They didn't beat them. Instead the children got sidetracked with a splash fight in the waves, and then with running around playing some sort of game where they hit each other with sticks and bits of driftwood, and then Amy came back and Pretzel was extremely relieved to escape the noise and chaos. Children. Unpredictable and overwhelming.
Whip pouted at having to leave his new playmates, but he perked up again when Amy revealed the spoils of her search: a bar of chocolate (milk chocolate, disappointingly), a lemon which made Pretzel a little less bitter about the milk chocolate, and more to the point of this whole trip, an eyewitness account from someone who'd seen this "Angel Island" Amy was looking for just a few days ago.
Pretzel still wasn't clear on why this island was so hard to find—it was an island, it wasn't like it could move—but regardless, they bid farewell to the children and set out in the direction the island had last been sighted… and where it presumably still was because again, island. It wasn't even one of the Islands of Chaos Pretzel had heard about; she'd learned the names of all seven in case she ever needed them for their cover story (she never did), and "Angel" was not among them.
Regardless, Amy seemed to be under the impression they needed to hurry, and Big said (in fewer words) he knew the area it had been spotted in, so once more they set off into the wilds, Whip's new fan club waving and shouting pleas for them to come back behind them. Soon the town faded from view, and Big took the lead as they reentered the jungle. At first Pretzel was relieved to be back in the shade, but soon all she could think of was the sea breeze they'd left behind. As much as she loved the mud and bugs and general dampness, the constant heat was really getting on her nerves. It felt like they'd been walking for months when Big finally stopped and pointed.
"There it is!" he pronounced. Pointing up. At the sky.
Slowly Pretzel's eyes followed Big's extended finger and— okay. Huh. Island floating in the sky. Just. Massive chunk of land. Floating in the sky. Cool. Pretzel really should have realized it would be something weird. For all she knew it was her fault this island was floating, or Whip's, but unfortunately her memory would never be so helpful as to give her relevant information.
"Wow," Whip said, wide-eyed. "Islands can fly?"
"Most can't," Amy explained, much to Pretzel's relief. She may not remember much about the world, but she was pretty sure islands didn't normally float for no reason. "Angel Island is kept in the air by the Master Emerald."
Of course it was an Emerald. But why the "Master" title? Was it different from the regular Chaos Emeralds, somehow?
"Wow wow wow," Whip said, eloquent as ever. "How are you and Big and Froggy going to get up there, Amy? You can't fly."
That… was a good point. Whip, Pretzel, Big, and Froggy all looked expectantly at Amy, who for her part had the distinct look of someone who hadn't thought this far ahead. Pretzel had seen it on Sonic's face too many times to count.
"Uh. Hmm. Well." Amy put her hands on her hips, squinting up at the island. "Pretzel, do you think you can—"
Pretzel was saved from whatever that question was going to turn out to be by a distant whirring noise. Amy cut herself off mid-sentence, and they all stood in silence, straining to hear. The noise grew louder. The first explanation Pretzel's mind provided for it was "car", but this was not nearly loud and big enough. Motorcycle? Closer. Whatever it was, it was a machine, it was moving fast, and it was moving towards them.
A blur of red, gold, and green appeared in the sky, rocketing towards them from the direction of the island. Amy summoned her hammer, while Whip raised his fists in what was supposed to be an intimidating pose. Pretzel uncertainly raised her wings and her spiked tail tip. Robots never failed to throw her off; she couldn't read them like she could living beings, which made it a lot harder to tell if one was an enemy or a friend (and had led to a disastrous first visit to Cream and Vanilla's home, though thankfully Gemerl had forgiven her. Probably. Hopefully.) Amy and Whip seemed to think this was a threat, but Big looked wholly unconcerned.
The robot came to a stop, hovering in the air just a little above them. Pretzel blinked. The robot was made of sleek, streamlined metal, not unlike the ones Eggman had employed, but the thing that surprised Pretzel was its shape. Big head, small body, long limbs, swept back quills… It looked a little like…
"Metal Sonic!" Amy gasped. She lunged forward, hammer slamming down… on empty air, as the robot dodged easily to the side. Amy whirled to face it again, quills bristling. "What are you doing here?" She demanded, tightening her grip on her hammer.
Whip darted over to hover beside her, wide-eyed. "Amy, what's Metal Sonic?"
"A bad guy," Amy said, not taking her eyes off the robot. "Stay back, okay?"
"No way!" Whip raised his fists again and glared at the robot with all his eleven pounds of rage, as if that would somehow stop it from attacking. "We fight bad guys!"
The robot didn't react to the threat display. It just hovered there, staring at them with its glowing green eyes.
"Amy," Big said before Amy could attack. "Maybe it's a friend?"
Whip whirled around to face him with an affronted gasp. "Bad guys are not friends!"
Amy hesitated. She glanced from Big to the robot, a frown growing on her face. The robot continued to hover peacefully in the air. Slowly Amy lowered her hammer.
Whip blinked at her in confusion. "Amy?"
"It's not attacking," she said thoughtfully. "And Eggman's on the space station; why would he send Metal Sonic here? And with a new paint job?" She added, eyeing the robot speculatively.
For a being supposedly called Metal Sonic, the robot in question didn't resemble Sonic much aside from the build and the pointed "quills" (and even those didn't look that much like Sonic's when you got a good look at them, though Pretzel supposed you could only do so much with metal). It was primarily a deep red, with gold and white highlights striping its body like war paint and vivid green accents on its chest, hands, and feet.
"Amy!"
A new voice came from above, and Pretzel looked up to see a red-furred figure gliding down to them. Somehow. He didn't have wings that she could see, and he didn't seem to be a robot. Maybe it was one of his abilities, like Sonic's speed and Amy's hammer-summoning and Blaze's fire. To be fair, Cream was able to fly with her ears, so perhaps this shouldn't be so surprising.
The newcomer landed in front of them with a solid thud. "Don't worry," he said, nodding at the robot. "He's been reprogrammed."
"Hi to you too, Knuckles," Amy sighed, putting her hammer away. "Reprogrammed by who? Tails?"
"Wave," Knuckles corrected. He blinked at Pretzel and Whip. "Who are they?"
"I'm Whip!" Whip chirped brightly. "And this is my sister Pretzel! We can fly, but we have wings. How do you fly without wings? Why do you have spikes on your hands? Also, why don't you have fingers? Doesn't that make it hard to pick stuff up?"
Knuckles blinked slowly, a reaction people often had to Whip. "Um. Yes?" He looked at Amy with an expression pleading for help, but she was fixated on something else.
"Wave? When did Wave get her hands on Metal Sonic? And why didn't any of us know about it!?" Amy had her arms crossed and was doing the "disappointed mom" look, as Sonic had dubbed it. Presumably that was a reference to how it was a perfect impression of a look Amy's own mom often wore to terrifying effect.
Knuckles shrugged. "I was busy. And my communicator was broken."
"I noticed," Amy grumbled. "So why didn't you fix it? Tails would have been happy to help! What if something had happened and you'd needed our help?"
Knuckles scowled. "I could have handled it."
Amy did not look pleased at his answer, but she seemed to realize that argument wouldn't work and switched tact. "And if we had needed your help?"
"You're here now, aren't you?" Knuckles folded his arms.
"We are," Big agreed pleasantly.
Amy looked like she wanted to keep arguing, but Big's interjection seemed to remind her why they were there. "We need to talk to you about something. Something that might be related to the Master Emerald."
Immediately Knuckles's eyes became sharp and hard. "I see." He glanced around at the surrounding jungle, suddenly wary for reasons Pretzel couldn't guess (other than the general paranoia everyone should feel from simply existing in this world, and yet somehow no one seemed to experience except her). "You should come up. We can talk on the island."
Amy blinked, looking from him to the island floating far overhead. "How?"
"He can carry you," Knuckles said, nodding to the robot. "And you too, if you want," he added to Big.
"I would like to go," Big agreed.
Amy eyed the robot uncertainly, but finally sighed. "I guess I don't have any better ideas. So how do we—" She cut herself off with a shriek as the robot suddenly moved with speed to make Sonic shed a proud tear, scooping Amy up and rocketing to the island before any of them had a chance to react.
Knuckles looked largely unbothered by the sudden kidnapping. "You two can fly on your own, right?" He asked Pretzel and Whip.
"…Yeah," Pretzel said, staring after the robot. "Yeah, I'm good."
"That looked fun!" Whip said, because Whip had no sense of his own mortality. Or sense in general, really.
Pretzel sighed. Stars save her from these people.
They all made it to the island alive and relatively unscathed, though Knuckles came close to getting flattened by an enraged Amy for not giving more warning. Apparently this "Wave" had programmed the robot to be very responsive to Knuckles's commands, even implied ones. It suited Knuckles just fine, but after some threatening from Amy he agreed to have Tails come around and adjust it to be more considerate of other people.
Angel Island was beautiful. That much was evident immediately. Their landing spot was in the midst of a green jungle, not unlike the one they'd just left on the ground, but thankfully cooler (probably because of the altitude). Cliffs rose around them, and waterfalls tumbled down their stone faces. Tiled stone paths, carefully swept clean, led in different directions, and carved wood poles supporting torches were set intermittently along the paths.
But Pretzel didn't pay much attention to the scenery. Something else was tugging on her—no, that wasn't right. Something was pushing against her. It was like when two ends of a magnet were put together, pushing against each other to keep from touching, except in this case one of the magnets was Pretzel and another was… the island? Not quite; something in the center of the island, she thought. It was not a pleasant feeling. Pretzel grimaced and took a step back, shaking her head. She bumped into Whip and glanced over to see him looking equally uncomfortable. So this was a Gaia thing. His warmth eased the feeling of wrongness slightly, and judging from the way he leaned into her it went both ways. Pretzel considered shoving him away, but decided it wasn't worth it. He'd probably get distracted and fly off soon anyway.
None of the others seemed bothered by the sensation. Big and Amy were looking around with wonder, while Knuckles stood off to the side, arms folded and a hint of a proud smile on his face.
"It looks different," Amy finally said, turning to look at Knuckles again. "Have you been making renovations?"
Knuckles nodded, clearly pleased. "The robot helped."
Amy glanced at the robot. "Have you given him a name yet? He isn't really 'Metal Sonic' anymore, is he?"
Knuckles shrugged. "I've just been calling him the robot. If he wants a name he can pick one."
Amy's brow wrinkled. "Is he… aware?"
"Wave says he isn't," Knuckles admitted. The robot seemed to have grown bored of the conversation and shot off down the path. Knuckles started walking in the same direction, and the rest of the group followed suit. "Supposedly she just programmed him to obey my orders and protect the island, but you and I both know robots can become more than their programming."
"Fair enough," Amy agreed. "How did you end up with him, anyway?"
"That's a long story," Knuckles said, sighing. "You know a few months ago, when there was that laser from space and the days suddenly started getting longer?"
"I remember," Amy said, glancing back at Whip, who thankfully wasn't paying much attention.
"Right. So I was fighting the Babylon Rogues, who were after the Master Emerald, when I saw this light—"
Knuckles went on to tell a story about time travelers and possessed spirits and birds on hoverboards that Pretzel understood less than half of. Whip had gotten bored and flown ahead, while Big and Froggy were meandering farther behind, looking around at the island with rapt curiosity. Pretzel decided it was probably best Whip not be left unattended on the magic mystery island and flew after him. (Besides, the repulsing magnet feeling was even worse without his presence, not that she'd tell him that.) She found him standing at the top of a flight of stairs, staring down with wide eyes. She dropped down beside him and followed his gaze.
The steps led down into a natural bowl of sorts that sheltered a green garden. A clear blue waterfall ran down the steepest part of the bowl and flowed into a small stream, which then fed into a still pool in the center of the garden. Several of the garden trees hung heavy with fruit, flowers bloomed in colorful displays throughout the greenery, and what looked like children's toys were scattered across the ground. She spotted the robot on the other side of the garden. It was tending to the plants with a gentle care you wouldn't have expected to see from a machine, and a methodicalness you would have. But none of that was what held Whip's attention.
"They're so cute!" He squealed, tail wagging excitedly.
The Chao in the garden below babbled softly to each other, unaware of their nearby admirer. Pretzel had seen Chao before, when visiting Cream and Vanilla, but she'd never seen so many in one place. They were more varied than she'd expected, and she understood a little better why Amy had considered using the Chao cover story. With the sheer mishmash of features on display before her, she and Whip would fit right in. Or Whip would, anyway; none of the Chao were quite as lean and snake-like as Pretzel.
"Hi! Hi!" Whip called, zipping down into the garden. Several of the Chao looked up at him in surprise, and a few even ran away into the underbrush. "Hey, where are you going?"
"You need to move more slowly," Pretzel said, demonstrating her point as she picked her way down to him. "You'll startle them if you rush in like that." Or at least, that was how most animals were, and she imagined Chao weren't much different.
Typically, Whip ignored her. He continued to zip about like a caffeinated hummingbird, and the Chao continued to be understandably put off by it.
"Doing the same thing and expecting a different result," Pretzel commented as she watched his latest failure. "You know that's the definition of insanity, right?"
Whip stuck his tongue out at her, but he did at least innovate by trying to grab a fruit. And then lobbing it in the direction of the Chao because Whip had neither patience nor impulse control. No wonder Cheese never seemed enthusiastic about their visits.
Pretzel winced as one of the Chao, startled by Whip's latest feeding attempt, started crying. The robot looked towards them, and she was sure it was glaring. Pretzel cringed apologetically. "Whip, maybe you should—"
And then the water attacked them.
Whip squawked as a stream of water slammed into him like a fist. Another swiped at Pretzel, and she backed up, hissing. Whip's fur bushed as he scrambled away from another assault by the enraged liquid and ducked behind Pretzel. They both watched, wide-eyed, as a being emerged from the nearby pool. It was shaped like a Mobian, but it was made of water, a translucent blue broken only by a pair of yellow-green eyes and, submerged in its head, what seemed to be a pink brain. The being burbled threateningly. Pretzel glanced around, wondering if it would be better to hide or attack, while Whip struck a fighting pose that was undermined by the quivers of fear running through his body.
Wait!
An unfamiliar voice rang in Pretzel's head. Beside her, Whip started, looking around wildly. Pretzel felt—something. A pulse, a warm and calm presence. A person, she thought, but not a person like Amy and Big and Knuckles. This wasn't just her picking up on someone's emotions or "aura" or whatever, this was… this energy was the person. Someone made of energy, like Pretzel and Whip?
An orange light glowed, and then the speaker appeared. Whip shrieked and scrambled back, cowering behind Pretzel. Pretzel didn't see what he was so worked up about. Sure, it was a ghost, but it wasn't a particularly threatening ghost. Probably the least threatening a ghost could be, actually.
She was the same species as Knuckles—echidna, some part of her or Whip's brain informed—, but her fur was a soft orange-peach, and her eyes were a bright and clear blue. She looked younger, too, yet at the same time as old as the island itself. She stood between the water creature and the Gaias, extending her hands to either side as if to hold them apart. When she saw that both parties had stopped to stare at her, she lowered her arms.
It's alright, Chaos, she said, turning to address the water creature—Chaos. Wait, Chaos? He didn't mean any harm. She turned to Pretzel and Whip with an apologetic smile. I'm sorry if Chaos frightened you.
"Are you a ghost?" Whip squeaked, terrified.
…In a sense, I suppose, the ghost said, blinking at him. My name is Tikal, and this is Chaos. They are… very protective of the Chao, but they won't hurt you. They're really very peaceful.
"They don't look peaceful," Whip mumbled, still hiding behind Pretzel.
"Tikal's right," Knuckles said, and Pretzel turned to see him and Amy making their way down the stairs. Big still seemed to be a ways behind them. "As long as you don't hurt the Chao, Chaos won't hurt you." Chaos burbled accusingly, glaring at Knuckles, who raised his hands defensively. "I didn't have any warning they were coming either!"
"Well if you'd fixed your communicator, maybe I could've let you know," Amy huffed.
Chaos burbled again and then, without warning, their arm shot out with liquid fluidity and slapped Knuckles. Pretzel jumped back, wide-eyed, but when Knuckles whirled on Chaos there was a playful gleam in his eye. Pretzel watched in confusion as the echidna and the monster started… playing? Yes, they were definitely playing.
"Amy," she said, coming over to where Amy was watching the scuffle with an amused expression. "Is that the same Chaos that destroyed Station Square?"
Amy nodded.
Whip, clearly still upset over being drenched, shot Chaos a glare. "I knew they were a bad guy! Why are they here, Amy? Shouldn't they be in—" he floundered for a bit. "—monster jail?"
"Not a thing," Pretzel muttered.
"It's— not that simple," Amy said hesitantly. "Chaos… wasn't entirely themself when they destroyed Station Square."
Pretzel frowned. "What do you mean?"
Chaos was chosen long ago to be a guardian, Tikal explained. And for a long time they lived peacefully, protecting the Chao, the Master Emerald, and when they were present, the Chaos Emeralds. But four thousand years ago my— my father wanted to use the Emeralds for… horrible things. She shuddered. I tried to stop him, but he hurt me, and the Chao. Chaos became angry, and with the Chaos Emeralds they turned into Perfect Chaos. A monster.
Negative emotion and Chaos Emeralds, together making a dangerous, potentially world destroying creature. It was a familiar story.
I sealed myself and Chaos into the Master Emerald to stop the destruction. But their anger only festered, until after four thousand years they were freed by Dr. Robotnik.
"And then Eggman gave them the Chaos Emeralds to turn them into Perfect Chaos again," Amy explained. "It was only when Sonic beat them as Super Sonic that they calmed down."
And now they are at peace. Tikal smiled at Chaos, who was letting a Chao attack their leg in a babyish imitation of Chaos and Knuckles's wrestling a moment before. There was a clear fondness in the way Chaos watched the Chao, in their gentle movements and soft burbling. Despite the lack of facial features, the slight crinkle in their eyes seemed to suggest a smile. And there was a similar warm, content fondness in Tikal's eyes as she watched the scene. We both are.
Whip wrinkled his brow, trying to wrap his head around this idea. "So someone hurt Chaos… and Chaos hurt a bunch of people… and you turned into a ghost… and now you're… friends? Even though they're a monster? You're not angry at all?"
I might have been angry, once, Tikal admitted. But I also understood Chaos's pain. And hurting them further would only perpetuate the violence, not end it.
Whip frowned, clearly still lost. Pretzel understood how he felt. All that—all the destruction and pain they had caused—and Chaos still found a happy ending for themself. Peace, and companionship, and purpose. They were accepted. They were at home, and safe, and happy. She glanced to the other side of the garden, where the robot was steadily tending to the plants. And this "Metal Sonic", too. He has once been Amy's enemy, judging by her reaction to his presence, but some switch had been flipped and now he was perfectly happy tending to gardens? Living alongside his former enemies? How? How were the others so accepting? How was Chaos not constantly looking over their shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop? How was the robot so content with this sudden change? How had they all found this, made this peace?
Pretzel didn't know. But she wanted to.
