Prolouge: Mighty meets his match
(The Northstar Islands, fifteen years after Sonic and his friends had their adventure there)
(Author's note: if you read the story sonic aftergame first, you can skip this chapter, as it covers ground from that story)
"Okay, buddy! These are the islands you and your little squirrel pal wanted left off at, right?" The human cargo pilot looked back at the two islanders, sitting in the cargo hold. "You sure you want to just jump out? You paid me really well for this flight, I can land down there for you, ya know."
Mighty and Ray's only response was to thank the pilot who had flown them here, then both leap out of the open cargo bay door on the plane together at thirty thousand feet. Two skilled and trained islander fighters such as themselves could easily survive this fall, a fact which the flying squirrel proved by opening his arms, and staring a gentle glide down towards the island. The armadillo, meanwhile, took out his extreme gear board, and glided on down to the surface in style. The two touched down on the island near the beach, and had a look around at all of the tropical beauty surrounding them.
"Ah, so this is Crescent Isle, largest of the Northstar Islands." Mighty exclaimed, stretching his arms widely after such a long fall. "Sonic told me about this place during our last adventure with him, looks like it will be a perfect place to do some training, and take in the beauty of Nature!"
"Ohhh, I wanna go explore!" Ray called out excitedly, zipping around over the armadillo's head. "Can I go have a look around while you set up? Can I? Can I?"
"All right, little buddy, you go ahead." Mighty replied with a laugh, starting to get the tent set up. "Just be careful, we don't know who or what is out there."
The eager little squirrel zipped away, and mighty continued to set up the tent. They were quite a pair, Mighty mused, the physically strongest islander on the planet, stronger even than Knuckles the echidna, and a crazy hyperactive flying Squirrel. Much like Sonic and his little pal Tails, the two of them wandered wherever the wind took them.
It hadn't always been that way, of course. Mighty had been born into a normal Armadillo family; with his father Blockhead Bill, and his older sister, Matilda. The armadillo's mom had passed away from NIDS when he was just a baby, and Mighty had begun showing his freakishly powerful strength from an early age. Both his father and his sister were freaked out by him, despite the words of the village shaman that his strength might come from being a champion chosen by the chaos emeralds. So, Mighty left home at an early age to become a wanderer. His first adventure came when he and two other islanders, Sonic and Ray, were abducted by the evil doctor Robotnik, and forced to run through a series of laboratory tests on an isolated island so the mad scientist could gather data on them. The trio managed to escape together, and Ray and Mighty decided to stay together, after Sonic continued on his journey.
The flying squirrel was an orphan, and so mighty became like a big brother to him. The two wandered the world for a while, until they met up with Knuckles and the Chaotix for an adventure on carnival island, where they defeated Dr. Eggman and a powered-up version of metal Sonic (Ray stayed back on Angel island for his own safety on that one). Mighty and Ray then spent a while with the Chaotix under Knuckle's brief leadership, then went their own way after Knuckles left the group. A little more wandering brought them into another adventure with Sonic and his friends, involving some kind of wired phantom ruby, but after that gem was destroyed, Mighty and Ray started their wandering again.
Mighty thought back on all of these adventures, as he finished putting the tent up. But as he stood up to look around at the surrounding treeline, the armadillo couldn't shake the feeling he was being... watched. as if there was someone out there in the trees, studying his every move from hiding. He considered going out to take a look, before Ray came zooming back to the campsite.
"Mighty Mighty, you're not going to believe it!" The flying squirrel shrieked excitedly. "There is a whole bunch of stuff on this island! There's an amusement park, some ruins, and even an abandoned factory here! I can't believe-"
"Whoah, whoah, Ray! Slow down, little buddy!" Mighty laughed, raising his hands. "Those are probably mostly leftover buildings and stuff from Eggman's time here. Did you actually see anybody on the island?"
"Nah, you and I are the only ones here." Ray stopped and thought for a moment. "Actually, I thought I saw this weird person in armor trying to sneak around, but it must've been my imagination."
"Hmm, I'm not so sure." Mighty replied, scanning the treeline suspiciously. "Keep an eye peeled, little buddy. I've got the feeling that we are not alone here..."
For the next several days, the pair of heroes explored more and more of the island together. Mighty was shocked at how large some of the non-intelligent animals on the island got- far larger than the animals on the other islands or the continents. He and Ray explored the twisty pathways of the bridge island zone on the coast, taking in the beauty of the rainbows and waterfalls. But neither of them could escape the feeling that they were being watched from nearby. This came to a head when the pair were going down a narrow pathway through the edge of the jungle.
"Hm, looks like our silent companion is behind us." Mighty whispered to Ray, looking back at the shadow moving through the trees without much stealth. "You see them?"
Ray looked back over his shoulder, and could glimpse a figure behind them. "Yeah, I see em'. What ya wanna do?"
Stealing brief glances back, they could both see the stranger was a slightly short figure, wearing a bronze helmet, bronze breastplate, black tights, and bronze boots, while carrying a spear. The figure moved through the jungle very clumsily, and without much stealth. Mighty and Ray nodded to each other, then quickly dashed backward, rushing up right into the face of their mysterious armored follower.
"Hello there." Mighty said, a smirk on his face."Can we help you?"
"HI!" Ray said simultaneously. "What's your name?"
The figure, startled by their sudden movement, let out a squeak and tumbled backwards, and disappeared down a semi-deep hole. Looking down into the darkness, Mighty and Ray heard loud pitiful wailing and sobbing coming from deep in the hole.
"Oh no, it's a girl... an islander girl." Mighty suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over him. "Wait here, little buddy, I'm gonna go fish her out."
Mighty then jumped down the hole, and before the armored figure could react, scooped her up into his arms, and leapt back up onto the surface.
"I'm very sorry about that, miss, we didn't mean to startle you." Mighty apologized, setting the girl down. "But you were following us around the island and were hiding, and didn't know if you were friend or foe."
"Hey Mighty! This must be that girl who lives alone on the island, that Amy Rose told us about!" Ray exclaimed, looking over at the armored female. "Your name is Trip!"
The armored figure- Trip- perked up at the mention of Amy's name, pointing to herself and nodding.
"So you're trip, huh? A pleasure to meet you, Miss Trip." He bowed to her. "I'm really sorry to ask this, but we could really use a guide while on these islands..."
The next few months passed peacefully, with Mighty and Ray exploring every part of the island, along with training and exercise. After Mighty had saved her from the hole,Trip followed Mighty around almost everywhere on the island. She never spoke or removed her helmet, but she was always nearby, even setting up her own tent in the clearing next to Mighty and Ray's. Putting on a colorful and frilly apron, she started making pancake meals for them, which the pair greedily devoured, and then thanked her for. She would sit nearby and watch, while Mighty and Ray sparred and trained fighting with each other. And her jaw dropped in awe, when Mighty smashed huge rocks and boulders with his bare fists.
Oftentimes, Ray would go explore treetops, and would bring Trip back a gift of a fruit or a flower, which would make the little armored islander girl hug the flying squirrel joyously. On quiet nights, Mighty would sit under a tree, and read one of historical novels by lantern light (a pastime of his, few knew about) and Trip would often sit beside him, eventually resting her head on his shoulder, and falling asleep. Other times, Trip would repeatedly fall over from her clumsiness while showing them around the island, and Mighty would offer to carry her on his back. But the armored girl would always motion for the armadillo carry her in his arms like a princess, an action which Mighty would oblige.
Sadly, the ten months that the pair of friends were to spend training on the island was coming to an end. Mighty realized that he wanted to thank Trip for all that she had done for him before he and mighty said goodbye and left the island. He decided he should get her a really nice gift, but the flowers and fruits that he and Ray always gave her didn't seem to be enough of a thank you.
"Come on Mighty, she's the same age as you. It should be easy to think of a gift for her." The armadillo pondered thoughtfully. "Hmmm, perhaps if I check out the ruins of her people on the island, I might get an idea for a gift."
On the morning of the day they were to leave, Mighty asked Ray to take Trip over to the abandoned carnival to have a look around, to keep her distracted. Making his way to the half-sunken ruins of Lagoon City, Mighty began looking around through the ruins, for any idea how to thank the islander girl who had helped them so much. Mighty looked around at the sunken city in awe, built by the mighty tribe that Trip was apparently the last of. Not finding anything of value anywhere in the crumbling structures, the armadillo was just about to give up... when he noticed a very interesting painting on the wall.
The painting showed two figures, both wearing Trip's armor (though one was in bronze armor, the other gold), performing an elaborate dance while facing each other. At the end of the images of the dance, the two armored figures hugged each other.
"Hm, that must be a dance of friendship." Mighty concluded. "Performing it for Trip would be the perfect parting gift!"
Mighty took several hours, carefully studying each dance step, and copying its movement. By mid afternoon, the armadillo was sure he had all the steps down, and went racing back to camp to show Trip.
Trip and Ray had packed all the things from the camp, and the scheduled plane had landed nearby. Mighty came running up, and grabbed the armored girl by the hands. "Hey Trip, come over here, there's something I want to show you."
Pulling her aside, Mighty began to carefully perform the steps of the dance in front of Trip. Even though Mighty couldn't see it, a look of shock slowly spread across the armored girl's face as he danced. And when he had finished, she stood there for a few minutes, staring at him in surprise. Tears began to stream down Trip's face, and the armadillo began to worry he had done something wrong, when Trip suddenly began to perform the same dance in front of him. When she was finished, Trip suddenly threw off her armor and helmet, revealing a beautiful orange Sungazer lizard girl in a zigzag patterned dress. Weeping tears of joy as she smiled, Trip rushed up to embrace him...
... and placed a deep, warm kiss on the lips of the shocked armadillo.
Trip then placed something on the confused Mighty's hand, then rushed off into the jungle for a few minutes. She quickly came back with several suitcases, and began loading them onto the plane.
"Mighty, where the heck did you learn that dance?"The shocked Ray asked in disbelief. "Big brother, what the heck did you just do?!"
Mighty looked down at the hand Trip had touched, and saw a golden ring with carvings on it. He then noticed a matching ring on the smiling and sobbing Trip's finger. The tumbler's in his brain turned over, and he finally realized what he had done.
"Uh oh..." Mighty muttered,as they all loaded the rest of the stuff on the plane, then sat down, the smiling Trip snuggling up next to him. "Ray, I think you just gained a new big sister-in-law."
The armadillo then realized, whatever happened next, his life would definitely be more interesting from now on.