He had no chance of toppling her. Rouge clacked her heels across the stone courtyard, eyes sharp and examining every last pillar and slab of the abandoned city. Her footsteps moved through the sanctuary with unquestioned authority, like a queen surveying her castle. She faced her kingdom with a dull and fearless indifference, though with the passing hours, a slight sneer of impatience had etched into her ivory-chiseled visage. The electronics in her green visor could find no sign of the echidna.
Wind tugged at her ears and over the raw brickwork of the mountain city spread above the cloud-cover. If the island was a ship sailing the icy sky then these aerial ruins were a crow's nest to the vessel. On this highest plaza of the weed-infested cathedrals and spires she would catch his approach; she was prepared for every outcome.
She marched to the next overhang, mentally practicing the coming exchange of goods. A cold stone flicked from her fingers, flew off the walls of her fort and skipped down one of the steep pathways connecting the broken ruins. Wind and gravity dribbled it down to lower scaffoldings and into the maw of mist surrounding the peaks. That swine would waste all his energy climbing to meet her. Now if only the girl would scream, instead of whimpering mutely, the deal would close without a hitch!
The bat strolled to center-stage, to her bartering piece, all puffy-eyed and wriggling against her shackles as if her few chains were suffocating. Rouge seized an arm and dug in her nails once again, just enough to panic the girl into tears and keep the meat prime for sympathy. She moved back to her patrols, wondering if she could commission a dress just like the gem worn by the girl.
Underneath the whip of wind her ears caught the scuffle of sand. Rouge spun around. The echidna – dropped into a crouch – on her platform.
"You perfect gentleman!" she scoffed, nose up and eyes half-closed. "Sneaking up on a lady?"
She yawned. "How rude." Behind her icy exterior she was cursing. How dare he! Creeping around to surprise her – she had expected as much. She had also expected to catch him first, yet he simply popped out of nowhere as if he'd teleported! Time for reassessment.
To her back, the girl. Prowling closer, the echidna. Rouge stood at center point of a dangerous triangle, one quickly shrinking as a snarling animal stomped for the child, swinging his fists. The bat kept her face smug and selected a slow, slinking walk to close the distance on her hostage – the brute would heel so long as she could shatter that delicate crystal doll.
Her eyes raked the thug from head to toe. She hissed, unable to spy the compacted beauty. "Well! Where's my emerald?" Then Rouge cocked a mischievous eye and purred. "Or are you my consolation prize?"
With only a few steps before she could squeeze her pawn, Rouge noticed the oversized fists, now swelled to boulder-like proportions and apparently holding barbells. He wore heavy, metallic gloves encasing his hands like concrete: thick spikes over his knuckles and metal bricks framing the leather skin.
She looked to his eyes, saw the feral madness cracking his amethyst concentration, and realized his tread didn't angle, didn't sidestep for the girl. He was coming for her.
The thief blocked his first punches, whipping her legs to intercept each blow. But his fists clenched new strength, enough to unsteady her kicks and force her off-balance. Knuckles shoved his hammer-gloves into her gut, smashing the bat off her feet with a ringing clang of metal. She thumped and rolled along the ground with rough velocity and did not rise.
Willing away rage, he crouched by the girl's side, inspecting her face for harm. Tears scarred her eyes, but he saw a brightness returning that calmed him. Knuckles moved to the bronze shackles pinning her wrists and tore them apart, quickly reaching for her ankles. A sharp growl stopped him.
The bat was bent over her chest, wheezing in attempt to stand. The girl, with a leap of her eyes, latched on to his arm and hugged tight; Knuckles eased her fingers away, and stepped up to meet his enemy.
When she managed to stand, he noticed the metal sheen that had saved her life. The heart over her chest was an armored breastplate; the dent mashed over her abdomen her only injury. Her entire suit was protected, he observed, with metal plating strapped over every limb – metal boots, metal gauntlets and a belt holstered with weaponry.
Without a blink she charged to pay back the blow, throwing her heels down like hatchets. Sparks exploded where metal fist and steel boot collided.
"Freak!" she seethed between attacks. "You've ruined my life for the last time!"
Knuckles swung his fist and tore the air before her nose. The swipe of wind alone was enough to make her wobble and her eyes dart open. The bat hopped back, fangs barred while the guardian shifted to a ready stance. Rouge snarled and studied her opponent, her disguises and masks dropped and emotion playing freely on her face. Only by some fierce discipline could she hold back her assault; she threatened to explode.
His fists now possessed the power to end her with one blow. They both knew it – he watched her eyes analyze his new strength for frailties.
She leapt to attack. Three kicks tested his blocking skills before Knuckles swung his paw like a mace. She ducked and flipped away, watching. Knuckles spared the smallest of glances at the child.
She tried again: raising one knee to mount an invisible step she leapt up and booted him with the ball of her foot. Knuckles guarded his head like a boxer and let his fists take the shot. He raked the air with paws encased in metal weights.
"C'mon, echidna! Hit me!"
Knuckles proceeded to comply, but she danced out of his reach, laughing. "Bring it, you big, dumb ox! Right here!" she egged, pointing at her nose. The punch hit air, and her kick hit hard.
Knuckles stumbled back, and she cackled over wheezing breaths of air. "It must … hurt to be so stupid!" While he stood up she took the time to pant. "You … haven't learned …"
He marched for her tired form.
"I've been training since the ARK. … You can't … beat me," she declared, skipping away from his punches like a snooty ballerina and firing back.
"I'm just too good for you, aren't I?"
A gravely chuckle replied, just before he feigned a punch, and switched to a disabling kick. Maybe if he plugged her mouth, she would explode.
The bat started to weave and hop from left to right, dashing at his flanks. Knuckles mirrored her steps, sometimes lunging to throw her back, but never moving behind the ring he drew in his mind, the arena erected around the girl. The bat was still plotting behind her kicks and her fat mouth – she wanted to duck past him; grab the child. He planted himself like a wall and protected her like a precious treasure.
Rouge lunged. This time he couldn't stop all her kicks. He clutched the tear she left in his arm. She grinned wickedly, knowing his weakness.
The bat moved in fast, kicking wildly and slashing at all levels of his body. Knuckles parried, and grunted with every blow that connected. With metal weights encasing his fists, his punches took longer to gear back and release, and she abused these fractions of seconds for all they were worth, not caring for strength, but to out-maneuver his slow arms and test his endurance.
She raised a knife to the air and thrust. He caught her wrist in downward strike, clamping tight like a vice. Not enough! By the Controller, she was strong! Knuckles threw up his remaining arm, pooled the muscles of both fists to squeezing her bones, pouring his strength to push against her weight. The bat was laughing at his efforts, relishing his struggle like a delightful game and with her free hand reaching back to her belt, she shoved a tazer under his ribs.
For several seconds he blanked. A blow at his chest that shut down his senses, and when his eyes refocused, his muscles convulsed and a voice screamed in terrible pain. The thief was only a purple smear as she spun her body and finished him with a roundhouse-kick.
Falling … the island falling. The sanctuary crumbing – he could see the plummeting bricks rush him…
He crumpled to the ground.
Knuckles gasped in quick, painful gulps of air. His hands and feet twitched dully under a phantom shock. Ivo had given him a similar parting gift after snatching the Master Emerald and he could hear the doctor laughing again. Get up! he told his body. Get up! The island isn't safe yet!
Rouge panted breathlessly and succumbed to the pain in her chest. Adrenaline could feed her endurance no longer; it hurt to breathe. She groped the dent in her armor, the metal wall compressing her diaphragm. I beat him. Now, she only needed a few moments to fill her lungs…
Weak as he was from her electric shock, Knuckles pushed against the ground – he had to struggle; he had to survive. But his body, his last ally, had lost all control and moved in random, spastic fits. He poured his strength into his eyelids, forcing them open. He focused on his breathing, willing great gulps of air in his lungs. He had to find strength, had to keep conscious! The island, the Controller, his people demanded it!
The girl. It tore his muscles to move, but he could see her now – frightened into paralysis by a thousand horrors. She depended on him as well.
The island was in no peril. The Controller … safe …
He had come for her – to protect her.
"Run," he wheezed, throwing his head towards a staircase. If she escaped, hid, he could endure any defeat.
The bat coughed; her strength was returning. Knuckles saw her reach for the electric stick again.
Run, he pleaded mentally. Eyes trembling, the girl remained affixed to the ground. Through all their time together she had skipped and dashed to every new and wonderful place – why wouldn't she do so now?
Tears grew within her eyes. By the Controller, he raged, RUN!
As though hearing his every thought, she gasped back her frightened tears and shook her head. The shackles over her legs enslaved her still, but their bonds could not contain her. Stumbling, jerking against her chains with what simple strength she held, the glassy-eyed child crawled over to his side and took his hand; weeping into his palm.
He had never hated her more.
Stupid. Weak. Irresponsible! Raw fury cut a murderous scowl deep into the guardian's face. There was nothing she could do; why did she stay? Why?
He met her eyes and froze, stunned. His mind flashed back through all the faces he had encountered. A celebrity smile could not distract from Sonic's eyes, smirking mischief, filled to the brim with green ego. Behind her costume masks, the bat reflected only hatred in her eyes, unable to know anything more. Ivo … his eyes were hidden in darkness, and a longing for friendship created the illusion of kind smiles where grinned secret malice.
But he found something unknown in her eyes. He found truth. He found tears that flowed with purpose, sorrow that was not for show. She tried to smile, to smile … for him.
He knew why she stayed, and his heart fell heavy with shame. The same reason had compelled him to come for her…
Rouge found her strength and moved for the pair. There would be no discrimination.
The girl clasped her hands over his paw. The Guardian squeezed back. Even now, she granted him strength, even now when it meant her life.
Wind chimes sparkled in the distance. To Knuckles, the ring of emerald chords grew stronger, closer with his end. The warmth, the power, the comfort of the Master was closing around him, embracing him. The healing balm stemmed from his palm and spread through his arm, covering his essence like cleansing fire: burning away pain, weariness; igniting new strength. He was free: the greatest comfort, and the deepest pain. To be rid of the island, and the silken chains of the Controller.
Knuckles opened his eyes. He opened them wider; understanding that this was no illusion, no hallucination; that the fiery calm in his veins came not from death. The girl trembled fierce compassion, and the life-giving squeeze that locked their hands seeped power into his veins. A glow had consumed his palm, and his arm, and it was seeping up his shoulder and blanketing his entire body.
His eyes – amethyst – ascended to controlling emerald, and his fur beamed out light, shimmering light. The bloody scarlet of his body was cleansing – purifying – until his fur and his spines shared in the brilliant, ethereal rose of the child.
Firm purpose clenched his new eyes and Knuckles launched himself from the ground, secured buoyantly in the air by chaos and held above the cobblestones. All about him the guardian could see the energies of the Controller as though he swam in an ocean of emerald waves. How effortless it seemed, to suspend himself within the waters of chaos!
Requiring his attention stood the bat: hissing and flinching before his beaming light. To Knuckles, she appeared blurred and distorted, like a smear of paint, ivory and violet, diluting and dissolving in the sloshing waters. Thinning to nothing in his vision, she carried herself as though she held great power.
A smile played on his face – not cold or vengeful, simply calm and wise. The chaos field responded to his motions, flashing and crackling around his shimmering body so a perfect sphere of energy appeared to shield his glowing form.
The warped and stretched-out bat defied intimidation and launched a throwing knife. Knuckles addressed his attention to the object oozing so slowly through his vision, and motioned the waters towards it – inside it, saturating the blade.
It burst into nothing.
She should have run, turned and fled; instead the display of power only strengthened her madness. She charged up her electric wand and rushed him.
Knuckles made no reaction – no shift to fight, no move to rush. With alien calmness, he raised an open paw through the tides of chaos and made a pushing gesture that drove the accelerating energy waves slamming into her chest.
Rouge skidded down the courtyard, sparks kicking in her wake, and slammed with a sickening crunch, wobbling the brick wall that saved her from a fall. It took some effort, but her mangled and cracked form managed to stir. By then a beacon of power and authority hovered above.
Knuckles looked down at the bat, tangled in her wings and holding back the blood from her nose. He had come with further intent than to rescue the girl, but now…
His every heartbeat pulsed in unison to the Controller's melody; all the music, fragrances and beauty within its heavenly dominion resonated through his senses. He witnessed the marvels of creation: Lava burst from geysers, showering liquid fire through the cavernous reefs. Flowers waved in the meadows like dancers, their spices like incense. Wind whipped over the icicle underside of the island, rushing and twisting between the hanging stalactites, flying up through the heavy jungles of mushrooms, skating over the sand dunes, soaring up to the pinnacle of the ancient Icecap and twirling over the grandeur of this skybound paradise. The winds rushed down, gaining speed, burning with laughter and diving through a city of moss and stone, whipping through his dreadlocks.
Controller, he felt alive!
He witnessed the sanctuary – sand gathered between the brickwork like mounds of powder in a ravine. Sparkles of blue shrapnel still remained from his battle against Metal Sonic. The vines grew and budded new leaves. Sweat rained down the wasted face of the thief, ragged and panting.
Infused with the power of the Master Emerald, gifted with sight of its wondrous world, rich and alive with beauty, Knuckles felt a great calm within himself and he could only look down at this pathetic creature with disgust. Was it greed that had compelled her to come here alone and without aid, or had she schemed against the world until there were none willing to bear the burdens of this spiteful, dried-up husk?
The guardian felt a sad pity for this scheming thing, even now trying to summon the strength to stand and fight him.
"Leave."
Panting wearily, she remained on the ground, untrusting.
"Go," he offered.
She scraped out of the range of his fists and rose, backing away, yet eyeing him – perhaps not so much for an attack, as she did another chance to seize power.
"Rouge,"
She stopped.
He looked upon her sternly. "Give me the radar."
Her face sneered back at him. "Something else you want to take from me, Treasure Hunter? I haven't got anything left!"
"The chaos radar. The one you took from Ivo; the one that lead you here. Give it to me, and you can leave."
Her breath came fiercely for a second. "Sorry darling; ain't following. Gotta go, anyway."
Before she turned he had her wrist. She gasped as he pulled her close. The guardian reached to her belt and unclipped a small device with a wildly flickering deflective needle. He towed her to the edge of the plaza and threw the machine into the clouds. She aimed an angry punch for his jaw. He caught it.
The guardian shoved her to the ground and piece-by-piece he removed her armor. He seized the scanning visor from her eyes and pitched it to the ground. He tore off her belt of mercenary tools and let it fall away. Gauntlets, boots; breastplate clattered to the stone floor until she was pacified, shivering underneath her body suit. He gathered up her weaponry and tossed the heap over the railing, where the clouds swallowed her every tool of malice.
Huddled on the ground, she flinched at his direct gaze.
"Get off this island," he ordered. "If you ever return, I'll know to throw the rest out."
Furious, but defeated, the bat struggled to her feet and shuffled barefoot to her ship, sparing a moment to pause and glance towards the girl. The guardian loomed behind the bat and hissed into her ear. "Go," said Knuckles. With a cry Rouge fell back and crawled away.
Knuckles turned his back to the slithering coil of darkness and his predator eyes softened on the other. Even now the girl was so blissfully happy, so contemptuously mad with joy that she tried to run to him, to embrace her protector. Of course, the chains were still around her ankles. She tripped and tumbled in a fluster of green skirts and skid across the stones.
Knuckles took in a calming, sure breath and let it exhale with a strong smile, while she righted herself on her bottom and whimpered over the scrapes on her knees. He knelt beside her and waved away the blood and tears with the last of his electric aura. "Seems you manage to get hurt whether your kidnapped or not," he commented as his body regressed to scarlet and as a sleek airship arose from the sky sanctuary and fled the island. May this be the last time, Thief.
But now was not the time to dwell on that ruined shell any longer. Now was the time to be strong, to lift up this beautiful child and hold her dearly, and to let her smile just a little longer. To think that he would ever care for someone as dearly as his lost friend Ivo. To think that he would ever grow to depend on another – he! Guardian of the Angel Island – as he did this child, this kin, this spirit more than sister and dear as daughter.
And to think he would have to let her go…
Knuckles released the glowing embrace around his neck and distanced himself from her smile, now dimming with confusion.
"I can't protect you," he whispered. "I can't be there for you at all times. I can't keep … this from happening again… I can't allow you to stay."
Fade smile; fade to cold horror. "I'm sorry," Knuckles shivered with heart pierced once more. He let his ancestors cloak him, as had her saving warmth, let it steel his cold face.
"Come," he ordered, guiding her to the teleporter. "We change course immediately."
She tugged, resisted, and for a moment he was ready to consent and let them share one last, long walk. But the call of the island weighed him down, and he could not afford such selfishness.