Chapter 20: Lack of Strength

From atop his shrine, Knuckles looked down at the world below, over the edge of the floating island. The light of the Master Emerald filled him with warmth as the sunlight shone down on him as well.

Even still, he had to wonder... what was going on down below? He had his duty, and yet, he still had his friends.

Not to mention the new girl... He hadn't exactly made a good first impression on her. Not that he really had any interest in her, but she was Sonic's sister.

"You know what, I'm going down there. I need to see if she's okay. Hopefully, Sonic's been treating her well."

Knuckles leaped off the shrine, and looked back up to the massive gem. It would be fine for a couple of hours.

And with that, he leaped off the side of the island, catching the air in his spines, and safely gliding down to the surface below...

But the moment he was gone... A portal opened up on the island... And from it, a large man walked out...

Several flashes of light burst out, as hardlight arrows flew away.

Sapphire, after weeks of work and days of sleepless nights, had finally finished her project: A proper weapon, taking advantage of her own developed hardlight designs.

It was no longer the prototype she made to escape. Not some scrap metal held together with duct tape and screws. It was now a well-crafted mechanical bow, and sleek metal casing to protect the inter technology. It was now powered by proper chaos drives, fully-modified electro-magnets built into rotating joints, and a computer chip to control everything (instead of simply relying on assumptions and faith that it'll work). There were even motion detectors to activate the weapon automatically.

Completing her weapon had made Sapphire super excited, so much so that she wanted to test it right away!

...But she had only been sleeping every other night, so Sonic forced her to go to bed that evening and sleep until noon.

But now that she was completely refreshed, Sonic had gathered all of Saph's friends, so they could watch her make the first tests with her bow.

Sapphire had fired off a few arrows, showing off the capabilities of her creation.

"Wow, that's so awesome!" Amy exclaimed after her demonstration.

"You're so amazing, Saph!" Cream added.

"Y-yeah..." Sapphire responded. Yes, she had indeed made a fantastic weapon.

But none of her shots hit the target.

Looking dejected, Sapphire lowed her bow. But then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Looking over, she found Sonic there, trying to be reassuring.

"Hey, don't be so disappointed. You just started. No one's expecting you to get it right away," He told his sister.

"Th-thanks, Sonic," Sapphire replied.

"But, for now, perhaps we should get something to eat!"

Sapphire nodded, and made her way to the rest of the group.

Vanilla and Cream (with Cheese) were there, and had taken advantage of the get-together to make a picnic. Tails had set up a portable-outside workshop to help out Sapphire with anything she might need. And Sonic, Shadow, and Amy were watching as Sapphire tested her weapon.

As everyone got sandwiches, cookies, strawberries (Sapphire told her friends that she loves them), and juice drinks, Shadow gave Sapphire an encouraging smile. "I'm impressed. Honestly. Once you get a good sense of combat, you'll be a real asset to Sonic's team."

"What, you don't want her on yours?" Sonic teased the black hedgehog.

"W-wait, what!?" Sapphire replied in shock, misunderstanding.

"I'm joking, Saph," her brother replied.

"Even so, my team, Team Dark, are unofficial members of G.U.N., and we take many high-risk missions, along with reconnaissance," Shadow explained. "As much as you annoy me, Maria would be better suited with your group, Sonic."

"Wait, Shadow, did you just call Sapphire-" Amy started, but Sonic quickly interjected.

"It's a thing between the two of them," he explained.

"Oh... Oh!"

"Whatever you are thinking, Amy, you are wrong," Shadow told the pink hedgehog. "Sapphire simply reminds me of an old friend, and she took the name as her middle name of sorts."

"Y-y-yeah, we're just friends!" Sapphire quickly sputtered.

Amy simply gave the two a smirk. Shadow might have a good poker face, but Sapphire... Whatever the black hedgehog thought of the hedgehog girl, said girl's true feelings were on full display, as much as she tried to hide it.

"Anyways, it's nice that you found some way to help everyone," Vanilla said. "Just please be sure to be safe when you start going out there."

"Yeah, I'm... nervous about all this. But I can't just let anyone take advantage of others and hurt them. Especially if they want me to take part," Sapphire replied.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure to get her in tip-top shape," Tails put into the conversation. "But for now, I'm just kind of happy to have a great together with friends that doesn't end with bullying, a kidnapping, and an overall disastrous vacation."

Everyone laughed at that, even Sapphire, the victim of said events, and the stoic Shadow, who was chuckling lightly.

Turning to Sapphire, Tails asked, "by the way, did you want to show everyone the other features of your new bow?"

"Yeah, what is your new toy hiding?" Sonic teased.

Sapphire had started munching on some strawberries after calming down, and was immediately trying to recollect herself and finish chewing. "O-oh, yeah, sure," after she did that. Sapphire got back up, and grabbed her bow. "So... on top of being able to fire arrows..." she started to explain, as she pushed in a dial on the edge of the grip.

Light formed around the front of the weapon, creating an elonged, dome-like shell.

"A shield?" Cream asked.

"Y-yes. Now the shield will shut off if I pull back the bow. The change in position for the generators-"

"We don't need to know all of the long details, we get it," Amy interjected.

"Oh... well, it would also overload the power cores..." Sapphire quietly finished.

"How well does it work?" Amy asked.

"Um... well, I've only function testing, making sure it's solid and can take a lot of pressure. I haven't done stress testing yet, so..." Sapphire lifted her shield. "Perhaps now is a good time."

Without much warning, Shadow got up, took aim, and announcing "Chaos Spear!", threw a yellow energy projectile at Sapphire's guarded stance.

...Except it wasn't that guarded.

While the shield remained held up, and it completely blocked the Chaos Spear, but Sapphire shrieked in surprise, and cowered a bit, best she could while holding the shield.

After the shield deflected the spear, Sapphire then sheepishly looked up. "I-I thought you guys were going to throw a few rocks. Not, um..."

"Oh, sorry," Shadow apologized (surprising Sonic by how genuine it sounded). "You seemed ready. I'll better judge you're preparedness next time."

"Maybe ask if she's ready," Vanilla reprimanded.

"Yes, of course," Shadow replied, not planning on arguing about his mistake.

"But hey, it still works!" Amy exclaimed.

Everyone looked at the shielded bow, and the energy barrier was still running strong.

"Nice!" Sonic exclaimed. "Barriers I run into usually break in one hit."

"Okay..." Sapphire sounded. "Also, one more thing! Just in case the bad guys get too close..."

She twisted the handle of her bow, and it separated into two parts, and light blazed onto the edges, forming energy blades along them.

"Dual swords!" Amy exclaimed. "Nice!"

Sonic smirked. "You know, I happen to be practiced in swordplay. So, I could give a few pointers, or practice with you, if you want, sis."

"Wait, since when?" Amy asked.

"You know... that time I got stuck in that magic storybook... And became King Arthur..." Sonic nervously said.

"That again? I still think you were just trying to get out of our date!"

"Wait... I thought you got stuck in the Arabian Nights?" Tails asked.

"...No, that was before the King Arthur thing..." Sonic replied to his buddy.

"You always find something strange to get yourself involved in," Shadow said.

Sapphire just nervously laughed, not quite understanding how Sonic got stuck in, or even found magic storybooks for both Arabian Nights AND the Legend of King Arthur. It sounded very weird.

"W-well," she continued, "I can switch the halves into mini-shields if I need to, or I can set them up as reverse-double blades." She put the blades back together, but one backward, setting up a 180 double blade instead of the normal bow.

"That's super cool, Saph!" Cream replied.

Shadow smiled. "I think it's an excellent weapon. Once you master it, you'll be very strong."

"Th-thank you," Sapphire said, blushing.

Sonic looked up, enjoying the moment, when he saw something red in the sky. "Well, well, well, look who decided to drop in."

Everyone looked up to where Sonic was watching, and indeed, they saw the image of a familiar echidna.

"Knuckles!" Sapphire exclaimed, happy to see a friend she hasn't seen in a while.

Landing on the ground with a slight skid, the red mobian waved. "Hey, guys. It's been a while, so I decided to drop on in."

"'Sup, Knux, long time, no see!" Sonic greeted.

"'Sup!" And the two of them high-fived each other.

It was at this moment that Knuckles noticed the bow in Sapphire's hand. "Hey, what's that?" he asked her.

"O-oh, it's a weapon I made," the yellow hedgehog replied. "It's a hardlight bow that is designed..."

And Sapphire just went off on the functions of her weapon. Someone would've stopped her, had it not been more entertaining to watch Knuckles's eyes spin from an overload of smarts.

"Stop!" he finally cries out. "Okay, I get it! It's super special and all that!"

Sapphire got her sheepish look again. "S-sorry, I..."

"It's okay, Maria," Shadow told her. "You're just excited. This is a big advancement for you."

"So... what's going on...?" Knuckles asked for further explanation.

"Sapphire going to learn to fight!" Cream exclaimed. "She going to join us on our adventures!"

"Is that so!" Knuckles looked over to the hedgehog girl. "So, how's it going?"

"We've just started. She is testing her new weapon right now," Sonic explained.

"Well, have you done any sparing yet?"

"Sp-sparring?" Sapphire asked.

"Yeah, you practice fighting with someone?" Knuckles explained.

Everyone looked at each other. She just started practicing, and probably needed some more instruction before she got into a proper instruction. Sonic was even talking about showing her some sword moves. This seemed to be a bit early.

But before anyone could speak up, Knuckles made a decision. "How about you spar with me? If you hadn't done it yet."

"Hu-huh!? U-um, s-sure," Sapphire stuttered.

"Woah, woah, woah, don't be so hasty, Saph," Sonic interjected.

"Oh, well, I... maybe I should?"

Sonic just sighed. "You're really going to do this, huh? Okay, Knux, go easy on her. And no digging. That's too much for now."

Knuckles smirked. "Okay, get ready," he said as he got in a fighting stance.

Sapphire readied an arrow, and aimed towards the echidna.

And with absolute confidence, Knuckles said, "your move."

And with that, Sapphire launched several arrows at Knuckles, but her aim was still poor, so he evaded them easily, and almost didn't even have to.

Sapphire bit her lip, disappointed in herself for missing, and just planning on trying to do better. But she really could think about that for long, as Knuckles dashed forward after evading the volley of arrows, aiming for a punch.

Sapphire activated her shield, bracing for impact. Unfortunately, Knuckles hit hard. Very hard. So while the shield had prevented the punch from actually hurting her, she was sent back onto her rump.

At this point, Sonic and Shadow looked at each other with concerned expressions, realizing that Knuckles was NOT going easy on her. Even Amy was reaching for her hammer, planning on intervening if necessary.

Sapphire quickly got up, switched her weapon to its reverse blade form, and began trying to slice at Knuckles. The form and motions were sloppy, and against a master martial artist, it wasn't effective, but at least it kept him on his toes.

Up until he grabbed the blade with one hand, stopping its swing, and holding it in place. A soft sizzle could be heard, as the hardlight blade began to burn into Knuckles glove, and he seemed unaffected by the pain.

"Is that all you got?" he asked.

Thinking fast, Sapphire twisted her to handle, splitting the bow, and attempted to spin around the free blade to attack the red echidna. Knuckles simply let go and jumped back.

Sapphire tried to rush at him with blades, again with wild slashes, but Knuckles simply evaded each strike, waited for an opening...

And punched Sapphire in the stomach. This knocked the wind out of her, causing her to drop her blades, and kneel over, clutching her stomach.

Knuckles stepped back, crossed his arms, and with a smug expression, said, "I win."

Sonic and Shadow immediately ran over to the yellow hedgehog. "Hey, Saph, it's okay. It's just your first sparring match. None of us expected you to wow us," Sonic said to comfort her. "You'll get it eventually."

"At the very least, I think we got a clear look at where she lies in terms of her abilities, and there is a lot of work to be done," Shadow added, not meaning to sound rude, only instructive, which the other two hedgehogs recognized. "We should start with your form. I can help with your aim, too. Sonic, could you-" he attempted to ask Sonic about his swordsmanship again, only to get cut off...

...As it would seem that Knuckles had a different thought. "I'm sorry, but I don't think that's a good idea."

"Wha- wha- what do you mean?" Sapphire asked.

"I'm just saying, it's clear to me that you've never been in a real fight," the echidna explained. "And you seem to freak out over any kind of attack. The weapon is cool and all, don't get me wrong, but you just don't seem cut out for this."

"B-b-but I can learn. I have to. I can't just-"

"Listen, you need to know when it's time to let things go."

"Oh, like you're one to talk!" Amy shouted to the echidna, getting very irritated.

"Okay, understand my point, she's not a fighter. Never has fought. Many of us have been fighting Eggman for a long time now. She hasn't. She probably won't be able to catch up at this point," Knuckles exclaimed. "She's just not going to cut it."

Sapphire finally burst into tears, grabbed her blades, and rushed off into the jungle.

"You little..." Shadow growled, approaching the red echidna.

"Hey! Why are you so uptight about this! You can't seriously-" Knuckles started, but he stopped when Sonic came up and stopped Shadow. He clearly wasn't happy, but he was managed to stay calm. More than anyone else.

Looking straight into the Knuckles, he said, "I know it's been a while since we last saw each other, but you are aware that Sapphire was kidnapped by Eggman, right?"

"Um, no, that's... news to me," Knuckles replied, though Sonic knew that was going to be the answer. Pretty obvious.

"Yeah, well that happened. Eggman planned on forcing her to be his apprentice, so he took her, right under our noses. By the time we realized that she was taken, it was too late."

"Also, Eggman stayed under the radar, so we couldn't find him. We were only able to save Saph because she broke out and made a plan to escape. By herself," Tails added. "She revealed his location to us, so we could go save her, while she was facing ALL OF HIS ROBOTS. Alone!"

"Not to mention, none of us are sure that Eggman dropped this idea of his, so Sapphire might still be a target of his," Amy noted.

"I... okay, so she wants to be able to defend herself, is that it?" Knuckles asked.

"Not just that," Shadow replied. "She saw what Eggman really does, first hand. We all know about it, and we agree that it's inexcusable. But Sapphire... she was horrified. Especially so, considering Eggman expected her to do the same. She can not just stand by, watching this happen."

Knuckles went silent. He didn't know what to say, he just knew that he screwed up.

"You know, we get it. Sapphire has never really fought before," Sonic said. "But she wants to learn. And considering she fought back a whole army of robots by herself, I'd say it's worth doing. What you did... that was uncalled for."

Knuckles sighed and groaned, and said, "fine, I'll go fix this!"

"I don't you should-" Shadow started, but Knuckles cut him off.

"This is my mistake, so I'm going to fix it!"

Shadow glared at the echidna. "Fine, but if you make things worse, your next opponent will be me. And it won't be a friendly sparring match."

"I get it," Knuckles growled, as he made his way into the jungle.

Sapphire was running through the jungle, her eyes full of tears. Why didn't he understand? She could get stronger... but she just couldn't stand by and let the bad guys get their way...

She got pretty deep into the jungle, and was starting to get lost, not that she was paying attention.

Eventually, she found herself by a stream, and fell to her knees, crying.

Looking into the rushing waters, the hedgehog girl could see fish swimming.

She got up, reconnected her blades back into its bow form, and readied an arrow, aiming at the fish.

She took a deep breath, focused, and...

Missed. The arrow didn't hit any fish.

She tried again and again and again, until the fish began to swim away from the disturbance. And she didn't hit anything.

Once again, Sapphire collapsed, upset. Was she really that weak? Could she not get any better?

"Hey, there," a voice spoke up, deep but calm and soft, sounding very simple in tone.

Sapphire looked back... and almost had to do a double-take.

There was a mobian cat, except he was BIG. Like, he was one or two heads taller than Vector, and also was more wide. He had purple striped fur with a white belly and muzzle, large floppy cat ears, and tiny yellow eyes. He was yellow fishing gloves, sandals, and a big ol' belt with a gold ring buckle. He was also holding a fishing rod over his shoulder, and there was a green frog on his head.

"U-uh, hi...?" Sapphire nervously greeted.

The big cat simply walked up to the river, and sat down, readying his fishing rod. "Are you here to fish, too?" he asked.

Sapphire started to calm down. He seemed to be no more than a gentle giant. No harm to anyone. "S-sort of..."

"That's a weird fishing rod," the big cat noticed, as he swung his pole, tossing out the line.

"...It's not a fishing rod," Sapphire explained. "It's a bow. A special one, but... I was trying to shoot some fish, and I couldn't hit a single one. I only scared them away..."

The big cat didn't say anything, just listening to Saph. That was until there was a tug on his line. "Something's biting!" he cried out, as he began to struggle with his catch, and reel it in!

...And he succeeded, pulling out a massive fish from the water!

...Which didn't help Sapphire's mood.

"Even you're good at fighting, in your own way," she said sadly. "And I'm terrible."

The big cat looked over. He didn't quite understand what she was saying, but he did understand one thing...

"Why are you sad?" he asked.

"I... it's hard to explain, I just... want to be able to fight, to help my friends..." Sapphire explained. "But, they don't... don't think I'm strong enough..."

The big cat thought for a moment (well, the best he could) and asked, "do you want to try?", offering her his pole.

Sapphire didn't know what else to do, so she took the offer. The cat showed her how to swing the pole, sending out the line.

As the hook fell into the water, the cat said, "now... we wait."

"Okay... so it's about patience," Sapphire said.

"I think so," the cat replied.

"Right... oh, I never introduced myself. My name is Sapphire. Saphire the Hedgehog."

"That's a pretty name. I'm Big the Cat. And this..." Big motioned to the frog on his head. "Is my best bud, Froggy."

Froggy ribbited in response.

"It's nice to meet you, Big and Froggy," Sapphire told the relaxed duo.

"Nice to meet you, too," Big replied. "You know, I want to help my friends, too."

"You do?"

"Yep, and I do my best. I don't like it when people make fun of my friends."

"Oh... yeah..."

"You're my friend, too, right?" Big asked.

"I... am...?" Sapphire replied. She didn't know at what point they became friends, but... she didn't hate the idea. She liked this guy.

"Of course. And I don't want to make fun of you. Not like your other friends."

Before Sapphire could reflect on that, she felt a tug on the rod.

"I-is that...?" she wondered.

"Pull it in!" Big said, and Sapphire began to reel in.

It was hard. Sapphire wasn't the strongest person. But the fish wasn't fighting that hard. So she focused, took a deep breath, tried to pull in the prize, and eventually...

She pulled out a medium-sized fish. Not as big as the one Big fished up, but it was decently sized for someone like Sapphire.

"Wow..." she sounded. "...I didn't think..."

"Good job!" Big exclaimed. "You got a fish!"

"Th-thanks... So, do we... cook them now?"

"Okay," Big responded. "I wanted to get more fish, but I'm feeling hungry."

Sapphire laughed at that, with Big joining not too long after.

With Sapphire's help, the two of them were able to start a fire and cook up their fish. Big of course had the large one he fished up, but per his name, he was the bigger guy, so he probably had the bigger stomach to fill.

Sapphire looked at the fish with disappointment. "Eh... heh-heh... I was so excited... I forgot that I don't like fish...!"

"Oh... do you not want it?" Big asked, as he began to eat his own.

"No... I'll... be fine." She took a bite and grimaced. It wasn't great, for her, but she didn't mind. She couldn't be that picky.

Sapphire thought about what happened, when she was fishing. "Patience... Focus... Is that what I need?"

"Hm?" Big sounded.

"Sorry... just thinking..."

"Okay. You're a great friend."

"Yeah, you too."

"You should meet my other friends, Amy and Cream," Big said, "they're really cute girls."

Sapphire could tell that he meant that in an innocent way. But then she realized, "wait, Amy? Cream? Are they a pink hedgehog and a bunny kid?"

"...I think so. Yep."

"No way! I know them, too. Amy's... a little scary. But Cream is super nice!" Sapphire replied.

"Awe... I wanted to show them to you... but you've already seen them," Big said, disappointed.

"U-uh... it's okay..." Sapphire told the big cat, trying to comfort him.

Big went silent in his clueless way again, before his ears twitched.

"Big...? Is something wrong?" Sapphire asked.

"I hear something." He got up, and began to bound into the jungle, presumably towards whatever he was hearing.

"Wait, hang on!" Sapphire cried out, as she got up, grabbed her bow, and ran after her new friend.

As Sapphire chased after Big, she found herself in a clearing, where her purple friend was staring down...

Knuckles.

The red echidna was trying to ask Big something, before he looked over and saw the hedgehog girl.

"Sapphire! There you are!" he cried.

Sapphire immediately tensed up. She really didn't want to see him right now.

"Hey, look, I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to... dang it, what do I say?"

Big wasn't the brightest... but he knew enough to figure one thing. Or at least be curious about it. "Is he the one who said you're not strong?"

"Yes..." Sapphire nervously replied, barely noticing Knuckles looking away in shame.

Big turned to Knuckles, suddenly a little angry. "It's not nice to make fun of my friend!"

"When did you two become- Whatever!" Knuckles shouted back. "Look, I know screwed up!"

Big got confused, and looked over to Sapphire, who was equally as surprised.

"...Okay. You're definitely new to this fighting thing. And I... I wasn't sure if you were cut up for it. But... I didn't know what you were going through. Eggman... he's crossed all of us, at one point or another."

Sapphire didn't say anything.

"You've got a lot of good friends. I'm tempted to say to rely on them, and you should. But if Eggman's going to do underhanded stuff like... kidnapping you. I'd understand wanting to protect yourself."

Big nodded. "I think he took Froggy a couple times." He didn't know for sure, but he felt that he must've been responsible in some way for both kidnapping of his friend.

"Eggman has attempted to, and a couple times succeeded in stealing the Master Emerald," Knuckles added. "I understand what's it's like to have something valuable taken. I'd imagine that's how Sonic and the other felt, when he took you. And I can't imagine how you felt."

"I... was so scared," Sapphire admitted. "But... maybe a little angry, too. I wanted me to do what he does, all these terrible things. I don't want to do those kinds of things. And I don't want him to, either."

Knuckles smiled. "That kind of conviction. That's admirable, if I'm going to be honest."

"Thanks... B-but you still went too hard on me, during our spar! I'm still learning, and this is very... nerve-racking for me, okay."

Knuckles sighed. He wasn't sure what to say to that. Personally, he didn't completely agree. Besides, he could've gone even harder on her during the sparring match.

At this point, Big had zoned out. The other two did notice this, but thought it was fine. Sapphire figured Big was always like, and Knuckles knew he'd be like this.

...But when he suddenly got a weird look in his eyes, and scrunched up his face... it was worrying.

"Big...? Are you okay?" Sapphire asked, concerned about her new friend.

"...Something smells funny," Big replied.

Knuckles got very pressed by this statement. "What!? What do you mean by that!?"

"I really don't like this smell," Big continued. Knuckles's expression said that he was going more enraged by this, but Big wasn't even looking at him.

"Why don't you say that to my face-" Knuckles exclaimed, before everyone heard a strange sound.

Everyone turned to the source of this mystery sound. Some nearby bushes were rustling, and then something came out...

And Sapphire nearly screamed.

It was a robot, an Egg Pawn, like Eggman had on board his ship. But this one was black with red-lining, and looked a little more advanced, sci-fi-like even.

Freaking out, Sapphire managed to say, "i-is that what you smelled, Big?"

"I think so," the large cat replied.

"Oh... well, um, sorry, I didn't-" Knuckles sounded, eyes on the robot, before Big continued.

"But Knuckles does smell kind of weird, too."

"HEY!" the echidna shouted.

Then, another robot of the same type walked out into the open.

Then another... and another...

Soon, the three of them were surrounded by dozens and dozens of these strange, black-and-red Egg Pawns.

...And now Sapphire began to truly freak out!

"N-no, I'm not ready..." she sounded. "I've been preparing so much. But I'm not ready yet! I don't want to be kidnapped again!"

Big immediately did not like how his little friend was acting, but knew enough to know why she was freaking out. He looked at the robots with his deadpan look, and angrily shouted, "you're scaring my friend. Go away, or I'm going to hurt you!" And he pulled out his fishing rod, ready it as a weapon.

Now, someone wielding a fishing rod as a weapon with a frog on his head isn't that intimidating.

...But a massive purple cat that could literally crush you by sitting you, wielding a fishing rod with a frog on his head. THAT was quite imposing.

Sapphire started to calm down, and even smiled slightly, happy to have such a good friend on her side. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Looking over, she found it was Knuckles. "Listen, I'm sorry about before. But if you want to be ready... if you want to fight by our side... Well, you'll never be ready if you can't look the problem in the face, and tell them 'no, I won't lose to you!'"

Then Knuckles stepped back, cracked his knuckles (how ironic), and then entered a battle stance, ready to rumble.

Sapphire looked down at her bow, and nodded. Then she prepared a hardlight arrow, taking aim at the robots.

And she shouted, "I won't lose to you!"

Author's Note: At long last, I'm able to write this arc! Show off Sapphire fighting for real, with her new weapon that's been in her OC Profile since forever. (Geeze...)

So, to start, I want to talk about Knuckles's role in this story. He originally wasn't going to even be in this arc. It was going to be Shadow who put Sapphire down. But then I realized... that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

It's not in Shadow's character to really do that to an ally, whether he considers them a friend or not (and think about it, I'd rather avoid another Infinite-type of situation, even if Sapphire wasn't planned to go evil). Not to mention, he was there when Sapphire got kidnapped, so he's aware of why she's doing this, and he cares about her a lot more than anyone else. He even had that heart-to-heart with her last chapter. I think that would some terrible backtracking for his character in this story.

But Knuckles... He WASN'T involved in the event of Sapphire's kidnapping, and I think he might look at things seriously, and claim that Sapphire shouldn't be focusing on trying to be something she isn't. He was a perfect candidate for this role!

And before you say it... Say that "hey, isn't Knuckles a feminist?" Yes... in Sonic Boom, he is. But that is a COMPLETELY different version of Knuckles than the main series Knuckles. The main Knuckles lived alone secluded on an island in the sky, so I honestly don't think he's well-versed in social norms. At least not very well.

And consider this: Knuckles fought Rouge. So he technically broke rule number one: don't hit a girl. Yes, he good reason to do so, but that's the point I'm making here. I doubt Knuckles cares about gender norms, period! (Which, I guess kind of is what being a feminist is, in a screwed up sense, wanting better equality for women. I don't know, I want complete equality between all peoples too, but I take it as something you shouldn't bring up, including judging others. And... I don't want to get political on a FANFIC. That is just dumb!)

Getting back to the story, I also decided to add Knuckles to the greater arc, so I could continue to play off of what he did. Basically, For this new arc, Sapphire was going to become part of a three-person team, made up of her, Big, and one other character that hasn't been revealed yet, and I won't reveal now, though they will be in the next chapter. It's not going to be a Sonic Heroes team, just a generic trio of characters, but now it's a quartet, since Knuckles is going to be part of this.

To finish off, I did add a couple of Sonic references in this chapter. When Sonic was talking about shields, he was referring to the Barrier from the Classic Sonic Games, as well as Sonic Adventure. And I also recreated the scene from Sonic Riders where Knuckles got overwhelmed by intelligence. It was super funny, and I thought it work great here to remake!

All I have left to say is that, again, I'm excited to start this new arc. I plan on adding a new OC in this arc, one that I made a while ago and really wanted add for a while.