Chapter 70; A whirl of a conflict, part 3
Knuckles felt the bright ray of the sun hitting his face.
Opening his eyes he found himself tugged in his bed in his house in Green Hills.
"What happened?" he wondered aloud.
He closed his eyes and tried to remember what happened.
"I… I fell" he remembered "that guy threw me off the cliff… but how… how did I survive that? How did I even get here?"
Getting off the bed, he looked outside. The town was just as he remembered it.
Shaking his head Knuckles tried desperately to remember anything after his fall. But nothing. Blank.
Rushing to the door he knew what he had to do.
"I gotta find Sonic and Tails. They must know what happened".
As he left home, Knuckles started racing down the street, heading for Tails' home first.
Along the way he passed by the neighborhood's corner shop. Several people were reading the news outside, others on newspapers and others on their phones. Regardless of which they read from, the topic they were discussing must have been very serious because no one even batted an eye to Knuckles appearing.
Making his way through the crowd he tried to get Tom the shop owner's attention.
"Hey Tom what's going on here? Why is everyone so upset?"
Tom didn't respond.
"Uuh.. earth to Tom. Hello?"
Still no response. Knuckles even tried to wave in front of Tom's eyes but still nothing.
"Why you ignoring me man?"
That was when he noticed that Tom was reading today's news too. His curiosity finally besting him, Knuckles read the headline.
Guardian of the seas reported dead.
"What?" Knuckles whispered opening his phone as well and finding the article.
The headline was indeed telling the truth. The legendary Lugia had been found dead at an illegal auction after being captured by team rocket and died from extreme mistreatment. More specifically continuous electrocution to remain subdued.
"What?!" Knuckles shouted but no one paid him any mind again "we failed?!"
Rushing out of the store, pushing a girl out of the way accidentally.
"I'm so sorry" he quickly apologized.
But the girl just stood up and continued reading. Again it was like Knuckles wasn't really there.
"What is happening?!" Knuckles grabbed his head in dizziness.
Needing an explanation desperastely, he rushed to Tails' house.
Heading immediately for Tails' workshop which was just the house's garage he found it in the worst possible state; abandoned. Full of dust and dirt. Like no one had lived there for a while.
Fearing the worst, Knuckles started banging on Tails' door repeatedly.
"Tails! It's Knuckles open up!"
Again nothing.
Knuckles losing his patience started punching the door repeatedly until it eventually was torn from its hinges.
The house was in no better shape either. More specifically it just as dirty and dusty as the workshop.
Knuckles took the scene in with a racing mind.
"What happened to Tails? He would never let this place go like that!"
Exiting the house, he started racing towards Sonic's house. Maybe Tails was living with Sonic and Jet's family for some reason.
Along the way he ran into Amy sitting on a bench alone.
"Amy? I can't believe I'm saying this after everything but am I glad to see you. Have you seen Tails?
Amy didn't respond. Upon examining her closer Knuckles noticed she was crying.
"Oh Sonic" she said during whimpers "I wish I had made things right when I had the chance".
Knuckles was now beginning to really worry. Sure Amy was trying to make amends in the worst way imaginable but she wouldn't cry over it.
Leaving her alone he finally arrived at Sonic's house. But what he found was worse than Tails'.
The house was abandoned. Entirely. To the point that thugs had drawn graffiti on the walls.
"What the actual heck?"
The echidna noticed the door was open. Or more specifically there was no door. It was gone.
Slowly walking in, he found the building's inside just like the outside. Dirty and full of graffiti.
Knuckles explored a little bit trying to figure out anything, find any clue on the whereabouts of his friends.
His search led his to the door in Sonic's room.
The door was locked. On the door was a note.
"Do not open. In honor of a fallen hero".
His eyes bulging and in complete denial, Knuckles broke the door down.
The room was in considerably better shape than the rest of the house. More specifically it was just as it would have been if Sonic still lived there, albeit covered in dust.
As Knuckles looked around, his eyes found all the newspaper clippings Sonic's family had collected over his adventures.
But there was one that wasn't pinned on the wall. It was left there by someone.
A headline from a magazine.
The headline read one phrase.
Hero of Kanto falls to team rocket.
Knuckles' legs gave out. He knelt and grabbed his head.
That couldn't possibly be happening. It was inconceivable. A nightmare.
Everything went black.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself back in his room. He lifted his head to look around and then rested it back on the pillow groaning.
"Please tell me I'm not caught in a time loop or something" he thought.
He then heard a sound coming from downstairs. Someone pacing around.
"What the?!" he thought as he jumped up instinctively.
The pacing went back and forth in the ground floor repeatedly.
"Someone is in my house!" Knuckles thought as he quickly donned his gauntlets, ready to defend himself.
Slowly walking down the stairs, he heard voices coming from the kitchen. He also felt a gust of wind coming from the kitchen.
"They broke in through the kitchen door" he thought as he put his fists up.
Walking sideways with his back against the wall as silently as he could, he took a deep breath.
Last fight had not gone so well but he would defend his house.
"You picked the wrong house fool!" he screamed as he charged in, grabbing the first person he came across.
Following the momentum, he shoved the one he grabbed against the counter, taking advantage of the stranger standing in front of the counter for no apparent reason.
"Ow, ow, ow" the stranger groaned.
"Thought you could sneak in and rob me?!" Knuckles said trying to be intimidate.
The stranger laughed with a hint of confusion.
"Rob you? Son why did you get up if you don't feel better yet?"
Knuckles tilted his head.
"What did you call me?"
The stranger looked over his shoulder.
"How else would I call my own son?" Locke the echidna said with a smile, clearly unbothered by Knuckles' seeming unprovoked and unreasonable attack.
Knuckles gasped and back stepped until his back bumped against the wall.
"What kind of sick joke is this?"
Locke straightened himself and looked at his son with a smirk mixed with confusion.
"Knuckles the food is not ready yet so maybe you should go rest some more".
Knuckles started waving his head left and right really quickly.
"No, no, no! This is a trick!" he said charging Locke.
Holding him at fistpoint his eyes were bloodshot in rage.
"Who are you?!"
"What's going on here?" a female voice asked concerned.
Knuckles looked to the source of the voice.
The gasp this time echoed through the house.
A female echidna was standing at the door.
"Dear are you ok?" she approached Locke.
"Yeah don't worry Lara-le. Our boy is just a little confused that's all",
Knuckles felt himself slipping into insanity.
"Who the hell are you people?!"
"You people? Knucky I never raised you to talk like that!"
Knucky.
Knucky.
The word echoed in his mind over and over.
That was not possible.
No one used that nickname for Knuckles.
No one except…
"Mom?" Knuckles whispered in disbelief "Dad?"
Lara-le and Locke smiled at their son in pride.
Knuckles cautiously approached them.
"Is it really you?"
"Of course we are son" Locke assured him.
Knuckles' pupils rolled around in his eye sockets as he processed this.
"But… if you're here… I fell… then… that must mean I'm…"
They nodded. Knuckles was now sure.
His fall from that cliff had killed him. It had to have.
Lara-le put her palm on his cheek.
"You've grown up so much sweetheart".
Knuckles felt her warm palm with his huge fist and could hold his tears no longer. It was them. Right in front of him. After all this time.
"I'm sorry" he said as hugged Lara-le.
As Lara-le caressed him, she spoke softly.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for sweetheart".
"You never had to die… it never had to be this way".
"It wasn't your fault son" Locke comforted Knuckles "so you don't have to be sorry".
"We're all ok here Knuckles" Lara-le assured him.
"All?" Knuckles broke the hug, looking at her in question.
As Lara-le moved herself out of the way, allowing Knuckles to observe at the backyard, he saw someone else he recognized.
His second mother, his grandmother, Jenna-lu.
As Jenna-lu was serving the homemade food and setting up the family table, she saw Knuckles from afar and waved with a huge smile.
Knuckles waved back. A huge smile etched on his face as well.
They were all here. They were all happy. Away from his toxic grandfather, Athair.
"Yes my boy" Lara-le said again "we're all ok here".
Knuckles looked into her eyes. If he was really dead there was only one thing he wanted.
"Can I come? Can I join you?"
"Of course".
Knuckles shed another tear. A feeling of bliss filled his entire being. He took one step forward.
He was about to take the second step before he felt something push against his chest.
He looked down to see his mother preventing him from going any forward.
"But not yet".
"What?" he whispered in confusion.
Lara-le pointed at the front door of their house at the end of the hallway.
"You still have a purpose here".
Knuckles felt his heart break. Again.
He had finally found his parents and they were asking him to let them go again?
"A purpose for what? My life is empty. Every day the life that was taken from us dominates my mind. What have I even got to live for? "
Locke smirked. He handed Knuckles a polaroid photo.
"We all forget sometimes son" he began saying as Knuckles took the photo.
It was of Knuckles, Sonic and Tails. The photo was one of the many they had taken throughout their Johto journey.
"That the reasons to continue on even in the darkest of times are all around us. We just need to know where and how to look".
Knuckles' hands started shaking. What was he doing?
The answer was already known to him.
He was just about to abandon his friends. His comrades.
His brothers.
His parents were right. He indeed had a purpose still.
Locke smiled. He knew Knuckles remembered now. He looked at his wife indicating the inevitable.
Lara-le shed a tear. Even though she knew how it had to be, seperating from her boy was unbearable.
"My little Knucky" she hugged him tightly "I love you so much and I'm so proud of you".
"I love you too mom" he hugged her back.
"Never forget son" Locke wrapped his arms around his wife and Knuckles "we love you. And your friends, your brothers love you. So go save them alright?"
Knuckles savored the moment, a part of him in peace in knowing it was a till next time and not a goodbye.
As the hug was broken however, he realized the last words of his father.
"Save them?" was all he managed to say before the ground collapsed below him.
"Aaaaaah!" Knuckles screamed as he fell forever.
The shock was so was great he was jolted awake.
Coughing, he spat out the sea water and looked around.
He was outside cave, on the island's shore.
Taking deep breaths he tried to pull himself together.
"What… was that? Was it real? Or was it in my head?"
"Of course it was inside your head dummy" a voice answered.
Knuckles looked around shook up. No one was around.
"Who's there?"
The voice responded again after a while.
"But who's to say it has to be one or the other right?"
"Who are you?!" Knuckles screamed out trying to make sense of the situation.
The ocean roared as something big emerged from the surface of the water.
After Knuckles opened his eyes again following the splashing from emergence, his eyes crawled up a majestic white-to-silver body with a blue belly, huge arm-like wings and a long neck.
It was him.
"No way! You are…"
"That is correct. I am Lugia".
Knuckles was blown away. But at the same time he had so many questions.
"The answer to your first question is no. You're not dead".
Knuckles gasped.
"You can read minds?"
It was a stupid question really but the situation kept Knuckles from remembering Lugia was a psychic type so reading minds was probably within the realm of its power.
"Yes. But that's beside the point. We have to hurry. Your friends won't last long".
Knuckles took a moment to realize Lugia was referring to Tails and Sonic.
"So go and save them…" he whispered as he recalled his conversation with the dream version of his father.
Gasping he raised his eyes to meet Lugia's.
"Do you mean…"
"Yes. What you experienced inside your head wasn't only a meeting with your parents between this world and the afterlife. You also saw…".
"The future" Knuckles knelt in horror.
"Wrong. A future. But one that is bound to come true if we don't hurry" Lugia explained while landing inside the swallow water of the island's beach.
"Hop on, hold tight and take a deep breath. And most importantly hurry".
Knuckles nodded.
Riding Lugia, he made one last determined thought.
"Hang in there guys I'm coming".
Lugia soared momentarily then dived into the water, with Knuckles doing his best to hold onto its rather smooth body.
Heading for an underwater tunnel, Lugia could only hope it wasn't too late.
As they were swimming Knuckles made a thought.
"What happened while I was off?"
Lugia began explaining telepathically while traveling thought the water.
"It started a few minutes ago".
A few minutes ago
Footsteps reached the ears of Lugia as it was relaxing. Lots of them. And they were coming their way fast.
Flying inside its makeshift nest in the cave, it shook its partner with its head while telepathically speaking to her.
"Wake up. Someone's coming our way".
Still sleepy she responded.
"What?"
Before Lugia could even speak another word, they walked in. 2 team rocket grunts.
"We found them!"
Their cry of discovery awakened the Lugia's offspring. The baby Lugia turned its gaze to the newcomers innocently.
"And there's the prize" one of the two grunts smiled greedily.
The mother Lugia immediately realized what they were thinking. Roaring loudly it soared and stood in front of its offspring, ready to protect it. The father Lugia unleashed a hydro pump towards the grunts.
Following the orders they had been given, the grunts sent out 2 pokemon.
A quagsire and a Tyranitar.
Quagsire was forced to take the blast though its ability, water absorb, canceled out the effect.
"Tyranitar! Rock slide".
Tyranitar at first refused to obey. That was until the grunt used a remote controller to trigger one of their old electric collars.
Tyranitar, both angry and scared of the pain, was forced to obey and unleashed a powerful rock slide attack towards the baby Lugia.
Just as Archer had predicted when he had begun planning the whole operation out, the adult Lugias took the attack instead in order to protect their offspring. Their insane endurance to both physical and special attacks allowed them to take it pretty well.
The father Lugia then unleashed an aeroblast attack which damaged the enemies greatly but had a major side effect; a piece of the ceiling almost crashed their offspring.
"Quagsire! Ice beam!"
Quagsure, having been zapped by its collar already many times, obeyed instantly.
Again the attack was directed at the baby Lugia but the mother Lugia blocked the attack.
The father Lugia then attempted to use psychic on quagsire but Tyranitar got in the way, using its dark type as well as its scary appearance to completely nullify the psychic.
Lugia unleashed another hydro pump, which tyranitar dodged and quagsire absorbed.
The mother Lugia then attempted to get her baby to safety by diving into the watery tunnel inside their cave but the grunts, having been instructed by Ariana who had planned everything down to the last detail, blocked their path by sending out a lanturn inside the water.
The baby Lugia was now trapped. If they attempted to escape it would be electrocuted. The adult Lugias would be able to handle it but not the baby.
Letting out a loud cry, Lugia continued its attacks but all of them were nullified or in the case of aeroblast couldn't be used.
They were boxed in.
All the while Lugia felt a weird set of emotions in the walls around him. A mix of dark emotions yet for some reason distant.
After a while of the back and forth things took another turn for the worse; a third rocket member walked into the room.
"Admin Petrel sir! We have found the targets but they are too tough for us to bring down!"
Petrel looked around. He smiled with a sinister expression. The Lugias were trapped.
"That's ok. We take our time and wear them down".
"But sir. What about the hero of Kanto and his crew?"
"They will be of no concern to us. I crippled them".
The grunts looked at each other in disbelief but nevertheless continued their onslaught.
The Lugias were theirs for the taking.
Petrel joined the fight as well, sending out his Tyranitar and rhydon who immediately started firing rock slides towards the Lugias. The mother Lugia stuffed the baby Lugia in a corner and resorted to taking the attacks head on.
As the father Lugia tried to use anything to get its family out of harm's way, he felt a familiar presence.
"Sonic" it thought figuring out who it was, remembering the trainer it had fought alongside at the orange islands.
But something about Sonic was different. He felt a whirlwind of emotions rampaging inside him. Anger, hatred, loss, suffering.
He was unbalanced.
Probing deeper into his mind Lugia felt why he was unbalanced.
His friend Knuckles was presumed dead.
But when feeling for that Knuckles in Sonic's mind, it got the same weird feeling it got when feeling those dark feelings through the walls.
Feeling around it while firing a psychic which was again blocked by Tyranitar, Lugia found the source of those dark emotions.
Knuckles was still alive and was lying unconscious on the beach outside, having been swept away by underwater currents.
The moment Lugia came to this conclusion, Sonic and Tails walked in.
"Hey you!" Sonic called out to Petrel.
Petrel and the two grunts turned around. The grunts immediately backstepped in fear.
"Sir you told us he wasn't coming!"
Petrel merely smiled.
"Back for more hedgehog?"
"You'll pay for what you did to Knuckles!" Sonic warned him.
Petrel turned to the grunts.
"Use your other pokemon to take care of the fox. The hedgehog is mine".
Tails raised his stun gun in response.
"Get on your knees or I will open fire!"
Petrel responded by sending out another rhydon. Sonic noticed it was wearing an electric collar.
"You're all just as monstrous as your old boss! And you will pay for my friend's life with yours! Raichu!"
Raichu emerged accompanied by Sonic's Meganium.
"Tails you take the grunts. He is mine and mine alone".
Tails took out Steelix's pokeball.
"Sonic be careful. He…"
"I know. Go help Lugia".
Tails sent out Steelix and along with his Espeon, charged into battle against the rocket grunts. Unlike Petrel who had a powerful team of pokemon, the only had one powerful pokemon each, which was already fighting the Lugias and the rest were common grunt pokemon.
As Tails began his assault, Sonic went on the offensive, hellbent on revenge.
"Raichu! Iron tail! Meganium leech seed!"
Raichu jumped up, aiming for Rhydon's head. Meganium fired a seed which ensnared Rhydon, rendering it unable to stop the iron tail.
Petrel figured out almost immediately that fighting Sonic in a pokemon battle wasn't going to go in his favor.
"It worked on the red one. I see no reason blue won't fall for it to".
By the time he had completed that thought however, Rhydon had already fallen.
"Come on! Bring out more!" Sonic tried to egg him on.
"Such power" Petrel pretended to be impressed "I can see why the boss fell to you. Same way as your red friend fell to me".
Sonic felt the blood rush to his head.
"KEEP KNUCKLES OUT OF YOUR FILTHY MOUTH YOU…YOU…"
"Oh I'm sorry did I hurt your feelings? Are you a softie like your red friend was?"
"SHUT UP!"
Tails who was trying to finish the grunts fast to help Sonic, could tell what Petrel was doing.
"Sonic he is baiting you! Don't listen to him".
"Actual good advice" Petrel taunted him "too bad you didn't tell your red friend before I sent him to the depths".
Sonic felt his fist trembling.
"I guess… you have chosen… DEATH!" he said coldly, screaming the word deat,h before charging at Petrel.
The rocket admin wasn't fast enough to dodge the attack as Sonic harnessed his bond connection to increase his speed. Due to his unbalanced emotions unfortunately, his strength wasn't harnessed resulting in the punch merely shoving Petrel backwards a little bit.
Recovering quickly, Petrel attempted to deliver a powerful kick towards Sonic.
Bending backwards in a limbo fashion, Sonic dodged the attack.
"Raichu bring me his head! Iron tail!"
Tails was shaken by Sonic's lack of hesitation and even more so by the fact that Raichu immediately attempted the attack only for Petrel's Tyranitar to intercept it.
As the two pokemon clashed, with the battle being a lot less one-sided, Sonic again attempted to attack Petrel while harnessing his bond with Raichu, blinded by rage.
Petrel smiled as he ducked under Sonic's fist and delivered a strong elbow into Sonic's chest followed by an equally powerful kick to the side.
Sonic stumbled back trying to catch his breath. The hits were subsequently felt by Raichu through their bond distracting it and allowing for Tyranitar to crunch down on it, sending the two into more shared pain.
Not giving his enemy a chance, Petrel kicked Sonic down. Grabbing him by the leg, Sonic also caused him to fall, elbowing him in the face. Angry, Petrel hopped up, forcing Sonic to roll away from another kick to his head.
Tails tried to take aim at Petrel but was forced to dodge an incoming sludge bomb from an arbok.
The father Lugia, who was still in the annoying lock against Quagsire and Tyranitar, only very greatly damaged, could tell Sonic and his friend wouldn't win this one. Not on their own.
They needed urgent backup.
"Go and quick" the mother Lugia urged him on, realizing what her partner had in mind.
Roaring and unleashing a powerful enough aeroblast to open a path, it motioned for the father Lugia to go.
The aeroblast brought another piece of the roof down. The boulder threatened to land on Sonic and Petrel who pushed each other back to avoid it.
Lugia then flew into the water, hearing a distant distorted voice through the water and then being electrocuted by the Lanturn. Despite the pain, Lugia swam out of the cave.
"Sir one of the two Lugia escaped!" one of the grunts informed Petrel.
"Duh you think?!" Petrel said frustrated. That was a legendary worth of payday gone.
Because of Sonic.
"You have gotten in our way for the last time!" he charged Sonic who was barely quick enough to dodge the attack.
Petrel recovered faster than Sonic and unleashed a relentless flurry of punches on the hedgehog who was no longer able to harness his connection to Raichu due to his lack of a clear mind.
"Sonic!" Tails called out while sending out his scyther only for it to be attacked by rhydon who, with the father Lugia's departure, had no opponent to fight so it picked a new one.
With his back against the wall Sonic tried one last time to fight back only for Petrel to push him back, causing him to fall to the ground.
Immobilizing the hedgehog, Petrel said prepared to turn his head into mush.
Raichu witnessed this and tried to intervene but Tyranitar kept it busy.
"This is for the boss" Petrel said as both he prepared to kick.
The water from the underwater tunnel burst up like a huge fountain and Lugia's cry filled the room. Lanturn was ejected from the water as a result.
A thud then ehcoed in the room as something heavy landed on the hard floor.
"Pick on someone your own size coward!" Knuckles called out to Petrel.
"Knuckles?!" both Tails and Sonic exclaimed in shock.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Sonic kicked Petrel away and dashed to Tails' side, just as Raichu engaged Tyranitar with much more focus.
"Well, well" Petrel smiled menacingly "the echidna comes back from the dead. You ready for another beating?"
Knuckles refrained from answering, instead turning his attention to his friends.
"You guys ok?"
"Yeah" Tails assured him.
"Good" Knuckles bumped his fists together "Tails take those grunts down. Sonic save the Lugias. He" he said meeting Petrel's eyes again "is all mine".
"Knuckles he…"
"He beat me once because I made a mistake. I won't make that same mistake twice. Trust me on this".
Sonic looked at Petrel again. He didn't seem strong but overpowering Knuckles…
"I got this Sonic" Knuckles assured his friend again.
His voice sounded confident. And Sonic knew in the moment that he could trust Knuckles here and now to win.
"Raichu!" he said looking at the grunts with Tails "time to send some rockets blasting off!"
"Rai!"
The grunts gulped.
"Admin Petrel sir what do we do?"
Petrel was petrified.
"You morons! I told you not to…"
All of team Sonic looked at him simultaneously. This was a jackpot.
"Knuckles" Sonic looked at his friend "he can't be allowed to escape. I'm trusting you".
Knuckles nodded.
Sonic sent out his own Quagsire and alongside Raichu, Tails and Tails' Espeon and Steelix they started attacking the grunts as well as Petrel's Tyranitar.
Knuckles and Petrel circled each other slowly like predators ready to pounce on each other.
"What makes you think this will end any different like last time fool?"
"Come get me and find out" Knuckles fired back.
"Confidence. I bet daddy would be proud of you for being confident right?"
Both Sonic and Tails heard it and knew that was the way he had beaten Sonic before. That must have also been the way he had beaten Knuckles.
To their surprise, Petrel's included, Knuckles smiled.
"Yeah. He would be. Actually, correction. He is".
Petrel was shaken. It had worked last time.
Why wasn't the echidna blinded by rage now?
"… oh… controlling your emotions. Impressive… especially for someone with no mommy".
"Right back at you" Knuckles smiled raising his fists.
Petrel's mind was racing. He was desperately trying to figure out why he was no longer inside the mind of his opponent.
Taking advantage of the lack of focus, Knuckles charged the rocket admin, landing a powerful strike.
Recovering quickly, Petrel started unleashing a flurry of strikes all over Knuckles. The echidna, much more reserved and controlled, deflected as many attacks as he could and taking the rest head-on, all the while striking back every chance he got.
"Come on" he egged Petrel on "last time I was fighting a man".
Petrel spat and continued attacking.
Sonic witnessed his friend getting struck over and over by kicks, punches and hooks, his entire being screaming to help him.
But hearing the baby Lugia's cry of help, he knew there was no other way. He had to trust Knuckles. Like he trusted Sonic and Tails.
The grunts' weak poison and normal types quickly fell to Sonic, Tails and their pokemon. With two shots, Tails stunned the two grunts into unconsciousness. The pokemon attacking the Lugias were next. But those would be a hard fight.
Quickly figuring out Tyranitar's typing, Sonic called out his hitmontop and Meganium. Tails also called out Lapras and, with Steelix by their side, charged the opposing pokemon, finally letting the two Lugias catch their breath and try to heal as much as they could from the brutal barrage of attacks. It was only thankful they were such a defensive pokemon species.
Angered by his minions' failure, Petrel started losing his cool, his attacks becoming increasingly unfocused and unbalanced. Knuckles, bruised but still standing was able to smile.
"How the turntables" he thought picking a line from a comedy he had seen with his grandma.
"Why won't you just die?!" Petrel screamed panting "you don't matter! You're an embarrassment!"
"Because…" Knuckles stood his ground "I'm not weak like you. Or like your old boss was".
Letting out a war cry, Petrel tried to attack Knuckles one more time, this time more unbalanced and blinded by rage than ever. Ducking, Knuckles landed his fist straight into his belly, using all of his strength, knocking the rocket admin off his feet, into the air and then on the ground.
Quickly hopping on top of him, Knuckles took his pokeballs and forcibly recalled the pokemon to stop the assault on the Lugia family.
"Game over" Knuckles declared grabbing the rocket admin by the collar of his shirt "I ought to pummel you for what you said about my parents".
Petrel had only felt this way, utterly powerless, against Giovanni. Fear crept up on him.
Not for himself but for the team.
First the hedgehog was the major threat. Then the fox. And now the echidna. The triangle was complete.
Team Sonic had become truly capable of ending team rocket.
Tails rushed to Knuckles and hugged him, breaking the cloud of darkness the latter had allowed to creep in after his victory.
"I thought we lost you man".
"Chill foxboy. You're not getting rid of me that easily".
"How did you survive? Sonic said..."
"Don't know. All I know is who brought me here in the nick of time" Knuckles smiled while nodding at the father Lugia.
Sonic looked at Lugia too. While the two Lugia parents were almost identical in appearance, he could tell it was the same Lugia he had met at the orange islands. And when he saw their offspring his heart was filled with warmth.
"Are you all ok?" he asked them.
The father Lugia answered.
"We are. Thank you, Sonic the hedgehog".
"I guess we're even now" Sonic joked referring to Lugia ferrying Ash to Shamouti fast enough to save Sonic from the titans.
"Not in the least. I owe you my family's life. To all 3 of you. Thank you".
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all looked at each other in pride and pure joy, feeling blessed to not only have made it out of it alive but to have saved the Lugias.
"Oh please" Petrel ruined the moment "you think you won? I am one of three. Ariana and Archer are a lot worse than me. You will see. They will break you. They will get revenge for the boss. They will make you wish you were never born…"
The three friends simply heard him rumble on for a while until Sonic sighed having had enough.
"Knuckles make him shut up please".
Knuckles prepared to take out a small cloth to stuff in his mouth so he could shut Petrel up before Tails simply fired 2 shots at Petrel stunning him into unconsciousness.
"Hey why stuff one of our stuff into his filthy rocket mouth right?" he tried to joke.
The only thing missing from the moment was the sound of a cricket.
"Yeah… maybe not try to
humor your way into Cosmo's heart pal. No offense".
Knuckles patted his friend on the shoulder.
"You don't even need to. If you saw how she looked at you when we were walking through ilex forest and you were rumbling about time travel and physics you wouldn't even worry is she will like you back".
Tails laughed somewhat awkwardly.
The three heroes then grabbed a team rocket member each and started walking back towards the surface, bidding Lugia and his family farewell in the process. Reaching the chamber of choice, Tails and Sonic explained to Knuckles how the chamber worked and how some rocket grunts were eaten.
Knuckles subsequently revealed that before beating him into submission, Petrel ordered his grunts to split into 5 teams and take a path each. The implication that team rocket knew what awaited at the end of the paths and that they chose to sacrifice several grunts to figure out the correct path made them want to throw up.
Leaving the chamber of choice behind the path slowly started ascending towards the surface. Knuckles who was carrying Petrel, felt him twitch as soon as they saw the light of day at the end of the tunnel.
"There's the light" he taunted the admin "take a good look at it because you will never see it again, unless you're lucky enough to get a window in your cell".
One step at a time the team walked out.
They were met by all hell breaking loose.
Helicopters, ships, everything. And all around them police aiming at them.
"Woah!" Sonic put his hands in the air reflexively dropping his grunt.
Amongst the officers was detective Looker wearing a swat uniform.
"End of the line heroes. And thanks for bringing the evidence of your crimes to me in person".
"Are you kidding me?" Knuckles also put his hands up but only after carefully laying Petrel down.
"Detective they were after the legendary Lugia. We stopped them just in time" Sonic tried to explain.
"Speculation. Where is your proof that a Lugia even lives here? All I see is three vigilantes having killed everyone they came across on this island in cold blood".
"They're not dead just stunned" Tails clarified.
"Makes no difference. You're going in for a long time".
"Uh sir?" he heard from his earphone.
"Not now. I'm busy".
A metallic thud made them all jump.
Turning to find the source, it was revealed to be a ferry boat having slammed into one of the police's ships, nearly sinking it.
More ships suddenly started coming all around the islands, all filled with angry citizens from Olivine and Cianwood.
On the ship that nearly sank the boat it slammed into, the driver or the ship, revealed to be Jasmine, having taken the controls from the actual captain, spoke in a megaphone.
"Let team Sonic go! You have no right to arrest these heroes!"
Everyone of the people riding on the ships roared in agreement, sending chills down Looker's spine wondering how they would take team Sonic off the island. There was no room for a chopper to land.
The distraction gave Sonic the split second window he needed.
"GO GO GO! INSIDE QUICK!" he screamed, dashing back into the cave, followed by his friends.
Looker reacted almost the next moment.
"After them! They can't be allowed to escape!"
The police rushed to the cave. As Looker observed them rushed in, he examined the stunned team rocket members team Sonic had brought out. One of them made him gasp.
"Wanted team rocket admin Petrel. If it gets out that they defeated and captured him for us, it's game over".
He motioned to another officer to approach.
"Take those rockets out of here, discreetly. No one can know who was captured".
His earphone spoke again. This time it was one of the officers from inside the cave. A lot of static could also be heard.
"Sir… boulders… path… escaping".
Looker figured it meant team Sonic was slowing down the police by blocking the path with boulders. Looking around he saw several of the other cave entrances blocked by boulders.
"Keep going. They trapped themselves in like amateurs".
Inside team Sonic had also come to the same conclusion. They were trapped.
"What now?" Tails asked his allies when they made it to the chamber of choice.
Knuckles used his gauntlets to smash several key points in the entrance to bring it down as much as possible but it would only delay the authorities.
"That won't hold them forever".
"There's got to another way out" Tails looked around frantic.
"Wait. Maybe the way you were carried out of the cave when you were unconscious" Sonic remembered.
"Good idea. Only one problem. I was unconscious. I don't even know how I ended up in the beach again".
"Damn. That means even if we find that exit, they will be waiting for us".
"Meaning we need another way out. And a way to get out that will not result in us being sent to jail".
Sonic thought it over and came to the conclusion.
"Thankfully I think I can cash in a favor we earned a little bit ago".
Tails and Knuckles looked confused for a moment until they figured out what he meant.
Tails took off. Sonic hopped on, grabbing his arms. Knuckles grabbed Sonic's legs.
"Quick. Fly forward and allow gravity to make us descend. Just make sure you pick the right path".
Tails nodded and despite the immense load, flew forward.
Outside the cave, Looker was trying to bring some order to the chaos unfolding around him.
His biggest concern was Jasmine egging everyone on. And worst of all he could not arrest her. Legally they were all merely protesting. And also if he tried, it would be him asking to get ganged on by the mob.
The surface started trembling as if it was the ground shaking due to an earthquake. It caused everyone to immediately stop what they were doing upon noticing.
Suddenly bubbles of air started appearing in the surface, popping the moment they left the surface. Jasmine had a strong hunch what it was.
"Get the ships out of that zone!" she spoke urgently through the megaphone.
The ships all moved aside in a hurry. And rightly so.
A few moments later a huge spout of water appeared, causing everyone to gasp and move further away.
The spout disappeared as soon as it appeared and a beautiful song filled the air. The Johtonians all knew what this song was.
Looking up in the sky they all saw Lugia flying in circles peacefully, singing its song.
Eventually someone noticed Lugia was carrying 3 individuals.
"It's them!" Jasmine exclaimed after noticing them herself.
An eruption of cheers filled the bay as every single Johtonian hailed team Sonic as heroes, acknowledged even by the legendary Lugia that had left its home in Ecutreak city due to the worsening of human souls.
Ash, Misty and Brock witnessed the grand spectacle from same boat as Jasmine.
"Wow look at them go" Ash was awestruck.
"I expected nothing less" Brock smiled proud.
"Let's cheer then! All hail team Sonic!" Jasmine seized the opportunity.
The three friends were not expecting such a development. Their plan was to have Lugia help them merely escape. Lugia had agreed in an instant as its family was also leaving the island to find a new home somewhere secret.
None of the three could have ever anticipated their escape to result in a round of applauds from the residents of the bay.
"Wow" Tails could only say, totally dumbfounded.
"Did you ever receive such treatment in Kanto?" Knuckles asked Sonic.
"Not really no" Sonic admitted, he too out of his water here.
Looking down at the island he found detective Looker again. The latter looked at them in utter defeat, with a touch of…
"Hatred?" Sonic thought.
He knew in the moment they couldn't waste any more time.
"Lugia! That's enough singing. Please get us out of here".
"Where to?" Lugia asked.
Sonic contemplated the answer.
"East of Ecutreak".
"What?!" Tails and Knuckles both exclaimed in shock.
"But what about our battles with Jaz?"
"We can have them later. Right now it's more important to lay low for a while. Looker crossed many lines today and that's dangerous for us" Sonic explained as Lugia flew off towards the mainland of Johto, leaving the bay behind, carrying the three heroes far from the site of their victory and leaving behind Ash, Brock, Misty and Jasmine perplexed.