Chapter 3: Loose Secrets
Eggmanland, Two and a Half Weeks ago
Doctor Robotnik looked from the top of his tower at his destroyed Utopia, Eggmanland, after his plan of unleashing the god of darkness, Dark Gaia, a being capable of shattering the planet upon awakening. On top of that shattered world would have been his magnificent city. Unfortunately, like all of his plans, it backfired when he couldn't control the powerful beast, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog intervening, putting an end to his plans once again.
"Countless failures and I haven't even beaten that horrid hedgehog." He said to himself, "this stalemate has gone long enough. It's to set my newest plan into motion. Orbot!"
The door slid open revealing a red spherical robot coming in. "At service sir. What can I help you with today?"
"How's SKT been performing in her training?" asked Robotnik.
"It's going spectacularly," Orbot responded. "She passed the speed and flight tests with flying colors. She is almost ready for your plans, sir."
The mad doctor smiled, "Excellent, phase one is nearly complete. Orbot, how's the reconstruction of Eggmanland going so far?"
"Well, city progress is slowly being put on hold for now, as we lack the amount of resources to rebuild. However…?"
"However, what Orbot?"
"We might be ahead of schedule as we found this, sir." Two of Robotnik's Egg-Pawns walked with a small glass capsule, inside it was a glowing purple stone in the shape of an emerald.
Robotnik grinned, "Ah, ha, ha, yes a Chaos Emerald! This will definitely be useful for my plans. All of you can leave now."
The robots obliged and left Robotnik alone with the emerald, and Orbot followed suit. Robotnik looked back into his ruined city and said to himself, "The Chaos Emeralds aren't going to be enough to power my glorious utopia, but there might be something else I can use," he said with a wide smile.
Angel Island, Present Day…
The moon light shone above one of the planet's most bizarre sightings, an island that levitated above the ocean. Despite this, two visitors were on said island running at the speed of sound, Sonic the Hedgehog and SNT the Experiment. The two friends went through a deep jungle, mostly filled with enormous trees, giant boulders that obstructed their path and palm trees that occasionally dropped a single coconut upon passing by.
Despite this, it didn't take too long for Sonic to exit the jungle and rest beside a tree.
"Wowie," Sonic exclaimed, "It's been days since I visited this place. But I still got it."
SNT exited shortly after. She had leaves stuck on her quills and a slightly noticeable head bump. She was losing her balance and fell onto the ground, "Ow…"
"Are you okay, SNT?" Sonic said, trying to contain a bit of laughter.
"Yes, I'm fine." SNT's voice was barely audible, "Could you please help me back up?"
Sonic grabbed his friend's hand and helped her get back up, "I forgot to tell that Angel island was a bit… dangerous."
Could've started with that before we came here, SNT thought. She dusted off her dress and turned to face Sonic, "Anyway, where are we exactly?"
"See for yourself, SNT."
The hybrid turned her head, she stared in awe at what were ancient ruins. Broken down stone pillars were scattered across the ground with a few still standing. A long stone staircase that leads to an enormous glowing green emerald. The only light source on the entire island.
"Wow!" SNT exclaimed, "Come on, let's go see that giant emerald!" She sprinted off to the shrine.
"SNT wait!" Sonic exclaimed.
SNT ignored him and failed to notice small piles of leaves on the floor. The hybrid stepped on said leaves without a second thought. Shortly afer the ground beneath SNT crumbled and she fell into a pit.
"Ow…"
Sonic ran towards the pit and said, "I was about to tell you that Knuckles has set up traps around the shrine!"
I seriously need a change of clothes after this is over, SNT thought. "Let me get back up there." She started spinning her tails and started flying off the pit. She landed next to Sonic.
"Are you hurt? Did you break any bones?" the blue blur asked concerned.
"I'm fine, I just feel tired."
"Who's there?!" A tough voice yelled out.
Sonic and SNT looked to see a red echidna standing on top of the altar's staircase.
"Knuckles, good to see you!" Sonic exclaimed, "It's been a long time."
"Sonic, what are you doing here on Angel Island? In the middle of the night?" Knuckles asked, "I'm trying to sleep."
"Knuckles, we arrived thirty minutes ago. Also, it's not that late, Tails said that it was 8:00pm when we arrived here." Sonic snarked.
"Okay fine," the echidna grumbled, "but who's that next to you?"
"I'm SNT," the hybrid responded, "nice to meet you!"
Knuckles was about to greet SNT, but something caught his eye. This girl had spikes on her knuckles just like him, "... Yes, hello… Sonic, can we talk in private?"
"Sure. Wait here, SNT."
Sonic and Knuckles quickly left the shrine and for the jungle. SNT was confused but paid no mind to it.
"Okay, what is it that you want to talk about?" Sonic asked.
"Sonic, why does that 'SNT' person have my knuckle spikes? Care to explain?" Knuckles responded.
Sonic's eyes widened, "Um… uh… It's not that big a deal, anyone could have spikes on their hands."
Knuckles crossed his arms and frowned, "You DO know that only echidnas have those features, right? And what about those tails? Don't tell me she also has Tails' elements."
"It's not that big a deal, Knux, you're just seeing things." Sonic lied, "I promise you, it's just a coincidence."
"You can't hide the truth from me, Sonic, so answer the question. Why does SNT have spikes on her knuckles?" the echidna asked again.
Sonic sighed, "Fine, you win. The reason why SNT shares our features is because… she is an… Eggman experiment..." I'm sorry, SNT.
"EGGMAN!" Knuckles yelled, "YOU BROUGHT AN EGGMAN CREATION TO ANGEL ISLAND!"
"Knuckles let me explain-"
"NO! You've brought an EGGMAN creation to the Master Emerald," the echidna interrupted, "what if she's tricking you to bring her right here, so Eggman can steal the Emerald again?! What if Eggman shows up with an entire battalion and destroys Angel Island?!"
"Knuckles, she's not that!" Sonic yelled, "We only fought once and that was when she had a mind control crown."
"So you did fight her!"
"No- Well, yes- Argh!"
"Were you two talking about me?" a voice intervened.
The hedgehog and echidna went completely silent when they saw SNT standing behind them. The two didn't know what to do. It was until the hybrid broke the silence.
"I could hear your screams from a mile away, what was all that about?" she asked.
"SNT… we were, uh…" Sonic struggled on his words.
"We were talking about how you're an Eggman crea-" Knuckles explained furiously before getting punched by Sonic.
SNT gasped, "W-What?"
"SNT I'm sorry, I couldn't keep your secret," Sonic apologized.
The experiment didn't know what to say, so she took a few steps back before going on a full run away into the jungle.
"SNT wait!" Sonic shouted, "Great, just great!"
Knuckles got up and slowly approached the blue hedgehog, "Sonic, it's best to let her be alone for a bit."
Sonic clenched his fist. He wanted to go after SNT to make sure she was okay. But another part of him was feeling drained and sleepy. He felt his body struggling to move.
"Yeah, it's best to leave her alone for now…" Sonic then fell flat on the ground.
While the events on Angel Island were going on, far away was the Tornado III soaring through the black and starry sky. The only two occupants, Miles "Tails" Prower and Amy Rose, were going to shortly arrive in a small town, despite them being tired of being awake for so long.
But it would seem luck was on their side when they saw street lights beneath them. Tails started to lower the plane and activated the landing gear for a soft landing. They landed in the middle of the main street.
The town was already empty, as most of its civilians were already asleep. Despite the lack of presence of people, the town looked gorgeous. It had peach colored buildings with red roofs and tinted windows. The pathway was made of stone and gravel with small bumps on the road.
But Tails and Amy were too tired for any sight seeing. Amy jumped off the plane while Tails pressed a button on the cockpit.
The plane began to shift and transform into a car. The front and back landing gear became its wheel and the wings retracted inside of the engine.
Tails began driving the car until he found his and Amy's destination. A small brown house was colored with a red roof. It had a sign with engraved letters that read, 'Residence of Vanilla Rabbit', a front lawn with blooming flowers that were surrounded by a wooden fence, a large circular front window and wooden front door.
Tails parked the car beside the house, so as to not disturb any of the residents when it was sunrise. He got off and joined Amy at the front door.
Tails yawned, "We made it."
"I hope Cream and Vanilla don't mind us coming in late," Amy said as she knocked on the door.
Shortly after, the door opened revealing a tall cream colored rabbit with short orange hair and brown eyes. She wore a long light purple dress with a white trim, white gloves with gold cufflinks, and low heeled shoes.
"Mr. Tails and Ms. Amy Rose, thank you for coming," greeted Vanilla.
"Good to see you too, Vanilla," Amy yawned.
"Oh dear, you two seem to be tired," Vanilla noticed.
"Yeah, we've had a busy day." Tails said, "I hope it's not a problem if we stay for the night."
"Oh not at all," Vanilla said, "Come in."
Vanilla stepped aside to let Tails and Amy enter the house. The fox and hedgehog stepped in and entered. Inside the house were a lot of things you'd expect; a brown sofa with white cushions and an armchair beside it; A wooden drawer with framed photos of Vanilla and a small rabbit who looked similar to her; and an old fashioned T.V. with an antenna, channel and volume knobs and a small but noticeable power button.
Tails and Amy sat on the sofa with the little energy they had. Vanilla turned the T.V. and set it to a random channel.
"I'll get you two some bed sheets," Vanilla said. "If you want to change the channel, the remote is right there." She then left Tails and Amy.
"Let's see if there's something related to Sonic's incident this morning," Tails said, grabbing the remote and turning it to the news.
"Are we Live?" A white cat asked, "Okay, today's broadcast was captured at the small rural village of Knothole. It was an attack by the nefarious Dr. Ivo Robotnik, in an attempt to destroy innocent lives and rapture people from their loved ones.
"However, his plans were once again stopped by famed hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, though it appears the mad doctor had one trick up his sleeve."
The station then played a recording of Sonic fighting the mind controlled SNT. Despite the blue blurs best efforts he ran into the nearby forest.
"It is unsure if that thing was defeated," the cat said, "But all we know is, whatever Robotnik is up to, it could bring an end to our world. In other news, a meteor shower will fly through our planet's atmosphere, it will be a sight to behold tomorrow night-" Tails shut off the T.V. to catch breath on what they just witnessed.
The one who fought Sonic that morning… was SNT.
"No… I knew that was a possibility, but…" Tails tried to lie to himself.
"I knew there was something off with SNT when we first met her…" Amy said to herself, "but what should we do?"
"The best case would be not to share that information with anyone else." Tails suggested, "If someone knew that SNT was created by Eggman and that she was our friend, they could use that against not only her, but us as well."
"Let's keep that between me, you and Sonic," Amy suggested.
Vanilla then arrived with a blue bed sheet. "Sorry, I could not find any more covers. Hope this keeps you warm for the night." She handed the cover to Amy.
"It's okay Vanilla, we'll take it." Amy said, "We did agree that we would take care of Cream while you weren't here."
"You're welcome." Vanilla walked away to her bedroom.
Tails and Amy were gonna spread the cover, but they quickly fell asleep without any other action.
Back on Angel Island, things we're not going that well for SNT. She ran as far as she could without thinking, until there was no more ground. The hybrid already knew that the island levitated off the ocean. So there wasn't any other way of getting out. The best she could do was sit on the edge and stare into the dark sky.
"Why couldn't Knuckles just listen to the truth?" SNT questioned herself, "I'm not like Robotnik in any way! He treated me like dirt back when I was his 'creation'. He forced me to fight Sonic with that stupid crown, why can't anyone just listen!"
SNT then heard a crunch sound that belonged to a branch on the ground. She turned around to see Knuckles coming out of the jungle.
"Oh... it's you…" SNT said in a bitter tone.
"Listen, I'm sorry about earlier," Knuckles tried to apologize, "I just didn't know how to react about… that."
"Well, THAT piece of information was something I didn't want anyone to know!" SNT shouted, "I never wanted to be Robotnik's weapon! I wanted a better life! But I couldn't because he's responsible for my creation! You wanna know what he did to me?! Everytime I failed one of his trials, I was locked up in ISO for an entire day! Do you think I would work for someone like that?!" Tears rolled down her eyes.
Knuckles didn't know how to respond. He could stay silent after that meltdown. SNT stopped ranting and lowered her head.
"I'm sorry," the hybrid said, "I just don't want to be associated with someone like that."
"No… no, I'm the one who should be sorry, SNT," Knuckles said, "I was an idiot for attempting something like that. I know you'll probably see me as your enemy after this."
"My enemy?" SNT asked, "Why would I consider you my enemy?"
Gah, if only Sonic wasn't sleeping this would be much easier, Knuckles thought, "What I'm trying to say is… forget what I said earlier and listen to me right now, I know it's painful to work for someone like Eggman. Because I used to… work for him."
"You what?!" SNT gasped.
"I know, but keep listening." Knuckles said, "Back before I met Sonic and everyone else, I was alone on this island. But everything changed when the Death Egg crashed on Angel Island. When I encountered Eggman, he told me Sonic and Tails were gonna steal the Master Emerald. Me, being clueless at the time… believed him.
"When I encountered Sonic for the first time I stole all the Chaos Emeralds and ran off ahead. Afterwards, I laid trap after trap to hinder Sonic's progress, but no matter what I did. He would always find a way to come out on top. When Eggman told me to fight Sonic by myself, I was ecstatic to say the least, I was like 'Finally, I can punch the living daylights out of him!'' without knowing that was actually planning to steal the Master Emerald for his own benefits."
"... That's…" SNT tried to respond.
"I know, how could I let Eggman trick me that easily right? I hear that all the time," Knuckles responded.
"No, that's not what I was gonna say," The hybrid said, "I was gonna ask, how did Robotnik treat you?"
"Not that different from you, just without the whole ISO and trial thing." Knuckles said, "But how do you feel now? Did my story help in any way?"
"A little bit," SNT responded, "but I'm glad that we share something in common."
"Tell you what, tomorrow morning, I'll teach you some skills I learned," the echidna suggested. "Maybe that will help us forget what happened earlier."
"I don't know," SNT hesitated. "My experience in Robotnik's trials wasn't exactly the best."
"Don't worry, I won't pull off anything Eggman does, promise?" Knuckles held out his hand.
"... Promise." SNT grabbed the echidna's hand.
They shook hands and they walked back to the altar. Despite the misunderstanding and spilled secrets, SNT and Knuckles were willing to become acquaintances for their training. For it will be a hard day for everyone… just not for the right reasons.