Topological Mixing

His body felt heavy and his senses came back to him just slowly. His spines were pushed to the sides by the way his back leaned against the rock behind him, the pressure having forced his head down so his chin came to rest on his chest, and the stiffness in his neck was about to evoke a light headache. Almost reflexively his large and pliable headspikes stiffened a little, but the subtle movement was sufficient to ease both the stiff feeling and the heaviness. Sonic's eyes flicked open and he squinted in dazed disorientation, trying to remember what was going on. It took a few seconds for the memories of the Chaos Emerald experiment to kick in, but then they did and the hedgehog sat up straight, with a jolt pushing away from the rock he'd been leaned against. "What did I do!?"

"Sonic."

The soft word fell almost unnoticed, the combination of Chaos Emerald and his apparent black out washing a fresh wave of panic through Sonic's body. Hastily the blue hedgehog cast a glance around, already expecting to find something burning, in pieces or... in some other way destroyed. It wouldn't be the first time he'd...

Sonic's gaze stopped on Knuckles, sitting facing him, and he relaxed a little at finding the echidna unharmed. Knuckles' amethyst eyes calmly met Sonic's and the guardian tilted his head, seeming much more amused than anything else. "You didn't truly understand the idea of meditation, did you, hedgehog?"

Still not near to having caught up on the situation, Sonic blinked and stared at the red echidna. "What?"

A smirk crossed Knuckles' face. "You fell asleep. That really wasn't the idea, but…" Knuckles shrugged. "I wanted you to relax in presence of an Emerald and I would say you learned today's lesson."

"I…" Sonic stopped and looked down onto his hand. The green crystal was still lying in his open palm, slightly glowing the same way it had when Knuckles had handed it to him, but the light seemed to have lost its ability to send shudders down his spine. At least for now…

"Do you give it back to me so I can bring it to the others again?", Knuckles' question interrupted Sonic's speechless surprise.

"Didn't you want to teach me about those?", Sonic wondered, but passed the Chaos Emerald to the echidna.

"I said already, you learned today's lesson, it's enough for now." Knuckles stood up. "Go enjoy yourself, but try not to fall into the craters or something."

Sonic stared after the guardian as he walked off over the meadow and disappeared between the first trees of the next forest. It took almost a minute until his brain had somewhat processed the events and another one until Sonic could at least partly shrug them off. Slowly the hedgehog got to his feet and strolled in the opposite direction Knuckles had taken, deep in thought.

Pre-noon of the next day found the unlikely pair in the same place again. Knuckles seemed to have found the clearing Sonic had spent the night without problems, making the hedgehog wonder a little if the echidna was psychic and had some weird guardian-of-the-Master-Emerald way of tracking him down.

Yesterday's surprising lack of horrible events had put Sonic's mind remarkably more at ease, a good deal of undisturbed sleep had done the rest and he could feel a sense of curiosity for what Knuckles was going to pull off next. "And? Are you going to try teaching me that meditation thing again?" Sonic grinned and folded his arms.

Knuckles shook his head, the deadpan more than evident in his voice. "The last time wasn't that promising I'd be overly eager to try."

Sonic's grin broadened. "You sounded different yesterday."

The echidna shrugged. "Did I?" He looked Sonic up and down. "No, I thought about it a little and decided to try something that's maybe more fitting your style."

"So? Are we gonna do something mega cool?"

Now the echidna was looking rather weird; one eyebrow quirked, a half frown on his face and his lips cast in what wasn't quite a smirk but not quite anything else either. "That depends on what you think is 'mega cool'." He reached for a bag he wore over his shoulder and pulled out another Chaos Emerald; this one a shade of royal blue almost matching Sonic's fur and quills.

"At least the color is cool," the hedgehog commented.

"The dark blue Emerald holds the power of speed," Knuckles said neutrally, completely ignoring the remark.

Sonic's eyes widened. "You're kidding me."

Nonchalance darted over the echidna's face. "No."

Sonic ran a hand through his spikes. "Maybe it's that all cool, fast things are blue. Like me!"

The guardian frowned at him, violet eyes piercing.

"What?", the hedgehog queried when the gaze got a little too lengthy for his liking.

"I just contemplated the idea of your abnormal speed and your bright blue fur not being coincidence. Just think of the blue speed-type chao..." Knuckles still looked overly thoughtful. "Probably it's more of a chaotic gift than you think."

Sonic stared at Knuckles, then at the blue stone the echidna still held and back at Knuckles. "Do you think so?"

Knuckles shrugged. "It's a theory, nothing more. Here – catch!"

It was reflex that let Sonic's hand rush forwards and snatch the blue gemstone as it was thrown at him. The second he caught it, he stiffened in confusion and stared down on it. "It… didn't do it…"

"Didn't do what?"

Sonic lifted his gaze back up at Knuckles. "It didn't make that buzz feeling like the last one did."

Knuckles cocked an eye ridge. "You don't feel its power?"

Sonic let his fingertips trace along the brilliants sides. "That's not it… It doesn't feel so strange… It is as if I… as if it was… familiar…?"

"Okay." The red guardian gave him a nod that not quite helped to reassure him or ease the shock and confusion. Not seeming to notice Sonic's bewildered state, Knuckles continued. "Now you take it and go for a run."

Sonic's jaw dropped. Now that was really too much for him. "A – run…?"

"Yes. You need to slowly learn tapping into the powers. Being all still and concentrate is something you are not used to and therefore it demands a lot of you already . So I figured it's better to start with something you know, are comfortable about and like doing." Knuckles pointed at the cobalt stone. "Go, run and try to use it to increase your speed."

"How do I do that?" Sonic knew he still looked rather dumb.

Knuckles shrugged. "Feel its power, hedgehog. Find out yourself."

Sonic frowned at him, but Knuckles didn't seem to plan giving further helpful or not information, so the hedgehog glanced down on the Chaos Emerald. "Maybe you turn out being a speed booster." The stone just twinkled at him and a hesitant smile tugged on Sonic's lips. "Well, seems there's just one way to find out, huh?"

He took a deep breath, fisted his right hand tightly around the gemstone, bent his knees into a slight crouch, released his breath again and pushed off.

It needed just the well-known time of a few seconds for the wind about his ears to reach the loudness of storm and get strong enough to force his headspines to slip into a streamlined shape. At the same time Sonic's arms couldn't hold up with the speed of his feet and he let them drop to his side for increased stability.

Without any planned track Sonic just tore through Angel Island's jungles, along the tiny paths Knuckles had shown him. Just a minute after he'd started, the hedgehog felt his thoughts beginning to flow freely in his head, but nothing about them rushed or strained anymore. He really did think best on his feet.

His thumb moved over the surface of the crystal he carried. Okay now, how do you work? Where's that speed boost button?

Although his pondering seemed nothing like appropriate treatment of magical gems, Sonic felt a sudden small pulse within the Emerald. He was so startled about it and focussed so much on trying to get something out of it, he would have almost crashed into a couple of trees. Giving a yelp swerving out of their way, the hedgehog turned to get out onto on of the plains.

With long blades of grass caressing his legs, the blue hedgehog felt into the Chaos Emerald again, concentrating. Come on, go faster… His green eyes narrowed. Faster. Go. Now.

And suddenly the world seemed to tunnel around him, the second sonic boom within a few minutes tearing at his body shattering all limits that had existed before. Sonic grinned. He was starting to like the idea. This is going to be fun.

"So you have found out nothing of help yet?" Knuckles looked down onto his radio.

Thousands of miles away, Porker Lewis shook his head at the camera that transported the picture all the way onto Knuckles' screen. "Tails and me are doing our best. We've locked all of our antennas at the portal ring in the stratosphere. If there is anything to hear again, we're sure to be eavesdropping, but everything is silent so far." The pig shrugged as if it was his fault and he needed to apologize. "How's it going up there?"

"I think we might be starting to make progress." The echidna tipped his head aside at hearing the tenth sonic bang today. He should have told the freaking hedgehog not to run by here all the time... "He didn't freak out completely yet. I'm trying to get him onto the positive side of the energy. Right now that seems to work alright. As it sounds."

Porker's look on the screen became puzzled. "As it sounds?", he echoed.

Knuckles lifted the radio set up, turned the microphone louder so that Porker could hear what he heard. "Whooooo-hoooooooo! - BANG!"

This was the eleventh, Knuckles thought, starting to get annoyed. Everytime the hedgehog passed somewhere near to him the shockwave attempted smashing his eardrums… The echidna made a mental note to himself to prohibit supersonic speeds on his island.

"Just what the hell are you doing up there?", Porker asked baffled.

Knuckles turned the microphone settings back to normal before answering. "He's running. It's a long story."

"Oohh.. okay…"

The echidna was about to start explaining his intentions, when the faint yelps of delight suddenly were gone. "Whaaaa-" Silence.

Knuckles winced. Can't that idiot look where he's going… "Excuse me, Porker, I gotta save the stupid hedgehog." He dropped the radio and hurried over to where he was quite sure to find his crazy guest.

"Knuckles?" Porker stared at the screen, knocking his fingers against the loudspeakers, but the screen stayed black and no sound was heard. Up on Angel Island, the echidna had cut off the transmission. Porker Lewis blinked. "He didn't even say bye…"

"Who didn't say bye?", Amy's voice came from behind.

Porker turned around to find the pink girl and Tails entering the room. "Knuckles," he answered her question, nodding in greeting.

Amy waved more cheerfully than necessary and Tails nodded back. "You talked to him?", the young fox asked curiously. "How are they doing up there?"

Porker shrugged. "I'm not too sure… Knuckles said they were making progress. Sonic was running around as Knuckles told me… and then something happened and Knuckles said he'd have to go save Sonic…"

Amy dropped onto a chair next to Porker, crossing her legs at the knees. "Just what are those two doing to each other?"

"No idea." The pig shook his head.

Tails jumped to sit on the desk. "If Knuckles said they're fine it'll be okay."

Porker nodded warily. "So, what brings you here?", he asked, changing the topic.

Amy smiled. "I had an idea."

"WE had an idea," Tails corrected, looking reproachful.

"Of course." Amy giggled and turned back to the pig. "You said if Sonic can destroy that portal, it'll close the gap between the dimensions, right?"

"Yes."

"But," Tails took over, "he needs to destroy it WHILE it is being open, right?"

Porker nodded. "Yes…?"

"So, depending on how long smashing the thing takes… a lot of Drakon ships can come in already. Plus Robotnik's robot armies." Amy folded her arms. "We don't know what those ships are capable of… they might be out of Sonic's reach before he's getting the time dealing with them."

"So we figured," Tails continued, "we need our own troops to catch those enemies. Sonic needs all the backup he can get."

Porker nodded again. "You say we have to enlist some allies."

"Yes." Amy smiled.

"Okay, any ideas yet?" Porker looked between his friends.

"I thought of Sab," Tails said. "I've worked together with her and Sol before. I think they are the only survivors of the Flock, but they are experienced fighters and could be of help."

"The group from the Chemical Plant Zone?" Porker frowned. "I've never met those guys. They're pretty stealthy it seems."

Tails shrugged. "No matter. I've found them before and I'll find them again. I guess Sab is okay if I ask her for help. We're friends kinda."

"And we could try convincing Captain Plunder and his group of pirates," Amy suggested," they've helped Sonic out before…"

Porker frowned. "We've had a lot of trouble with them. They've stolen our Emeralds, they tried stealing treasure from Angel Island… they are not anything like trustworthy…"

"We're in for one of Mobius' biggest battles," Amy pointed out. "We can't act egoistic. None of us. Not even the pirates. We once convinced them. We just have to do that again."

Doubtfully Porker regarded the girl. "You have a point," he admitted. "I just hope you can get Plunder to see it too…"

Amy smiled, looking at him past her eyelashes. "We will get the pirates to join us."

Suspiciously Porker looked at her. "What do you mean – we?"

"Tails knows the Chemical Plant gang better than the two of us, so it'll be best if he goes there. So… do you think I'll go to the pirates all alone?" She smiled sweetly.

Porker felt the blood drain from his face. "You… don't mean that…"

When Knuckles rounded one of the ambient hills, he found he had been right. He almost stumbled over the torn loose ropes that activated one of his best hidden traps, and from that on just needed to follow the scrapes of sliding Sonic had left on the ground - after tripping over aforementioned ropes - that led him directly to the second part of the trap.

He stepped to the edge of the no longer hidden hole in the ground and looked down. Two meters lower, sharply pointed wooden pickets stuck out of the ground, covering the bottom of the den in several parallel lines. A few at the opposite end of the fosse were broken in half and snapped off. The steep wall of earth limiting the trap hole showed a remarkable bump where the high speed hedgehog had smashed into it. Sonic lay kipped against the wall with feet up and head down, still half curled up, quills seemingly stuck in the earth.

Knuckles cleared his throat. "Sonic? You alright?"

"Ow..."

The echidna rounded the hole and swiftly climbed down, carefully watching the wooden spikes when dropping to the ground aside of the hedgehog. "Can you stand up?"

"My head hurts," Sonic mumbled, squinting up at the echidna, and frowned. "You're upside-down, Red…"

Knuckles shook his head. "No. You are. Get up, but watch out for the spikes."

Sonic struggled a second in place before managing to roll over. Hunkering on the ground, he brushed a hand over his quills. "Yeah… didn't take that too well…"

"What?"

"The spikes."

"Err… Forget it." The guardian shook his head at the hedgehog. "Nothing broken?"

"I don't think so," Sonic replied, trying to work the dirt out of his fur. "Just what's it with the weird hole in the ground?"

"Umm. A trap?"

Sonic looked up at Knuckles, blinked, and took a real look around now. Emerald eyes widened first in confusion and a second later in light shock, and the hedgehog stretched out a slightly shaking hand to point at the lines of deadly spikes when he realized what he had just narrowly missed there. "What the hell is that for?"

Knuckles uncomfortably shifted his weight between his feet. "I already said... it's a trap. A trap is for catching intruders…"

Now Sonic's eyes narrowed, the green in them sharpening. "Am I intruding your precious island, Red?"

"Um, no?"

"You could have killed me with these things! Why didn't you warn me?!", the hedgehog demanded glaring at Knuckles, voice dropping a little deeper, clearly indicating he was pretty angry.

"Do you want me to put up signs everywhere?! People, watch out for the hidden traps?!", Knuckles snapped back. "This is not the idea behind putting up traps. They are a means of security to prevent thieves from taking the Emeralds."

"I am not intruding," Sonic growled, "You could have just said: 'Watch out there are holes in the ground with daggers in them'!"

Knuckles firmly crossed his arms, violet blazing as much as green now. "If a certain speed-crazy hedgehog could watch his step, nothing would have happened. You know how much work it'll be repairing all that?!"

"Oh yeah? If a certain echidna wasn't as paranoid and wouldn't see dangerous thieves behind every goddamn bush in his forests, he wouldn't need to dig holes for people to fall and die in!" Sonic's hands fisted at his sides.

Knuckles snorted. "I am not paranoid, you… you…"

Sonic's gaze stabbed into Knuckles' eyes. "I what? Come on, say it! If you dare…"

"Dare, hedgehog?" The echidna took a deep breath, holding his own glare.

Sonic's voice was quiet, something between whisper and growl. "Oh, bring it on…"