Hidden Palace

Back to the same place where Eggman and Knuckles first met, but this time Eggman is carrying a robot hedgehog in a capsule.

"There it is. The prophecy. They say that those who fight for the Master Emerald determine fate. The hedgehog and the evil are the only ones left fighting for Angel Island."

"I must say, evil looks more handsome than I thought. No offence." Eggman quickly reminds himself not to make Knuckles angry.

"None taken. Humans have a weird taste in what's beautiful." Knuckles said calmly.

"But still… You say Mecha Sonic Mk.2 is the hedgehog you've been looking for?" Eggman asked.

"Sure looks that way. With what's been going on recently, you must be the one to save Angel Island from these delinquents." Knuckles spreads his arms after seeing good in Eggman himself.

"As illogical as it is, but I can live with that." Eggman shrugs his shoulders and then inspects the mural that is a hedgehog vs. evil.

Knuckles then sees a squirrel that's calling for him, only for Knuckles to kneel down.

"What's wrong, Ricky?" Knuckles asked.

As Ricky squeaks to Knuckles, Knuckles nods after getting some confirmation.

"I see. Eggman, there's another abnormal amount of chaos energy near us." Knuckles said.

"Hold on, before we start the energy process, how are you born and where are the other echidnas?" Eggman is confused about Knuckles' lifestyle and was wondering where the other echidnas are.

"Huh? I live alone with the Master Emerald. Why?"

"Because I have a couple of echidna friends back at the Guardian Units of Nations."

"Guardians? So not only did I work with a man with a reasonable goal, but he's also a guardian. Tell me, how are they?"

"Well, one of them is dying and the other is working a lot harder than he usually does. It's a good thing that a rare species of echidnas are still alive and kicking. Now if only there are females…" Eggman laughed and then thought about what they are like compared to the males he knew.

"No worries. There's bound to be one outside this island." Knuckles then walks towards the emerald altar from earlier where he and Eggman met.

As Eggman places Mecha Sonic on the Master Emerald, Knuckles raises his arms as he calls his prayers to the emeralds.

"Oh, Master Emerald, please hear my prayers… Give this machine the power to save us all from the evil in this island. Please, Master Emerald! Grant this machine the chaos energy!"

After Knuckles' prayers, a green flash has caught Eggman off guard as the chaos aura from different emeralds enters inside the robot, making Eggman's readings showing abnormalities on his robot as he grunts.

100%.

234%.

481%.

"Impossible… With the amount of chaos energy, that means…"

Mecha Sonic's chaos energy status reaches to infinity as if he's finally coming to life like a living being, which is something Eggman strives for, even Metal Sonic is close second on being life-like.

With Mecha Sonic's glowing visor eye turned on, he falls to his feet, seeing Knuckles lowering his arms and praying.

"Thank you, Master Emerald."

"Master… Emerald? Where am I? Who am I?" Mecha Sonic asks while looking at his hands.

"You're finally awake, Mecha Sonic Mk.2. I am your creator, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, Dr. Eggman is fine too." Eggman bows while welcoming his creation's new life as his weapon.

"Mecha Sonic. You're the chosen one of the chaos emeralds. The false bearer in the name of Sonic the Hedgehog is our target as well as his lackeys, Tails the Fox and Amy the Hedgehog." Knuckles explains the objective to Mecha Sonic while raising his hand.

"So, Sonic the Hedgehog is priority number 1… Master, how should I perceive this?" Mecha Sonic asked.

"Master!? Wow, I have never been called a master ever since I built that Motor Bug a while ago." Eggman is flattered by Mecha Sonic addressing him as master. "Mecha Sonic, Knuckles is right, Sonic, Tails and Amy are the ones that should be eliminated. But we must wait until Sonic is ready. I wanted to watch how you beat that blue brat."

Mecha Sonic understands as he kneels down as well as shaking Knuckles' hand.

"Then I must eliminate that hedgehog for you. Master, Knuckles the Echidna, I'll crush them all." Mecha Sonic finally answers as he's doing Eggman's bidding.

"Excellent." Eggman pulls a sinister grin after Mecha Sonic accepts.

Afterwards, Knuckles closes his eyes as he's thinking about Eggman's question and how he was born, making him think back about an echidna and himself as a kid.

'Knuckles, you are the guardian of the Master Emerald. It's your duty to keep Angel Island safe.' Knuckles can hear an old man's voice telling him about his role.

'But, Dimitri…' Young Knuckles is unsure what he'll do without anyone helping him.

'I know. While this clan is dying, you're still following the old path of the Knuckles Clan. Knuckles, when Sonic the Hedgehog shows up, he'll be the answer as our saviour. Never cry as a warrior.' Dimitri said while turning around and walking with the remaining echidna warriors. 'When I come back, I'll teach you about the ancient languages and cultures.'

"Dimitri… How long haven't you returned?" Knuckles sighs as he sulks and then looks at Eggman.

While Eggman is busy writing up a plan on the wall with a white charcoal.

"Eggman, who is Sonic the Hedgehog to you?"

"Huh? A scumbag bully, why?" Eggman asked.

"Because my tutor said that Sonic the Hedgehog is our saviour. Is it all a lie?" Knuckles asked.

Eggman grunts as Knuckles sees Sonic differently, making him take an alternative approach to tell a fib to the echidna warrior.

"Yes, there's a Sonic the Hedgehog, but the Sonic you saw is a fake. He called himself that to gain good publicity. His real name is in fact Nicky the Hedgehog." Eggman reveals Sonic's real name to Knuckles.

Knuckles can see how it's all coming together, making him refuse to be fooled by Sonic and his friends.

"Thanks for letting me know about all this. I'll still address him as Sonic, just to see if he really is the real deal." Knuckles punches his fists as he was preparing for the next fight between him and Sonic.

"In which he most likely is not." Eggman corrects Knuckles.

"We'll take the chaos emeralds from him and hand them over to you and Mecha Sonic."

"Great! Let's begin our operation." Eggman pat Knuckles' shoulder with a devilish grin.

With Eggman's plan coming to fruition, he then raises his head up until he stops himself.

"No but seriously, are you born from an egg? As far as I can remember, living animal echidnas are mammals that lay eggs." Eggman is curious.

"Wait, what?" Knuckles halts as he's confused.

"No, I'll look up the internet. Let's see… 'Echidna egg…'" Eggman searches for it and it only shows actual animals, making him growl and add 'Anthropomorphic echidna egg.'

Still no reliable source as Eggman growls even more.

"So why are you still called animals? Aren't you named something else like mobians?'"

"What's a mobian?" Knuckles asked out of confusion.

"Let me check!" Eggman searches 'mobian' on the internet and the only results shown is 'mobius strip.' "Curses!"

"Let's forget about it. We must focus on our quest to save Angel Island! I need to borrow your robots as bait so it could intimidate the hedgehog!" Knuckles shouts as he leaves.

"What!? My robots!? Oh come on!" Eggman whined as he followed Knuckles.

Mecha Sonic silently stares at the Master Emerald and the large chaos emeralds.

"Scanning… Super emeralds and the Master Emerald is our objective. It turns out my objective is to kill Sonic and let the master take the Master Emerald." Mecha Sonic said while alone as he looked at a reflection of himself and placed his hand on the Master Emerald. "Master… Let me fight."


Hydrocity

An abandoned city that looks like a futuristic landscape is left rustic, even the puddles of water is evident that a city like that is abandoned.

"Welcome to Hydro City… Hydrocity? Yeah, we struggled with a name like that. So, how are you kids holding up?" Tikal asks while turning around, only for her to see Sonic Standing on the highest part of the city whereas Tails flies and Amy walks on the water.

"It looks so advanced. I didn't know you guys had that kind of ancient technology." Tails is surprised to see the atmosphere of this city.

"We don't." Tikal points out.

"Really?" Amy Is curious about Tikal's society.

"We're a tribe, so this city was once owned by the Nocturnus Clan. They rely on advanced weaponry, robots and vehicles. After my grandma passed away, father was the next chief and turned our peaceful clan into warriors. The only warriors of this clan are males." Tikal is pointing out a history of Hydrocity to those that are unfamiliar with this abandoned city.

"I hate to be rude, but how old are you?" Sonic is curious about Tikal herself.

"You see, Sonic, I can't count. It's been centuries since Angel Island is at peace. Now with Eggman around, Angel Island is in grave danger and you three are the key to save Knuckles and stop this madman." Tikal said.

"But still, the Nocturnus Clan has something that even mom and I can't build. They really are something else." Tails is surprised to see what's all this.

"I say. Miss Tikal, is there a way out?" Amy asked as she prayed.

"Of course, at least I can take all of you out on the surface." Tikal raises her arms and leads them towards the exit.

"So, tell me about mom." Sonic is curious about his mother as Tikal raises her head up.

"Aleena was just like you, so I can't describe much about her. So when did she meet your father?" Tikal asked.

"Well dad told me that he was 19 when mom was 21, making mom older than dad when they first met." Sonic answers Tikal's question.

"Really?" Tails asked with surprise.

"Yeah. Mr Paul was embarrassed when people talked about Miss Brenda being older than him." Amy giggles, even Tails is surprised.

"Well… I never had a dad, so the only family I had is mom and Nicole was living with us after her mom and dad died." Tails points out about his family.

"Me? Well, I was living with uncle King so he counts as my dad." Amy said while pointing out about her family.

"So Sonic has parents while Tails has a mom and Amy has a dad… Also the strangest part is that your mother is older than your father. Normally, older men are to marry younger women." Tikal reveals her part of the history.

"Really? What about true love?" Amy asked.

"I can't recall since my father took over grandma's place as the chief. But that's how it works."

"So basically grampas marrying little girls?" Sonic asks with a hint of disgust.

"Unfortunately." Tikal sighs as she wishes to never talk about that.

"That's uh… Interesting." Tails is also uncomfortable and he was the youngest of the group.

"Interesting!? That's just gross!" Amy retches after hearing what Tikal said earlier.

"Please don't bring this up again." Sonic is feeling sick as Tikal sighs out of guilt.

"I'm sorry. Anyway, let's go back to what's important." Tikal brushes that topic aside and walks with Sonic, Tails and Amy.

As Team Sonic and Tikal continued on walking, they heard a noise as it stopped them which had Sonic, Tails and Amy on guard.

Appearing from above, Sonic, Tails and Amy are seeing the return of Eggrobos as they prepare themselves.

"Miss Tikal! Stay behind us!" Tails shouts while raising his hands.

"He's here!?" Tikal gasps out of shock.

"Yep. And looks like the party has begun!" Sonic widens his grin as he's ready to tear those buckets of bolts apart.

As a rumble is heard, Team Sonic is seen splashing out as he's flying and then splash while hitting the ground, destroying 5 Eggrobos at the same time.

Knuckles is back and then dash as the Eggrobos are firing their laser guns as Knuckles dodge and scrape one on the watery ground, chucking the scraped one at the other before it pulls the trigger.

After that, Knuckles jumps as he sinks his claws into Eggrobos while climbing them like stairs and punches the Eggrobos, only for Amy to swing her hammer at one, Tails to duck and Sonic to swing a kick, catching Team Sonic by surprise as Knuckles is closer to Sonic and zips past him.

Finally, he's on the wall as he drops an Eggrobo's head.

"So it looks like you betrayed Eggman, huh?" Sonic called while chuckling.

"It hasn't been a day and you're still mocking me. Hmph, these are just rouges." Knuckles lied.

"Knuckles! Stop this at once!" Tikal shouted as it surprised Knuckles.

"You? Shouldn't you be in the Master Emerald?" Knuckles asked while shocked that Tikal is outside.

"The only reason I was out is because you're being fooled by a human being! Please, listen to reason!" Tikal begs as Knuckles scoffs.

"I am not fooled. You're the one who is fooled by those delinquents."

"There's no point in talking to him. He's Eggman's dog." Sonic growls while walking.

"You seemed determined, Sonic. Tell me, what made Tikal accompany you?" Knuckles asked.

"To find my sister. Since you can't be bothered to help us, at least Tikal is nice enough to let us come with her." Sonic answered with a serious expression.

"I heard that your mother has been in Angel Island before I was born. It looks like we have similar parents." Said Knuckles, even Sonic, Tails and Amy are surprised.

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

"This." Knuckles reveals the green chaos emerald, shocking Team Sonic and Tikal.

What's even more shocking is Sonic is left with 6 emeralds after Knuckles snatches one from him while running past him.

"Chaos Control is the reason why you exist. The royal hedgehog family has been dead for long after Aleena has vanished before the war of the hedgehogs and echidnas ended. A runaway queen was found more than 10 years ago." Knuckles reveals the truth as Sonic, Tails and Amy are now lost after hearing that Sonic's mother is not from the present day.

"And what about you? I bet you're the same, saying you and Sonic's parents are similar!" Amy calls out while clenching her Piko Piko Hammer.

Knuckles can see if it's all true, making him raise the chaos emerald.

"Say it, Sonic."

Sonic grunts as he and Knuckles, at the same time, yell "Chaos Control!"

Finally, the world flashes as Sonic and Knuckles are the only ones falling into the light, making Hydrocity disappear.

Where does it take them?