Windmill Village

The cameras are out, lighting established for a better picture, and a squirrel with a suit and tie. On her right, is Sonic, laying on a sofa with his legs crossed. He better watch himself before he falls asleep on live TV.

The live studio audience won't let him hear the end of it.

"Welcome back to M.I.L.L, I'm Sandra Acorn, and welcome our lovely guest: Sonic the Hedgehog!" That introduction makes the audience do their obligatory applause. Sonic just waves to some in the crowd. "The last time these people saw you, you were fighting off our biggest eco-terrorist since the Echidna tribe. Our people would have met a deadly fate without you and your last-second backup."

"He's got a name, it's Tails. Now when it came to that whole she-bang, the Doctor was after these shiny emeralds."

The squirrel gasps. "Do you mean..the Chaos Emeralds? I thought they were finished years ago!"

"Yep! They were in the most random places too. The dessert, the forest, the sky..so many places, it was great, I'm tellin' ya! Don't recommend going without a friend. That would drive you nuts." Sonic remarks, getting a few little laughs from the audience.

"What about your golden form?"

"I caught a case of yellow fever." Sonic jokes. "Egghead was coming in hot, but when we got all seven of those emeralds in place..well, you saw the footage. Poor guy didn't stand a chance."

"Are you aware of your new nickname?"

"Blue Justice? Rodent? Whatcha got?"

"Super Sonic." She answers. "A step above..well, you right now."

Sonic "oooo's" at the name. "That has a nice ring to it. I never went to English class or anything, but both words starting out with the same letter..mwah." He does a chefs kiss. "Even then, the Doctor will probably hassle me over my grammar when he gets back."

The confirmation of a return makes the crowd gasp.

"Not fans of him..but can you describe your relationship with the Doctor?" The host asks.

"We are not alike at all. He crashed Green Hill, and wanted to use everyone as slaves. I couldn't let that slide. Everything around's good as it is. Everyone has the right to do whatever they want with their life..but when it comes to HIM, I've gotta make an exception." He clarifies. "If Eggman got his way, everything would look like the Chemical Plant. Nobody wants that right?"

The audience boos the very thought, some shouting "NEVER!" along the way.

"South's still recovering. OH! He was pretty arrogant too. The guy thought he was the next big icon in the world. I humbled him." Sonic says, with a laugh. "You wanna be an icon, get another job. Here's some advice for people trying to take over the world: don't."

That gets applause from the crowd.

The squirrel girl moves to her next talking point. "Thanks for the insight. We have to ask about—"

"AHEM!"

Everyone turns to the left. Sonic jumps from the sofa, battle ready when he sees the culprit…

Robotnik stands there. Larger mustache, larger head, and larger ego. "Ollo."

The audience screams, evacuating the area, leaving Sonic face to face with his nemesis once again. He stands his ground with that smirk. "You're a day ahead, Eggman."

"I've always been an overachiever, hedgehog."

Sonic's smirk doesn't waver. "The bigger the ego, the bigger the death."

"It's about time you made a barely clever analogy. Take your shot, hedgehog. Go ahead." Robotnik spreads his arms. "Or else I'll stuff these people quicker than the last time."

Sonic lunges at the doctor, ready to silence him quickly. Robotnik sidesteps, leaving Sonic with a close view of a red Echidna, white fist cocked back. His confident expression switches up at the sight.

BAM!

Knuckles' shot lands, sending Sonic flying through the windmill! Knuckles tracks him down, followed by Robotnik. "Who's the laughingstock now?" Doctor asks, verbally kicking him while he's down.

Sonic gets to his feet, brushing off dirt and debris. "I expected you.." his eyes go to Knuckles. "Who are you and what do you want? Rings? Fame? Power?" The echidna's silence brings him no comfort. "Doesn't matter."

"They say you are the fastest thing alive, yet you can't dodge my mighty punches." Knuckles critiques. "Pathetic."

"Don't speak too soon, pal!"

"We are not pals!"

Sonic curls up, taking a shot head on…

.

.

.

Knuckles catches him with one hand. ONE. All that force, all that power, neutralized with little effort. Homing attacks won't work anymore. "Pitiful." He slams Sonic into the ground, causing a shockwave that sends equipment and civilians flying! The wave even forces Robotnik's golden mustache into a fuzzy state!

"Great." Robotnik makes some adjustments. "Gotta take care of THAT…"

Tails peeps on the action. His heart rate goes up seeing Sonic in a vulnerable state. He shivers seeing Robotnik's evil gaze meet the vulnerable hedgehog. Tails goes back into hiding. "Think, Tails, think…" he looks over to see a crane, with a heavy anvil locked on. What's that doing there? Who cares? "GOT IT.."

Sonic's quills are all dirty, but Knuckles doesn't give him time to check. He grabs Sonic by the throat and lifts him like a pillow! "You look familiar. What are you?"

"I'm just a hedgehog man.."

"You are who I believed!" Knuckles slams him on the ground, and lifts him again. "You were the one to get away. To think, if we finished you, you wouldn't bring children into wars they don't belong in. You wouldn't kill a man's vision. I should have known you would abuse your power."

"What?" Sonic lets out a cough. "Don't fall for what he s—"

Knuckles grips tighter. "The Doctor has shown me the truth. You are in no position to lie. Now tell me…where is the compass?"

Sonic AND Robotnik look puzzled.

"W-what compass?"

Knuckles slams Sonic down again, and raises him. "You heard me well. My tribe never found the power yours took from us. One echidna goes rogue and everyone thinks we are violent beasts."

It finally clicks. That's how it all started…

"L-look..I don't have no compass, ok?"

"You MUST! You are the only one who can possess such a map." Knuckles insists, pinning Sonic to a wall. "TELL ME!"

Robotnik slowly steps forward in curiousity. A compass? POWER? What could it all lead to? It couldn't be the Chaos Emeralds, those pop in random spots. This is fixed. This could be more powerful than any emerald he can get.

A rogue anvil sends Knuckles flying through a fence! Tails is behind the wheel! "This is pretty slow, we need a new car quick!"

Sonic looks around. "We'll go the old fashioned way." He grabs Tails hand, and they make a run for it, leaving Egghead alone for now.

Robotnik walks over to Knuckles, chucking the anvil to the side. "They will pay for my headache!"

"Do you have a way—"

Knuckles bolts off, leaving a trail of red! Robotnik grits his teeth. "Getting sick of these speedsters.."

While Knuckles trails the duo, Sonic spots a lone car in the distance. "I'm almost gassed out. We gotta take it!" Tails simply follows his lead, taking passenger while Sonic has the wheel. He hits the gas, and they have a decent lead over the fiery echidna.

Or so they thought..

Knuckles is closing in pretty quickly, managing to keep up with the car!

"Ok, we gotta talk." Sonic opens. "Who is this guy, and why does he want the compass?"

Tails turns around to get a good look. He looks awfully familiar to the echidna art back at Sky Sanctuary. "I think..I think that's Knuckles the Echinda! His tribe was having problems with the Owls, I-I don't know it that helps or not."

"It helps plenty!" Sonic exclaims, swerving the car between the left and right lanes. Mobius' big hero, and doesn't have a drivers license.

"What did you do, Sonic?"

"I didn't do crap, I was just a kid!"

Tails double takes. "He hates kids?"

"No!" Sonic yelps, swerving back into his lane to dodge a car. "He likes them. Most of them..just hates me because of something I never did! Something about a compass, and a map, and..this is just really confusing!"

Tails looks back and forth, from Sonic, to the approaching Knuckles. "The Owls have something to do with this. They have to!" He looks to Sonic for an answer, but the hedgehogs laser-focused. The most focused he's ever looked since Tails met him. From what he knew, Sonic's usually relaxed until business gets REALLY bad. He doesn't quite know why Sonic's acting like this now, but he won't question him.

There's bigger echidnas to fry.

Knuckles hops onto the vehicle and jams his fist through! He tears the drivers door apart, as well as the passengers, gutting that car like it's his next meal. They won't last much longer in there, so Tails comes up with a last second plot.

"JUMP!"

"Off the cliff?"

"No!"

"Oh i see what you mean!"

Sonic shrugs and shoves Tails from the vehicle. He leaps out too, leaving the car headed to a STEEP point! There's no landing beside the road for a solid 500 feet. The car speeds off, and Knuckles goes along with it. Echidna problem solved.

Sonic scratches a bump on his head. "Yeesh." He mutters, headed over to Tails, who's got a scrape across his knee. "You ok pal?"

"I've been better.."

Sonic lifts Tails onto his shoulders. "We'll be outta here in no time. I know just the place.." with that, he speeds away with his fox in tow. A fiery explosion ruins the car below! Flying up from those flames of disaster, is that Knuckles, using his namesakes to climb all the way back up. No task seems to be too daunting.

"You believe this is over, hedgehog? I will have my revenge, mark my words!"

He hears nothing back.

"The silent treatment will not save you!"

The echidna sees a dozen white drones surround him, red eyes with lifeless emotion. He has one fist out, ready to pound each and every one. "You dare challenge ME? I will reduce you to a whimpering mess of wires. Mere scraps!"

"Grip that horse tightly, my dear red dog."

Knuckles looks up to see an eerie smirk form on the doctor's face. Something about it sends a tingle down his spine. His drones form as stairs for the echidna. "Preserve your energy. We'll need more of those golden gloves if we want to beat him to that sweet..SWEET power." Robotnik zones off for a second, before snapping his head at Knuckles like a zombie.

Knuckles reaches land again. "For a smart man, you must have other allies. Those two together are too sneaky."

"I never run out of allies." Robotnik raises a finger. "We have our dear, fragile Stone at the base, but he won't be enough." He uses his other hand to reveal that blue quill he's been hanging on to.

"A feather won't harm him."

That gets a laugh from Robotnik. "Ho-ho..brave, naive Knuckles. This isn't a mere feather. It's our key to our most useful ally yet. What is it they said in your tribe?"

"You must know your enemy to defeat them?"

"YES." Robotnik says, his grin almost wearing off. He's staring at the crackling quill. "It takes one to know one."

Knuckles sideyes the Doctor. He may have a better vision than the reckless hedgehog, but now..something is sort of off with him. Knuckles can't quite place his oversized fist on it.

"He is just eccentric.." he ponders to himself. "A man without honor would have left me to die. The Doctor of Robots has proved himself. He would never do such a thing."

Windmill Village went awry lol. Knuckles showed up and matched up to the hedgehog immediately, but Tails made the save with that large anvil. Still, the pair are sure to take a look out for this echidna, who's power has forced them on the backfoot. The Doctor's investment seems to be working out, but with a new ally in mind, what does he have in mind? Better yet…WHO?

Tune in next chapter, where we'll find out where Sonic and Tails have gone, plus the result of Robotnik's new plan. Also, Knuckles adjusts to life in a small Bunker, having more conversations around.