Knuckles could do naught but gape as the ancient Echidna hobbled forwards,
hands trembling as he brought his gnarled staff down upon the granite
stones of the chamber floor. Bringing one hand up, Pochacamac turned back
to his guards, their brows streaked with white war paint.
"Release them. They mean no harm." He turned back to Knuckles. "You look surprised to see us Knuckles." The elderly figure smiled and extended a hand in greeting. Tears in his eyes, Knuckles reached forwards and clasped in as hard as he could. Pochacamac simply smiled and increased the pressure until Knuckles had to let go with a started yelp. "Same as always."
A shout from the doorway interrupted the reunion, as a group of four Echidna's marched into the chamber, carrying a blue hedgehog on their shoulders.
"Sonic!" cried Amy, reaching for her crossbow. A strong hand restrained her. She looked up into the eyes of a female Echidna, her skin lighter than Pochacamac's: a sort of creamy brown.
"He is quite alright. Our warriors are quite skilled in the art of rendering someone unconscious without harming them." Pochacamac nodded in agreement with his daughter's words and turned to face the new arrivals.
"You may let him go now," he said. "He is no threat to us." Nodding, the Echidna's lowered Sonic to the floor, one of them pausing to place a gloved hand on the hedgehog's head before retreating. Groggily, Sonic awoke, shaking his head to clear his vision. Opening his yes finally he gasped.
"Tikal! Pochacamac!" He rounded on Knuckles. "What's going on?"
"Easy Sonic," replied the ancient Echidna, hobbling up behind him. "Come. I believe I owe you all an explanation."
---
High above the planet, the void buckled and bent as something began to force the fabric of space apart. With a soundless flash, space itself ripped open. Through the tear came the bow of a huge metallic craft, pointed at the top and widening out to a rounded stern. Alongside the titanic craft came thousands of smaller ship, streaking by the capital ship's massive bulk and weaving colourful patterns in the darkness. Behind them came larger ships, drifting slowly from the tear as it closed behind them, coming in all shapes and sizes. As space returned to its normal shape, the fleet arrayed itself facing the planet Mobius.
---
"Welcome gentlemen, to the conference room."
The chamber was circular, fashioned from the dull brown stone within the Lava Reef volcano. The table was of typical Echidna design, completely and perfectly circular, and inscribed with the angular tribal art of the race. A green jewel lay at its centre. Knuckles recognised it as an emerald from the mines, but that was all he could make out at that moment. His attention was fixed on the elderly Echidna facing him.
"Now," said Pochacamac, when everyone had taken a seat. "I believe you all have questions, and I can guess what they are. 'Why are we here?' Well, let me start from the beginning."
"After Chaos was sealed, the Drakon-Echidna War dragged on for many years. Our technology was completely outmatched by theirs, both in complexity and the aggressiveness with which it was used. However, we had simple primal skill, and over time a well-planned series of sneak attacks whittled down the Drakon army. However, during that time the land was laid to ruin below us. In desperation, our Echidna craftsmen fashioned an entire island of the middle of the Mobian Sea, under the guard of the entire Echidna army. Upon its completion, we Echidnas fled to it and, using the powers of the Chaos Emeralds took to the skies. This allowed us to avoid the majority of the Drakon Empire's attacks. Eventually, we engaged the Drakon Army in a huge battle upon the Sandopolis Plain and won a victory that forced the Drakon Empire to withdraw. We had won. However, though the Drakons were too damaged to attack us again for millennia, we knew that they would return. We decided to seal ourselves within these walls." He gestured to the entire room, and the Freedom Fighters looked up to see walls covered with tiny carvings of Echidnas, drab and lifeless. "We stored our spirits within these carvings and placed magical barriers to warn us if the Drakons returned. We awoke shortly after the Floating island fell from the sky, and set to work restoring the shield and rebuilding our shattered cities. That, in a nutshell, is our story."
Amy frowned as the old Echidna finished. There was something fishy about his tale. Something in his manner. But she put it aside as paranoia and returned to listening.
Pochacamac smiled and turned to Knuckles. "That is our tale."
"How am I supposed to trust those who left me alone on this Island to rot," replied the red Echidna. Amy winced at the anguish in his voice. She agreed with him inwardly. There was no excuse.
Pochacamac seemed to be taken aback, but he soon regained his composure. "I can only think that something must have disrupted my preserving magic enough to release you from the spell. It would have had to be an energy discharge of unimaginable strength to dispel incantations that old as well. It would certainly explain your bizarre memory loss"
Sonic suddenly leapt up.
"Of course! When Kintobor became Robotnik, there was a huge Chaos energy discharge. That must have done it!" He suddenly realised where he was and sheepishly sat back down, under the harsh glares of several hundred Echidnas.
Pochacamac nodded. "That would explain it."
"But what about Zachary?" demanded Knuckles.
"Who?"
"He's an Echidna too. And he still has memories of the Ancient Echidnas."
"Wait," said Pochacamac, rubbing his temples. "I do remember a Zachary. A horrible little creature he was too. He was unpopular with us because of his experiments on the newly emerging Animaline race of Mobians. Eventually he was banished for trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds. I had him exiled to the very depths of the Floating Island itself. I have no idea how he could have survived."
Knuckles sighed in disappointment. "Damn."
"Anyway, I believe that's all at the moment. Now, would you care to be escorted to Megapolis City for accommodation?" Knuckles had just started forwards when an Echidna warrior leapt through he chamber doorway, scattered a few guards with muffled curses. Running up to Pochacamac he knelt to catch his breath.
"My Lord," he panted. "There's something you should see."
---
Aboard the bridge of the Caliagon, Emperor Ko-Door scowled down at the blue-green planet below. The inhabitants of that world had foiled his plans once before. They would not do so again. Robotnik would pay for his treachery, and so would every other creature of that blasted world. He would have his revenge.
All around the bridge, Drakon technicians bent over their consoles, tapping in multiple commands as they followed procedures to hold the ship steady. Ko-Door did not envy them. They could not feel the thrill of battle from up here. Beside him stood Master Scholar, and Ko-Door had a sudden urge to kick him through the bridge's protective glass canopy as he gave the Emperor a smug smile. So what if you designed this thing. It will be I who shall use it, you over-confident bag of skin and useless information.
Ko-Door turned as Dosaer hobbled onto the bridge, supported by two cowering newts under each of his arms. In his right hand he held a spiked staff, with which he frequently prodded the newts to change direction and speed. Ko-Door rolled his eyes at the spectacle. He still had no idea why Dosaer had come on this expedition. The old coot would only be an obstruction. Nevertheless, as an act of courtesy towards the House of Diplomacy, he had allowed him to come.
He turned yet again, feeling sheepishly like a merry-go-round, as a technician called his name. "Emperor Ko-Door," he repeated. "We have located the target, and have sent co-ordinates to the rest of the fleet. Shall we proceed with firing codes?"
Ko-Door smirked and returned to his vantage point. His first action would be a bit of psychological warfare. With any luck they could break the Mobian backbone before the war had even begun. It would save a lot of time and effort, and with no Echidnas to back them up the weak peoples of Mobius would fall. Again Ko-Door thanked the stars that that ancient race had died out long ago. "Give the command to fire," he told the technician.
This would be good.
---
As one, the massed guns of the Drakon fleet glowed, as laser energy built up in their barrels. The Caliagon spat the first shot. As one, the rest of the fleet fired. The glowing halo of death slowly descended onto the planet.
---
Smokey laughed as Richard plummeted down the slippery, muddy track that led to the Metropolis City Lake. Though his old Badnik friend had been destroyed in the EMP caused by the Black Asteroid's detonation, he had quickly befriended the robot's released animal battery.
As Richard struggled up the muddy slope laughing jovially, Smokey turned his face to the sky and frowned at what he saw. A green glow bathed the atmosphere with an ethereal light, casting long shadows over the city.
What's that?
---
The smoke rising from the small fire laced the air above Starlight City with contrails of wispy grey vapour, giving the assembled workers the impression of a choking and insubstantial roof above their heads. Smiling, Edwardo looked around the group. There, standing in the corner was Peter, known as Pete to his friends, smoking a huge novelty pipe. It was adding substantially to the smog above them. In the centre of their group lay a small campfire, set up in the middle of their worker' camp. Just down the street, Mobian children frolicked in the Starlight City Memorial Park. In the Town Square, the bell tower began to chime 4'o'clock.
Amidst the festivities, Edwardo could just hear a low, subsonic hum. Looking up, he gasped at the lunar display taking place overhead.
---
Tux stopped in his rush to redecorate his small house, and turned his eyes to the sky. Over head, he could see the constellations of Orion and Ursa Minor, among others. Smiling, the penguin's eyes picked out his own star sign: Gemini. He sighed. He and Sonic had been old friends, even before Robotnik came along. He'd always set up little races for the wayward hedgehog, and watched as he dashed around the corkscrews and loop-the-loops of the Green Hill Zone. He'd even been saved by Sonic once from one of Robotnik's early plans, before he had became the Dictator of Mobius. He had been captured by the deranged scientist and taken to the newly created city of Robotropolis, which was quickly destroyed when Sonic arrived to rescue him from being boiled alive. He had never really become involved in the Freedom Fighters movement, preferring to act as the group's undercover arm.
Looking up at Gemini again, Tux froze. A green ring arced across the sky, slowly turned downwards. As he realised its course, Tux began to run.
---
Smokey froze as the ring began to fall, leaving an emerald green energy trail as it spiralled towards the planet's surface. Crying out in alarm he ducked into a disused drainage pipe and lay there, shivering, as the hum steadily became louder.
---
Edwardo shouted to his friends as the ring plummeted to earth, casting a deathly pall over the planet. A guttural cry escaped his lips as he began to run.
---
The first shot of the Mobius-Drakon War fell on the centre of Starlight City on the 12th of November. The entire centre of the city blew out in a superheated cloud of flame and rubble, annihilating Edwardo's gang and propelling debris 10'000 miles above the planet's surface.
The next 1'406'043 shots impacted a fraction of a second later, completely vaporising the whole of the City and its inhabitants, and scorching the land barren for miles around.
---
Pochacamac stood back from the edge of the viewing platform as the glow of the destruction of Starlight City tinted the horizon orange. As the rest of his companions stood there gaping, Pochacamac bowed his head and let a solitary tear roll down his cheek. He knew the signs of a Drakonian deep space bombing on a planet's surface.
"And so, it begins once more," he whispered to himself.
"Release them. They mean no harm." He turned back to Knuckles. "You look surprised to see us Knuckles." The elderly figure smiled and extended a hand in greeting. Tears in his eyes, Knuckles reached forwards and clasped in as hard as he could. Pochacamac simply smiled and increased the pressure until Knuckles had to let go with a started yelp. "Same as always."
A shout from the doorway interrupted the reunion, as a group of four Echidna's marched into the chamber, carrying a blue hedgehog on their shoulders.
"Sonic!" cried Amy, reaching for her crossbow. A strong hand restrained her. She looked up into the eyes of a female Echidna, her skin lighter than Pochacamac's: a sort of creamy brown.
"He is quite alright. Our warriors are quite skilled in the art of rendering someone unconscious without harming them." Pochacamac nodded in agreement with his daughter's words and turned to face the new arrivals.
"You may let him go now," he said. "He is no threat to us." Nodding, the Echidna's lowered Sonic to the floor, one of them pausing to place a gloved hand on the hedgehog's head before retreating. Groggily, Sonic awoke, shaking his head to clear his vision. Opening his yes finally he gasped.
"Tikal! Pochacamac!" He rounded on Knuckles. "What's going on?"
"Easy Sonic," replied the ancient Echidna, hobbling up behind him. "Come. I believe I owe you all an explanation."
---
High above the planet, the void buckled and bent as something began to force the fabric of space apart. With a soundless flash, space itself ripped open. Through the tear came the bow of a huge metallic craft, pointed at the top and widening out to a rounded stern. Alongside the titanic craft came thousands of smaller ship, streaking by the capital ship's massive bulk and weaving colourful patterns in the darkness. Behind them came larger ships, drifting slowly from the tear as it closed behind them, coming in all shapes and sizes. As space returned to its normal shape, the fleet arrayed itself facing the planet Mobius.
---
"Welcome gentlemen, to the conference room."
The chamber was circular, fashioned from the dull brown stone within the Lava Reef volcano. The table was of typical Echidna design, completely and perfectly circular, and inscribed with the angular tribal art of the race. A green jewel lay at its centre. Knuckles recognised it as an emerald from the mines, but that was all he could make out at that moment. His attention was fixed on the elderly Echidna facing him.
"Now," said Pochacamac, when everyone had taken a seat. "I believe you all have questions, and I can guess what they are. 'Why are we here?' Well, let me start from the beginning."
"After Chaos was sealed, the Drakon-Echidna War dragged on for many years. Our technology was completely outmatched by theirs, both in complexity and the aggressiveness with which it was used. However, we had simple primal skill, and over time a well-planned series of sneak attacks whittled down the Drakon army. However, during that time the land was laid to ruin below us. In desperation, our Echidna craftsmen fashioned an entire island of the middle of the Mobian Sea, under the guard of the entire Echidna army. Upon its completion, we Echidnas fled to it and, using the powers of the Chaos Emeralds took to the skies. This allowed us to avoid the majority of the Drakon Empire's attacks. Eventually, we engaged the Drakon Army in a huge battle upon the Sandopolis Plain and won a victory that forced the Drakon Empire to withdraw. We had won. However, though the Drakons were too damaged to attack us again for millennia, we knew that they would return. We decided to seal ourselves within these walls." He gestured to the entire room, and the Freedom Fighters looked up to see walls covered with tiny carvings of Echidnas, drab and lifeless. "We stored our spirits within these carvings and placed magical barriers to warn us if the Drakons returned. We awoke shortly after the Floating island fell from the sky, and set to work restoring the shield and rebuilding our shattered cities. That, in a nutshell, is our story."
Amy frowned as the old Echidna finished. There was something fishy about his tale. Something in his manner. But she put it aside as paranoia and returned to listening.
Pochacamac smiled and turned to Knuckles. "That is our tale."
"How am I supposed to trust those who left me alone on this Island to rot," replied the red Echidna. Amy winced at the anguish in his voice. She agreed with him inwardly. There was no excuse.
Pochacamac seemed to be taken aback, but he soon regained his composure. "I can only think that something must have disrupted my preserving magic enough to release you from the spell. It would have had to be an energy discharge of unimaginable strength to dispel incantations that old as well. It would certainly explain your bizarre memory loss"
Sonic suddenly leapt up.
"Of course! When Kintobor became Robotnik, there was a huge Chaos energy discharge. That must have done it!" He suddenly realised where he was and sheepishly sat back down, under the harsh glares of several hundred Echidnas.
Pochacamac nodded. "That would explain it."
"But what about Zachary?" demanded Knuckles.
"Who?"
"He's an Echidna too. And he still has memories of the Ancient Echidnas."
"Wait," said Pochacamac, rubbing his temples. "I do remember a Zachary. A horrible little creature he was too. He was unpopular with us because of his experiments on the newly emerging Animaline race of Mobians. Eventually he was banished for trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds. I had him exiled to the very depths of the Floating Island itself. I have no idea how he could have survived."
Knuckles sighed in disappointment. "Damn."
"Anyway, I believe that's all at the moment. Now, would you care to be escorted to Megapolis City for accommodation?" Knuckles had just started forwards when an Echidna warrior leapt through he chamber doorway, scattered a few guards with muffled curses. Running up to Pochacamac he knelt to catch his breath.
"My Lord," he panted. "There's something you should see."
---
Aboard the bridge of the Caliagon, Emperor Ko-Door scowled down at the blue-green planet below. The inhabitants of that world had foiled his plans once before. They would not do so again. Robotnik would pay for his treachery, and so would every other creature of that blasted world. He would have his revenge.
All around the bridge, Drakon technicians bent over their consoles, tapping in multiple commands as they followed procedures to hold the ship steady. Ko-Door did not envy them. They could not feel the thrill of battle from up here. Beside him stood Master Scholar, and Ko-Door had a sudden urge to kick him through the bridge's protective glass canopy as he gave the Emperor a smug smile. So what if you designed this thing. It will be I who shall use it, you over-confident bag of skin and useless information.
Ko-Door turned as Dosaer hobbled onto the bridge, supported by two cowering newts under each of his arms. In his right hand he held a spiked staff, with which he frequently prodded the newts to change direction and speed. Ko-Door rolled his eyes at the spectacle. He still had no idea why Dosaer had come on this expedition. The old coot would only be an obstruction. Nevertheless, as an act of courtesy towards the House of Diplomacy, he had allowed him to come.
He turned yet again, feeling sheepishly like a merry-go-round, as a technician called his name. "Emperor Ko-Door," he repeated. "We have located the target, and have sent co-ordinates to the rest of the fleet. Shall we proceed with firing codes?"
Ko-Door smirked and returned to his vantage point. His first action would be a bit of psychological warfare. With any luck they could break the Mobian backbone before the war had even begun. It would save a lot of time and effort, and with no Echidnas to back them up the weak peoples of Mobius would fall. Again Ko-Door thanked the stars that that ancient race had died out long ago. "Give the command to fire," he told the technician.
This would be good.
---
As one, the massed guns of the Drakon fleet glowed, as laser energy built up in their barrels. The Caliagon spat the first shot. As one, the rest of the fleet fired. The glowing halo of death slowly descended onto the planet.
---
Smokey laughed as Richard plummeted down the slippery, muddy track that led to the Metropolis City Lake. Though his old Badnik friend had been destroyed in the EMP caused by the Black Asteroid's detonation, he had quickly befriended the robot's released animal battery.
As Richard struggled up the muddy slope laughing jovially, Smokey turned his face to the sky and frowned at what he saw. A green glow bathed the atmosphere with an ethereal light, casting long shadows over the city.
What's that?
---
The smoke rising from the small fire laced the air above Starlight City with contrails of wispy grey vapour, giving the assembled workers the impression of a choking and insubstantial roof above their heads. Smiling, Edwardo looked around the group. There, standing in the corner was Peter, known as Pete to his friends, smoking a huge novelty pipe. It was adding substantially to the smog above them. In the centre of their group lay a small campfire, set up in the middle of their worker' camp. Just down the street, Mobian children frolicked in the Starlight City Memorial Park. In the Town Square, the bell tower began to chime 4'o'clock.
Amidst the festivities, Edwardo could just hear a low, subsonic hum. Looking up, he gasped at the lunar display taking place overhead.
---
Tux stopped in his rush to redecorate his small house, and turned his eyes to the sky. Over head, he could see the constellations of Orion and Ursa Minor, among others. Smiling, the penguin's eyes picked out his own star sign: Gemini. He sighed. He and Sonic had been old friends, even before Robotnik came along. He'd always set up little races for the wayward hedgehog, and watched as he dashed around the corkscrews and loop-the-loops of the Green Hill Zone. He'd even been saved by Sonic once from one of Robotnik's early plans, before he had became the Dictator of Mobius. He had been captured by the deranged scientist and taken to the newly created city of Robotropolis, which was quickly destroyed when Sonic arrived to rescue him from being boiled alive. He had never really become involved in the Freedom Fighters movement, preferring to act as the group's undercover arm.
Looking up at Gemini again, Tux froze. A green ring arced across the sky, slowly turned downwards. As he realised its course, Tux began to run.
---
Smokey froze as the ring began to fall, leaving an emerald green energy trail as it spiralled towards the planet's surface. Crying out in alarm he ducked into a disused drainage pipe and lay there, shivering, as the hum steadily became louder.
---
Edwardo shouted to his friends as the ring plummeted to earth, casting a deathly pall over the planet. A guttural cry escaped his lips as he began to run.
---
The first shot of the Mobius-Drakon War fell on the centre of Starlight City on the 12th of November. The entire centre of the city blew out in a superheated cloud of flame and rubble, annihilating Edwardo's gang and propelling debris 10'000 miles above the planet's surface.
The next 1'406'043 shots impacted a fraction of a second later, completely vaporising the whole of the City and its inhabitants, and scorching the land barren for miles around.
---
Pochacamac stood back from the edge of the viewing platform as the glow of the destruction of Starlight City tinted the horizon orange. As the rest of his companions stood there gaping, Pochacamac bowed his head and let a solitary tear roll down his cheek. He knew the signs of a Drakonian deep space bombing on a planet's surface.
"And so, it begins once more," he whispered to himself.