Mecha Action!
Chapter 2: Before It Was Lost
A new day had come and the sun's rays poured into Defender Territory. As the inhabitants woke up and left their homes in the thickly grown forest, Amy came out of her tree house home as well and stood on the balcony in her night robe. Although trees surrounded her home Amy was able to see a piece of sky through an open area in the tall foliage. She sighed heavily as the lavender sky slowly brightened upon the sun's arrival. Mornings like this always refreshed the hedgehog, especially after a hard mission the day before. Knuckles had rewarded the girl for her hard work and success on yesterday's mission. Amy was given a day off from her Defender duties giving her a chance to go down into the market and catch up on some needed shopping and with friends as well.
The hedgehog walked back into her house to get dressed and start her day. An hour later she was sliding down the ladder from her balcony and raced off towards the market. Already the market was beginning to fill up with customers while the shopkeepers advertised their products or foods for sale. The hustle and bustle of the noise was pleasing to the pink hedgehog as she made her way through the crowd.
"I love this place. There's so much energy moving here." Amy thought as she passed by a jewelry shop.
She adored and cherished her Defender home because it was brought to life by the people who lived there, not by machines. Although they were enclosed in a large forest in Defender Territory, that didn't seem to stop the people from going on with their lives as they have always done for years. But there was a time when the Defender Territory was not around. A time when Defenders were not needed for covert operations into dangerous lands. A time when organic life did not struggle to survive day by day. Amy entered into a fruit shop and browsed through the aisles. She picked up a fresh apple and sighed heavily at its vibrant red color.
…Seventy-five years ago. The planet was still pure and the balance between nature and machine was equal and undisturbed. Then that fateful day came…the day when Eggman's tyranny swept across the land. Quickly he wiped out precious life and changed his prisoners into robotic servants for his new world. An army rose up to stand against the evil scientist yet they crumbled under his attacks. With only a few members left in the army and several civilians helpless to the sinister mastermind, the leader stood on his own and unleashed their last efforts of defense: the Emerald of Order.
It was Knuckles who had hidden this jewel from the public eye for a dire situation. With the remains of organic life almost gone after a few years of battle, the red echidna activated the Emerald of Order and became one with its power. By then Eggman had unleashed his newest weapon that would wipe out the last of organic life but Knuckles rose against the mammoth machine alone and defeated it with the power of the emerald. The machine became unusable and the remaining civilians of the organic world retreated to a forest in an area untouched by technology. Once there, Knuckles created a massive chain of mountains using the Emerald of Order and protected the organic lands from Eggman's power.
Although the people found safety, they realized that they had to defend their freedom and do whatever they could to stop Eggman from gaining power. Thus the Defenders were born and their long battle against the Mechas began. Day in and day out brave Defender soldiers fought their way into the Mechalands and battled against Eggman's newest weapons of destruction. But soon the weapons became more powerful thus forcing the Defenders to only accept the elite into their small army. There were only a few but together those few brought down the most powerful of Eggman's machines. With their various abilities, these Defenders stood out among the rest of the organic life and were even hailed as heroes among the organics. Knuckles was even respected and given the title of leader of entire organic nation. But he knew that he alone could not accept all of the credit for most of the credit belonged to his closest friends, the Three Legends.
The Three Legends consisted of Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog and Tails, a young two-tailed fox. If it wasn't for their heroic efforts and risks, Defender Territory would've disappeared in a matter of time. The three of them stuck together like a family, having their small disputes but always coming out on top in the end. For a while it seemed as if nothing could stop their triumphs…nothing at all, until one mission ended it all.
Knuckles and the Three Legends were out to investigate a new weapon that Eggman was creating. They spent hours out in the Mechalands carefully sneaking into the capital where Eggman's base was located. All seemed to be going well for the four Defenders until Eggman and his robots ambushed the three. He had already finished his newest creation…but it was not a machine. No it was an emerald, one like the Emerald of Order but it created chaos instead. Eggman had created the Emerald of Chaos to negate the Emerald of Order and its power was unstoppable. Unprepared for such a force, Knuckles and the Three Legends tried to escape the trap. Unfortunately the Three Legends were captured by Eggman's army of robots and Knuckles narrowly escaped heading back to Defender Territory .
Although the damage was done to the team of Defenders, Eggman was just getting started. He unleashed the power of the newly created emerald and attacked the mountains that protected the Defender Territory. All hope seemed lost as the mountains crumbled from the power of the Emerald of Chaos but Knuckles refused to give up. Summoning all of the power from the Emerald of Order, the echidna not only stopped the attack but also created an invisible barrier around the mountain chain protecting it from Eggman's emerald. The Defenders may have escaped another threatening situation, but not without dire consequences. They had lost their three legendary heroes and Knuckles, out of the guilt of losing his friends, confined himself inside the Great Tree at the center of the forest.
By then the echidna realized how important it was for the Defenders to quickly rise up against Eggman for the scientists could be hard at work again with another plan to bring down the organic nation. They had just entered into a new battle, a battle of speed vs. power and with the golden era of the Defenders quickly fading into history, new heroes had to be discovered before the final days of the organics arrived.
As Amy left the market with a bag full of groceries, her mind was filled with memories of when she was accepted into the Defender force.
"It was all an accident." she had always told herself.
Her parents were apart of the Defenders and when she learned of their disappearance into the Mechalands along with their teammates, the young hedgehog left her home to search for them. She knew that no civilian was allowed outside of the well guarded forest so she had to find another way. The small child hid herself in the cargo of a hijacked transporter from the Mechalands that some Defenders were going to use to go back in. It all seemed like a good idea until the transporter was attacked by Eggman's fighter jets in the Mechalands.
The transporter crashed and Amy was the only one to escape. Upon racing away from the accident, she ran into a few guard robots who came to investigate. Helpless with no Defenders around, Amy cowered ready to meet her fate. But the screech of a white eagle filled the skies and the majestic bird swooped down and destroyed the robots. Amy was carried away and back to Defender Territory , but she was taken to the unauthorized grounds that Knuckles lived upon. The hedgehog thought that she would be punished for leaving without permission. To her surprise Knuckles was compassionate to her and took her under his wing. For the next few years she was trained up to be a Defender. When she finally had the courage to do so, she asked Knuckles why he chose her and his answer was brief.
"The white eagle left these grounds by its own will to save you. It must have sensed something inside of you that separates you from us all…something the Three Legends had within them as well."
As his voice faded into the depths of Amy's mind, the hedgehog was already climbing up to her tree house home. Before she opened the front door, she gave one last look into the blue sky above her.
"Am I like the Three Legends? Will I bring Eggman's empire to an end?"
It was something she had always thought about ever since she was saved by the white eagle. She had to be special in some sort of way for the eagle was created by Knuckles and only obeyed him. But to leave by its own will just to save one girl? Perhaps the eagle did see something within her; an unknown force that would bring the war to an end. Amy smiled hoping that she would be the one to bring the long winded war to an end. The Defenders seemed to be getting nowhere with each new advance Eggman made and it was wearing Knuckles out as well; physically and emotionally.