This time, Sonic woke up before Tangle.
His reunion with Knuckles had not gone the way he'd expected. Nothing could have prepared him for the way his heart leapt inside as soon as he met the echidna's gaze, and how fast that feeling came crashing down upon witnessing Knuckles' mood take a sudden shift.
His eyes had been dark – and Sonic wasn't sure what emotion had exactly filled them.
Sonic shook his head, a plethora of questions eating away at him. They were enough of a motivator to get out of bed quickly – he had someone he needed to seek out.
…
"Rise and shine, Knucklehead."
Knuckles lay fast asleep in front of the emerald, so Sonic shook his shoulder.
"AH!" Knuckles exclaimed, eyes snapping open as he threw his fist towards Sonic's face. The hedgehog managed to back up just in time to duck underneath the blow.
The echidna scrambled to his feet, fists at the ready. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THE-! Oh…"
His expression dropped into alarm, and his cheeks grew red. "Oh. S-sorry, Sonic – I didn't realize-"
"What? That you're paranoid? I did." Sonic teased with only a mild annoyance, elbowing Knuckles' side. "How'd you sleep?"
"Good, I'd say." Knuckles replied. "You? You're not usually up this early."
"Guess you could say I had a good dream." Sonic admitted. "Managed to meet up with my old timeline pals… they're all safe. That's the important thing."
"That must be a relief." Knuckles smiled.
"You have no idea." Sonic said. "By the way, Knux – can I ask you an odd question this time in the morning?"
"Sure." Knuckles said, stretching his arms. "That's what you probably woke me up for anyway, right?"
"You got it." Sonic nodded. "So, like – all those powers of yours – the flashy chaos energy stuff – how did you get those abilities? You weren't born with them, were you?"
Knuckles shook his head. "Nope. I had to go through a ritual when I became an adult to claim my powers."
"Okayyyy… so is this like a Guardian thing?" Sonic questioned; eyebrow raised.
"It's how you officially claim the title." Knuckles further explained. "I wasn't really the Guardian until my latest birthday, I just acted as it because… well, not exactly like anyone else could do it. It's my birth right, anyway."
Sonic scratched the top of his head. "So, riddle me this – why does my version of you not have these powers? He's the same age as you, so like?"
Knuckles blinked a few times, and his brows furrowed as he tried to come up with a possible theory. His internal speculation brought no results – so he replied with uncertainty. "I don't know. That's… kind of weird."
"You got no idea at all how that came to be?" Sonic prompted further, wanting to leave the conversation with some sense of clarity on an answer.
"I can only think of two possible answers." Knuckles said. "One – he didn't decide to go through with the ceremony, for whatever reason. Or two – he was deemed unworthy of the position by his ancestors."
Sonic's eyes narrowed. "What does the latter entail?"
"Um, well – he could have broken one of the rules that a Guardian needs to follow before the powers can be claimed. Never leaving the island out of self-interest, never having the emerald break under his watch, and he should never actually use the powers of the emeralds or Master Emerald."
Sonic smacked his lips to fill the awkward silence. "Ah."
"Ah? What do you mean ah?"
"I think I see the problem… wait, so you're supposed to not use the emeralds… until you turn 18, and then you can suddenly use the power of the Master Emerald now."
"Yeah?" Knuckles said, as though there wasn't an obvious contradiction. "The rules are more like a test to prove your ability – they don't apply once you've claimed your title." He explained.
"This sounds like a real stupid test." Sonic remarked dryly.
Knuckles shook his head. "I don't think so – simple guidelines to show you have discipline, restraint, and dedication!" Knuckles proclaimed, bringing his hand to his chest proudly.
"Sounds like all you got out of it was a lonely childhood." Sonic said bluntly.
"It's necessary, I'm afraid." Knuckles said, still certain in the path his ancestors had laid out for him.
"Nope. Not at all." His mind was drifting back to his version of Knuckles – and how it was clear he had broken just about all of those guidelines. Did that make Knuckles bad at his job? No! Not at all! Sonic was sure that breaking all those rules was necessary for saving the world – and basically necessary to keeping Knuckles' sanity.
Those rules were cruel, a prison to keep him caged! Thank God that his Knuckles broke the rules! Sonic wanted to punch whatever old echidna was responsible for ever coming up with them.
"Wait!" Knuckles' eyes widened, bringing Sonic back to reality. "Are you saying that other me was deemed unworthy?!" He abruptly exclaimed, putting the pieces together.
"Nah. You're both Guardians."
"That's vague-"
"Good morning!"
Their heads turned towards the sound of Tangle's voice coming from a few steps below. Sonic waved back at her cheerily, while Knuckles still chose to stare at Sonic.
"Morning, Tangle!"
"You two are up nice and early." She then gasped. "Are you discussing war plans?! I want in!" She exclaimed eagerly.
"Uh, we weren't, but we can certainly start-" Sonic said.
"Cool! So, how are we-?"
"Tangle." Knuckles interrupted her. "Come up here. No point in us talking down to you" He tilted his head, indicating to her that she was free to move up the steps and be with them next to the emerald.
Tangle beamed, knowing that she'd at least earned his trust, and immediately leapt by their side.
"As for how we're going to go about this… I think I have a plan, actually." Knuckles said to them, and their ears perked up with intrigue. "But we should discuss this with our other fighters too."
Tangle the Lemur wandered through the empty streets of Spiral Hill Village – no destination in mind. Her hands rested at her side, each step was large and lazy – almost a skip as she swayed.
Despite being alone, she smiled – she had all the reason to.
Being the only soul alive to wonder the cobblestone, there was no way that any of Eggman's robots could miss her. They had to take notice, they had to pay attention.
Good.
"ORGANIC LIFE FORM DETECTED."
Five Egg Pawns rushed out in front of her, causing Tangle to stop into her tracks – her smile never faltering.
"UNAUTHRORISED ABSENCE DURING CITIZEN WORKING HOURS. INITIATING CAPTURE. ALERTING NEAREST EGG BOSS."
They aimed their laser cannons at her, but before they could fire – they would be interrupted.
Two bolts of blue energy were fired – shooting down two of the Egg Pawns.
Tangle looked towards the source – seeing Whisper primed and ready with her weapon, prepared to engage – just as planned.
The lemur cracked her knuckles, giving Whisper a confident grin before jumping up and bashing one of the Pawns right on top of its head with her tail.
"REQUESTING BACKUP-" An Egg Pawn announced, before promptly being battered by the lemur's tail – toppling into the last remaining robot so that none were left standing.
This was only the beginning.
"For this movement to be successful, people have to be able to take it seriously." Knuckles addressed the group. He stood in the middle of the cave, while Sonic sat on the bed – kicking his legs. Tangle sat on the floor; knees hugged up to her chest as she practically rocked with excitement.
"For that to happen – we need to guarantee our first move is a victory." Knuckles said.
"We can do this!" Tangle exclaimed, and while not adding anything to the conversation, her optimism was appreciated by some. Whisper smiled softly – sat on the floor a couple of feet away.
The room wasn't as full as Sonic would like it to be – the Chaotix had chosen to sit this one out and instead spend some time with the kids. It was understandable enough since things weren't looking great between them.
Knuckles nodded. "We need to target a small area first – prove we know what we're doing. We can liberate those enslaved by the Empire and bring them back to Angel Island in record time with Shadow and I's warping capabilities."
Sonic gave a thumbs up of approval.
"Have you decided what area we're gonna tackle, then?" Rouge asked, sat on the same bed as Sonic – just at the opposite end.
"You guys know the surface world better than I do." Knuckles reminded them. "It's best that you guys start brainstorming ideas."
"Um…" Whisper began to speak up, but seemingly thought better of it. Her head shifted towards Tangle awkwardly, and she spoke to her. "You… when we spoke – you mentioned your home village? Would that… work?"
"That… huh. Yeah, actually. I think that reasonable." Tangle said. "My village, Spiral Hill, is small – and it was turned into a place that mainly has factories for food packaging. The area's too small to have a designated Egg Boss of their own – so they have a head officer in each factory that also helps make sure everyone's following the rules out of work too." Tangle explained. "And these guys aren't exactly trained to fight all that much – not like an Egg Boss, so we'll have a much easier time with only robots to worry about."
"How are we going to get there initially?" Knuckles questioned.
"Board a train in Station Square." Rouge said, helping to support Tangle's ida "Not hard to do, we can sneak on – I know what train we'll need to catch."
"Sounds promising then." Knuckles acknowledged, seemingly impressed by their contributions. "If we're all in agreement on that, we can move on to discussing how we'll go about the attack itself."
"Good afternoon!"
There were posts littered throughout the street, grey megaphones attached to the top so that news and orders could be broadcasted across the village.
Instead of the usual announcer, Rouge the Bat had taken their post in the command tower – having dropkicked the previous announcer and left his unconscious body lying on the floor.
She kept her voice cheery. "It is my pleasure to announce to you that you will no longer be working for the abhorrent Empire! Please stand by – our team will take care of the problems impeding you, and we will be escorting you right to safety… right to freedom."
Rouge was having a lot of fun.
These same megaphones were also planted in the corners of the factories themselves. Workers did not look up from their conveyor belts despite the stranger's words, knowing what would happen if they stopped working – even if jus for a second.
But things were about to change.
In one of these workshops, Shadow emerged from a dark corner – boosting towards the Egg Pawns watching the workers' every moves. He pierced through two of them with a single chaos spear before jumping into a ball and using a homing attack against another.
In the next building down, Sonic was doing much of the same – his cocky grin infamous and undeniable. He kicked down a robot before spin dashing into another – sending the Egg Pawn flying before it abruptly crashed into the ground.
The two hedgehogs moved fast, moving from building to building – trying to get to everyone before they got hurt – gathering everyone out into the streets while the girls kept the robots at bay.
"This is supposed to be a statement, right?" Rouge questioned. "Like it's our official declaration of war. How are people going to take notice if we free up one tiny village? The Empire's propaganda censoring is insane."
"Fair point, Rouge. But if I may speak from experience – I know Eggman." Sonic said with confidence. "He's not going to see this as some slip up in his Empire that he needs to hide. Nope – he's going to see us a challenge, a threat to everything he's built – and he's going to take it seriously. He'll build up an army and prove that he can defeat us – because his ego needs that stroke." Sonic was almost disturbed that he knew Eggman so well that he could predict his reactions – but he supposed that was what happened after spending so long fighting your nemesis.
"Aaand he's mostly going to be pissed because I'm there. He'll go crazy and get tunnel vision – he'll want everyone involved in this war, and for everyone to see him defeat me in front of their eyes." Sonic added.
"If you say so, Sonic. You're the expert." Rouge shrugged, and in no way was it patronizing – seeming to actually have trust in the blue blur. She seemed a bit more at ease around him now compared to most others – likely because Sonic was the most eager to forgive her and get her involved in things.
Rouge changed the subject. "And if we want to be a legitimate force standing against our almighty dictatorship – we need a stronger identity, don't we? We don't even have a name."
"Heh…" Sonic rubbed the back of his head. "I remember you asked us to brainstorm rebel names a while ago, Tangle – but I honestly haven't put much thought into it-"
Tangle chuckled a little. "It's alright, my dude! I… I think I actually might have a name for us in mind, actually."
It couldn't have been going better.
Citizens, hesitantly, spoke to each other as they were gathered in huddles outside. They whispered to each other frantically.
"Who are these people?"
"Why are they fighting the robots? Are they insane?!"
"Where did they come from?"
"Why are they helping us?"
"Are we really safe?"
"We're done, Shads!" Sonic exclaimed to the dark hedgehog as they ran by each other. "Let's scout around and get to the girls to make sure all the bots are taken care of-!" Sonic cut himself off when his eyes darted up to look at the sky.
"Actually, Shadow… you go to the girls. I'm going to take care of these hunks of junk." Sonic told him, suddenly disappearing by tucking himself into a ball and jumping high in the air.
Shadow's eyes followed him, and saw the hedgehog's balled form jumping between a horde of buzz bombers in the air – bouncing into them and exploding each as they went.
"Tch." As much as he had no interest in following orders, Sonic had that covered. There was no need for Shadow to intervene – so he'd continue to scout, skating ahead.
Sonic untucked once the last wasp robot was dealt with – landing back on the ground swiftly in front of the crowd of civilians.
"W-what's going on?" Someone spoke up.
"Thank you for saving us…" Another added.
"Don't worry, guys." Sonic assured them, grinning. "We're here to save you and look after you. We're rebels – and we're done with that fat man's stupid regime! We're taking it down – starting today!"
Their mouths hung slightly open. It was as though this mysterious man had all suddenly appeared in their lives and had heard their deepest prayers and wishes for freedom – and he had heeded their call.
…
An Egg Hammer bot, standing tall – attempted to bring its hammer down on top of Tangle.
"No, you don't!" Tangle exclaimed confidently, prying the hammer out of its hand with the end of her tail – before then pulling it back and tossing the hammer at the robot's chest – denting its chest beyond repair and causing it to crumple to the ground.
Whisper maintained her high vantage point on top of the roof, aiming her weapon up high and shooting down a host of Buzz Bombers in the air.
"Ack-!" Tangle exclaimed in surprise, feeling something tug at her tail. She was then tossed by a robot she hadn't previously noticed – another Egg Hammer entering the fray,
Her body skidded across the ground, grazing her skin as she winced in pain. The robot aimed its missiles at her so that it could take advantage of her vulnerability.
Shadow wouldn't give the robot the chance, diving at its back and ramming a chaos spear right through its chest.
"Gah-!" Tangle exclaimed painfully as she pulled herself up off the ground. "Thanks for the save, dude!"
"Hmph." He didn't give a proper response, instead choosing to scan his surroundings for more enemies.
"Not much of a talker, I see…" Tangle added awkwardly to fill the silence.
"Are you alright?" Whisper called down with concern.
"Aha! Yeppers! Don't worry about me!" Tangle quickly confirmed to put the wolf's mind at ease. Getting hit by a robot like that in front of such a cool girl was a little embarrassing…
They all heard footsteps – and they turned to the source of the noise, seeing that Rouge was running towards them – and by the way her hair was frizzled, it seemed like she had also been involved in a few fights. "Sonic's headed this way with the civilians!" Rouge informed them. "Let's get the path clear for them, yeah?"
"I think we've taken care of most of it." Tangle told her. "But let's move!"
The four dashed ahead – Shadow much faster than the rest.
…
While Knuckles was at the far end of the village, he had hardly been left out – he launched spears and beams at hosts of Egg Pawns that tried to enter the village in response to half the robots already there requesting backup.
He was acting as the wall, keeping the additional enemies out so that the group could focus more on just evacuations.
Using his energy was coming even easier to him than before, in fact – he felt the energy burning through his veins much more potently since he'd used the Emerald last to help Sonic.
He supposed he had him to thank for that. It was certainly going to be handy for them all now.
Knuckles let out a roar of anger, picking up one of the last remaining Egg Pawns and throwing it at the two others – toppling them down like dominoes.
"We're here, Knux!" The echidna heard Sonic call out.
"Just in time! I've cleared the last of them!" Knuckles told them.
Everyone was here, with minimal bruises and scratches – and while the civilians were, in fact, scared – they hadn't been caught in the crossfire. It had gone exactly as Knuckles had hoped it would.
"Great work!" Tangle chimed in, bouncing excitedly.
"Shadow." Knuckles looked over to the dark hedgehog, and he saw him glare back. Knuckles did not like Shadow at all, but Sonic was insistent that he was a good guy… somehow. "Let's make warping easier on ourselves. You warp one half of the civilians; I'll take the other."
Their ears perked at the sound of a sudden vibration.
They all identified it as coming from the sky – and when they looked up, they were immediately able to identify the source as a lone Buzz Bomber. Shadow summoned a spear into his hand and aimed it like a javelin, but Sonic placed a hand on his shoulder – a simple command for him to stop.
Shadow jerked his arm away from Sonic but understood the message – getting rid of his energy spear.
Sonic walked in front of everyone, his face the pinnacle of smugness.
The Buzz Bomber did not attack – instead it hovered in the air, watching over them.
Sonic knew exactly what this was.
"Hey, Eggman. I know you're watching…" Sonic said to the bot. "It's been a while since we've properly been able to go at it, wouldn't you say?" Sonic asked him. "I've missed this routine – you, constantly making more machines – and me and my friends busting them open." Sonic said confidently.
"I know you've missed our fights too." Sonic said lightly. "So, trust me, I ain't playing around anymore. I've got my team. We're going to tear down your Empire, Egghead – just you watch."
Sonic glared, clenching his fists.
"We are the Freedom Fighters."
Sonic liked the name. It rolled off the tongue, and hey – the alliteration was certainly a bonus.
It had a charm to it.
"We fight to liberate the people and bring back our homes and nature! We won't stand for your dictatorship anymore!" Sonic pointed at the Buzz Bomber.
"We declare war, Eggman." Sonic said. "Catch us if you can."
Knuckles' eyes shimmered a bright green, and he held out his palm – Eggman must have been confused on the other side at first, but eventually the robot turned around to look back at the streets.
Vines erupted from the ground. They burst through walls – growing giant as they wrapped around the empty houses and factories. The artificial was choked, and nature prevailed – small roses blossoming between the cracks of metal.
Several of the civilians were moved to tears – seeing nature again for the first time in years.
Was this a sign? Was there truly hope still left?
"Catch us if you can."
Vines erupted from the ground. They burst through walls – growing giant as they wrapped around the empty houses and factories. The artificial was choked, and nature prevailed – small roses blossoming between the cracks of metal.
Robotnik slammed his fist into the desk.
Miles' body tensed, practically frozen as he watched the doctor simmer with rage in his chair.
"It's always him…" Robotnik said.
The fox knew to stay quiet.
"Always… IT'S ALWAYS SONIC!" The doctor suddenly stood, swiping off all his papers from his desk – keyboards and books caught in the crossfire that all toppled harshly to the floor.
Miles couldn't really understand where his father was coming from. They barely knew the hedgehog, yet Robotnik spoke like they'd met thousands of times.
"My Emperor, I assure you that I am here to fulfil any job you need me to do." Miles dipped his head to him. "I will do it in a heartbeat."
"I have a task – and I expect you to prove to me that you're no longer a failure by completing it, you got that?" Robotnik turned around to the fox – and the young boy quickly nodded.
"Figure out how to kill that blue rat! I don't care how you do it – just make it HAPPEN!"
Miles' eyes widened, before his gaze steeled. "Of course. Of course, my Emperor!" He bowed his head again.
"A war… he's declared war!" Robotnik spat in disgust. "As though he and his scrawny friends have even the slightest hope of damaging the Empire! Ha! In their dreams!"
The fox was ready to smile and nod in agreement, but Robotnik's mood was sour. "What are you doing standing there, Miles?! GET TO WORK!" He snapped.
"My a-apologies!" Miles stuttered out, quickly turning, and fumbling for the handle of the door – eventually managing to open it and making out into the halls.
Miles took a moment to breathe.
"Miles!"
"Orbot?!" Miles exclaimed in panic – the robot suddenly in front of his face. "What do you want-?"
"We need to talk. Urgently." Orbot begged, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
"And I have urgent work to do." Miles said, brushing the robot aside to continue working on what his father had asked of him. "It can wait."
Miles' words left Orbot to stare after the fox in a disappointing silence. He had work to do, and it couldn't be delayed for what that tin can had to say.
His encounters with Sonic up until this point were brief… but he was certainly an interesting personality. Miles simply needed to find out what made him tick…
Hi there! Sorry for the wait on this update – my birthday happened, sickness happened, I started working on other stuff – yada yada.
Simple update today with action as war has been officially declared! Obviously we all know the name is a reference to the Freedom Fighters from SATAM/Archie pfft – but here Tangle can be credited for the name! Alliteration all the way baby.
I hope the transitions between the plan being enacted and the plan being thought up of wasn't too confusing. But basically the planning happened the same day as Knuckles and Sonic had their convo and their plan was actually carried out a few days later.
Their plan went super well and the team is working together! Can the team keep up their luck streaks? We'll certainly have to wait and see… meanwhile, Eggy is pissed and Miles has a new target.
Next time! Next chapter is longer… and has some of my favourite moments on the funnier side XD Hope you'll enjoy it!
As always – feel free to leave a review! I love reading them :) – but for now, see ya later!