Chapter 6

Sky Chases

NOTE: I found out Knuckles' true flashback. Sorry that I haven't updated in about 9 months. I thought I'd take a break, you know? Anyway, I'll try to update as soon as possible. I've got too much homework and too many extracurricular activities so I'll try to get more STHS as soon as possible.

MYSTIC RUINS – TAILS'S WORKSHOP

"Sonic, wait out here!" Tails called out. Tails walked into his workshop to get the Tornado. Outside, after literally waiting three seconds Sonic was bored. He walked around in circles and finally shrugged. How long does it take to get an airplane out? He thought. But he heard something. The road that led out had pal trees that now leaned down to the other side of the road and out of the middle of the road came a runway. The Tornado came out of a garage door at the beginning of the runway.

"Come on, Sonic! Hop in!" Tails yelled at Sonic. The hedgehog jumped onto the back wing and the Tornado flew off. The Egg Carrier was now in sight, but inside Eggman saw them. He sent mini fighter jets out to greet them. The Tornado shot at the jets destroying them one by one. They then passed over the Egg Carrier where fiery and spiked balls shot at them. The Tornado dodged them and even shot down some of them. After dodging waves of jets and spiked balls they soon came out in front of the Egg Carrier. But of the front came out a laser ray that destroyed one of the Tornado's wings.

"Oh no! We're hit!" Tails said.

"Yeah, I can see that! Whoa!" Sonic replied and they fell in two different places.

MYSTIC RUINS – WATERFALL AREA

"Where are the emeralds going to be now?" Knuckles asked himself. He started walking around until he saw an entrance to a tunnel.He had never seen it before and decided to explore. He saw a cart and an entrance to another tunnel. When he stepped into the entrance, bars came down and trapped him from getting out.

"What! Who did that?" Knuckles said and saw that a caged robotic monkey must have been the cause of it. "Great! I can't destroy that monkey as long as it's caged and now I'm going to rot and die." Then he saw a floating object in the middle of a green light and he walked into the light.

"This is the Shovel Claw. It helps you dig for underground objects." A voice said.

Knuckles looked around. No one was there except for the monkey. First of all, he didn't think the monkey could talk and even if it could it wouldn't tell that. He walked around a saw something that looked like it should have been an old shrine years ago. A symbol that looked Eggman jumped in and out of the hole.

"Oh, well. I guess this is the best place to test out this Shovel Claw." He said.

He dug into the ground and found a switch. A label on it said "Monkey Destruction Switch". He took it out to the monkey and dropped it. Switch ON! BOOM! The monkey exploded and the gates opened.

"I get it now." Knuckles said. "Eggman put this trap here to catch anybody who came in. But if he was trapped in there for any given reason, he'd use the Shovel Claw to dig up the Monkey Destruction Switch to destroy the monkey and get out. I might need this switch later."

Knuckles carried the switch into the big hole in the wall and jumped into the wind. He then ended up in the tunnel. He ran all the way into the end of the tunnel leading him to –

"Angel Island!" Knuckles yelled. "So this is where it landed."

Near the island were a mountain, a small gate, and a monkey cage. The gate was closed shut, but luckily Knuckles brought the Monkey Destruction Switch. Switch ON! The monkey was destroyed and the gate opened.

"I sense Master Emerald shards."

STATION SQUARE – CITY HALL AREA

People walked around Station Square not expecting any kind of trouble, but a walking brown paper bag was walking towards them. No, not really. That was just a pink hedgehog called Amy Rose behind a tall bag of groceries.

"I'm so bored." said Amy. "I remember the days of my hunk hero, Sonic, saving me from all dangers that faced us." She sighed.

Suddenly, it became very dark. Everybody looked around. What could be blocking light from the ground? Then they saw it. The Egg Carrier flew overhead of Station Square and something small flew out of it and hit Amy.

"Ow! Who did that? That hurt!" she saw the object that hit her. It was a bird.

"Oh, are you okay little birdie?" Amy asked.

Next to them fell a robot that had in white letters/numbers E-100 ALPHA/ZERO. Amy noticed that it wanted the "birdie" so she hid in the Burger Shop. Zero passed all the buildings looking for Amy and Birdie but never found them. Amy ran away. Far away, I mean. She had to get away from Zero and fast.

STATION SQUARE – BEACH

You could hear the whistling of Sonic falling from the sky if you were nearby. Sonic landed head-first into the sand.

"Tails? Tails!" Sonic yelled.

Sonic got his head out of the sand and saw a little girl watching the hedgehog.

"You're not who I'm looking for." Sonic said to the girl and ran away shaking his head. "I wonder if he's okay." He started to look for him and checked the casino area. He looked like a mess, so he tried to look casual. Out the casino doors came Amy who saw her hero walking on the sidewalk next to the casino.

"Sonic, wait!" Amy called out. Sonic turned around and looked at Amy and stood awkwardly.

"Uh… Amy?" Sonic said.

"Just where do think you're going?" She said and held out Birdie. "This birdie's in trouble, so you have to be its bodyguard for a while."

"You must be kidding." Sonic said and ran away.

"Sonic, WAIT!" Amy called.

MYSTIC RUINS – ICE CAP

Big had finally gotten to Froggy after getting some new bait and catching a few more fish. He ended up under a sheet of ice in which Big threw a gigantic rock to break.

"I've finally got you, Froggy!" Big said.

Froggy hopped away a split-second after saying that and ran somewhere really far away.

"Froggy, no! Come back!"

MYSTIC RUINS – WATERFALL AREA

Tails walked in the jungle with his head down. He was bored and had nothing to do. Until a blue blur passed him. A hedgehog. Tails wasn't as fast as him, but he ran as far as he could just to keep up. Faster and faster he went. Chased him all day until he finally stopped.

"Wow, you're pretty fast to keep up with me. My name's Sonic…"

Tails woke up. It was all a dream. He laid down in the Mystic Ruins after the Tornado crashed. Only a piece of it was next to him, the one that had his two-tailed logo on it.

"Hmm, wow... That dream brought back a few memories!" Tails said. "I owe so much to Sonic. Sonic, where are you! I wonder where he went? I sure hope he's all right. Anyway, The Tornado isn't powerful enough." he said picking up the piece of the Tornado. "If I'm gonna get to the Egg Carrier, I need to finish my prototype. It needs a Chaos Emerald to work! Looks like I'd better find one, fast!"

He ran to the forest and right away found the red Chaos Emerald laying down in the middle of the road. A frog, though, jumped out from the side of the road and swallowed the emerald.

"Hey, wait! I need that! STOP!"

STATION SQUARE – TWINKLE PARK

"Sonic, I can't run that fast!" Amy said to her hero standing right by Twinkle Park. Sonic just tapped his foot rhythmically on the ground. When Amy looked to the side she gasped. Sonic turned his head and saw Eggman's robot, E-100 ZERO coming after Amy and Birdie.

"Aah, look! Eggman's robot's on the loose!" Amy screamed.

"Don't worry about. He's just a chunk of cheesy hardware." Sonic said. But he heard Amy gasp again.

"What's the matter now, Amy?" Sonic asked.

"Look here! Cute couples get in free. We can hide in here!" she said pointing at Twinkle Park. She ran in the elevator to take here up and Sonic just watched at first.

"W---Wh----Wait! Come on! She's always jumping into things too quickly." he finally jumped in and tried to follow her but she got away too quickly. He took a bumper car and raced through the speed track, collecting rings along the way. Amy got to the swimming pool and noticed that she was being followed by Zero. She pressed three switches around the pool and went into the mirror room. Zero didn't follow her at first, but he closed the door so Sonic wouldn't look in there. Sonic finally got to the pool, but only saw a spring. He jumped on it and ran on to the end of Twinkle Park, never finding Amy. Amy was still in the mirror room being chased by Zero.

MYSTIC RUINS – SAND HILL

Tails had followed the frog into an unknown or forgotten cave and the frog was able to jump through some firm sand. Tails looked down in defeat. He'd lost another Chaos Emerald. Then, he noticed that the sand wasn't just there before, that it was put there. He looked around trying to find something to push it down with but didn't find anything. He finally sat down on a stone statue and the sand went down.

"All right!" Tails yelled. He followed but he couldn't walk there with all the sand. It was just a Sand Hill. Luckily he brought his snowboard with him from Icecap. This would be smooth sailing. He snowboarded all the way down to the bottom of the hill and found the frog and soon a huge light engulfed him.

UNKNOWN PLACE

"Whoops… where am I? I thought I was in the desert." Tails said.

He flew around exploring the place, noticing a green light with an object in it. The same green light that contained the Jet Anklet. He stepped into it and he heard a voice. Once again, it was the same voice that told him about the Jet Anklet.

"This is the Rhythm Badge. It allows you to use your tail whip attack steadily." The voice said.

"Who said that?" Tails asked. "Wow, another voice, I guess. I must be turning crazy." He decided to fly around and saw an echidna girl kneeling in front of the gigantic structure in the middle.

"The servers are the seven chaos…" she said and turned around seeing Tails. "Oh, hello. I've never seen you around in these parts."

Tails ignored that and said, "Um, what were you just saying before?"

"It's just something my grandmother taught me. It goes the servers are the 7 chaos… chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. But I'm still not sure what it all means. Although I do know that the number 7 is the number of emeralds there are."

"Emeralds?"

"Anyway, I don't think I introduced myself. I'm Tikal, and you?"

A huge light engulfed him and ended up somewhere else.

MYSTIC RUINS

"Where am I?" Tails asked. "Now I'm back in the Mystic Ruins. Suddenly he saw a purple cat running towards him. Big finally found his frog friend being held by Tails. He tripped right in front of Tails and Froggy. In the excitement, Tails let go of Froggy and he hopped away to Station Square.

"Wait for me!" Big yelled at Froggy. But Tails was done there. He had taken the red Chaos Emerald from Froggy at the last second and used it to finally make the Tornado 2.

EGG CARRIER

The army of E-series robots lined up in front of their master, Dr. Robotnik/Eggman. Eggman now stepped onto a podium and got ready to start talking.

"My robots! Your first mission awaits!" Eggman yelled. "This frog has stolen Chaos's tail. You need to catch it so we can reunite Chaos and he will be at his most powerful form. Now go and hurry! I trust you all on this mission."

The robots saluted Eggman and wree sent down to seperate parts of where Chaos has been, to check for frogs.

MYSTIC RUINS – THE FOREST

"I've got to find more Master Emerald pieces. There shouldn't be too many left." said Knuckles to himself. He noticed a silver statue next to him. He picked it up and it said: "Two stone statues, a door to the past". He suddenly remembered what this stone statue reminded him of. He ran towards the temple in the middle of the forest, the ancient echidnas' temple. In front were two stone statues that were similar to the small stone statue he held. If legend was right, on the back of the temple were two slots with echidna symbols over them. He went them and placed it into one of the slots and the temple quavered. But no door to the past opened.

"Maybe I need another stone statue." Knuckles said.

He glided around looked for one until he saw a hut below. What's a hut doing in the middle of the forest? Thought Knuckles. He glided until he stopped to rest on a ledge. He walked along the ledge until he saw a green light. He ran over to it and stepped inside it.

"These are the Fighting Gloves, they allow you to use the Maximum Heat Knuckles Attack."

"It's that voice again! Who is that!" Knuckles screamed. He ignored it and started walking around looking for the second echidna statue. It was windy, so a piece of paper flew up into his face. ARGH! He thought. This can't get any worse. He looked at the piece of paper before he threw it away into the wind and it was a map. Hmm... This can be more useful than I thought. He scanned the map looking for places he might not have seen and saw an inlet into a circle dome in the middle of the forest. He followed the map and went into that inlet, seeing a mini-shrine and a circle jumping in and out of the middle of it. The middle of it was a heap of dirt. He went over to it and dug into it, taking out a golden echidna statue. YES! He thought. He brought the statue to the temple and laid it down. It floated and a hole in the ground opened up. Knuckles decided to make the leap of faith and jump in.

STATION SQUARE

"Amy! Shoot, I lost her!" Sonic screamed. "I'm gonna have to look for her somewhere." He was standing in front of a tree when he saw a gleam on the floor. An entrance card to the virtual gaming center. He decided to use it near a garage and it opened. He took an elevator and got into the virtual reality set.

Suddenly, he found himself running on streets that were thousands of feet in the air, running through loop-de-loops, and evading Eggman's police vehicles (that Sonic didn't know were real). In the end he went through a glass building just running on the side until he reached the bottom, the secret back exit to Speed Highway he escaped and looked for Amy.

UNKNOWN PLACE

After Knuckles found the three Master Emerald shards in the temple, he was engulfed by a gigantic light and brought him to an unknown place. He saw the girl echidna again at the alter, talking to the Master Emerald.

"I'm very sorry that this is happening. I swear, I won't let my father hurt you or the Chao..." she said. Just as she said this, the Chao came up to the alter as well. "Don't worry, guys, I'm not gonna let you get hurt, not now, not ever!"

Knuckles stood in disbelief, not understanding what was happening. Finally, the light engulfed him once again and he could see no more.

THAT MORNING…

"Aah!" Amy yelled as she evaded Zero. She found a gigantic balloon and grabbed the string and flew away. Now she had to find Sonic. But her hopes were foiled when Zero picked her up from behind.

"Sonic, help!" Amy yelled. Zero ran across the train station with Amy clutched in his claw and decided to run on the train track instead of riding the train. Sonic was at the casino area and saw Zero and Amy.

"Oh no! AMY!" he yelled. He rode the train to the Mystic Ruins to chase Amy and Eggman's robot.

STATION SQUARE - EMERALD COAST

"Froggy, where are you?" Big started asking on the beach. It was the only place with water that Froggy would actually consider swimming in. (Big knows a lot about frogs) He saw Froggy in a lake, and fished for him.

Not so far away, Gamma wandered around looking for the frog. He finally caught him on his censors and knew he was on the beach. He also caught another E-series robot nearby, so he had to get there quicker than him. He charged past enemies and blew them up with laser shots.

Meanwhile, Big caught Froggy and pulled him in successfully and actually thought Froggy was going to stay in his hands this time. But Gamma jumped right in and was put into a trance, where he automatically ran to the Egg Carrier. In his mind, he had gone to a strange place. Big followed the entranced Gamma to wherever he went.

UNKNOWN PLACE

"Unknown place. Detecting for clues." Gamma said when he realized he wasn't in Station Square anymore. He took pictures of a bridge, mountains in the distance, and a shrine. When his memory receptors showed no place in the world even similar, he said, "This presents a problem." He walked ahead and saw an echidna with a few small creatures.

"Just look at them." the girl echidna said. "They sing with joy as they are happy. I have met their protector, he is nice and sweet. I wish everybody could be that way. I've never seen you around here, though..."

MYSTIC RUINS - ANGEL ISLAND

Knuckles regained consciousness at Angel Island.

"Wow, what was that?" he asked himself. "Hey, it's the Master Emerald's alter. I might as well fix the emerald right now." he tossed the shards towards the Master Emerald. It formed and was nearly complete but with one little spot missing. "Aw, great. There's still a few missing pieces." But an image came into the Emerald it was the Egg Carrier. "Hey, that's Eggman's flying fortress thing! It looks like the remaining shards are there. But how do I get there?"

Suddenly, a robot jumped down from over the mountain. Knuckles knew that it had to be one of Eggman's.

"Hey, it's one of Eggman's robots." Knuckles said to himself. "Maybe I should follow it. It could lead me to Eggman's flying fortress." Knuckles then followed Gamma. But behind both of them was Big lagging behind.

MYSTIC RUINS - TRAIN AREA

"Let go off me, you big hunk of junk!" Amy yelled when at the Mystic Ruins.

"You better let go of her robot, or I'll squash you like a bug!" Sonic said and surprised Zero. He jumped off the ledge of the train station and went off to face Zero. That was interrupted when no one could see any light. Sonic looked up and saw the Egg Carrier. Amy and Zero were taken in and Sonic was just left to chase.

"Sonic, help meeeee!" Amy screamed.

The Egg Carrier flew over the wall with the big hole in it and Sonic followed from in there going all the way through the tunnel and seeing Angel Island! So this is Angel Island… Sonic thought. I haven't been here in a while.

He saw a closed gate and a caged monkey guarding the gate. Sonic tried to destroy it with a homing attack, but it didn't work. After a while, Sonic gave up for the first time in his entire life. He walked away until he saw a green light. He stepped into it and heard a voice.

"This is the Ancient Light. It allows you to use the Light Speed Attack." A voice said. Sonic ignored it and decided to use it on the monkey. He charged up like he normally would on a Light Speed Dash and then let go his body curled into a ball and at light speed, revolved around the cage until it made contact and destroyed the cage. The gate opened and Sonic chased after the Egg Carrier.

Sonic flew around the mountain not letting the Egg Carrier out of sight. That is, until he reached the end of the mountain, and the Egg Carrier flew away. But a spark of hope came. Tails and the Tornado 2.

"Hey, Sonic!" Tails yelled.

"Tails! You made it! Nice plane, too!" Sonic jumped onto the Tornado 2 and the two raced forward towards the Egg Carrier.