Disclaimer: Dunno why I should bother with this on a fanfiction site, but what the hell; I did it for the other Sonic fic I have up here, so why not this one as well clears throat
Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails the Fox-Thing, Knuckles the Echidna, Dr Robotnik, The Chaos Emeralds (including the Master Emerald) and all other characters I can't be bothered to list here and now do NOT belong to SEGA. They belong to ME. Exclusively. And if you believe that, I have some beachfront property in Atlantis to sell you ;)
Seriously; I do not own any of the above characters. I wish I did own Knuckles, or at least had some kind of time-share deal, but I don't. To summarise, if they can be found in any SEGA game or franchise, they are SEGA's. If they can't, they're mine. Though it's not likely my characters are going to turn up here, firstly because my agent would probably have a brain haemorrhage and secondly because Sonic et al are all the characters I can cope with in this particular story ;)
Make sense? Cool. Onward!
Samantha27: Thanks so much for your kind comments happy smile It's things like this that encourage me to keep updating ;) And as requested, Knuckles shall lighten up a bit (not too much or he wouldn't be Knuckles, but a little :P)
BlueCheetah: Thanks for reviewing and again, as requested, Tails shall feature more in the story ;)
Guardian's Log No. 11455
Following several exploits of brave heroics and dutiful botnik crushing, I am pleased to record that we appear victorious...at least, for now. Who can say what the future holds? It should be placed on record that we have escaped from the Bridge Zone and are now heading for the CasinoZones. Let the record also show that I have high hopes of substantially increasing my hoard in these places. And that Sonic the Hedgehog has been of no help whatsoever.
Tails is another matter though. While I can glide well enough, I don't mind admitting that the kid's flying ability is much more convenient; it really helped me out of a tight spot back there...although I don't fully understand why I always have to be the one on the bottom. And I still don't believe that it's always been a lifelong ambition of Sonic's to fly through a cactus forest!
That hedgehog is really skating a fine line with me. He claims to be a big guy, a genuine warrior, fine. I can't doubt his courage (although his discipline has been called into question on more than one occasion so far). But if he is a warrior, he shouldn't expect to get away with saying things that I would knock a real warrior down for.
I did let his insult ride though, this time. One thing I will say for Sonic; there's no spite or malice in his endless jokes, and I believe in second chances.
He'd better watch his step though; I don't believe in third ones.
--Knuckles the Echidna
My Memoirs by Me
So ol' Knucklehead messed up and led us right into a trap. Hey, it's not like I haven't gotten out of worse situations, and it gave me unlimited material to bug him with. After Amy, I've been looking to get a bit of my own back. Anyway, I'd like to see him do better in those situations...instead of the huge cock-up he actually made.
It was lucky Tails was around, although I'm a little pissed off that he disobeyed me! He could've been killed. We did find a fast food joint not too far away and got a few chili dogs. Knuckles didn't have any cash but that's okay 'cause he didn't have any chili dogs either; apparently he hates 'em. I knew there was something I didn't like about that guy. Tails was broke too so I had to hand over most of my food to him. Jeez, why can't the kid get his own food once in a while?
Okay, so Green Hill Zone is done for now, and so's Bridge...THANK GOODNESS! Man, I hate that Zone! Everything's always pushing you around or along or up or down or sideways or...or...any other ways you can think of! Now it's onto the Casino Night Zone, maybe up to Casinopolis as well, and further up to play the Bingo Slides and Pinball Tables.
We need a new go-kart though. I know Tails could probably have fixed the other one – he's pretty good with stuff like that – but I didn't fancy getting drawn into another mechanical conversation with him. Talking to Tails for too long about that stuff is like a verbal out-of-body experience; the kid waffles on about this piston and that and to be honest, I couldn't care less; in fact, I wish he'd just shut up. It works, I know it works, why should I worry about how?
--Sonic the Hedgehog
Dear Diary
I saved Sonic! I actually got to save Sonic! Wow, I can't believe it; my tails haven't stopped spinning since! Usually it's him bailing me out of trouble but this time he needed me and I helped him out!
Okay. Okay, deep breath. So I'm a little psyched. But it's great that I could do something. Not great that he wound up surrounded by badniks though, but I guess even Sonic makes mistakes every now and again. I saved Knuckles too. Well, I had to really; Sonic grabbed my wrists and Knuckles grabbed Sonic's ankles. I didn't drop them though. I may have crash-landed into a spring and bounced off the opposite cliff seven times, but I didn't drop them! My tails are really aching tonight; I've done a lot of flying and I had to carry Sonic over a really deep chasm. I won't say anything though. I don't want him to worry about me.
--Tails
"Will you just thank the kid?" Knuckles demanded, his patience running thin.
"For what?" Sonic demanded. "I told him to stay on the wall!"
Knuckles closed his eyes. He'd once heard that counting to ten was a reliable method of keeping one's temper. So far he'd reached one hundred and seventy four, and he was still no calmer. Without parting either his eyelids or his teeth, he said, "He did. That wall happened to keep up with us, remember? And if you'd thought to mention that before we went in, we could all have just sat on top and ridden through the Zone."
Sonic glowered at the echidna sullenly and didn't answer. The wall had got close enough to start edging them towards the spikes before Tails had suddenly swooped down out of nowhere, grabbed Sonic– and indirectly Knuckles as well –lifting them to safety and flying them through rest of the Zone, depositing them just outside the second wall. Although Knuckles had surprised both Tails and Sonic inpromptly expressing his appreciation of this, the hedgehog had been in a strop for most of the day.
"He saved your life, Sonic," Knuckles added curtly. "He saved both our lives."
There was a flurry of activity above their heads and Tails flew over, not looking at either of them, making a direct beeline for the woods. With one last searing stare at Sonic, Knuckles followed, catching up with Tails just as the fox decided to take out his anger in a somewhat unscientific but very satisfying way involving a pile of rocks and an innocent patch of stingers.
"Hardly practical," the echidna remarked, then had to duck very fast as one of those rocks came whizzing through the air at his head. Catching it mid-air, he examined it as though he'd never seen such a thing, then tossed it casually back onto the pile.
"Did Sonic send you to spy on me?" Tails demanded.
"Don't be stupid. Since when do I take orders from Sonic? I came because you're the one who'll be taking me home after all this and I like to protect my interests."
"I don't want your protection!"
"So what?" Knuckles said, lip curled. "You don't think I'm gonna let you wander off and piss Sonic off further, do you? The guy's insufferable enough as it is. And if you must throw rocks, don't throw them at stingers; firstly because they make good eating when they're not bruised and secondly because you're only going to have to fish them all out again."
Tails glowered at him, then threw a few more rocks at the stingers to show he didn't take orders from any jumped-up guardian before throwing the rest at a tree.
"And you're not gonna get anywhere throwing things like that," Knuckles added. "Who the hell taught you to aim?" Reaching down, he lifted a pebble that Tails had somehow missed, weighed it in one hand thoughtfully, then hurled it overarm at a fruit tree, knocking a ripe pella to the ground. "See?"
Tails shook his head stubbornly.
"Doesn't matter. I can fly." Spinning both tails vigorously, he took off and flew over to the pella tree where he made a show of selecting the best one. "See?" he said, deliberately mimicking Knuckles' lower tones. The echidna shrugged.
"Fine, I guess. What if you can't fly? What if you want to create a distraction by throwing a rock into some bushes?" As though to prove his point, he picked up another rock and threw it into the stream, noticing with obvious satisfaction how Tails' head whipped around.
"Where'd you learn that?"
Knuckles shrugged again.
"Just because I have a sacred duty doesn't mean I don't do other things as well. Guarding the Master Emerald got a little dull from time to time when I was a puggle—"
"A what?" Tails said disbelievingly. Knuckles cursed inwardly. He'd forgotten about this; certain words, although perfectly normal in echidna society, sounded a little strange among outsiders.
"A kid," he said instead. Tails' face slowly broke into a huge grin.
"Echidna kids are called puggles? Aww, Knuckles, that's so...so cute!"
"Yeah, whatever. Like I was saying, all there was to do was throw rocks at things. I got pretty good at it."
Tails bounced up into the air, zipping around so fast that it was all Knuckles could do to keep track of him.
"Teach me! Teach me!"
The echidna shot him a startled look – this was more than he'd bargained for! – then shrugged. If it got Tails out of his funk, why not? Might even be useful.
"Fine. Grab a rock, focus on your target as hard as you can and throw."
"But I wanna hit it!"
"Yeah, and you will. Don't look at the rock," Knuckles admonished as Tails squinted at the pebble he'd picked up, "you know what it looks like and it's not important. Pick a target."
"Uh..." Tails looked around, squinting against the early evening sunlight that was slanting through the branches. "That leaf over there!"
Knuckles bit down an urge to grin. He'd been much the same way as a puggle; full of fiery enthusiasm.
"What about the tree?"
"Uh." Tails fixed Knuckles with a look of wide-eyed innocence. "I don't think it'll mind."
Knuckles returned the innocent stare with a hard one of his own, although the corners of his mouth were twitching slightly.
"Or what about Sonic?" Tails muttered, not quite under his breath, his sullen mood back in place. Knuckles cursed inwardly. He'd been so close...!
"Don't be stupid," he said again, more sharply this time. "The guy's not that bad. He's just a little thoughtless sometimes."
Tails shot him a look.
"What? You're sticking up for Sonic? Don't you have anything against him anymore?"
"Not enough to hit him with a rock," Knuckles said, although there was a hint of reluctance in his tones; the idea really did hold a certain elegance...
"Yeah? Least you said thanks when I helped you. I didn't think you even knew that word."
"Why not?" Knuckles said calmly. "You saved my life, kid. I like to encourage that kind of thing."
"Well...yeah, but—"
There was the sound of crashing bushes, and Sonic appeared next to them so fast that neither Knuckles or Tails were one hundred percent sure how he'd managed it.
"What—?" Knuckles began.
"Son-ic!" Even the echidna recognised Amy's voice and smirked slightly. Another Sonic-Amy encounter...yes, that could be very entertaining.
Sonic looked around wildly, then grabbed Knuckles in one hand, Tails in the other and broke into a sprint, leaving Amy far behind.
"Still playing with that poor girl's heart, Sonic?" Knuckles wanted to know.
"Shut up!" Sonic picked up the pace. "I thought you said she wasn't going to follow us!"
"I said I'd told her it would be better for her to wait patiently in the Green Hill Zone for you to come back."
On Sonic's right, Tails groaned out loud.
"Amy doesn't know the meaning of the word patience, Knuckles! She wants everything and she wants it yesterday."
"That right, is it?" Knuckles shook his head. "Must be a hedgehog thing."
"You want me to just drop you here for her, Knucklehead?" Sonic said sharply.
"No thanks."
"Son-ic!" This time the call came from closer behind them, and Knuckles shifted an eye-ridge in grudging appreciation.
"She really can move, that girl. You sure you don't want to marry her, Sonic? Think of the speedy offspring."
"Nnnngg—!" Sonic tried to say something, failed and settled for swerving abruptly towards a pricklebush. Reaching over, Knuckles broke the hedgehog's hold on him and dropped, rolling over several times before finally skidding to a stop on his side. To his surprise, Tails grabbed him and towed him along, toes barely brushing the ground.
They continued on in this manner for some time, until it began to get dark and Amy's plaintive cries faded into the night.
"Sonic?" Tails yawned widely. "Sonic, can't we stop? I think we lost her."
"You don't know her, bro." Sonic shook her head. "She has some kind of radar built into her—"
Knuckles stared at him in revulsion.
"Oh jeez! You're in love with a robot? That is...well, it's..."
"Sick?" Tails offered helpfully.
"Oh no. No, that goes way, way beyond merely sick."
"Will you two stop it!" Sonic planted both hands firmly on his hips and glowered at them. He could already see an unhealthy alliance developing between the pair of them; an alliance comprised of jokes at his expense. "Point one, I am not in love with Amy! Point two, she is not a robot! Point three, she is a girl which is reason enough for any weird mind tricks she can do!" He paused and took a deep breath. "Now, is that good enough for you?"
Knuckles and Tails exchanged smirks, then Knuckles held up both hands.
"Alright. Breathe. Kid's right though; we need to rest and this is as good a place as any." In fact, Knuckles thought that he and Sonic could have gone on for longer, but something in Tails' drooping shoulders told him that they were the only ones.
"Aw." Sonic gave Knuckles a big-eyed look. "Is life in the fast lane too much for poor ickle Knuckles?"
"Sonic..." The warning in Knuckles' tone was unmistakable, and the hedgehog flung up his hands in surrender.
"Okay, okay! We can sleep here if you really want to. But I want to post a guard in case she sneaks up!"
"You know, you're getting a little paranoid about this girl," Knuckles said, his tone so level that Sonic wasn't sure if the echidna was joking or not.
"How would you like some crazed female flinging herself on you every time she saw you and shrieking about marriage to all and sundry?"
"Good point," Knuckles admitted. "Okay. We post a watch."
"I'll do it," Tails volunteered, although he was yawning so widely he could barely squeeze the words out. Sonic shook his head.
"Uh uh. You're dead on your feet, little bro. You get some sleep. I'll watch."
Tails opened his mouth to argue, but somewhere along the line it turned into another yawn and he curled up on the floor without another word.
"You sleep," Knuckles said to Sonic, who was looking at him expectantly. "I can't, so I'll take guard duty."
"You mean you don't trust me to do that either?" Sonic said tersely.
"That's not what I said," answered Knuckles, who didn't but wasn't going to mention it. "I can't sleep, so I might as well keep an eye out."
"Hmm." Sonic eyed the echidna suspiciously. "Maybe I don't trust you. You seemed pretty happy to see Amy flatten me earlier—now what?"
Knuckles, who had visibly winced at Sonic's choice of words, shook his head.
"Just...granted I'm not as, uh, experienced as you, but there's one thing even I know; never, ever say or even hint that a female has a weight problem. It'll be the last screw you ever turn." Or are likely to have, for that matter, the echidna added in the privacy of his own mind but didn't say; such comments weren't fitting for a guardian and should never have entered his head in the first place. The hedgehog must be having a bad influence on him.
Sonic's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You swear you're not doing this just because you want to see me utterly humiliated by Amy Rose?"
"Sounds like fun," Knuckles admitted, "but no. I swear." It wasn't quite a lie, he excused himself, he didn't just want to see Sonic utterly humiliated; he had a couple of other reasons for taking that night's watch.
Sonic hesitated.
"Well...if you're sure..."
"I am. Go to sleep." Knuckles settled his back against a tree trunk and waited.
"You sure you know what you're doing?"
"Now who has a problem with trust? Sonic, I happen to be the guardian of the Master Emerald."
"Doesn't mean I wanna trust you with my dignity and street cred."
"Perhaps not, but it does mean that I am very, very good at guarding things. Go to sleep," Knuckles repeated, then turned his head to stare down the path in a way which said the talking was over for the night.
Sonic considered the echidna's words, then shrugged. It made sense, and if Knuckles guarded them with even half the devotion he showed to that dumb Master Emerald, he and Tails would be perfectly safe.
The hedgehog regretted his trust early the next morning, when Amy's stentorian tones punctured the dawn air.
"SON-IC!"
"Crap!" Sonic shot to his feet, grabbing a still-dozing Tails by the wrist and speeding off into the distance, Knuckles close behind. After they'd been going for about two hours, Sonic hit the brakes so suddenly that Knuckles almost ploughed into him.
"You said you could guard us!" he accused.
Knuckles glared at him.
"I'm not as tuned in to this place as I am to my own island, Sonic! Also, Amy seems to be able to move damn quietly when the fancy takes her! Anyway, it got us up and moving, didn't it?"
"Up, moving and hungry!" Sonic glared back at the echidna. "Just for that, you can get breakfast!"
Knuckles started to retort that he was nobody's servant, then broke off as a new thought occurred to him.
"Alright, fine. You want breakfast, I'll see if I can't find some kind of echidna delicacies around here. Do you guys prefer dung beetles or termites?"
Sonic pulled a disgusted face.
"Eew!"
Knuckles shrugged.
"Hey, that's what I eat." This wasn't strictly true; there weren't enough insects on the island to nourish a full-grown echidna and so, like most of his kind, Knuckles had gotten into the habit of supplementing his diet with fruit, fish and the occasional bit of meat.
"SON-IC!"
"On second thoughts," Sonic added hastily, preparing to speed away again, "who has time to eat these days?"
The next two nights progressed in exactly the same way, until Sonic seriously started to consider hitting Amy over the head with something (originally Knuckles' fist, but the echidna had flatly refused to cooperate).
"SON-IC!"
The now familiar call soared through the air. Sonic, who had been on guard duty, cringed and turned to bolt.
A strong hand seized him by the ankle and flipped him, sending him crashing down among the dried plants, and Knuckles seized Sonic by the throat to yank him across to within inches of his face.
"Do something about that kid, Sonic," he growled. "If I get squealed awake at the crack of dawn one more time, nobody's going to be happy!"
"I didn't ask for this!" Sonic hissed in an undertone. From behind him and off to the left the two of them heard Amy say, "Strange, I thought I heard something."
"Why don't you just dump her and get it over with?" Knuckles demanded, shooting a dirty look at the hedgehog as the pair of them started crawling as fast as they could through the undergrowth.
"I can't dump Amy because I'm not going out with her!" Sonic answered shrilly, then winced and lowered his voice. "And I hope you have better luck coming to terms with that idea than she does!"
They didn't hear anything more from Amy that day, or the next, and Sonic started to hope that they'd left her far behind, although that didn't stop him insisting on a guard that night, or the problems which arose when Knuckles volunteered for that particular watch.
"Yeah? Think you can manage it?" Sonic said to Knuckles, smirking. "Or do you want me to leave you for a little while so you can get tuned in?"
Knuckles tensed.
"If you think you can do any better—!"
"Will you stop taking everything I say so personally!" Sonic demanded, overriding him and no longer smirking.
"You stop insulting me with everything you say and maybe I will!"
"I didn't ask you to come with us!" Sonic said stridently, with far more emphasis than truth.
"Yeah, you did," Knuckles answered coldly.
"I didn't! Tails and I were all set to leave when you joined us! You volunteered!"
"Maybe, but if I'd known I was gonna have to deal with your psychotic stalker, I wouldn't have bothered! In fact, I wish I never had!"
"Well, that makes two of us!"
"Shut up!" Tails practically shrieked from behind them.
Sonic and Knuckles did, more through shock than anything. Tails glared at them, paws jammed on hips.
"You two are always fighting and arguing! You're acting like a pair of...of puggles!"
"A pair of what?" Sonic said, bemused. The echidna life cycle wasn't something he knew a great deal about.
"Babies," Knuckles supplied, hoping against hope that Tails wouldn't expand on this.
"Baby echidnas," Tails elaborated, still glaring and dashing the echidna's flimsy hopes into the ground. Sonic shot a quick look at Knuckles, grinning.
"You call them puggles? Knuckles, that's so cute!"
"Shut up," Knuckles said tersely.
"You shut up!" Tails shouted, stunning the echidna into silence. "You're so prickly, it's like...like...like we're treading on eggs and one of them's a landmine! You may be the expert on the Master Emerald and guarding it and sacred duty stuff but that's no reason to act like such a pompous jerk! And Sonic—" Sonic stopped smirking at Knuckles' expression (currently wavering between angry, insulted and utterly shell-shocked) and tried to look innocent— "you just deliberately say stuff to get him mad because you think it's fun!"
"Proving what I've always said," Knuckles said flatly, shooting Sonic a look that was far from friendly. "You just like getting into fights for kicks."
Sonic whirled, anger flaring up in him again.
"Listen, Knucky, if you think—"
Something hit him, hard, and he staggered. Tails hadn't had time to grab any rocks, but a two-tailed fox can do a respectable amount of damage if it dive-bombs you with enough determination.
"That's just what I'm talking about! You know he hates being called that and yet you do it anyway just to provoke a reaction! One day you're gonna mouth off to the wrong person and get a smack in the head!"
There was a look in Knuckles' eyes which said he'd quite like to be that wrong person, and Tails spun on him like a whirlwind.
"And you're taking everything so personally...can't you lighten up a little? You're not on Angel Island now!"
"Don't I know it," Knuckles growled bitterly, not quite under his breath.
There was a hot, angry silence.
"Just don't make any more cracks about my duty, the Master Emerald or my courage," Knuckles muttered sullenly. Sonic cast him a look.
"Alright."
"And if the words Knucky or puggle leave your lips in any way, shape or form, I will not be held responsible for the consequences!"
Sonic opened and closed his mouth once or twice before saying seriously, "Can I ask you something before I agree to that? Do echidnas really call their babies puggles, or is it something Tails made up?"
"We really do."
Sonic grinned.
"Oh man. Sorry Knux, but that really is—"
"—cute, I know. Now let's drop the subject. Agreed?"
"Yeah, alright, agreed. And you stop making cracks about my maturity!"
"What maturity?"
"See?" Sonic said, while Tails shrieked an inarticulate protest in the background. "See? That's exactly what I'm talking about! How come you're allowed to tease me about my maturity—"
"Who said I was teasing?" Knuckles said, smirking.
"—but you're too much of a coward to take it yourself?"
The smirk dropped off Knuckles' face and he took a step towards Sonic, fists clenched. Quicker than thought, Tails zipped between them, pelting both combatants with small pebbles until they looked at him again.
"You're doing it again! And stop scowling at me, Knucklehead; you fully deserved that comment then and you know it!"
"Fine. Take Sonic's side."
"Sonic dropped the subject you wanted dropped and agreed not to mention it, and you turned around and insulted him again." Tails could have howled in frustration. Forget bouncing off each other; Sonic and Knuckles' personalities positively ricocheted.
"I'll make you a deal," Sonic said to Knuckles suddenly. "Every time you make fun of one of those things I don't want you to mention, I get to make fun of one of the things you don't want me to mention without getting brained for the privilege. Whatcha think?"
"I think your grammatical coherence needs adapting, but...alright, fine."
Sonic shrugged.
"Hey, I don't adapt to things. They adapt to me."
"Then you need to learn, and learn fast," Knuckles said, his tone dangerous. "Because otherwise, you're gonna come up against an enemy you can't beat and before you realise you need a new strategy, you'll be either dead or imprisoned."
The hedgehog grinned broadly.
"Yeah? Well, until then, Knuckles-ol'-pal, I'll keep on doing things my way if that's okay by you."
The echidna raised powerful shoulders in a shrug.
"Fine. It's not me who's going to get killed one day because of it." He looked around. "Where the hell are we, anyway?"
"A city."
"No!" Knuckles looked around at the skyscrapers, the vehicles flying in all directions and the smell of energy. "Could've fooled me, Sonic; I thought it was a mushroom grove."
"You're a riot, Knucklehead. To quote one of the great Mobian philosophers, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit."
"Actually, Sonic, what he really said was, 'Sarcasm? Oh sure, that's a really high form of wit, that is!'." Knuckles quirked an eye-ridge at Sonic in a way which said quite firmly he thought he'd won that one. The hedgehog groaned.
"Oh great. Now you develop a sense of humour. C'mon; I doubt I can sleep now and the casino zones are just beyond this place." Sonic smirked. "Wanna race?"
"No," Knuckles said flatly.
"Aw, c'mon." Sonic pouted. "Don't go back to that dull I'm-so-devoted-to-my-sacred-duty-I-can't-even-lighten-up-enough-to-have-an-iddy-biddy-race—" he took a deep breath— "with-my-bestest-best-hedgehog-buddy thing!"
"That's a very good reason, Sonic, but not the one I had in mind. It's no fun racing you, since you can outrun everything on Mobius. I'm an echidna. We're built for stamina and endurance, not speed."
"Ah. Yeah. Good point." Sonic smirked. "How's about if I give you a head start?"
"Unless that head start extends to the end of the race, I don't think it would make much difference."
"Okay then, how about if I promise not to go faster than...ooh...seven hundred and fifty miles per hour?"
Knuckles gave him an old-fashioned look.
"Just below the speed of sound, you mean?"
Sonic laughed delightedly.
"Jeez, you're good, Knux! Okay, fine. I promise not to go so fast that you can't win."
"No deal, Sonic. No deal, no way."
Sonic rolled his eyes.
"What, are we back to the whole I-don't-trust-anybody deal? C'mon, I won't cheat. Promise."
"How can I take satisfaction in beating or even racing you if we both know you can leave me standing any time you choose? It'd be like me challenging you to a contest of strength or power, or Tails challenging either of us to a flying competition."
In fact, Knuckles knew for a fact that even Sonic couldn't keep up supersonic speeds for longer than a few minutes, but that made no difference. The hedgehog was perfectly capable of running at just under those speeds all day long. For the first time, Knuckles thought that it must be nice to be Sonic; to be able to go anywhere in almost the blink of an eye. The average echidna speed wasjust under one hundred and seventy miles per hour – Knuckles, who had been clocked at two hundred and ten when going full pelt, was exceptionally fast – but those kind of speeds were to Sonic what a sloth was to a leopard.
"Oh, well, if you're gonna give up before you even start..." Sonic said dismissively.
Knuckles tensed.
"I never give up, Sonic."
"Cool! Prove it!" Sonic sprang away, deliberately going just slowly enough to goad the echidna into giving chase.
Knuckles considered walking just to make a point, then dismissed the idea irritably. So Sonic thought that echidnas had no sense of fun, huh? Well, he'd show him.
Knuckles broke into a run, leaping cleanly onto one of the blue walkways that were scattered through the city. To his surprise, it caught hold of him, carrying him like a conveyor belt. Looking down, he saw that he was in the upper level; ie, about a mile and a half above ground level. Mobius had a stronger atmosphere than most planets; roads two or three miles above the surface weren't uncommon in some places.
Picking up the pace, Knuckles shot past several people travelling at a more sedate speed, and caught up with Sonic and Tails, overtaking both of them.
"Is that all you got?" he flung back at them over his shoulder, hearing Sonic's amazed laugh a split second before the hedgehog overtook him in a blur of blue light, thenslowed enough to keep just ahead of him, running backwards with a cocky grin on his face.
"I dunno, Knucklehead. Is that all you got?" Turning, he sped away, going just slowly enough to bait both Knuckles and Tails into chasing him.
Up ahead, Knuckles saw where the road twisted over into several loops before coming to an abrupt end and he felt anticipation swell within him. There were loops on Angel Island, but nothing of this calibre...!
Speeding up, he felt the familiar sensations; a slight drag as he ran up what was essentially a vertical slope, followed by brief weightlessness at the apex and a sudden rush of speed as he went down the other side. He'd clean forgotten about the road ending by the time he'd gone round three loops, and by the time he completed the final one he was so drunk on exhilaration that the only concession he made to reality was to edge over slightly to approach at a better angle the conveyor ramp he saw.
He hit the ramp at just under two hundred miles per hour, and it rocketed him off the end of the road and towards a building containinga large empty window frame. A mile and a half below them, he could just about make out people strolling along the ground, and Knuckles was just trying to work out who, if he fell on one of them from this height, would be more injured when his surroundings changed abruptly as he sailed through the window to land squarely on a buzz bomber, destroying it instantly.
"Wow! Nice one!" Sonic said, sounding as though he meant it.
"Thanks!" In spite of himself, Knuckles was grinning broadly. "Oh man! That was intense! In-tense!"
Sonic smirked, wagging a finger under the echidna's snout, while the surprising thought struck him for the first time that Knuckles was almost the same age as he, Sonic was. It was the first time that he hadn't seen the echidna acting, in the hedgehog's private opinion, like a pompous middle-aged old fart.
"And you thought I didn't know how to have fun!"
It was on the very tip of Knuckles' tongue to say he thought Sonic was more ignorant of the concept of seriousness and responsibility than of having a good time, but he bit back the words and swatted the finger away.
"Alright, fine! That was one hell of a wild ride, I admit." He looked around,his grin fading. "But now where? This is a dead-end."
Sonic's smirk broadened into his own grin.
"Not quite, my red and spiny budmeister. We can cut through the power plant."
Knuckles' jaw dropped in a very un-guardian like motion.
"The what?"
By way of an answer, Sonic pointed to a small opening. They were too high to make anything out, but all three of them could see an orange glow reflecting off the walls inside. Knuckles turned an incredulous look on Sonic.
"We're not going in there, are we?"
"Oh yes we are." Sonic's grin broadened. "C'mon, Knux, don't wimp out on us now."
"There's a difference between wimping out and deciding not to wander into a power plant!"
"We're not gonna wander in." Now Sonic looked offended, an expression that was belied by the dancing gleam in his eyes, a gleam that only ever appeared whenever the hedgehog got his most extreme or suicidal ideas. Usually the only difference between them was the name.
"We're not?" Knuckles said suspiciously.
"Course not! What kinda lunatic do you take me for? Don't answer that," Sonic added as the echidna opened his mouth. "Anyone can wander. We're gonna do this in style!"
Knuckles edged away. Echidnas valued honour and courage above all else, but when their society and values had first evolved, nobody had ever considered the possibility of someone like Sonic.
"Cool!" Tails flew to hover just in front of Sonic. "So what we gonna do?"
"See that conveyor ramp?" Sonic pointed to a particularly large one that was pointing at an alcove some ten feet up.
"We're gonna take that and go around the outside?" Knuckles said, not very hopefully. Sonic waved a hand.
"Puh-leeze! We're gonna move that and point it at the entrance to the power plant so's we can blast straight through the middle!"
"Cool!" Tails said again.
"You would think it cool, kid, if Sonic took it into his head to go deep sea diving without an oxygen tank," Knuckles said flatly. "Which might not be a bad idea, all things considered," he added under his breath.
"I heard that! And c'mon Knucky—sorry, Knux—I was right about that conveyor through the window, wasn't I?"
"Yeah," Knuckles said reluctantly, "but—"
"So the law of averages says I'm right about this too. It's no different."
"Wrong!" Knuckles moved to stand between Sonic and the ramp. "If I'd missed the window, I could have glided down to safety. Here, we only get one chance."
"Yeah! That's what makes it such fun!"
Knuckles turned a look on Tails.
"You talk to him!"
"I think he's right."
"Thankyou!" Sonic and Knuckles said simultaneously.
"I was talking about Sonic! It could be kinda fun."
"So speaks the one who can fly out of trouble," Knuckles said obstinately. He folded his arms across his chest. "Forget it."
"C'mon, it's more fun with three of us," Sonic wheedled. "Or are you scared?"
Even that failed to rouse the echidna; he continued standing there, immovable.
"If being scared means not wanting to miss a jump I can't even see and plunge to my death by drowning in a vat of liquid energy, then yes, I'm scared."
"C'mon," Sonic said again. "It's called fun, Knux."
"It's called suicide." Knuckles shook his head. "Not interested."
"Look." Sonic sped to the entrance, looked down, then shot Knuckles a glance. "It's perfectly safe."
"Compared to what?" Knuckles said incredulously. "Playing chicken with a tornado?"
Sonic's expression changed, became more thoughtful.
"Hmm..."
"No!" Knuckles said sharply, recognising the hedgehog's train of thought for what it was. Sonic considered.
"Okay, how about if I go first? If I go as slow as you and make it, then will you agree to come?"
Knuckles hesitated.
"Alright. But I want to see it with my own eyes, and if the kid flies you over it doesn't count!"
"Coolness!" Sonic darted round him, grabbing the ramp and yanking as hard as he could, an action that had absolutely no effect except to almost dislocate both his arms. "Little help?" he said pointedly.
With a sigh, Knuckles reached out with one hand and shoved hard, sending both ramp and hedgehog spinning towards the entrance and slowing to a stop just in front of the edge.
"Perfect!" Sonic enthused, then glanced at Tails. "You coming?"
"Am I ever!" Without waiting for a repetition, Tails raced forward, catching the movement of the ramp and shot into the air, closely followed by Sonic. Knuckles frowned; he couldn't see them very well from here...
And then, for the first time since leaving his beloved island, Knuckles acted without really thinking. Like so many people before him who had been unable to watch an event, he climbed up onto the nearest object in an effort to see better.
Unfortunately, the nearest object in this case happened to be the conveyor ramp.
Knuckles had barely enough time to wonder what the hell just happened when he was flung off the end and flared his spines instinctively, slowing his progress. He could make out a bright blue figure on one of the walkways – against rust-coloured metal and vivid, yellow-orange glowing energy, Tails wasn't so easy to pick out – and glided towards him.
"What took you?" Sonic said, smirking as Knuckles landed next to them. Close behind him, Tails looked around.
"This is a power plant?"
"Yeah." Knuckles shifted his weight; the metal grating was uncomfortably hot. Funny, he hadn't noticed it when he'd first landed...
The echidna froze momentarily, then, as though someone else was forcing the motion, he very slowly turned his head to look at the liquid energy.
"Thousands of tons of pure energy," Sonic said, putting on an awed tone, then grinned. "Give you any ideas?"
"You're hyper enough already," Knuckles informed him, then lifted one foot. The metal was almost unbearable now. Studying the energy, he suddenly realised what was happening and whirled to bolt, almost running down Sonic.
"Jeez, was it something I said? Again, I mean?"
"Move it!" Knuckles shrieked, practically in his face, then shoved past and ran for the lift, jumping and feeling it catch him and propel him upwards with a sense of blessed relief.
"Hey, hey, hold it!" There was a blue blur and Sonic and Tails both erupted from the lift, landing next to Knuckles. "What's the rush?"
The look Knuckles turned on Sonic was as close to terrified as he'd ever seen the echidna, and in spite of himself he felt a shiver of fear down his spine, like a trickle of dirty water. He was thinking of how Knuckles had shrieked at him; in all the time he'd known the echidna, he'd never seen him lose control to that extent, and certainly not so quickly.
"It's rising!" Knuckles gestured to the liquid energy, which was already seeping through the grating of the platform they'd just left. "Get to the top, quick!"
Understanding gripped Sonic and he risked looking up.
"Tails! Can you fly us up there?"
The fox shook his head. Sonic thought he looked pale, although it was hard to tell through the fur.
"It's too far! You'll have to run!"
"Works for me." Knuckles surged forward, grabbing Sonic and pulling him as though he weighed next to nothing, and leapt for the second lift.
"C'mon!" Tails grabbed both of them and took off.
"You said you couldn't carry us to the top," Sonic said stridently.
"I can't! But I can take you to the lift and if we're one on top of the other we won't have to jump!"
"And once again I find myself on the bottom."
"You think you've got problems, Knucklehead?" Sonic said through gritted teeth. "I got Tails yanking on my wrists and you dangling off my ankles! I mean, jeez, anyone ever suggest you could do with losing a little weight?"
"I don't have to hold you, you know," Knuckles grated in response as he lifted both knees to his chest in an effort to avoid the rising tide. "I could just dig my spikes in and climb up you like a wall. You like that?"
"And I could drop both of you if you don't stop arguing!" Tails said loudly from above them. Sonic opened his mouth for a stinging retort, but at that point the third lift caught them and lifted them into the air, snatching the hedgehog's words away, which, if the shape of his lips was anything to go by, wasn't such a bad thing.
"Why've we stopped?" Knuckles demanded suddenly, as Tails hit the brakes.
"Because of them." Tails nodded to where a pair of buzz bombers were drawing near, along with an aerial bot that none of the three had ever seen before.
"O-kay." Sonic sounded like he was considering something, then he grinned. "Drop me down here, little bro."
"What?" Knuckles said sharply, just before Tails dropped Sonic – and indirectly, Knuckles – onto the metal platform. As Tails watched, both the buzz bombers took careful aim and fired.
"Ha!" Sonic grinned broadly. "Missed me by a mile!"
There was an ominous creaking from above. As though under a spell, all three of them craned their heads back up to stare at the lift.
"I don't think they were aiming for you, Sonic," Knuckles said edgily as one charred edge pulled free, showering white hot fragments of twisted metal down on the group.
"Yeah, well, if they think we're gonna be squashed by a big ring, they can think again!"
"I don't think they care if we're going to be squashed by a big ring. I think all that matters is that there's now no way up, no way down and—" Knuckles risked a quick look over the edge at the inexorably rising tide "—no way out either."
Okay, that's it for now. Hope you're enjoying it and please take two minutes to review :D