Amy, Rouge, Rob, and Tails walked swiftly through the thick orchard of trees and shrubbery. The beauty of Angel Island was exceptionally spectacular. And because it was several thousand feet above the ground, there were plants, animals and geological features unseen on any other part of Mobius. The jungle was always shrouded in a beautiful sticky mist that always settled around dawn, this leaving an almost white, and snow like coat on the forest floor. However, the crew knew there was no time to sight see and Tails gave an especially annoyed glare to a certain brunet hedgehog who was staring and commenting on every little spectacle. Everything from the beautiful open caves, to the trees hundreds of feet high, to the small creatures that dwelled beneath his feet. He picked one up as it was passing through and decided to name it Jedriti. It didn't particularly like being held. The little squirrel-like creature was used to gliding in the intense winds of the island, not being mangled by some full grown adult who knew better. Unfortunately, Rob didn't get the message and squeezed it tightly as a means to not let it escape.
"Are you really going to keep playing with that wild animal? It might have some disease." The kitsune bellowed feverishly as he gently shoved the many species of plants out of his way so that they may progress.
"Who said I didn't already have many diseases?" Rob replied slyly before gently petting the top of the creatures head and making really childish kissy faces at it.
"TOO MUCH INFORMATION... Not those kinds of diseases, you idiot. Quickly, release it to its natural environment before the AIPA gets on your ass." Tails countered before waving at the rest of the group to keep moving forward.
"The what?" The brunet hedgehog questioned as he looked behind him to glance at Amy and give her a very confused tilt of the head.
"The Angel Island Preservation Association. They are really careful in keeping this unique place beautiful and clean. Of course, Knuckles being the guardian of the master emerald is its leader. And you don't actually have diseases right?" She responded hyperactively before looking back at him worriedly as if she really thought the answer might change her thoughts on him.
"Why does it matter Miss Rose?" Rob answered skeptically as he quickly wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders since the other was holding the little creature who had given up hope on ever being released.
"UM, well it's good for a woman to know. Don't you think?" She asked shyly before smiling in a slightly awkward manner.
"I can assure you Amy, I am completely clean." He replied almost sweetly as he finally released the little creature into its ecosystem.
He felt a little sad as he watched it flap away in the wind while glancing over to smile at his new lady friend. Their eyes seemed to meet in the most peculiar manner. Not necessarily in a romantic way but in more of a longing fashion. What they both were longing for was unclear to both of them but Rob knew, right away, that it wasn't going to be going away anytime soon. By the time Rouge had caught up to the rest of the group, he and Amy had been staring at each other awkwardly for over a minute.
"Bullshit... That just can't be the case. You "frolic" more than I do. From one man to another. There is absolutely no way you didn't catch SOMETHING." The sassy bat expressed mockingly before giving the brunet hedgehog a slight nudge in the back.
(Why are you guys staring at each other like that to begin with?)
"Unlike you, I'm a dude who likes dudes. I NEED to be careful. Get my drift?" Rob replied patronizingly before giving her a harder push back.
This caused Rouge to go toppling backward onto the slightly sticky forest ground before sighing in utter frustration. Her brand new set of hiking clothes had been practically ruined.
"Women can get it too, you know." She replied irritably as she brushed the leaves and mud off her new outfit before standing.
"Can we please focus on the path in front of us? It's hard to concentrate on this infernal contraption when my fellow crew members are chatting away behind me." Tails interrupted as he glanced forcefully behind himself to check on all the ruckus.
"You're just jealous that your not in on the conversation. Maybe if you were nicer I would talk to you more." The brunet hedgehog replied obnoxiously before sneakily turning his hand into a little hand puppet and softly whispering to Amy.
"Look at me. I'm Tails, Sonics only best buddy in the whole world and I have no concept of proper manners. I only live to please my senpaiiii." He whispered while making the hand puppet talk and move in a very mocking manner.
Amy's face exploded into a smile as she desperately tried to hold back the laughter and tears. He was right in so many ways.
"Don't give me your sass. We're here by the way." Tails replied sternly before giving the brunet a very strong glare.
"Do you think he heard me, Rose?" He asked quietly to make sure that the kitsune didn't hear.
"I think he would have exploded if you did." She replied back, giggling slightly, as she watched the brunet signal a single nod in return.
As Rob pushed through the last of my dense brush, he arrived at a beautiful open field. It was littered with stunning flowers and special stones with indentations and writings. Some of them were dozens of feet tall and in the middle of this beautiful landscape was a huge stone altar. The stairs had little pieces of stone chipped off as they were probably thousands of years old and at the very top was a rather obvious bright red echidna. He lied against his large green emerald, basking and relaxing in the midday sun.
"Hay Knuckles! We need your help!" The kitsune quickly propelled himself up the steps using his two tails to fly before waving to the irritable echidna.
"Haven't I helped enough you pest? Its Rob's job to protect the royals not me. I'm only here to protect the Master Emerald and I'm sick and tired of being forced to leave my post." He replied sturnfully before returning back to his relaxing position and attempting to ignore the fox.
"No no. We need help with these readings here. Do you know of any small objects possibly underground that could emit this strong aura of Chaos energy?" Tails explained quickly before pointing onto the screen at two bright points of concentrated Chaos energy.
"Not sure... It might be something left over from the ancients... There is a way to get to the original Chaos Temple and it looks like that might be where it's located." He responded before immediately taking back what he said.
Information like that was incredibly classified and it was not the best idea to give it out to just anyone.
"Great! How do we get there?" The kitsune exploded happily as he finally got something to go his way for probably the first time that day.
The rest of the crew finally made it up the rest of the steps and were all gasping for air. Not only because the steps seemed to go up forever, but the altitude was causing lack of oxygen supply. This about the time when Rob realized he was still exhausted from the day before and Amy had to almost hold him up.
"Oh no no no. You will not be able to go without an archeologist who knows the area. Not even I can really promise that there is a way in and out. Plus, you might destroy precious artifacts and the AIPA would get on my ass." Knuckles muttered feverishly as he desperately wished he didn't spill such valuable information.
"Knuckles... PLEASE. The fate of Sonic rests in these items. They're our last hope. If we don't get them, I don't know if we will be able to protect him..." The kitsune replied sadly before pouting his bottom lip.
For a few minutes, only the powerful winds of this incredibly high island could be heard as Knuckles obviously had his thinking cap on. It was hard making a decision like this. What was the right thing to do? Chaos would wish the protection of its property and the Royal family.
"You have to promise to not touch anything that looks sacred. Do you understand? There are some ancient belief books in there that are thousands of years old. I would get you a guide but I have no idea if I can get one on such short notice. I make myself very clear, correct?" Knuckles enunciated clearly before looking over to the exhausted and brunet hedgehog.
He seemed to slowly be getting his breath back but Amy did look very concerned as she talked to him slowly making sure he didn't pass out on them.
"Yes... Thank you, honestly." Tails replied as he put his hand on his heart before sighing in utter relief.
"Rob knows the drill quite well... I can trust that you will keep the kids in line, right?" Knuckles emphasized to the brunet before watching the brunet push his lady friend aside as he started to stand straight.
"Ya, ya. I'm surprised you trust me so much, though. This fox still doesn't get the idea that I'm on his side." He replied obnoxiously before annoyingly pointing his thumb at the irritated kitsune.
"Tails, please, by all means, respect Miran's guardian. He was picked by Chaos himself to do this job and for good reason. Even if you don't believe in destiny, I think he has enough stress to deal with as it is. Now let me see if I can get the Master Emerald to open up the entrance to the underground sacred temple." He explained before turning to the Master emerald and opening his arms up to begin his prayer.
"The servers are the seven Chaos... Chaos is power, enriched by the heart... The controller exists to unify the chaos! Please allow safe passage of Miran's guardian and his team through the temple." He exploded passionately as the rest of the time watched in complete ah.
Quickly a very low intense rumbling noise could be heard on the side of the altar as the Master emerald glowed a vibrant green. Waves of intense Chaos energy swept down the stairs as the hero's stood cowering in slight fear. After a few minutes, the sounds diminished radically and the crew stood up ready for further instruction. Rob took a large gulp as he looked down at to the forest below. The left side of the altar opened swiftly as the crew mentally prepared themselves for a dangerous venture.
"The entrance has been opened. Now remember, you are not to touch anything besides the items you came for. I do not want the AIPI getting on my ass for destroyed public property. Also, stay close to Rob. He knows a bit about the history so he should know, in general, where to go." Knuckles explained clearly before returning back to his typical relaxing pose against his beautiful emerald.
"Says the guy that had to be TOLD there are a prince and princess of Chaos." Rob replied before snickering slightly as he thought this was a pretty good insult.
"Don't get started with me, smart guy. Some things get lost in translation and when you have something passed down for many generations, information gets lost and sometimes even replaced. Now get going! Sonic's life and the life of this planet rests in your hands. Away with you." He finished firmly as a flick of his hand gave quick notification that the crew better get going.
"Okay. Thank again, Knuckles. Keep the emerald safe." Amy replied kindly before walking over to Rob and nodding at him slightly.
The brunet responded with a slight wave, commanding the group to follow. They quickly rushed down the stone stairs as they all ran to the side of the altar. A secret door had pried itself open. Inside the complete darkness was some very ancient stairs that were barely visible.
"I wonder how deep it goes... They must have wanted to keep this place safe. It looks absolutely horrifying." Rouge contemplated out loud before looking over at Rob for some kind of answer.
"Well, I assume it goes as deep as the island or else we would fall down to the town." He replied slyly before releasing a half-sarcastic laugh.
"You're funny... Anyway. Anyone have some kind of lighting device?" Tails said sarcastically as he looked through his bag before noticing he didn't bring a flashlight.
"You said to bring tools to go underground and... You didn't bring a lighting device." Amy replied annoyedly before crossing her arms in slight disbelief.
(Of all the things you could have forgotten, Tails.)
"Don't worry babe. I gotcha covered! Rob to the rescue!" The brunet hedgehog replied confidently before giving her a slightly flirtatious wink.
Abruptly, Rob closed his eyes tightly and concentrated very carefully. Within a few second a bright light glimmered from his rings and into his hands.
"Woah... That's so cool." Rouge and Amy responded in pure wonder as both they're eyes beamed with curiosity.
"Chaos energy in its purest form. A little thing Shadow and I have perfected over the years. Now, is everyone ready?" The brunet asked heroically as he felt his ego growing larger every minute while he was around these easily impressed women.
"You're not going to explain how your hand just randomly burst into flames?" Tails replied back skeptically as he noticed no signs of his gloves burning meaning it must not actually have been that hot.
"Maybe when we have more time but right now I have a prince to save!" Rob replied assertively before taking a large deep breath and gazing down the long stairwell to what looked like hell.
They all glared at him frustratedly as even Amy seemed to kind of brush off his comment.
"We... I meant we..." The brunet chuckled slightly as he nudged both his lady friends uncomfortably.
"Sure sure..." Tails replied sarcastically as rolled his eyes causing Rob to growl in response.
They all collectively took a large and deep breath as they started down the very ancient and somewhat dangerous steps. They followed close to Rob as he was the only source of light when they got to the bottom. The place smelled like old almost mildew-like paper and damp soil. It was filled with dozens of little rooms each serving some kind of purpose unknown to the crew. Even though it was hard to see, the team knew it was practically barren with nothing left on the walls. Probably meaning pillagers came in and ripped the place apart, such a shame. As they walked through little critters crawled along the floors and walls scaring both the females into almost horrific silence. Most of the doors to these small rooms were locked shut but a few were wide open, allowing the group to see into them. They looked fairly empty but all had a small bookcase, little pedestal only 6 inches above the ground and a blurry, old, huge and expensive looking painting. What could have possibly been the use of these rooms... Finally, they arrived at the biggest set of doors they had seen so far. Both of them were covered in gems and the chaos emerald locater started beeping at an insane frequency. They all tried pushing against them but they would not budge a centimeter.
"Ugh, we came through all these icky bugs for nothing..." Amy whined sadly as she tried to brush off all the cobwebs strung across her dress.
"I wouldn't give up so easily Miss Rose." Rob replied slightly caringly as he gently closed his eyes before concentrating deeply like he did before.
He could feel the power traveling from the bottom of his spine and rocketing up to his inhibitor rings. Before long they were complete charged and the brunet was ready to release.
"Chaos spear!" He exclaimed as the forceful beam of light collided with the door, not leaving a dent in it.
"What the HELL do you think you're doing?! You're going to destroy this beautiful artifact of ancient Mobian life!" Tails exploded as he smacked the back of the brunet's head before growling in complete ferocity.
"If that was the case, it would have been destroyed years ago. You see how very little stuff is left? I bet people have tried desperately to destroy this door. Now look." Rob countered before standing his ground and nodding his head.
A few clicking noises could be heard inside the door as one click led to another. Finally, the door unlocked itself and all the members rejoiced... Well besides Rob of course.
"What's wrong hon...?" Rouge queried gently as she noticed the immediate panic and fear in his eyes when his plan actually worked.
"Well it's just... My entire life... I have been waiting to figure out what everything means... Why I was created with no family or bloodline... Why I have been chosen for this really challenging and frustrating purpose. This might just give me the answers. I mean I know almost everything about Shadow but I have little knowledge of how I was involved with him." The brunet hedgehog stuttered slightly as he couldn't seem to regain control of this powerful sense of terror.
"Are you saying you're scared of knowing the truth?" The bat replied calmly as she gently patted Rob's back.
"Absolutely horrified. But I must for both my princess and Voziti." He answered strongly before gazing over to Tails and Amy before taking a large deep breath.
They all looked at each other before nodding... Whatever was behind that door had not been looked at in probably thousands of years... They knew it was going to be big. Finally, after some mild delay, they placed their hands against the door and pushed as hard as they could. Squeaky noises of a very ancient door echoed through the sacred temple as the door slowly opened. Finally revealing what exactly the ancients were studying this entire time... They could barely see anything at the moment but after some general touching, they noticed there were torches hanging around everywhere. Rob quickly used chaos spear to light them... One at a time, before they could see everything. And the first thing Rob saw was a huge beautiful watercolor painting made with only the best paint. In the picture were five posing figures. The only character he really recognized was Miran, standing in her beautiful and elegant midnight black dress. He also recognized what looked to be like a younger version of himself. Placed right beside Princess Miran was a golden hedgehog with a very vibrant green princely outfit on with very crisp emerald green irises. Finally, Rob tried to interpret the two other members which he hadn't really recognized. After a few seconds of contemplation, his eyes widened as he could not believe what he was witnessing. They looked eerily familiar and he took a large gasp of air as he realized who they probably represented.
"How is this possible... Maria... AND... Ivo?!"