Sorry I've been out of it for a while. I was in New York City for Thanksgiving from Wednesday to Sunday. I am back and ready to continue however. Read and Review
Chapter 15: Ally or Enemy? Meet Knuckles the Echidna
"Get off of me NOW!" Shouted the angry and frustrated red echidna.
"Sorry sir." Said a frightened Tails who immediately stepped off of the echidna's back.
"You too squirrel!" Knuckles shouted to Sonic.
"I'm a hedgehog!" Sonic shouted back.
"Whatever." Knuckles said obviously not caring for the hedgehog's right for identity. Sonic got off of Knuckles' back as well. The echidna stood up and brushed himself off while trying to piece together what happened.
"Hi there!" Sonic said sticking out his hand. Knuckles looked up and saw the hand but didn't know what to do with it.
"What are you doing?" asked the echidna.
"I'm offering a hand shake." Sonic explained.
"Hand…shake?"
"You don't get out much do you? Yes a hand shake."
"What's it for?"
"… It's a way to greet someone."
"When I greet someone I just say high… however I don't get much visitors around here… and the only friend I have or had was some sort of fruit with a face drawn on him but I killed him when we were playing uno…"
"OOOOOOOOkaaaaaaaaaaaay… are you sure your not one of those crazy physicos I've heard so much about."
"No! I'm just lonely…I MEAN NOT LONELY I'M JUST ALONE!" Knuckles changed his wording thinking that lonely sounded like he was begging for some sort of friendship or partnership of any kind.
"So you don't have any friends?" Tails asked budding in.
"… What do you guys want?" Knuckles didn't answer Tails' question on purpose. He didn't want to sound desperate by saying yes.
"We're here to find lost soldiers and something called a Master Emerald. Have you heard of it?" Tails answered.
"Have I heard of…Of course I have! I'm the emerald's guardian!" Knuckles said while wondering who these people were and why they were interested in his emerald. "Wait a minute! A blue hedgehog and a two tailed fox!" Knuckles knew who they were now.
'So that Eggman was telling the truth, well they're not getting my emerald!'
Knuckles jumped back and landed on the alter then gave Sonic and Tails an icy stare.
Sonic noticed the echidna's sudden facial expression change and wondered what was up.
"Hey buddy, you okay?" Sonic asked.
"I am NOT you're buddy you damn thief!" Knuckles blurted out.
"What?" Sonic was confused.
"I know you're here to steal my emerald!"
"…You're…wait a minute! Me and Tails came here to get that emerald by order of King Watt!" Sonic shouted.
"So you're just another one of King Watt's lackeys huh? Heh, heh, this will be easy then." Knuckles immediately got into his fighting stance.
"You know about King Watt? So you were the one who defeated all of his soldiers. What did you do with them!?" Sonic was angry as well.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha! Yeah I beat them. It was easy too. I punch one of them once and they are on the floor bawling like babies. I can understand that happening to any regular person but anyone who makes it over the halo path are usually mighty warriors. These guys were wimps though. One punch and they were all down. As for what I did with them…well that's really none of your business." Knuckles explained. He could've told Sonic where they were and ended this quickly but what fun would that be? It's been a while since the echidna had any real action going on in his life.
"Actually it is my business. Now I'm going to ask you again. What did you do with them?"
"Bite me!" Knuckles shouted back.
"Stop! Why do you two have to fight? Can't we just talk about it?" Tails didn't want to start anything, especially after what they've been through on the halo path.
"I hate talking! It's boring! I want ACTION!" Knuckles then charged at Sonic and landed and huge punch at where he was standing. Sonic quickly jumped out of the way obviously seeing the attack coming. The hedgehog landed on his feet and saw the echidna charging again.
"UH OH! The red baron is on the lose!" Sonic shouted as huge white-gloved fists with sharp spikes on them lashed out at Sonic. Sonic dodged them one by one but it wasn't as easy as the hedgehog thought it would be.
"Hold still so I can hit you!" Knuckles demanded.
"I don't see that happening." Sonic merely said as he dodged another punch. That's when Knuckles punched Sonic in a different part of his body. Instead of his face he landed one in his stomach. The punch made him wheeze out a lot of air and it sent him flying into a tree.
"See, one punch and they're done." Knuckles said blowing on his fist. He then turned to Tails who was shacking wildly. "Heh, this will be easy." He raised a fist and headed toward the scared fox.
"Ugh…man he sure can throw a punch." Sonic looked up and saw the red echidna charging at Tails. "Oh no! Tails! Hang on buddy!" Sonic picked up the passé of his super quick feet and charged at their direction. Knuckles then lashed out a huge punch at Tails. However, the spiky blue blur got in the way of the attack and caught the punch. It immediately sent him flying but he wasn't alone. Knuckles was flying with him!
The clever hedgehog decided to not only take the punch but also use it against Knuckles. When knuckles punched Sonic in the stomach Sonic grabbed onto Knuckles' fist, which sent him flying with Sonic as well. While in the air Sonic twirled Knuckles' body over and threw him hard at the ground. He connected with it hard while Sonic landed beautifully.
"How's that for style." Sonic said smugly. The hedgehog turned around and saw that the echidna wasn't there anymore. "What the?" Sonic looked all around the forest area they were in and there was no sign of him.
"That was pretty good hedgehog but you're in my turf now! Let's just see how quick you're reflexes are!" Knuckles shouted from nowhere.
"My reflexes are always qui-"
"Think fast!" Shouted the echidna. Suddenly a large tree fell toward Sonic out of nowhere.
"AH!" Sonic quickly rushed out of the way and let the tree collide with the ground.
"What the hell was that?" Sonic asked then he looked up to see 3 trees and a boulder falling down on him. The hedgehog rushed past all of them only to get hit with a different tree coming from a different direction. Sonic fell to the ground, rolled a bit, and stopped. Then he was immediately struck at the back of the head with a rock.
"I thought you were fast from what I saw before but if you can't keep up I guess the game will be over quicker then expected." Knuckles gloated in his still unknown spot.
"Err. Where are you coward." Sonic whispered to himself. He knew speed wouldn't be enough top beat this guy. This echidna seemed to have an enormous amount of strength. Sonic needed to make a strategy and quick.
"Now it's time for the fast level!" Shouted knuckles. Suddenly many trees and boulders began raining out of the sky. Sonic panicked and began dodging the numerous items. Everytime he dodged a rock, a tree came in his way and every time he dodged a tree, a rock came in his way. When everything was avoided Sonic noticed something weird about his surroundings. There was a lot more room for him to run now. That's when Sonic saw the huge flaw in the echidna's plan.
"Okay red echidna or whoever you are, keep it coming! Time for me to show you what speed can really do!"
Back at the alter
Tails wondered why people always ended up fighting each other. It was like the world was one big wrestling wring. No one can come on a full agreement with anything so the best thing to do was fight. It didn't seem fair to him. Tails turned his attention to the alter. There he saw the most precious emerald he had ever laid his eyes on.
"That must be the Master Emerald King Watt told me and Sonic about. It's so pretty." Tails said clearly amazed. All of a sudden the fox started walking toward it. It was as if he was drawn toward it. The beautiful green light from the gem that sparkled in the Sun made the emerald shine out radiant blasts into Tails' cerulean blue eyes. Before the fox knew it he was standing right in front of the emerald. Tails put one gloved hand on it and began drooling at the way it felt and looked. Before Tails could examine it more something hard whacked him across the head. He was out like a light.
"Well that was easy. I don't see what the big deal about this kid is. He looks like a regular freaky twerp to me. Oh well, if Eggman wants him he's gonna get him. This emerald looks nice too. I think I'll take it as well." Igneous picked up the unconscious fox by his tails and the large gem and began heading back to his ship.
"I wonder if I'll get a promotion…I wonder if I can get a bedroom full of hookers! THAT WOULD BE SWEEEEEEET! I've always wanted to be a pimp." Igneous said while walking across the field. Suddenly his foot stepped into a hollow area in the field. Being humungous and very heavy his foot broke through the ground and Igneous landed in an underground cellar.
"What the hell? How'd I get here?" the curious bulky yellow robot looked up and saw a small tunnel leading toward the outside above him. "Oh great, I have fallen and I can't get up. Activate jet boots!" Igneous shouted then bend down and pressed a small button on his boot.
"PREPARING TO LAUNCH…LOADING TAKE OFF…1 PERCENT COMPLETE…LOADING TAKE OFF…" the speaker of the boot said.
"Oh great! I hate loading. It's such a pain in the ass when it takes forever! Well I guess I should explore while I'm waiting." Igneous sulked. With that he ventured down the long pathway.
Back in the forest
Sonic's plan was working. More and more trees and boulders were dodged and the space was getting wider and wider.
"Give it up hedgehog! There is no way you're going to find me! No way!" Knuckles shouted. All of a sudden he felt a tap on his shoulder. The echidna turned around and was greeted with a huge kick in the face. Knuckles skidded across the ground and rammed into a tree. "What the…how did…when did…?" Knuckles was at a loss for words.
"While you were busy tossing trees and rocks around I was planning. I saw that the area where you could hide behind was going away with each thing that you tossed. It was only a matter of time before I spotted you!" Sonic explained.
"Well, that's what I get for trying to act clever. I like close combat better anyway!" Knuckles got up and punched Sonic square in the gut. The hedgehog forced his feet to stay where they were however. Sonic then kicked Knuckles across the face again. While he did this Knuckles was attacking Sonic's chest. They were both punching and kicking at a high-speed rate. Eventually the both landed a hit at each other's cheek. This was enough to send them both flying high in the air.
They both landed in an open field. Sonic was the first to get up and as soon as he did he charged at the still alert echidna. Knuckles hopped on his feet and started to fight again.
"You're…not…like the other…wimps that came by!" Knuckles said through struggling punches. "Who are you anyway?" asked the echidna really wanting to know.
"I'm…Sonic…Sonic the Hedgehog…and…you?" Sonic said through equally struggling punches.
"I'm…Knuckles…the Echidna…guardian of the Master Emerald…and a descendant of the echidna tribe!" Knuckles' punches started to get weaker.
"Impossible! All…the echidna tribe people…were killed 4000 years ago…" Sonic's punches started to get weaker as well.
"Not all of them…only those…pure of heart were spared…like Princess Tikal was…I've been the emerald's protector for years…and I won't let any thieves sent by King Watt…take it from me…"
"Thieves? We're not…thieves…and neither is King Watt…"
"…Oh I see…you…fell…for his…nice guy routine…King Watt and everyone at the Watt palace have been…haters…of the echidna…clan for thousands of years…they were evil jerks who have tried stealing the Master Emerald numerous times in order to take over this planet…that's why I can't let them get to it…" Knuckles explained. He was sweating wildly and he was losing the strength he put into his punches.
"…Seriously…is that true…?" Sonic was sweating as much as Knuckles.
"…It is true…they only sent you and the fox here to use you as guinea pigs…in order to steal my emerald…since their soldiers were all wimps…they chose to use you…" Knuckles explained.
"…Wow…I feel like a fool…so why are we still fighting?"
"Because I don't like to lose!"
"Me neither!" Sonic said. Their punches increased as sweat flew in all directions. Eventually they both hit each other across the face and fell backward at the same time. The laid there huffing and puffing for a while until Sonic spoke.
"Man…you're fast…for a tough guy…" Sonic admitted.
"Yeah…and you're…tough…for a fast guy…" Knuckles admitted too. They both sat up and looked back in the direction of the alter. "So you guys don't want my emerald?" Knuckles asked.
"Naw…I never did…I should really get back to Tails. I bet he's worried sick." Sonic got up and ran back towards the alter. Knuckles did the same. When they both made it back they were shocked at what the saw.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MASTER EMERALD!?" Knuckles shouted.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO TAILS!?" Shouted Sonic.
"I knew I couldn't trust you! You're fox friend stole my emerald!" Knuckles yelled.
"No he didn't. He's only 4. He can't carry something that huge." Sonic said in Tails' defense.
"Well if he didn't do it, Then who did?" Knuckles asked still angered.
"Well the huge foot prints leading to the big hole might be a clue." Sonic said pointing to the huge wide spaced footprints.
"Those look like they came from an ape!"
"Whatever it was it probably got Tails too. Come on." Sonic said walking toward the hole.
"What?"
"Come on and help me find Tails and that thing that took him."
"Why should I?"
"Because you'll never see your precious emerald again if you don't."
"…Alright fine…let's go." Knuckles said walking toward the hole and jumping in. Sonic soon jumped in after.
In the cellar area of the underground tunnel
"Man. This place is a dump." Igneous had only been walking about 2 minutes before he came upon a huge cellar. He looked around and inside each cell was a soldier. They were all banging on the bars of the cell asking for help.
"Help! A mad echidna beat us up and shoved us in these cells!" shouted one man.
"Get us out of here!" Shouted another.
"Help!"
"Do something!"
"HELP!"
"Oh shut up you wimps! You should be lucky you're even alive. Some men you are. Complaining like a bunch of little girls. If I were the one who locked you up you would all be dead by now because of such behavior. However, I do like to see the weak squirm. You! Dance for me!" Igneous pulled out a blaster cannon in his arm and shot at the man in the cell through the bars. He immediately danced out of the way of the attacks.
"Hey! Dandelion Robot! Over here!" shouted a voice from behind. Igneous turned and saw the angry echidna staring at him with pure hate in his eyes. "Give me back my emerald!"
"…What…you mean this." Igneous held out the huge green emerald.
"Yeah, that's the one."
"Well you can't have it! I stole it fair and square!" Igneous argued. By this time Tails had awakened. He looked around the room and saw that he was in a cellar. He then noticed he was in the hands of a huge yellow robot. In front of him was that red echidna and Sonic.
"What happened?" Tails wondered. Suddenly he was brought forward as the yellow robot put down the emerald and charged at Knuckles. The echidna was still weak from his battle with Sonic but he still had some fight in him. Knuckles lashed out his hands and let Igneous' hands collide with his.
"Give it up echidna! You can't beat me!" Igneous said smugly.
"Give it to him Knuckles! While you do that I'll set these people free and lead them out of this robot's lair." Sonic said rushing to the cells. This got knuckles' attention.
"What! NO! Sonic you idiot! Don't-" Knuckles was punched hard across the face by Igneous while he was distracted.
"Ha Ha! You should really pay more attention to the events at hand." Igneous suggested.
"I don't know who this robot is, but I know he isn't nice!" Tails was sure of the fact that this robot was the one who had knocked him out. With that Tails lifted up one of his tails and slammed it on the glass case that held a green chaos emerald inside that was connected to Igneous' arm. The glass immediately cracked and green sparks flew everywhere.
"What! You idiot fox! Look what you did!" Igneous shouted as the sparks gave both him and Tails a shock. Knuckles took this as his opportunity to attack. He jumped, raised back his fist, and slammed a huge punch at Igneous' chest compartment. The robot dropped Tails and fell backward till he hit the ground. "I can't believe someone knocked me over! Ugh!"
"You alright fox?" Knuckles asked the dazed Tails.
"Are you my mommy?" Tails asked still completely not in tune with himself.
"Uhhhhhhh…no." Knuckles looked up and saw that all the locked up people were now set free.
"Well since that robot was defeated you are all free to go." Sonic said.
"SONIC! YOU IDIOT!" Knuckles shouted.
"Huh…?" Sonic was about to ask what Knuckles meant but he was met with an extremely hard blow across the head that caused him to pass out. Before Knuckles could react he was knocked unconscious too.
20 minutes later
"Sonic…wake up…King Watt is here…SONIC!" Tails yelled at the top of his lungs. The blue hedgehog quickly awakened but for some reason couldn't move. He looked down and saw that he was standing but his hands were tied behind his back and he was being held by two buff soldiers.
"T-Tails…is that you?" Sonic looked beside him and saw his fox friend in the same position he was.
"Uh huh." Tails answered.
"Well this is a fine kettle of fish you got us in Sonic!" Shouted Knuckles on the other side and as restrained as much as the other two.
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.
"Those prisoners weren't put there by the robot, they were put there by me!" Knuckles explained. "That's what I did with the soldiers."
"Hey, it's not entirely my fault! If you had just told me where they were I wouldn't have released them!" Sonic argued.
"Hey! Shut up you two! I'm talking now!" Stated King Watt who was standing in front of them.
"Yeah, what is it Watt!" Knuckles wasn't in the mood for his taunting.
"I just wanted to thank you for finally giving me back my soldiers Knuckles. And Sonic thank you for being the perfect guinea pig I needed in order to steal the emerald." King Watt said smugly.
"It doesn't make sense. How were your weak soldiers able to make it by the halo path?" Sonic wanted to know. The King chuckled.
"That was easy! All I had to do was give them their own ships needed to fly over the path. It is really short when you're not actually fighting the bosses." King Watt explained.
"But why did you have to use me and Sonic?" Tails asked shyly.
"I didn't want to get me hands dirty. I could've wiped the floor with that echidna but I didn't really feel like it." The king said nonchalantly. This set Knuckles off.
"WHAT! You think you can take me! BRING IT ON KINGY!" Knuckles shouted.
"Kingy? That's the best you could do. Ugh, I wonder why they put such a dipstick in charge of such a wondrous masterpiece like the Master Emerald. Oh well, I guess I'll never know." The king then looked at Tails. 'Two tails huh? No doubt that is the legendary kitsune spoken of in the famous legend. I think I'll take him with me.' King Watt walked up to Tails and snapped his fingers. Immediately his guards that were holding Tails picked up the now terrified fox and took him to King Watt's ship.
"Tails!" Sonic started to struggle but couldn't get out of the grasp of the huge men. "Let him go!" Sonic yelled.
"Oh I'll let him go all right…straight to hell!" King Watt shouted as he approached his ship. "Now I must return to Watt palace to bask in more glory. Ta Ta." The king said getting in his ship.
"Watt palace huh? I bet there is some good stuff there!" Came a voice from nowhere. Everyone looked all over the place but found nothing. That's when Igneous burst out of the ground. It scared everyone senseless.
"WHERE THE HELL DID HE COME FROM!" Knuckles shouted. The guards that were holding Sonic and Knuckles were so taken back they let them both go. Sonic and Knuckles immediately took the chance to attack their own guards. They knocked them all out with ease.
"Who the devil are you?" Asked King Watt.
"I'm Igneous Rock! I'm also the one who is going to that castle you spoke of to steal all your collectables. Take that bitch!"
"Oh please. You don't even know where my castle is."
"It's that floating one I passed when I was following the hedgehog and the fox to the halo path. It should be easy to get there again." Igneous stated as he pulled out a pair of keys with a small button attached to the key chain. He pressed the button and they were all greeted with the sound of a car alarm. Suddenly Igneous' ship fell from the sky and landed hard on the ground. "See you at the palace bitch!" Igneous hopped into the cockpit of his ship and began to take off."
"Oh yeah! Well we'll just see who gets there first!" King Watt closed the hatch of his cockpit and took off as well.
"Oh no you don't!" Both Sonic and Knuckles yelled in unison as they grabbed on to Igneous' ship. Soon they were all headed toward Watt palace.
Inside King Watt's ship
"Listen! Everyone at the palace I want you too-" King Watt began speaking into his walkie-talkie before he heard Tails crying out for the guards to let him go. "Shut up fox! I'm trying to get a reading on my palace!" the King yelled.
Tails couldn't take this abuse anymore. He bit down hard on one of the guard's arms and he yelped out on pain. Tails then slammed his tail into the other one's face. They both let him go and Tails was free.
"Knuckles was right. You all are weak." Tails said proud of himself.
"Err! No way I'm getting beat by a four-year-old. Come here you pesky kitsune!" The King got out of his seat and lashed out at Tails. Tails dodged to the side easily but was attacked again. This happened a few times before Tails started to become cocky.
"Can't catch me!" The fox shouted as the king began to get annoyed.
"Oh yes I will. One way…" The King reached into his pocket and pulled out a laser and pointed it at Tails. The fox immediately stopped in his tracks. "…Or another." The king finished.
On Igneous' ship
"There is the castle! I see it! Boy, for a floating castle it doesn't look to special." Igneous looked down at it and saw many people through the windows running around in fear. "That's right! Fear the great Igneous rock!"
On top of Igneous' ship
"This isn't the ship that Tails is in." Sonic said as he struggled to maintain his balance.
"The one Tails and the Master Emerald is on is over there." Knuckles pointed to King Watts' ship.
"I think something is wrong with the ship." Sonic said.
"Me too. It looks like it's heading straight for us! Is their anyone piloting it?" asked the worried echidna.
"NO!" Sonic looked through the window and saw King watt standing up and pointing a laser at Tails.
Back on King Watts' ship
"Any last words fox!" King Watt asked. Tails was about to burst into tears and beg his forgiveness but he knew he would be the biggest wimp ever if he did. Sonic doesn't want a wimp for a partner. In his panic he turned his head to the window and saw that they were going to crash into Igneous' ship.
"Look out! We're gonna crash!" Tails shouted and pointed out the window.
"Nice try but the palace is in front of us not beside us." King Watt said before the ships collided.
"What the!" Igneous shouted as he looked to his left and saw King Watt's ship inside his cockpit.
"I didn't say we were going to crash into the castle." Tails smiled then made a run for the emerald. Before the king could stop him the ship started to lose power. King Watt immediately went back to his controls in order to do something but it didn't work. They were going to crash into Watt palace!"
Knuckles and Sonic jumped from Igneous' ship to King Watts' ship as soon as they connected. Knuckles didn't hesitate to punch a hole in the ship and poke his head down.
"Hey, mister red guy! I have you're emerald!" Tails shouted to Knuckles above.
"It's Knuckles. Hoist the emerald and yourself up quickly." Knuckles demanded. Tails did what he was told and soon they were all standing in the outside of the ship.
In Igneous' ship
"Screw this! I'm outta here!" Igneous pressed a green button on the consul that launched him out of the ship and into the sky almost immediately.
"LOADING…JET BOOTS ARE NOW AT 100 PERCENT!" Said the little speaker in Igneous' boot.
"Sweet!" Igneous was proud of himself for, supposedly, thinking ahead of time. The jet boots turned on and he left the crashing scene. "Have fun crashing into the castle you bastards!" He said as he flew off.
On top of King Watts' ship
"Quick! Knuckles, grab onto Tails' hand." Sonic ordered.
"What'll that do?" Asked the echidna.
"Just do it." Sonic ordered again. Knuckles pouted then did what he was told. After that Sonic grabbed onto Tails' other hand and helped Knuckles clutch the Master Emerald. Tails immediately rotated his tails and slowly, because of the weight he was carrying, took off. They looked down as they saw both King Watt's and Igneous' ship crash into Watt palace and explode.
"That's what those bastards get for trying to steal my…YOU CAN FLY!" Knuckles shouted as he looked up at Tails. Tails didn't answer. The weight he was carrying was so intense he couldn't focus.
"He's too weak to carry both of us and the Master Emerald back to Angel Island. What do we do?" Explained Sonic.
"YOU CAN FLY!"
"Knuckles!"
"Huh? Oh! You guys made it past the halo path already right?"
"Uh huh."
"Well once you make it past once you don't have to do everything you did again. It will only take you three minutes to get to Angel Island if you land on the halo path. Oh and look its right below us." Knuckles explained.
"Okay Tails, take us down slowly." Sonic said. Tails nodded in slight pain as they all descended to the stone pathway.
Sorry I took so long. I didn't mean to hold you all up. Review please.