Please title this page. (Page 4)

Chapter 04: Red Echidna in the Big City

Day 3
Nellie Stargazer's home in the Mystic Ruins
6:30 A.M.
	
	Nellie gave a swift kick to the sleeping Manic's side.
	"Get up!" she growled harshly.
	Manic leaped to his feet in sleepy anger. "You know you're a 
lot meaner in real life than you are on T.V."
	"You can't always believe what you see, kid." Nellie glared. 
"Besides, I don't take kindly to thiefs."
	"Look, you have it all wrong. I wasn't trying to steal anything!"
	"Yeah yeah. That's what they ALL say, buster, and I've seen 
them all. Besides, my nephew Miles said he found a set of picklocks 
on you yesterday."
	"Okay! So I'm a thief! But I wasn't tyrying to steal anything 
yesterday! Honest!"
	"Tell it to the judge. Miles and I are taking you and your 
little contraption to Station Square police today."
	"Oh really? Can you fly a plane?"
	"Nope."
	Manic looked smug.
	"Aunt ShaaaaalIIIIITAAAAA! I got this plane modified to run 
on cleaner air!" Miles shouted from outside.
	Nellie looked back at Manic and looked even MORE smug. Manic 
turned pale.
	"You're gonna let an 8 YEAR OLD fly?!" he screeched.
	"I trust Miles with my life. Besides, he's been flying planes 
since he was 6."
	Manic muttered.
	Suddenly Nellie's cell phone rang.
	"Hello?" she answered. "Oh, hey....yeah....? Okay, I'll be 
right there..."
	Nellie hung up and called out to Miles.
	"Sweetheart, I need a ride to work. Some nutcase is running 
loose in Station Square and my boss wants me at the news choper to 
cover it!"
	"You're gonna send me solo....with a KID?!" Manic gasped.
	Nellie poked Manic in the chest. "You brought this upon 
yourself, Mr. Thief. I'm not about to let this incident stop me 
from doing my job."
	Manic only growled in response.
* * *
Station Square
6:17 A.M.

	Knuckles the Echidna gazed upon the city he was in. He was 
never used to a big metropolis like this.
	Then again, he wasn't used to his uninhabited island to crash 
into the ocean and the Master Emerald shattering to boot. He spent 
the last 24 hours gathering what pieces were still in plain sight 
on the island. As he was, he was practicing using his echidna senses 
to detect the energies of the emerald shards. Determined to go out 
into the real world and find them, Knux arrived in the city at dawn. 
He shielded his eyes as he stood in front of the train station.
	"It is up to me to find the pieces of the Master Emerald...." 
he muttered. He looked both ways. "It won't be easy. Pieces flew off 
everywhere..."
	He took off to the left, down the street towards City Hall. 
Barriers blocked up the courtyard, and police were doing an 
investigation.
	"What in the world happened here?" Knuckles asked, talking to 
a nearby observer.
	"Don't ya know? There was a big fight here last night!" was 
all that the observer said.
	"That's odd..." Knuckles thought. Knux suddenly perked up as 
his echidna senses started to tingle. An emerald shard was nearby...
but where? Behind City Hall? It was worth a shot...but how can he get 
by it? There was no place to go around it. He'd have to go through 
it! But how to go through there as quickly as possible? He wasn't 
as fast as some people he knew...
	He saw a kid on a skateboard and ran to him.
	"Hey kid, can I borrow your skateboard? It's an emergency!" 
Knuckles asked.
	"Mister, you can KEEP it." the kids said, handing it to him. 
"I got a new one for Christmas but my mom said I couldn't ride it 
until I got rid of this one!"
	"Hey kid, you're alright!" Knux smiled, giving him the thumbs up.
	"Good luck, Mister!" the kid called, running off home. Knux 
put the skateboard on the ground and started to take off on it. He 
sqeezed past the barriers and was about to his the City Hall doors...
	One of the officers looked up and saw the echidna on the crime 
scene.
	"Hey...HEY YOU! You can't go in there!" he cried.
	"Uh oh, time to really kick it up!" Knux said, going inside City Hall.
	Nearby, two teens on skateboards were watching the commotion.
	"Hey Jett you seein this?" the girl artic fox pointed.
	"I'm WAAAAY ahead of you, Dudette. Let's ride!" the yellow 
hedgehog boy said. The two off them sailed past the police and inside 
City Hall after the echidna.
	Knux was weaving around employees when the two kids caught up 
with Knuckles.
	"Dude, waaay cool moves you got there..." the boy commented.
	"Thanks, but I'm kinda on a mission right now.." Knux said, 
ducking under a lady with a stack of papers in her hand.
	"Hey, aren't we all? I'm Jett, and the dudette here is Jo. 
We're, like, the local resistance here!"	
"Oh really? I'm Knuckles."
	Jo look ahead. "ELEVATOR!" 
	All three of them looked up and saw where there was an elevator 
in front of them. As they entered, they turned around and saw where 
the police were coming for them. Jett hit the close button and kept 
hitting it. "Come on, CLOSE!"
	Finially the doors started to shut, and an officer smacked 
into them. They breathed a sigh of relief as the evlevator started 
to head up.
	"So, what's your mission, dude?" Jett asked.
	"To find pieces of this great power source that shattered over 
24 hours.." Knux said.
	"Heavy..." Jett commented.
	The doors opened and the three skated out. "Well, we'll help ya! 
We know this city like the back of our hand and we freedom fighters 
love to help!"
	"Okay, I guess you can hang out...for a while..." Knux 
admitted. Suddenly the police jumped them from a side.
	"RUN!" Jo cried as the three went zooming off down the hall. 
Knux looked ahead and saw where the hall ended with a glass window.
	"Oooh dude! End of the line!" Jett cried. Knux grabbed Jett 
and Jo and pulled them close.
	"HANG ON!" Knux cried as they went crashing through the window. 
They ended up on a balcony in front of a large bell. Knux looked 
back and saw where the police were no longer following.
	"Hey! They chickened out! NAH NAH! Can't get us now, can 
you, you scardy cops!" Knux taunted.
	The two police looked at each other.
	"Should we go after them?" one asked.
	"Nope. Those new-fangled contraptions that that guy sold us 
will take care of them.." the other replied.
	"LOOK OUT!" Jett cried as the three of them went flying off 
the balcony. The three of them landed in a water fountain, and 
did a hop off of there and onto the sidewalk.
	"Whoa...what a ride...where ARE we?" Knux asked.
	Jett looked around. "Speed Highway, dude. Fastest speed 
limit in town."
	"What now, Knuckles?" Jo asked.
	Knuckles senses were getting stronger. "We should go..."
	Jett heard the sirens and looked behind him.
	"Time to go, dude and dudette! Cop Speeders!"
	"This way!" Knux pointed taking off down the sidewalk.
	The three of them took off as 3 Cop Speeders, all automated, 
speeded after the three.
	Knuckles was heading in the right direction. He was getting 
direly close...
	"Knuckles, ahead of you! Spring!!!" Jett called.
	Knux looked ahead and definitely saw where there was a 
spring ahead of him. He leaped off his skateboard and onto the 
spring, where it sent him flying upwards into a small tunnel. And 
inside, he found-
	"An emerald shard!" Knux cried, holding up his trophy in triumph.
	"Cool move, dude, but we gotta move it!" Jett called.
	"Yeah yeah, hold up!" Knux called, putting the emerald in the 
sleeve of his glove.
	Suddenly, all three perked up at a noise and saw a new 
choper heading for Speed Highway.
	"Duuuude, we're gonna be on TV!" Jett commented.
	"No time to think about THAT, Jett. LOOK!" Jo pointed.
	Jett looked up to see Knux springing out of the tunnel and 
gliding over the street.
	"What's he up to?" Jo wondered.
	Jett tapped her shoulder. "Dudette, lets take care of these 
Cop Speeders, kay?"
	Jo whirled around and saw that they were surrounded by Cop 
Speeders.
	"FOR FREEDOM!" the two cried, and leaped off their skateboards, 
landing directly on the robot heads. The first two exploded, and 
Jett and Jo leaped after the other Cop Speeders, which started to 
retreat.
	Knux dug his knuckles firmly into the side of the building. 
He sensed another emerald nearby. He looked up and saw two balconies. 
He started to climb up into the first balcony, ignoring the sound 
of the helicoptor that was coming closer. Climbing over the railing 
he found....no emerald.
	"Any luck, Echidna dude?" Jett called up from below the balcony.
	"Nope! Nothing here!" Knux called down. "I'll try the next floor!"
	Jett shrugged. Knux dug into the paster of the building and 
started to climb up some more onto the next floor of the building. 
People stared out the windows of the building to see what all the 
commotion was about. Grabbing the railing of the balcony, he pulled 
himself over, and found what he was looking for. Another emerald 
shard layed on the floor, glowing ever so brightly. Knux took the 
emerald shard and slipped it into his other glove. 
	"This is Nellie Stargazer, live at downtown Station Square, 
where a red echidna had broken through a crime scene that had taken 
place last night. Police reports that the echidna on a skateboard, 
went directly though City Hall, broke a glass window and skated 
into Speed Highway. From there, he evaded the Cop Speeders and was 
spotted on the balcony of an office building. Police are urging all 
citizens to stay inside until they can take him away from the 
dangerous Speed Highway. Also below us, the self-proclaimed Station 
Square Freedom Fighters have once again gotten involved, destroying 
a squadran of Cop Speeders from persuing the echidna. Now, you may 
know that echidnas were thought to be extinct thousands of years ago, 
so finding one here in Station Square is truely an event..."
	Nellie Stargazer was reporting the current events from the 
news chopper, keeping an eye on the echidna.
	Knux leaned over the railing and called down to Jett.
	"I found it! I'm fixin to come down!"
	"Okay, dude! I got your skateboard here waiting!" Jett called. 
Knux leaped off the balcony edge, everyone inside gasping. To 
everyone's relief, Knux glided gently down, landing on the skateboard.
	"Where to now, dude?" Jett asked.
	Knux's senses picked up another emerald.
	"That way!" Knux pointed, across the street.
	"Wait a sec, you expect US to cross that busy highway?!" Jo 
shrieked. "Are you NUTS?!"
	"I gotta get that emerald shard!" Knux said. "Despritely."
	Jett turned to Jo. "No one said that being a freedom fighter 
was gonna be easy. I think its worth the risk...even for some 
emerald...."
	Jo sighed. "Fine, FINE! Let's do it."
	The three put their hands in and lifted them in agreement.
	"Let's do it to it!" Jett cried as the three of them skated 
across the street, dodging cars and trucks left and right. They 
stopped in front of a building.
	"I think its on the roof of this building!" Knux said pointing 
up. "You two stay here and look out for more Cop Speeders. I'll go 
after it!"
	Knux leaped off his skateboard once again and started climbing 
up the wall of the building. Pulling himself onto the roof, he found 
a new problem.
	Three water containter towers were on the roof, and Knux 
sensed the emerald from the area. Carefully, he inspected all the 
towers. He didn't wanna puinch all of them out in case of 
destroying the building's water supply. The middle tower he inspected 
had a hole burned through the roof. He supected that an emerald 
shard burned though the tin roof of the tower. He started punching 
on it. The third punch he gave it burst the tower, sending the 
emerlad flying into his hands.
	He ran off the roof and glided to Jett and Jo, holding his 
treasure out to show them.
	Above, Nellie smiled. "Whatever that guy was uip to, he found 
what he was looking for! It looks like they're going to leave. Well, 
that wraps up this mornin's report. I'm Nellie Stargazer, signing off."
	Jett handed Knux a backpack. "Here dude, keep your treasure 
in here. I won't need it."
	"Thanks Jett. I can't seem to find anymore emeralds in the 
area, so I think I'm ready for a break..."
	"Dude, you are definitely cool with us. Say, how about joining 
us until your mission is complete? We'd like to have ya along."
	Knux thought about it. "Ya know, that's not a bad idea. I got 
nothing better to do, why NOT help you guys, and continue my mission, 
of course.."
	The three high fived each other.
	"The Station Square Freedom Fighters are in business once 
again!" Jett cheered.
	"So where to now, Jett?" Jo asked.
	"Tell ya what, dudette. Lets take our new pal Knuckles out 
to breakfast, then lets show him our chao."
	Knux raied an eyebrow. "Chao?"
	Jett and Jo stared at him.
	"Duuuude, you'll LOVE it!" Jett insisted.
	Knux shrugged. "Okay, if you say so...how do we get out of here?"
	The three looked back towards City Hall. Then they looked at each other and nodded.
	"LETS DO IT TO IT!"