Chapter 37: Lost Ways
Within a day Knuckles and Shade are back on Angel Island within their home to check out the map to find something pretty remarkable. "We found it, the homeland of the Echidna Albion is in our hands now," Knuckles said. Shade is pretty happy to see Knuckles looking pretty excited.
"Good news, it was worth it going into that old Breezie warehouse," Shade said.
"Indeed, we need some help. Sonic and Amy can give us some aid," Knuckles said as he calls up Sonic and Amy who recently came back from their trip to Meropis City.
"Yo Knuckles, what's up?" Sonic asked on the phone.
"I and Shade found some intel on the old echidna home city of Albion," Knuckles said.
"Seriously, we just got back from Meropis City. I am up for another adventure," Sonic said.
"Cool, meet us at the Station Square hanger. We can take a shuttle which we can use to head to the location," Knuckles said as Sonic turns off the phone to meet up with Amy in the kitchen.
"Yo Ames, we are going with Knuckles and Shade for the lost city of Albion," Sonic said as Amy's eyes widen by this.
"Are you serious? They managed to find the lost city of Albion which is the homeland where all Echidnas come from," Amy said as she is very hyped up to go to some important ruins.
"Well, let's get prepared and meet up with the two lovebirds at the hanger," Sonic said as Amy gets into a new outfit for exploring a set of ruins.
"Oh, I got the perfect outfit to explore some cool ruins," Amy goes into their room to strip out of her nightgown and underwear to swiftly get into a new outfit. "What do you think baby?" Amy asked in a seductive tone.
"Looking outdoorsy," Sonic said as Amy is wearing black skintight shorts showing off her curvy bottom and thick thighs and a black crop top exposing her tight stomach along with white gloves and blue boots.
"Thanks, come on. Let's get going to the airport," Amy said as they speed off to the private hangar at the Station Square airport.
They see Knuckles and Shade waiting for him nearby the shuttle hanger. "Good timing, I can't wait to dig into these ruins," Knuckles said.
"Cool, I wonder what it would look like. Maybe the ruins on Angel island," Sonic said as he remembers all those mysterious echidna ruins scattered across Angel Island when he, Tails, and Amy were exploring during the Death Egg crisis several years ago.
"Could be but let's get inside," Knuckles said as the four headed into the shuttle for Sonic and Amy getting into the pilot seats to get the aircraft off the ground and head for the lost city of Albion.
Elsewhere the iron Queen Regina along with her machine army are within the Echidna city of Albion deep within a mountain to try to recover the ancient echidna technology inside. "Quite interesting my dear, there seems to be a treasure trove of data here in these old servers," Regina said as she waves her staff to use her techno magic to get easy access to go through the database.
"Well, those furballs are quite good with technology, to be honest, but they have something I need there. An interdimensional portal," Snively said as he is in his main room deep within his fortress in the center of Dragon City.
"I see, you want to control the other Mobius as well?" Regina asked.
"Of course, my dear. I know of my Uncle and Eggman Nega trying to conquer both Mobius worlds but the technology he used was lost forever. I never got the chance to grab it before it was destroyed. These Echidnas were working on a certain project to escape their faith from Chaos wraith. I need this technology and perfect it to allow me to go to other worlds to make our empire," Snively said as his beautiful yet wicked wife is laughing at this.
"My dear, that is wonderful. You have a clever yet devilish mind," Regina said being very impressed with his genius and grand scope.
"Why thank you, my lovely wife. Combining our might will make us unstoppable," Snively said.
"Indeed, my Swat bots have the lockdown the whole mountain. This city is quite large deep within the mountain caverns here," Regina said.
"if you bring back some of those crystals. I can make you an amazing necklace my dear," Snively said as Regina spots a rare smile only for him.
"Oh, that is so sweet. I will have my bots pick them up for me and then you can work your magic," Regina said.
"I prefer working for my hands on you my radiant beauty," Snively flirts with his lovely wife for she lets out a laugh that is unique melting Snively's heart.
"You are too much sweetheart. I want to get this over if and jump on you in bed," Regina said.
"No calm down my dear. We must focus on the mission before getting to that," Snively said.
"Of course, sweetheart," Regina begins to go through the data with her swat bot army covering the whole area.
Back with Sonic and the others going over the Pearl Sea to go into the landmass of Northamer to fly over the landscape. "This is going to be so cool to see something that has been lost for so long," Amy said as her inner history nerd is creeping up again.
"Calm it Ruin Jane, don't want you to blow a gasket," Sonic joked.
"I know but it's so exciting. I wonder what would be there," Amy said.
"Many things and wonders of the old echidna civilization. So many of them split into different sects around the world trying to gain control over this world," Shade said.
"But Chaos wipe them all out before Tikal sealed him away and now my sect was the only one left until I was the last one left. Then you got Shade's sect but they are captured in the Twilight Cage dimensional prison," Knuckles said.
"Better they stay there forever, they are too war-hungry for their good. They would enslave this whole planet if they had the chance. Better get our answers to find out if their Echidnas went into the Lost World," Shade said.
"I hope so, not all echidnas were crazy or evil like the Nocturnus or Pachacamac. There is hope for redemption for the Echidnas," Amy said as Knuckles and Shade feels happy to hear this.
"I agree, hopefully, we find something there," Knuckles said as they see the mountain that housed the ancient, ruined city to detect people already there.
"Seems like we got the red carpet treatment," Sonic said as Shade detects a ton of machines protecting the area. "Swat bots, why is Snively here anyway?" he wondered.
"Doesn't matter, we smash through his forces and get to the heart of the city," Knuckles said.
"Well seems like we have visitors," the Iron Queen said on the radio as her forces begin to open fire on their shuttle.
"Gee, get us a landing zone," Sonic said as Knuckles is at the controls.
"I am trying," Knuckles said as Amy opens the door.
"I will distract them while you land. Sonic stick with them," Amy said.
"Be careful," Sonic said as Amy leaped out of the shuttle to land onto a magic circle to unleash tons of fireballs to strike down Assault Drones and Hover Units. She drops to the ground to slam her hammer onto an Assault Walker to crush it into scrap metal.
Amy swings her hammer to unleash a wave of wind energy to cut down groups of Swat bots. "Sorry Iron Queen, you are going to have quests," Amy mocks her.
"Stupid pink rat, you will not interfere with our project here," Regina said on her radio.
"Oh curious, what project?" Amy poked as she is smashing blasting away robots with fire spells.
"That is not your concern, you will be dead before you know it," Regina said as she makes her robotic soldiers guard the entrance of the city. Amy is using her Hammer Spin to smash through several robots at high speed. She leaps into the air and smashes an Assault Walker with her hammer.
Amy tosses bubbles to trap several robots with Sonic coming in to take them out with well-placed Homing Attacks. He uses his speed to make a Blue Tornado suck all the surrounding machines in the vortex. Amy wields her supercharged hammer and slams into the twister killing everything inside.
"Hey there Iron Queen. Send Snively my regards," Sonic mocks her as Regina is getting annoyed with the blue rat.
"I have a shared hatred for you from my husband. You call him so much grief over the years but I am going to give him a wonderful gift. Your fur pelts," Regina said on top of the mountain as she begins to use nanobots to create a large robotic turtle called Iron Turtle. "This is one of my Iron Constructs, I hope you are ready to press into a bloody paste," she orders the Iron Turtle to leap off the mountain to try and crush the couple.
They back away with Amy magically in her dress as she prepares for a real fight. "That is a big boy right there," Amy said as the iron Turtle is unleash waves of ice missiles to blast away the surrounding area. Amy summons a Guardian Field to protect them both from the assault.
The metal turtle breathes a ray of ice to make all the frost explode around them knocking Amy's focus and breaking the light shield. It uses its long tongue to strike Amy in the chest to send her flying away across the mountain.
"Amy, I am going to scrap this bot," Sonic goes in to use his spin dash to slam into its head but the Iron Turtle easily bats his away. It spits a ball of ice to freeze Sonic and uses its tongue to knock him into a rocky wall leaving a crater on impact.
"As you can see, it's not a simple robot you can slap around. On freeze to death," the Iron Queen orders her Iron Construct to crush Sonic its huge weight. The Iron Turtle leaps towards Sonic but Knuckles comes in with a charged fist to slam into its head with enough force to launch the huge metal turtle into a cliff with tons of rocks piling on top of him.
"Knuckles," Sonic said as Knuckles' body is flaring with Chaos energy.
"Don't fall on your ass, we need to turn this thing into turtle soup," Knuckles said pounding his fist onto the ground to unleash energy shockwaves to knock back the huge turtle. The monster robot unleashes a blast of cold to destroy the rocks to charge the trio.
Shade comes in with her shotgun to fire twin EMP slugs into its head to stun it for a bit. Knuckles and Amy use explosive blows to send it into the air.
Sonic charges up his Light Bullet with energy to pierce through the underbelly of the turtle leaving a big hole behind. "Zip Dash," he is charging up again to curl up into a ball to bounce off the rocky walls to dash into the robotic turtle several times tearing into it.
"Knuckles," Amy wants him to go on top of her hammer.
"You got it, Amy," Knucklers is on top of Amy's Long Hammer to swing upward to send Knuckles flying into the air. He goes over to the mech to power up his fists.
"Deep Impact," Knuckles hits the mech so hard he makes an explosive force which launches the huge mech at high speed to crash into a wall to break apart on impact. This leaves the Iron Queen very upset. "Sorry but you are not continuing to make a joke of my people via your presence," Knuckles said.
"How ironic, your little girlfriend Shade is not a disgrace after what she has done with her clan," Iron Queen tried to poke at Shade's dark past but her friends backed her up.
"Unlike you Regina, she did the right thing in the end," Sonic said.
"Yeah, she is one of our good friends. She helped defeat her master Ix and saved the world. You always hide behind your twisted husband," Amy said as Shade feels grateful for Amy and Sonic.
"I don't hide. We are partners and this new project will allow us to rule this and other ones together," Regina said as the group is confused by this.
"Other worlds?" Shade wondered.
"That is not your concern. The tech within these dead servers will allow me and my hubby to rule more than this rock. I have another surprise waiting for you inside these dead ruins," Regina said cutting off her connection with their radio.
"That sounds bad and knowing Snively. He is worse than Eggman and him having an ounce of power is good for no one," Sonic said.
"I mean look at the Dragon Kingdom and how he turned Dragon City into their playground, it's sickening," Amy said.
"Come on, let's go inside," Shade said as the four managed to go into a cavern to head for the chosen location.
Regina is not pleased as Snively is checking on her progress. "My dear, how is researching going?" he asked.
"Sonic and his friends are crashing inside my research site," Regina said as Snively is getting angry with Sonic's name being mentioned.
"That rat always spoils the mood," Snively said.
"I know dear, I know how upset you are with that vermin. I can't blame you," Regina said.
"Thanks for understanding. Did you at least get the data?" he asked.
"Yes I did as much as I can pull from this piece of junk," Regina said as Snively is pleased to see his wife is pretty reliable and capable, unlike his uncle.
"Good my dear, wrap things up and meet back in Dragon City," Snively said as she is making a kissing sound.
"Of course, my love," Regina said as she heard the sounds of battle in the caverns with the four using their skills and tools to wipe out groups of enemies
Shade is using her leech blades to chop up robots while using her shotgun to knock down enemies in the air. She is leaping on top of an assault drone to fire her gun into several targets with powerful buckshots.
Amy is knocking away enemies with her hammer to blast machines with fireballs. She slams the ground to unleash a wave of earth spikes to impale several Swat bots.
Knuckles is punching and zapping robots with his Thunder Arrows reducing them to scrap metal. He charges up his fist to slam into the ground unleashing a wave of energy.
Sonic curls up and bashes through the hordes of robots with him using his Zip Dash to bounce off the walls to crash into the enemies clearing the way. He uses his Boost to plow through the incoming machines to reach the end of the tunnel. The others followed behind to see a remarkable sight as Knuckles and Shade were in awe at the massive underground city of Albion the original homeland of Echidnas. "Amazing," Knuckles said as he is speechless to be in sacred lands filled by the best echidna minds in the world.
"I know right, it's like a dream," Shade said as the huge city has fallen into decay for thousands of years but still holds beauty and grace in its rustic state.
"Crazy but we got robots down there. We must have taken down most of her forces outside," Amy said.
"Yeah, let's clean this place up," Sonic said as they leap down to strike down the remaining robot forces.
Regina is happy to get what she wanted as she summons another Iron Construct called Iron Bullfrog. "Seems like you are here but I got what I wanted. You can play with my little pet. Bye," Regina runs away to order her Iron Bullfrog to attack to leap at the group.
They dodge but the landing made a big wave of energy knock them away. It leashes out with its long metal tongue to latch onto Shade to toss her into the building.
"Shade," Knuckles said as he flings bolts of lightning but the metal frog leaps over it and sticks to the side of a building.
Amy and Knuckles fling projectiles at it but the robot is moving very fast to avoid their attacks. Shade jumps out of the window to leap on top of the metal frog. He digs her blades into its back to expose its insides to begin firing buckshots with her shotgun doing some damage.
Frog knocks Shade onto the ground with Sonic charging up his kicks to use his Rain Cutter to unleash several waves of energy crescents to tear into the machine frog. Knuckles strikes it with Thunder Arrows to stun it with Amy going in with her hammer powering it up with fiery energy. She hits her mark and blows the Iron Bullfrog to pieces clearing out the whole area.
"Finally, we managed to get rid of the Iron Queen's forces," Amy said as they search through the ruins to see a ton of equipment she left behind.
'She left in a hurry for sure. This will lead us to the server room where the intel we need to confirm our thoughts," Shade said as they go into the server room in a nearby building. This place has the most equipment around it as they see the terminal was used recently.
"Seems like the Iron Queen got what she wanted and left," Knuckles said as Shade goes up to tap some buttons to warm up the servers hearing these ancient machines trying to roar to life.
"Find anything yet?" Sonic asked.
"I did, there is interdimensional technology here, and seems like Regina was looking for it," Shade said.
"So, it was something they were looking for and it will be used for a good purpose," Sonic said as Shade is interested in a certain folder called Project Rebound.
"Interesting, they used this technology to escape the wrath of Chaos and went into the Lost World to live there," Shade said as Knuckles is correct.
"I knew it, there are Echidnas out there and we need to find them," Knuckles said.
"First we deal with Witchcraft and we go to the Lost World," Sonic said as Knuckles nods his head.
"Right but now, I have an answer to this. We are not alone Shade, we will be united with our people and rebuilt it into something better," Knuckles said as he has hope for the future of Angel Island being able to hold a group of Echidnas like it used to.
"It is wonderful, now we have gotten our answer. Let's get out of here," Shade said as they go back to the shuttle to complete their mission.
Elsewhere Regina is on her warship to talk with her husband via holoscreen. "Excellent, we have gotten the data from the interdimensional device. Now we need power and lots of it," Snively said.
"I have a perfect idea. There is a set of items called Chaos Rings and they were made in the Coral Kingdom which was once ruled by the Boobowski royal family but it has fallen into disrepair and abandoned due to natural disasters on the island," Regina said.
"Oh yes, this is perfect. Set up camp there, we have an empire to build," Snively said as the evil couple laughed together for their goals to conquer other worlds in both universes can begin.