Chapter 4: Where Angels Tread (Part One)

March 14th, 2110 AD. Marble Garden, capital of Angel Island. Just after dawn.

At the beginning of the new millennia, the echidna species had been brought back from the brink of extinction thanks to the efforts of a middle-aged Miles Prower. One hundred and seventeen albino echidnas were cloned from the DNA of Silk the Echidna, the daughter of the famous heroes Knuckles the Echidna and Rouge the Bat. At first, the majority of the echidnas were raised by surrogate parents on Angel Island, and as they grew up were taught the secrets of their heritage by the then-elderly Knuckles. Because Silk's echidna DNA had been deliberately tampered with to prevent the clones from suffering the effects of inbreeding, the individual echidnas grew up to become more different in character than would've been the case if they were all true siblings. Already by the second generation, many echidnas abandoned their predetermined role as guardians of Angel Island and the Master Emerald. Nevertheless, more than enough remained behind to secure the continuation of their species's vigilance over the treasure entrusted to them.

By this point in time, a strong society had grown on Angel Island. The ruined city of Marble Garden was rebuilt, as was the Emerald Altar situated at the heart of the floating island. Out of respect to their ancestors, the society of white and pink-furred echidnas (the latent genes of the father were starting to re-emerge by that time, but it would be a great many generations before a true red echidna could be born), had followed the design style of the ancient architects closely. From outside, Marble Garden now looked as it did thousands of years ago when the survivors of the Chaos catastrophe built their new settlements on the newly-created floating island. Inside the buildings were plenty of modern fixtures and furniture, however.

It was around this decade that the guardians of the Master Emerald began referring to themselves as "Angel Echidnas", to seperate themselves from those echidnas who'd shunned their role in the world and moved away from Angel Island.

The reason why Dr. Pretorious chose this time first in his villainous scheduele would become clear later this very day. One needed only leaf through the history books of the mad scientist's own time to know what was going to happen. His scheme hadn't included the possible presence of Pia and Silver, but it didn't take Pretorious long at all to realise that their beng here could only work to his advantage.

-

Silver watched the ocean waves miles below the cliff edge where he stood. This was either Angel Island, or an unusually tropical mountain top. Sitting on some rocks behind was the girl who apparently was his daughter from the future. Immediatelly after they'd arrived here, she started fiddling with her clothes for some reason. When she said "Damn, it's no use. I've got to take it off," Silver's face turned red and he made a conscious decision to focus on the scenery instead.

He was still confused about the whole scene back home. The shock when that lunatic fired his weapon must've messed with his head, because Silver could swear he saw himself get shot, like he was having an out-of-body experience and watching the whole thing. He'd been so out of it right then that he could only barely remember that he'd charged into that guy who called himself Dr. Pretorious. What happened after that? How did he wind up here?

There was nothing for it. He was going to have to talk to her.

"Um...Pia?" said Silver cautiously, turning towards the girl very slowly in case she was undressed or something.

Pia waved a hand dismissively without looking away from the odd-looking metallic suit she had stretched out on a flat rock. "I have to check how damaged my Jumpsuit is. Just wait a minute, d- Silver."

Where did that weird costume come from? She wasn't wearing anything other than that fetcing red two-piece catsuit when she first showed up, and she wasn't wearing anything less right now. As if to correct what the white hedgehog was thinking, Pia suddenly tore the sleeves off her top, and started measuring out strips of cloth.

"Standard Protectorate uniform," she started saying as if she could tell what he was thinking. "Embedded micro-circuitry in the fabric. Useful for patching up the Jumpsuit."

Silver didn't understand what she meant, but he was impressed with what he saw. Those little strips of red changed colour and melded with the malleable surface of what she called a Jumpsuit. The capital J was noticable in the way she talked about it.

Pia sighed. "I knew it. The invasive activation caused by the field generated by Pretorious's time portal messed up the interface. Can't just patch over that. I'll have to reconfigure everything from scratch."

She bit her lip and swore under her breath. For some reason Silver felt compelled to scold her. He resisted the urge, rather wisely. "What does that mean?" he said.

Pia stood up and turned towards him. "It means that we're stuck here for the moment. It'll take me at least a couple of hours to get my Jumpsuit working. Until then that means no cloaking, no scanner, no translator, and definitely no time travel. We could be anywhere - anywhen, and we probably won't know what kind of damage to history we're in danger of making here until we've done it. Meanwhile, Dr. Pretorious is on the loose, and you can bet your arse that he won't hesitate to screw up the past if it helps him reach whatever insane objective he's got this time."

"You mean...you've got time machines that small in the future? And that Pretorious guy has one too?"

"No, his is a special design. He claims it was made from blueprints written by Dr. Eggman Nega. It's the size of a watch, apparently. All we know for sure is that it can't be traced from the present. Since my Jumpsuit got accidentally activated when Pretorious jumped back to this time, we can take it for granted that no one else from the organisation I work for know we're here."

Silver started pacing around. "What organisation?" he said. "No, wait. First you tell me who Pretorious is and why the heck he tried to kill me?"

Pia frowned. It was clear that she was debating with herself what to tell and what to keep secret. "Let's just say he's a nut-job with a serious ego problem," she said. "As for why...it was probably to get at me. I've messed up quite a few of his plans over the years. Even Shadow hasn't gotten as close to him as me..."

"Shadow?"

"Wait, forget I said that."

Silver didn't know why he was surprised. Shadow the Hedgehog could probably live forever. The guy was already over two hundred, and still looked as young as the day he was created.

"There's still something I don't understand," Silver began.

Pia answered with a humourless laugh. "I'm sure there is. There's a lot I'd like to know myself, but let's face it: We're here, and we've got a responsibility. Both of us. I'm the only one who can fix my Jumpsuit so we can get back to the future after we capture Pretorious. That'll take hours, and meanwhile he's running around out there somewhere. Can't take the risk of him doing whatever he's here to do and getting away while we're sitting around here, so..."

"What? You want me to go into the jungle and look for him?"

"Not really, no, but it's not like there's any other choice right now. Just avoid drawing attention to yourself, and if you see any natives, stay away no matter what!"

Silver nodded.

-

Dr. Pretorious raised his hands disarmingly. "Gentlemen, gentlemen, there's no need for violence, I assure you," he said to the echidna guards surrounding him.

The security of the Angel Echidnas was most impressive. They truly lived up to their name as guardians of the island. Pretorious had thought he could sneak closer to the city than this before catching the attention of anyone, and he was delighted to see how wrong he was.

"You have no business being here, raccoon," said the leader of the guards, raising his fist threateningly.

"Oh, but I do! I come bringing a message of the outmost importance. You must allow me to pass through before the vile criminals succeed in their plan of stealing the Master Emerald."

"What!? Explain yourself now or I'll pound you until there's nothing left!" the somewhat unimaginitive echidna shouted.

"Certainly. The leaders of the outlaws are an orange cat and a white hedgehog. If those two are caught and killed, then their many many hidden underlings throughout Angel Island will never succeed with their evil plan."

Pretorious's face simply glowed with honest intentions, but the guard leader was too hard-headed to be easily fooled.

"Pachem, Inuk, take him to the chief. He'll know what to do."

-

In the next chapter:
- Silver faces the rather improved perils and traps of Angel Island.
- Dr. Pretorious works the big-wigs.
- Pia does some pretty tedius work.