Chapter 2 - The hooded figure...

"WHAT! TAILS IS GONE...b..but how?" Knuckles yelled, gradually getting weaker in the voice.
"I don't know, but Tails wrote a message telling me to warn you about something and to protect the Emeralds," Sonic explained. Knuckles nodded "I'd help you guys look, but if Tails thinks that the Master Emerald is in danger, then I should stay here to protect it.. Right?"
Sonic nodded. "I just came to warn you, so.. Be careful knucklehead," Sonic said duly.

Deep down Sonic was furious that Knuckles wouldn't help. Even though he had a duty, surely a missing and probably wounded friend was more important than an Emerald. But Sonic decided not to say anything as it would just cause arguments, besides Knuckles did have a good point.

Despite what was happening, Sonic couldn't help but think of how peaceful it was on Angel Island. The birds sang to the tune of the humming stream whilst the whistling wind recklessly weaved through the trees surrounding the Master Emerald. The giant green gem was taller than Knuckles and radiated more power than Sonic could ever imagine. It stood nobly upon its stone platform and seemed so pure and fresh. The forest suddenly went silent. Even the wind stopped, leaving an eerie silence to fill the air.

"Knuckles, I've got a bad feeling about this..." Sonic said as a great big robot materialized from behind the trees. The robot was enormous, at least the size of a double-decker bus, it had the body of a spider and had thousands of aerodynamic arms with bird-like feet ready to attack.
"Really? What gave it away? The great big blooming robot?" Knuckles said sarcastically.
Sonic smirked a mischievous smirk and looked at the robot, then they spotted a red logo of a man's face with a long and bushy mustache on the robots side.

"EGGMAN!" They both yelled at the same. Sonic zoomed off instantly, ready to fight anyone who stood in his way of finding Tails and destroying the robot. Knuckles stood is ground, willing to protect the Emeralds at any cost. The robot used its little arms to lash out at Knuckles, though he managed to dodge all of them, they certainly were fast.

Knuckles smashed several of the arms, but more arms replaced them. Sonic tried to attack the robot with a homing attack but one of the arms grabbed him around the leg. "Hey!" Sonic exclaimed, trying to wriggle out of the robots grip but more and more hands grabbed hold of him.

Suddenly, faster than you could say Chili Dog, Sonic's arms, legs and body was completely restrained by the little arms. The metal arms lifted Sonic up towards the robot's eye, where Dr Eggman and a Komodo dragon were sitting and laughing. The dragon seemed rather thin and dainty but Sonic could sense that he was dangerous. His cruel, glowing, red eyes seemed to grab hold of Sonic's heart and trying to squeeze any fear out of him. Sonic gritted his teeth "Where's Tails? What have you done to him?" Sonic demanded, still fighting and trying to break free of the robots grasp.

"Oh, there's no need to worry about that little punk," Eggman laughed.
"If you've hurt him, I swear you'll pay!" Sonic snarled.
"Ho, ho, ho, well I'm trembling in my boots," Eggman laughed. "Once again, Sonic has come to save the day! But this time you will fail," Eggman continued.
"That'll be a first," Knuckles muttered, as he fought the robot.

"One more word Eggman, and your life won't be worth living," Sonic threatened. His patience was quickly getting shorter, like the lit fuse on a bomb.
"Oh come now Sonic, you and I both now you're sending me empty promises. You see Sonic, this robot is called The Hydra and will be the end of your annoying little life. It is unstoppable and especially designed to catch certain blue hedgehogs. So I'd say it's been nice knowing you, but it hasn't," he continued.

"Why don't you just rip 'em apart already?" the Komodo Dragon said, losing his patience. His scales were red and black, the opposite fur markings of Shadow. It was as if this guy just represented fear and darkness, but it didn't scare Sonic. Sonic noticed that he was wearing a necklace, it was like the ying and yang but it was in the shape of a water droplet or flame but he only had one blue half, which seemed totally out of character with the rest of his appearance.

"Well that's awfully nice of you , but I think I'll pass on that one," Sonic said sarcastically turning his attention to Eggman.
"HYDRA ATTACK!" Eggman bellowed.

The metal arms began to pull at Sonic's limbs, he clamped his eyes shut as he felt a burning pain in each limb. Sonic began to roar in agony, then he heard a sort of grinding sound, followed by a terrible crack. His left arm had just been pulled out of joint!
"Aaaahhh!" Sonic screamed, before passing out from the agony.
"Sonic!" Knuckles yelled.

Suddenly, a hooded figure appeared from the woods and had a battle knife in her hand.
"Karn, stop this madness. Release him!" A female voice bellowed.
"Ha ha ha, we'll its nice of you to join us, my dear but - " The Dragon, known as Karn called, but before he could finish his sentence the figure launched her knife at the machine. It hit the robotic arms that held Sonic, and his unconscious body began to fall through the air, fortunately Knuckles ran over and managed to catch him in time.

Knuckles quickly and carefully carried him towards a tree and put him down out of the robot's reach. Knuckles then ran back towards the Emerald.
"No, the Emerald!" Knuckles yelled as he watched the little arms grab the Emerald and slowly began to lift it up. But the Emerald didn't even leave the ground as the figure had already ran over and was slashing through the arms like they had been of paper. One of the robotic hands tried to grab her and grazed the figures arm. As the metal arm tried to retreat it got slashed and fell to the floor.

Sparks of electricity began to fly off the robot and a missile was suddenly fired at Knuckles and Sonic. The figure ran forth and made a huge force field around the Island. Knuckles noticed that the force field was made of water. Knuckles closed his eyes, expecting to be blown to pieces. The missile didn't even make a dint in the force field. At the sight of this the robot sped away.

"Who.. Who are you?" Knuckles cautiously asked, returning to Sonic's side.
"My name is Aeronniell," she said, taking her hood down to show her beautiful face...

Pronunciation= Eye- Ron- Knee - El