Chapter 2 - Unlocked Secrets

Jet woke to the sound of bird song outside. He yawned slowly and then rubbed his eyes before sitting up and looking round the room. Lavender was still asleep next to him. She lay on her front with her tails fanned out behind her, her head twisted to one side and her jaw hanging open. Her sleeping bag was crumpled up around her feet as it usually was on a morning. Jet sometimes puzzled why she even bothered getting into it in the first place. Miles was snoozing on his back at the other side of Lavender making small snoring noises. Miles never admitted that he snored but he did, maybe not loudly but he did. Jet then looked to his other side and stopped. Alicia wasn't there and her sleeping bag was rolled up neatly and put away against the wall. Jet looked at his watch, it was nearly eleven in the morning.

"Damn I slept late….mind you." he said to himself looking at Miles and Lavender.

Jet stretched and then slowly got out of bed. He rolled his own stuff up quietly and put his clothes back on before slipping from the room. He descended the stairs and walked into the kitchen. On a stool at the breakfast bar sat Alicia. She had her left elbow rested on the table top and her chin rested on her hand. Her lips were pushed out and one of her fingers planted in the middle of them. She was looking into the middle distance looking thoughtful. Jet smiled as he entered the room.

"Morning Alicia." he said cheerfully.

Alicia jumped slightly and then blushed as if embarrassed that Jet had seen her like that. She quickly recovered and blinked a few times.

"Oh morning Jet." she replied.

"Catch you at a bad time?" asked Jet walking into the kitchen.

"Oh…no I guess not, just day dreaming I guess."

Jet gave her a massive smile and walked over to the cupboards.

"There's some good homemade jam that Marian made yesterday if you want toast." informed Alicia.

"I was thinking more of pancakes." replied Jet.

"Well we don't have any, I looked."

"Who says I'm looking for a packet?"

Jet turned from the cupboard holding a large flat pan and smiled. Alicia bit her lip openly and raised an eyebrow.

"You're not?" she asked.

"Yup I sure am, mom taught me back when we were on Earth."

"You're gonna make a mess!"

"No I'm not!"

Alicia sighed and shrugged.

"Well ok if you say so. Fancy making me a couple?" she asked.

"Sure thing, gimme a few minutes to knock up a batter." replied Jet.

Alicia rubbed her forehead slowly and watched as Jet went about making a pancake batter. He was a bit sloppy, occasionally spilling something, but soon he had a large amount of batter in a bowl. He had already heated his pan on the stove and started spooning out the batter onto it.

"You like scotch pancakes?" he said.

"Yeah!" replied Alicia sniffing the air which was already filling with a pancake smell.

"You couldn't dig out some ice cream and maple syrup could you?" asked Jet.

Alicia got off her chair and soon retrieved some raspberry ripple ice cream from the fridge and some maple syrup. Sitting down again she now saw that Jet had laid out the first lot of pancakes on a plate. They were thick and about the size of a CD and looked delicious.

"Well here you go." said Jet handing her the plate, "Tell me what you think."

Alicia took the plate and had soon covered the pancakes with ice cream and syrup. Tucking in she started nodding frantically.

"Good, brilliant!" she said through her food.

Jet smiled and chuckled to himself. He only knew how to make pancakes but he made them well. He started spooning out a bit more batter as he watched Alicia eat. He bit his lip slightly and scratched the back of his ear.

"Um…Alicia?" he said slowly.

"Yeah?" replied Alicia looking up from her food.

"'Licia I gotta ask you something but don't feel you have to answer if you don't want to." said Jet looking a bit nervous, "You er…..you ever had a boyfriend?"

Alicia swallowed her mouthful and shook her head.

"Naw, never had the time. I've been fighting Robotnik or someone ever since I was a youngster. Besides I'm only fifteen." she replied.

"Oh."

"Why'd you ask?"

Jet blushed slightly and started fiddling with his tail.

"Well I….um….I…."

"HEY PEOPLE! Do I smell pancakes?!" came a cry.

Both Jet and Alicia looked towards the doorway to see Miles standing there. He bounded into the room and started to lean on the edge of the breakfast bar.

"Any left?" he asked quickly before noticing Jet and Alicia's face, "OH! Sorry did I interrupt something?"

"Oh um…no I guess not." replied Jet quickly looking back at the cooker, "Sit down I'll get you a couple of pancakes."

"Thanks Jet."

Miles sat down and started to whistle to himself as he waited. Alicia looked at Miles and then swung her gaze to Jet. He had his head down and was staring straight at his cooking. Alicia looked at him with a confused puzzled look on her face and then back at Miles.

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Morning was breaking over the dig site as Andrew prepared to leave. Andrew sat in a small open air transport that looked like a floating bus with the gems they had found locked in a large metal box next to him. It had taken nearly four hours and six men to prise the gems out of their altars. It was almost like there had been a force holding them to the altars but whatever the reason they were out now. Andrew was taking both gems to the actual base a few miles away to have them tested and analysed. When he knew what they were he was going to report his findings to Commander Morgan Jake himself. If that didn't get him a promotion out of this dump he didn't know what would. In his absence he had instructed his men to keep investigating the chamber to see if they could find anything else of interest. The transport slowly began to move away from the dig site and Andrew relaxed back into his seat, yawning as the morning sun shone down on him.

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Back in the chamber a small group of men were going over the wall markings. Since the gems had been removed a few hours earlier, interest in the room had dropped off and the workers had gone back to their normal tasks. The group in the chamber was made up of three historians and a couple of language translators. This group had been the group that had analysed the previous chambers and slowly they had begun to decipher the markings.

"You know what this place reminds me of?" said one of them.

"What?" replied another.

"Egypt!" said the first, "All these chambers and passageways and burial mounds."

"I know what you mean." put in a man from the centre of the room, "Mind you that's totally impossible. Probably just coincidence."

"No doubt."

"Hey guys will you take a look at this?" said the final man.

Everyone looked over to where he was. The man sat on the ground in the middle of the room next to the central altar. The altar was basically a huge block of stone that sat on a raised platform. On top of the block rested a slightly larger rectangular slap of stone. The man was looking at where the block and slab met.

"What is it Jonathon?" asked one man.

"Come take a look." replied Jonathon.

The other four men crossed the room and knelt down next to the altar. Jonathon was pointing to the joint between the pieces, there was a slight gap between the two.

"What you think that is?" asked Jonathon.

"If I didn't know better I'd say these two bits were separate pieces of stone." replied another.

"Looks that way Mark." said a third.

"Should we take a look?" asked Jonathon.

"Why not?" said Mark, "Steven, Mathew, Adam, you three take that side and us two will take the other."

It took only a few moments for the five men to get into position and then with a push and a pull the giant stone slab slid off the top of the block and crashed to the floor. As it did a loud hiss echoed around the chamber and the air seemed to turn to jelly and shiver before returning to normal. The five men staggered back and shook themselves before looking back at the now open topped block.

"That was odd." said Steven.

"Let's take a look." instructed Mark.

The five stepped back to the block and stopped dead. The inside of the block was glowing a faint blue colour and fading streams of yellow energy flashed around the inside. This however wasn't the most amazing thing about the block. In the centre of the blue and yellow glow lay a figure. Her hands were placed together on her stomach and her purple coloured hair reached nearly to her feet in long ragged strands. She wore a long dark forest green dress with sleeves that reached down past her wrists. The dress was decorated with black trim that seemed to absorb any light that touched it. Her face was that of an echidna and her skin was a pale red colour going to a deep pink as it went along her quills. Her quills themselves reached her shoulders and then stuck out at an angle. A few thick strands of hair were swept forwards into spikes and lay to either side of her face. Her expression was a complete mix of emotions. Fear, anger and shock were frozen on her innocent looking child like face. Child like was about right too, she only looked about ten years old maybe early teens at tops. The five men must have stood for a good five minutes just looking at her before reacting.

"What the hell?" murmured Mark.

"Holy cripes." said Steven.

"This is incredible!" cried Jonathon enthusiastically.

"You could say that." replied Mathew, "Who is that?!"

"How should we know?" asked Adam, "This is quite a find."

"We gotta inform the commander." said Mark quickly.

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Lavender didn't know why only that it was. The sun was beating down on Little Planet and the temperature had to be nearing thirty degrees but she was shivering. It had started a few minutes ago and she didn't know why. She now stood in full view of the sun wearing clothes that would have let her survive through an arctic blizzard but she still felt cold. It was like the cold was coming from within her and whatever she did she could stop it. She sat down on the ground and wrapped her tails around herself but still felt cold. She began to wonder if she had caught a cold or something but it seemed unlikely in this kind of weather. Presently an orange fox walked by her humming to himself.

"Morning Lavender." said T2.

"M…morning." shivered Lavender.

T2 stopped and looked at Lavender. He knelt down and then lowered himself to a seating position.

"You ok?" he asked.

"D…dunno….unc…uncy T2. I…I feel….re…really cold."

"Hmm…odd in this weather. Come on back to the house and I'll get you something hot."

"Th…thanks."

Lavender got up, still shivering, and followed T2 back towards the house. Everyone else had left apart from Patrick, who was asleep in the living room, so the house was quiet. T2 sat Lavender down and made her a large mug of hot chocolate. Lavender started sipping it eagerly as she continued to shiver. T2 sat down next to her and put an arm round her shoulder. Since the incident with Sally and New Washington five months ago, T2 had been a much more active member of the group. He still spent a lot of time with Petya and was missing most of the time, but when people needed him he was there and ready to help. Most people assumed the little incident with Petya and Alicia five months ago had rekindled his hope and determination.

"Now Lavender, that any better?" he asked.

"A little." murmured Lavender quietly as she continued to sip her drink.

"Good good, well I'm no expert on illnesses or anything but I guess you've probably picked up a cold or something. Probably best for you to go back to bed and get some rest."

"But it doesn't feel like a cold."

"Oh? What's it feel like then?"

"I….I dunno. It's like…like I'm being chilled from the inside."

T2 rose an eyebrow and looked at her with a puzzled look.

"Chilled from the inside? Well I've never heard of that before. Can you think of anything that may be causing it?"

"Well um…."

Lavender looked down to think for a moment. There was something she had noticed that morning when she had woken up.

"Well there is a small thing I noticed in the Vault this morning." she replied.

"A small thing? Like what?" asked T2.

"I was going to tell mom later but I started feeling cold and forgot. When I woke up this morning I noticed the Vault had a couple of new energy signals in it. It was like there were nine Chaos Emeralds."

"Nine? Lavender everyone knows there are only seven Chaos Emeralds and they are all inside Knuckles."

"I know but that's what it felt like. I can still feel them now."

"Well that's odd for certain, maybe the Vault is going cuckoo?"

Lavender gave him a disgruntled look and then sighed.

"Ah don't worry about it Lavender dear, I'm sure we'll work it out. Now once you finish that get yourself back up to bed and get some rest. It'll do you good."

"Ok then."

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"Ok then we'll wait and stand by. Yes. Roger that sir."

Mark put the radio down and looked at the others. They still stood in the chamber looking at the stone block and its occupant.

"So what's the news?" asked Jonathan.

"The commander is apparently amazed at what we've found and he's on his way right now." replied Mark as he put the radio away.

"I'd think so too. How long until he gets here?" asked Adam.

"He was at the main camp when he got the message. He's securing the gems from earlier and then he's going to make his way here. He shouldn't be more than thirty to forty minutes tops." answered Mark.

"This is going to get our names heard." said Steven, "Maybe we'll get a pay rise?"

"That'd be nice, oh and a mention in the commanders report would look good." put in Mathew.

All five of them looked down at the echidna and returned to watching her. A short while afterwards they moved off to continue examining parts of the room but Mathew stayed to watch the echidna.

"You're quite a little number aren't you." he chuckled quietly.

He continued to watch her face and then blinked sharply. He shook his head and looked again. This time he rubbed his eyes hard and slapped himself before looking a third time however he still saw it.

"Err…guys. Guys I think you should look at this." he said looking away but still keeping his eyes on her.

Soon the other four men had returned and all performed similar actions to Mathew. To everyone's amazement, the echidna's brow was twitching slightly. Mark leaned forwards and found that she was starting to breathe slightly.

"What's going on?" he asked looking up again.

"I have no idea. Maybe when we opened this thing it broke some sort of statis field?" replied Adam.

"But isn't she supposed to be dead?" asked Jonathon.

No-one had a chance to answer his question as the echidna's eyes fluttered slightly and opened a tiny crack. It was then they saw her eye colour, a deep black colour, darker and more absorbing than the trim on her dress. Her eyes closed again and her face twisted up slightly as her hands started to move. She rolled her head to the side and brought a hand up to meet it, running her fingers over her face slowly as if exploring it. Eventually she looked up at the ceiling and rolled her head back. She then rolled her whole body to one side and slowly propped herself up on one of her arms. She looked around the room before looking directly at the five men. For a moment there was silence.

"Hello?" said Mark cautiously.

"Where….where am I? Who are you?" she asked slowly as she lowered her head and brought a hand to it as if comforting a headache.

"My name's Mark. This is Jonathon, Mathew, Adam and Steven my work partners. Where you are? Well you could probably answer that better than we could. We've spent ages digging down to this place to investigate some power readings." replied Mark.

"Power readings? The Emeralds?"

"Emeralds? Are you talking about the two gems we found in this chamber?"

The echidna didn't reply. She was clutching her head heavily now and moaning as if in pain.

"Are you alright?" asked Jonathon.

"Get out." she murmured in response, "Get out quickly before it's too late."

"Too late? For what?" asked Mathew.

The echidna's face was now frozen with a painful expression on it like she had been stabbed in the heart. Her breathing came in short sharp gasps and her eyes were wide open and staring at the floor. The men couldn't do anything but watch as she gave shrill scream and collapsed back into the block. They all stepped forwards slowly and looked into the slab. The echidna lay motionless on her side breathing gently with her eyes closed. As they continued to watch her eyes slowly opened again and she looked up from her fallen position. Unlike before, her gaze was now a stare.

"Are you alright?" asked Mark.

"What kind of furries are you?" she asked quickly.

"Furries? We're not furries, we're humans." replied Steven.

"It's of no concern, you'll do nicely." she said sitting up.

"Do nicely for what?" asked Steven.

The echidna looked directly at Steven and their gaze met. Seconds later Steven's body went completely stiff and a white glow formed around his body before he collapsed to the floor. The glow remained and suddenly formed up into ghostly shape before flying at the echidna and sinking into her. As it did she almost convulsed but a pleasured look entered her face and she started to pant quickly.

"Oh yes! Oh that was good! Very good!" she started to say over and over.

"My god! He's dead!" cried Mark who had quickly knelt down next to Steven.

"What?!" cried Mathew, Adam and Jonathon together.

They all looked back at the echidna before rushing towards her.

"I'll kill you!" cried Jonathon taking a swing at her.

To his amazement the echidna swung her hand up and caught his punch in her hand as if it was nothing. Seconds later she quickly brought her fingers in and, with a sickening crack, crushed Jonathon's hand like a twig. He screamed in pain but was cut silent as the echidna brought her other hand round and crushed his voice box with her other hand. She let go and Jonathon dropped to the floor blood flowing from his neck and hand. The other two stopped and gaped at Jonathon for a second. The echidna stood up fully in the block and then stepped out of it stepping over Jonathon as she did. As she advanced the other's, including Mark who had got up, started to back off. The echidna stopped next of one of the four pillars around the slab and knelt down. Reaching out her hand she drove it into the stone, splintering it to pieces, and pulled out a short staff. It was about a meter long and ornately decorated like the rest of the room. She took a few steps to the side and thrust her other hand into a second pillar, again pulling out a meter long staff. She looked at both staffs and then slowly slotted them together. Looking up at the men she gave them a smirk and chuckled to herself.

"Who's next?" she asked slowly.

"You're a monster!" cried Mark.

The echidna took a step forwards and pointed her staff out him.

"Yes I think you are next." she said.

"RUN!" cried Mark.

Mathew quickly took off to the left as Adam ran to the right. Mark who was in the middle also went to the left following Mathew. The echidna paid Mathew and Adam no attention as they ran past her and then quickly swung her staff round knocking the feet out from underneath Mark. He landed in the remains of the first pillar and was almost knocked out by the impact. He didn't have any time to get up though as the staff made contact with his back snapping it like a twig. He didn't even have time to scream.

The echidna then turned her attention to the fleeing men. She made her way slowly round the stone block and over to the other two pillars. Smashing the first easily she pulled out a large curved blade and slotted it onto one end of her staff. She smashed the final pillar and pulled out a second blade, which she fitted to the other end of her staff. With the blades attacked, the staff was over two and a half meters long and a lot bigger than her. She then started to walk at a slow pace down the passageway after Mathew and Adam. She made it to the end of the passageway and started the climb up through the rubble before emerging in the drilled tunnel. She could see Mathew and Adam sprinting up the tunnel.

"STOP!" she cried loudly.

As if caught in some invisible field Mathew and Adam stopped suddenly at her command. She began to walk towards them and as she got closer the effect of her command began to wear off. Mathew and Adam turned towards her and started to back off quickly.

"Now who is next?" she asked.

"Mathew run! Go I'll hold her off." said Adam quickly.

"Are you insane?!" screamed Mathew.

"Just go!"

Mathew didn't need any more incentive as he turned and fled. Adam took up a fighting stance.

"Think you're so big? I'll show you a few things." he said.

"If you wish." replied the echidna.

Adam rushed towards her with a punch but the echidna remained stationary. As Adam reached her she suddenly snapped her staff in half and used one piece to block his punch as she performed a quick spin and brought the other blade down across Adam's leg. The blade cut deeply into his leg severing his main artery and causing him to collapse with a scream. Mathew hadn't get far and turned to see his friend fall.

"ADAM!" he cried.

The echidna stepped forwards so she was standing next to Adam. She locked her gaze on the staring Mathew and then brought both of her staff parts up so the blades were pointing downwards. With a quick action she brought both blades down and imbedded them in Adam's chest as she continued to look at Mathew. Standing up she pulled her blades from Adam's body and swung one of them round. She looked at the crimson blood staining the blades and then brought it towards her face. Still staring straight at Mathew she proceeded to lick the blood from the blade with a pleasurably look on her face. Mathew was too struck by fear and shock he didn't even move as she slowly approached him. As she got within a few meters he started to back off but soon stopped as his back hit the tunnel wall. The echidna stepped right up to him and slowly reached out her right hand which was still stained with Jonathon's blood. She brushed it against the side of his face, wiping the blood off it as she did.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt." she said lovingly before fixing her stare directly on him.

Mathew's body went rigid and another white glow surrounded him. It sunk into the echidna, who shuddered in pleasure, as Mathew collapsed on the floor. The echidna stepped back and sat down on a small rock. For a moment she didn't move and then she proceeded to lick her hands clean of blood before fitting her staff back together. She then wiped the blood from the blades and staff before licking her hands clean a second time. When she had finished she got up and started to walk slowly out of the tunnel.

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Knuckles was shivering as he and Bunnie made it back to Palmtree Panic. They had spent the night and most of the morning in Tidal Tempest enjoying a bit of fun and relaxation but had decided to return after Knuckles had started feeling cold. As they neared Patrick and Marian's place a twin blue blur came into view and stopped suddenly next to them.

"Heya!" said Miles with a smile.

"Back already?" asked Sonic.

"Bless ma stars!" said Bunnie shaking her head, "One was bad enough but two! Yes we're back, Knuckles here isn't feeling so hot."

"Bad joke Bunnie, terrible in fact." said Knuckles shaking slightly.

"What wrong Knux?" asked Sonic.

"Call me a wuss but I'm freezing! It's like I'm turning into an ice cube." replied Knuckles.

"Weird-o!" said Miles.

"Yes well we had a nice time so ah decided that it'd be best to bring Knuckles back for a while." said Bunnie.

"Probably best, wouldn't want old red here turning into old blue would we?" snickered Sonic.

"Can it hedgehog." replied Knuckles.

"Come on dad! We still have another six laps to do!" said Miles.

"Oh yeah! Well I gotta fly." said Sonic, "I think Sally is back at the house if you need any help."

"Thanks sugah, come on Knuckles." said Bunnie.

As Miles and Sonic took off again, Bunnie helped Knuckles back to the house. It didn't take them much longer and they soon pushed open the door and entered. As they did they almost ran straight into Sally as she carried a tray out of the kitchen.

"AH! Oh will you two be careful!" she said quickly.

"Oh ah'm sorry darling! Didn't know you were there. Who's that for?" said Bunnie.

Bunnie pointed to the tray Sally was carrying. On it was a large smoking hot bowl of creamy looking soup and an equally large mug of hot chocolate.

"Oh this is for Lavender. Poor little angel has a cold or something." said Sally.

"Why isn't Amy looking after her?" asked Bunnie.

"Oh she went off early this morning with her parents on a walk, they aren't back yet so T2 has my looking after her." replied Bunnie.

"You wouldn't be able to cook up another meal like that would you?" asked Knuckles, "Lavender ain't the only one with a cold."

"Oh jeez! It's the middle of summer and people are getting colds!" sighed Sally, "Yes ok! Go sit in the lounge and I'll be back once I've given this to Lavender."

Bunnie and Knuckles nodded at her and headed into the lounge. Bunnie crossed to the fireplace and started to set about making a fire as Knuckles sat down in a chair.

"Ah hope the little angel is ok." said Bunnie as she pilled wood in the hearth.

"Oh I see, more worried for her than me eh?" joked Knuckles through his shivers.

"Ah stop complaining you big…"

"ARGH!" came a scream from upstairs followed by a loud crash.

Bunnie and Knuckles both stopped and looked directly up. Seconds later Bunnie was sprinting up the stairs with Knuckles following slowly behind. Bunnie reached the second floor and called.

"Sally? Sally girl you alright?"

"Bunnie come quick!" came a reply from along the hallway.

Bunnie took off again, sprinting down the hall towards Sally's voice. She stopped at the children's room and entered. Sally stood stiff in the doorway the tray and its contents scattered across the floor in front of her. It only took Bunnie a second to see what had Sally so shocked. Lavender lay on her sleeping bag curled into a ball shaking violently.

"Oh ma stars!" cried Bunnie darting into the room.

Sally soon snapped to her senses and joined Bunnie at Lavender's side. Bunnie took a hold of Lavender and held her still as she spoke.

"Lavender? Lavender sweetie? Lavender what's wrong?" she asked.

"C….C…C…C…COLD!" screamed Lavender as she continued to shake.

"Lavender calm down, please calm down." said Sally quickly as she also took a hold of the shaking kitsune.

"What are we going to do?" asked Bunnie.

"I don't know Bunnie but…"

A loud thud from the hall made them both look up. Bunnie darted to the door and looked out. Her face froze as she saw Knuckles lying on his front in the middle of the hall.

"Oh god! Knuckles! Sally Knuckles has collapsed!" she cried.

Bunnie quickly raced to Knuckles side and collapsed next to him.

"Knuckles! Knuckles wake up!" she cried.