Chapter 4: Knuckles

The drop ship returned Sonic and Tails to Heartwood after making sure it had not been followed. The sun was just coming up as it touched down just outside the garage. Tails had to endure a lecture from the pilot for what seemed like an eternity for stowing away and putting himself in danger. Sonic had tried to speak up for him a few times but the pilot would have none of it. Thoroughly annoyed by the time his feet touched the ground Sonic was headed off to his bed when the pilot reminded him that Knuckles had to debrief him at the base. Tails ran off to Sally's hut, apparently she acted as his surrogate mother.

Sonic ran to the stump that hid the base at about 1/5th speed, lifted the stump and headed in. As he approached the war room he could already here people talking and some moaning. As he entered the room he saw that many of the occupants were in various stages of being treated by Dr. Gunther and his team. None of them looked to have any life threatening injuries, but still it was quite a depressing sight. Sonic was met with several angry glairs.

"uh…ware is Knuckles?" he asked the Room

After an uncomfortable moment the tiger answered. "He went to the storage room further down to oversee the weapon unloading.

"Thanks." Replied sonic and headed down the far hall. The tiger grunted in reply

Further on the tunnel open onto a large cat walk, at least ten feet wide. Metal stairs lead down into a large cavern filled with various boxes, components and anything the freedom fighters obviously felt would be useful. Knuckles was standing with Sally watching several people unloading what they had taken for the mission. Knuckles caught sight of the blue hedgehog and immediately his eyes seemed to burn with fire.

"Knuckles…Knuckles wait!" said Sally but he was ignoring her.

"You! You nearly got us all killed with that little stunt of yours!" Knuckles yelled, an accusing finger pointed at Sonic.

"Hey chill man, the core didn't go up. I was too fast for it." Sonic said with the wave of a hand.

"That's not the point you ignorant buffoon! You let the core heat up long enough I had to order a retreat!"

"So? Wasn't that the plan anyway?" replied Sonic

"We weren't ready! We had a plan to…"

"Did anyone die?" interrupted Sonic, starting to become upset himself.

"No but that…" started Knuckles

"So what's the big deal?"

"Whats the big deal? WHATS THE BIG DEAL?" Yelled Knuckles his arms waving in the air. "Not one of my people walked out of there with ought taking some damage! If we hadn't practiced for an emergency retreat we would have all been dead because of YOU!" he poked Sonic in the chest hard at the last word.

Sonic glanced at Sally behind Knuckles, it was obvious she felt the same way, though she likely would have been more tactful with her words. Sonic batted Knuckles's hand away.

"Come off it Knuck Knuck, you and your people are fighting a bunch of homicidal war-bots and it's my fault when someone gets a bit messed up? Give me a break."

"you…you…" Knuckles stumbled on his words for a moment. "You just don't care do you? You wouldn't have lost a lick of sleep if me and my men had been vaporized! All you care about is yourself!"

"Knuckles I think…" Sally broke in but Sonic spoke over her.

"That's all I ever had to do before you all pulled me in to this madness!" replied Sonic now fully enraged. "All I wanted to do was get on my feet and take off, but you needed me for your little war." Sonic pushed Knuckles. "Don't think I don't know you were only being nice to me so you could use me to further you own schemes. From what I hear of him you're not better than Robotnick."

Sonic never even saw it coming, before he knew what had happened he was sailing over the rail of the catwalk, having taken a hay maker from Knuckles. Sonic hit the ground hard and had the wind knocked out of him. He herd Knuckles land behind him.

"I may be a lot of things, and I admit that I used you, but never EVER compare me to that monster." He said with ice in his voice.

Sonic coughed as the air returned to his lungs.

"I don't know, gain a few pounds and the resemblance would be uncanny." Said the blue hedgehog as he got to his feet.

"Knuckles don't…" Sally said from above.

"Don't start with my Sally!" called Knuckles without taking his eyes off Sonic. "I'm gona knock some sense into this hot shot."

"You can sure try…" said Sonic and touched the rings on his wrists. He was taken aback when nothing happened. With a jolt he remembered he had used up there energy in the power plant and hadn't yet gotten the chance to recharge them with his speed.

Knuckles smirked as he saw the surprise on Sonic's face. Without a word the assault began. Knuckles threw punches with skill and speed. Sonic was able to use is own speed to counter the blows, but it was obvious he was in a losing fight. Sonic moved to gain some distance, use his speed to ram Knuckles or power up his rings, but the ware house was too crowded with boxes and junk for him to gain any momentum. Sonic threw his own kicks and punches but what few actually landed Knuckles flawlessly rolled with and they did very little. Knuckles bounced on the balls of his feat throwing powerful blow after powerful blow. The blue hedgehog thought to jump onto the boxes to get way, but every time he moved to jump he left himself open to another shot from the red echidna. There was no way he could get away. Sonic took hits in his gut, on the nose on his shoulder and countless to the face. With a particularly powerful shot to his solar plexus, Sonic doubled over in defeat.

"Your nothing without your speed." Said Knuckles. "Thanks for the help with the mission, but we don't need you anymore."

As Knuckles dropped his guard Sonic lashed out with his foot and kicked him in the nose. A splash of blood erupted from under Sonic's shoe and Knuckles stumbled back, clutching his face and cursing in some language Sonic didn't understand.

"I never needed you or your band of merry men Knuck Knuck. If you want me gone I'm ancient history." Said Sonic

He got to his feet before Knuckles could recover and quickly moved to the loading docks that lead outside. It was disguised by a waterfall, but a trail lead past it and out into the woods. Once he found open ground, Sonic poured on the speed and put as much ground between him and Heartwood, dripping blood from the fight, and eyes slightly wet from what he had just thrown away.

Robotropolis

It was dark. The only source of light being the many hi-resolution displays that dotted the walls of the room the largest being over ten feet wide. The air was fouled with the smell of exhaust and spent fuel. All of this was delightful to Dr. Robotnick, but at the moment he was not in a good mood. Not a good mood at all.

Sitting in his large chair that was more all-purpose control station that upholstery he reviews the security tapes again, and again, then again. The chair sat in the center of a suspended platform that formed an X going out to a door on one end, and a platform in front of each computer station at all the others. The lower level contained the various data banks and components to his super computer that monitored everything in his mechanized kingdom and sent his commands to his units. The main screen in front of him was currently playing a slowed down recording of the events that had taken place at Power Plant Gamma 1. It was difficult to tell what the blue blur was on screen, but whatever it was it was fast. So fast Robotnick had yet to be able to find a single frame that could tell him what kind of weapon the freedom fighters had created this time. This irked him, but did not send him into a rage just yet.

Robotnick loved puzzles, he always had. From the moment he had learned to manipulate simple electronics he had been fascinated by how they worked and delighted in improving their functionality. He had thought taking over this pitiful little world would be a wondrous puzzle, but alas, it had been all too easy. The Mobians had a rudimentary military at best, and despite there impressive technology, had failed to develop very effective weapons to combat his mechanical army. The siege lasted a mere month at when the smoke cleared Dr. Robotnick was the near undisputed ruler of Mobius. He soon replaced the smoke of battle and confusion, with the smoke of industry an immediately when to work bulking up his army and preparing for his ultimate goal, but there was no reason not to have some fun along the way.

The inhabitance of Mobius seemed especially receptive to Robotizination, Robotnicks most favorite invention. Through the use of mineral bonding and advanced bio scans the machine was able to take almost any organic life-form and convert it into a robot, complete with a program to make them completely faithful to their new master: Dr. Ivo Robotnick.

Realizing his thoughts had wandered a bit off course Robotnick returned his attention to the main display.

"What are you…" he asked no one in his terrible voice.

Robotnick continued to move through the recording in his methodical way until finaly he found a shot of the weapon, no not a weapon…a hedgehog. Robotnicks black eyes narrowed, and his red glowing pupils grew slightly brighter.

"It can't be…" he muttered to himself, shifting his impressive gurth forward in the chair to get a better look.

Robotnick moved through more of the recording and finally hit a treasure trove of images as the creature faced off with one of his massive war-bots.

"It is you…" he said and then sat back in the chair with his fingers arched, just the hint of a smile on his face. "Most impressive…most impressive indeed…"

The huge man sat for a few moments forming a plan in his mind. Once he felt it was adequate he pressed a button on his chair.

"Snively." He said into the intercom.

"Yes Doctor Robotnick, How can I be of service?" came the reply from a high pitched voice.

"I need a construction team to move out to S Base 06231991 to bring it back up to operational status."

"But sir I thought we had abandoned that project." Replied the voice.

"I'm revising my original conclusion on that project Snivley, have the team outfitted and sent out by 0100 hours."

"Yes Doctor, at once."

Dr. Robotnick arched his fingers again, and his smirk became a full-blown grin.