Flicky Flyby

Uh, anyway, continuing the story from where my wife left off...

Ah, yes... flicky Island. Been while since I had been back there, nice place. It's home to a race of Semi-intelligent birds called the flickies- magical little creatures that have the ability to open warp rings, and teleport anyone anywhere on earth, with but a thought. Sonic once saved the birds of this island from Dr Eggman many years ago, during the so-called '3D blast' incident, and Amy Rose once protected a Flicky who was carrying a chaos emerald from a robot named Zero. These birds are quite intelligent for normal animals; I once heart of a flicky that used it's brains to protect a whole flock of chicks from being ponced on by a bunch of orange cats. Going to these birds' island home was always a treat, seeing the great stone ruins that dot the landscape. But the three of us were not happy to find that there were already other visitors on the island... ones who were already up to no good.

"Okay, you two!" I called out, taking Trip and Ray's hands, as we stood in the middle of a field, and a flock of flickys passed overhead. "They're getting ready to warp, so we need to get ready to jump"

"H-hold on tight, R-ray." My wife called out to him. "The f-flickies are o-opening the w-warp ring."

"You got it, Trip." By little bro smiled. The birds above us all concentrated, using their collective warping ability (it takes at least fifty of them in a flock to open a ring, one bird cannot do it alone) and a large warp ring opened ring in front of the flock. We ran and jumped though the ring before it closed. We expected to find ourselves in the warp and tropical paradise that was Flicky island, free of any worries or acres...

...what we found instead, was another sticky situation.

The island was a scene of chaos. There were robots, everywhere. Gathering up the flickies, and shoveling them into large glass storage containers. At first I thought these were Eggman's robots, and he was trying to take the flickies again to learn how to make artificial warp rings. But oh no, it wasn't Robotnik this time. I recognized the robot design, from schematics I had seen in Tail's workshop; these looked just like the gizords, the robot minions once used by the renegade echidna Nocturnus clan, but these Gizords seemed more primitive than the ones Tails described from the Twilight cage. These were obviously modern copies, but who would build such things?

"R-ray... Mighty d-dearest... w-we have to s-stop those r-robots!" My wife pleaded. "T-they are hurting those i-innocent creatures!"

We jumped into battle, and took the robots by surprise.

I, of course, began smashing the robots with my fists, and Trip spin-dashed the worthless scrap piles, while Ray began freeing the tiny little birds from their glass prisons. But the gizord-like robots quickly adapted, returning my punches with near-equal force, and the ones my wife was fighting copied her spin dash. They were matching us almost blow-for blow, and even though me managed to destroy quite a few of them, the mechanical monsters just kept coming.

"R-ray, t-there's too many of t-them!" My wife sputtered out, as she was swarmed from every direction. "G-get those f-flickys out of h-here!"

"It's a good thing you can't turn in to a dragon, dearest!" I snarled, punching one of the bots in the head, smashing it. "The last thing we need are these scrap piles copying that!"

The three of us fought on, my beloved turning into a spiked circular saw, and chopping several of the gizords to pieces. But their numbers soon were too much for the two of us, and Trip and I were captured.

"R-ray! G-get out of h-here!" My wife called out, after Ray had freed the last container of flickys. "G-get the birds to s-saftey!"

Nodding, Ray flew up with the flicky flock, who opened a warp ring, taking all of them to the safety of another part of the island. Trip and I, meanwhile, were subdued and taken prisoner by the gizord troops.

"Ugh, this is a a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into." I tell Trip, who gives me a silent nod. "Yeah, yeah. I know I've gotten us into worse before... though to be fair, that time we fought Wendy Witchkart and her goons was more Ray's doing than mine."

"Trying to place the blame on others is a poor stratagem for success, Mighty the armadillo." An albino echidna with onyx eyes and a black billowing cape walked into the room, the robots all deferring to him. "It is a feeble attempt to place your failings on others, and in doing so, never improve one's self."

"W-who are y-you?" Trip stuttered out, shocked at the sight of the one behind the gizord attack. "I-I thought Knuckles w-was the l-last of the e-echidnas..."

"Oh, he is the last of the Angel Island clan of echidnas, my dear. Though there are quite a few other tribes and nations of our people spread throughout the world." The white echidna chuckled. "I am from the Forbidden Zone clan, where I was once a humble alchemist... until an accident with a chaos energy experiment made me as you see me now." He gestured to his uniquie fur color. Now, I am one of the few of my people, who has opened his mind to the proper use of true power, and how it may be used to shape the destiny of this world."

"I know exactly who you are, you angry an echidna like you could have found these gizord, and gotten them working again." I snap in anger, recognizing the villain from Knuckles's reports he had filed back at Chaotix headquarters (yes, I'm still a reserve member). "You're Dr. Zachery Finitevus, the mad scientist who is obsessed with chaos energy, and using it to destroy and re-create the world!"

"Oh, come now... obsessed seems like such a strong word!" Finitevus replied, raising his hands defensively. "I merely wish to use the power others fear to help our world evolve... even if a few weaklings get eliminated along the way."

"Y-you want t-to get -rid of the w-weaK?" My wife looked upon our captor in horror. "Y-you're a terrible p-person. J-just like E-eggman or F-fang!"

"Ohhh, come on now. How can you possibly compare me to that petty tyrant, and the brutish leader of the hooligans?" He walked over, and put a hand on my wife's cheek. "I merely want to make this world a better place, even if I have to destroy it first, in order to do so. Surely, as one of the last of the Sungazer lizard guardians, you see why this world is desperate, and crying out for renewal?"

"T-this w-world doesn't need b-bad people l-like you ruining it!"My wife hissed, snapping at his hand with her sharp teeth. "If I w-were in dragon form r-right now, I-I'd barbecue you f-for trying to hurt t-those p-poor flickies!"

"Hmph, it appears mating with this brutish armadillo has made you just as savage as he, my dear." Finitevus sighed. "Your superior genes will be wasted on the offspring you will produce this knuckle-dragging primitive. Such a shame you chose to imprint on him, and join your soul to his."

If looks could kill, the death glare trip gave that villain would have burned a hole right through that villain. "You don't want to know what she's feeling about you right now, Zachery. There are curse words in her thoughts right now, even I won't repeat."

"It matters little what you two think of me, so long as you both serve your purpose." The pale echidna told us, motioning for the guards to bring us over to him. "Now, I'm sure you will recognize what this is?"

He pulled out a pair of bracelets, joined by a sparkling energy band, and clacked one end onto Trip and I's right wrists.

"These are sling rings, tools that adventurers use to stay together while exploring, by puling along the partner who falls behind." I explain allowed, to no one in particular. "The other Chaotix and I used them during the carnival island caper years ago."

"Right you are, you freakishly strong brute." He smiled, gesturing for our Gizord captives to release us. "But this pair is filled with a liquid explosive, and rigged to a detonator in my possession." He grinned devilishly. "should you fail to follow my commands, or try to break out or escape, I shall detonate the bands, killing you both."

"W-what do you w-want from u-us?" My wife sputtered out. "We have nothing of v-value to g-give you."

"See these ruins over here? These were built by the ancient owl warriors, an offshoot of the Babylon birds, of which the legendary warrior Longclaw was the last." He gestured to a set of crumbling ruins nearby. "I want you two to descend into these ruins, and retrieve the deep power stone buried deep under flicky island!"

"So that's what you're after! You want the stones's power, so you can use and abuse it in one of your mad schemes to remake the world!" I exclaim, scowling at the evil echidna. "If my beloved wife's life were not in peril, there's not a snowball's chance in Dark Gaia's hell I would even be considering helping you right now!"

"Ahhhh, but you really DON'T have a choice, do you? Neither of you do, really. Not if you each want to keep the person you love the most alive." Zachery laughed evilly. "Now, you two had better begin your descent into the deep and dark labyrinth far below this island. Tough I would strongly caution to watch out for the traps and guardians placed down there to watch over the stones, if I were you."

"Really, why do you need us?" I ask defiantly, a smug smile on my face. "Why not just have you little lackeys, the destructix, go down and get the stone for you?"

"My destructix servants are currently locked away in an islander prison, a result of my last battle with my arch-nemesis, that arrogant guardian, Knuckles." He adjusted the tiny spectacles resting on his face. "Besides, they may still be of some use to me in the future. You two, however, are quite expendable." He held up the detonator in his hand. "Now, I suggest you two get down there, before my fingers slips on the button."

With a sigh, I look to my wife. She nods to me silently, and we both turn and slowly begin walking towards the entrance to the entrance of the ancient labyrinth together. But as we get near the entrance, we both stop, and looked back at the surprised echidna.

"Just one more thing, doctor..." I start. "...we won't be staying captives forever, and when we do find away to get out of this current situation-"

"-you will pay dearly for threatening us." My wife finished my sentence, forcing herself not to stutter so she would seem intimidating. And as the two of us finally entered the ancient doorway, and started down the steps, I like to think the echidna villain standing behind us was just a little nervous and upset and the terrible error in judgement he was just about to make...