Storm
"Guys?" Porker poked his head through the kitchen door.
"Oh, there you are! Come in, lunch is served!", Amy called cheerily, putting a pot down on the table. A few days had passed since they'd returned to the base and everybody was preparing themselves.
"Lunch can wait, this is serious!" The pig stepped fully inside now, waving a sheet of paper at the rest of the group.
"What happened?", Sab asked seriously, already having forgotten about the food in front of her.
"Bad news?" Tails stood up so fast his chair was close to fall over when the two-tailed cub rushed to look at the paper Porker carried.
"Bad news alright…" The pig sighed. "You remember we thought once Sonic can destroy the portal Robotnik builds it would collapse the tunnel between the dimensions and get Mobius out of the Drakons' reach for good?"
"Won't that work?" Sol leaned back in his seat, arms firmly folding on his chest.
"It will, no worries here," Porker assured him.
"Then what's the matter?", Amy wondered, leaning against a cupboard.
"I was to talk about that. We all know, this… call it a wormhole up there isn't the only one. It's just the biggest. There are three more, one in Emerald Hill, one on Flickies Island and one more in Ice Cap," Porker started, walking towards the table to lay down the paper on a space that was still free of dishes so everyone could see. "Structurally these smaller portals and the big one form a geometrically very stable form-"
"A tetraeder," Tails shouted before Porker had a chance to finish.
"A what?", Sab frowned looking sheepish.
"It's like a pyramid made of four triangles. Like… a prism," Tails explained, visibly proud to know something the others didn't.
"Yes," Porker nodded at Tails. "Right. I calculated this through today. The four 'doors' to the Drakon world support each other."
"Means what exactly?", Sol demanded.
"It means they back each other up." The pig looked between the others.
"So, we gotta destroy them all?", Tails wondered.
"Just destabilize," Porker corrected, "They're linked, destroy the biggest and you should destroy all…"
"Alright!" Sab pounded one fist onto the table. "How do we destroy… eh… destabilize them?"
"It should be enough to confuse the working cycle of just one more to set the system out of proper work…", Porker corrected.
"Let's use a bomb!", Sol declared.
Everyone's heads snapped to the sheep.
"No bomb?", he asked at the sudden attention. "Was just an idea. If you don't like it…"
"No, no, no… I never said I don't like it… Just let me think this over…" Porker scratched his head.
The pig didn't get to make a decision. The loud beeping of an alarm bell sounded through the house, startling the remaining few of them still sitting finally off their seats. "What the hell is that?", Sol shouted, confused.
"Someone has just activated one of the small portal rings," Porker explained, spinning around to hurry up the stairs to his room.
"Wait! You got remote surveillance there?" Sab's eyes were wide with awe.
"Sure," Tails grinned. "I hacked one of Buttnik's satellites. Come on!"
Everybody running after Porker, Amy was left alone staring at the deserted table. "Hey! What about the food? Ooooohhh!"
A big branch hit the backside of his skull, sending a brief flicker of stars across his vision. Reflexively Knuckles' hand found its way to his head to carefully rub the aching spot. With a grunt he pushed himself back upright, immediately tumbling as the strong blows of storm yanked on him. Giving a small yelp, the echidna staggered out of the way of another piece of tree pulled loose by the hard winds.
The forest was a mess, toppled trees stapled their massive stems across the ground, leaves of all sizes and colors were whirling through the air in a frantic dance and the ground was knee-deep mud due to the daylong torrential rains.
When the island had gotten into the storm two days ago, Knuckles had tried using the Master Emerald's power to make it float higher up and get out of the bad weather in spite of his earlier words, but it was already too late. The island's landmass had caught the heavy clouds and would keep them until they emptied out and turned light enough to rise.
It was the worst storm Knuckles had ever witnessed in his life; and also Sonic said he hadn't seen anything like it before. The violent winds tearing on Angel Island's form from all direction were close enough to throw the complete island out of balance. Sure, the island was heavy, but it also offered a huge shape for the winds to grab, and right now the Master Emerald's power was used to capacity holding it stable and keeping the steady flow of ever increasing amounts of water across the island up.
Knuckles had checked on three of the five dams in the center mountains that controlled the flow of water into the caverns of Hydrocity today. All of them had broken under the stress and the red echidna didn't want to take any bets on how the two others looked.
Right now he was on his way back to the caves of Hidden Palace where he'd left Sonic. He'd planned to be there much earlier, but walking against the biting winds was hard; the paths all over the island he usually used were blocked by fallen trees or half hillsides that had come crumbling down because of the flooding rains.
Knuckles looked up from the wet ground at the rushing sound of water in front of him and he stopped at the edge of one of the usually serene brooks that went through the forest. It hard grown to a considerably big river, its brown water filling the complete gap in the rocks that formed its bed.
A frown crossed the guardian's brow as he watched the suspension bridge sway wildly, his ears definitively not liking the sounds the ropes and wood made. Well, no other way across. Grabbing the wires that formed the handrail, Knuckles took the first steps onto the unsteady path, the wooden planks creaking protestingly. Slowly and cautiously the echidna balanced across the insecure bridge, then his heart stopped beating for a second and his eyes shot wide open as the left side of the bridge's fixation as if in slow-motion pulled itself out of the ground it stuck in.
The moment it came out completely, a hard jolt ran through the entire bridge and Knuckles found himself running without having thought about it. Obviously upset about that no longer the least bit hesitant and gentle movement of the weight it had to carry, the second part of the fixation threatened to join the first.
Knuckles had almost made it across when the planks and ropes that formed his path were torn downwards by both gravity and the sharp winds. Instinctively Knuckles flung himself up and forwards. The second it got the chance to get a grip under his flaring dreadlock-quills, a blow of storm pushed Knuckles upwards so fast his stomach threatened to tell him how little it liked the sudden movement.
More or less successfully attempting to steer in the wind, the echidna kind of glided until he crossed solid ground. Trying to lower his glide, Knuckles upset the tiny bit of balance and control he'd had on his gliding by then. Another sudden sharp gust of wind sent him tumbling head over heels until he no longer knew where up was and where down, not even thinking of left or right.
At least the first question was answered when he landed face-first in what seemed to be a puddle of muddy water and ended up shredding his momentum sliding on his belly across a wet meadow. "Ouch," he muttered as he lay still for a little moment, mentally checking that every part of his body was more or less where it ought to be.
Pushing himself up to all fours, Knuckles cast a quick glance around and found himself on a small clearing. Half a meter from his head, the thick stem of a huge tree had just narrowly missed the opportunity to say hello to his skull. Crawling to his feet, the echidna brushed his hands through his fur, in vain attempting to wipe off water and dirt with gloves as dirty as his red pelt. Well, formerly red… right now the echidna wasn't sure if he could find any proper term to describe the shade of brownish-red whatever… But he had much more important things to consider.
Deciding Sonic had stayed alone with the Emeralds for long enough and that he needed to get out of this cold rain, there wasn't much he could do anyway, Knuckles turned to head for the nearest entry to the cave system whose tunnels led to the Emerald chamber. Unlocking the one of the multiple secret doors all over the island and climbing into the barely visible hole, Knuckles breathed deeply in relief at leaving the storm outside behind him.
Five minutes of walking through the silent tunnels later the guardian stepped into the big Emerald chamber. From the center, a dim, but constant glow radiated into the room like a wave, telling Knuckles everything there was to know about the Master's work and energy level within the shortest of moments in a simple, instinctive way.
A way the other living being inside the room would need a long while to learn. Knuckles tilted his head, a tiny smile creeping onto his face at the sight of Sonic. The hedgehog was pacing the room at the opposite end of the dimly lit wide chamber, the small light that glowed in his hands held in front of his chest making a dot of yellow against the darkness of the wall and occasional openings to more tunnels behind Sonic's path.
The blue hedgehog stopped as his ears – remarkably sharp as Knuckles had learned throughout the past week – caught the sound of the guardian's entering footsteps. "And? Is the world still there outside or did the rain wash it away?"
Knuckles chuckled. "It's the strongest storm I've seen here in my life. Sometimes in winter the blizzards that bring lots of snow are near as bad, but I've never had anything like it in summer."
"How long do you think it'll last, Knux?"
For a second the echidna felt the urge to tell him the thousandth time or so it was 'Knuckles' and nothing else, but somehow... over the past days he had not only grown much more familiar with Sonic, also with the hedgehog's tendency to shorten his name. 'Knux' after all sounded a lot nicer than any other of the nicknames he'd been given. So Knuckles just let it pass for now.
"No idea," he answered directly instead. "A few more days at least. The clouds the wind has pressed against the island are hanging quite fixed to the summits." He smiled again. "Getting sick of staying inside already?"
Sonic laughed. "Not just that. You know, it's kinda spooky in here." He pointed over to one of the barely visible exits in the rocky walls. "Sometimes it howls there, as if there was a pack of wolves or something... Where does that tunnel go?"
"Outside," Knuckles answered readily, "it's an escape tunnel. In case there is something happening that forces the people in here to get out quickly."
"Ah, emergency exit, I see." Sonic nodded. "Must end at a place exposed to a lot of wind if it howls that way."
"Yes." Knuckles nodded back and pointed at the gemstone Sonic held. "How's it going?"
"Not really going at all. There is something, but I can't place it and it doesn't come out," Sonic complained.
Knuckles smiled at his grouching student. "You have chosen a great thing to start with if you ask me. Do you remember what I told you about each stone having one special power? Do you know what yellow's was?"
A sheepish grin spread on Sonic's face. "What'll be the punishment if I say 'no'?"
Knuckles smiled as well. "Healing."
"Is that the power or the punishment?" Sonic's trademark grin had grown another bit.
"I'll give you punishment in a second, hedgehog." The echidna shook his head. "So, what do you plan to heal?"
Sonic stared at him. "Um... that's why nothing works?"
"It might be one of the reasons. The power's got nowhere to go."
"Ah." Sonic nodded. "Then what?"
"Choose another one for now. We can-" Knuckles' sentence was interrupted in half when the ground suddenly was shaken by one strong blow that threw Sonic off his feet and falling onto his belly. The Chaos Emerald the hedgehog had been holding bounced on the floor when Sonic lost his grip on it, then it rolled along the ground and tumbled into the hole in the wall the hedgehog had indicated a moment before.
Knuckles watched the blue hedgehog jump back to his feet and instinctively scramble for the next wall before the echidna could no longer pay attention to Sonic. For a moment the guardian thought the ground beneath his feet was shaking again, then a cracking sound from above caught his attention. The reflex to leap back reacted a nanosecond too late and a scream to equal parts of shock and pain escaped Knuckles' lips when parts of the cave ceiling splintered and solid pieces of rock rained down on him.
Falling onto his back as a sharp pain impacted with his forehead, Knuckles found a haze of black washing over his senses, but rolled aside and onto his stomach, shielding his head with both hands and arms. When the headache dulled down enough to hear anything but the rush of blood in his ears, the noises and rumbling had stopped and a strange form of silence engulfed the room. Even the small sounds of storm outside had faded to mute.
Knuckles slowly pushed himself to all fours. His first look went to his right, but the steady glow of green immediately soothed the guardian's main worry. The lights coming from the Master Emerald and the set of six Chaos Emeralds strangely illuminated the hazy air filled with dust from the crumbled stones. Knuckles turned, finding a part of the opposite wall had come down, and in midst of big lumps of rock Sonic lay curled into a tight ball, blue spikes sharply pointing outwards.
"Sonic?", Knuckles called, interrupted by a cough. "Are you alright?"
In a single smooth movement the blue hedgehog had uncurled and was standing on his feet; the look on his face a strange mixture of embarrassment at being caught in that position, shock at what had just happened, and worry. "I'm good," he got out, just slightly shakily. "I guess I'm lucky. Just what in the world was that?"
"I guess a landslide above us caused by the rain that smashed into the ground above the caves and shook them real good." Knuckles carefully tried getting up, swaying heavily as another wave of pain from his brow sent his head spinning.
"Whoa! Watch out, you're hurt!", Sonic called and there was a gust of wind when he rushed to steady the echidna. "You're bleeding!"
Knuckles lifted his hand to his forehead and for a few seconds just dumbly stared at the patch of red that had formed on his palm during the touch. "It's okay... Where's your Emerald?"
"Um.. Somewhere behind this?" Sonic pointed with his free left arm while his right held Knuckles around the shoulders.
For another long moment the echidna stared at the cave-in that had blocked the exit. "We need to get it. We can't tell how much worse it'll become."
"You want to dig all the way through?" Sonic' raised an eyebrow.
"No. The tunnel has a slope. It's gotta be at the other end."
"Where is that?"
Knuckles looked at Sonic and didn't quite dare to shake his head. "It's not as easy as you think."