The epic seventh piece of…

The Pencil Rain

Amy stared at the thing coming up the bridge at her. It was a robot, with an appearance similar to that of Zero, the robot that had chased her a few months back. It was purple, however, and the side said "E-222 Psi" on it. She thought, "It must be another one of Eggman's robots. I was able to defeat the other one, but this time I have no electrical fence. It can hover, so I can't push it off the edge. What do I do?" After a split second, she got a burst of creative thinking going, because if Sonic saw that she could hold her own in a fight, maybe she'd get to go on a few more adventures with him…

She immediately went into a full brainstorm. What was there to do? All of a sudden, she had it. She crouched behind a marble staircase and waited for it to ascend. The robot rolled silently across the grass, so that one would think it was just a dog taking itself for a walk. It chose the nearest staircase, which Amy waited behind. Silently, she crept behind it and started to ascend behind Psi, now hovering halfway towards its goal.

Amy crouched, leapt, and swung her hammer around in the air with a trademark "Yah!" as she jumped over the robot, hitting the latch on its head and releasing the lid on the robot. She then gave it all she had hitting the blue button on the top of its head. She pounded away until she flew back. The robot hadn't even touched her, she wondered, why had she been knocked several yards back? Then she felt something in her head. Something odd, like someone else had taken the wheel…

Amy leapt to her feet and started flapping her arms, singing "I don't wanna be a chicken, I don't wanna be a duck, so I shake my butt!" After clapping four times, she came to, realizing this was going to be a harder battle that she'd previously thought. This thing wasn't called Psi for no reason; it had mind-controlling circuits built in!

Malachite swam upwards, looking for a way in. She knew it was there, and she remembered it clearly. How she had never been here in her life and yet know this astounded her, and by extension Knuckles. Giving another kick, she set to observing the wall. Looking around, she saw a crack in the rock face. Tracing it with her finger, a door suddenly jarred at the bottom. Knuckles noticed the door and started to swim in, joined by Malachite a few seconds later as the door closed behind them. Knuckles thought to himself, "This just keeps getting stranger and stranger…"

The duo turned a corner, then another corner, meanwhile not seeing the light of day, or anything else for that matter. Every time a corner came, Malachite took it as if she knew the route for all of her life. It was becoming clear to Knuckles that these twists and turns were for the purpose of confusing intruders. But why would there be intruders? Who would build this? Was this some sort of Atlantean city hidden beneath the surface?

Light soon appeared as Malachite and Knuckles kicked it into high gear. Knuckles wanted to dry off; Malachite wanted the thing at the end of the tunnel. Finally, they surfaced, looking around. Knuckles's hunch was right; it was some sort of Atlantis. Polished white marble formed the streets; red marked off the edges. It was stormy outside when they entered, but here the sky was clear blue; not a cloud to be seen. Foliage and greenery was everywhere; buildings had the most magnificent architecture. Canals separated the circular city into concentric rings. Marmots like Malachite walked the streets. If there ever was a utopia, this would be the place to have it. Total isolation, no war, no problems period. Knuckles felt like an intruder, feeling that the only thing that could happen was bad in such a perfect place. He remembered his own people, figuring that he and Malachite's goals were the same: protect the things precious to them and the honor of their people. The building floating on the center platform had to be the leader's residence. They quietly decided to dive below the surface so as not to attract attention. Malachite knew now why she knew this place so well: She was from here. She had been sent out with the eventual aim of her returning here, and reconnecting with everything she was a part of. But she was a part of the forest already: would she have to choose?

They slowly made their way to the building and then climbed up on the platform it was on. There was no door, something that struck Knuckles funny. Anyone could waltz in and mess with government records, right? No, he realized, people here are too good. Nobody would think of that. It was all so odd, how the overwhelming goodness of the place seemed to fly in the face of everything sensible and real. This couldn't just be a fake setup, could it? But it wasn't, it never could be. How this was able to exist, he had no idea. As they walked to the other side of the room, a teleportation device took them to a room at the top. There was a big marmot at the other end of the room, who looked at them strangely, no doubt because of Knuckles's presence. What he said then, much to the surprise of Knuckles, was:

"Malachite? My daughter, is that you?"

Author: You know the drill; I own none of this stuff. Except for what you know I own. Chuck 8 will be even better. Larry