckles falls to his knees.
"This island is going to fall!" Knuckles says weakly.
Tails looks on at the empty peak, and pulls out Miles Electric in tablet mode. Tails taps on Miles Electric, and calls Amy Rose. "Amy," Tails says, "send a team to Sky Sanctuary, something big just went down."
End of Chapter Eight