Mecha Action!

Chapter 3: Fading Hope
A new day had come and once again Amy was back on the job with another mission. She found herself rushing through the villages later on in the morning and heading towards the center of the forest where an oversized tree stood above the rest. She approached a swampy moat surrounding the Great Tree and the murky water bubbled a bit before producing a walkway for her to walk across. When Amy approached the base of the tree she was transported inside to a dark lair lit by green torches. In the center on a platform stood Knuckles with his back turned towards her. Amy cautiously approached the platform but Knuckles knew she had arrived.

"You're running a little late Amy." he spoke with his back still towards her.

"My apologies sir." Amy replied. "So what's the mission this time?"

The red echidna waved a hand in front of him and a green viewing portal appeared. Two robotic hedgehogs appeared in the portal patrolling the Mechalands and Knuckles motioned for Amy to move in closer.

"I'm not sure who these two are but I do feel that Eggman may be using them in the near future…most likely for destructive reasons." Knuckles spoke.

"How did you come about them?" Amy asked.

"The eagle's vision. He saw them during a solo flight a few nights ago." Knuckles waved his hand again and the viewing portal disappeared. "Amy your mission is to get into the capital of the Mechalands and find out as much as you can about these two new Mechas. Your equipment will be waiting for you when you leave. Good luck."

Amy nodded her head and turned back to leave but stopped. Cautiously she looked over her shoulder; Knuckles still had her back turned towards her.

"Is there something you want?" the echidna asked suddenly.

"Oh! …Well it's just that sometimes you seem to be…I don't know, losing hope in the fight against Eggman. I mean I've read in the past that you were always willing to go on missions, but then again that was when the Three--"

"Amy!"

The hedgehog quickly stopped talking lowering her head shamefully a bit.

"I gave you a mission, now get out." Knuckles said glaring at her over his shoulder.

Amy quickly nodded her head and was transported outside of the tree. Slowly she treaded back across the path over the swamp and made her way back through the village. She sighed and felt slightly embarrassed over her fear of trying to communicate with Knuckles. He had always been the serious type and rarely talked to Amy about anything other than business. Some of the older residents who remembered Knuckles from years ago admit that the echidna was very different back during the times of the Three Legends' reign over Eggman's power. But after their defeat…he changed. It was a gradual change but nonetheless Knuckles became less involved with the missions and eventually shut himself away from everyone and hid inside the Great Tree.

As the pink hedgehog walked by some homes, she noticed her friend, Cream the Rabbit, sitting outside of her house. The young girl, smaller than Amy, was making something small with her hands. Amy decided to talk to Cream before departing on her mission. As she approached her friend Cream looked up from her crafts.

"Oh hi Amy." Cream greeted her cheerfully. "I'm making a good luck bracelet for you, see?"

She held up a small piece of string with some ornaments attached to it. Amy smiled sweetly and sat next to Cream. On the ground in front of the girl was a large ball of yarn and a box full of tiny bracelet ornaments for her use. Amy offered to help Cream with the one she was currently using and Cream handed it over happily.

"So where are you going today?" the rabbit asked.

"Into the Mechalands as usual. Just another boring mission for me." Amy lifted up her bag a bit. "A really boring mission. I don't have much in this bag."

Although Amy and any other Defender were forbidden from disclosing mission information to anyone, Amy felt that telling Cream just a tiny bit of info about her missions was harmless.

"Oh well. At least you'll have my good luck charm just incase you get into any trouble." Cream replied.

"Thanks. So you're still thinking about becoming a Defender when you grow up? That is if the war is still going on by then."

"Sure! I wanna be by my best friend's side helping her with all of her adventures. I'll bet I'll get to meet Knuckles too. Is he as great as everyone says?"

Amy suddenly stopped working on the bracelet feeling a bit nervous about Cream's question. She wasn't sure how to answer knowing that the lingering memories of some were way off about his behavior. Silently Amy set down the half-made bracelet on the ground and turned towards Cream.

"Cream, Knuckles is…" the hedgehog stopped and looked her friend in the eyes.

The innocence that sat within them were too tempting to lie to, so Amy had to tell her the truth.

"Well honestly…Knuckles isn't what he used to be." the smiled began to fade from Cream's face. "You see over the years, before you and I were born, Knuckles had slowly changed into who he is now."

"Do you know why?" Cream asked quietly.

Amy shook her head and continued. "I'm not sure about what happened, but Knuckles isn't the adventurous hero anymore. Now…he's just very quiet and serious."

"And he's always inside that big tree in the center of the forest right?"

Amy nodded her head in agreement. "I just wish I could know what made him this way. Why he's so…isolated about himself. If I knew just one thing about his past, anything…then maybe I could help him."

By then Amy had forgotten she had been talking to Cream who was still attentive to her every word. The hedgehog shook the matter out of her head and continued to work on the bracelet.

"Does this mean that we're gonna lose the war?" Cream asked quietly.

"No, of course not!" Amy answered with a smile. "I'm sure Knuckles still believes that we can win against Eggman and defeat him…"

She saw Cream out of the corner of her eye giving her a worried look. The smile on Amy's face decreased slowly.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure. But it doesn't mean we should give up hope!" she tied up the string completing the bracelet and held up in the light. "As long as a few of us still believe in a better and brighter future, there's always hope in a war."

The Defender stood up putting the bracelet on her wrist and Cream stood up next to her.

"Don't worry Cream. This will all end one day. Until then we'll just have to keep on fighting against Eggman and all of his machines." Amy said putting on her backpack.

"Yeah. Just make sure you come back in one piece so we can fight that bad man together!" Cream added.

Amy giggled and gently patted Cream on the head before leaving for her mission. As the heavy wooden gates opened at the only entrance into the forest, Amy began having thoughts about what Eggman's new weapon could be. Was it those Mechas she saw in the viewing portal? What could they possibly do if they were Eggman's new weapons? Despite what she had said earlier to Cream about the mission being boring, Amy had a distinct feeling that her mission would be dangerous and highly necessary in order for the Defenders to make any progress.

She set out across the grassy field ahead of her towards the vast mountain chain that surrounded Defender Territory. Just beyond that were the ominous smog clouds that constantly loomed over the Mechalands.