Chapter 11: Suspicious Ally

Rushing through the dense forest a red blur and a purple blur, moved at speeds the human eye could barely see. The thick dark green trees sped by in a blur, thorny bushes and various mutated wildlife could barely be seen by the two speed demons. Closing in fast a trail of old decaying trees that had been hollowed out by the fungus made what looked like a large ramp. Knuckles leapt up and sprung off and old tree stump, rushing up the tree ramp and grinding the soft ivy that made up a large maze the red guardian kept his speed.

"Dammit, where the hell is this girl?" Espio grumbled.

"Probably where the smoke is coming from." Knuckles casually stated.

"Probably." Espio whispered, "AH!"

"What?" Knuckles moaned.

"Dead end! SHOOT IT!" Espio shouted.

Knuckles looked ahead at the large pile of wood piled up ahead of them, Knuckles scowled and pulled out his gun and fired a single shot…Pa-leow! The massive laser blast ripped through the air and made the pile shatter to bits. Espio grinned and sped ahead of the red guardian, Knuckles quickly began to catch up as Espio jumped onto the vines and threw boomerang like blades around chopping down various greenery. Knuckles leapt up into the trees and climbed up the thick mossy bark until he got a clear view of the site.

"Espio get over here! Quicker to glide down!" Knuckles shouted while pointing down at a smoking crash site.

Espio sprung off the vine and ran up the tree, Knuckles jumped off and began to glide and waited for Espio to grab a hold of his legs, the two quickly descended into the thick smokey opening in the jungle, fiery metal remains were scattered about no one was left alive at the site. Knuckles and Espio landed and quickly ran up to the damaged hovercraft.

"Are we too late?" Espio mumbled.

"Don't move!" Commanded a stern female voice.

Before Espio could even blink a violet female Echidna with tattoos running down her back, arms, and hips with short pants on with a belt full of knives and guns diagonally hanging from her waist, a short vest covered her chest and mid shoulders. She gritted her teeth as she shoved the barrel of her small slick silver gun into Knuckles' temple.

"Who the hell are you?" Demanded the girl.

"We are your rescue team." Espio grumbled, "Nice to see you again…Auree."

"You two losers? No way!" Auree said in disgust.

"Listen…Neo Guard trash! I'd suggest you put the gun down and let go of me before I show you what your spine looks like…" Knuckles growled.

"You're in no position to talk. How did you know I'm a Neo Guard?" Auree growled back.

"Your outfit, that isn't typical resistance garb, plus the tattoos, give you away." Knuckles replied, "I'm in a talking position if you ask me."

"Knuckles! Cool it." Espio demanded.

"Knuckles hmm? You're wanted you know…alive and…or…preferably dead." Auree said.

"I warned you…" Knuckles whispered.

Knuckles scowled and kicked back hitting Auree right between the legs causing her to bend down from the shock, Knuckles spun around and smashed the back of his left fist into her face causing her to fall and slide across the ground, Knuckles then leapt high up and landed quickly down on her pinning her shoulders to the ground as a black glow appeared and faded from his eyes.

"Now who's in the position to talk?" Knuckles asked as a small grin crossed his face.

"Auree…what happened. Knuckles…don't hurt her." Espio said, as he slowly walked up to them.

"Not that it matters but…I was sent out here to investigate the rumors of some mobile power source living in the jungle. But some Quaro ambushed my team.

"Knuckles…she isn't lying." Espio said calmly.

"…try anything…and you'll be sent back to the Capital Tower in shreds." Knuckles growled, as he let her get up, before he could say another word the bushes began to shake and the ground trembled.

"Shit. The whole group this time! I count 30…" Auree shouted.

Auree stumbled back until her back was pressing against Knuckles, and Espio's back. The massive creatures slowly crept out of the thick forest…

Some had midnight black scales with massive blades jutting out instead of hair, red eyes accompanied by a short snout with more blades on it made up the face.

"Damn! The cross breeds! Watch out for the ones with the dogfaces and raptor like bodies…" Espio said as he backed up into Knuckles and Auree.

"What about those?" Knuckles said while pointing to the large Tiger like monsters with massive hands, each hand curled and with claws the length of an average man. In typical Razor-Claw fashion an extremely sharp blade replaced everything that should have been a hair.

The swarm of black creatures quickly surrounded the group and began to circle around.

"We take them down! Watch my back!" Auree commanded.

"You got another thing coming if you expect me to take orders from you. Watch my ass and perhaps I'll give you some respect." Knuckles grumbled.

"Shut the hell up! Both of you! Go for their heads and necks." Espio commanded, "It's the only weak points I can see."

Knuckles cocked his gun, as Auree charged hers up, Espio pulled out to short daggers, the massive swarm of Razor-claw slowly closed in, as they got ready to battle…

Knuckles charged forward causing a bunch of the Quaro to jump HIGH into the air and dive down with their massive claws extended, Knuckled rolled as the sharp claws slipping into the ground with ease. Knuckles sprung up and pressed his gun's barrel into the back of the monster's skull. Knuckles fired a single shot blowing his head flat off, a massive cry sounded as the smaller Quaro began to scatter around, like wild beast they dived at the small group, Auree slide under one of the smaller beasts and drove her leg into the abdomen cracking the ribs while sending it back into the thick green foliage. She rolled back to her feet and fired off small shots at the scattered monsters, every shot knocking them flat of their asses as Espio seemed to float on the ground slicing the monsters in a near perfect flurry of precise slashes. The corpses of the smaller beasts slowly ceased to move as Knuckles and Auree continued to pelt the bigger ones with the shots from their guns, the thick metal shell like bodies of the beasts hardly even budged from the shots.

"Damn you!" Knuckles grunted.

Knuckles leapt high into air and drove the butt of his gun into the skull of the large Quaro, it screamed as its skull caved in from the massive blasts, the other large beast roared and lunged for Knuckles, the sharp silver flash that was Espio's blade met with the monster's throat causing it to swerve off course and slide across the ground leaving a thick dark trail of blood where it once slid. The other Quaro swarmed towards the trail of blood and started to slurp up the dark substance.

"That must have been the leader…but why are they eating it." Auree gasped.

"…that…blood…it's…" Knuckles grunted as his body began to twitch.

Knuckles dropped his gun and began to clutch his head as his fur began to ruffle and large bolts of energy started to erupt out his skin, Espio dove into Auree holding her down as Knuckles continued to twitch violently as the energy began to encase him. Before Espio could even blink Knuckles stopped and slowly brushed his dreads back, his crimson red eyes, ruffled fur, small mini horns seemed to stick out of his forehead just a little catching Espio's attention.

"What the hell! Not that thing again!" Espio shouted.

"…Do I shoot?" Auree asked.

"No…just stay down…and pray he doesn't see us." Espio whispered.

Knuckles slowly crept up to the swarm of Quaro and smacked his palms together shattering the skull of the second large Quaro in one effortless attack. The other Quaro roared and quickly charged towards the Echidna who held his palm out and let the small orb of darkness in his palm grow and eventually fire off as a large encompassing beam that vaporized the remaining Razor-Claw leaving only a large smoldering path in the ground, he slowly turned and snarled at the site of Espio and Auree, wiping the blood from the side of his mouth he slowly approached as his body turned a darker shade of red.

"Stay back!" Auree demanded.

Auree quickly emptied a clip into the red guardian who merely smacked away the shots with his hands. He scowled and charged towards her at full force, Espio dove into her and held her as they rolled down the hill away from the enraged guardian.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID I TELLYOU NOT TO DO!" Espio screamed furiously while quickly holding Auree down.

"Get off of me!" Auree growled.

Auree kicked Espio off of her and into the brush, Espio curled up before landing and sprung up and landed behind her quickly pressing his blade up to her throat…

"I don't know what that thing is…but it still is Knuckles. Plus we do technically owe it our miserable lives!" Espio whispered as he pressed the blade harder.

"Whatever!" Auree grumbled.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Knuckles asked.

Knuckles slide down the slope and looked on at them in confusion. Espio gave him a puzzled look and scowled at the now once again normal guardian. Auree scowled and stuck the barrel of her pistol between Knuckles' eyes. Knuckles scowled and twisted her arm nearly snapping it, she flipped forward and gave a quick leg sweep, Knuckles tumbled back, he planted his fist into the ground and sprung up into the air and into the tree, Knuckles shot off of the bark and landed behind her unleashing a backhand sending her into the stalk of the tree. She rolled out of the bush and held her pistol to his throat; Knuckles smiled and looked down at his gun pressing up against her chest, both gave each other an angry stare, their eyes met and seemed to get meld for a split second…

"Listen bitch…I grow tired of your petty games." Knuckles grunted.

"Bah, you aren't worth the bullet." Auree grumbled, quickly putting away her pistol.

"You two done flirting? Auree you seem safe…we must get back to the city." Espio said while tapping his watch.

"Hmm…well since you came this far…here…" Auree said while tossing a card into Espio's hands.

"This is?" Espio asked while glaring down at the card.

"This card will allow access to more of the city. If curiosity is worth dieing for perhaps you'll show Shadow the video hidden on it, it a video of that thing I was sent here to find. It has some sort of mystical energy." Auree said as she jumped into the small dented craft, she turned the ignition and grinned as it slowly rose up into the air, "Later boys."

"We have a race to get to. Worry about her later." Espio stated once again tapping his watch.

"…right." Knuckles agreed.

"You know…it happened again…" Espio whispered.