Knuckles wakes up on a boat sailing in the ocean with no recollection of how he got there. He looked around and saw different medical tools on the wall with a white coat on a hanger, appears he was in the doctor's room. A sharp pain arrived, increasing in intensity every time he tried moving around.
"Where the hell am I?" grabbing the edge of the nearby table for support to sit up.
He gets up a few moments later and limps to the door-looking out the window first to see if anyone might be nearby and then exits out. He appears in a classic wooden style hallway and makes his way to the room all the way across the hallway-using the wall as support-hearing indistinct chatter coming from the room; he enters the unlocked room.
A crowd of people are sitting around a table arguing about something and don't notice Knuckles' entrance.
"I'm saying the damage we've sustained from Eggman's forces is unacceptable! We must bring the fight to him pronto!" Yelled Mighty the Armadillo, the muscle of the Chaotix alongside Knuckles.
"And I'm saying NO! We can't just rush into an immediate battle with him, for all we know, that might be exactly what he wants!" protested Julie-Su, A pink echidna who serves as the teams pilot and is also Knuckles' fiancée .
"We've received reports from Vector and Saffron that he has a base in the Emerald Republic, we can attack him on his own turf and win!" pitched Mighty, eyeing Ray the Flying squirrel and Saffron the bee to join his side; Espio sighed and signaled for the end of conversation, realizing that Knuckles was there.
"Knuckles, you've finally awaken…" invites Mighty, walking over to Knuckles and putting his arm over his shoulder. "Don't you think it's in our best interest to attack Eggman? I mean he sunk Angel Island after stealing the Master Emerald, Injured you and Espio."
"I'm fine!" interrupted Espio, coming between them. "Knuckles needs his rest, we shouldn't bother him with the issue now."
"Wait…" said Knuckles, breathing heavily, "What happened to Angel Island, where's the Master Emerald?" grabbing a seat next to Julie-Su at the table; the room stood silent.
"Well, Angel Island is underwater…" Said Saffron, hiding behind Ray; Knuckles' seemed indifferent, staring forward blankly.
"What else?" he demanded, turning his attention to Saffron.
"We've lost the Master Emerald and our Main base is flooded." Twiddling her fingers; Charmy and Vector entered the room.
The Eight of them made up the Chaotix Detective Agency, an undercover independent agency led by Knuckles. Knuckles took over the agency two years ago after Vector offered him the role of captain, following a month into his tenure; he encountered Ray and Mighty in the Middle East and recruited them. Shortly after, he met Julie-Su in Albion, a ruined echidna civilization, and Saffron in the Golden Hive Colonies of the pacific, stuffing the agency with top tier combatants. Saffron, a high ranked intelligence specialist, serves as a skillful information broker. Julie-Su, serves as the arms specialist- creating new guns every week. Ray is the head chef of the agency and Charmy is the doctor, earning his medical degree in record pace. Espio is their undercover agent-always going on recon to spy on any malicious people. Mighty is the wall protecting the agency and Vector is the smarts of the agency, rivaling with Julie-Su for smartest member. Knuckles lead the way as the captain of this powerful organization.
"So this ship must be our second base?" asked Knuckles folding his arms and relaxing back into the seat with an irritated look beginning to bloom. "So Dr. Eggman showed and stole the Master Emerald right from us." He added.
"We know his location, but it could risky walking onto his turf like that." Pointed Vector to his chart on the whiteboard behind them.
"Knuckles you should be resting! You have no business being mobile yet!" worried Charmy; Knuckles gave him the hand.
"I'll be fine. We leave for the Emerald Republic right now!" demanded Knuckles.
"Yes sir!" Responded Ray.
Knuckles turned to Julie-Su, "Could you grab my phone for me? I have some calls to make." In a calm tone.
Back in the Emerald Republic, Tails, Amy and Cream went sightseeing in Emerald City; Sonic lent them the car and went off on his own, much to the others' displeasure. Sonic was in Downtown Emerald Republic scoping out for Dr. Eggman's base. He walks around the city keeping his eye on the lookout for anything suspicious-something sprints into a dark alley and he decides to follow.
The alley had a dank odor; Sonic makes a face of disgust, covering his nose. He continues down the dark alley way with only his green eyes illuminating in the darkness; he hears noises, noises quite similar to the badniks that he was so accustomed to battling a few years back. Sonic crouches near the wall and takes a peek over the side to see what was making all the noise- two egg pawns standing around like idiots; Sonic cracks an evil grin.
Sonic swiftly spin dashes both of them, expecting immediate destruction, instead gets a hard punch to the gut and is sent flying by one the egg pawns into the nearby building; Sonic recovered from the impact, but held his shoulder.
"Looks like this things dislocated…" trying to pop his shoulder back into place; the other egg pawn charges at sonic and swats him across the area into the next building.
Sonic staggers a bit, "Well, looks like you won't give me a chance to lose this rust."
The egg pawns dance around, taunting Sonic; He looks at them with anger and charges up his Spin Dash. The egg pawns ready themselves for his predictable attack, holding their hands out ready to block. Sonic rolls forward at them and then over them- leaving their backs exposed to him. He smashes their frail backs to pieces and finds a GPS with Dr. Eggman's logo on it in the debris. As he's about to pick it up, he gets a video call from Tails and answers.
"Sonic!" cheered Tails.
"Hey Tails…" winces Sonic in pain from his shoulder.
"We're back at the mansion; we left some food for you." He responds, unaware of Sonic's condition.
"Cool, I'll be back in a few…" Sonic hangs up the phone quickly and grimaces in pain-leaning against the wall holding his shoulder. "I need to get back home quickly, but." He faces the GPS and uses his good arm to pick it up. "I need to track down Eggman as well." He concluded.
Sonic returns home to see the entire mansion decorated in nice furniture; Tails and the girls hide behind the kitchen counter waiting to surprise him. He limps to his room holding his shoulder, hoping to avoid the others. Amy indentifies his injury from the distance and immediately runs over to him with great concern.
"What happened to your arm!? Did you get in a fight?" she asked examining his injury; Sonic hesitated to answer.
"I…encountered some of Eggman's badniks." Hesitated Sonic; Amy grins, and this puzzles Sonic. "Why…are you grinning?"
Amy gives a sinister laugh and with a shining star in her eye, "You see Sonic, there's a reason why I came here…"
Sonic looked confused; Tails and Cream appeared from the kitchen with plate full of fruits in their hands. Amy helped Sonic over to the nearby couch and tended to his wound as she explained her reason.
"For the last two years, Cream and I have been tracking down Dr. Eggman's activities. We had many leads that went cold and when we discovered that his base might be here, we decided to cash in and confront him once and for all. But, we ran into you and we were going to tell you sooner, but I wasn't sure if you'd be willing to go back into this mess with Dr. Eggman." Said Amy with shame on her face, "I really did want to tell you but…" Amy's phone rings; its Knuckles.
"Amy! I have some things to speak to you about!" yelled Knuckles through the phone; everyone could hear him in the room.
"Wait Knuckles, you're a little louder than usual. Did someone get you angry?" jokes Amy.
"Yeah! It's Eggman, he stole the Master Emerald and sunk Angel Island." Responded Knuckles; Amy's joyful expression vanished, a serious one replaces it.
"Let me guess, you're tailing him to Emerald Republic…." Answered Amy.
"I have a le-Wait! How'd you know?" yelling again through the phone.
"I'm in Emerald Republic with Cream, we found an old friend you might want to see if you're coming." Teased Amy.
"Whoever that is… we'll arrive in a few hours, after we arrive we must form a plan of how to take down Eggman."-Amy pauses, sitting next to Sonic-"Sometimes I wish Sonic would come back, it's been long since…I know he would love to stop Eggman." Added Knuckles in a melancholy tone; Amy shrinks.
"About that…" Scrupled Amy, avoiding the introduction of Sonic into the conversation, remembering what happened two years ago when everyone split.
"Sorry, gonna have to hang up now." Before he hangs up, knuckles can be heard yelling at someone; most likely Charmy or Espio.
Amy looks at the others, "Did you guys get all that?"
Cream nodded, enjoying her assorted fruits. Tails already finished his bowl and helped pop Sonic's shoulder back into place after Amy paused on the action to answer her phone. Sonic writhed in agony as the shoulder got back to normal position; there was even a 'pop' sound that could be heard when Tails popped the shoulder back in.
"T-thanks Tails…" expresses Sonic with tears of pain in his eyes, "But next time… never tend to my wounds, please." He adds, scooting away from him in fear of what might happen next time.
Tails makes a scary face, "Oh? If you hadn't allowed yourself to get injured, none of this would happen, huh?" causing Sonic to wither away from him in depression.
Amy sits back down next to them, "I'll send them the coordinates to get here." She says texting Julie-Su the address of the Mansion.
"So Knuckles is coming here for a visit?" asks Cream, resting the bowl on the table; Amy looks at her with reluctance.
"Yes…" Amy says.
"I haven't seen Knuckles since that day…" adds Tails, with a saddened face; Sonic looks downwards at his feet, away from them with disappointment on his.
"Sonic…" murmurs Amy, with a sorrowful face holding her hands close to her heart, "You remember that day?"
Sonic didn't want to answer; he kept his attention downwards, "I don't want to remember that day." Folding his hands, "I prefer we drop the subject…" he proposed.