Phantasms and Falsehoods

Part 40 - Knock Knock, It's Knuckles

Before the kidnappings, roughly a month ago...

Knuckles was utterly confused. He had had a nightmare about catching on fire one day only to wake up and see that the sky was filled with little, glowing suns. Angel Island was also in the sky. The red echidna screamed as he ran all over the place, attempting to use his massive fists to beat out the raging fires spreading across the island. Flaming suns, no matter how small they might be, were still made of fire. And fire and grass were not a good combination. Knuckles recoiled from the spreading infernos, wiping sweat from his forehead. His glittering purple eyes darted to the staircase of the temple he had been sleeping at the foot of.

"I gotta save the Master Emerald!" He shouted, although no one was listening.

Knuckles sprinted up the staircase, huffing under his breath, all the way up to top, where the massive green emerald sat on its pedestal. Not wasting a moment, he wrapped his beefy boxing gloves around the base of the gigantic gemstone and heaved, picking it up with his sheer strength. The echidna then set it atop his shoulders and jumped, pointing his fists out in front of him. He glided away, his focus on where he was taking the emerald, as Angel Island slowly began to drift downwards behind him, closer to the vast sea that stretched out beneath it. Then it began to plummet. The flames lashed upwards, increasing in size but decreasing in strength, as the entire land mass collided with the ocean, waves of water spilling over the edges of the island. These were enough to douse only some of the flames as Angel Island rocked back and forth before gradually settling atop the surface of the ocean, its once-green fields now a red and orange blur of fire, grey plumes of smoke billowing out across the sky.

Bitter tears stung Knuckles' eyes as he coughed, the stench of burning plants filling his nostrils. He glided for several long, drawn-out hours, giving him plenty of time to eyeball the numerous little suns up in the sky. The atmosphere was still red, not that he minded, but there was something very confusing and very odd going on with these new suns. He wondered if Eggman had rebuilt the doomsday device, then shook his head. There was no way. Last he checked, the doctor was locked down in a fortified G.U.N. prison cell. There was some talk about some sort of reformation program, but Knuckles hadn't been interested enough to stay. He had a Master Emerald to protect. Speaking of which...

Knuckles wondered where on Mobius was a place he could take the emerald that was safe. He could take it to G.U.N., but they'd probably want to do tests on it, or worse, want to keep it. His thoughts strayed to the Resistance's base, but that hope quickly extinguished when a particular white bat crossed his mind. Maybe G.U.N. was the better option. Of course, Rouge was involved in both, but at least there'd be guards to protect the gem.

That was his last though before something flew through the air, narrowly missing his shoulder. By now he was gliding over mainland, and both he and the emerald were exposed. Knuckles lowered to the ground, before narrowly avoiding another object shooting past him.

"What are these...? Are these birds?" He muttered to himself, until one impaled the sleeve of his glove. It was a ninja star.

Knuckles stared at it, wide-eyed, before growling, "Is Espio playing a prank on me?!"

He squinted through the trees passing beneath him and saw several dark figures pursuing him from below. They occasionally flung the thin, metal disks at him, which he managed to dodge, but they didn't seem to tire in the slightest. Neither did they look very friendly.

"Aw man, this is no place for a fight." The soaring echidna groaned, the Master Emerald leaning heavily against the back of his head, almost as if reminding him of what he was supposed to be doing. He would have to keep gliding or the pursuers might get ahold of the Master Emerald.