Disclaimer: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and all other characters are © SEGA. Anna Rose is © me.
Holes and Tricks
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna
Part 5
"ROUGE! Don't worry, I'll help you!" I yelled out as I began to sprint toward the trio of females. The next moments felt as if time were slowing itself down so I could save the bat. I couldn't feel my feet pounding against the floor; it was just my heart beat echoing through my body as I got closer and closer to saving the life of the woman of my dreams.
As my fist stabbed into the back of Rouge's imposter, I felt a sudden jolt of pain shooting through my body. It was then that I finally noticed what part of the clone's body I had punctured.
My razor-sharp knuckles were embedded into the clone's mechanical shoulder blade area.
Gasps of horror came from both Rouge's and Amy's mouth. I flinched slightly as the electricity coursing through my body became slightly stronger. I didn't have a clue if my hit had done any damage, either; all the movement that had occurred in Rouge's look-alike's body was that she had dropped the mallet to the floor.
"Knuckles… we'll help you out. Hang in there, for me… okay?" sputtered the white bat, sounding rather shaken up. All the while, I was trying to free my fist from it's forced resting place in the mess of wires.
The pain of the electric shock was worsening as the seconds passed, and it became evident through my voice-wearing grunts. I thought I heard a small sob from Rouge's mouth as I struggled to free myself from the immobile imposter. The pain was searing through my entire body as everything began to turn grayish in color.
"Don't worry, bud, I'm here to help ya!" exclaimed Sonic as he seemingly appeared out of thin air to help. As my vision began to grow blurrier and pain controlled my body, I heard the blue hedgehog grunt as he leapt up right behind me and tugged at my shoulders to help free me.
"Holy mother of… Knux, you're still conducting an electric charge! Just one more pull…" grunted Sonic as he pulled harder on my upper body. Finally, the flow of electricity came to an abrupt halt , and I could feel my body being jolted to the cold ground of Eggman's base.
"Is… Is he going to be alright?" Amy asked in a quiet voice.
"Yeah, just don't touch him for a couple minutes; I'm nearly positive the electric shock is still in his body." The blue hedgehog had a slight air of annoyance in his voice as he spoke—I assumed that when he was trying to pull me free of the source of electricity, he had got a shock as well.
While this conversation was occurring, my vision slowly lost the grey blurriness around the edges of everything that came into my range of eyesight. I still felt rather weak from the intensity of the shock, though; I found it almost hard to pick myself up into a sitting position. Rouge had evidently seen this, because she came over with a slightly worried, yet nervous expression as she knelt down to help keep me from falling over in my embarrassingly weak state.
"Hey… what happened to the clone?" I asked, my voice sounding surprisingly weak in my own ears.
"I… I'm not quite sure," muttered the bat in a more relaxed voice than I had expected. "When you pierced the metal, I think you might have hit something vital."
As I stared at my right hand, I began to notice specks of blood in the tips of each knuckle. I looked closer at the specks, and realized why the imposter had stopped moving.
"I think I might have cracked the spinal cord. That doesn't explain why she's still standing, though…"
"That's rather odd," Rouge started to say as her imposter suddenly fell down, stiff as a board.
Right at that moment, Sonic and Amy came over by the white bat and me. Both looked a bit shaken to me, but when the blue hedgehog spoke, his voice was strong.
"Amy and I were looking around this place, and it looks like Eggman's taken cover somewhere else. It's almost like he's –letting- us take over his base and destroy everything," stated Sonic.
"But," interrupted the pink hedgehog, "we don't know if he was expecting us or not. He could've just had an old person moment and forget everything that he has here."
"Interesting point, but this is Eggman we're talking about—not some old owl who always forgets to hoot in the night. I really don't think he'd do something like this and not plan ahead." I said as I slowly got to my feet, with some help from Rouge.
"I guess you're right… But, really—would he have –that- much faith in the clones that he'd leave everything unguarded, or did something happen to him?" Rouge inquired, breaking her short silence.
"I wonder if we'll ever find out," pondered the female hedgehog out loud.
"We can find out later," cut in Sonic, "because we have to see if Shadow and Tails need help. Then we can have some fun playing hardball with all of this machinery."
"Sounds good to me," I stated as I looked around the room for signs of the kitsune and the fighting hedgehogs. I thought it odd that there were no audible sounds of fighting, and began to wander toward a random hallway, searching for the trio and any signs of them being there. I didn't need to search any longer, though; the ceiling crashed in suddenly as a missile from Tails' mech blasted it's way through.
"Is everyone alright down there?" called out the orange fox's voice.
"I'm fine," I called back. "But you could've come some other way, right?"
"Actually, we really couldn't," Shadow said in reply. "When we finally got rid of that faker, something happened in the electrical system upstairs that probably was caused by the fighting."
"Well, since we know everyone's finished their fight now, I think it's about time we got to have a little fun playing rough with all of this unused equipment." Sonic stated, who came up behind me with Amy and Rouge following. All had pleased and devilish looks on their faces as we anticipated the destruction that we would cause as payback for all Eggman had done to us.
************************************************************************
Within minutes of finding Tails and Shadow, the sound and smell of sizzling electrical circuits filled the air. The orange fox and Rouge were carefully cutting each wire, while Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and I were recklessly tearing apart nonfunctional machines and 'bots.
"Aw, come on, guys," protested Sonic as he watched the two being so delicate with their work. "Nearly all of the fun in destroying things is smashing and bashing things to pieces, not taking it apart like it's ancient origami!"
"Some of us would like to see how it works before it's destroyed," said Tails in reply.
I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched the blue hedgehog look at the fox and the bat again, and then turn around and roll into a Spin Dash with a sigh. Then I turned around and busted up a few panels that controlled some rather outdated machines, when compared to some of the machines and gadgets that Tails had built.
Soon after, everyone surveyed the damage caused, and celebrated all of the destroyed weapons. Eggman's whereabouts were of no concern to us—we had just destroyed many of the crazy scientist's projects, never to be repaired.
"I wonder if we'll ever see or hear of Eggman again," pondered Rouge out loud.
"It would get a bit boring around here, not having any crazy old scientists to antagonize." I admitted with a slight chuckle.
"Well, it'll be nice to at least have a break from all the fighting, won't it?" inquired Amy, looking around at all of us. Everyone nodded in agreement; we all had experienced more fighting than we had wanted to that day.
"Well, I think it'd be a good idea if we all went home and rested, and alert Anna of the whole situation. She's probably worried half to death without even knowing about the fight," Sonic stated with a little embarrassment.
Once again, everyone agreed, and we all headed back to the room where we had entered in. As we climbed back through the air vents, I found it almost unnerving that there weren't any traps or enemies waiting to ambush us on our way out.
When we had gotten to Anna Rose's house, the first thing she did was take her own mallet and hit all but Rouge and Amy for not informing her of the situation. When she got to her younger sister, though, she hugged her tightly and looked near a breakdown. I walked out onto the porch as the family reunion continued; after about a minute, Rouge came outside and joined me.
"Hey, Knux… I wanted to thank you for saving me back there. You put yourself in danger to save me from it; I thought that was really sweet," the white bat whispered, looking down at the step she was sitting on.
"Well… I guess you do know how I feel from my actions then, right?" I looked away as I stated this.
There was a pause, and the Rouge finally responded, saying, "Yes, I know, and I feel the same way."
Both of us sat silently for a few minutes until the rest of our group came out. Everything was better than normal now—the one woman I cared about felt the same way, and Eggman would not be heard from again.
And that was the end of that adventure.
~~ End ~~
Holes and Tricks
An Adventure with Knuckles the Echidna
Part 5
"ROUGE! Don't worry, I'll help you!" I yelled out as I began to sprint toward the trio of females. The next moments felt as if time were slowing itself down so I could save the bat. I couldn't feel my feet pounding against the floor; it was just my heart beat echoing through my body as I got closer and closer to saving the life of the woman of my dreams.
As my fist stabbed into the back of Rouge's imposter, I felt a sudden jolt of pain shooting through my body. It was then that I finally noticed what part of the clone's body I had punctured.
My razor-sharp knuckles were embedded into the clone's mechanical shoulder blade area.
Gasps of horror came from both Rouge's and Amy's mouth. I flinched slightly as the electricity coursing through my body became slightly stronger. I didn't have a clue if my hit had done any damage, either; all the movement that had occurred in Rouge's look-alike's body was that she had dropped the mallet to the floor.
"Knuckles… we'll help you out. Hang in there, for me… okay?" sputtered the white bat, sounding rather shaken up. All the while, I was trying to free my fist from it's forced resting place in the mess of wires.
The pain of the electric shock was worsening as the seconds passed, and it became evident through my voice-wearing grunts. I thought I heard a small sob from Rouge's mouth as I struggled to free myself from the immobile imposter. The pain was searing through my entire body as everything began to turn grayish in color.
"Don't worry, bud, I'm here to help ya!" exclaimed Sonic as he seemingly appeared out of thin air to help. As my vision began to grow blurrier and pain controlled my body, I heard the blue hedgehog grunt as he leapt up right behind me and tugged at my shoulders to help free me.
"Holy mother of… Knux, you're still conducting an electric charge! Just one more pull…" grunted Sonic as he pulled harder on my upper body. Finally, the flow of electricity came to an abrupt halt , and I could feel my body being jolted to the cold ground of Eggman's base.
"Is… Is he going to be alright?" Amy asked in a quiet voice.
"Yeah, just don't touch him for a couple minutes; I'm nearly positive the electric shock is still in his body." The blue hedgehog had a slight air of annoyance in his voice as he spoke—I assumed that when he was trying to pull me free of the source of electricity, he had got a shock as well.
While this conversation was occurring, my vision slowly lost the grey blurriness around the edges of everything that came into my range of eyesight. I still felt rather weak from the intensity of the shock, though; I found it almost hard to pick myself up into a sitting position. Rouge had evidently seen this, because she came over with a slightly worried, yet nervous expression as she knelt down to help keep me from falling over in my embarrassingly weak state.
"Hey… what happened to the clone?" I asked, my voice sounding surprisingly weak in my own ears.
"I… I'm not quite sure," muttered the bat in a more relaxed voice than I had expected. "When you pierced the metal, I think you might have hit something vital."
As I stared at my right hand, I began to notice specks of blood in the tips of each knuckle. I looked closer at the specks, and realized why the imposter had stopped moving.
"I think I might have cracked the spinal cord. That doesn't explain why she's still standing, though…"
"That's rather odd," Rouge started to say as her imposter suddenly fell down, stiff as a board.
Right at that moment, Sonic and Amy came over by the white bat and me. Both looked a bit shaken to me, but when the blue hedgehog spoke, his voice was strong.
"Amy and I were looking around this place, and it looks like Eggman's taken cover somewhere else. It's almost like he's –letting- us take over his base and destroy everything," stated Sonic.
"But," interrupted the pink hedgehog, "we don't know if he was expecting us or not. He could've just had an old person moment and forget everything that he has here."
"Interesting point, but this is Eggman we're talking about—not some old owl who always forgets to hoot in the night. I really don't think he'd do something like this and not plan ahead." I said as I slowly got to my feet, with some help from Rouge.
"I guess you're right… But, really—would he have –that- much faith in the clones that he'd leave everything unguarded, or did something happen to him?" Rouge inquired, breaking her short silence.
"I wonder if we'll ever find out," pondered the female hedgehog out loud.
"We can find out later," cut in Sonic, "because we have to see if Shadow and Tails need help. Then we can have some fun playing hardball with all of this machinery."
"Sounds good to me," I stated as I looked around the room for signs of the kitsune and the fighting hedgehogs. I thought it odd that there were no audible sounds of fighting, and began to wander toward a random hallway, searching for the trio and any signs of them being there. I didn't need to search any longer, though; the ceiling crashed in suddenly as a missile from Tails' mech blasted it's way through.
"Is everyone alright down there?" called out the orange fox's voice.
"I'm fine," I called back. "But you could've come some other way, right?"
"Actually, we really couldn't," Shadow said in reply. "When we finally got rid of that faker, something happened in the electrical system upstairs that probably was caused by the fighting."
"Well, since we know everyone's finished their fight now, I think it's about time we got to have a little fun playing rough with all of this unused equipment." Sonic stated, who came up behind me with Amy and Rouge following. All had pleased and devilish looks on their faces as we anticipated the destruction that we would cause as payback for all Eggman had done to us.
************************************************************************
Within minutes of finding Tails and Shadow, the sound and smell of sizzling electrical circuits filled the air. The orange fox and Rouge were carefully cutting each wire, while Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and I were recklessly tearing apart nonfunctional machines and 'bots.
"Aw, come on, guys," protested Sonic as he watched the two being so delicate with their work. "Nearly all of the fun in destroying things is smashing and bashing things to pieces, not taking it apart like it's ancient origami!"
"Some of us would like to see how it works before it's destroyed," said Tails in reply.
I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched the blue hedgehog look at the fox and the bat again, and then turn around and roll into a Spin Dash with a sigh. Then I turned around and busted up a few panels that controlled some rather outdated machines, when compared to some of the machines and gadgets that Tails had built.
Soon after, everyone surveyed the damage caused, and celebrated all of the destroyed weapons. Eggman's whereabouts were of no concern to us—we had just destroyed many of the crazy scientist's projects, never to be repaired.
"I wonder if we'll ever see or hear of Eggman again," pondered Rouge out loud.
"It would get a bit boring around here, not having any crazy old scientists to antagonize." I admitted with a slight chuckle.
"Well, it'll be nice to at least have a break from all the fighting, won't it?" inquired Amy, looking around at all of us. Everyone nodded in agreement; we all had experienced more fighting than we had wanted to that day.
"Well, I think it'd be a good idea if we all went home and rested, and alert Anna of the whole situation. She's probably worried half to death without even knowing about the fight," Sonic stated with a little embarrassment.
Once again, everyone agreed, and we all headed back to the room where we had entered in. As we climbed back through the air vents, I found it almost unnerving that there weren't any traps or enemies waiting to ambush us on our way out.
When we had gotten to Anna Rose's house, the first thing she did was take her own mallet and hit all but Rouge and Amy for not informing her of the situation. When she got to her younger sister, though, she hugged her tightly and looked near a breakdown. I walked out onto the porch as the family reunion continued; after about a minute, Rouge came outside and joined me.
"Hey, Knux… I wanted to thank you for saving me back there. You put yourself in danger to save me from it; I thought that was really sweet," the white bat whispered, looking down at the step she was sitting on.
"Well… I guess you do know how I feel from my actions then, right?" I looked away as I stated this.
There was a pause, and the Rouge finally responded, saying, "Yes, I know, and I feel the same way."
Both of us sat silently for a few minutes until the rest of our group came out. Everything was better than normal now—the one woman I cared about felt the same way, and Eggman would not be heard from again.
And that was the end of that adventure.
~~ End ~~