Chapter 5: Meet the general
It all happened in less than a second of rainbow light and Link felt his feet touch ground. Unfortunately, they weren't at Tails' place. They were in some grassy hill and Sonic seemed somewhat embarrassed.
"Uh, hehe…Sorry, Link. Guess my teleportation was a bit off." Sonic apologized.
"Don't worry. At least I'm not a hedgehog like last time." Link said as he looked at himself to find that he was Hylian.
They then strode off at a slow and steady pace to Station Square to find Tails' house. They hadn't gone a few steps when something zoomed past them. Link virtually tackled Sonic to the ground trying to dive out of the way.
"What kind of hedgehog was THAT?!" Link asked, very irritated at this…thing.
He looked up and then it hit him. A hedgehog didn't have feathers or a flying board. The thing that raced by slowed to a halt next to Sonic. It had Sonic's build and his feathers were similar to Sonic's spikes. It was very birdlike in appearance with a sharp beak and goggles over its eyes.
The bird then said, in a rather cocky and somewhat rude voice, "Hey, Sonic! Who's your friend?"
Sonic rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Hello, Jet. It's SO good to see you." He said, in a very sarcastic way.
Jet looked down from his board and saw Link on the ground. He smirked through his sharp beak and said something very rude.
"Ha! I didn't know you had ground-kissing friends, too!"
Link gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.
"What did you call me, you flying turkey?" Link asked, fingering his sword.
Sonic took a hold of Link's arm and held him back before he did something stupid.
"Don't do it, Link. He's not worth it. Besides…" Sonic said, but on the last word, it was a whisper. "It's me he wants. He's always wanted to beat me in a race."
Link nodded as a sly grin spread across his face and winked at Sonic. Sonic winked back and then turned to face Jet.
Sonic then turned to Jet and asked, "Wanna race?"
Jet nodded and said, "Don't mind if I do."
The two took off with Jet still on his board. Link could only trail their dust clouds and struggle to keep up.
Two beams of light streaked across the grassy plain; one blue, the other green. It was a race between two rivals trying to prove who was superior: the air or the earth. The two had barely started going their fastest when suddenly, Sonic stopped. Sonic had seen something that Jet was pretty oblivious to.
"Jet! STOP!" Sonic warned.
The blue blur noticed that the same portal had appeared in the sky, but Jet chose to ignore him. The green bird turned to look at this pathetic ground-kisser and chose to taunt him.
"What? Afraid you're going to…" Jet began, but then he hit something and crashed. "Lose?"
Jet looked up to see a giant dragon. This wasn't Ryu, but it was definitely one of those Dragonoids. It was red with gold horns around his face like a lion's mane. Smoke was billowing from its nostrils and its wings were just like Ryu's minus the holes in the wings. Its head was more like a dinosaur's and it had eyes that seemed to pierce his soul.
"After the giant emerald, too? Those pathetic morons were just as persistent." The dragon spoke in the usual cold tone.
"Um, Heheheh. S-sorry about stubbing your toe, s-s-s-sir." Jet stuttered.
The dragon raised its foot and brought it down before saying, "None shall oppose Red Wyvern!"
Jet flipped out of the way, but his board wasn't so lucky. The foot crushed it like a tin can and there were spare parts everywhere like some juvenile delinquent had just finished dismantling it with his bare hands.
"NO! NOT MY GEAR!!!" Jet screamed as his eyes flooded over.
The crying lasted a little too long and a foot narrowly missed the green bird. Sonic had just rushed up and grabbed him before he got crushed.
"I told you to stop! Don't you LISTEN?!" Sonic scolded.
"Hey, Sonic, it's not my fault I DIDN'T SEE IT!" Jet shot back.
"I'll be right back." Sonic said as he dropped Jet, painfully, on the ground and raced off again.
Red Wyvern saw the blue blur race off and spread his mighty wings. When he brought them down, it kicked up dust like a helicopter and he flew off like a jet plane.
"Man! Sonic didn't arrive in time. I knew he'd be a coward…" Jet began.
Just then, someone picked him up at high speed and began racing after the flying dragon.
"I heard that, Jet." Sonic said.
He also had Link holding onto his neck and Jet was in his arms.
"Sometimes I wonder if hedgehogs have better ears than birds…" Jet thought to himself.
Sonic dropped Jet off at a nearby tree and raced off with Link still holding on for dear life. Jet wondered what that dragon was here for and then remembered it saying something about a giant emerald.
"Could that thing be after…"
Miles away, Knuckles was lying on his back with the largest emerald in the world behind him. It was none other than the Master Emerald: the one gem that could stop the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles himself bore the duty of protecting this sacred jewel at all costs and he proved successful several times. The echidna's nap was brought to a sudden stop when he heard a low, vibrating roar.
"WHAT THE?!" Knuckles shouted as he shot upward.
Knuckles then saw Red Wyvern and took him as a threat. The minute the scarlet dragon landed, Knuckles glided through the air in a stance similar to Superman. Then, he saw how big Wyvern was. He didn't really care and he landed just thirty yards away from the massive creature.
"And where do you think YOU'RE going?" Knuckles asked, pointing his fist at Wyvern like an accusing finger.
Wyvern laughed at how brave, or foolish, this creature was trying to be and simply said, "Pathetic creature. Get out of my way!"
Red Wyvern then inhaled deeply before breathing out two jets of fire from his nostrils. Knuckles flipped backward, but not far enough from Wyvern's arms. The dragon swatted Knuckles like a fly and brought the echidna smashing into the ground before continuing to trudge after the Master Emerald.
He hadn't gone three steps when something hit him in the back and he turned to see Link, still holding on to Sonic. Sonic had taken one of Link's light arrows and threw it like a javelin, but this proved to be something of pure desperation. Although the arrow didn't hurt Wyvern much, it did make him pause.
"Ah, the elf boy. How many times does Master Ryu have to kill you?!" Wyvern shouted impatiently.
"What can I say? We die hard." Sonic said, rather confident.
Red Wyvern exhaled fire from his nostrils again, but Sonic was much faster than Knuckles and easily outmaneuvered them.
"Nice attack. Let me show you ours!" Link said as he pulled out the Mirror Shield he pocketed while he was searching for supplies.
The minute Wyvern exhaled fire again, Link put up the shield and the flames reflected, hitting the dragon in the chest. Wyvern roared as he clutched the spot like it was about to fall off. The red Dragonoid inspected his wound, which was no more than a simple burn, and scowled. Wyvern then took off and started flying around like a bird evading a predator as he breathed fire. Link could reflect the shots, but Wyvern's strategy was working: he was flying like a butterfly to make sure none of the attacks hit. He then came crashing down on the ground and tried to swat Link with the back of his hand. Link whipped out his sword and brought it into a vertical slash. Wyvern grunted in surprise as he saw something like a paper cut on the back of his hand. He raised a foot to smash Link and end it all.
"Not if I can help it!" Sonic said as he curled into his saw attack.
The blue hedgehog hit Wyvern in the foot and Wyvern roared as he hopped up and down like he stubbed his toe. Sonic grinned as he curled up and tried again. This time, Wyvern turned and caught Sonic with his tail. Sonic flew to the ground and actually drilled into it. As for Link, Wyvern took care of him by exhaling very thin flames that wrapped themselves around Link's arms and solidified, forming a kind of kind of bright ruby rope.
"You two are a real thorn in my side. I'll just take what I need and go." Wyvern said as he waltzed over to the Master Emerald.
"I won't…let you have…The Master Emerald…"
Red Wyvern turned and saw Knuckles getting up from the ground, apparently injured. The dragon rolled his eyes and flapped his wings repeatedly at Knuckles. The flapping created a gust of wind to rival a hurricane and Knuckles flew backward to meet the trapped Link.
"You're more trouble than you're worth." Wyvern said as he gripped the emerald in his hand like you would an orange.
A pillar of fire engulfed Wyvern and the red dragon vanished completely.