(I do not own Sonic X, etc.)

S.O.N.I.C GO!

S.O.N.I.C GO!

GO, GO, GO, LET'S GO!

Episode 17: The Regal Ruin

Knuckles had been doing a lot of thinking; there wasn't much else to do. Ever since he had visited the ancient past and seen the destruction of his people, powerless to stop it, his determination and dedication to his duty of guardianship had slackened. He found himself straying from the Master Emerald to explore the island more, took longer hours training himself and he also found himself taking a great deal of aggression out on a pine tree that really didn't deserve it. He was depressed and the large green jewel could sense that. Knuckles had always held on to some childish belief that, despite the wrath of Perfect Chaos, the Echidna people were still alive somewhere, in some remote corner of the world and that one day they would return. He knew deep down that it wasn't likely, but it was that little piece of hope that kept him going really. Seeing them completely destroyed had weakened his spirit. Their own fanatical devotion to a god of war driving them to extinction, the vengeance of a demon.

Now, with finality he realized something that he had known all along, that he was the last living Echidna. All the others were dead now. He was the last of his kind and with the realization of that one fact, came a loneliness Knuckles had never felt before. He had grown up on this island, safe in the warm glow of the Master Emerald. He had couldn't remember what his parents looked like or the sound of their voices. The Master Emerald had been his entire life and yet now, it seemed like a trivial burden he would much rather not be handed.

The Red Echidna looked up towards the top of the shrine and the steady green glow emitting from it. After Perfect Chaos had been sealed inside it, the Master Emerald levitated the land around it into the sky to make sure that no earth bound power would ever try to use its power for conquest again. Knuckles suspected that the jewel itself summoned his ancestors to Angel Island to act as its protectors, so that they might find redemption for their sins.

He was the last in a long line of Guardians that had sold their lives to make up for the horrible mistakes of an ancient people. Their debt would be paid with his death and their sins would finally be forgiven. The red Echidna sat there on the bottom step of the shrine thinking everything over. For the first time, 'THE' first time, Knuckles desperately wanted someone to talk to.

His gaze was drawn upward again when he felt a presence besides that of the Master Emerald. Sitting on the steps a little higher up was a white bat with emerald green eyes. If given any other mood, Knuckles would probably have started bellowing at Rouge for trespassing on his island again but at the moment he just didn't feel up to it. Rouge didn't say anything. She just sat there, staring at him and he met her gaze.

The Master Emerald had been observing them and began to understand. Its guardian was lonely because he believed himself the last of the Echidna race and thus began to wander. Want he really wanted was a kindred sprit to be with and while Rouge, who had stolen itself once before, was not the first person it would choose it seemed like the two of them were already quite attuned to each other.

Slowly Knuckles picked himself up and turned to face her completely. Instead of yelling at her, like she'd first expected he simply walked up and sat down next to her. There was another long, prolonged moment of silence between them and all Rouge did was fix him with a long side glance. Was this the same pig headed Echidna who loved his own company?

"I suppose the President sent you up here for something?" He asked trying not to show any emotion. All Rouge noticed was that there wasn't a single hint of aggression or frustration in his voice. She shook her head, narrowing her eyes in his traditional seductive gaze.

"I don't really need his permission to come up here you know." She was half expecting him to tell her that it was his permission she needed, but instead all the Echidna did was chuckle and lean back against the large stone steps. Rouge was beginning to think that someone had replaced her favourite toy with a clone. "Why the sudden mood swing Knucklehead? I thought you hated having people on your island." She added, coming right out and stating the question that had been dogging her or the lat couple of moments. The Echidna paused briefly before putting his large gloved hands behind his head and started staring up at the sky. It was approaching twilight, the sky darkening as the clouds gained a thick golden glow.

"I suppose I should." He began slowly. "But it's just the same old routine that's getting old." A wide smirk crossed the bat's face.

"You're not thinking of leaving the Master Emerald are you? How will it defend itself from Treasure Hunters?" She paused before adding... "Like me?" Knuckles gave her a long glare.

"Leave the Master Emerald? No, I wouldn't do that. It's been the only thing I've known since I was little older than three." The glow of the Master Emerald's radiating green light increased, as if it was thanking it's guardian for his concern. "I guess I'm just getting tired on standing on his island day after day with little else to do." Rouge could tell that wasn't true. Knuckles loved his isolation and solitude, company was never welcomed. The Echidna was such a predictable person, so much so that Rouge could tell that something else was wrong when he broke routine.

"It's that whole Perfect Chaos thing isn't it?" She asked. Knuckles remained silent, refusing to answer the question. "You saw it destroy your people. That's what's bothering you isn't it?" The red Echidna sighed and sat up, staring off in some point in space, remembering the precise moment when he'd seen the water like tentacles tear through the streets, huge geysers swallowing Echidna men, women and children alike. Entire family disappearing into the raging flood waters, their screams echoing across the night as Chaos tore them all apart.

"I'm fine really." He said, realizing that he had left the prolonged silence drag on a little longer than he'd intended. He did not sound very convincing.

"Knuckles, that kind of thing would leave physiological scars the size of the grand canyon on even the most battle hardened veterans." She said eying him suspiciously. "Sure you don't want to talk about it?" Again she was meet with a sudden silence. Now this was more like the Knuckles she was used to. Whenever it came to talking about personal feelings, he could clam up like a ouster, stubbornly refusing to speak like a sulking toddler if it suited him and since he wasn't going to help himself, she was just going to have to do it for him. "Come on, you're coming with me." She stated, her tone refusing to give room for argue as he grasped onto the Echidna's arm, tugging him to his feet. Knuckles looked stunned as he forcefully pulled him away from the shrine.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He demanded, digging his heals into the ground. The bat suddenly showed surprising strength overpowering his resistance.

"You need to get out amongst people for a while." She stated, pausing just long enough to give him a tight glare. "There's a racing tournament going on at the moment, and taking part will do you some good."

"Say what? Have you gone nuts. I can't leave the Island!" She sighed angrily.

"Don't tell me your loyalty to the big jewel is that strong?" Knuckles only replied in a long hard affirming stare. She matched his glare, before smiling smugly. "Oh I'm sure it'll let you have the day off." The bat looked up towards the giant emerald sitting atop the shrine. "Won't you?" In reply, the Emerald's glow pulsated. "Good." Knuckles looked completely stunned that she had understood the Emerald's reply, let alone that it had agreed with her. His entire mind stunned in paralysis, he didn't even notice Rouge tug him inch by inch away from the Master Emerald.

"It's another exciting day of racing." Scarlet' Garcia' voice announced over the loud speakers hidden throughout the Regal Ruin Track. The snow had returned and the track itself was now covered in a thin layer of white. It had gotten so cold that some of the water obstacles around the course had frozen as well. Days of tough competition had passed and various races had come and gone now and only one was left before the Semi finals began. Whoever won this last race would determine who went on to face Team Sonic, S-Team and Team Chaotix for the grand prize, the priceless Chaos Emerald.

Christmas was only a few weeks away now, with the consumer period reaching its peek and souvenirs being sold throughout the length of the tournament completely sold out. The profitability of this competition had proved to far exceed even the Presidents wildest expectation, and he was the one who came up with the idea in the first place. With the kind of cash the Government and the tournament's various sponsors were racking in the defence budget could be expanded ten fold.

As expected, Dr. Eggman had been interfering with various races, laying the occasional trap here and there to try and trip up some unwary racers. He had never directly interfered with the racers of his own team, which lead some to think he was only doing this for his own amusement.

The Regal Ruin track stretched through a set of old ruins that stood on the coast some distance from the Stadium, one of the bridges leading out of the island would take the racers nearly directly to it. Only a few teams had competed on it so far and they were still trying to remove all of Eggman's traps and exploding robots. The race had been delayed for a few hours until they were sure it was safe. It was nearly mid day when the race officials declare the course finally safe.

After Team Dead Shot lost, rather humiliatingly in the first round, Captain Okida had taken up the task of trying to make sure the Doctor stayed out of the races, which it seemed was a loosing battle. With his Egg Carrier 3, the-would-be-dictator could launch his little surprises without much interference. The Race officials weren't exactly leaning on him to get the job done either. The added danger to the tracks seemed to rake in more ratings than they could count.

So far, little progress had been made in routing out the spy that they had been so sure would try something at this tournament. Okidas began to think that perhaps his own investigations might prove more fruitful than the official Government one.

"Hey yo!" A voice from behind him stated and the bat turned to see Sonic walk up behind him. Now standing side by side, it was revealed that Okida was a good head and shoulder taller than the average mobian, rivalling Vector in height. "Well Captain, we meet again." The bat and the hedgehog had occasionally fought beside one another against the Eggman Empire on Mobius. "I though that if you got sent here, you'd end up joining G.U.N. You've got that militaristic mind." The bat grinned.

"The minute after Chaos Control sent me here; I could see that you'd already made quite a name for yourself already." Sonic shrugged and stood beside the captain. The two of them were standing on the edge of the road that ran down to the Regal Ruin track. Okida had been overseeing the removal of Dr. Eggman's little toys since the early morning.

"Too bad about that lost race." Sonic added; looking up as several trucks came up the road away from the course, all filled to the top with the shattered remains of robots and various explosives. "But then, you were more of a fighter than a racer." The bat blinked once, before nodding. He was fast in the air, true, but the real realm of speed belonged to Sonic.

"Good luck in the Semi-Finals Sonic." He said casually before walking off to check on the last few trucks heading out from the track.

"Who needs luck?" Sonic asked himself. The bat looked back with a wide smile on his face, before his leathery wings spread out and he soured into the air.

"I wouldn't take that Team Mecha too lightly." He added, before disappearing in a cluster of flaps.

Team Mecha, Dr. Eggman's race team had already arrived in the stadium for the last race before the semi finals. If they won this, they would advance for a real chance of humiliating Sonic like Dr. Eggman wanted and retrieving the Chaos Emerald for him. They had dominated their races, making their competition seem as slow as snails. Nearly everyone was terrified of them, especially their leader, the intimidating Metal Knuckles. He had the iron glad power, determination and ruthlessness that the old Metal Sonic had had. He was also just as fast, and probably just as strong to.

Tails Doll, with its strange almost comic like appearance lured the unwary into thinking it was a harmless piece of sewn together fabric, when really it was just as ruthless and nearly as fast as Metal Knuckles. EggRobot, the robot constructed in Eggman's own image was skilled in neither power nor speed. Instead, it used it's powerfully enhanced electronic brain to out think its opponents. Its intellect greatly surpassed that of its two team mates.

"It's the last race before the Semi finals, and Team Mecha has already arrived to begin." Stuart added, as the crowds took their places. Most of them were wearing thick coats as the weather was turning colder. "But before their opponents from Canada, Team Silver turn up, we'd like to announce an unexpected alteration to today's race." Metal Knuckles looked towards the commentors box, that last statement grabbing its interest.

"Do you suppose something's wrong?" Cream asked. Emerl simply shrugged his shoulders. "You don't think they'll cancel the race do you?"

"Nah, no chance of that." Rouge told them. The female bat was sitting in the row behind them. "They're just delaying so the dramatic impact can be absorbed by the crowd." She added with a smug grin. Amy blinked, narrowing an eye.

"Do you know what going on Rouge?" The female bat leaned back in her chair.

"Just you wait and see." There was aloud swishing sound and Sonic slid to a stop just next to their seats, nearly skidding on the sleet. They had gritted the track, but forgotten to grit the other walkways.

"I miss anything?" He asked, taking up the only empty seat next to Chuck, who still had his giant foam hand.

"It looks like something's wrong with that opposing team." Chris explained, leaning over to get within ear shot.

"It seems there was a last minute chance to the team members." Scarlet announced, reading of the card she was given. "That may seem unfair, but according to the rules of the tournament, it's allowed." She turned to Stuart. "Who do you think they'd substituted a member for?" The former teacher/spy shrugged.

"Don't have a clue. But it would have to be someone worth it if they want to make any headway against Team Mecha, who so far has dominated the tournament." Suddenly, a loud whistle was blown and Team Silver began to walk out of the Stadium entrance towards the starting line and Team Mecha itself. First out was the Team Captain, a reptile with snow white scales, short snout and flaxen yellow eyes. His name was Swift and he had been the one to lead his team to victory through the other races Silver had triumphed in.

The second was a human motorcyclist, blue flames painted all over his swift looking vehicle, his head obscured from view by a helmet. Team Silver's logo, a silver arrow was sewn onto his shoulder pad. The third one to walk out there managed to produce a stunned gasp from the crowd, who recognised him at once. Sonic had been drinking out of the orange soda drink Amy had offered him when he spotted him on the stadium floor and nearly chocked on it.

An Echidna with violet eyes and long arms, short red fur over his entire body, a pair of deadly looking spurs on each hand and a long nose. He was by no means as famous as Sonic, but he was still a major house hold name anyway. The entire crowd burst out in cheers ands whistles.

"I don't believe what I'm seeing." Stuart nearly cried into the microphone. "It's Knuckles the Echidna!" Metal Knuckles gaze was drawn at once to his organic double.

"Rouge told me about you." Knuckles stated, walking slowly over to the robotic Echidna before standing still directly in front of it. The two of them were exactly the same height and width, nearly complete copies of each other. "Sonic might be able to live with a robotic fraud running around, but I'm not as tolerant as he is."

"There's not a lot you can do." Metal Knuckles replied, speaking for the first time during the entire tournament. "Compared to me, you are obsolete." Knuckles produced a large grin.

Metal Knuckles replied, speaking for the first time during the entire tournament. Knuckles produced a large grin.

"We'll see about that." He announced slowly, a hint of venom creeping into his voice before he and the other members of Team Silver took up positions on the starting line.

"How the hell did you get Knuckles to enter?" Sonic asked Rouge, who by now had all eyes on her. She simply laughed in reply. As soon as Knuckles had been told that Eggman had created a robotic version of the Echidna, Knuckles couldn't have been held back from entering. "And just who is guarding the Master Emerald if he's here?" "Don't worry about that, G.U.N has it covered." She replied. At this very moment, Three large combat walkers belong to G.U.N's elite was stationed around the shrine. Along with a satellite monitoring system to ensure the giant jewel was not stolen.

"What a treat we have here today people. Knuckles the Echidna, made famous the world over is now competing on behalf of Team Silver. It's just one surprise after another here."

"And now let's introduce the course they'll be racing on today." Again the large screen flipped over to show a map of the Regal Ruin track. A treacherous track that ran through the many twists and turns of an ancient ruin, interweaving though a cliff face before leading itself right back to the stadium. This track was even more difficult than Radical City, and Team Mecha had raced on it before. Knuckles knew that he was at distinct disadvantage here, but nothing was going to stop him from beating this fake Echidna and proved to both himself and Dr. Eggman that there was nothing like the real thing.

Dr. Eggman himself had been watching the events unfold on the sports coverage. The last thing he would have expected was for the Guardian of the Master Emerald to show up here, especially now. Well, if Knuckles wanted to see who was superior, him or Eggman's precious Metal Knuckles then the Doctor was more than happy to let the two of them race to see who proved victorious.

"Racers, to your starting positions." The call went out and the six of them approached the starting line. This direction was posting out across the bridge. Once across they'd half to take the path to the right, race along a cliff side road before into the main track interior.

Knuckles and Metal Knuckles exchanged one last glare, that shouted the message (I'm going to chew up and spit you out) before turning back to the race.

"And GO!"

Flip Card 1:

Name: Knuckles the Echidna

Age: 17

Sex: Male

Species: Echidna (duh)

Job description: The guardian of Angel Island and Master Emerald that keeps it flying in the sky.

(R&R)