CHAPTER 54: A Month Later...

"It's ready, Master," Blank said.

"It's about damn time," Skull growled. "I've altered the plan slightly. Forget waiting on five Emeralds. We're moving ahead. You know what to do. I want it done tonight."

"As you wish," Blank said.

"Damn squirrels are going to drive me crazy," Knuckles mumbled to himself as he heard the sound of leaves rustling. In his half-conscious state, he was oblivious to the fact that the sounds were on the ground, rather than in the trees. He was sprawled out on the stairway in front of the Master Emerald's building, at the top of the stairs. He was staring straight up, eyes only halfway open, looking up at the stars. He'd been trying to get to sleep for an hour, but just as he'd begun to nod off, he'd begun to hear the leaves rustling. For some reason, they drew his attention, and he was unable to block out the sound. However, the sound left him in quite a hurry when he heard the sound of a weapon being cocked. Instantly, he jumped to his feet, only to hear a shot and be knocked back to the ground by a large net. He instinctively remained motionless to avoid being tangled up in it, and began working furiously with only his hands, trying to break a hole in the net that was large enough to free himself without becoming entangled. He looked around as best as he could without moving too much, and saw about two dozen robots standing all around him. As far as he could tell, they were black, and humanoid. They said nothing, coordinating their attack with only hand signals. All of them were carrying handheld net launchers, except one, which carried only a flare gun and some sort of case. It was between the size of a briefcase and a suitcase. While they did not appear to have any mounted weaponry like the last robot to attack on the island, there was no doubt in Knuckles's mind that these robots came from the same place. They all marched right into the Master Emerald building, except for the one with the flare gun. It simply fired a red flare into the sky, and moments later Knuckles became aware of the sound of a helicopter. At this point, he began to pull harder against the net, still trying to break it. As he finally broke one of the ropes, the robot with the flare gun strode over to him and rolled him down the stairs with one mechanical leg, entangling Knuckles in the net so badly that he could barely move one arm enough to scratch his nose.

"What are you-!" he yelled, but he didn't finish his sentence, as he was drowned out by the helicopter as it came to a stop in midair above the Master Emerald building. A chain was lowered from a door in the side of the helicopter, which looked like it might have been used to transport materials. The chain was lowered through the opening in the ceiling above the place where the massive gemstone rested. A few moments passed before the chain was pulled back up into the aircraft. The Emerald was hoisted inside, the door closed, and the helicopter flew off. The robots re-emerged from the building, and for the first time, they were communicating verbally.

"Alpha team, return to your transport and evacuate the island!" ordered the robot with the flare; this was was the leader, as Knuckles observed. "Bravo team, set up the transmitter, and keep this one secure." It pointed at Knuckles. "Move out!" Wordlessly, the robots obeyed the orders issued to them. Half of the robots ran in a northeasterly direction, presumably toward another helicopter, and the other half moved to secure the perimeter, which consisted of them all keeping their net launchers trained on Knuckles. One of them, the one whose net launcher was empty, took the case from the leader, set it on the ground, and opened it. It raised an antenna connected to what looked like some sort of radio. Knuckles could see it fiddle with some kind of knob and press some buttons, but this was all he could see. Soon, the leader spoke up again.

"Bravo team, return to your transport and wait," it said. "I will remain behind until I receive confirmation that the signal has been received. Move out!" Once the other robots had left, the leader knelt down beside Knuckles.

"You won't get away with this!" Knuckles growled.

"Oldest words in the book," the robot said. "I like to think of myself as a decent being, so I'm going to give you a fighting chance, just to make things more interesting." Before Knuckles could ask exactly what kind of chance this was, the robot rolled him over and hit him in the back of the head.

"Oh, damn, my head," Knuckles groaned an hour later. "What happened...? Last thing I remember was that robot saying something about a fighting chance or something..." He groaned again and put a hand on his forehead. It took him a moment to register that he could move again; he slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The net was in pieces all around him; the robot must have freed him before it left. He climbed to his feet shakily and looked around. He could register the case that the robots had brought onto the island; it was still open, and some lights on the device inside indicated that it was active. Knuckles looked at it for a few moments before he had an idea. He staggered over to the device, picked it up, carried it over to a nearby tree, and slammed it aganist the trunk several times, smashing the device and sending pieces flying everywhere. Then he reached up, grabbed a low-lying branch, broke it off, tossed the smashed device up into the air a few feet, and smashed it with the broken limb as it came back down. The device flew over 100 feet before crashing to the ground.

"That takes care of that," Knuckles said to himself. He sat down where he was, shaking his head, trying to rid himself of the ache. After a few minutes, he returned to the large stone building that had housed the Master Emerald only an hour before. Inside, all he found was the Emerald's iron stand. The soft glow was gone. The huge gemstone was not in its place. Knuckles knew it would be gone even before he entered, as he had seen it stolen, but he had had a false hope that he had perhaps dreamt the whole thing. He sighed in frustration, thinking of how he was going to handle this situation. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the strange noise outside for a few seconds. Once he noticed, he stepped outside to see what it was. He looked around for a few seconds before looking into the sky, and what he saw nearly stopped his heart. He dove forward, rolling down the stone stairs of the building, as a large missile slammed into the center of thebuilding, coming fromdirectly above,and completely destroyed it. Smoke and superheated air blew everywhere as stone chunks were blasted away from the building at high speeds, charred black and smoking, very hot. The smaller ones were moving at the speed of a bullet fired out of a gun, while the larger ones, ranging in size from concrete cinder blocks to bookcases, flew at much slower speeds, yet very far (some flying beyond the borders of the island). Knuckles stayed down and kept his head covered for a moment, then looked up into the air. He gasped, then jumped up and ran away just in time to avoid being hit by a particularly large, black chunk of the building, which was about the size of a bathtub.

Got to get to the teleporter and leave the island! he thought frantically. He ran toward the southern end of the island, hoping to find the teleporter, which operated using the power of the Master Emerald, still operational. When he reached the site where it stood, though, his blood ran cold as he found a twisted heap of metal, far from operational. He would not be beamed down to the twin teleporter on solid ground far below,several miles away from the location directly below the island.

"Damn it," he muttered. Turning back to face the direction of the demolished building, he could see a great cloud of black smoke rising up, as well as see the glow of a fire; he guessed some of the surrounding vegetation had caught fire in the blast. He ran toward the eastern end of the island, hoping to take refuge from the fire in the small pond there; he would work out how to escape from the island later. However, before he got that far, he heard another sound which stopped him in his tracks. He looked up just outside a patch of trees, and after already receiving two shocks, hecame as close toa heart attack as he'd ever been. He saw at least a dozen more missiles closing in on the island. He shouted, "Son of a bitch!" before running toward the edge of the island. As he reached the edge, he looked back at the missiles in the sky, which were within seconds of impact, coming straight down on the island. Quickly, Knuckles turned around and did the only thing he could do that would give him a chance of surviving: he dove off the edge of the island just as the missiles began to slam into it. He was a few miles above the planet, so he had some time, in freefall, to lean forward and distance himself from the island. He knew he would land in the ocean, but he also knew that, if the island fell from the sky, as was very likely, it too would fall into the ocean. The effects of this could be left to the imagination. As he fell, Knuckles also knew he was speeding up rapidly, so he spent his fall thinking of how best to avoid being liquefied as soon as he hit the water. It came to him about 300 feet from the water. He turned upside-down in the air by throwing his arms forward. He balled his fists and threw them out below him, keeping his eyes closed, his breath held, and his head down, so to speak. As he approached the surface at terminal velocity, he prayed this would work. His fists hit the water first, absorbing most of the impact. The rest of his body followed fairly smoothly, and once in the water he curved his body so that his course would shift in an arc back toward the surface. Finally, after a few brief moments below the surface, his head broke out into the open air and he took a huge breath. He looked high into the sky, hoping to see some sign of the island, but the sky was too dark, and he could see nothing. He floated there for a moment, several questions on his mind: who would do this, why they would do it, what they wanted with the Master Emerald, and how the island could stay aloft as long as it did without the Emerald's power.

Okey doke. Took me long enough, but I finally got this story updated. So, was it exciting enough for you, this chapter? Let me know what you think.