Of our Emeralds cast into Yellow Night Chapter 2: Beware the facts of life!, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

Okay, the last chapter was short and wasn't very interesting.

...This one ain't either of those things. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic

Claimer: I own made-up stuff I invented, like Quill

Basic Fact of Life Number Seven: Never assume it is going to be just another ordinary day. That always causes something unusual to happen. And depending on where you are when the assumption is made, the something that happens will range from 'Damn Annoying' to 'Hello Armageddon'.

In Knuckles' case, it was the latter.

Things had been normal enough during the morning. Today he had chosen to remain lying on his side in front of the Master Emerald, head propped up on one elbow, eyes closed. Down at the old stone pathway leading to the bottom of the staircase, Quill was spending the day as he usually did - running around and generally enjoying life like only a child could.

It must have been just around noon when, in the middle of batting around a stray leaf or two caught by the breeze, Quill froze. Knuckles opened his eyes at the sudden lack of noise to see the child sitting and looking this way and that, ears swiveling wildly. The Echidna sat up straight, concerned with this sudden onset of wary caution.

Quill abruptly turned and dashed up the stairs towards him.

"Wind say something big is coming, Red Hand," Quill cried urgently.

'Red Hand' was the child's name for Knuckles, and all the previous times that he had claimed that the 'wind' had told him anything, Quill had been right, so Knuckles jumped up.

"What? Where? How many?" the Echidna demanded.

"Wind does not say what, but it close and is lots," Quill said.

That didn't sound good…Knuckles turned and stepped up the Master Emerald, placing a hand on it's shining surface as he tried to figure out what was going on. The large jewel was at least semi-sentient, and through it's many powers Knuckles could see different things, keep detailed watch on the entire island, and sometimes do other…things. It was hard to explain in words, even to himself.

The Master Emerald showed him that Quill was correct, as usual. There were many 'things' coming. They had already reached the bottom of the island and were now gaining altitude to get to the top. Knuckles thought he caught a far-off glimpse of metal before the vision faded. There was also a sense of apprehension that came with this vision, unlike any sort of feeling that they had given him before.

"Hmm…" Knuckles said.

"What does Shine Stone say?" Quill asked.

"Whatever is coming, its heading this way, and it's coming fast," Knuckles said slowly, "Get under cover, Quill. We'll have to see how this plays out."

Obediently, Quill flapped his way down to his usual hidey-hole. It was a hole or something in the stonework below the Master Emerald's platform, he knew, though Knuckles had never really tried to look for it. Barely was the child out of sight before the sound of engines could be heard.

The Echidna nearly blanched when the source of the noise came into view. It looked like an entire military base on-the-go had decided to invade his island! Oh well, the more robots, the more piles of junked parts to be tossed off the side of Angel Island later. Knuckles walked down the staircase, partly to get a longer look at the idiocy that had convened on his turf, and partly because he was a little confused that he was being ignored.

There was only one non-mechanical in the whole bunch - some sort of scientist-looking human - and he had his back to the shrine, busily giving out orders to the robots on where to unload various things.

Knuckles coughed and cleared his throat loudly, waiting for the human to notice him. Finally the human turned around to see where all the noise was coming from.

"And just what do you think you are doing on MY island?" Knuckles inquired.

For him, the question was pretty non-aggressive. The human raised an eyebrow in seeming astonishment and disbelief.

"This is your island?" the human inquired.

"Yes," Knuckles growled, "This is MY island. And I don't take kindly to trespassers on MY island. Now, pack up your little three-ring circus, buddy, and get off of MY island."

"Oh, do forgive me," the human said with a smirk and a sarcastic edge to his voice, "I didn't think anyone lived on this island."

He made a sort of waving motion with one hand as he continued, "But it is so scenic, I could not help but stop to take a look at it as I was passing by. You certainly have a very lovely home…"

Knuckles heard the faint sound of metal scraping over stone and whirled around, and sure enough one of the robots was standing there. It raised its long, reinforced-steel arms and attempted to flatten him with them.

The robot failed, of course, because Knuckles swiftly got out of the way of the attack before leaping up and punching the robot in the head as hard as he could. The machine dropped in a heap, head shattered into pieces.

Four other robots attacked now, working together to try and turn the Echidna into a red smear in the dirt. Knuckles dodged their attacks and smashed them like he did the first one, but these four turned out to be just a diversion.

Before he could avoid them, a pair of big metal arms grabbed Knuckles and he was suddenly locked in a bear-hug by another of the robots. His arms were pinned at his sides and he could not get them free! The Echidna growled and struggled and kicked futilely as he was held tight a full four feet above the ground.

"The most interesting bit of this lovely isle," the human said as he stood in front of the enraged guardian, "Is that Master Emerald sitting up there. I presume you have some sort of claim on it as well, hmm? Too bad! Now it's power shall help the cause of science!"

Knuckles immediately did all that he could to break free in order to snap this human intruder into little pieces. He felt the metal arms holding him begin to give way, but at that very moment there was a crackle of electricity.

Then a thousand volts of it were being pumped into him.

He gritted his teeth and forced himself not to scream despite the pain. Knuckles was uncertain if he had succeeded in that, but the Echidna passed out all the same. At least temporarily. He hadn't been unconscious more than an hour or two, he thought, when he finally managed to open his eyes again and noticed how long the shadows had gotten.

This piece of human scum worked fast, Knuckles had to admit: already the platform at the top of the stairs was covered in strange machinery. The Master Emerald's natural glow seemed out of place amidst all that technology.

There was no sign of Quill anywhere that he could see, though, so hopefully the child was still safe and hidden.

"Awake again already, are you?" the human said from where he stood, a short ways away from where Knuckles was still pinned in place by that robot.

"What is it you want? Who are you?" Knuckles demanded, still very angry.

"So stubborn and rude, how very impolite you are! Speaking that way to your guest!"

"You are NOT a guest, or even welcome in the slightest," Knuckles snarled.

"Maybe not," the human shrugged nonchalantly, "But what I am is a genius in the field of energy manipulation. My name is Doctor Kavo Minastron. What is yours, my dear Echidna? That is, if you even have a name."

When all he got in reply was a death-glare, Minastron shrugged again, moving onto a new topic of conversation.

"As for what I want…I am here, Mister Echidna, to prove a theory."

"A…theory?"

Of all the answers Knuckles had been expecting, this wasn't one of them. It was so innocent-sounding that the Echidna was struck speechless.

"Oh yes," Minastron said, delighted as only a scientist could be when they had someone's undivided attention, "As I said to you before, I am a leading expert in the field of energy manipulation. This is a very useful science, I can assure you - calling down lightning strikes to precise locations in order to supply homes of the common person with electricity. You do know what electricity is, right?"

"Hey, I may live up here, but I'm not an idiot," Knuckles snapped.

"Of course you're not," Minastron said, and Knuckles growled in the back of his throat at the scientist's condescending tone, "Now where was I? Oh yes!

"Recently I have come into possession of a most unusual source of energy. It was fascinatingly complicated, and yet I may never decipher the proper way to harness and control its full potential. But researching it lead me to some extremely interesting information."

Minastron pulled something out of an inner pocket of his jacket and held it up for the other to see.

"That's a…Chaos Emerald!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Oh good, you have heard of them! That saves me the inconvenience of explaining what it does. But it really does not interest me anymore," Minastron said as he passed the glittering pink jewel from hand to hand, "For while I was researching it I found the information on the Master Emerald to be far more enlightening."

Knuckles kicked involuntarily at the mention of his charge. Minastron stepped away, walking towards the high platform now overflowing with different machines.

"Especially when I discovered that it possesses infinite levels of energy," Minastron continued, "Once I isolate the power core of the Master Emerald, I will use it to prove that there IS such a thing as perpetual energy! I will become famous. End all energy crisis on the planet! They'll call me a hero! But first I will need to reduce the excess mass that this lovely wellspring of energy seems to be using…"

The scientist's voice faded into low muttering as he continued walking off.