Chapter 67: Ruin Seekers

By the next day, Sonic and Mina are setting down the beacons needed to set up building the warp towers all over Demon Island.

"You have been here before?" Mina asked on the comlink as Belle nodded her head.

"Yes, I and the Doctor came here before to speak with O'Nux and look at the unique echidna building. They managed to make technology and nature into a perfect blend. It's remarkable," Belle said.

"It's wonderfully made. I was doing more reading and the history of the Echidnas here is quite horrible. They are stuck here on this island to be far away from the rest of this diseased world," Mina said.

"Yes it is but they managed to live in peace here away from the infighting and the criminals running this world," Belle said as Sonic dropped the last beacon.

"Okay, we managed to finish our job," Sonic said as they rushed back to the entrance of the city to meet up with O'Nux and Belle.

"Perfect, I will get my workers to begin building the foundation of the towers. So how are you liking our wonderful city?" Anti-Knuckles asked for the four to walk through the streets.

"It's quite lovely O'Nux. Are there other settlements on the island?" Mina asked.

"Well, there is an Aquatic Edge which is a lakeside town that is a vacation spot for people to go to relax and have fun. Then there is a Forest Haven which is a relaxing spot in Shroom Valley that has a beautiful view of the mountains. Lastly, they are Snow Tops which is in the ice caps which is a nice snowy town with ice fishing and snow activities to put your minds at ease," Anti-Knuckles said.

"Oh, so Echidnapolis is like the main hub, and these other smaller towns are branching from it right?" Mina asked.

"Exactly, we spread out across the island and made use of its riches while at the same time keeping the beauty of it intact," O'Nux said.

"Quite remarkable but the rest of the world. People just abuse nature and poison it for their selfish ends," Belle said.

"It's quite sad but this world is ruled by very selfish people with others letting them do it," Sonic said.

"Yeah but in our world. People like us and others make them accountable for selfish or evil people's actions," Mina said.

"Right about that but I would like to take a nice vacation to Aquatic Edge," Sonic said as Mina giggled at this.

"You just want to see me in a bikini again huh?" she asked.

"Guilty as charged," Sonic said as they went through the streets to see all the echidnas setting up decorations. "What are they doing?" Sonic asked.

"Sonic, you don't remember what the news report said?" Mina asked.

"Not really," Sonic said.

"It's about the Guardian Festival, it honors the people who brought the Echidna people here to the island and built the civilization they live in now," Mina said.

"You are well informed," Anti Knuckles said as Mina nodded her head.

"History is my thing, I am a bit of a nerd about it," Mina said.

"I see, well this festival is coming up pretty soon. It would be nice to have you all there to experience the wonderful displays on offer," O'Nux said.

"Pretty neat," Sonic said as Anti Knuckles looked down to have a frown on his muzzle.

"Some people will not sadly witness this," Anti Knuckles said sounding very sad.

"You mention teleporting away using Chaos Control. What made you do that?" Mina asked.

"We were attacked by Miles's forces months ago and we managed to fend them off but my friends were killed in the attack. My allies/friends the Orderix with my brother in arms like Vector, Mighty, Charmy, Ray, and Espio fought bravely but didn't make it," Anti-Knuckles looks on with sadness for Sonic, and Mina feels sympathy for the leader.

"That's tough man," Sonic said.

"At least they died for a good cause," Mina said as Knuckles nodded his head.

"Yeah they did," Anti-Knuckles pulls out a locket around his neck to see himself, his former wife Julie-Su, and their daughter Lara-Su. "So did my wife Julie-Su who fought bravely but she didn't make it either," Anti-Knuckles said to be deeply saddened by this.

"You were married O'Nux?" Sonic asked as Mina looked at his locket to look at the pink echidna.

"She is so pretty," Mina said.

'She was but now she is gone. All I have is my daughter now," O'Nux said as he looked over to see his little girl Lara-Su along with her caretaker.

"Father, are you busy?" she asked as she went to hug him tightly.

"Sorry sir but she is quite uppity when you are away," the caretaker said as Anti-Knuckles hugs his daughter back.

"You need something?" he asked as Mina and Sonic saw a small 5-year-old red-furred echidna with a pink tuft of hair on her forehead against her red dreadlock-like spines along with a pink braid on the side. She is sporting glasses over her violet eyes, a grey dress, and black boots.

"She is adorable," Mina said.

"Oh, you two must be Sonic and Mina. My father's new friends. I want to be friends with you too," the little girl said bowing her head in respect.

"Very polite, I like this kid already," Sonic said.

"Not a brat, that's for sure," Mina said as Lara-Su nodded her head.

"Father always makes me do martial arts exercises to calm myself and aid in my training," Lara-Su said.

"Yes, she is going to replace me one day as the leader of our clan and be their protector as well," O'Nux said.

"Father, are you busy now? I want to shop for some books for me to read," Lara-Su said.

"Of course, I am pretty much done now," O'Nux said as the little girl jumped for joy.

"Okay Father, let's go," Lara-Su said as everyone departed ways with Lara-Su waving to the duo. "I will see you two later," she said with a cheerful wink.

"So cute," Mina said.

"She is a small package of cuteness," Sonic said as Mina poked his chest.

"We can have small packages of cuteness as well, sweetheart," Mina said to kiss him on the cheek.

"One thing at a time babe," Sonic said as Mina pouted at him.

"Okay, but at the rate. It's going to happen sooner than later," Mina said.

"You are so distracting sometimes," Sonic said as Mina swayed her large boobs making the shake under her tank top.

"I know baby, I love distracting you," Mina said as they got a message from Belle.

"Guys, I managed to track an Anarchy Beryl at an old set of ruins in the desert north of the city which used to be a base of operations for Smalls trying to operate on the island. It could be attached to an old warbot he stole from Miles which was going to be used for defense but it never was used. Go grab the gem and head back but be careful. Sandy Hills is a zone which is very hostile with huge sandworms living there," Belle said.

"Thanks for the heads up," Sonic said as Mina pulled out her radar to see the energy signal of the gem north of the city.

"Time to go," Mina said as they both headed off going at supersonic speeds to be near the desert in no time at all. "Oh my, this is blazing hot here," Mina said.

"Hey Belle, you were talking about a guy named Smalls. Who is this guy?" Sonic asked.

"He is Moebius's biggest kingpin of a vast criminal empire and is beginning to rival Miles in terms of influence in this world. This is what he looks like," Belle said as she sent an image of a big purple Mobian cat with a scar over his right eye.

Sonic and Mina were quite surprised by who it was. "It's Big or Anti Big in this case," Mina said as Sonic was laughing pretty hard.

"Big in this world is a crime lord. That is the joke of the century," Sonic said trying to hold back his laughter for a kindhearted Big from their world is a huge criminal in this one. "Gee, this is one hell of a surprise," he said trying to compose himself.

"That is nuts, Big or Smalls here is fighting over this world with Miles. Pretty interesting," Mina said.

"Yes, but he is pretty ruthless and smart too. Managing several different businesses involved with drugs, sex, and murder. He is quite capable, so we can't underestimate him," Belle said to give them a proper warning.

"Good to know, we will keep an eye on this guy," Sonic said as Mina took off her tank top to reveal her blue sports bra holding her huge bust quite well. "Mina, is it that hot?" he asked as he was not complaining about this.

"Yes, it is, despite the shield mimicking the sky. It keeps all conditions as normal as possible. Desert is still damn hot, it's like over 100 degrees here," Mina said for them to run across the hot sands with movements shaking up the sands around them.

"Oh boy, the wormy boys are coming," Sonic said as several sandworms erupted from the sands to loom over the couple. They lunge at them as the duo uses their speed to avoid their attacks with Sonic striking the head of a nearby monster worm with a Homing Attack followed up with a Diamond Dash to punch through its head killing it instantly.

Mina tosses lightning bolts into the mouth of a sandworm to see its head explode from the electric blast. Mina uses a Laser to cut straight through the head of the sandworm to kill it while jumping off the back of the creature to pepper another sandworm to death with fireballs.

Sonic is rolling away from several sandworms using his Light Speed Attack chain together attacks to smash into the heads of the sandworms and see them lifelessly fall onto the hot sands with big thuds.

Mina leaps into the air and crashes down onto the sands to unleash her Quake color power leashing out rows of rock spikes that impale incoming sandworms around her. The rocky spikes tear into the vicious creatures with blood pouring onto the sands blending the red with the brown.

Sonic jumps over the lunge from a sandworm and uses a powerful Bounce attack while powering up his quills to crush the sandworm's head while bashing it into the worm's head until it dies.

They managed to kill all the sandworms until they saw a bigger worm leap out of the sand to head for them. Both Sonic and Mina use Light Speed Attack and Laser to go at the speed of light to tear up the huge beast behind it. Suddenly it burst into a pile of gore spreading out onto the hot sands.

"Gee vicious buggers here," Mina said as she wipes the blood off her green boot. She looks at the gem radar to see they are getting close to the location where the Anarchy Beryl is held.

"Pretty hungry these fellows were," Sonic said as they ran towards the abandoned base of Smalls.

"That's saying it lightly, I hope that machine is not active. Look at that," Mina said as they looked at a set of ruins in front of them. "This seems like the place," Mina said as Sonic radios Belle.

"We managed to find the set of ruins that was Smalls' base," Sonic said as the winds started to kick in with them running towards the ruins.

"Yes, that place used to be an old trading post but the sandworms destroyed it a long time ago. The echidnas don't bother with the place. It was looked over but no gem was sighted before or the machine. There must be a hidden area you can find, search the building, and find the entrance," Belle said as they entered inside for a sandstorm was whipping up outside.

"Lucky us, we should be able to run in that mess and not slam into a rock," Sonic said.

"Yeah, this place is good shelter," Mina stretches out her arms to put them behind her head. "Oh, I needed that," Mina said as she looks over to see Sonic checking out her boobs bouncing slightly in her sports bra. "See something you like Big Blue?" she asked with a playful wink.

"Yeah, two big distractions right there," Sonic said slyly as Mina giggled at this.

"Well, you will get to enjoy them later when we find that gem," Mina said as they searched the building trying to find the secret entrance to the lower areas of the ruins. "This is amazing, such history here being eaten away by time and greed," Mina said.

"Yeah this place looks neat but Smalls just saw it as a means to make money," Sonic said.

"It's sad really but hopefully the echidnas will come back here and do something with this place when it's all done with," Mina said for the ruins were picked clean of anything suspicious. Mina feels energy from the gem to feel it's nearby in a certain room. "Oh Sonic, over here," Mina said as he came over to be in the corner of a small room.

"Found something?" he asked as she pressed onto the floor to reveal a hidden set of stairs. "Nice find," he said.

"Thanks, come on. Let's take out this warbot and take its power supply," Mina said as they went into a huge basement filled with crates and supplies along with a big spider mech holding the gem for its power source.

"We found the mech," Sonic said as the machine was powering up to sense their presence.

"Be careful, Miles' gem-powered mechs are pretty strong," Belle said as the spider mech came back to life to fire a beam of energy to hit Sonic to launch him into a wall leaving behind a crater.

"Yeah it's active," Mina rushes in and delivers a powerful kick but the machine holds her back and knocks her away. The spider bot unleashes a barrage of missiles to pepper the area while it climbs on top of the roof. Sonic and Mina try to avoid its missiles but the blast airburst and knocks them into piles of crates.

"Quite fast," Sonic said as the metal spider unleashed loads of laser bolts which exploded on contact. Mina is lobbing fireballs and lightning bolts but the machine is easily dodging her energy attacks. The spider tackles Mina and swipes its claw to slash across her back.

"Oh, that smarts," Mina powers up to her Rainbow State to lob stone spears with the spider avoiding her attack for it further powers up from its Anarchy Beryl. It creates an energy shield to block Mina's rock spears from being left unharmed.

"Mina, are you okay?" Sonic asked on the radio sounding worried as he used Diamond Dash to slam into the shield but did no damage. The robot spider slashes at Sonic to knock him onto the ground. He uses a Light Speed Attack but the metal beast simply slaps him away.

The spider mech is exploding with Chaos energy to fire a powerful beam of energy at Rainbow Mina. She lobs a fireball at it to cancel it out via an explosion made with Mina flying in and kicking it. "Yes I am fine but this machine is going to be a problem," she said

It gets launched into a wall but it quickly gets back into the fight to fire a concussive beam to push back Sonic and Mina while launching a ton of missiles and energy orbs seeking them out.

"Yeah it's insane how Anti Tails make something this strong," Sonic said as he entered into his Mystic State to cast some spells with his fireballs and water orbs strike the shield but hold his spells without issue. "Gee, we need to get rid of that shield," Sonic said as both of them used a combined Boost to slam into the metal beast to crash into the thick wall.

"I am going to zap the shield but you need to give me water to work with," Mina said as Sonic summoned beams of water to slam into the metal beast covering the ground. "Eat this," she shocks the floor to begin electrocuting the machine's shield to take them down.

Sonic curls up and slams into the head of the metal beast at high speeds to knock it into a pile of crates. Mina lobs balls of plasma to do some damage to the spider mech's hull. The robot tracks their speeds to shoot electric nets to catch both of them to trap and zap them onto the ground leaving them vulnerable.

The spider is spitting a stream of fire at Sonic but he manages to make a fire shield to protect him from the flames. He burns away the net as Mina sets herself on fire to destroy the net while leaving herself unharmed.

Mina hits the spider with a Hover to make it float into the air with Sonic uses a powerful Homing Attack to knock it across the room. It regains balance to lob homing lasers which track and take down the couple.

Sonic summons a twister on top of the metal spider to tear into its hull with Mina letting loose streams of flames to mix into the cyclone to begin roasting the machine. They focus on maintaining the combo move but the metal beast unleashes a blast of Chaos energy to negate their move but it suffers bad damage to weaken its armor.

The machine smashes its legs to unleash shockwaves to knock the dup away but they fly towards the machine to use their speed to dodge incoming enemy attacks. Mina tosses rock spikes to slice off the limbs and Sonic curls up to strike down the metal spider mech to finally put it down.

"Oh boy, that was troublesome," Mina said as she lobbed a fireball to blow up the machine to see its parts scattered all over the place.

"Belle, we managed to destroy the mech holding the gemstone," Sonic said as he reverted to normal for Mina to take the Anarchy Beryl from the robot's chassis.

"Good, Miles' machines are quite strong and they will be stronger robots you will face later down the line. That would be four gems out of 21 we need for the Warp-O-Matic. Once the sandstorm dies down, you can run back to the city," Belle said as she cut off the radio.

Mina looks at the machine to be very impressed with it. "Gee Anti-Tails seems to be a better Eggman than Eggman himself. I remember when you go Super, Eggman's robots don't stand a chance but this thing was holding its own against us in our transformation states," Mina said.

"Yeah, I am not going to be happy with fighting even stronger bots in Miles' toolbox," Sonic said as they swiftly got back into the main area of the ruins to see the sandstorm had cleared up. "Time to jam out of here, Mina," Sonic said as they sped out of there for their mission had be completed.