Disclaimer: I unfortunately don't own any of the characters used in this story.
Thanks to my first reviewer, I learned that I was moving too slowly with the plot, so I decided to move quicker. This chapter will definitely have lots of important plot points so I hope this chapter makes up for my slow speed. I've just enjoyed writing this story so much. I hope you all enjoy it.
Chapter 4
As Amy ran towards the ominous figure, he turned around slowly. He wasn't one to flinch at the sound of a girl's screams. It took a lot to shake him up, after all he was the guardian of the Master Emerald, better known as Knuckles the Echidna.
"Hi Knuckles!" Amy screamed as she ran down the street. Tails, Cream, and Cheese were following right behind her. Rouge decided to stay behind because she was still nervous about her feelings for Knuckles. She was normally a brave woman, but she was incredibly intimidated by this task, mainly because she had never felt this way about anyone before. Ever since their fight at Meteor Herd where Knuckles saved her life, she always felt that she had some romantic feelings and was indeed quite taken by the young, rugged, echidna, but for all her cleverness and resources, she had no idea if he returned her feelings, or if he had actually just hated her like she feared.
Amy noticed that Rouge was hiding behind a building's corner in a nearby alleyway. After all, her big white ears were unmistakable. Amy decided to keep her promise to Rouge, but after she asked about her own crush, Sonic. She quickly explained the situation to him in hopes that he would help them.
"So, Sonic's got himself in trouble again, huh?" Knuckles said sternly. "Well, I'm tired of cleaning up HIS messes, I'm not going to bail him out THIS time!"
"But Knuckles, you're the best tracker I've ever met, and you're strongest person we know so we could use your help. Please?", Tails asked.
"I already said NO! I'm here on MY mission! Sonic can take care of himself, and if he can't, well that's on him!" Knuckles said sounding even more stern than last time.
"Please, Mr. Knuckles? We really need your help. Cheese and I are very scared about what could have happened to Sonic. You're the biggest, bravest, strongest person I know. Please help us." Cream pleaded as though she were about to cry.
Knuckles wasn't the most generous person in the world, but he was no bully either. As a fighter, he was used to a lot of things, but he wasn't used to hurting someone so much smaller than himself. He hung his head in acceptance that he would help in the search for Sonic.
"Hey Knuckles, why ARE you here anyway? We'll help you with your situation since you'll help us with ours." Tails said.
"Well, the reason I'm here is because...." and before Knuckles could finish his sentence, a figure running behind him at supersonic speed crashed into him, dropping a white chaos emerald. The hedgehog was groaning from his fall.
"Sonic!" Amy shouted as she quickly ran over and grabbed the injured hedgehog's arm to help him up. "I was so worried about you! I'm glad to see you're alright!"
"It's dejavu all over again, isn't it small pink girl. You still can't tell the difference between that faker and the ultimate life form! After all, I'm much more handsome than he'll ever be." the hedgehog angrily bellowed.
"Oh.....hi Shadow." Amy said in a disappointed tone.
"Well, is that any way to greet the guy who saved your lives aboard the ARK, I have a good mind to....owww!" Shadow said as he stumbled to the ground again. Apparently, his crash into Knuckles had sprained his ankle.
"Wow, that looks like a pretty bad sprain." Tails said as Shadow picked up his emerald with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Let me take a look at that injury." said a mysterious female voice from behind Tails which startled him. When he turned around, he saw Knuckles holding his Master Emerald and an iridescent light was emanating from it. at the center of light, a familiar female figure appeared right in front of Shadow.
"Who are you?" Shadow said with a slightly nervous expression.
"Calm down, my young friend. My name is Tikal, and I am part of Knuckles' original ancestral tribe. When I died, my spirit remained with the emerald, which is why I am here today, assisting him with his mission as guardian of the Master Emerald." she said as she gently placed her hands on Shadow's hurt ankle.
"There's something, familiar about this, like I've experienced this before." Shadow thought to himself, and then he remembered a past memory long ago about when he was created on the ARK, he couldn't fully control his speed and injured himself in a similar fashion. His close friend Maria had tended to his hurt leg in the same way that Tikal was now.
Tikal placed her hand on Shadow's leg and a green light similar to the one shining from the emerald emitted from her hand. After the light dissipated, Shadow stood up, amazed at Tikal's healing powers. Tails then explained the situation about Sonic to everybody.
"So, that ordinary hedgehog has got himself in trouble again? You think nearly blowing up in a capsule shot into space would have taught him not to take foolish chances, but I guess not everyone can be as smart as me, right echidna?" Shadow said smugly. "I mean, how many times CAN you mess your job up? Anyone with half a brain should be able to keep track of ONE emerald, but I guess that's too much to expect from you."
Knuckles was easily offended by his remark and knew that Shadow was trying to compensate for his own blunder by crashing into him. He didn't care about this, he just knew that he didn't like being humiliated, especially in public. He raised his fist in anger and changed his pose into a fighting stance as to challenge Shadow.
"Stop this Knuckles, please. There's no need to fight. Our main concern is to find Sonic and make sure he's safe so please calm down." Tikal cried.
"Well I'm sorry, Tikal but I'm tired of "Pseudo Sonic" here thinking he's superior to everyone else!" Knuckles shouted. He knew from all his experience as a fighter that the first rule to any battle is to know your opponent back to front, and that Shadow's biggest pet peeve was being compared to Sonic. "I thought Sonic had an ego problem, but his is nothing compared to "Sonic 2", the sequel! Tell me Shadow, if you're the ultimate life form, how come you came closest to death after the ARK incident, huh tough guy!" he finished with a confident smile.
"Okay, that's it! You're in for it now!" Shadow exclaimed.
"Bring it on!" Knuckles roared.
"That's enough!" Tails yelled out. "I can't take any more fighting today, okay. So why don't you two just calm down and grow up instead of whining like children!" Everyone was so shocked at Tails' outburst so much that the whole street had a moment of silence.
"Excuse me everyone, but look what Cheese found." Cream said in an excited manner as she held up a light blue emerald. "It was behind a couple of trash cans."
"See Tikal, I knew I sensed one nearby. Now I'm almost done with my mission at last." Knuckles said in relief.
"What IS your mission, Knuckles?" Tails asked.
"Well, a few days ago, the Master Emerald had a strange glow. At that point Tikal came out and told me to find the seven chaos emeralds or the world could be in danger." Knuckles started.
"If the chaos emeralds are not taken to a place beneath the hidden chamber of the island, known as the sealed chamber within several days from now, their powers will be out of control. Everything that is created has a lifespan, and the chaos emeralds are almost at the end of theirs. They must be put to rest in the sealed chamber, or else their power will be unstoppable, and the world will be in peril." Tikal continued.
"We already have a combined total of three emeralds, and my master emerald, so there are only four emeralds left." Knuckles finished.
Amy counted all of the emeralds that she had seen today in her mind and remembered the red emerald and the promise she made to Rouge, who had been listening from behind the alley she was in. Luckily, the alley was to Knuckles' backside, so Amy hatched a quick plan to find out how he felt about Rouge.
"Ummm.... Knuckles, I'm just curious. How do you feel about Rouge. I mean do you find her....physically attractive? You seem to act quite differently around her, so I wanted to know if that was the reason."
"What?!" Knuckles shouted.
"Oh, the sixty-four million dollar question." Shadow said with an arrogant grin. "You heard the lady, Knucklehead. So aren't you going to answer her question?"
Knuckles growled and started spitting up sentence fragments "Why that is the, Of all the, I mean me and her, You got to be!" During all of Knuckles' ramblings Amy noticed that his cheeks seemed to become redder than his body, so he must have a huge crush on Rouge like she thought.
"I'll take that as a big "yes"!" Amy shouted.
"Aha! I knew it!" Shadow exclaimed.
"I thought as much." Tails said.
"I'm so happy for you, and Cheese is too." Cream said.
"Chao, chao!" Cheese squeaked joyfully.
"I thought you seemed distracted during this mission. I guess I finally know the reason now." Tikal said.
Knuckles didn't know what made him madder at this point. The fact that they had figured out his secret crush on Rouge, the fact that they were teasing him about it, or the fact that they were absolutely right. He didn't know how to react to this situation, so he did one of the things he did best, yell and deny. Unfortunately, what he would say next would be something he would come to regret soon enough.
"How could you fools think that I could ever have crush on a lowly thief like Rouge the Bat! I don't even LIKE her, let alone LOVE her!" Knuckles shouted with such fury that it silenced all of his peers.
Their looks of happiness and joy that were with them a few moments ago were turned to looks of horror at the sight they saw in front of them. Knuckles quickly turned around to see what made everyone freeze, and when he did he gasped out of shock. It was Rouge, who had stepped out the alley and overheard everything. Her face had a look of anger, but her eyes were full of tears. Her tears had left deep stains on her pink heart shaped blouse and her hands were limp by the sides of her black pants. Before she broke down right there, she turned around as quickly as she could and flew off.
"Rouge, wait!" Knuckles cried as he ran over to where she was standing. He tried to catch up to her, but tripped and could only watch her fly off into the distance. "Oh man, what have I done? I've really blown it this time." he said with a guilty sigh of regret.
Knuckles knew what he had to do.
Well, what do you think? Please reply soon. I'm sorry this chapter was so long, but it was necessary to explain all of the details. Until next time, bye.
Thanks to my first reviewer, I learned that I was moving too slowly with the plot, so I decided to move quicker. This chapter will definitely have lots of important plot points so I hope this chapter makes up for my slow speed. I've just enjoyed writing this story so much. I hope you all enjoy it.
Chapter 4
As Amy ran towards the ominous figure, he turned around slowly. He wasn't one to flinch at the sound of a girl's screams. It took a lot to shake him up, after all he was the guardian of the Master Emerald, better known as Knuckles the Echidna.
"Hi Knuckles!" Amy screamed as she ran down the street. Tails, Cream, and Cheese were following right behind her. Rouge decided to stay behind because she was still nervous about her feelings for Knuckles. She was normally a brave woman, but she was incredibly intimidated by this task, mainly because she had never felt this way about anyone before. Ever since their fight at Meteor Herd where Knuckles saved her life, she always felt that she had some romantic feelings and was indeed quite taken by the young, rugged, echidna, but for all her cleverness and resources, she had no idea if he returned her feelings, or if he had actually just hated her like she feared.
Amy noticed that Rouge was hiding behind a building's corner in a nearby alleyway. After all, her big white ears were unmistakable. Amy decided to keep her promise to Rouge, but after she asked about her own crush, Sonic. She quickly explained the situation to him in hopes that he would help them.
"So, Sonic's got himself in trouble again, huh?" Knuckles said sternly. "Well, I'm tired of cleaning up HIS messes, I'm not going to bail him out THIS time!"
"But Knuckles, you're the best tracker I've ever met, and you're strongest person we know so we could use your help. Please?", Tails asked.
"I already said NO! I'm here on MY mission! Sonic can take care of himself, and if he can't, well that's on him!" Knuckles said sounding even more stern than last time.
"Please, Mr. Knuckles? We really need your help. Cheese and I are very scared about what could have happened to Sonic. You're the biggest, bravest, strongest person I know. Please help us." Cream pleaded as though she were about to cry.
Knuckles wasn't the most generous person in the world, but he was no bully either. As a fighter, he was used to a lot of things, but he wasn't used to hurting someone so much smaller than himself. He hung his head in acceptance that he would help in the search for Sonic.
"Hey Knuckles, why ARE you here anyway? We'll help you with your situation since you'll help us with ours." Tails said.
"Well, the reason I'm here is because...." and before Knuckles could finish his sentence, a figure running behind him at supersonic speed crashed into him, dropping a white chaos emerald. The hedgehog was groaning from his fall.
"Sonic!" Amy shouted as she quickly ran over and grabbed the injured hedgehog's arm to help him up. "I was so worried about you! I'm glad to see you're alright!"
"It's dejavu all over again, isn't it small pink girl. You still can't tell the difference between that faker and the ultimate life form! After all, I'm much more handsome than he'll ever be." the hedgehog angrily bellowed.
"Oh.....hi Shadow." Amy said in a disappointed tone.
"Well, is that any way to greet the guy who saved your lives aboard the ARK, I have a good mind to....owww!" Shadow said as he stumbled to the ground again. Apparently, his crash into Knuckles had sprained his ankle.
"Wow, that looks like a pretty bad sprain." Tails said as Shadow picked up his emerald with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Let me take a look at that injury." said a mysterious female voice from behind Tails which startled him. When he turned around, he saw Knuckles holding his Master Emerald and an iridescent light was emanating from it. at the center of light, a familiar female figure appeared right in front of Shadow.
"Who are you?" Shadow said with a slightly nervous expression.
"Calm down, my young friend. My name is Tikal, and I am part of Knuckles' original ancestral tribe. When I died, my spirit remained with the emerald, which is why I am here today, assisting him with his mission as guardian of the Master Emerald." she said as she gently placed her hands on Shadow's hurt ankle.
"There's something, familiar about this, like I've experienced this before." Shadow thought to himself, and then he remembered a past memory long ago about when he was created on the ARK, he couldn't fully control his speed and injured himself in a similar fashion. His close friend Maria had tended to his hurt leg in the same way that Tikal was now.
Tikal placed her hand on Shadow's leg and a green light similar to the one shining from the emerald emitted from her hand. After the light dissipated, Shadow stood up, amazed at Tikal's healing powers. Tails then explained the situation about Sonic to everybody.
"So, that ordinary hedgehog has got himself in trouble again? You think nearly blowing up in a capsule shot into space would have taught him not to take foolish chances, but I guess not everyone can be as smart as me, right echidna?" Shadow said smugly. "I mean, how many times CAN you mess your job up? Anyone with half a brain should be able to keep track of ONE emerald, but I guess that's too much to expect from you."
Knuckles was easily offended by his remark and knew that Shadow was trying to compensate for his own blunder by crashing into him. He didn't care about this, he just knew that he didn't like being humiliated, especially in public. He raised his fist in anger and changed his pose into a fighting stance as to challenge Shadow.
"Stop this Knuckles, please. There's no need to fight. Our main concern is to find Sonic and make sure he's safe so please calm down." Tikal cried.
"Well I'm sorry, Tikal but I'm tired of "Pseudo Sonic" here thinking he's superior to everyone else!" Knuckles shouted. He knew from all his experience as a fighter that the first rule to any battle is to know your opponent back to front, and that Shadow's biggest pet peeve was being compared to Sonic. "I thought Sonic had an ego problem, but his is nothing compared to "Sonic 2", the sequel! Tell me Shadow, if you're the ultimate life form, how come you came closest to death after the ARK incident, huh tough guy!" he finished with a confident smile.
"Okay, that's it! You're in for it now!" Shadow exclaimed.
"Bring it on!" Knuckles roared.
"That's enough!" Tails yelled out. "I can't take any more fighting today, okay. So why don't you two just calm down and grow up instead of whining like children!" Everyone was so shocked at Tails' outburst so much that the whole street had a moment of silence.
"Excuse me everyone, but look what Cheese found." Cream said in an excited manner as she held up a light blue emerald. "It was behind a couple of trash cans."
"See Tikal, I knew I sensed one nearby. Now I'm almost done with my mission at last." Knuckles said in relief.
"What IS your mission, Knuckles?" Tails asked.
"Well, a few days ago, the Master Emerald had a strange glow. At that point Tikal came out and told me to find the seven chaos emeralds or the world could be in danger." Knuckles started.
"If the chaos emeralds are not taken to a place beneath the hidden chamber of the island, known as the sealed chamber within several days from now, their powers will be out of control. Everything that is created has a lifespan, and the chaos emeralds are almost at the end of theirs. They must be put to rest in the sealed chamber, or else their power will be unstoppable, and the world will be in peril." Tikal continued.
"We already have a combined total of three emeralds, and my master emerald, so there are only four emeralds left." Knuckles finished.
Amy counted all of the emeralds that she had seen today in her mind and remembered the red emerald and the promise she made to Rouge, who had been listening from behind the alley she was in. Luckily, the alley was to Knuckles' backside, so Amy hatched a quick plan to find out how he felt about Rouge.
"Ummm.... Knuckles, I'm just curious. How do you feel about Rouge. I mean do you find her....physically attractive? You seem to act quite differently around her, so I wanted to know if that was the reason."
"What?!" Knuckles shouted.
"Oh, the sixty-four million dollar question." Shadow said with an arrogant grin. "You heard the lady, Knucklehead. So aren't you going to answer her question?"
Knuckles growled and started spitting up sentence fragments "Why that is the, Of all the, I mean me and her, You got to be!" During all of Knuckles' ramblings Amy noticed that his cheeks seemed to become redder than his body, so he must have a huge crush on Rouge like she thought.
"I'll take that as a big "yes"!" Amy shouted.
"Aha! I knew it!" Shadow exclaimed.
"I thought as much." Tails said.
"I'm so happy for you, and Cheese is too." Cream said.
"Chao, chao!" Cheese squeaked joyfully.
"I thought you seemed distracted during this mission. I guess I finally know the reason now." Tikal said.
Knuckles didn't know what made him madder at this point. The fact that they had figured out his secret crush on Rouge, the fact that they were teasing him about it, or the fact that they were absolutely right. He didn't know how to react to this situation, so he did one of the things he did best, yell and deny. Unfortunately, what he would say next would be something he would come to regret soon enough.
"How could you fools think that I could ever have crush on a lowly thief like Rouge the Bat! I don't even LIKE her, let alone LOVE her!" Knuckles shouted with such fury that it silenced all of his peers.
Their looks of happiness and joy that were with them a few moments ago were turned to looks of horror at the sight they saw in front of them. Knuckles quickly turned around to see what made everyone freeze, and when he did he gasped out of shock. It was Rouge, who had stepped out the alley and overheard everything. Her face had a look of anger, but her eyes were full of tears. Her tears had left deep stains on her pink heart shaped blouse and her hands were limp by the sides of her black pants. Before she broke down right there, she turned around as quickly as she could and flew off.
"Rouge, wait!" Knuckles cried as he ran over to where she was standing. He tried to catch up to her, but tripped and could only watch her fly off into the distance. "Oh man, what have I done? I've really blown it this time." he said with a guilty sigh of regret.
Knuckles knew what he had to do.
Well, what do you think? Please reply soon. I'm sorry this chapter was so long, but it was necessary to explain all of the details. Until next time, bye.